It's in the bag

Tote bags are the best!
You can carry all sorts of things in them ... from craft projects, to purses, to shopping, to just about whatever you want.
Here are a couple of totes I made were made with cotton yarn a few years ago from the ASN pattern book titled Trendsetting Totes. Both and both were given away as gifts.
I plan to make some more tote bags over this winter and this time I'll keep some for myself.

The pattern above is titled Jaunty Shells. I chose to do this in all one colour but it would look lovely with the rows of shells in different co-ordinating colours.


There are eight different designs to crochet in this pattern book. The above pattern is titled Classic Chic and turned out a bit longer than the first one.

I found this cute pattern for a bag made out of granny squares.

What a lot of odd bits and pieces of yarn I was able to use up. I didn't have a plan for using colours in any particular order, just kept making the squares till I had enough for the pattern.

It was a quick and easy pattern to make and it pieced together very quickly. You can find the pattern here, it's called Inga's crocheted bag. The pattern is in pdf format so it downloads and saves quickly.

Now what will I do with this bag? perhaps use it as a knitting bag? a shopping bag? or give it as a gift?

The ripple bag is made with Red Heart Super Saver yarn and a 5.5 mm crochet hook. I found the pattern here. The patterns offers both the knit and crochet version. I chose the crochet bag.
The only tweeking I did to the pattern was to add a side panel to give the bag a bit more width. I did a chain of 33, and did 4 rows of single crochet. If you wanted a wider bag you could just increase the number of rows to suit yourself. The side panel was then attached by single crochet and I added a strap which was 5 stitches wide to match the width of the side panel.
I haven't lined it yet, but think I will get some cotton fabric the next time I'm at the fabric store.

This ripple tote bag was an adaptation of the first ripple bag that I made. I just made it longer and didn't fold any of it over to make the flap. It is great for shopping and it holds all those little items that I always seem to buy.

What do you carry in your bag?