Happy, hip-hop, hippie Heidi. That’s the name I gave myself during college orientation when we had to do one of those get-to-know-you games where we picked an adjective to describe ourselves that started with the same letter as our name.

In high school, I truly wanted to be a hippie. I had the long hair. I listened to the Beatles. I considered joining Green Peace, and I definitely donated money toward saving the rainforests!

My priorities are much different these days, but I still might be a hippie at heart.

This project screams hippie to me, and I love it!

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I started my Granny Square Gauntlet (a challenge to crochet 100 squares in 100 days from this book) in mid-July. Part of that challenge is that I have to turn the squares into 10 different projects with only one being allowed to be a blanket.

Project 8: Hippie Tote Bag

When I started working on the squares for this project, I thought I was going to make a table runner. (You can read more about that on the post about these squares here.) It was obvious to me while I was working on this square that it was not going to be a table runner. It was not delicate. It was clunky. The colors were garish. I wouldn’t be able to set anything down on it because there was too much texture. I seriously stopped multiple times and searched my yarn stash for more appropriate yarn, but I just didn’t have it.

So I carried on.

I was still uncertain of my project on the next square. By square three I knew I was going to make a market bag. It was going to be cylindrical with a round bottom. The round bottom made it disporportional.

Again, as I showed the project to my friend Robin, she suggested a smaller, more elongated bottom. That’s what I did. I didn’t take any pictures of the base because it really wasn’t great. It ended up functional and after I had joined my squares, I attached it to the bottom. A quick border and some handles completed the project.

The tote has a different personality depending on which side you look at.

I started with a project that I just couldn’t get behind and ended up with a project I love. My daughter loves it, too. She immediately slung it over her shoulder and found it could even hold her laptop! I wouldn’t recommend it be used to transport small items, as they’d fall out the holes, but as a market bag, overnight tote, or a yarn bag, it would be great!

This is another project that I would have absolutely not made if it wasn’t for this challenge. I’m going to consider that a win.

And then I’m going to keep dreaming about tie-dye and buy yet another Beatles t-shirt from the mass-market, middle-aged women store.

Projects 1-7

You can find my other projects by clicking the pictures below.

As always, keep stitching, Heidi