Crochet Nights...

One thing I like to do in the evening is crochet. After dinner, which Lee and I usually have late and in front of the TV on tray tables, I will drag out the latest project and get to work. After the baby afghan I finished early last month (pics forthcoming) I had several weeks hiatus before I thought of another project. I have yarn stashes all over the place, one is in plastic baskets stacked right next to my recliner. I have hooks and all sorts of supplies sitting nearby just waiting to be taken up. That's the best way to make sure you actually do something with the stuff. Of course it adds to the clutter, but that never bothered me before.

I had a ball of flea market aqua sweater/sport weight acrylic blend yarn that had been annoying me for a while. My bathroom upstairs is supposed to be aqua like the hallway, though one of the guys who did the painting was colorblind and used the green from the office. We'll repaint someday, it's good enough for now. The tub surround tile is soft aqua and white swirl and that was similar to the flooring. Anyway, I need a bag holder because we use plastic shopping bags in the small wastebaskets throughout the upstairs, and to clean the cat litter pan, and while waiting to be used they tend to accumulate in the bathroom in an untidy pile. I decided that was what I was doing with the aqua and started a round tube with a BOYE aluminum F hook. The tube end is several rows (I think 5) of single crochet for sturdiness, and then I picked up every other stitch with double crochet in a mesh stitch pattern of *1 DC, chain 1 and skip a stitch* all the way around. Where it joins I have been slip stitching and reversing direction to keep the seam in one spot. When you start a new row, turn and chain 4, the last chain on top becomes the spacer between the three chain placeholder and the next DC, and when you come back around you slip stitch to the second chain down. That turn after every join makes it easier to hide the seam in the back, though it honestly does not look all that bad.

The tube started to look pretty tiny, and I wanted to pull it out and start over, but this yarn is a bit fuzzy and resists frogging. Soooo, I increased and made the tube bigger, hence the sudden trumpet shape. Can you tell I am making this one up as I go along? LOL

I want to continue this one up to a sort of rounded top with a reasonably-sized opening to wad the bags into, and then make a good strong hanging loop for it. I don't know how good it is going to work pulling bags through it with that long skinny tube on the bottom end, but it is a fun and mindless sort of project. Perfect for watching a baseball game. *s*