This is a crochet pattern review of the Bucket Bag pattern by designer Salena Baca Crochet. Review done by A Stitch Shy of Normal for EyeLoveKnots.
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It’s me, Abigail with A Stitch Shy of Normal.
I have a bit more of a overall story to this one. I’m going to be discussing this on my own blog as well, but you guys can understand where I’m coming from with this issue–I have far too many patterns on my Ravelry favorites list. Am I alone in this? (I doubt it.) If I see a pattern that looks fun, I add it to my favorites. When I’m looking for something to make but don’t have a plan, I head to that list to find something fun.
The problem is that I’ve been crocheting for about 12 years…and I browse Ravelry almost every day. And I add a few patterns each time, most likely. And I can’t possibly start projects at that fast of a rate! So that list has been growing, and growing, and growing. If you’re thinking “well you have to go through and pare it down sometimes”, I try to do that when I think of it. So how, when I looked at the list a few weeks ago, was my list SIX HUNDRED PATTERNS LONG?! (I’m being slightly dramatic, it was “only” about 580-something.)
There’s no way I could even know what I had on there. I’ve tried organizing it into categories before but I never keep up with that. And even going through it to try paring it down led to a lot of patterns staying on that list for years because I totally planned to make a project from it one day. Eventually.
Well, this May, I decided to try a new version of spring cleaning. Part 1–I went through that list with a very harsh mindset. I wanted it down to a more manageable number that a human could actually eventually get through. I managed to find so many things that I was no longer interested in, or the patterns were no longer available, or a whole number of other things. In the end, after an evening of wine and pattern-deletion, I got it down to a much more reasonable two hundred.
Part 2–I will be doing my best to work through those two hundred patterns. If it’s still on that list at this point, it must be something I’m actually interested in or feel I can make eventually. So when I want to start yet another WiP, I will go to that list. I’ll still make things outside of it, but I kind of feel bad for all those patterns sitting there wanting to be made by me! So, long story not-at-all-short, this bag is number 1. Check out my writeup below for how it went.
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What Materials Do I Need to Crochet a Bucket Bag?
- Medium weight cotton yarn, I used about 400 yards myself. I used about 2 skeins of Lion Brand Re-Tweed in Peanut Butter (I did not fully use the second one but I used the majority of it for sure)
- G6/4mm hook – I use Clover Amour
- Scissors, yarn needle, and optionally a small piece of cardboard for assembly (the cardboard for if you want a tassel)
- Bucket Bag, Paid Crochet Pattern from Salena Baca Crochet
Material Notes:
The designer uses Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, which is one I haven’t used myself that I remember but it looks like a nice durable and affordable option. It also comes in a lot of cute solid shades so you can mix and match two colors like they did to get endless options!
I had several skeins of this Lion Brand Re-Tweed in my stash for a design that didn’t work out (the risk of buying yarn online without getting to feel it first, it just wasn’t the right feel) and I thought it would look very cute in this bag pattern! I only had the one colorway so I just continued on through the color change directions. This yarn is not overly soft, though. It’s not rough or scratchy, per se, it’s just not something I would choose for a garment or a blanket. It’s a wool/polyester/acrylic blend made using “an eco friendly process” that uses “nearly zero water, no dyes or chemicals, and close to zero C02 emissions” (this is from their label). That’s really cool! I like that brands are going for recycled or eco-friendlier yarn options.
I feel that it worked pretty well! I like the look of the bag in two colors like most people did including the original design, but I also think it’s nice in one shade as well. It might have looked a little boring if my yarn wasn’t a “tweed” with speckles of different colors, but I can’t say for sure. In terms of gauge and size I think it also fit fairly well, the bag came out about the right size and has good structure to hold up through lots of use. It’s not too different in thickness, the Handicrafter Cotton has 80 yards in 50g and the Re-Tweed is 200 yards in 100g. So my yarn might be just a touch thinner than the other (the equivalent weight of Re-Tweed would have 100 yards, more than the Handicrafter), but not to a noticeable degree.
I would totally use this yarn again for this pattern, and I think these would be great for gifts! You could do color combos to match the tastes of your friends and make everyone a cute summer bag for a trip. The material used means it’s a little more delicate and the label calls for machine-wash gentle and tumble dry. But if you do a tassel (I did), it probably shouldn’t be machine-washed anyway. It does hold up well to spot cleaning in my experience too. I think it will be a good choice for this bag.
How Long Does it Take to Crochet a Bucket Bag?
It’s a simple and mindless pattern once you finish working all the increases, so it makes for a good project while you watch a movie in the evenings! I estimate I spent about 7 or 8 hours on this one, over a period of a week or two. It’s great to pick up and put down, once you get to the main body section. And even the strap, tassel, and assembly was not that bad time-wise.
Gauge & Measurements:
Pattern gauge has 4″ being equal to 17 stitches and 18 rows. In comparison, 4″ on my bag has 16 stitches and 19 rows. That’s pretty close! I did not check gauge before I started because I thought it would be pretty close, and it’s a bag so slight size variations are not a big deal. I think it worked out for me.
The finished bag is supposed to be about 14″ tall and 27″ around, just the bag itself. Mine is only about 12″ tall and about 27-28″ around (it’s hard to measure a circular bag exactly). This makes sense with my gauge. Since I had fewer stitches in my gauge, it makes sense that my circumference is a touch larger. And since I had more rows in my gauge, my rows were a little shorter than the designer’s gauge, so the same number of rows gave me a shorter bag. Bags are pretty flexible gauge-wise though, a little bit of size variation barely matters at all.
Pattern Notes:
If you’ve been following me and/or reading these reviews for a while, you know that Salena Baca Crochet is one of my favorite designers (Alexandra too because she has reviewed several of Salena’s crochet patterns here on the blog too). I have made many of her patterns before, and when I see that name on Ravelry as the listed designer I know it’ll be a good experience! I actually realized as I was finishing this pattern that it has a similar strap/closure concept to the Piece of Cake Crossbody by the same designer! That’s one I’ve made many times in the past and probably have some of those bags around the house right now. It’s a great small pouch for a few essentials. I would consider this bucket bag to be the larger version of that with a more solid body, so it should be nice and durable to hold your treasures.
The majority of this bag is a simple single crochet, so it makes it an easy process when you get going. Once you finish the increases, there’s barely any counting either (although you’ll want to check your stitch count once in a while). But you just stitch around and around until you get to the desired row count or height. The most complicated part is the row that makes the spaces for the strap.
The strap is worked in slip stitch but don’t be nervous about that! I’m not a slip stitch fan, I’ve admitted that before. But this is quick and it’s not as bad as you might think. You just work a few rows length-wise and it makes a cute and strong strap. You just weave that through the bag and seam it up! The tassel takes just a few minutes too, and I think it makes the perfect little embellishment. I just thought about how cute it could have been to do the tassel and/or the strap in a different color!
The increases take time, I’m not going to lie. But if you’re patient and use a stitch marker, you can power through it. This would also be a chance to alter the sizing if you wanted, you could work the base until you’re content and then move onto the main body (this is my own opinion, not from the designer). And then when you’re done with those increase rounds, you just stitch around. At the beginning I was afraid it would never end, since it’s not the most interesting stitch. But if you put on a good show or movie, all you need to do is move your stitch marker up and mark down another row!
I would call this pattern approachable enough for relative beginners. The most challenging part would probably be the slip stitches of the strap, because you would need to be very careful with your tension. But if you need practice with the basic single crochet, this would be a great opportunity and it seems like it would be forgiving of minor mistakes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I’m very happy that I chose it as my first of two hundred Ravelry favorites to work through. I won’t necessarily do reviews on all of those, because some are larger or smaller projects to work up and it won’t always fall conveniently on the times I write these. But when it does, I’ll try to share with you guys how many I’ve eliminated! I can now do checkmark number one, and I consider it a big success.
What do you like to do during the summer that you could use this bag for? I hope to bring it on my family adventures, like when I took these pictures at a local cider mill. Are you a beach person? Walks in the woods? Or do you prefer to stay indoors in the AC and would bring this on shopping trips to the mall instead?
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