How to Finger Crochet an Easy Market Tote Bag

Even if you've never crocheted before, you can make this sturdy market tote with just your hands. You can put your hooks away for this one because all we're going to need is some YN Brand Fast Track yarn and our fingers. So to get started, I have a slip knot here in my yarn and I'm going to put my finger through it as if my finger was a crochet hook and from there I'm going to chain 12 stitches. So to chain, I'm going to put my finger and my thumb through this first loop and pull a loop through. So right here I've created one chain and I'm going to do that a total of 12 times. So I'm just pulling the yarn through and even if you've never crocheted before, you've probably inadvertently made a chain with a string or a rubber band you were holding in your hand. Now while I'm doing this, I'm taking care to make my loops sort of small so that the bag doesn't have big gaping holes in it. And the way I can tell here that I have 12 chains is I'm looking at each one of these little bumps on the bottom and that is each individually one chain. So I have 12 of those here and I am going to put this loop back on my right hand because I am right-handed and my left hand is going to hold the working yarn right here just like it would if I was regular crocheting. So from here I'm going to work into the second chain from my finger. So that is this one right here and I'm going to put my finger through that hole and use it to grab the yarn. This is called my working yarn. I'm going to grab a loop of that so now I have two loops on my finger and from there I'm going to put my thumb through so that I can grab the working yarn and pull it through both loops that are on my finger. So from here I've just created a single crochet and I'm back with one loop on my finger so I can move on to the next chain here. It's right here and I'm going to put my finger through that hole, grab the yarn and pull it through and now I have two loops on my finger. Once again I'm going to use my thumb and my pointer finger to grab that yarn and pull it through and I'm just going to continue like this. I'm working into each chain stitch and doing one single crochet as I go. You'll notice again just like I did in the chain I'm trying to keep my loops fairly tight on my finger. Not so tight that I can't get my thumb through but tight enough that the resulting stitches don't have huge holes in them to make a bag that will be way too stretchy. I'm just going to continue like this until the end of my chains so I should end up with a total of 11 single crochet stitches. Now the way that I can count my single crochets here is I'm looking at the top of this row and I'm looking at each V is one single crochet stitch. So you can kind of see those two strands of yarn look like a V. So I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and that is the beginning of my tote bag. So at the end of each single crochet row I am going to chain one and to do that it's the same thing we did at the very initial foundation row. So I have my finger through here and I'm going to use my thumb to just pull the yarn through and I have one chain and that's what helps elevate the yarn to the height of the next row. So keeping it on my finger here I'm going to turn everything around and I'm going to work back in this direction. So if you think crocheting is a little bit like working a typewriter or something except for you're going if you're right handed in the other direction we're always just going right to left, right to left, right to left and we build rows upon rows. So for row two of this bag we are going to be working two single crochet stitches into the first hole here. So that is just like we did before with a single crochet where I insert my finger in the hole, grab the yarn so I have two loops, grab the yarn again and pull it through both loops. So I just created a single crochet there and I'm going to do the same thing again but instead of moving on to the next stitch I'm going to do that one more time in this hole. So I'm inserting my finger, grabbing the yarn, having two loops and then pulling my yarn through those two loops. So now I've just added one stitch to this row. If you think before I had 11 stitches now I have two in here so we're aiming for 13 stitches in this row because we're going to repeat that two single crochet in the last stitch here and that's going to help our bag have a little bit of a taper at the bottom and then get a little bit wider toward the top. So I'm going to single crochet in each stitch across this row until I make it to that last stitch. Okay we've made it to the last stitch here so once again I'm going to single crochet two stitches into the same stitch. So there's one and here's a second one. So I'm going to chain one. Some people chain at the end of the row, some people chain at the beginning of the row. In the pattern it's written to do it at the beginning of the row but I just like to do it at the end and then flip it around. So once again we're going to single crochet two into this first stitch. So I've grabbed my yarn so I have two stitches finger and then I'm going to pull my yarn through to complete the single crochet and I'm doing that one more time in the same hole. So now I have two stitches and then I'm going to work across this row once again just like I did before. Okay here we are at the last stitch so I'm going to work two single crochets into that stitch and we should have 15 total stitches now here at the end of row three. For rows four through seven of this bag we are going to do the same thing we did for row three. So we're going to put two stitches in this first single crochet hole and then we're going to work all the way across and put two single crochet in the last hole. So at the end of row seven you should have a total of 23 stitches across and as you may have guessed everyone's stitch size is going to be slightly different because everyone's hands are slightly different and you can play around with how loosely or tightly you're holding your loops because that's going to dictate how stretchy or not your tote bag is. So one thing to keep in mind is that however tightly or loosely you choose to crochet the front of your tote bag you're going to want to repeat that same tension on the back side so that both pieces of the bag are about the same size when it's time to sew them together. All right I just finished row seven there and now we're done increasing and making our bag taper out like this. So we need to work another 10 rows of single crochet in each stitch. So instead of increasing now we're just going to single crochet in each stitch along the way which should be 23 stitches in each row and then at the end of row 17 we are going to switch colors and finish off the bag. Made it to the end of row 17 here and so I'm on the last little loop I need to pull through of my final single crochet and I'm going to switch now to my go-kart green color and finish up the single crochet the last loop I'm going to pull green through because that's going to ensure a smooth transition with the green stripe. So I'm tightening that down a little bit and it's your choice whether or not you tie these two ends together or not. I'll probably tie them just because this is a bag and I want it to be sturdy but then I'm going to chain one with the green and flip this around and from here I'm going to work a total of eight rows of green just in regular single crochet. So we're not increasing or decreasing at all here we're just working a single crochet in each stitch for a total of eight rows of green and when we finish that up we're going to be able to fasten our yarn off because we will be done crocheting and we'll just be ready to sew our bag together. Okay now as I'm coming up on my last stitch of the eighth row of green I'm just going to trim my yarn. I didn't keep mine very long but it would be a good idea to keep a long enough tail that you could sew this section but I'm going to just pull this tail right through those last two loops and that's how you finish off a piece of crocheting. So our next step is going to be to attach the handles. To add the handles I have three pieces of yarn that are 50 inches long each and I'm going to thread the first one into the third stitch from the edge and then I'm going to do the same on the other side. So now I will have created the first handle loop and I'm going to tie this off right around the height that I want my handles to be. So since I have already worked the other side of the bag I'm going to measure them and make sure that the handles are about the same length and then I'm going to just tie this in a double knot like that. Now I'm going to repeat that process two more times using the fourth and the fifth stitch from the edges and as I do this I am going to try my best to keep each handle strand about the same height so that they're even when I connect all three together. Once I have all three strands tied on I'm just going to snip these extra lengths leaving a couple inches probably about three inches for each tail. So I've just trimmed that down a little bit and now I'm going to tie the ball of yarn. I'm going to tie it on here sort of flattening out these straps so that they look pretty organized and once again I'm just going to tie a double knot and this is going to be attaching the yarn that I use to single crochet over the handle straps. So I've got a double knot there and then this tail I'm just going to include with all the rest and crochet over it. Okay to get started here I'm just going to chain one so I'm putting the yarn around my finger and then pulling a loop through and then I'm going to single crochet just like we were doing in the body of the bag along this handle piece and I'm doing my best to tuck in all the yarn tails as I go so that I have a nice clean handle to carry my bag and as I go I'm going to scrunch these stitches down a little bit so that they're fairly compressed on the bag handle. Okay as I'm wrapping up the final stitches here I just want to check to make sure that the bottom of the handle looks fairly flat which it does so I'm just going to trim this yarn here and pull the tail through finishing this off and then I will weave in this end just back right underneath these stitches I just created. The last thing we have to do to finish off our finger crochet bag is to sew the pieces together. So I've pinned the two pieces together using safety pin stitch markers just taking care to make sure that the stripes line up the handles all the pieces kind of line up the edge at the bottom and I'm using one of the strands that was left over from when I fastened off at the top and I'm going to kind of do a version of the mattress stitch here where I'm just going back and forth to seam these two pieces together. So once I get to the end of the green section I'm just tying a knot in with one of the strands that was left over and then I'm going to weave in my end and switch to gray yarn to sew around the entire bottom of the bag. As I'm working the bottom of the bag here I'm sewing in what is the first row of single crochet instead of these chain loops because if I sewed in those and they were at the bottom of the bag I'm afraid it would just get a little too stretched out and unstable to actually hold anything heavy. So I'm working in that single crochet and then these extra chain stitches are just going to be inside the bag when we turn it inside out. Once you finish sewing both sides together just turn your bag right side out and you will have your own market tote made with nothing but your own two hands. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please subscribe below for more free crochet patterns from makeindecree.com. Happy crocheting!