Bolt from the Blue Pencil Case

Hi everybody, welcome. My name is Brenda KB Anderson. And I'm a crochet designer and a crochet instructor as well. Um, and today I'm gonna be showing you how to make a very simple zippered pouch. So this is actually based on, well, it's not even.

I want to say it's based on this pattern. That's actually the easiest way to explain it. But really this is just the way I make pouches like all the time when I just freehand stuff. So, um, I do have a download for this exact pouch so that you can see there's this little plus sign that's made with granny squares. Um, this is for a first aid kit and I had done a blog post on this and then I, um, we posted the patterns so that people could make their own.

So that is the download for today, and you can see in the download exactly how to make the pouch that I'm actually going to be making today, which is this. It's a little pencil pouch, but it's made, it's constructed in exactly the same way as this. It's just a little bit shorter, and I didn't do the granny squares for the front. Plus there's this extra little technique that I'm going to show you um so that you can use up all your itty bitty little yarn ends and make your own custom colorway pouch, so. Um, one thing that I really love about crochet is that it does not have to be expensive.

You can, you know, if you are good at saving up all your little bits and pieces, you can make some really amazing things out of scraps, and that's like one of my most favorite things to do. It's just so satisfying to be able to take something that, you know, other people may have just thrown it away like all these little bits and pieces and then string them all together and make a ball of yarn and then make something useful and beautiful out of it. So that's what we're gonna be doing today. Um, so if you'd like to follow along, you can go ahead and download that. There's a link in the description for you, um, and then you can, you know, just kind of follow along through.

I do have notes in the pattern on how to customize this and I'm gonna be talking a lot about that today during this live event because I. I really want you to be able to just sort of make this up with what you have on hand. Um, it doesn't have to be worsted weight even though that's what this pattern calls for it doesn't have to be that. You don't have to have the specific cook that I used, um, so I'm gonna be talking you through that today as well so you guys will. Be able to just take any yarn ends, string them together, and make yourself a pouch.

All right, so what you're going to need are a bunch of yarn scraps, of course, um, and once they're all strung together, they should be about the size of like a large orange or a softball or that kind of that size. I'm going to be working with mostly worsted weight yarns, but you can certainly throw in um decay weight or sport weight if you want to. You can also make this. With the, excuse me, with a different size hook, like a larger hook and a chunky yarn, that would make a really nice pouch as well. You can make this out of thinner yarn with a smaller hook.

It's really up to you, um. But you'll just need, you know. Probably, if you're doing worsted weight yarn, you'll need about a softball amount. If you're making it out of a chunky weight yarn, it'll probably be just a little bit bigger than this. If you are making this out of a finer weight yarn, maybe a little bit smaller, more like baseball sized um ball yarn, so.

And you might be thinking Well, my yarn scraps are not in a ball, Brenda, so how am I supposed to know? Well, you just have to kind of keep your eye on it as you're making the ball of yarn, and I'll be showing you that in just a second, um, how to create that and then that's how you know when to stop. All right, so there's lots of different techniques for putting yarn together. There's the Russian join, there's a felted join or. Spit splice, um, and then today I'm gonna be showing you the magic knot this for this particular project because there are so many joints in the yarn we're stringing so many colors together.

I use very, very short pieces in here like a yard or less in some areas. Um, it's just a lot of securing your yarns together, so I chose the magic knot because for me it is the fastest way to do it. And I also, and the felted join is pretty quick. And also, if you're, if you're interested in learning about all these other joins, we have tutorials for them, uh, videos for them on the Creative Crochet Corner website. There's the felted join or split splice tutorial or, Um, video, and there's also, um, the same thing for the Russian joint as well.

So those are other joints you can use today. We're just gonna be focusing on the magic knot, also known as the fisherman's knot, um, just because it's really easy. You don't have to have a particular fiber content like the felted joint. You have to be working with, uh, a feltable yarn like wool, Um, it can't be superwash in order for that joint to work. So I was thinking this would be the most useful with the magic knot because.

Who knows what kind of random scraps you're gonna have, and maybe you don't want to sort them all out, you know, depending on whether they're feltable or non-feltable, even though I actually do that. I do that because that way I know how I, I can wash that project that I make out of scraps later. I actually have two different scrap bags. I have the scrap bag that you can wash in the washing machine and will not felt, and then I have the scrap bag of, um, you know, hand wash only things that will felt bags, so. Just a little peek into my, my scrappy life there.

OK, so I've got some, just some little yarn ends here, and I'm gonna show you how I'm gonna add them onto this yarn ball that I have going on here. This is just a magic yarn ball with a bunch of different scraps added together. So, I'll do this a couple of times, so you can see, uh, how this works. But basically you just, um, oh, before I do that, I just want to mention, so this pouch has shorter little runs of yarn in it, so, you know, as small as like a yard or even smaller in some areas, and probably up to about maybe 1.5, 2 yards, maybe even 3 yards, possibly in some areas, um, of scraps, so. I just wanted to show you the difference between this and how the color changes work compared to this.

This is another pouch that I've been working on. You can see there's like complete stripes pretty much going around, um, so this is more like. Like about 4 yards or so in a section that I'm tying together somewhere around there, give or take, you know, 3 to 5 yards or so for this one, and then a yard somewhere around a yard, a yard and a half, something like that for this one. So I just wanted to show you that that's gonna make a difference in how your, your project looks, and there's no, you know, there's no one way to do it. You can certainly combine any lengths of yarn.

You could do like a 5 yard piece and then a half yard piece and then a 10 yard piece and then, uh, just a little tiny piece. It doesn't matter, um, but I just wanted to show you that so that you kind of have that in your head so you're not surprised later, um, when you're crocheting it up and you can see your colors kind of coming together. You can always break your yarn scraps down into smaller pieces if you want the color changes to happen more frequently and just kind of mix them all in. All right, so we've got a good, uh, good morning from Renee. Hi, Renee.

Good morning to you from Texas. Awesome. Um, so I'm going to be doing, I'm just gonna be attaching this. This is like a little less than 1 yard piece of green yarn to this purple yarn here. So, um, the way you do a magic knot, or this is one way to do it, um, I'm going to have one strand here, and then the other strand here, and if this was a longer piece, this would be the ball of yarn on this end here.

So they're facing in opposite directions, OK? So we've got the two ends like this. And then we're basically gonna be tying an overhand knot on each side here and bringing them together. So, the way we do that, I'm gonna take this dark purple, and I'm gonna cross it over the green, like this. The green is going to cross over on top of the purple like that so you can see this little shape that I just made here and now that's kind of set me up for the way that my knots are going to be tied.

So now I'm gonna tuck the purple underneath the green, but on the outside, like on the side that would be connected. To the ball, OK, so not in here, over here. So just you're making those knots on the outside of this sort of, I don't know, let's think about this as being an oval. You're making the knots out here if that makes sense. That was one thing that kept tripping me up when I was first learning how to do this.

I remember I was trying to tie the knots in here and I got all confused. So the purple's on top, then we're gonna tuck it under the green like this. And then we're gonna bring it. underneath this purple. And then through the knot, through the center, and it's going to point outward.

See how this is pointing out? Like that? So we're gonna do the same thing over here with the green. So, the green is on top of the purple. And it's going to go under the purple.

Then it's gonna go over the green. Kind of towards the inside of that circle. And then it's going to go underneath this green to the outside, like to the side that's towards the ball of yarn, OK? So let me show you what that looks like. So we've got these two knots here.

The ends should just be pointing outward away from each other like that. So we can tighten those up, and you can tighten them up right away. I just wanted you to have that visual image of how those knots, the ends of the knots have to be facing away from each other. So you can kind of tighten those up, not super tight, but just tighten them up, you know. But they should still be able to slide, and then you just pull on these two yarn tails, it brings the knots together, and you can pull on that pretty tightly, and it's quite strong.

And then you can trim these off, and you can trim them down quite close. And when I trim them, I trim at a little bit of an angle. Just so that it's, you know, less of a chopped end. I just kind of hold my scissors parallel to that, to the, um, yarn strand and then cut it. OK, so that's...

or not. I'm gonna do a couple more times so you guys can see. Can see what I'm doing here. All right, so I'm gonna bring over. This blue yarn now, tie to the green.

So, I'm gonna have this sort of turquoise crossing over the green, right here. The green is crossing over the turquoise right there, so I've made just sort of like this little, you know, This is going on top here, this is going on top here. Now, I'm gonna tuck the green under the blue on the outside of that circle, OK? So right here. And then it's going to go through this hole in the middle.

And then back through the green circle. OK. And the blue, so over. Under, and then over towards the center of that oval, and then under. That small circle and towards the outside, so the ends should always be facing outward.

Like that. And then you can just go ahead and pull on those two yarn tails. And then trim them off, and I know it does not seem like you should be doing this. You should not be cutting this close to the knot, but. This is where the magic comes in, you guys.

It's magical. It just stays. I don't know. I did not trust this at first, but I have made lots of projects out of magic knots, and I've never had one of them come apart. So I'm a believer in the magic knot.

OK, so let's do that again. So we're gonna go. Over, under, over. And then under that last under should be, you should be pulling that yarn tail through, and it should be pointing away from that sort of center. I don't know, oval is how I think of where everything crosses over.

So we have over. And then we have under. And then we have over towards here. And then under the same color. Like that.

And tie that in a knot, and then grab those two, bring the knots together. You can pull nice and tight, and then you can trim them off. Just be careful not to cut that strand of yarn, you know, just only the little yarn end you want to cut off. Just don't cut the strand of yarn that you just tied. All right?

So that's nice and... Maybe you guys can hear this. It's very secure. It's a very secure knot. OK.

So you're gonna do this with your yarn, um. You know, until you get a yarn ball that's about the size of, you know, a softball or a large orange, that should be plenty. If you have used, um, for, for me, when I use a mostly worsted weight yarn, but if I use some DKs and the worsted weight yarns aren't super thick, then sometimes I'll use an F hook because I just like the pouches to be fairly sturdy. Um, for the first aid kit I had recommended a G hook because the yarn that I had used in that It was a thicker worsted weight yarn. That's what it called for in the pattern.

Um, and so, you know, if you're using a lot of like a thicker, mostly thicker acrylic or wool or um even cotton yarn, then I, you know, you could start with a G hook, but the hook size really depends on so much more on how you crochet, so. I wouldn't even, I would just grab whatever hook you think you need in order to crochet a fairly dense gauge. That's what I would go for, you know, you know, if you've already crocheted, you know, some different things and you kind of know like, oh this is what I use for a washcloth, maybe you want to use something a little bit smaller than that to make it a little bit stiffer of a fabric. Um, if you're newer to crochet, this is, you know, good news for you. This is a very approachable project.

It's very simple, straightforward. It's mostly, it's just single crochet stitches, really. It's very doable for a beginner, um, and you don't know where to start, then you can start with a G or an F, and then as you're working up your fabric, just kind of be monitoring your fabric and feeling it and thinking, is this going to be you know, can I see holes between my stitches? Is this stiff? Is this, you know, drapey?

You want it to be kind of, um, here, I'll pull this little piece over. You want it to be pretty substantial, like pretty, um, pretty sturdy, you know, just imagine the kind of fabric that you would want your bag to be made out of. You want it to be pretty sturdy. If it's got lots of holes between the stitches and it's really stretchy, it's probably gonna wear out a little quicker and it'll be sort of lumpy looking when you put stuff in it. Um, there's nothing to say that you can't have a bag like that, of course, um, but I like my bags to be just a little bit more structured.

So, you know, go down hook sizes until you feel like you're getting a fabric that is, um, it's pretty, pretty sturdy. OK, so to start this pouch in the directions, oh, we've got some good mornings coming in. Good morning to Hannah B. Um, and Lynn says hi from hi from Lynn in Ontario. Hello.

Um, Bella says good morning Brenda. Will this work not just for joining scraps but also for finishing up a ball and joining another ball on any project. Oh yes, that knot will work for anything. The only, in my opinion, the only drawback to this knotting method is that little tiny knot, you might end up seeing that. And as I'm crocheting up the sample, I'm gonna show you how you can manipulate that knot to be on the inside of your project, um.

And that should work just fine unless you don't like the feel of that knot. So, like, especially if you're using a thicker yarn, say you were using a bulky or super bulky, I would not really recommend, you know, making a sweater, making a magic knot for a sweater just because it's, you're gonna feel that little bump in there or you would see it if it ends up on the outside. Um, but it's very sturdy. I find it to be very sturdy. Maybe, you know, maybe do some tests though if you're thinking about doing this in an afghan or something that's gonna get a lot of use and be washed in the washing machine multiple times.

Um, I mean, I've never had anything come apart so far, but I've only been using this knot for like, I don't know, eight years or something like that, so. It is possible for it to come apart, especially, you know, depending on the fiber, um, the fiber content. But I, I, I have not had that problem yet. I'm a big believer that this, this knot actually works. Um, okay, so, oh, Lynn is asking in millimeters.

I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that. Okay, so I've got a G hook here, which is a 4 millimeter hook and an F hook, which is a 3.75 millimeter hook. So usually I use the 3.75 millimeter hook for like those worsted weight yarns that are maybe just a little bit thinner and the air. worsted weight or like a heavier worsted weight I would use a G, which is a 4.4 millimeter, just a little tiny bit bigger. So this is a slightly smaller size than I normally use for, you know, making an afghan or sweater or some some kind of wearable because I actually want the stitches to be a little bit tighter.

Thank you for, um, asking me that. I usually try to say things in millimeters, but I forgot. Okay. Hanna B says, I love this for the small scraps that are a yard or two that can't be used for much else like in the first pouch you showed, yeah, exactly. And that's what I was thinking about when I was designing this project, um, you know, how can we use up those little tiny scraps?

I mean, you can even use something shorter than even a yard, so. Oh, we've got someone who's never crocheted a single thing in their life. Well, this is a good place to start because this is actually a really easy project. It's just single crochet, so, you know, it doesn't have to fit anyone. You don't have to worry about that.

Yeah. Oh, and we've got, oh Mary saying hi from superheated Texas. Oh my gosh, I hope you have air conditioning or maybe you have a nice iced tea or something with you, i hope. Ok, Hannah's saying knots make me nervous. I know.

I understand that, and I avoided using the magic knot for many years because I just didn't believe it was gonna work. And then finally I was like, I'm gonna test this out and it, for me, it works great. Like I, like I said, I've never had one come apart, but. I, I would imagine though if you use a lot of like one-ply yarns, yarns that are just not, you know, that's, um, don't have multiple plies twisted together, those yarns are generally not as, uh, sturdy. I would think twice about using a lot of magic knots for that.

I have used it like in these scrap scrap yarn balls. I have used it and it's been fine, but like if you're gonna make a whole project out of it, I, I don't know. I, I, I would proceed with caution if you're thinking about using magic knots for one pl. Ok, so let's start on this bag. uh, we're gonna start with a slipknot on our hook.

So, however you like to make your slipknot, place that on your hook. I'm gonna be using the 3.75 millimeter hook, and this is mostly worsted weights, some, some decay weights in here, um, this particular yarn ball. Ok, and now we're going to chain 31, so 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17, 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25, 26 27 28 29. 30, 31. OK.

So then at that point, you want to just take a little look at your chain. And kind of spread it out. You don't want to stretch it, but just sort of, you know, chains can be all kind of curled up, and just look at how wide that is. This is going to be the beginning of the footprint of the bottom of your bag, if that makes sense. What I'll do, I'll show you what I mean here.

So, here is my finished sample. What we just changed is the very bottom. It's the length from here to here. Like that, OK, so if you like that length, that's great. Then we can continue and just kind of monitor because as you're working this up usually when people make a chain and you work a few rows back and forth, it can change, it can get a little bit more stretched out or it can be a little bit, um, smaller just depending on how you normally chain and the width of your single crochets compared to your chain, but this is a very good, um, place to know if you're sort of on target.

I mean, and this is a bag, it can be whatever size you want it to be. It's not like it has to be specific dimensions like I list in the pattern, it really doesn't. If you want to make a smaller bag, certainly chain less, if you want to make, uh, a longer, wider bag, chain more. All right, so now we're going to start, um, working in the second chain from the hook, and we're gonna work into the bottom of our chain. So, if you take a look at your chain, there's all these little V's all stacked up in this direction here.

So here's a little V right next to our working loop that's on our hook. So that little V is just going to count as a turning chain, and we're actually going to be working into the second one, the second one from the hook, but we're going to work into the bottom of the chain. So the V is the top of the chain, and if you roll that over and the V is touching the table, you can see all these little horizontal dashes on the back of your chain, and that's where we're gonna be working, um, our stitches into. So, we're skipping the first horizontal dash, which is right here, and I'm gonna work underneath the second one. So I'm gonna just slide my hook under, yarn over.

Pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through 2. That is a single crochet. That's what makes up pretty much this whole bag. So we did our single crochet there. Here's our next one, and you can see there's that knot between colors.

But you just can kind of ignore it, so we just worked another single crochet into the next stitch. So we're gonna continue making single crochets all the way across into those bottom bumps or the back. Some people call it the back of the chain. I like to call it the bottom because the back of the chain to me is confusing because usually when you're stitching back and forth of the back loop is a different part of your stitch. The back loop is like the back part of that V.

So I call it the bottom. But like anything in crochet, there's a million names and sometimes there's two names that sound like the same thing but they're secretly different things, and sometimes there's one name and it really means two different things, So, it's kind of confusing. Oh, we've got a hi from Dolly. Hello, welcome. Glad you guys are here.

We've got a good evening from Indonesia. Wow, cool. I always love hearing where you guys are from because it's just amazing. To me, that we can all just get together and crochet from all over the place. I love that.

Renee says I've used the magic knot for several years and have never had one come apart. I was cautious at first, but this proved to be solid. Yeah, thank you for saying that and backing me up, Renee. It is very surprising that it seems to stay. I mean, it's like everything that we're taught, don't tie knots in your crochet.

Don't cut your yarn after you tie a knot; don't cut it right next to the knot 'cause it'll come apart. It's like you're doing everything that you've been told not to do. But yet it somehow works. Oh, and Hanna B says, I've used the magic knot a few times and it has been fine and has not come apart, but still not sure about them. Yep, I hear you.

But, you know, for this project, if you wanted to join your yarn in a different way, you could, you could use a Russian joint; you could use, um, if you're using all feltable or feltable yarn, then you could certainly use a um felted joint. Uh, you know, there's lots of other ways to do it. OK, so I'm almost at the end of my chain. I've just been making a single crochet into each chain across. So, and the first row that we do that we make, this is actually a wrong side row.

So once we make our chain at the end, so we're doing that, we're just chaining one for turning chain, we're gonna turn our work just like we're turning a page in a book, and now we're gonna work across that, those stitches that we just made, and this is row number 2, and this is gonna be a right side row. So, for those of you who are going to attempt to put your knots all on the inside of your bag, it would be a good idea to take a stitch marker and just mark the outside of your bag. So mark the side that you're working when you're when you are um working across row number 2, and then I'll help you remember that you can push your knots to the back and you might be wondering what are you talking about pushing knots. So here we have a knot coming up right here between colors. Let's see what happens when we get a little closer.

So this is going to end up on the back of my work here because it's close enough that I can do my yarn over on the other side of the knot and leave it on the back. But let me just sort of adjust that, and let's just pretend we were coming up on our knot. And it was going to be on the front. Let's see, I'll do some tighter stitches here and maybe it'll just happen. Like, if this were to pop through here, OK, let's see.

I'll do this again. With a larger stitch here, much larger stitch to try and pull it through. Like if we did this and and that knot popped through here to the right side. And it's sitting on the right side of our work, then we could just undo it and then try to do your stitches a little tighter or a little looser, which is, you know, you really only need to kind of go back a couple stitches until you can kind of control where that goes. Now, see, this, this might pop through.

Let's see, yeah, so that knot could pop through when I pull that, pull that loop through, but if you don't want it to pop through, you can make that loop just a little tight right there, and then you can yarn over past the knot and keep that knot on the backside. And yeah, that little post of that stitch is a little tighter than the other. Posts, but it's gonna blend in just fine, especially with something like this where you're changing all these colors, that's gonna really be the star of the show here, all those color changes, and nobody's gonna notice that that one little single crochet has a slightly shorter. Post of it because we didn't pull that loop through very far like we—that loop was just sort of tight. I can show you that again once, once we come up, uh, to another knot.

But basically, basically, you can kind of control where those knots go. And really that's just for aesthetic purposes, you know, you, you may just not want to see that knot on the outside of your bag. But if that doesn't bother you, because, you know, this whole thing is changing, it's very scrappy looking and, uh, for me, I don't really care if the knots are on the inside or the outside for this particular project, but for other projects where I've made, you know, longer stripes or maybe don't look quite as, um. I don't know, that sort of like patchworky look to them. Then for those types of things, I will sort of insist that my knots go to the to the inside, and that works just fine.

So here's what I have so far, and we got to the end, so we're going to chain one and turn. So we're just going to continue working back and forth in turn rows of single crochet until we have reached 10 rows is what the pattern says, but, um, and that's, I think, a very good checkpoint, but you can also just keep working back and forth and turn rows until you have basically made the footprint of what you want this bag to be, like that very bottom rectangle of the bag. So I'm gonna stitch just a little further until I get to that next. Oh, I, this is actually joined, this is actually, this ball was actually joined with, um with the Russian joint, which you can see here. This is a different type of joint.

I didn't just join this today. This was, I had already gone through all of the joints that I made today. Um, so I'll show you on a different ball of yarn how to pop that knot to the backside if it's having, if it wants to, wants to hang out on the front. OK, so you'll just be working back and forth in turn rows until you've made the size of the bottom of the bag that you want. So, for example, here's my...

Here's the bottom of this bag. Here we've got 10 rows of single crochet, and if you are having trouble counting your rows, which, you know, can be a little bit tricky when you've got all these different color changes going on, what I look for are these little horizontal sort of knots right in the middle, and so every time, so here we have these horizontal knots and then right above that we have V's kind of going in between those little knots. Here, let me... so here's the knots and there's the little Vs kind of popping in between them. So this would be one row, the next row would be these V's here.

The third row would be the knots, the fourth row would be the V's. Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. So we've got 10 rows here. You can also count them in groups of two if you can see these little grooves. So here's a groove here: 2, 4, 6, 8, and then 10.

OK, so that, that is another, that is usually how I count my rows as I find those grooves, but when you have all these different colors going on, it can be like, if you're looking at this section here where it's basically a different color for every row, it can be hard to see those grooves. You can kind of feel them though, so that might be helpful, but, um, anyway, it actually, after all that, it really doesn't even matter that much if you have precisely 10 rows. I was just trying to, you know, help you, those of you who are newer to crochet. Um, to be able to count your single crochet stitches, but basically you're just gonna go back and forth, one stitch into each stitch across, make those little turning chains. So that just means you chain one at the end and then you turn your work and you never work into that turning chain.

You never work into that chain one, you're only working into the single crochet stitches, OK? Not the chains. And then when it's the right width that you want it to be, because remember, this is going to be the footprint of your bag, OK? So this is going to be the bottom, and we're going to start working around to build up a tube onto the edges of this rectangle here. So, I am going to, oh, this one I was using a G hook, I'm pretty sure.

All right, so in order to start working around, you're just gonna rotate your work and work into those row ends, and we're gonna be placing one single crochet per row across here, and if you don't remember how many rows you made, that's OK. You can just sort of single crochet across. You know, um, and make sure that it's not puckering or getting all wavy, and I'll kind of show you that. I'll talk you through that as we go. So I'm gonna be making 10 single crochets across, and if you did count, if you did count your rows and you're like, oh, OK, I also need to make 10, you can throw a stitch marker in there in the middle.

And that can be your halfway point, and then you can put 5 here and then 5 there before, before you turn that corner, and that's how you know you can just sort of evenly space out your 10 single crochets. So there's 1. To, and you may be wondering if you've never done this before, working into those row ends, there's no specific spot you need to put your hook, but I usually try and grab more than one. Thread of yarn at a time, and I try not to insert my hook into what already looks like kind of a large hole. Like right here there's a hole, and if I put my hook in there, and make a stitch, it stretches the hole out, makes it even bigger.

So I will look for a tighter space to fit my hook, and then it doesn't look as obvious. OK, so we've got 1, 2, 3. And here we are at the marker, so we'll do number 5 here. Take the marker out, and then we'll do 5 here. One, two, 3.

Four and 5. And now we're going to just rotate our work again 90 degrees, and we're going to work one stitch into each stitch across. So now we're working into the bottom of that foundation chain. 12, actually I'm, I forgot to put my stitch marker back in. You don't really need to keep track of this, but I'm gonna do that just so that it can help you guys, you know, to see where we, where, how far we have to go because we're going all the way around to that stitch marker.

So we're just placing one single crochet into each of these stitches. And this is the trickiest part because, you know, this very first round, because you're kind of setting everything up, and once you do that, it's very simple. You're just gonna be crocheting in a spiral. So take your time with this. Here comes another knot.

So, I will grab that, make sure the knot stays on the backside. Oh, we got some more comments coming in. Oh, we have someone from Bahrain. Welcome. Thanks for your, uh, putting that in the comments there.

I just, like I said, I love, I love hearing where everybody's watching from. And we've got, and Renee says, I know you. Oh, let's see. Oh, I know you're a proponent of the extended single crochet. Oh yes.

Would it be a benefit to use extended single ESS? I'm guessing that's extended single crochet on this bag or stay with the regular oh, single crochet. OK, um, you can definitely use extended single crochet. I love that stitch so much. Um, yeah, I think.

Really the only difference in the feel of the bag, extended single crochet would have a little more stretch and a little bit more drape, but you can always control that by stitching tighter if you like, but it would definitely be sturdy enough. I think it would be, I think it would make a really great bag. I really love that stitch because it's so. It's just so like it's so, so much stretchier and smoother and it's just such a different stitch compared to so many other single or so many other crochet stitches. Um, so it gives you a lot of versatility.

So I like, I do like to use the extended single crochet. I use that in a lot of things. Um, yeah, you could definitely use that. And you really could substitute this. This technique will work for most stitches that are like a sturdy enough stitch.

So like, you know, if you wanted to make this bag, I would say probably you don't want to make a double crochet bag like this just unless you don't mind there being, you know, some little bit of holes between your stitches and a little bit more drape. It could still, you know, contain things, but just depending on what you're putting in it, You may not want to do that. Um, but you could definitely use half double crochet. You could use other stitches that are nice and sturdy. Um, you know, kind of compact stitches, but basically the concept is the same.

You just chain on until it's wide enough, work back and forth until it's the footprint of the bag, and then you can start working around and around and around. So we've got 123456789, 10. All right, and here we are. Now, this is the last row of single crochet that we worked before we started working around the edges, and we're just gonna work into that. See that knot just popped through to the front right there.

So, if I didn't want that knot to be on the front, I would take out maybe two stitches, and normally I just stitch a little bit tighter and try that the first time. So just stitch a little tight for a couple of stitches. And that's usually enough to just sort of redistribute. See, now it wants to be on the back. All right.

So we're gonna get around to our stitch marker here, and then we're just gonna begin just working in a spiral. And I'll show you, I'll just get a little bit further in so you guys can see what that's starting to look like. And then we're going to talk about how to end off and how to add the zipper. Uh, let's see, Moonrose Kraft said. I did my chain, then go back to where I started, then go around like a circle and it gives you a square rectangle for a pencil case.

It's almost like a cat hat. OK, I'm not understanding exactly what you're saying, but yes, you, um, you just do, you just go do your chain, go back and forth and turn rows, and then you just go around and around and you're basically gonna be making a tube. So I just pulled out my stitch marker. I'll put that back in and you're just gonna continue going around and around and around. So because we're not adding any increases or anything like that, it's going to stay the same measurement as it is here and it's going to just be building up those sides.

I'll do a few more stitches. Once I get around this corner, I'll show you what's gonna start to happen here. So, this is gonna start cupping. And what I mean by that is, because, you know, we're not adding any stitches. See how this wants to just curl in like this?

I will pull this around. You don't have to do it now. You can just do it later. You can just stitch around and around and then eventually kind of pop that corner out, but you can see it's starting to build up those walls on the side of your, the side of your bag. So here we have that bottom footprint right here, that rectangle, and now we're just stitching around and around and we're creating.

Um, basically the tube or the sides here. I'll bring this in here and you can see. Here is there's that little bottom rectangle, and then you can see we've just gone around and around and around and it's built up those sides. And then you can just keep doing that until it's, you know, whatever distance you want it to be, whatever height you want it to be. You can just sort of fold those two edges together and imagine what it's going to look like with the zipper in there.

And once you're happy with that, then you can stop and I'll show you how to end off. Um, I did, I believe it was. 20 rounds. Let's see, 123456789, 1011, 1213, 1415, 1617. 0, only 18 rounds here.

And I believe it was the same for this 1, 18. Let's see, 123456789, 1011, 1213, 1415, 1617, 18. Yeah. So, I was sticking to those 18 rounds just to kind of keep things consistent between my samples. Um, but you can certainly do as many or, you know, more or fewer rounds than this if you like.

The first aid kit, I did quite a few more because you can see it's a taller, taller kind of bag. Um, so yeah, so you just keep going until it's until it's the height you want it to be, and I'm gonna place this back on my hook here. And what you want to do is you want to end directly above the center of this bottom rectangle. So here is my original rectangle right here. These are the two corners, OK, that I'm kind of nearby, but you can see my hook is a little, it's kind of because when you work.

Single crochet in the round without turning, it starts to kind of drift over to the side a little bit. If you were left handed, it would look just like a mirror image of this. It would be, um, you know, a little drifting a little to the left. And so I'm just going to make a single crochet stitch in each stitch until I get to the very side of this bag. So the side of the bag would be directly in between these two corners, so right here and straight up from there.

So I think I've got maybe two more stitches or so. Maybe three. I'll do one more. Just like that, and then you can go ahead and do, you can do like a little slip stitch here because that's going to bring the height of your stitches down just a little bit. So we have a single crochet there and then the next stitch was a slip stitch and then you can go ahead and just cut off your yarn, give yourself a little bit of a yarn tail, pull it through.

And then I like to do, um, an invisible join. You don't have to do this. This is a little bit of extra credit. You can really just, um, you know, knock this off, or you can just pull it through and weave in your end. But I like the edge of this to look as smooth as possible.

So I'm going to, um, I'm going to send the yarn tail through underneath one of these stitches through the top of one of these stitches. So you can see this was the last stitch I made my slip stitches into right here. Here's the next stitch that I would be working into if I was going to do another stitch. I'm going to go into the following stitch, and I'm going to use my yarn needle to bring that yarn from front to back. Just like that, and you're gonna pull on it until the distance here looks like the top of one of these stitches.

OK? So, about like that. Then I'm going to place my needle right back where it came from, right back where that strand came from when I fastened off. And we're gonna go into the back of our work here, and I'm pulling that until it looks like another stitch. See how they all look the same?

And there's no jog or bump or ugly knot or anything like that. That you don't have to do it this way. You know, it does take a little extra second to kind of thread that through, but this is just something I've gotten in the habit of doing. Once I started doing this, it looked so nice. Now it's hard for me to do it the other way.

So I'm just weaving my yarn tail in back and forth in a couple of directions, splitting through those yarns really does help it not come out, and I'm gonna cut that off. And call it good. So then the next thing we have to do is put the zipper in. So I have a whole video tutorial on the Creative Crochet Corner talking about zippers, and inserting them because I know that people fear this step. There are a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with putting zippers in, and I completely understand that.

So I wanted to give you some tips. So there is that resource on the Creative Crochet Corner website. It's something like adding a zipper or adding a zipper to your crochet project or something like that, but I'm going to show you. How I do that here, just sort of one of the, one of the things I talked about in that video. So you may find, you may be lucky and you may just have a zipper that's exactly the right size.

That's excellent. I did not, and you know, all the Joanne's are closed. It was not easy for me to get a zipper, so I just grabbed a longer zipper that I already had in my stash, and I'm going to cut the zipper, and I'll use the end of the zipper later. I'll just get another slide and reuse that extra bit, but we're going to cut off a section of this very long zipper here. So I just wanted to show you how to do that in case you've never done that before.

It makes it a lot easier; for me, I just like to have lots of long zippers just in my stash because who knows when I'm just gonna wanna, like, whip out something like this and I'm not gonna want to go to the store and get the zippers. So I just keep them on hand, longer zippers, and then you can always shorten them down. You can shorten them from the top, you can shorten them from the bottom. For a pouch like this, it doesn't need to fully open. The pieces do not need to completely separate.

Like if you undo your jacket and you want to get out of your jacket, you have to completely separate those two pieces at the bottom of the zipper even. You don't need to do that for this pouch, so this makes it very, very easy to shorten this type of zipper or a zipper for this. Particular kind of use. So, I'm going to lay my pouch down here on top of my zipper. And I'm just gonna put a little pin where I want my zipper to stop.

So probably right about here. Now this is gonna be. By the time I get my zipper in here, it's pro- probably, I'm gonna be doing a little bit of stitching just below, just to the outside of the pin. And that stitching should be hidden underneath here, and I'll show you that in just a second. Um, so, if you...

Let's see. Here we go. So I've got some thread in my hands here. This is just regular sewing all-purpose thread. It's—I already threaded it through my little tiny sewing needle here.

My little hand needle. And I've got the two ends of the thread in my hands right here. I'm just, I'm talking you through all this. Because I know it can be very hard to see thread, but maybe you can see the two ends here. If I hold it in front of the zipper.

So I'm gonna make a knot in this, in these two ends. And I'm gonna be sewing with my thread doubled. Let's see. Here we go. So I'm just doing a little overhand knot here in the end.

Holding those two strands together. I'm knotting it a couple of times and trying to drag it so that those knots are on top of each other, but if you can't, if you're having a hard time doing that, it's OK if, as long as you have one little knot there, um, that'll be good enough for now. So. Now we're going to just do a bunch of stitches right through here. So we're gonna come up from the back.

Just above those zipper teeth, and we're gonna go across the zipper teeth and then down. Just like this. Pulled out my pin because I don't want it to get in the way. So we're gonna go up again from where, where the thread is right here. And then back down.

And up, and then back down. And for those of you who are, you know, have. Um, have sewn, hand sewn before with needle and thread, you can just slide your needle in through here and you can push it out right there, you know, that's something you can also try. It makes it go a little faster because you're basically doing two motions at once. So you're going in here and out there, and you can kind of bend that.

Zipper tape down. OK, you want to do this quite a few times because you want this to be very sturdy. You do not want those teeth to be able to separate at the bottom. Of your zipper. All right.

So once you've gone around and around and around, maybe 10 times or so, something like that, then you can push your needle to the backside of your zipper. That's the side where the, the pull is not. So on the backside of it here. And then you can just tie a little knot. To keep that from going any place.

So I'm just tucking my needle, making a loop, tucking my needle through that loop. Pulling my needle, and I'm keeping my fingers in here to keep that loop down by the fabric, putting my thumb on it and tightening it up. And then I'm gonna go ahead and just cut that. And then, and I know this seems a little bit shocking, even though this is a metal now you can do this with plastic or metal, whatever kind of zipper you have. You're just making a little thread tack right there.

That's a new bottom stop. So that's where when you unzip your zipper, it's going to make it stop right there. It's not going to be able to go any further. And then you can go ahead and cut through your zipper, and you might be thinking, that seems really crazy, Brenda. You're just going to cut through a metal zipper, but you're not actually cutting through the metal, you're cutting in between those teeth.

So I'm just using my scissors to kind of get in between those teeth. See, these aren't even very. You know, they're not super sharp scissors. I would not do this with your best scissors because, um, you know, like if you have dressmaking shears that you want to have really, really sharp and they're for cutting fabric, I would not do that. I would get like, you know, some scissors that have been around for a while and maybe there's some imperfections in those scissors just because you're going to be sliding the blade right next to those zipper teeth and it could dull it a little bit in that spot.

I've never had, you know, a noticeable change after cutting through a zipper. But it's just a little word of warning in case you have some fancy, fancy zipper or fancy scissors that you don't want to dull at all. So then at this point, you've got a nice short zipper that's the right size, and if you have a lighter, you can go ahead and just light the very edge of this. That'll melt that tape and seal it off and keep it from fraying. Most zipper tape is a synthetic and it'll just melt and create a little sort of plasticy edge right there and it it will keep your, um, it'll keep the fabric from fraying.

But every once in a while I have gotten the cotton zipper tape um and then you'll just see that that does not want to melt. It just wants to burn. You just got to blow it out. So just unless you already know the fiber content, you know, most zippers, if they come in a package, you bought it in the store, it'll say like polyester on it or something like that. Um, and then you'll know it's just gonna be able to melt.

But I do have some random vintage zippers, and I, I'm pretty sure this is a cotton blend one, so I'm not going to light this one. But I would say like 95% of the zippers that I've ever used, you can just melt the ends and then they won't fray. You can put fray check on there or you can just leave it. You could bind it in a little piece of of growgrain ribbon or something if you're feeling like, you know, overachieving. I'm just gonna leave it.

I'm sure it's gonna be fine. Um, and then this is the part that is the trickiest for putting in a zipper. Now, you just have to know this is just going to take time and you're just going to have to keep moving things around until they're in the right spot. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to match up my corners down here in my bag, so that I know this is nice and flat, and then I know that this little fold is right on the edge, and this little fold over here is on the edge as well. Like that, and then I'm going to be able to place my zipper in there.

Like this. Making sure that it's kind of centered over that. That little um stitch marker there. Ok? So I'll do this side first, and I'm going to use my pin.

Now what you want to do is you want to line up the edge of your crochet just a little away from the teeth because you don't want the the yarn to get stuck in your zipper pull. So I'm going to pin this, you know, and for pinning something like this, it's like sewing. So you're going to go in and then you're going to go back out through the fabric, OK, to make it stay. And keep in mind the zipper is going to be pulled this way, so I can see that there's tape between where that yarn is and between the zipper, and I can still move this past my crochet project crochet edge without getting it stuck in the crochet. So that's something you want to check for.

You don't have to do that right now. You can just pin it all in and then you can sort of keep moving your pins around and make sure everything's in the right spot. OK. So now, I'm going to place this end of my zipper inside my bag, and you can see now just me putting this zipper tape in here, it has kind of scooted this over a little. I'm gonna move this just a little bit this way.

Um, but already when I lay my bag along the top, I can see that I've already I've stitched over here and really, um, I only needed a little bit of that to come past this fold. This is fine. I can push my zipper a little further into the bag. And that is no problem, but don't try and just make it, you know, if, if you measure it, stitch it right there, don't try to line it up right here and then if you get this sort of bubbling, you can certainly force it in there, but that's going to stretch out the edge of your pouch and you don't want to do that because it just doesn't look as nice. So I'm going to tuck the zipper in a little further.

So there's there's that line. I'm gonna tuck that into my bag, a little bit further in, OK? And then I'm going to put a put a pin in right here. And then I'm going to sort of pivot my zipper sideways like that. And use my pin to sort of sew those two edges together.

And I feel like this is bubbling just a little bit, like it feels like the zipper is longer than this edge. So that's telling me I need to push this a little bit further in to my pouch. And we'll try that. And that seems better. So I'm gonna continue pinning here.

Like that. And then I really like to pin both sides before I start to stitch. Some people like to just sew that edge in, but I like to know for sure that this is really in the right spot. So I like to get the other edge pinned in as well. So you can see what's happening here is I'm this zipper is making a right angle.

So it's coming across the top of my bag and then it's going in along that side. And then I'm gonna tuck this edge in here. You know, yeah, I have put in hundreds of zippers into things, so I am very used to manipulating a zipper. So if you're trying this right now and you're like, ah, you've been having a hard time, just know that it does take a little while to kind of, you know, you want to get the ends pinned in and then you, this part is fairly easy to get this part pinned in, but just know you do need to spend a little bit of time pinning, moving your pins, looking at it, pinning, moving your pins around, looking at it, even though I've done this, you know, I've set in so many zippers into things. I still, I can't just like pin, pin, pin, pin, pin.

Oh, good, it's perfect. I'm ready to sew, you know, it just, it just takes a little bit of time to get it situated so that you're happy with it, OK? So this I think looks pretty good. Um, if your zipper is doing this thing where it's rippling, that means your zipper is too long for the size of your bag, and you have to pull the end of your zipper a little further into the bag, OK? It's not that you have to like, you don't have to go back and re-stitch that little section if you don't want to, that's fine.

You don't have to cut off more of your zipper unless you want to; you can. Um, I just pull it a little bit further into the bag 'cause it's usually not that much that I have to move it. Um, if, if for some reason your zipper is too tight here, you'll see the fabric rippling where you've got it pinned to the zipper, OK? And it won't look great. So you'll have to just give it a little bit more slack, like pull a little bit more of the zipper further out from here, like move it back that way if that makes sense.

And once you get that all pinned in, then you can go ahead and start stitching. So to stitch the zipper, I'm going to open this up. So that we can see the inside here. Um, I like to stitch my zipper looking at the outside, though, but I'd like to have my hand on the inside of my zipper. And so you're going to be using whatever thread matches.

I've got a little knot here. I'm going to grab a different one here. Um, but I'm going to be using just, you know, this green thread here. So hopefully you guys can see what I'm doing on, on the brown zipper. Here we go.

Here, I'm going to grab this needle. It has a larger eye. OK. There we go, and you guys might be able to see the needle a little bit better here, too. This is a longer needle than you would need, but it'll work just fine.

OK, so I've got my thread doubled. I usually do this with doubled thread because it just makes it a little bit sturdier. And again, I'm tying the two ends of the thread together. So, you know, I've got about 1.5 yards of doubled thread here. And you can start anywhere.

You can start on one of the edges, you can start in the middle, but basically, you're going around in a circle. I'm going to start over here. And I'm going to just place, I'm going to put my, um, I want them not to be on the underside of this tape. It's not really a big deal, but that's just normally how I like to start it so that it's not quite as obvious. So it's going to be on the underside between the tape and the bag.

So I just came up from the underside, and now I'm going to put my needle through. Just below that little V. Now this is just something I like to do. It doesn't need to be specifically in this spot, but I find that if you stitch much further away from right here, so this is just below that V that sits on the top of our stitch, like just below those top two loops, that seems to be the sweet spot because if you get further away, then this edge kind of pulls away. If you get any closer, then sometimes you're not getting enough of the fabric when you're stitching.

So I'm going to place my needle in just a little to the right. If you're left-handed, if you can flip your screen, um, it'll make more sense because it'll look like I'm left-handed. And you're going to be putting your needle in a little bit further. Um, to the, to your left. So we're gonna come up.

Into the next stitch here. And we're gonna be doing a back stitch. So I came up right here, so I'm going to put my needle down through here, and you have to make sure you're actually, you know, grabbing some of that yarn. You wouldn't want to put it down right next to it. You gotta take a little stitch backwards.

You go a half a step back, and then a full step forward, okay? So this should be right in the middle of where your needle's going in and where it's coming out. So we're gonna go half a step back. And a whole step forward, okay? So this is right in the middle of where you're going in and where you're coming out.

Or you might think of it as one step back and two steps forward. So I'm right-handed, so my needle is always gonna be facing to my left when I'm doing this. Um, you know, for every stitch, it's always facing in that direction. I'm gonna pull this pin out here. Insert one step back, two steps forward.

So the reason I like to do a back stitch, it seems a little bit more secure. You're not just tacking little stitches here and there, you're really covering, you know, because you're always going back, you're really covering. You know, the surface of each stitch across here, . And I am actually looking at my stitches. Going into that stitch and coming out of this stitch.

I am actually looking at my stitches to help me with the stitch length. When I say looking at my stitches, I'm talking about looking at my crochet stitches. I'm looking at the crochet when I am placing my needle in there. You don't have to pay attention to that, but it just helps me to keep my stitches pretty uniform. Let me show you what it looks like on the back.

So there's the little line, my stitching line. And you just always want to make sure you're looking at where these teeth are. There should be a little bit of a gap between the bottom of those teeth and your crochet. Project, because otherwise the zipper pull is just going to rip out or get stuck in the yarn. Which is a bummer.

All right. So you would just continue working your way across. Once you get to this end here, it gets a little awkward, cause you can't, you know, you can't really open this up and look in there. You just kind of have to keep it He, I'm gonna move this out of the way so you guys can see. Um, you just have to kind of keep one finger behind there to keep them separated so you know you're not stitching into.

Um, the opposite surface of the bag, the opposite edge of the bag, I should say. You don't want to catch that. Let me see if I can. I think I can get over there. We're kind of running a little short on time, but I'm gonna try and cruise on over there.

So that I can show you what I mean. Do a few more stitches here while I check for questions. Let's see. Oh, we've got some questions that I missed. I'm sorry, you guys.

OK. Instead of you going back and forth. Oh, OK, Moonrose Crafts, are you asking? Instead of you going back and forth. OK, maybe you're talking about when I'm making the bottom of the bag, you could go around in an oval or an ellipse or a rectangle.

Is that what you're talking about maybe? Sorry, that was a long time ago. Oh, we've got someone watching from the north of Spain. Wow, welcome. Thank you.

Is there a way to do like shells or fans going around in a tube where you don't have to stop and start? Yes. Um, you can do joints at the ends of your rounds. Um, that is something that is, it's gonna be too hard for me to explain, but I did do a live event a couple weeks ago where I talked about adding a lace edging onto fabric, and I did talk about converting a stitch pattern that's worked and turned rows into a stitch pattern that's worked in the round. So you may want to check that out because that might be helpful to you and when you're converting.

One to another if you're converting stitch patterns to work in the round. Let's see. Oh, we have a question. Can you show how to connect the two yarns? I did show that towards the beginning of the our tutorial, so you can go ahead and, um, you will, there will be a replay that you'll be able to watch after this is over so you can see how I connected all the yarns together on my on my yarn ball.

And we have a good evening from France, from Fiona. Wonderful. Oh, and Moonrose is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Awesome. All right.

Let's see. OK. You could, OK, and then we're talking about lining the bag, yeah you could definitely line the bag. Yes, Nanna B is saying they should practice adding zippers and more linings. I've done a lot of tutorials on making bags.

Um, I really like making bags and I love adding zippers and linings to things. So if you are interested in that, you should definitely check out the other tutorials I've done on the Creative Crochet Corner because I've shown how to line things in different ways, um. Yeah, and if there's something specific you'd like to learn about, then definitely let me know. Drop that in the comments, um, because I'm always interested to know what you guys wanna learn. OK, so we've reached the edge and I'm kind of going around the opposite side here.

And what I like to do is I like to go back and sort of reinforce that because, you know, it's going under the zipper teeth. It just seems like it would get a little bit more stress on the end. So sometimes I'll take a couple of stitches back and forth here. On this edge, just making sure that I'm catching catching that um the edge of my crocheted fabric. All right, so you would just continue working all the way around to here to the beginning and then you can sort of fold these little edges down into your bag and just do a little whip stitch like just kind of go around the edges of it to keep your to keep that in place.

Another thing you can do is you can tuck these edges underneath. Where you're stitching, you can do that as well. Um, oftentimes for things like this, I would like to just sort of overlap them and stitch them together because I feel like that keeps this crochet fabric from getting stretched out. There. It gives it that extra stability.

So usually, I just kind of overlap them and then just do a little stitching. And then that's it, unless you want to add a lining. But that is a project for another day for me, but I hope you guys have enjoyed this project. Thank you guys so much for being here and being so active in the chat and asking questions. Um, oh, and Hannah's got some tutorials saved for future reference.

Awesome. Yeah, you can go back and watch those whenever. All right, thank you guys so much for being here. I hope you guys have fun making a little pencil pouch. Oh, and if you guys are wondering about the little tiny.

Tab that I've added onto these, that is part of the pattern for the first aid kit as well. You just make a little, um, just a little strip and thread it through the edge of the zipper, and tack it together. I do have step-by-step pictures on how to do that in the download for um, for that project. So if you want to see a little close-up version of that. All right, thank you guys so much.

Bye everybody.