A little string bag...

I made a little string bag. A make it up as you go along affair. The bottom half is a plastic type of string which I thought would be a nightmare to crochet but wasn't. When that ran out I used standard parcel string so that the handles would be more comfortable.

It's a little on the small side but ideal for buying fruit from the market which I often do when I am near the end of one of my 'town rambles'. It's a distraction from the chocolate which I'd rather be buying. It's also one of those personal challenges that I decided I would tackle after witnessing how much M enjoys food markets. Admittedly I will probably never obtain a market trader's life story like he seems to have the knack of doing but just managing a successful transaction is an achievement. I've spent a life time avoiding situations which require 'chat' with perfect strangers. I much prefer the anonymity of self service.

It wasn't until I had children and they accompanied me on shopping trips that I realised just how much I miss. When E was small I'd often get a little tap on the leg and her little voice would pipe up, 'Mummy, she wants to know whether you'd like a bag' or if I'd missed something much more complex there would be a certain expression on her face that only a Mother could interpret; in this case, you've missed something but I'm too young to let you know what exactly it was. It is true that when one of your senses is lacking the others are finely tuned to compensate. I tend to rely on facial expression and body language to give me clues when I can't hear. Raised eyebrows and a glance towards something let me know that it's probably a question. I have a nanosecond to work out what it might be, and if all else fails I always plump for 'no thank you'.

I'm really happy about the new laws regarding plastic bags. It's something that should have been introduced much sooner. The added bonus is of course, I get asked if I want a bag much less now!

This type of bag is so easy to design as you go. Just create a crochet circle for the base and once that is the size you require choose a loose open stitch for the sides. I chose a simple v stitch which is two trebles in one stitch, miss two st, repeat all the way round. I did a couple of rounds of dc before starting the handles. Next on the list is a larger version with two balls of yellow string. A girl can never have too many bags right?