Judas’ bag

*Versión en español aquí*

Today we’ll describe a cute and useful craft. As soon as I made it somebody baptized it as “Judas’ bag”, so that’s how I’ll call it from now on =) It is a little cylindrical bag, whose mouth can be closed tying two little cords. It’s crocheted using cotton thread.

These are the steps I followed:

1 – Crochet a rectangle with some figure or motif in it. Make some little semicircles on one of the long sides to pass the cords we’ll use to close the bag when it’s finished.

 

 

The openwork base shows the lining fabric. If we choose two contrasting colors it’ll look really nice

2 – Crochet an openwork circular base.

3 – Sew the two short sides of the rectangle to form a tube and sew the circular base to the side of the side of the tube that has no semicircles crocheted.

4 – Sew a fabric lining for the inside. It’ll look nicer and the crochet won’t stretch with the use.

5 – Make a couple of cords using the same thread that was used to crochet the bag. They’re very easy to make; you only need some thread and your fingers. Click here to see a video that explains the technique.

These little bags may be very useful. You can use them to carry jewellery when travelling, to store your headphones and prevent their cord to get tangled, to carry coins…

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Crochet wallet

*Versión en español aquí*

This is a simple and light wallet for those who need something that easily fits into any pocket. I have used cotton thread to crochet it. It has some advantages over paper wallets, as it is more malleable and more resistant.

In this case I didn’t include any compartment for bills but it could be easily added, or otherwise we could put the bills in one of the card pockets. But this is basically a wallet to carry a couple of cards and some coins (for the coffee machine, for example).

Star stitch

*Versión en español aquí*

When I got tired of making lovers’ knot, I started working on this other design I found on the Internet. It is called star stitch. At first I tried to make a scarf, but after some lines it looked too compact (or maybe it was my fault, since I usually make tight stitches), so I decided to alternate two lines of star stitch and two of double stitches. This is how it looks:

This scarves look nice if they are not too long; just enough to cover the neck and join the two ends with a simple “brooch”.

Although we’re used to wear long scarves that wrap several times around our necks, this other style looks simple and nice, and feels warm as well

The “brooch” is very easy to make. First we make a circle on chain stitches, and we make several lines of single stitches one over the other, until it takes the shape of a button. Then we make a chain that is long enough to embrace the two ends of the scarf when bent in two parts (the chain). Finally, we sew the two parts together to get the accessory ready to use.

Here we can see the chain that is used to keep the scarf in place

I’ve seen some other new stitches I want to try, so when I learn any of them I’ll post it here to enlarge my pattern collection =). I also want to try new styles on the ends of the scarves…

Crochet flower brooch

*Versión en español aquí*

This is the third kind of brooches I’ve recently made. This time, I chose crochet and a kind of yarn that has a pattern on brown and white. Making this brooch is this simple:

1) We make 5 chain stitches and we connect the first and the last with a slip stitch to make a circle.

2) We make 10 single stitches around the circle, covering the chain by working through the central hole of the circle.

3) After finishing the previous step, we make 7 chain stitches and connect them to the second single stitch with a slip stitch. We make other 7 chain stitches and connect them leaving a free single stitch. We repeat this to make the five petals.

4) We make a last round of slip stitches on the chain ones to strengthen the petals and make them look nice.

And that’s how we make the flower. I have sewed a little pearl in the center of it to hide the brooch’s base, e pronto! Here we have our little flower:

We can try as many combinations as we can imagine; for example, I made this other design:

Lovers’ knot

*Versión en español aquí*

I used to think that crochet was limited to single, double and triple stitches, but I was wrong! Surfing the Internet I found a pattern of a new crochet stitch (at least, new to me). It’s called Lovers’ knot, also known as Solomon’s knot sometimes.

As a first experiment I made a rectangular scarf, since I thought it’d be easier to connect the stitches. But when I finished it, the long sides were too tight and the central area was too loose, so the pattern couldn’t be well seen. Nevertheless, the yarn was colourful and the scarf looked nice when I put it around my neck, so I wear it happily now (    I usually keep my first attempts of craft projects for myself because they always look much better on a second attempt, after I correct the initial mistakes =)). In fact, one day I was wearing this scarf and a cashier asked me if I had made it myself and how. So now I wear it really proudly =P

My scarf =)

The second time I made a triangular scarf, for what it’s necessary to connect the stitches in a slightly different way. As it’s a really quick stitch I started trying different kinds of yarn; a round and smooth one, and a hairy one. These were the results:

The lovers’ knot can be better observed in the green scarf, but the hairy one is softer. I put some ceramic beads at the ends of the green one to make them heavy so that they’d stay in place when wearing the scarf. Working with furry yarn requires patience because it tangles easily, so smooth yarns may be better for beginners. As this stitch is very loose it may seem that these scarves won’t keep you warm, but they get thicker around the neck when you wear them so they are perfect for cold weather.

By using different yarns and accessories we can get many different results, according to our preferences.