Crochet Tote

I wanted a tote to store my crochet supplies in, and take my projects with me places.

Lots of room!  Finished size is roughly 10-in wide by 9-in high.  You could make it higher by adding more stripes.

This was really easy.  I'm just a beginner, and I made this up.  I find I don't do very well with the traditional crochet patterns, my attention span only holds for so long, and I end up just veering off of the pattern.  I'm a visual person, so I do like those patterns that are represented visually with symbols.  All that being said, I will tell you how I made this tote, without all the crochet abbreviations and jargon.

I first made a chain 40 stitches long.  Then I wanted to make an oval base.  I followed these instructions for that - http://www.unique-homemade-gifts.com/crochet-circles.html  She says to do 3 extra stitches at the end of the rows to make the oval.  I used double crochet stitches for almost the entire bag.  After my 40 stitch chain, I double crocheted to the end, then stitched 3 times in one stitch at the end of the row.  Then stitched down the other side.  At the end of that row, I stitched again, 3 stitches in 1 stitch.  It now looks like a long skinny oval.  I repeated this two more times, so now my oval is getting a bit fatter.  At this point the ends wanted to curl a bit, so when I got to the end of the next row, near the rounded edge, I did this: 2-in-1, 1-in-1, 2-in-1, 1-in-1, 2-in-1, 2-in-1, 1-in-1, 2-in-1, 1-in-1, 2-in-1, then back to the 1 stitch in every stitch till I got to the other rounded edge, and repeated the above pattern.  At this point my oval was 6 rows wide, so did a half-double-crochet, and a slip stitch to close it off.  Oh, also, for my oval, I was inserting my hook into the back loop for every stitch.

To make this pattern easier, you could do it all in one color, but I wanted stripes.  I added in a new color, and inserted my hook under both loops the rest of the way up the bag.  I chained twice (I know now you're supposed to chain 3 times, oh well), and then double crocheted all the way around--EXCEPT, adding a couple stitches at each "corner"--because I wanted my width to increase a bit.  Basically at each of the four corners I just double-crocheted twice in one stitch, so I had increased my number by four.  I did this on all three of my yellow rows, and all three of my red rows.  Once I got to the purple stripe, I just did one stitch in each stitch.  You can see in the top picture how the bag flares from the bottom until it reaches the purple stripe and then it just goes straight up.  At the end of each row I did a slip stitch to connect, and then chained two to start building the next row.  

Hope that makes sense.  So it would be ch 2, dc in ea st, 2 dc in st at corner, dc in ea st, 2 dc in st at corner, dc in ea st, 2 dc in st at corner, dc in ea st, 2 dc in st at corner, dc in ea stitch until you get back to beginning, sl st to connect - for the bottom yellow strip and red strip.  Each strip after that is just ch 2, dc in ea st, sl st to connect.

I did three rows of double crochet in each color.

Then for the straps I wanted them to be the same width as my stripes, and about as wide as the bag when lying flat.  I achieved this by chaining 8, then double-crocheting 6 times in each stitch, starting at the second chain from hook.  I repeated this 25 times.  You could instead do a long chain of about 50 stitched, and then double crochet three rows.  My chains are always pretty tight, so that didn't work for me.

I then hand stitched the handles to the bag.  And also wanted an embellishment.  I went for this flower - http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/chs-rosettes.html - but I added a couple shells of yellow to the end of the row before coiling it up, to have a yellow-centered flower.  I was surprised by how much yarn this flower took, but I am very happy with the results.  I wanted a big flower, and that's what I got.  Then I hand-stitched the flower to the bag.

Other specs -

 I used all cotton 4-ply yarn in these colors:

--Peaches & Cream Orchid

--Peaches & Cream Sunshine

--Lily Sugar 'n Cream Country Red

Each roll was 2.5-oz. and I didn't need any more than the three rolls.

I used a size 6 (4mm) hook.