Some projects lend themselves to a pandemic better than others, and the crochet coin purse–composed of four triangles and a square–is one of them that is perfect for a pandemic.

What makes it so pandemic friendly is that all you truly need is yarn and a hook. Nothing else.

Not a snap, not the right size button, not a zipper. All you have to do is crochet the pieces, and you are good to go. No trip to a store that isn’t open, no sorting through bins or boxes looking for that thing that just might do the trick. No, in this case, the crochet is the trick, and the first thing you need to do is crochet the requisite pieces.

This particular project also reminds me of the early days of swag and the plastic squeeze coin purses that were so popular when I was a child. You pushed at either end, a slit in the middle would open up, and voila! you could see all of your change.

This project has a similar aesthetic, and to make it you will need one square, and four triangles:

The granny square serves as the base, and you then arrange–ever so carefully–the triangles, one atop the other, until you get to the fourth and final triangle, half of which goes on top of the third, and half of which is tucked under the first.

When you are done, it will look something like this:

At which point you get out more yarn (contrasting or coordinating color), and work a single crochet stitch through sets of three stitches–one for each layer. Here is how it look from the top:

and here is how it looks from the bottom:

After I finished the second crochet coin purse, I still had change left, so I started on a third. This time I went for a more dynamic contrast in colors that, for me, evoked peppermint swirls.

I had an ever so slight problem with the red yarn as it was not the same weight as the white. So I added a round to the granny square base, and then I modified the white triangles working two of the five rows with half-double crochet stitches, while working the red triangles in all double crochet stitches:

What this allowed for were triangles that still fit together properly for the final join:

With the project just 84 stitches and one seam away from being completed, I had something else I needed to do so I set it aside for tomorrow>

But even when this specific crochet coin purse is completed, I don’t think that the pattern itself will be done with me. I think I only have four or five left to crochet, but sometimes, when a project gets its hooks in you. you just have to continue forward one stitch at a time.