Hello everyone! Welcome back to the last week in our Belly of the Beast Tote Crochet Along! We are making this bag using the Tunisian Crochet technique.
This week we are converting the flat , elongated octagon into a bag by working slip stitches along the long sides of the piece and gathering the stitches to form the shape. We are now going to use regular crochet stitches but we will be using the same crochet hook size we used while making the body of the bag.
Let’s get started:) You will be joining the contrast colour in this section.
A few more abbreviations are needed in this section
BLO – back loop only
Sl St – Slip Stitch
SlSt2Tog – Slip stitch 2 together worked as follows: insert hook in the back loop of the stitch indicated, insert hook into the back loop of the next st, yo and pull through all the loops.
Round 1: Join yarn, on the right side of the tunisian fabric you have created, at the beginning of the long edge marked as A, top or bottom. Working along the side of the rows, 1 sl st in back loop of each st from A to A, work 1 sl st in the back loop pf each st from A to B then again along the side of the rows from B to B and then finally along B to A. There should be 142 sts (61 + 20 + 61 + 20 sts).
Note 1 : For the following rounds, if there are any extra sts while making the decrease stitches , just make one sl st in the back loop of those extra stitches. This will not affect the outcome of the bag.
Note 2: The slst2tog are worked only on the long sides A to A and B to B.
Round 2: (Slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in each of next 3 sts) until the end of the first long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the short side, (slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in each of next 3 sts) until the end of the second long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the other short side.
Round 3: (Slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in each of next 2 sts) until the end of the first long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the short side, (slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in each of next 2 sts) until the end of the second long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the other short side.
Round 4: (Slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in next st) until the end of the first long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the short side, (slst2tog in blo, 1sl st in blo in each of next st) until the end of the second long side, 1 sl st in blo in each st along the other short side.
Round 5: Slst2tog in blo in each st around.
Round 6 1Slst in blo in each st around. Fasten off and weave in the ends.
Attach handles
We used a pair wooden handles and whip stitched them in place by passing the yarn through the slit provided in the handle and the slip stitches in the last round.
That’s it folks! We made it! We have successfully finished our first crochet along for 2024! Let us see those bags rolling in! And let us also see how many things can fit inside this tote! Do use tag #Vivadesigns #Bellyofthebeast while showing off your finished bags on Social Media! we would love to see them:)
Until next time..
Take care and happy crocheting!
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