Yarn fail turned into a success...

Looking through my cotton yarn to make another dishcloth  I knew I was picking a least likely contender for making a pretty cloth, but wow - was I underwhelmed by just how ugly of a cloth this color would make:

It's Lily's Sugar & Cream in the color Earth Ombre in case anyone wants to be sure not to purchase it for the purpose of making a dishcloth.  Bleck.  One good thing I can say for it, though, is that I won't worry about it getting stained.  Not that I'd likely even be able to tell if it's stained...

Looking in my stash and seeing three more skeins I decided I either needed to rehome the stuff, or find something else to make with it quick so I could stop regretting I'd purchased it once upon a time.

When I came upon this pattern I thought it might provide enough openness in the crocheted fabric that the unattractive blend of colors and degree of variegation just wouldn't matter that much.

Once I started, I couldn't crochet fast enough - I wanted this yarn gone.

I had to make two bags before I used most of the offending yarn.  I have to say, while these won't be winning any beauty contests, I like these bags a whole lot more than I like that dishcloth.  And they were easy peasy to make.  After making the first one I really just winged (wung?) the second one.

The pattern makes a fairly small bag as written - though these things stretch.  A lot.  I made mine larger than the pattern (by enlarging the circle base - which was a good choice because I wanted them larger in diameter than the pattern would make), but I think I made them both a bit too long.  It's hard to estimate how much these stretch, so my recommendation is to make them shorter than you may think you actually need them to be.

Grocery day is a ways off, so I just went shopping in my kitchen and can see that these bags hold quite a bit of stuff.

Because they stretch so much, I recommend not putting super heavy items in them, but they will nicely corral bags of chips, some boxes of cereal, a loaf bread, some not-too-heavy produce... Frankly, I think these bags will hold pretty much anything that would fit in them.  The question is, do I want them dragging on the floor as they're hanging over my shoulder?!?

Now to put these babies in my car - where they can await my next shopping trip!  And Yay! for finding success again out of what was appearing to be another yarn fail.

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our thread this week on Ravelry.