I googled "crochet spiral square" and this video tutorial (below) popped up. It's exactly what I was hoping to find - a quick, easy way to crochet a square shape in a continuous spiral. So nifty! This could work for lots of different things ... coasters, tote bags, placemats, trivets, blankets, cushion covers ... the list goes on and on.
I'm working with stash yarn for this project. I started the spiral square in the Dark Sage yarn then switched to the green vintage Pingouin yarn when the Dark Sage ran out. When the spiral square was about 11 inches on each side I decided the base was plenty big to be a tote bag, which meant it was time to stop increasing and start working the sides of the tote.
I do admire the vintage look of crocheted totes worked in a ripple stitch, so instead of working straight sides I decided to make rippled sides instead. To do that I had to count the stitches on each side to identify the midpoint, which is where the ripple "pinches" or "valleys." The corners I already had from working the square base become the "peaks" in the ripple pattern.
Each side is 32 stitches, not counting the extra stitch at the top of each peak. I stopped working the five-stitch increasing corners used in the spiral square base and started working three-stitch corners for the entirety of the tote bag's sides. So the sides are worked, starting from the top of a peak/corner; DC 15 then work 2 DC2tog (double crochet decrease; you have one decrease on each side of the center of the tote bag's side (this creates the "valley"); DC 15 until the next corner; 3 DC in center-corner stitch from previous row. Continue this way until the sides are as tall as you want.
Six rows after starting the sides of the tote the Pingouin green ran out and I switched to an unlabeled royal blue yarn from my stash. After five blue rows the blue yarn ran out, so I switched to a purple yarn from my stash. I worked six rows in the purple.
To stabilize the top edge of the bag I continued in purple by working a row of SC. Then I turned the bag to work the next row of SC in the opposite direction (to prevent the edge from curling) and added a ch 1 at the top of each peak. I turned the bag again and worked one more round of SC, placing 3 stitches in the ch 1 space at the top of each peak. I finished off and weaved in the ends. So the finished bag is made with a total of about 25 rows.
I added a set of brown microfiber braid purse handles from Everything Mary, which have been sitting in my sewing room for nearly 10 years waiting for the right project to come along to attach them to. I most likely bought the handles at Joann or Michaels.
I ended up gifting this bag to my sister, Linda.
I decided that if I make another bag like this someday, I think next time I would keep
the 5-stitch peaks and offset them with two DC3togs in the valleys to
make the peak and valley shapes sharper. But overall I think this
project turned out well as is.
And it wasn't long before I made another one using some leftover Zebra colorway yarn from Red Heart. At first I finished this bag using a set of faux bamboo handles, which looked kind of cute, but the rigidity of those handles made it uncomfortable to wear the bag over my shoulder.
So instead I found these nifty black faux leather 16-inch purse handles on Amazon that have lobster clasps at the ends, making it possible to easily put the straps on/off and use them on another bag, if the need arises. It would have been even better if I could have found these in a 24-inch length (like the straps I used on Linda's bag), so I'll be watching to see if I can find some longer straps eventually. (Update: Found some 24-inch ones at Amazon here.)
