Crossbody Bag

With just four granny squares you can make a bag - who knew!

In a previous blog post I explained my discovery of the puff stitch and yesterday I finally completed that project, MJ's Off the Hook Granny Crossbody Bag, and must say I will be adding crossbody bags using four granny squares to my regular makes.

I really liked how simple it was to put together and how the bag has a crescent moon shape. Unfortunately it is smaller than I expected so have decided to gift this one: I can't fit my phone, purse and keys in it!

However I have learnt some new skills and tips to put in place for the next time:

- gauge - I never buy the wool to match a pattern at present, I use whatever I have in my yarn box. This means for this project, although I tried to bulk up the yarn by using two yarns together, the squares came out smaller than they should have, and therefore the bag is small. If however I had followed the recommendations of making a gauge piece before starting, I would have been able to amend the pattern to match the yarn and hook, and make squares to the correct size.

- invisible joins - thanks to this video I have learnt how to hide joins which on this project I used when completing the edging. I will definitely be using the invisible join technique in all my future projects. The same video also has some other great tips for granny square perfection.

- versatility - granny squares seem to have made a come back in high street fashion, and I can see why: they really can be used to make anything! Blankets, bags, clothing, I will definitely be exploring ways to granny square my world.