Dye-vine Inspiration: Crochet bag

As I wait patiently for my latest wool purchases to arrive, I have been twiddling with some of the yarn I dyed a few weeks ago.

It's amazing how hard I am finding it to get accurate colour representations in photos at the moment. For example, the 2 centre skeins in the photo were originally a bluey/grey colour which I over-dyed with purple and claret food colouring. The colours running through this wool vary from light pink through to deep purple but in the photos red seems to be the dominant colour. And here's the same skein rolled into a beautiful ball on the right.

Wool aside, I've been learning to crochet this past couple of weeks and I am confident enough to follow simple patterns with doubles & trebles. However, as with knitting, I wasn't satisfied to work on just one project. Oh no - I have to have 3 on the go: a scarf, a bag and a pair of wrist warmers!

Knitting will always be my favourite but what I like about crochet is that it seems to me to be more straightforward to make a shell or lacy pattern compared to knitting. At the moment I am almost 1/3 of the way through the bag - as I am not using the specified Sirdar Pure Cotton DK the gauge is off but I'm not that bothereed. I just wanna have some fun!.

The pattern I'm working on is titled 'Boho Babe': a little casual bag with a picot trim every 6 rows. It was featured in Crafts Beautiful Magazine, issue June 2005. The magazine also featured the matching slinky belt with flower motif. The original pattern appears in Sirdar Crochet Colection 305.

And finally, this piece which looks like a landing strip is the back of the work. The bag is crochet in one piece and stitched up the side when finished. It has button hole handles and looks as though it will be big enough to carry a mobile phone, purse, hankies, lippy, brush and some feminine things! I am planning to add some beads to the middle or top of the bag so will post piccies once done.

Have a nice evening folks and enjoy the dyed wool!

TTFN