I’m probably not alone in having accumulated lots of the “novelty” yarns of the nineties and noughties. You know the kind: hairy, glitzy, chunky, loopy and often all these in the same ball!
Time, I thought, to get rid of them. How? I doubt anyone would want them as they are very “yesterday”.
I no longer use thick yarns myself, preferring to crochet finer threads that give good stitch definition.
Yet the thought of simply throwing them away didn’t appeal. What a waste.
Sooooooo…….why not crochet some bags of various sizes that I can use for shopping as well as for storage?
This was one of the first. A large bag that actually informed the colour scheme for a refurbished family room! All double crochet (US single crochet) with yarns combined when necessary to maintain the weight As a switch from chunky to fine, I plied some very fine hand-dyed weft threads bought in weaving villages in West Timor with commercial embroidery threads to make a pouch for the mobile phone and the credit card when walking….the cord is a Romanian lace braid.This phone bag was sheer indulgence in using colour. I haven’t ever used it because it’s so lairy.! Again, the cord is a Romanian lace braidI strengthened the base of this larger bag by cutting thick cardboard from a box of wine and covering it with plastic wrap so it wouldn’t absorb water if any was around. Then I encased the base in black fabric and inserted it into the bottom of the bag. The bag handles are lovely. The consist of a spiral crocheted cord with a flange on each end. This makes it easy to sew the handle neatly onto the bag. Instructions? See this youtube video: youtube.com/watch?v=7dKQ-gP2U6A&t=31sThe bottom of the bag above.Detail of the bag above.A cute little bag made for a Secret Santa in one of my textile groups.There is REALLY thick yarn in this one. Spot the hair of my Rag Doll cat!A bag trio. The one on the right looks very sad. It once had a purpose which was to hold lots of yarn but since I put more cupboards in it hasn’t had a real job.Sometimes bags become vessels! How? When the one in the first image on this post is stuffed! Quite sculptural.
Horace 
They look fabulous Margaret, much better than throwing the out!