Carrie On Tote CAL: week 3

If you’ve been keeping up with us, you should now be ready to start making the sides of your Carrie On Tote!

(Don’t worry if you’re a little behind – you’ll find the previous blog posts here and here.)

You’ll now be working in single crochet in a continuous spiral – so there’s no need to join each round with a slip stitch. Just work round and round in single crochet – easy-peasy!

At some point, you’ll run out of your first roll of yarn, and will need to add in the second roll. Fear not – it’s really simple! When you have about 15cm/6” left of the first roll, make a single crochet stitch in the regular way, but stop just before pulling through the yarn for the last time. (You should have two stitches on your hook at this point.) Now drop the old yarn, loop the new yarn around the hook, and pull it through the two loops on your hook to complete the stitch. All done! (When you’ve finished you’re bag, you will secure all the yarn ends and hide them in your fabric.)

At WATG, we love customising our projects, so we decided to hack the Carrie On Tote pattern and give it some crocheted handles:

CAL3_06

If you want to do the same, simply work according to your pattern until the sides of your bag measure approx. 26cm/10”, then follow these steps:

1. Locate the centre stitch on the first side of your tote bag. Now count 6 stitches to the right of the centre stitch – mark this stitch with a little snippet of yarn.

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2. Work in single crochet until you get to the marked stitch – don’t work into this stitch!

3.
 Now start working in chain stitch, making a total of 15 stitches.

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4. Skip the next 13 stitches of your row, then work a single crochet stitch into the next.  You now have a loop of chain stitches attached to the edge of your bag – this is a chain space.

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5.
 Work another 36 stitches in single crochet. (There should now be 6 stitches left before the centre point of the second side of the bag.)

6.
 Repeat steps 3 and 4, then work in single crochet to the end of your round.

7.
 Work in single crochet until you get to the first chain space.

You will now work around the loop of chain stitches in single crochet – instead of inserting the hook into each stitch, insert it into the chain space, then loop the yarn and complete each stitch as regular single crochet.

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8.
 Work 16 stitches in single crochet along the chain space.

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9.
 Work in regular single crochet until you get to the second chain space.

10.
 Repeat step 8.

11.
 Work in single crochet to the end of your round.

12.
 Work another 3 rounds in single crochet to complete your bag.

(Check out our video – but note that the numbers given are for the Brady Basket.)

Next week, it’s time to finish off our bags – we’ll show some options for attaching your leather straps, and you’ll also get a little bonus pattern for giving your Carrie On Tote an internal pocket (super-handy for all those little bits and bobs).

 

 

 

 

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