The Granny Square Shoulder Bag

When Jesse was young his grandmother made a granny square blanket for each of the siblings in his family. Jesse's was damaged and had been sitting in our closet for a long time. I had been meaning to fix it for quite some time, but when I mentioned it to Jesse I found out that he wasn't actually very fond of the blanket. He felt like he should keep it because his grandma gave it to him, but he didn't actually like it much. So I decided to take it apart and reuse the squares. He liked this idea.

I tossed around a few ideas, and this is what I came up with.

 It is a Christmas gift for Angie. I think she'll appreciate the sentiment.



The other side.

   It could easily be lined, but it was nice this way too, so I left it. Angie's a great seamstress, so I know it won't be much trouble for her to line it if she wants to.

How Its Made.

As you can see from the pictures, you need 13 granny squares. One "+" (5squares) on each side, plus three squares that join the two sides. Connect the squares with single crochet(on the inside of the bag).

Border:

Round 1:

Attach yarn anywhere along the top of the bag.Ch(chain)1, Sc(single crochet) around, in the valleys skip the bottom space, at the peaks 2sc in the top space, join with slip stich.

Round 2:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

When coming up to a valley: Sc until there are two stiches before the bottom, crochet 2 together, twice, continue sc around.

When coming up to a peak: Sc until there is one stich before the top, 2sc in each of next 2 stiches, continue sc around.

Join.

Round 3:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

Valleys: same as round 2.

Peaks: Sc until there is one stich before the last increase(2 stiches before the top), 2sc in next stich, sc in each of next 2, 2sc in next stich, continue sc around.

Join.

Round 4:

Ch1, begin to sc around.

Valleys: same as round 2.

Peaks: Sc until there is one stich before the last increase(3 stiches before the top), 2sc in next stich, sc in each of next 4, 2sc in next stich, continue sc around.

Join and break yarn.

Handle(Make 2):

Ch5, sc in second ch from hook, sc in next 3, *ch1, turn, sc4 across, repeat from * until desired legth.

Sew the handles to the flat spots at the tops of the peaks.

Sc arround entire border and handles for two more rounds. (There will be 3 separate areas to crochet arround. The outside of the left handle, between the handles, and the outside of the right handle.)



The closure is simply two wooden buttons conected by an old hair elastic.
 Just pop it through the hole at the bottom of the V on both sides.