Project: Market Bag Crochet Pin-along with Vickie Howell

I love Pinterest, and use the Android mobile app to easily follow throughout the day while I hang out with my kids.  I've been noticing all kinds of posts from Jo-Ann with #WIP and #JoannCPAL and snuck onto my PC to start researching what this was all about...

I am super excited to say that I have just finished an afghan I had been working on, and while joining this party a little late, I have decided to join in on this awesome idea of a crochet along with one of my favorite craft stores!

The information is found here at the Jo-Ann blog, along with all the Pinterest board information.  Check out their board here!

So for starters, I do not have this yarn in my stash and I hadn't budgeted for this since I joined spur-of-the-moment.  I did have plenty of this pretty Light Blue Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton handy so this is what I chose to use for the project.

Here's my first picture of what I accomplished during my kids' morning nap.

I have decided that when I complete the bag, I am going to do a blog giveaway for it! Stay tuned!

Update 6/22/2013:

As I kept working, I noticed all of a sudden the mesh had gotten bigger in one spot.  I counted my chains and that was right and then I realized I had Double Crochets in the previous row instead of Single Crochets.  I had to rip out the work and redo that row. 

This is the fixed bag after I ran out of my first skein of yarn.

This is a picture of the twins deciding I should not be crocheting and I should be singing the Wheels on the Bus with them instead.  Always a good excuse for a break!

The color is off in this picture because I took it at night, but this was my work at the end of Day 2.

Update 6/24/13 - Morning

Starting the handles today - the pattern wasn't clear if I should be putting handles on the three rows of Single Crochet or the single row of Single Crochet.  I had used the three rows as the "bottom" but didn't like the way it fell, so I decided to use the three rows as the top.

Beginning the handles of the Market Bag.

Update: 6/24/2013 - Evening

I finished the bag!  The handles were a lot thicker than I would have made them, so I decreased in the straps about halfway up each side.  The baby loved the bag.

The baby in the completed market bag.

She especially loved how many of her toys fit in the market bag.

The completed bag.

I loved doing the Crochet Pin-Along but didn't like the pattern.  For my first market bag, I would have enjoyed making something with a little more shape to it rather than just a big rectangle.  There's always next time!