24/7 Cotton Tote Bag

This yarn, 24/7 Cotton by Lion Brand, was purchased to teach my cousin to crochet, but it didn't arrive until a week after she'd left, so I've been trying to figure out how to use it. When it arrived, I wasn't too sure about the colour, but I decided it'll make a nice bag.

The Base

double crochet circle made using brown yarn with a green 4.5mm hook in frame, both resting on light grey blue bed sheets. — circular base made using 24/7 yarn and a 4.5 mm hook

Using a 4.5 mm hook, I started with a 6-round double crochet circle (12 stitches, 12 increases per round), then worked 3 rounds of increasing by 8 stitches per round, for a total count of 96 stitches.

Next, I'll work probably 4 rounds without increases to begin establishing some height.

Update:

So I did end up doing 4 more rounds of single crochet, bringing the bag to a total of 15 rounds.

Body

For the body, I decided on an alternating mesh pattern.

The first bulk of this pattern is two rounds of treble crochets separated by chain 2 spaces, and then 5 rounds of double crochet.

Update

So, I worked 2 rounds of the mesh stitch and 5 rounds of double crochet twice to get the following.

I then began the handles.

Handles

I decided to work adjustable handles that are long enough to be worn crossbody but can also be shortened for one-shoulder use. I also knew I wanted a nice round armhole and tapered tails, so I started with some deep decreases and also made the straps narrower towards the end.

Row 1: dc4tog, 22 dc, dc4tog
Row2: dc3tog, 18, dc3tog
Row 3: dc3tog, 14, dc3tog
Row 4: dc3tog, 10, dc3tog
Row 5: dc2tog, 8, dc2tog
Row 6: dc2tog, 6, dc2tog
32 rows of 8 dc
Row 39: dc2tog, 4, dc2tog
Row 40: 6 dc
Row 41: 6 dc
Row 42: 6 dc
Row 43: dc2tog, 2 dc, dc2tog
Row 44: 4 dc
Row 45: dc2tog, dc2tog
Row 46: 2 dc

Originally published on another domain 11 Jan, 2023.