Making stripes in your crocheting is easy!
We’re suckers for a roll-up of pencils arranged in rainbow order! And it’s just so handy for art on the go. Don’t worry: this project may look complicated, but it’s really just a straightforward rectangle of crochet. Of course, if you prefer, you could make this pouch for a different purpose: to hold your crochet supplies, say — hooks and scissors and such — or for your toothbrush, toothpaste, and comb when you’re away from home. Just size the channels accordingly to fit whatever you want to store and carry.
Push the needle into the folded end of the fabric, then bring it back up through the fabric at the bottom edge about 3 stitches in from the side edge, or whatever distance you need to make your pencil fit snugly.
From here, chain (see How to Chain Stitch) a tie long enough to wrap once around the rolled case, about 6 inches. Knot your chain tightly at the end and snip the working tail.
If your rectangle of crocheted fabric is looking more like a triangle or trapezoid, you are probably unintentionally skipping stitches at the ends of the rows. Almost everyone does this when they first start crocheting. To prevent it, use your crochet hook to pull a scrap piece of a different-colored yarn through the first and last stitches of each row and leave them there. This way, you won’t miss working into those stitches when you come back to them.
There are lots of ways to add stitches when you’re crocheting, and each method will do something different to the fabric you’re creating. To make the bowl shape you’ll need for creating the Hacked Sack, you’ll work 2 single crochet stitches into certain stitches of the ring. Don’t worry — we’ll tell you when you need to do this! And here’s how.
There are many ways to decrease stitches when you’re crocheting, but all of them result in making your fabric narrower. When making the Hacked Sack, you will decrease stitches to close up the ball. In this single crochet decrease, you will crochet 2 stitches together, ending up with 1 stitch. The advantage to this method is that it doesn’t leave a hole in your fabric — which is especially helpful when you’re filling that fabric with popcorn or beans!
You might be more familiar with the brand name Hacky Sack! But whatever you call it, if you have a small footbag or sack, you always have a game to play — with one other person, a group, or even by yourself. Why not crochet one and keep it in your backpack?
Yes, this is the most advanced crochet project here, but you really can do it. And think how proud you’ll be when someone says, “Dude, cool Hacky Sack! Where’d you get it?” And you can shrug and say, “Oh, this old thing? I made it.”
Make a slip knot (see How to Make a Slop Knot), leaving a 6-inch tail, and insert the crochet hook.
Round 1: Chain 1, then work 6 single crochet stitches (see How to Single Crochet) into the hole. There is now a ring made of 6 stitches.
Round 2: Work 2 single crochet stitches into each stitch in the ring (see How to Increase Crochet Stitches). At the end of this round, you will have 12 stitches in the circle.
Round 3: Work 2 single crochet stitches in the first stitch of the previous round and 1 single crochet into the next stitch. Repeat — alternating between working 2 stitches (A) then 1 stitch (B) into each stitch from the previous row — until you get to the end of the round. You now have 18 stitches total.
Round 4: Work 2 single crochet stitches into the first stitch and 1 single crochet into the next 2 stitches. Repeat the 2-1-1 sequence until you get to the end of the round. You now have 24 stitches total, and your fabric will start to make a bowl shape! (This is good.)
Once the fabric begins to form a bowl, push it so it becomes a bowl going in the opposite direction — like you’re turning a hat inside out — and continue crocheting.
Rounds 5–9: Work 1 single crochet stitch all the way around for five rounds. There are no increases in these rounds, which we did with blue yarn, but you need to count the rounds.
Even the most experienced knitters and crocheters need help keeping track of their stitches. Craft stores sell fancy stitch markers, but you also can use something you have lying around the house, like a safety pin, a paper clip, or a little loop of a different-colored yarn. When crocheting a circle, place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round, moving it onto the new first stitch of the round each time you start a new one.
Round 10: Now, instead of increasing the number of stitches to make the circle bigger, you’ll start decreasing them to make it smaller again and close up the sphere. This is the pattern: (A) single crochet decrease 2 stitches together (see How to Decrease Crochet Stitches), then (B) single crochet the next 2 stitches the regular way; repeat this until you come to your stitch marker. You now have 18 stitches.
Round 11: Single crochet decrease 2 stitches together, and then single crochet the next stitch the regular way. Repeat this until you come to your stitch marker. You now have 12 stitches.
When the opening is fairly small, fill the ball with the popcorn or beans. The smaller the hole, the easier it will be to fill without spilling. Use a funnel if you have one — or make a funnel with a sheet of paper, or use a small spoon (see step 4 of the beanbag project).
Round 12: Single crochet decrease 2 stitches together. Repeat until you get to the end of the round. You now have 6 stitches.
Snip the thread, leaving a 6-inch tail. Pull it all the way through the last stitch and thread the tail onto the blunt sewing needle. Work the tail through the top V of each stitch in the last round; pull the hole closed, then tie off and use the needle to weave in the ends (see How to Weave In Ends), and hide the tails inside the ball.