A link on Twitter led me to the pattern for this ingenious crocheted yoga mat strap, designed by Sara at My Merry Messy Life. Instead of just saying ‘that’s clever’ and posting it to Pinterest, I decided it could be just what I need for my own yoga mat!

Sara designed the strap to go over a crocheted yoga mat bag, but I don’t want or need a bag – just a strap to keep my mat rolled up neatly and to make it easier to transport. I don’t usually like to follow patterns without at least putting my own spin on them, but with a pattern this basic, there’s no point in reinventing the wheel.

It’s the concept that’s genius: it’s simply a crocheted rope with a small loop at each end. You pull the rope through each loop to form an adjustable noose at each end, then pull the nooses tight around the ends of the mat to hold it together securely – clever and very effective.

I worked into the back bumps of the starting chain to give a neat finish. It only took 35m of yarn and I was finished in no time. The hardest part was weaving in the ends – with such a narrow project, there’s really nowhere to hide them!

The end result is really useful, both for holding the mat together neatly when it’s not in use and carrying it to and from classes. The cotton yarn I used makes it very strong and sturdy, and crochet is the perfect medium for projects like this – I love being able to quickly create something that’s so functional!

The noose construction works perfectly to keep the mat rolled neatly (below, left), and, in conjunction with the grippy mat, it even allows me to carry the mat in the much more convenient but less stable vertical position (below, right) without it slipping out of the strap.

Why am I not wearing yoga gear here? Well, ironically, as soon as I made the strap my knee started playing up (it’s never been quite the same since I was hit by a car 13 years ago; my knee took the full force of the impact) and it’s quite painful at the moment, so I may not be able to take my newly-strapped mat to a yoga class for a while. But at least my mat is ready to go as soon as my knee has recovered – it’s added incentive to get myself better 🙂

I highly recommend this yoga mat strap if you do yoga. You should also keep it in mind as a quick-to-crochet gift for a yoga-loving friend, although without the mat in place it just looks like a strange loopy rope, so you’ll have to give your friend a demo before they’ll fully appreciate what you’ve made for them!