Trying new patterns is a great way to make sure your crochet skills don’t fall to the wayside. I recently picked up a copy of Crochet Dynamite by Jaime Eads Maraia and it’s filled with inspirational gift ideas that go beyond crocheted scarves, towels and blankets. 

This time around, I landed on The London Crochet Bag as a means to get creative with my yarn scraps. When tackling a new project such as a handbag, it’s important to not get caught up in intricacies of the end product, and instead, to take it stitch by stitch, line by line. 

For the yarn, I used a combination of a multi-colored blue, royal blue, baby blue and violet purple. And for this handbag, it’s better to use the cheap stuff such as the Red Heart Super Saver yarn as opposed to the soft wooly stuff, since it’s a bit tougher and you’ll be schlepping things around.

Making up the body of the bag is the half double crochet stitch. Once you do a line or two, you’ll master it pretty quickly. While you’ll find yourself doing a couple of rows a day, this isn’t a project that’s easy to throw in your purse, since I had to carry four balls of yarn throughout. It might have been easier to just stick with one color, but that probably wouldn’t have been as fun and exciting to make. 

Stitching together the components: the body of the bag and the handle made it come to life. 

Now the question is, what will you fill it with?