Grey Shades of ‘Purse’onality

The Crafty Side of me has been busy since the weather turned cooler. This is a project that I’ve had completed for a couple of weeks, just never got around to posting about it till now. I have quite a collection of bags that have all been crocheted. Black and grey have never been my choice of colours till recently. It all started with a grey skirt I bought awhile ago.

Which led to the purchase of a black and grey top … and then grey pants … and then a light grey sweater. The reason for new clothes is credited to a program called My Fitness Pal, an app for the ipad and iphone and also a program for the computer. In June of last year my husband and I decided we needed to lose some weight. You know that kind of weight that creeps up over the winter months and the months since retirement where our activity levels dropped. We started exercising on a daily basis, going for more walks and watching our portion sizes of food. So once you need new clothes you need accessories to go with them … well, I do. So I started a couple of bags in shades of grey.

The bag is a cross over bag and I can wear it nicely when walking and then I can swing my arms more and don’t have to worry about the bag slipping off my shoulder. The pattern came from the book Trendsetting Totes and is the coloured bag on the cover with a few adjustments in the shell rows.

The bag is done mainly in shell stitch, starting with 9 rows of black, 7 rows of dark grey, 5 rows of light grew and finished off with some single crochet rows. For a couple of reasons I always line my bags. One is that the lining stops small items and keys from poking through the crochet. And two is the lining stops the strap from stretching out. For this bag I chose a black material with some grey flowers and butterflies on it. With barely a half metre of fabric I lined the bag and strap and added an inside pocket.