Mary Grace McNamara of Hooked on Needles agreed to sharing her great pattern for a little crocheted draw string bag. As she puts it, it really is great for just about anything. She says about this pattern: “I have made lots of these for the holiday fair at our local parish and the kids seem to love them, especially the girls. The pattern could easily be altered to make a bigger bag by simply continuing to increase the base and then making the sides as tall as you want. You could also spice it up a little by crocheting a stripe of color or alternating rows of color. See what leftovers you have and create a little something unique!”

I worked mine up using two strands of sport weight yarn and it is just perfect for putting all my scraps of yarn into and hanging up on my tool rack. I’m loving hanging things up on my rack lately. I use the yarn scraps to tie tags to my hand dyed yarns and handmade goods. Enjoy this sweet little project!

Download the pattern here (pdf).

I asked Mary Grace McNamara to share a little bit about herself and I just loved the tone of what she wrote back to me so much that I’m going to share it with you pretty much as she sent it to me:

“What a thrill to be a guest designer for Craft Leftovers! I really am a frugal, leftover type of person too and love to find useful ways to use up what I have left after finishing a project. You can read all about my crochet beginnings here and about my knit beginnings here if you like, but here’s the long-story-short version of my 46+ years on this earth…

I am the 4th of 8 children and have lived in all areas of this beautiful country, but I have to admit that I love my current home of Central Massachusetts the most. I love the changing seasons, especially Autumn and the cool weather and colorful foliage. I have been married to the greatest guy in the whole world for 25+ years and we have three children. The oldest is just shy of 18 and a senior at our local high school. Next is my favorite little guy who is 5 1/2 and just started Kindergarten which he LOVES because they learn neat stuff and do fun things and have recess on the playground! And then my little shadow who is not quite 4 and misses her big brother terribly when we leave him at school every day. I keep telling her that her turn will come soon enough, but that just doesn’t seem to satisfy her right now.

I love to bake, garden, read, decorate my home, knit, sew, crochet, embroider and do every other type of needlework known to crafters. I’m a band mom since our oldest is in her 4th year with the high school band and is clarinet section leader this year. We love football season and look forward to every home game so we can watch the band perform. I’m also a soccer mom. Every Sunday, after a quiet morning of going to church and having a nice family breakfast and relaxing, we just love watching our little guy and his teammates out there on the field chasing the ball so enthusiastically for an hour in the afternoon. I enjoy attending PTO meetings, band booster meetings, volunteering for library time, helping with fundraisers and chaperoning outings.

My website, www.HookedOnNeedles.com, is my latest big adventure and one I am enjoying tremendously. I just recently celebrated my 100th post with a give-away of two of my Fancy Beaded Scissor Fobs, which are nice little things to make using beads leftover from other projects. If you look under my knit or crochet links on my sidebar, you will also find baby hats that I make when I want to use up odd lengths of yarn.

So that’s me in a nutshell, probably not much different from a lot of you. I hope you enjoy my pattern for my Itty Bitty Anything Bag. A big Thank You to Kristin for inviting me to share my pattern, my website and myself with all of you! Keep creating!”

I’m so happy that she took the time to share her story of how she got to be where she is now and what she loves. She has a great start on her website. She posts frequently and has free patterns and great links. Just today she posted a great write up on Charity Knitting and Crocheting and it’s a great read.

A huge thank you again to Mary Grace. I’m in a huge rush to get clm out the door tomorrow morning and having the pattern all set for today was such a tremendous help! Any takers for next month’s guest pattern?

Best wishes and Happy Crafting!
++ Kristin Roach ++