Starting a new project: Tunisian crochet bag

Since I'm jealous of Heather's lovely blog posts about her cross-stitch projects, in the best tradition of bloggers everywhere I'm brazenly stealing her idea and trying to capture the progress of my latest crochet project.

I love me some Vera Bradley handbags. I like to joke that I have "a little problem" with them, because I own a half dozen or so; then I went to my friend Fran's house and saw her bedroom redo, which included a special purse hanger on the back of her door for her SEVERAL DOZEN Veras! It made me feel much better... ;-) Lately I've mostly been carrying the basic Vera Handbag design in the (soon to be retired *sob*) Botanica fabric. I like it a lot and it works well for most of my needs, but for my daily commute I'd rather have something hands-free, preferably a bag I can wear with the strap cross-body. Vera doesn't do a lot of long-strap bags; her handbags usually have long enough straps to be used as shoulder bags, just not across the body. I see they are discontinuing the Hipster bag, and I almost bought one at 30% off last week, but couldn't pull the trigger; though if they had it in Botanica I probably would have bought it! It's close to what I want, but not quite. This is one of the times I wish I could sew, because I could probably make up a nice bag, though maybe not with the fabulous Vera fabrics. I used to carry a Betsy in the (now retired) Chelsea Green fabric, which was great but a little big for my needs right now--and again, not a hands-free bag. It makes a great carry-on bag when you're checking a rolling bag, though--it sits nicely on top of the rolling bag and I love all the pockets and organizational features. I dare say TSA loves it, too. No clutter means happy Xraying for TSA. I actually bought my rolling bag in green to match it. ;-)

I also love my Pacsafe Metro 100, which I use for sightseeing and traveling. I love the built-in security features. I've had my eye on the Metro 200 for a possible daily-commute bag.  I've decided to hold off till I get a netbook. That might not be till next year, if Toshi the Portege stops acting up. (Though I might contravene my self-imposed rest-of-2008 gadget moratorium and buy a Dell E...it will make my autumn trips to Chicago for the JASNA AGM and San Diego for the Hornblower convention SO much easier. We'll see.)

But I still want a hands-free bag. What to do in the meantime?

Over the weekend I thought about possibly crocheting a bag with a nice long strap, but I was concerned about the strap stretching out under the weight of all the junk I carry on a daily basis (tho' compared to some women I see on the train, who carry a purse AND a tote AND a briefcase/messenger bag, I travel relatively light). I started thinking, if I could only combine the best of Vera and Pacsafe with crochet techniques, maybe I could come up with something...

And I think I have. :-) More soon!