This bag is from my first batch of about 8 professional crochet designs, Fall of 2004. It was the result of meeting Gwen Blakely Kinsler and Nancy Brown of CGOA while I was at Stitches Midwest. They made swatching and sketching sound so fun and easy!

I originally envisioned this bag as part of a set of 3 “Mini Tech Totes” for college students, each one small and a different color so that you could grab your cellphone or mp3 player and go. Back then Sony Walkmans were still big so I designed something for that too.

Of all of those first designs, this one is my favorite. I still use it a lot, for just a wallet when I go for a walk or to the beach. It still looks new because of the hemp. I was already a fan of hemp and now even more so because of this.

The only thing about this design is that getting the beads strung on the raw hemp is finicky. This kind of hemp is stiff and lumpy.