I am all for window shopping and retail (yarn) therapy.

You sometimes find the most unexpected things that just have to be purchased.

A market bag is a useful thing to take along for these shopping trips especially if you live in a place where plastic bags are not easily available.

These knitted or crocheted market bags can be for personal use as well as for gifting. They are also reusable and eco-friendly.

For me as a knitter and crocheter, making handmade market bags gives me one more reason to continue yarn therapy.

The Summertime Market Bag Pattern (text and images for personal use only)

Yarn: Yarnspirations^TM Caron Cotton Ripple Cakes yarn in the French Vanilla colorway. The yarn is discontinued but may still be available at Michaels etc. For the Summertime Market Bag 1 cake (240 g) of this yarn was used. 
Tapestry needle to weave in ends
Gauge: Not really needed since the center out crochet moss stitch squares can be customized to any size.
Crochet hook: US size F-5 or 3.75 mm for the crochet moss stitch squares and US E-4 or 3.5 mm for the shoulder strap
Abbreviations:
sc: single crochet
[…]: pattern repeat

The Summertime Market Bag is crocheted in the round using the center out crochet moss stitch pattern. The crochet moss stitch square starts with a crochet magic ring.

In a crochet magic ring pictured above (there are many tutorials available online on how to make a crochet magic ring) pull up a stitch with the US F-5 crochet hook, sc once into the ring, chain 2, place marker, sc into the ring, chain 2, place marker, sc into the ring, chain 2, place marker, sc into the ring, chain 2, place marker, and sc. Pull on the yarn tail to tighten the gap (pictured below).

Round 1: Insert the crochet hook into the chain 2 space of the first marker and sc, chain 2, sc, chain 1 all in the same chain 2 space (see below). Remove the first marker and place it as the beginning of the round marker. [Insert hook and sc, chain 2, sc, chain 1 into the chain 2 space of the second marker. Remove second marker]. Repeat […] this for the third and fourth marker in their chain 2 space.

Round 2: [Sc, chain 2, sc, chain 1 all in the same chain 2 space of the first corner with the beginning of the round marker. Sc in the next chain 1 space between the first and second corner (see picture below), chain 1]. Repeat […] for the second, third and fourth corners till the beginning of the first marker.

Repeat the Round 2 till preferred size is reached ending with a sc in the chain 2 space at the beginning of the round. Cut the working yarn and pull through the sc stitch. There was a total of 34 round repeats for the Summertime Market Bag.

Make another crochet moss stitch square of the same size.
Wash and block the two squares (wrong side pictured below)

The two sides and the bottom of the two squares are then joined together using two strands of the yarn and the crochet zig zag slip stitch method.

The Shoulder Strap: Insert US E-4 hook from right to left on top of one side of the joined square, pick up and single crochet 11 stitches (pictured below) for the shoulder strap for about fifteen and a half inches ending with the right side row. Cut yarn and pull through the stitch. Repeat the same on the other side of the joined square. Join the two shoulder straps using the crochet slip stitch join method.

 

Weave in the ends to complete the Summertime Market Bag.

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~coffeeteaknits