It's my baby!

Well no, it's actually my mum's birthday present, a bag for carrying her yoga mat in.

But it's my first 'real' design, and the first I've felt sufficiently proud of to brag about. We won't mention the flip-top mittens with the mismatched thumbs, currently lurking in my knitting bag waiting to be frogged. They are like something a 12 year old would design.

This, on the other hand, is a real, grown-up design. It looks good, and is practical. She says, fingers crossed - I will report back in due course but it HAS been hurriedly measured against a yoga mat in John Lewis. I didn't go to the extent of actually putting the mat inside and slinging it over my shoulder, for fear of attracting the attention of the security staff, but I'm as sure as I could be that it will suit! What's more, it has a minimum of 'bodges' in it. The bit I'm most proud of is the strap - I managed to make it up so that it's a single piece, but splits at the top and is threaded through the 'holes' in the crochet to form a design that pulls tight as you pick up the main strap. I think I woke up clever the day I thought that up. Too bad I've been asleep again since.

Anyway I'm sure, given time, I'll be able to write down the pattern for it and post it somewhere on these pages. Just don't hold your breath! If you can't wait and you're good at crochet, the general idea is: chain 4, join chain then 11 triple crochet in the ring. After that you increase on each round (by doing two triples into alternate triples) until you have the right diameter, then carry on in rounds without any increases until you are at the right length. I did a couple of rounds of double crochet at the top to make an edge. The strap starts from the bottom, chain about 120, slip stitch back the last 50, then dc up and down again to finish off one of the top bits. The chain another 50, slip back to the join, then dc up and down again. The main part of the strap is just slip st to the bottom, then dc up and down until it's a suitable width.