Crochet Zen: Craft a Stylish & Unique Granny Square Yoga Mat Bag

1. Zen Crochet Hexagon Yoga Bag: Nothing quite as fulfilling as crafting something you love with your own hands, something that's both functional and stylish, while also serving as a wonderful way to unwind. Crochet encompasses all of these benefits. Now imagine walking into your next yoga class with a one of a kind handmade bag that showcases your crochet talent. Today, we're taking the timeless granny square and adding a twist to create a hexagon shaped yoga mat bag that's as practical as it is stylish. Hey, everyone. My name is Jane, and I want to invite you on a crochet adventure today where creativity meets relaxation. Crochet is a fun and versatile way to showcase your personal style, whether you're busy on the go, unwinding at home or enjoying some leisure time. I bring over 40 years of experience as a crochet designer during which I've explored various aspects of the craft. I've shared my passion through writing books, teaching classes, and designing patterns. You can also find me on my blog and YouTube channel where I offer a range of inspiration for Granny squares and color work. Granny squares are a crochet classic, but today we're putting a fun twist on it by learning how to create a hexagon shaped version. Once you've mastered your first hexagon, you'll be able to make many more as we work towards creating a stylish and functional yoga mat bag. I'll guide you through each step at a relaxed and comfortable pace, sharing plenty of tips and tricks along the way to make your crochet experience easier and more enjoyable. Color is such a fun part of crochet, but it comes with the question of how to handle all the yarn ends. I'll teach you my favorite tricks for working them in as you go, ensuring a clean, seamless finish without the stress of tiding up all the loose ends afterwards. This class is designed for crocheers who are comfortable with basic stitches and want to work on a fun playful project while picking up new techniques for color work and assembling projects as we go. I'm so glad that you're here, whether you're creating something unique for yourself or a thoughtful gift for your favorite yoga enthusiast, join me in this relaxing art form of crochet, and let's create something beautiful together. 2. What to Expect: Let's start by going over the journey we're going to be taking from start to finish of our yoga bag. In this overview, I'm just going to use diagrams to explain it. But during the class, I'll be doing this with real pieces and working in real time along with you. First, we'll learn the basic happy pedal hexagon, working together through all five rounds. Once we've worked through one hexagon, I'm going to leave you to work a total of 26 hexagons. Can use my color suggestions which are listed in the accompanying PDF, or you can choose something different to match your style. Once all 26 hexagons are complete, we're going to begin to assemble our bag. We start this process by joining our hexagons into single strips, six strips of four hexagons, and one strip of two hexagons. Then we'll join these strips together just like in our diagram, and we'll end up with one solid piece for our bag. Now we'll be ready to fold our bag. I'll be folding from the wrong side or backside so that when I fold, the right side or front side will be facing out. Flip your piece, grabbing the top and flipping it towards you so that it will now look like this. Next step will be to fold the top half of the bag towards us and line it up with the hexagons closest to us. Right side of bag will now be facing up. Then we'll fold the three hexagons on the lower edge in half. I'll be using pins to hold everything in place. Finally, we'll be folding the bottom of our bag, which is on the right side of this diagram, by folding the remaining two hexagons in half to meet up for one more seam. Now with it all pinned in place, we'll be sewing our seams. Once all the seams are finished, we'll add a handle and a tie and your bag will be ready to load up your yoga mat and head off to yoga class. Be ready for all the wonderful comments like, I love that yoga bag. Where did you find it? You can say, Well, thanks. I made it myself. Getting excited. Me too. Let's get started. I'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Supplies For Class: What do we need for this class? I'll be using a worsted weight yarn for this project. I love to use lots of colors, so I tend to use up a lot of scraps when I create things. This particular bag I'm making in this class, I used 15 colors, but it can be made in a single color, two colors, or as many or as few colors as you want. Of the techniques I'll be walking you through in this class, we'll be working in your ends as you go. This makes color work a lot more enjoyable, so there won't be all those ends to work in at the end of the project. This is my secret to working with a lot of color, and I will be sharing that with you in this class. So don't let the number of colors I used overwhelm you. I list them out in the accompanying pattern because I get asked all the time for my exact colorways, and I really do love using a lot of color myself. But don't be afraid to make it your own. I'm just here to encourage and hopefully inspire. There is an attached PDF of the pattern for this bag under the resource tab of the class. That PDF, I list the colors I used, as well as the written pattern for the happy petal hexagon and the bag assembly, diagrams, charts, so everything you need to follow along with my instructions in class. It's a really good idea to have that handy beside you while you're following my instructions. The bag takes a total of approximately 300 grams of yarn total to make. If you're doing many colors, just be sure to have at least one ball of your white for the flower part and one of your main color for joining it all together and possibly the handle. In addition to the yarn and the pattern, you're going to need a crochet hook and I used two different ones. Use a five millimeter, which is a US eight or for the main part of the bag, the hexagons, and joining them together. Then I go down in size to a 4.5 millimeter, which is a US seven, for the handle and the bag tie just to make them a little more sturdy. You're also going to need a pair of scissors, a darning needle. I like to use one with a large eye, so the yarn fits through, a ruler or a measuring tape just to keep track of the size of your squares and the length of your handle. Also, stitch markers, I'll be using these on the handle, and it's best to have the ones that open and close. They're called split markers. However, you can always use something you have on hand, such as paper clips or just another strand of yarn in a different color. Finally, I'll be using T pins to hold the bag in place when I fold it. I find this easier because it tends to flop all over the place and you forget where you're supposed to be sewing. I like these pins because of the T shaped tops. They don't get lost in my fabric. Okay, I think we're ready to get started on making our hexagons. Gather up your supplies and be sure to download that accompanying PDF in the resource section. So you have the diagrams to follow as well as the written pattern to help you along the way. I will be explaining everything and I will be showing you the diagrams, but it's really handy to have them beside you. I will see you in the next lesson, where we're going to begin making our first hexagon. 4. Magic Ring - Happy Petal Hexagon: So we're going to start with our blue and do a magic ring. We put it across our palm, holding it in place with our thumb, wrap it around two fingers, then bring it back underneath, crossing it over, hold it in place with your thumb, and wrap it around three fingers. Then we're going to go under the first strand over the second and pull it through. Twist your hook. So the loop is twisted on the hook itself. Reach over to the yarn over your third finger, wrap it around the hook and pull through. That's our magic ring. Slip your fingers out, and we're ready to work into this. 5. Round 1 - Happy Petal Hexagon: Round one is all going to be double crochets. So we're going to start with a chain three to represent our first double crochet. We already have a chain one to lock the ring in place. So we need two more chains. And this counts as our first double crochet. Now we want to work 11 more double crochets into this ring. So to make our first one, yarn over the hook, insert the hook into the ring. Yarn over, pull up a loop, three loops on the hook. Yarn over, pull through two loops. T loops on the hook, and yarn over and pull through the remaining two loops. That's the double crochet stitch, and we want 11 of those plus the chain three would bring us to a total of 12. Let's work a few more of these, and then we'll take a look at this again. And you're keeping this nice and loose because we're going to pull it up later. So I've got one, two, three, four, five so far. That's six, seven. Eight, nine, except they all fall off. Ten, 11 and 12. So I now have 12, and I can pull up my magic ring. I let the working arn go and I take the cut end. I place my finger in my thumb at the base of the last stitch, and I pull on the cut end. So you kind of have to keep readjusting it a little there, so it doesn't not, but you want to pull that right. I pull it in tight. I don't like it to be open unless my square has open work. And now I can cut my yarn, and I can do an invisible join here before I start my next color. So I cut about three to 4 ", and then I pull it through. I get my darling needle and I do an invisible join. I place the arn on my darling needle. I go to the top of that first chain three, and I'm going to create an invisible join by making a stitch over top of that. So I need to go under the second stitch. Put the darning needle under both loops, pull it through. And then go back into the top of the last stitch, where it comes out of, and you're creating the same loop that all the other stitches have. And you want it to be about the same size too so that your tension looks even, and it kind of just disappears. Now, this is where I darn my ends in as I go, and people ask, how do you secure that so it doesn't fall out? What I do now is, this is the invisible stitch right here. I go to the back and go under one more little bump back there, and come up through the center of that stitch I just created. So there's actually two strands there, the bump and the stitch itself. I come up through the center, Always making sure I don't pull too tight, and then I go back down through the center of the stitch behind it, and I go down least two loops again. And that creates a little knot that just secures it nicely. And at this point, I will start to weave the end into the back loops only all the way around my piece. Get as many as I can on there. And if I go all the way around, I go all the way around, but I'm pretty secure with that because it's going to get worked over again. Plus I did the little loop here that created a little bit of a pretend knot, so to speak. It's as effective as a not, but it doesn't have the bulk of a knot. And I'm just going to go ahead and cut that so it's out of my way. I can also darn this one in, so it's also out of my way. And I do that by going underneath the center stitches that I pulled in a few more times. It's like I'm going to continue. I worked over top of it for that first round, and now I'm going to continue around this center. Just so I secure it nicely. Some people like to reverse and go the other way. I actually haven't found I need to do that, as long as I take it around probably two more times maybe at the very most. It kind of depends on your yarn. I work with worsted weight yarn. It's 100% acrylic most of the time. And it snags in there nicely because it's actually hard for me to rip that out. But if you're working with really slippy yarns or fibers that tend to slip, like bamboo and silk, you might want to do it a lot, do it in other directions, or even consider a possible knot. I don't like knots, but there comes a point where you actually need to consider a knot. Cut that one off. Now all my ends are darned in at the back, and I'm ready for round two. 6. Round 2 - Happy Petal Hexagon: I start this round with a beginning double crochet cluster, which is a little different than the regular one. So I'll join my white yarn with a slip stitch in any one of the stitches, and then I chain two. Then I'm going to work a double crochet in that same stitch, being sure to go under my cut end at the back. I'm going to work this end in as I go, so you'll see me doing stuff with it here. I pull through the first two stitches. I have two loops left on the hook, and I'm going to take this cut end and swing it up over top of my working yarn to work it into this cluster. And then I work through the last two loops. Now it's at the top of my hook, and I need to chain two. I bring it back over top of the working arn for my first chain, and then across to the back, again over top of the working arn for my second chain. We're working into the next stitch. I'm going to hold my cut end at the back right around where that stitch is. I'm going to go under the cut end under the working arn and back around and into the next stitch and under the cut yarn. We're working that in yarn over and pull up a loop. Then yarn over and pull through. There's actually three loops there because the cut end is there as well. You want to pull through all of those, leaving the last two loops on the hook. You want to go again because you want two double crochets into that stitch. That's what our cluster is. Year over, insert into that same stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop. You have four loops on the hook, yarn over and pull through two of the loops. Now you're going to do a yarn over and pull through all three, but I want my cut end to be worked in, so I'm going to take it up and over my working arn here. Now yarn over the working end here. Cut ends just hanging back here and pull through all three. That's my double crochet cluster. It's a two double crochet cluster instead of the standard is usually a three, but I'm doing it smaller, so I'm just doing two. Now I want to chain two. I bring the cut end back forward, and I chain one, and I take the cut end back to the back and I chain two. Next cluster will be the last one we work this cut in into because we're getting down there. I bring it back to the front and hold it at the work, and we're going to do a double crochet with that cut end worked in. You're going under the cut and under working yarn into the next stitch and under the cut end at the back. Yarn over and pull up a loop. You want these technically two. This is actually considered one loop, it just has a cut end across it. It looks like three year and over and pull through that batch. You have two loops left on the hook. We're going back down and doing another double crochet. This is a partial double crochet. Year and over, and we'll go back into that same stitch. Year and over, catching that cut end at the back. You have four loops on the hook, yarn over, pull through two. You have three remaining yarn over, pull through all three, and there is another cluster. Now I'm going to leave this cut end at the back. We're not going to worry about it anymore. It's worked into three different clusters now, so it's pretty secure. And now we're going to do a cluster without having to worry about that cut end. Chain two, and work a cluster into the next stitch, two double crochet cluster, Year and over and into the next stitch. Hook doesn't want to go very well. There we are. Y and over and pull up a loop, three loops on the hook. Y and over pull through two, and leave these two left on the hook. And over and go into your stitch again. And over pull up a loop. Four loops on the hook. You over pull through two. Three loops left, yarn over and pull through all three. And there is another. So far we've done four. This is our beginning double crochet cluster and then three regular double crochet clusters. I have to do 12 altogether. So I will continue to work through those and you can watch me, and I'll just go quiet so you can see what I'm doing. Now I have 11 clusters, and I'm ready to do the last one. Let's count for sure, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and 11, and I need 12. This will be the last one. Then I chain two, and I'm going to slip stitch in the top of the beginning crochet cluster. Slip stitch and then I'm going to cut my iron because I'm done with the white. Pull it through. And now I'm ready to darn in the end of my white yarn. This keeps everything neat and tidy as you go. See, I worked that one as I went. I'll snip that off once I get this one in. Again, I like to secure my stitches by taking this white and going down into the next stitch, two pieces of yarn, two strands. Pull it down through, then bring it back up through the stitch behind that just gives me a little loop so that it gives it a little extra security. Then I work into the back loops only because on the next round, this will get worked into those stitches. I get as many as I can on there, distorts the shape while I'm doing it. But lovely thing about crochets it always bounces back. You can go as far around as you want with that. I'll go a little bit further. When the iron falls off the needle and I don't have enough leeway here, I put the needle in first and then I put the iron back on it like that, and then I pull it through. That'll be good. That's good and secure. I'm going to clip my white ends. They're out of my way. Little blue one here, I'm going to clip that too. There we are. We're ready for round number three. 7. Round 3 - Happy Petal Hexagon: Round number three, I will be using my purple color. This is going to be single crochets and chain ones all the way around. Fairly simple stitch. I'm going to start with a standing single crochet. Holding the cut end at the back, yarn around my hook. What we're actually doing is not working into stitches. We're only working into the chain two spaces, only the chain two spaces. After wrapping the arn around my hook, I go into any chain two space I want, and I go underneath the cut in because I'm going to work that in and complete my standing single crochet. What I've done here is I've joined the arn with a single crochet in any chain two space. Then I'm going to chain one. I take the cut end and I put it over top of the working arn, C chain one, bring the cut end back down over the working arn, I'm going to work a single crochet into the same chain two space. There we go. I have a single crochet chain one, single crochet. Then I'm going to chain one. Taking the cut end back up and over the working urn. Chain one, bringing it back down over the working urn, I go into the next chain two space. In this chain two space, I will work a single crochet chain one, single crochet. What your repeat is going to be is single crochet chain one, single crochet, chain one in between them. Then in the next chain two space, single crochet, chain one, single crochet. Let's do a few of those. Single crochet, as I work my cut end in, cut in goes up over my iron, chain one, and then it comes back down and single crochet in the same chain two space. Cut in back up, chain one, cut in back down. Single crochet. Chain one single crochet. The reason I'm putting my cut end back up and down, like it's weaving, I'm literally weaving it into my round. It doesn't show in these chain one spaces. Otherwise, I'd have it in there and it also would be easy for it to snag and pull out. That's how I say I weave my ends in as I go. Chain one. Then I'm going to leave that now to just go because it's woven in there pretty good. Single crochet, chain one, single crochet. Chain one. Next chain two space, single crochet, chain, single crochet, a. You already have single crochet and chain ones. It's just where you're working them in. There's a single crochet in a chain one, single crochet chain one, single crochet chain one, all the way around, but you're working two of the single crochets into a chain two space. I'm going to continue to work that. You can watch me, I'll go quiet, and we can work this round together. Here we are back at the end of our round and I've done these little clusters 12 times. You're going to have 24 single crochets and 24 chain one spaces. But let's count. We have two single crochets here, two, four, six, eight, ten, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24. We're good and there's a chain space after every single crochet. I know that I have 24 those, and I end with a chain one. Now I'm going to slip stitch in that first single crochet. Just pull that loop through, but I'm not going to fasten off my arn because I'm going to use purple for the next round. 8. Round 4 - Happy Petal Hexagon: The next round is going to be half double crochets and I want to do it in the next chain one space. I slip stitch into that next chain one space just to move me over there. Not too tight. I don't want to puck or anything here. I just want to move to this next chain one space. Then I want to do a half double crochet chain two half double crochet into that chain space. Our first half double crochet will be a chain two. That's what we're going to use. Then you want to chain two on top of that. I need to chain four to begin with. One. Two, three, and four. Now I want to do a half double crochet in that same chain space we just slipped into. So Yarn over insert in pull up a loop. Three loops on the hook, and over pull through all three. That's our first corner. Now, again, we're making a hexagon, so I need six corners instead of four. The nice thing about this one is I don't have any ends I have to work in, so I don't have to think about that. I want to chain one, and I want a half double crochet in the next chain one space. Half double crochet into there. Chain one, half double crochet in the next chain one space right in between those two. Always the chain one spaces you're working into. C chain one, half double crochet in the next chain space, and chain one. This is one edge of our hexagon. We've got this corner, half double crochet thing here with the chain two, and then a chain one, half double crochet three times. Then we chain one and go into our next corner, which will be a half double crochet, chain 2.5 double crochet in the same space. We have a corner there. Then we do the same as what we did on this edge, which is chain one, half double crochet in the next chain space three times. Make sure you get into every chain space once. There's your next edge, three chains, three, half double crochet. Then we chain one to go into the next corner. And we do a half double crochet chain 2.5 double crochet for our next corner. So this is what we're going to do all the way around. This is one edge. This is our second edge. We've worked our third corner, and we're working into our third edge. So one more time to the corner, and then I'll go quiet. Chain one half double crochet in the next chain space. Chain one half double crochet in the next chain space. C chain 1.5 double crochet in the next chain space. That's our edge, chain one, and we work our next corner, which is half double crochet, chain 2.5 double crochet. I'm going to go quiet here and continue to work around my hexagon doing exactly what I've just done here till we get back and we'll complete this. Here we are back at the end. This was our first corner. We worked our half double crochet in our last chain space. We did a chain one, and now we're going to slip stitch, and we're going to slip stitch in the second chain because that's the half double c representation to join our rod. This time we're going to cut again. Pull it th and we're going to do that little loop de loop right here, just to secure that piece in back up where we came out, and then we work it into the back loops only. And we go as far as we can. I said, you'll distort your piece a little bit, just get as many as you can on the needle at once. See what I do there. I just jam them on. Then pull it, and then I pull it back into shape. Keeping in mind, this is a hexagon, not a square, so you want to pull your corners. There we are. That's round number four. You can use your hexagon just like this. But I'm going to do one more border round in a different color. When I'm using it a project, I like to have that little border. When the round is complete, you'll have 30 half double crochets, six chain two spaces, and 24 chain one spaces. 9. Round 5 - Happy Petal Hexagon: I. Now I have it's a different off white. It's called putty, but it's not the same white as I used here. It's a little bit grayer. I guess. It's close. Just a little bit of an accent, and you'll see in the project this is what I used to join them all. This last round, you can join any one of these chain two corner spaces, and I join with a standing single crochet. I wrap the yarn around my hook, insert into that chain two space corner, and I work my single crochet. Then I want to do a chain two and a single crochet in that same space, and that's my corner again for this round. Chain two, and then single crochet in that same space. Now for the next edge, it'll be single crochets in chain ones and I will only be working in the chain spaces, and I'm going to work my end in. I bring my end up over the working iron and I chain one, and I bring it back down and I single crochet in the next chain space. I work that way all the way across this edge. Only working in those chain spaces, and for this edge, I'm working my cut end in. Same as I've done for others, bring it up over the working yarn, and then bring it back down over the working yarn. And it works in up and down and up and down into that stitch. So it's basically woven into that round. Now, I've reached the next corner. I do a chain one. I'm going to leave my cut in to go. And then single crochet in the next chain two corner, chain two, and single crochet again into that same corner. And now I've created a corner here. Chain one, and the next edge will be single crochet in the chain spaces, and chain one. You're just mimicking the same as the last round, but the stitches are shorter. They create a little bit of a nice simple border. I've reached the other corner. See how it's just a straight edge there, single crochet in that next corner, chain two, and single crochet again into that corner. Let's take a look here what we've done. Started in this corner, worked our way up this edge. Then this corner, worked a way along this edge, and then we worked this corner, and then we'll work across the next edge, and then I'll leave you to it. Chain one, single crochet in the next chain space, C chain one, single crochet in the next chain space. Chain one, single crochet in the next one, C chain one. Single crochet, and chain, and we're back to the corner. So what you have on each edge is single crochets and four chain one spaces. And then in your corners, you have single crochet chained to single crochet. So now I'll continue this round and go quiet so you can watch me. Oh. So here I am back at the end of the round, and all I want to do, I've done the last single crochet in the last chain space. I've done the chain one. Now I just need to slip stitch in this first single crochet of the round. So insert into that, wrap your yarn around and pull it through that stitch and the loop on the hook. That's how you're going to end your round. Now, I've already cut my yarn, but because we're going to be joining these squares to each other, instead of cutting it three to 4 " like I normally do and ding it in, I'm leaving it nice and long so I can use it to sew the squares together. It's a lot easier than having to work in a new piece of yarn that both ends have to be darned in. This one's already secured in, I will use it to sew, and then I can just darn in the other end. I left this about 20 " long. It's probably more than enough. We'll see as we sew it in. 10. Make Your Hexagons: Now that you've completed your first hexagon, it's time to start making more before we move on to the next step of assembling our bag. This bag will require a total of 26 hexagons. You'll have plenty of opportunities to experiment with colors and patterns as you go. If you'd like to follow the exact color scheme and layout that I use, all the details for the colorways of the 26 hexagons are included in the downloadable PDF pattern that comes with this class. You can find that under the project and resources tab. However, I really encourage you to get creative with your color choices. Feel free to put your own unique spin on it. You could choose to work with a single color. Our You could work with two complimentary colors or like me, have fun using a variety of your favorite colors to make the bag truly your own. As you work on each hexagon, don't forget to leave a long tail of yarn after finishing the last round. This will be essential when we get to the next step, where we're going to be sewing all the pieces together. Once you've made all 26 hexagons, we'll move on to the assembly process. In the upcoming steps, we'll sew the hexagons into strips of four granny squares, and then we'll join the strips to complete the body of the bag. Again, there'll be a diagram for that in the PDF, but I will show you as we go along. Take your time and enjoy this part of the process. Proching the hexagons is a fun and relaxing way to get creative with your colors and textures. I can't wait to see how your hexagons turn out. Once you've finished all 26 of them. Join me the next liston where we'll discuss a little bit about blocking our pieces. 11. Blocking Options: Before we start joining our hexagons, I want to address the question of blocking your pieces. Blocking your squares or hexagons in this case is an optional step. Sometimes I block, and sometimes I don't. If the squares are large or intricate or lacy, I do like to block to make them lie better and it makes the process of joining them easier. In this case, with the happy petal hexagon, the pieces are not very large, and they're pretty solid pieces, so they're well behaved. I personally would not block these hexagons individually. If I block at all with this project, it would probably be after I have them all joined in a one piece just to settle any seams and to set the pieces themselves before I finish the bag. Having said that, this is not a full lesson in blocking, but let me briefly go over the methods I use just in case you feel you want to try blocking your pieces at this point. I use either damp block method or a steam method. In the case of a damp block, I'll lay my pieces out on a dry towel and miss them with a water bottle. Then I pat them into shape, measure them, if need be, to make them all uniform size, and then allow them to dry. Your squares are particularly wonky or misbehaving, you can steam block them. In this case, I pin them out on a towel or a foam mat, and then I use a steamer to relax the fibers into place. Then I allow them to dry while still pinned in place. I will usually stack my squares to save space and give them some extra steam. I tend to do this with squares I'm using in sweaters and blankets. It can soften the piece, and it also sets the ends in nicely. If you've ever tried to rip out a sweater that's been washed or steamed, you'll notice the yarns very kinky. This is because the fibers have been set in place. As I mentioned, I'm not going to block at this stage. I will revisit this idea once we have all our squares joined into one piece before we start folding our bag. Now let's get on to joining our hexagons. 12. Joining Your Hexagons: Now we're going to join two of our squares together along one of the edges. The square that we just finished, I have this yarn on my darning need already, and we're going to join them to the spaces using a whip stitch. Now, a whip stitch is literally just in and out working your way all the way up, and we're only going to work in the chain spaces. The iron that we're working with came out of the hexagon we just finished. I want to get it to the corner. I'm just going to come from the back to the front up through that corner space, and this is where we're going to start. We're going to go across to the next square or hexagon. I keep calling them squares. We're going to go across to the next hexagon and go into the corner space that corresponds with the one we came out of. Then just to secure it, I'm going back into that corner space again. Then I'll just pull it nice and firm, but not too tight that we pucker. Now we're going to work our way up the edge. We go into the next chain space on the right hexagon, from top to bottom, and then come back up from the bottom to the top in the corresponding chain space on the hexagon beside it. See how they match up. Pull it again, so it's firm but not too tight. Then we're going up a chain space. We're going to go from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top in the corresponding chain space on the hexagon beside it. Again, pull your needle through firm, but not too tight. See here how this stitch, you can see the stitch right there. It's blending in with the fabric. It's not pulling too tight, so it's like, look at that pucker, and it's not too loose, so it's holding the squares nicely together. Let's continue up the square. There aren't many spaces, so the edges go up quickly. Go up to the next chain space on the right. From top to bottom, and then back up from bottom to top on the corresponding chain space, one we haven't worked in yet, on the hexagon beside it. Keep working your way up next chain space to the corresponding chain space. Remember you're working from the top to the bottom on the right side and then back up from the bottom to the top on the left side. That's the last chain space right there. Now we're going to go into the corner on the right, bring up on the corner on the left. And what I do once I reach the corner just to make it secure. I go back down again on the right. Then I pull it to the wrong side and I find this loop right here. This is the last whip stitch I just made, and this is the loop of it on the back. I insert into that. Pull it a little bit tighter, and it just secures it there, and you've now completed joining one edge of these hexagons. Let's look at the back now. This is the wrong side, and it pretty much looks the same. At this point, I would take this strand and I would darn it back in. Now, I did cut this strand about 20 " in length, and I have quite a bit left here. I measured it again and I have about 13 ". It's safe to say you don't need the full 20. I like to have extra just in case I want to go around a few more times. I wouldn't go any less than 15 " to give yourself lots of space to sew, darn your end in. To be honest with you, I could use this. Sew another part of this edge if I wanted to, but I'm not going to in this case. I will work this in and I'm just going to show you how I'm going to do that. I have it once around this strand. The last loop I created for the seam right here at the end. I go around it again just to give it that extra little secure, so it's twice around that strand. Then I'm going to work my way along the back into some of these loops of these stitches. And I'll go a fair way down in one direction. And then just to give it a little extra security, I'll go across to the other square and find my way back up. And I'm just kind of working my way through random loops back here. No real rhyme or reason just as long as I'm moving in the right direction, and it's not showing on the front. The nice thing is it's all the same colors, so you can't really see it anyways. So then I will trim this yarn because I'm done with it. There you have two hexagons joined together. You're going to finish joining for your s. So here I have two strips completed just to give you an idea of what they're going to look like. So let's refer back to our diagram. We have six strips of four hexagons and one strip of two hexagons, and this will be the bottom of our bag. Go ahead and start creating your strips either just like mine or any random way you'd like to place them. Once we get all of our strips joined, we're going to start joining the strips together. 13. Joining Your Strips: The next step is to line up your strips and get them ready to join. Here I have two strips ready to go. And a note, I usually try to go three times the length of what I'm joining for the strand of yarn that I'm using. Each of these is about 3 ". I'm joining four pieces, and they have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven sides. Determine the length of arn for sewing, I take seven sides, multiply by 3 " per side, and I get 21 ". Then I multiply this by three as a rule. To determine the length I'll need for sewing them together in one shot. This will give me 21 times three equal to 63 " for my sewing yarn length. So I have 63 inch piece here, and it's probably too much. I'm going to show you how to join it, and then we'll figure out how much extra we had left over. I'd rather have two much than two level. This is the end strip, so I'll be joining left to right, and you're going to join one strip at a time. I'm starting in this corner of the left strip right here. Same ways if I was joining the sides, the only difference will be when we reach these interjection points here. I pull my arn through until I get about four to 5 " left because I'll be darning that in later. Over to the corner of the right strip, I go down and I come back up where I joined my yarn, same corner as before, and I pull it through. I'm working with a lot of arn right now. Firm, but not too tight because this is going to be a little on the lose side, this end hanging here, but once we get going, you won't notice that, and we can darn it in later. Go to the next chain space, go down into that one and back up in the corresponding chain space in the hexagon beside it. Pull it all the way through and then pull it firm, but not too tight. Up to the next chain space and across to the corresponding one. You go down on the right and up on the left, pull it firm. We're working our way up to this corner right here. And we're making sure that the chain spaces we're working into correspond to each other, the right across from each other. There aren't many of them on this little hexagon. Each side has, let's see, one, two, three, four, five actual spaces, and then a corner at each end. So that goes up pretty quick. That's what I love about this method, and it's pretty secure. We're in the last chain space before we reach the corner. There we go. And now we've reached the corner. We're going to go into the corner on the right hand side and into the corner of this hexagon on the left hand side. Pull it through. Back into the same corner on the right hand side, and moving up to the corner on the next hexagon that corresponds. It's directly above the corner we just worked into, but we're working into the same corner on the right and pull it through and snug. And now we're going to work the same as we just did. We came out of this corner from this corner. We go up to the next chain space and we work the corresponding chain spaces. You're doing the same thing as joining the squares again, working your way up to the next corner chain space for chain space. This actually moves up really quick, and you get the hang of how tight to pull it as you do it. Nice when you do it on a flat surface because you can see what the tension is supposed to be. If you do it on your lap, it's handy, but at the same time, you might be pulling too tight because you don't have somewhere to lie at flat and see how it's turning out. So I always recommend that when you're learning how to do this, doing it on a flat surface is a really great idea. Now, we've reached the corner again, we go into the corner on the right square and up into the corner on the left square. Pulling it nice and firm. Now we're going to be working back up this way. You see how we're working our way up the zig zag, and this will be exactly the same as this. What we did here is we came into the corner on this first hexagon of this strap, into the corner of the second hexagon on this strap. Now we're going to go into the first corner of this second hexagon on this strap, so they're offset. We go into this corner on the right, And back up again into the corner on the left. You're double working every second corner as you switch to a new hexagon. So this hexagons corner gets worked twice. When we get here, it'll be get worked twice for these two, and so on and so on. I'm going to take you up one more strip to here, and then I'm going to let you finish the strip on your own. We go in on the right, and up on the left, and pull it. I on the right, up on the left, and we just work our way up until we reach the next corner. Here we are at the next corner. I go into the corner on the right, into the corner, on the left of this hexagon, the lower one we've just been working on. Back into the corner on the right, and into the new corner of the hexagon we will be working on. And now we're set for the next strip. You're going to continue up this section, this section and this section and this section. So four more sections after that. You have a total of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven sides per strip that you'll be working on. I'll meet you up here at the corner to finish this strip off. Okay. We're at the very last corner. I've gone in on the right and up on the left. Go back down on the right to finish it off. Pull up this loop at the back. This is a loop that you've created with this strand of yarn, pull through it and under it, and it just gives it a nice little hook in there, just to secure it, will we take a look at what we've done. Remember I said I did three times the length of yarn. I think we did pretty good here. We probably have maybe 10 " left, but it gives me a lot to work with and I can darn it in. Let's take a look at our two strips. Once we have our two strips joined, we're on our way to getting our bag put together. Refer back to the diagram for strip placement. Each one will be offset because of their hexagon shape. Join each of the strips. I like to work left to right, but it's up to you how you join them. Then the final st only has two hexagons. So only four sides and you start further up on the second last strip. Keep that PDF diagram next to you to help with placement of your strips, being sure to join them in the right places. Once you have all your strips in place, and it looks like the diagram, we'll continue on to fold our bag, and then we'll sew up the seams. 14. Folding the Bag: Now that we have all our pieces joined into one piece. I did mention, I'd revisit the blocking idea. Since this is not a wearable, it doesn't have to fit anything other than my yoga mat. So blocking at this point is completely optional. I would first lay my piece out and decide if I really need to do this. The simplest way is just to do a quick damp block. So that's completely personal preference. I'm actually happy with how this went together, and I'm going to skip the blocking process for this project as I don't feel it's necessary in this case. Now comes the fun part. We're going to get ready to fold our bag so that we can sew up the seams. This is the right side. Grab the top and flip it towards you. This is the wrong side. Now, a lot of times it's hard to tell the difference when you're just glancing at it. So what I do is I take a color of yarn that is not in the project itself so that I know it's different and not just an end hanging out there to be darned in. I double it so that it stands out a little more, and then I just lightly loop it in on the back side so that I can take it out as soon as I'm done the folding and the seaming. Now, I'm going to bring in my pins. These are t pins with a nice cross head on them. It's really handy so they don't get lost in your work. And this is going to hold the folding in place. I like to fold starting from the wrong side because then the right side is going to end up facing out, and that's the side I want facing when I work my seams. Make sure you have your bag just like mine. Notice the two hexagons at the end on the right side are now on the bottom of the piece closer to you. I've flipped the piece, so now the wrong side is facing me. So make sure the layout looks just like this in front of you before you start folding along with me. Before we start to fold, this would be a great time to do a little recap of the process so far and where we're going next. Just to make sure we're all on the same page. We started with our 26 Hxgons, then we joined them into strips, and then we joined our strips together, making it into one piece. From here, we're flipping our piece from the right side to the wrong side of our work. Now that wrong side is facing up. Now from here, we'll start the folding process. This is just an animation of the folding process that I'm going to show you and I wanted to include it in case you wanted to come back and look over it again. Now I'm going to walk you through this folding process on the actual piece. Just a note here, these final arrows show you where the seams are going to be, which is what we're going to work on in the next lesson. The first folding we're going to do is bringing this side here down. Fold it over. Now we have the right side of this section facing up. These hexagons match these hexagons. You're folding across this green one and this green one and this blue one. They're going to be halves these match at the end. And these match here and here. So this gets folded towards me. And then these hexagons get folded in half to meet these ones. These ones, I will actually pin in place, so they stay put. There's one there. There's one here. And then there's one more here at the bottom. And this is the bottom of our bag down here with these two hexagons that have not yet been folded. Top of the bag up here, where it has points where they all meet, and they overlap beautifully. And then down here, we have the bottom. This is going to create the bottom. So the next folding we have to do is these in half. Just like that, it's a different half than these. It's folded in half differently, and the hexagon is in a square or an even sided figure, so they look different. They're going to look different. So I will take my T pins and hold them in place as well, and that's going to be the bottom of our bag. To do the seam, it's just like we're joining the strips. You can start at either end, but I'd start up here at the top and join in this corner, work your way down each side across, you'll know because the sides aren't joined, and you're trying to make a bag. You're going to work down each side the same way as we do the strips, all the way down to the bottom. When you hit this corner here, you're just going to join these two edges of this hexagon together right down to the bottom corner. So we'll get that started, and then we'll work this last bottom seam, and then the bag will be joined. So if your bag is all folded and pinned, then you're ready to join me in the next step, where we'll work on the seams. 15. Bag Side Seam: First, let's determine how long our piece of yarn needs to be to sew this first seam. There's 13 edges and they're each 3 " long. Three times 13 is 39 ", and then my rule of three that I use for sewing seams would bring the length of yarn up to 117. I round that up to 120, which is pretty long to work with, so you can do this in two sections if you want, but I like to try and not break the stand in the middle. Starting at our first corner here, this is the top of our bag, and we're going to join the first two edges together. Come up through the one on the left. Like I said, I have a really long strand here. Leave about four or 5 ", go down on the one on the right, and then back up again on the left. That's how we join the strips, and that's how we're doing this one. Into the first chain space, go down on the right, up on the chain space on the left. You can put it so that you can see it like this. But I am working a side seam here. Then you're going to continue down just like we did for the strips. If you want a refresher on how to join these, that's the video to go back to. I'll take you to the corner. I'll remind you how to do the corner and then everything else is the same. Here we are at the corner. See if I can get this so you can really see what's going on. Because I have this pinned, which I don't need to have it pinned now because I know where I'm going. I can take that out, can't sew it it's pinned. What I'm doing is going to this corner and then up this side. I go into the corner of the first hexagon on the right and in the corner on the left. Then I go into the corner on the next hexagon on the right, and back to the same corner on the left. And now I'm ready to work up this side right here, just like the strips. And again, when you get to this corner, you'll work this corner to this corner, then over to this corner, and then you're ready to work your way back up this side. Do that all the way along until you reach the bottom of this bag. I'll meet you back there so we can finish the bottom of the bag. So now I've reached the bottom of my bag. Let's take a look here. I've come down this way, here, here, all the way from the top. And we're coming into our last part of this bottom. I have worked into this side, and now we've worked into this corner. Now I want this corner, and I want this corner. Moving along again with our last section, we'll sew this shortly. You go into the next space and keep going along this late the full edge, I should say. Until you get to the next corner, and you're working around an edge here, so it's going to start to get a little awkward. But we've reached the next corner, and then you go into the corner on this side of the square. Go back and work into the corner of the same square, but a different corner, right the opposite corner, and come back again through this corner. And now all you have to do is sew the rest of this little seam right here. Space for space, go into this space and this space. Go to the next space, corresponding space right across from it, this more or less center here. And then finally, you're at the end. So what I do is I just kind of go into that end stitch. Come over and do it again over here. Just kind of secure it. Whatever way feels good for you, and I have it pinned, so I'm going to take out that pin. And now we have our corner done, just like that. You're doing great. I'll meet you in the next lesson, and we'll work across the bottom scam. 16. Bag Lower Seam: Now, I have quite a bit of this yarn left, quite a bit of it actually. So I did overestimate, but again, I always like to overestimate. That will get darned in later, and I could probably even use the rest of that yarn for another seam. I could use it for this seam, but I've already cut another piece here. Can do one of two things. I can start here and work my way over to this corner or vice versa. I think I'm going to start in the middle here, where we ended. So see where you went around the corner and off to this edge. We're going to start here. And I guess it doesn't really matter as long as we're consistent. Let's turn it around, so how we're used to sewing. I have this one pinned, so I'm going to unpin it. And this is how we're used to sewing our stripes or strips. Keep calling them stripes. We'll come up through the one on the left to start with. Just give it a secure down on the corner on the right, and then back up again in the exact same corner on the left. That gives it a loop secure. And then we start working through our spaces. The one on the right, into the one on the left, down into the right, up onto the left, work our way up to the next corner. The same way we've been doing all along. We're at our next corner. We go into the corner here and up into the corner here, down into the corner of the next hexagon, back up into the same corner. And then we're back to working our edge. Keep working along here, work down here, and then you're going to sew this edge to this corner exactly like we did for this one back here. And that will complete your bag seams. I showed you how to work the ends in on your individual hexagons, but I've been leaving my ends that I use for the sewing loose. Just because I like to wait and see if I can use them to sew additional pieces before I weave them in for good. Once you have your seams finished, then you can darn in the rest of your ends. I flip my work to the wrong side and start working in any remaining ends. I work them into the loops on the back side of my work and usually along the seams joining the hexagon shape. I find the loop that I joined the two hexagons with in the corners, and I loop the yarn around that again. Creates a bit of a loose knot. Then I'll work that end in, just grabbing loops at the back of the work. I go about 2 " in one direction. Then I'll turn my needle and work in the opposite direction, grabbing loops as I go. Sometimes the same loops. And I'll even split through the center of the arn piece. I just darned in. This gives it a little extra hole and ensures it won't slip out. And finally, when I've worked back up the 2 ", I'll either turn around one more time or I'll go in a different direction as I don't want it to bulk up at the back too much. Continue to work in any more loose ends, and when you're ready, I'll meet you in the next lesson where we'll make the handle to go with our yoga bag. 17. Bag Handle : Once we've sewn all of our seams and we have the shape of a bag, the next step is to add a handle. So what I've done is pick one of the colors that was in the bag. You could do it in the main color, if you want. I've done that as well, but I've decided this time I'm going to do the purple. I've also decided to go down half a size of hook, so I used a five millimeter for the rest of the bag. I'm going to go down to a 4.5 millimeter for the handle because you want the handle to be extra sturdy. Crochet handles themselves are going to be tending to stretch. Some people like to use a fabric handle like a canvas handle and attach it to the bag itself. You can do that as well with little hooks or even just sew it on. But since we're crocheting, I'm going to show you how to make a crochet handle if that's what you choose. The handle will need to be longer than the length of our bag so that we can wear the bag comfortably over our shoulder or across our body. We will need that extra space to fit our body in between the handle and the bag. One I will be showing you for this bag. I start at approximately 30 " with the chain, but you can determine what length is best for you. Keeping in mind that we are joining a a few inches from the top and bottom of the bag, and we will be working about six rounds of single crochet, which is going to add another inch to the top and the bottom of the handle. Ultimately, my handle is going to end up being about 32 " when it's all said and done. Use a measuring tape and measure across your body from the top of one shoulder to the opposite hip. Or perhaps you have a cross body bag that fits nicely already, and you can use that as a guide for the length you'd like. We'll be making a very long chain and we want to measure it as we go to get our preferred length. You'll need to stretch it out to measure it because the handle will stretch to the max as we wear it since the yoga mat is going to have some weight to it. Then keep in mind again that there's about six rounds of single crochet that we're going to be adding onto this chain, and it is going to add an extra inch to each end. Again, ultimately, my handle is going to end up being 32 " when it's finished, but I'm measuring it to 30 " when I stretch out my chain. Not sure how many chains that's going to be yet, but I will measure it as I go. Alright, let's get started on our handle. So we start by making a slip knot. There's different ways that you can do it, of course. I like to make the loop, and then flip it like a pretzel. It's the way I learned, so it works for me. Then I go under this strand and pull it up, and then I pull my two strands together, then pull the strands apart and slip it up to the hook. There are so many ways to do that. That's the way I do it. Now we're ready to make our base chain, which is just urn over and pulling it through loops. Very simple. And I'll probably do about 100 of these, and then we'll measure it. So I ended up doing 100 because when I pulled it out with my measuring tape and gave it a slight pull, because once you're wearing it, it will max out to its stretch. So stretch it right out. Took me about 100 chains on a 4.5 to get to the 30 ". You may come out with something different. So make sure you use your measuring tape and decide what length you want this to be ad however you're going to carry your yoga bag if it's going to be across your body or just over one shoulder, and keep in mind that it needs a little bit of slack so that the strap isn't holding the bag like tight to your body. So with these 100 chains, I'm now going to start working my way back. I'm going to work into the second chain from the hook and work a single crochet. So work a single crochet in every one of your chains, and I'll meet you back here when we get to the end of our chain. Now, I've come all the way across my chain and I've worked into every one of the chains. I'm in the last chain, and I've done my single crochet. And I'm going to work two more single crochets into this last chain. And now I'm going to start working my way across the opposite side of the chain. I came down this side of the chain like we normally do. Did it three in the last chain, and then I'm turning it, and I'm going back up the opposite side of the chain. We're going to be working in the bottom loops of the chain that we just worked into. We go down and I go right into the center right into here. Okay. Watching this back, I actually missed the chain here. However, the handle still work great. It happens. That's the beauty of homemade. Only you notice your mistakes. Try to work into every chain if you can. So I'm actually grabbing a little bit more of the chain. See if I can show you at the back. I'm going under the bottom part of the chain, but I'm also going under the loop that is kind of crossing over it there. So there's two strands I'm going into to give it that extra security. So I'm going to work a few here and just show you what it looks like. Little easier to see once I've done a couple. See how I'm working in the bottom parts of the chain right into the centers of them. And it creates a nice sturdy center for my handle. And that's the back. See how you're not just working under this strand all by itself. You're going into the center, so it's part of the strand of the next one actually. You'll have two strands on your hook, and you complete a single crochet. It gives that extra sturdiness by having both of those strands on the hook. I right there? Continue across working in the bottom portion of the chain until you get back up to the top and I'll meet you there. I've worked my way all the way back to the end, which is really the beginning, I'm going to work three single crochet in this last one, so I've already worked one. That's two. In the second one, I'm going to put a stitch marker to mark the center stitch. You can mark it with anything, a piece of yarn. I have these little stitch markers, and then work a third one into there. Now I'm going to just continue to work all the way around the same way. Go now I'm just working regular single crochets into the stitches that are already there, and I'm going to do this all the way back to the other end. When I come and I finish, I will know that I will always work three single crochet into this marked stitch. When I get to the other end, I didn't mark it necessarily. I could have marked it when I did that. There's the three stitches at the other end. It'll be this one. I'm actually going to put a stitch marker in there. And when I get to it, I'll know, three stitches go into that stitch to turn my corner. What I'm going to end up with is rounded edges, and I want that because when I sew it to my bag, it's going to fit in nicely with the design. I'm not doing straight edges across, I'm doing rounded edges. Continue working like this for five more rounds, and then I changed to my putty color and did a sixth round. Changing your color is not necessary. It was just fun to add a different color in there, and this will make a nice wide strap. Honestly, a wider strap is more comfortable if you're going to wear it as a cross body bag, and it also has more strength to it. So keep working just single crochets up one side. Three into the marked stitch and then move your mark stitch to that one. So when you do three, you move the mark stitch to the second one, so it stays in the c, and then work your way back down the other side. So you're going around in a circle. Once you have the width of the strap that you're looking for, and you finish off, and don't cut the end of your yarn yet. I want to talk about how much yarn you need to leave to use to sew. We'll continue on to the next lesson where we will join our handle to our bag. 18. Attach Your Handle: So I finished my handle doing six rounds. The sixth round I did in the putty color. So I did five rounds of this purple and one round of the putty. And when I finished it off, I leave the end very long. This is about 40 ", which is probably more than enough because this is what I'm going to use to sew this end of the strap to the bag itself. And let's just measure this across to see how wide our strap is. It's 3 " wide, which is pretty good to support the bag if it's over a shoulder or across our body. You can see here is the center, and then I did five rounds in the purple, fastened it off and darned that in, and then I did one round in the putty, which I finished up here. And left a nice long end of 40 " so that I can use that to sew in. Anytime I can use an end to sew it in, I will, so I like to leave the last ends long for that reason. Now we're going to take our bag and this is the opening at the top. It doesn't matter which part we sew it onto, either the front, there really isn't a front or back until you put the handle on. We're going to take our handle and we're going to make it so that it fits into this shape right here. That's why I did that shape so that it would. We'll probably sew it about six stitches on either side into these seams. I'm going to take this urine that I finished off with. And get it onto my darning needle. I have a really long end here, probably longer than I need. We're going to join it right at the top of this hexagon right before you get to the top of the bag. Up this middle seam here, joining it right at the center spot. Then what we're going to do is work it down this side about six stitches and back up again for extra secure. Then down this side for six stitches and back up again, and then we'll fasten it off. Then I'm going to use this purple color, and I'm actually going to do a back stitch right across at the bottom of where these stitches end right across here to give it that extra security. Let's start by joining it here. I join it right on this metal part and I'm trying to go through both seams, so it's nice and secure. I just go in there anywhere really and pull it up. Then I loop it again through the two loops that's sitting on top here right there, and I loop it by going in and then back under again, and it will loop it around. Then I like to go underneath the loop I just created just to create a little bit of a knot to hold it in place. Now it's secure at that spot right there. Now we're going to work our way down here, about six stitches, and we're going to go into the next stitch on the handle and then go into the seam of these two hexagons behind it. Loop it around, and then you go into the next stitch and again into the seam, and you're pretty much following what you did here for the seam. Pulling it tight but not so a puckers. Go into the next stitch and into the next stitch of the seam. We've done one, two, three, L et's go into a fourth one. We might not do six, we might just go five. Then one more. There we go. That's five stitches. That's probably good. Now I'm going to work my way back up. Go back into the same stitch. In the place that we just went, we're going to work our way back up this piece. You're criss crossing all the way back up. You get a nice solid secure. I like going and following the same seam because it just gives it a nice secure join. And now I'm back up again where I joined my yarn. I've done one full side of this handle. Now you work your way down this side and then work your way back up and I'll meet you back up here to darn this in. I've gone all the way down here and back up six stitches, about five or six, and I did the exact same on this side that I did over here and back up again. I've worked twice on each of these. It is now nice and secure because it does have to hold that yoga bag on your body. I'm left with this yarn at the top. To secure it, I will go around probably two more times in the exact spot that I joined it. Then I'm going to take it to the back of my work. At which point, I will darn it back in down one of the seams. And to do that, I literally just grabs, any old loops that I can find on the back of the work, so it's well hidden, working my way down, and then I'll go in an opposite direction just to secure it, it's in there pretty good because I have tried to rip these things out and they don't come out very easily. And when I feel secure about that, I'll take my scissors, and I will now cut the end. I did pretty good. I started with 40 " and I probably have maybe 15 left. We have the top part joined and now I'm going to go across the center. The reason I do that is to give it a little extra secure. Right now it's pulling on an angle. If I join it across here, it just gives it that extra grab when it's on your body. I will be using the same color that I use to make the handle because this part is going to show. That's why I didn't use the off white because if I go across here, you're going to see it using the same color, I won't see it. Get that yarn on your darning needle. And then we're going to just join it in one of these locations. I'm just going to loop it for now and we'll darn the end in later at the back. Looping it right at the bottom of where this seam turned around and went back up in the purple part, and I'm going to leave an end here that I can darn in later, and I'll loop it again, but I'm only going through the handle at the moment, just to secure the yarn, and then maybe going under that loop, just going to give it a t. I don't want it to move. I want the end to stay put. You're knotting it a little bit without too much of a not there. Now we're going to sew across, but I want to do it from the right side, but it'll show on the back side, but it doesn't matter because you're not going to see this side. This is the side that matters and that's why I like doing it from this side. I put my hand into the bag so that I can make sure I'm not sewing the bag together. I put the hand in between the two pieces of fabric so that I want to sew between the handle and this piece, I want them joined together, but I don't want this piece involved. I put my hand in the middle so that it won't be involved. And I make sure when I'm sewing that I hit my hand, and then I know that I've gone through this piece as well. And I want to do a back stitch. And that involves going in where right at the edge here. Because I've nodded that, it'll hold true. You're going to work straight across. You want to come back up one round over. Pull it through, and pull it secure, but not so tight, it's going to pucker. Go back in one round, back. Go two rounds underneath and come up, and then go back one round. See how there's one round there. Now I'm going to go under two rounds. So not coming up here, but coming up the next round over doesn't have to be a perfect line just close. So you see how I went down here and up over here, and this is where I had come up before. So pull it. Nice and secure. I'm going through both pieces. Let's take a look. There it is on the back. It's grabbing this piece of work as well. Let's keep moving. Go back, one round, anywhere it'll fit and up two rounds ahead. Pull it secure. Back, one round, and up two rounds ahead. B one, we're almost there and up two. Then one more time, back one and up in the exact same spot because that's where I'm going to end. Now I'm going to go one more time just to secure it. Then I will darn this end in as well on the back of the handle back here. We'll do that in a minute. I just want to show you the back of this work. There you can see, and keep everything out of the way here. There's where it's joined inside the bag and you're not going to see that, but it keeps it secure. Now we have two ends we need to work in. All we do is take them to the back of the work. There's one. We'll work on that one first, flip my handle over, and I'm just going to run it down one round and up another. Here it is here, I'm just going to take it down underneath the stitches that goes right in the center of that round. So you won't see it on the front, and you won't see it on the back. Just like you're darning anything in, pull it. You're going to reverse it and go back up the next round, and pulling that through. And if I want to be super secure, I will go one more time back down on the next round because why not? Make sure I'm not pulling too tight. And at this point, I will cut that yarn. And it's done. I'll do the same with this one, take it to the back and darn it back and forth, and the top of our handle is now secure. Once I'm done with the top handle, I want to join the bottom handle. And remember, our handle is longer than our bag. We have extra handle going on here so that it can go around our body. You want to join it right here at the V. You're going to take your handle and line it up. You're going to join another piece of this off white, a nice long one, and you're going to start in the center, is a good place to start. Work your way down five to six stitches, then back up into the seam, and then the same on this side and back into the seam. You're going to want to slip your hand down there in between so that you're not joining the bag and closing it up. You only want to go through the one piece of fabric, not both of them. Once you join the white, then you're going to take a strand of the purple, nice long one again, and you're going to do a backstitch the same way, and again, keep your hand under there so that you're not sewing through both pieces, and you're going to sew straight across the center to give it that extra strength. Once you have both the top and bottom part of the handle attached firmly, we're ready to create the tie that will close up the top of our bag. Join me in the next lesson, and we will complete the last part of our beautiful yoga bag. 19. Bag Tie: I. Now we want to make the tie that's going to go around the top of the bag. So that's a simple one. That's just a chain, and then we're going to single crochet one row and fasten off. So the way I do that again is I put a slip knot on my hook. We do the slip knot slowly again, I loop it around my finger with the cut end lying on top. I flip it down like a pretzel. So the loops lying on top, I go under the band that's on the bottom. Putting my hook through it, and then I pull on the two ends, and then I pull them apart to move it up to my hook, and I'm ready to go. Now I'm going to chain. I think for this one, I'm doing about 120, I'm looking for something a little longer than the handle, so about 35 ". You can just chain and stretch it and measure it with your measuring tape. But I would suggest about 120 chains and then see what that gets you. And then you're just going to do a single crochet back. So let's just start into that. So 120. Now I've chained 120, and to work back, I'm going to start by working in the second chain from the hook. I will work a single crochet and a single crochet in each of the chain loops all the way back to where I started, and that's all I'm going to need to do, and then I'll finish off. What I end up with is this nice tie made of one row of single crochet. When I got to the end, I just tie the two ends together and then I darn them literally right into the back of that first row. What I end up with is this nice little tie that I can use to tie up my bag. Here we have the top of our bag, the opening right here, and that's what this tie is for. And I use my crochet hook to help me do this. I'm going to thread this through One loop. Let's see where I want to do this. I think I'm going to come through this hole here, one down from the corner all the way around by these flowers. I'll show you where I'm going to do this. I want it to tie. I guess it's personal preference. You can have it tie on this side, where the handle is, or you can tie it on the opposite side where the handle is not. I think I'm going to have my tie on this side, thinking that if this is on my back, the tie will be hanging on my back, which might bug me. I'm going to leave the tie where it's hanging out loose. In that case, I'm going to flip it over. And start on this side. Taking the end, I'm going to start by bringing it through one down from the corner, and I'm going to pull it all the way through because I'm going to start working this end in all the way around. I'm going to come back up this side of these two petals right here. So I use my hook to help. I really don't need the hook. I could just do it with my fingers. And then I go back down the other side of these two petals. Now, this is all personal preference. You can do it anywhere you want up in this region. You could even come down further, depending on how much fabric you want at the top and how long your yoga mat is. So I'm going to put my hook to the side because I can do this with my fingers. I'm going to come back up one space under the corner on the same hexagon, and then I'm going to go down in the exact same place on the hexagon beside it. Now we flip to the back, which I call the back because the handles there. I'm going to come back up through one of these flowers here, and I want to come on either side of these two center parts. And then back down. Then I want to come up on the space under the corner. Back down in the corresponding space on the next hexagon. So see how you can see little parts of it here. Back up beside the petal and back down again. I'm almost there back up at the corner, below the corner. Then I'm going to flip it back down beside this corner. No, I have to give it a little pole because it's going to start to get like I don't have enough to work with. You don't want a whole lot, you just want enough that you can tie at the end. And then the last place I'm coming back up is right across from where I started. So now that I have it in there, completely all the way around. Now I can synch it up, and then I can tie it. And I can even put it in a little bow. And that will keep my yoga mat from falling out when I'm transporting it. Congratulations. You have completed your yoga bag. Join me in the next lesson, and we'll take a quick tour of how to put your yoga bag to use. 20. Thank You And Enjoy!: And there you have it. You've completed your yoga bag, and you're ready to pack up your mat and head off to yoga class in style. This bag will make transporting your mat so much easier and so much more enjoyable with your one of a kind creation. And these make g for all your yoga enthusiast friends. The final task for this class is to post pictures of your yoga bags in the project section. I am so looking forward to seeing all your wonderful creations and your awesome color choices. Class has inspired you to experiment with more granny square ideas. You can find lots more granny squares over on my blog and my YouTube channel, where I love playing with lots of color and lots of texture. Thanks so much for joining me and crocheting along with me in this class. So many creative projects await for you, so make some space for creativity and enjoy the journey.