Market Bag

You will need two colours of dk/worsted/aran weight yarn and a 5mm hook. The two yarns should be approximately the same thickness. Here I needed ~35g of pink and ~45g of oatmeal yarn.

As you’re making this bag it may seem small and you might be tempted to increase some of the rounds or make the handle longer – I did exactly this during my first two trials of this pattern and they looked great before I put anything into them. This bag stretches a lot! You can find some photos at the end of this post showing this.

The pattern is written using American terms but the whole thing only uses double crochet stitches so switch this out for trebles if you prefer English terms.

Throughout the pattern the initial chain 3 counts as the first stitch of the round.

note that I’m left handed so the photos show the work from a left handed perspective – don’t worry if your work looks the mirror image of what you see here!

Start. using the first colour chain 4 and slip stitch into the first chain

Round 1. chain 3, 14 dc into the ring, slst into the top of the starting chain (15 stitches)

Round 2. chain 3, dc into same stitch, 2dc in each stitch around, slst into the top of the starting chain (30 stitches)

Round 3. chain 3, dc into same stitch, dc next stitch, *2dc, dc* repeat all around, slst into the top of the starting chain (45 stitches)

Round 4. chain 3, dc into same stitch, dc next 2 stitches, *2dc, dc, dc* repeat all around, slst into the top of the starting chain (60 stitches)

Round 5. chain 3, dc into same stitch, dc next 3 stitches, *2dc, dc, dc, dc* repeat all around, slst into the top of the starting chain (75 stitches)

Round 6. chain 3, dc into same stitch, dc next 4 stitches, *2dc, dc, dc, dc, dc* repeat all around, slst into the top of the starting chain (90 stitches)

note that in the next round we do not dc into the same stitch as the chain 3 at the beginning of the round. This is because we want to have an even number of stitches to begin the mesh pattern.

Round 7. chain 3, dc next 5 stitches, *2dc, dc, dc, dc, dc, dc* repeat all around, slst into the top of the starting chain (104 stitches)

Round 8. chain 4 (counts as dc + ch1), *skip 1 dc, dc, ch1* repeat all around, slst into top of the starting chain

Round 9. chain 4 (counts as dc + ch1), *dc into next dc, ch1* repeat all around, slst into top of the starting chain

Repeat round 9 twice more

change to second colour yarn. I like to use the Russian join technique as it gives a seamless transition and there are no ends to weave in. check out this craftsy tutorial if you’d like to give it a go

Repeat round 9 six times with the new colour yarn

Round 10. chain 3, 1dc in each dc all around, slst into top of the starting chain

Round 11. chain 3, 1dc in each dc all around, slst into top of the starting chain

Now we start to make the handle

Step 1. chain 3, 1dc in next 13 stitches (14 stitches)

Step 2. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 12 stitches (13 stitches)

Step 3. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 11 stitches (12 stitches)

Step 4. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 10 stitches (11 stitches)

Step 5. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 9 stitches (10 stitches)

Step 6. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 8 stitches (9 stitches)

Step 7. turn, chain 3, 1dc in next 7 stitches (8 stitches)

Step 8. turn, chain 3, 1dc in each dc of the previous row (including the turning chain of the previous row) (8 stitches)

Repeat step 8 fourteen times

Step 9. turn, chain 3, dc into same stitch and each stitch across (including the turning chain of the previous row) (9 stitches)

Repeat step 9 until you again have 14 stitches in the row

lay out the bag and line up the unattached handle with the centre of the opposite edge. Either crochet slip stitch or fasten off and sew onto the rim

and finished!

Copyright & Legal Stuff: I’m happy for you to sell items you make from this pattern but the images and words are mine – I worked hard writing & testing & photographing so don’t copy or distribute any part of this pattern. If you want to share it then link to this page. Thanks & happy crocheting

At the beginning of this post I mentioned that the bag may seem small but it stretches a huge amount. The first bag I made to this pattern had more rows and a longer handle. It looked perfect when it was empty but here’s what happened when I put a few heavy items inside: