Well, noble folks of a fibrous persuasion, I have good news, and I have… good news. Which would you like first? The good news, you say? OK then. Well, I’ve finally finished writing the pattern for the crochet house bag. Hurrah! I’m excited to share it with you (for free), probably tomorrow unless the universe maliciously interferes. I’m conscious that people don’t want to download/print patterns with over a million photos, so the other piece of good (I hope!) news is that today I have put together a tutorial of what I’m calling ‘brick stitch’, the crochet stitch that I semi-designed for the main parts of the bag. I say ‘semi’ because there are very vaguely similar things out there, but this is the brickiest brick stitch that will ever grace your screen. Use it for the bag, or use it for summat else. But anywhere, here it is. By plonking lots of instructional photos here, you’ll be saved the chore of printing out a whole sheaf of ink-sucking photography with your pattern.
You’ll need two colours, a pale taupe for the mortar (M), and a brown for the brick (B).
I’M USING US CROCHET TERMS, OK? (Despite being a Brit.)
Abbreviations:-
st(s) = stitch(es)
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet
sk = skip
ch = chain
This pattern has an 8-row repeat.
Chain the number of stitches required in shade M. Turn.
1. In M, ch1. Sc all the way across. Turn.
2. In B, ch1. *1sc in the next 3sts. Skip next st and ch1.** Repeat from *→** to end of row. Turn. (This generic pattern takes no account of your number of stitches, so you may well finish somewhere in the middle of this sequence: that’s fine.)
3. In B, ch1. Sc all the way across. Turn. NB, when changing colour, carry the inactive yarn up the side of your work. No need to cut!
4. In M, ch1. *1sc in the next 3sts:-
Then, skipping the next stitch on the current row, 1dc into the M-coloured stitch below from row 1 that you skipped in row 2**:-
Repeat *→** to end of row.
5. In M, ch1. 1sc into every st across. Turn.
6. In B, ch1. 1sc. *Sk1 and ch1. 1sc into the next 3sts.** Repeat *→** to end of row. Turn.
7. In B, ch1. 1sc into every st across. Turn.
8. In M, ch1. I sc. *Skipping a st on current row, 1dc into M-coloured st from row 5 that you skipped in row 6. 1sc into the next 3sts.** Repeat *→** to end of row. Turn.
See, easy! And if you can do that (which you can) then you can definitely make the house bag. So do potter back this way in a day or so to see the full pattern…
Great tutorial. Love this brickiest of bricks
I really, REALLY wish Brits would use UK terms and not US. I teach crochet with UK terms. Magazines have UK terms, yet sadly too many Brits are changing the way we “speak” crochet because the internet mainly uses US terms. It’s confusing to UK crocheters. PLEASE do a UK version and put US terms in brackets. Let’s not lose yet another UK thing to the USA! It’s bad enough that they’ve ruined Cadbury’s chocolate. 🙁
Eek, a difficult one. With most things I’m the most staunch supporter of all things British, but I confess that I do just prefer US crochet terms. It’s tricky to find a balance that works for everyone. (About half of the readers of this blog are from the UK, and half are from elsewhere.) Anyway, thank you for your comment. And you’ve got me wondering whether I should do separate UK and US versions of the bag pattern…
I can easily convert from one to the other, but I’m determined to stick to UK terms lol (even though like you, my blog is read worldwide). I forgot to mention before… I love the pattern!
I love the way the bricks look! Thanks for sharing the tutorial – and I too write all my instructions in US terms, it just makes more sense to me. You could write two versions if you wanted, but really it’s not too hard to convert one from the other either, so I would onlt do it if I felt the time put in was really worth it! 🙂 jenny xx
I’m also a US crochet term aficionado. 🙂
On it like a tick on a dog Ms Twisted.