Cross Body Squares Bag

I've never been fond of granny squares because I thought they looked old-fashioned, but I've recently learned that there's more to a square than the granny pattern.  I decided to make bag using cotton yarn and squares, and this is the result.

I lined it with cotton fabric with a light rose print and made the strap with grit stitch so that it won't stress.  It has a zipper closure.  I really like how it turned out.

This one is for sale.

My New Handbag

Unlike most women, I am not infatuated with accessories such as bags, shoes, jewelry, and so on.  When my four-year-old inexpensive handbag began to fall apart, I decided that rather than buying one, I would crochet one.

Then I hurt my elbow and shoulder when I picked up my dog (He only weighs 20 pounds.) to remove him from the path of a car, and I haven't been able to crochet.

So, I decided to knit a bag.  I would use less yarn doing that, anyway.

I knew which colors I wanted, but I didn't know exactly how I would make it.  I bought hot green, hot yellow, hot blue, robin's egg, and white Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn, experimented with a few stitch patterns, and decided on double strands of yarn in seed stitch.  I decided on the striping as I knitted.

At first I was going to make it flat, but then decided to add sides and a bottom and attach the strap to the sides.

I found a pattern for making starfish when I was almost finished and decided they would make a cool appliqué and then adapted the pattern to make palm trees for the other side.

Keeping with the palm tree them, I lined it with palm tree fabric and used a magnetic sew-on snap as a closure.

I've always followed patterns rather than designing my own, so I'm kind of psyched about my first ever original.