Taking a Mistake and Creating a Texture

I decided to make myself a new purse. Sounds simple, right? You don't know me!!!! :)

I never do anything the easy way -- crochet included.

I had some left-over, beautiful, Caron Simply Soft yarn in shades of lavender / purple (my favorite colors), so I began crocheting a rectangle in a shell stitch pattern, changing colors about halfway down to a darker shade of lavender, then a stripe of purple, the darker shade and finished the rectangle in the lighter shade of lavender again. I repeated this for the other side of the purse and had a nice front and back. So then, I decided to make the side panel / shoulder strap in one piece in the light lavender.

Weeeeellllllll, it was late and I was determined to get a good start on this long piece, so I began making rows of half double crochet. After a while I noticed something strange happening -- I was getting lines across the yarnwork. I stopped and studied my stitches. I wasn't beginning my hdc stitch with one loop instead of the normal two -- I was forming my stitch as I always did with the two loops. Then it hit me! I was crocheting in 2 loops on the front of the row, not top.

This is kind of out of focus (I still can't get the digital camera to focus on close objects). But I'm trying to show that there's 2 loops on the face of the row. (This is the right side of the yarn fabric.)

In the image here, I'm trying to show the 2 loops at the top of the row which would be wrong side of the yarn fabric.

So, on the right side, I crochet in the 2 loops in the front of the fabric, and on the wrong side, I crochet in the 2 loops at the top of the fabric.

I wish these images were clearer, because I can't be sure if I'm explaining this right.

Anyways, the texture created was great and I had a lot of fun when I realized what I was doing. By the way, I didn't have enough yarn to make the sides and bottom of the purse and also do a shoulder strap, so I satisfied myself with the light lavender on one side and then switched to the dark lavender for the bottom, and finished the other side with the light lavender.

The arrow points out the pretty line that is formed with this stitch "mistake" (and also shows the color change).

Well, after getting the purse shell completed, I was ready for the lining and figuring out some way to attach handles.

Needless to say, I put this project aside for a few weeks while I "percolated" ideas.

I finally ended up buying purse handles and then had to "percolate" ideas once again on how to attach them!

Well, after sewing a lining, tearing the stitches out, sewing it together again and tearing out the stitches a few more times, I ended up with a purse. I put lots of pockets in the lining (for my Palm, cellphone, ID card and credit cards, etc.) and attached the handles to the lining itself. I tacked the lining to the crochet shell purse body with yarn at the bottoms and sides. Finally, I crocheted a cord with the purple yarn (I only had a little bit left) and then attached a button that matched the handles.

Oh, and just to let you know, when I sewed the crocheted sides to the front / back panels, I sewed them inside out and had to tear that out, too. (Sigh!)

It's a good thing that I'm stubborn and didn't give up on this project. I really love the way the purse turned out and I use it all the time now.

So, I guess the idea is, if you make a mistake when playing around with left-over yarn, but it looks good, see if you can duplicate it and create something new!