Merry Christmas! I have been recycling old Christmas cards into ornaments for years. I just love taking the beautiful old cards and repurposing them.
It is very easy and children especially can enjoy recycling the cards and crocheting around the edges. Here is the instructional tutorial on how I recycle the cards into these ornaments.
Also be advised that if you don’t want to crochet around the card edges, you can always use a craft needle and yarn to whip stitch around the edges for decorating.
Here are some of my creations for 2018.
I saw this cute granny square tree ornament and just knew I had to try it.
The tree on the right was the first one I crocheted. I had trouble with the pattern and couldn’t get my stitch counts to come out to match the pattern. So I improvised and did my own thing to get the tree to come out looking okay.
I reached out to the pattern designer Squibbly Bups for the Granny Christmas Tree pattern to figure out the pattern as written. I heard back from her and found out she counts the Ch-1 as stitches so that is why I was off on my stitch counts. I re-worked the pattern which is the tree ornament on the left.
I also changed up the base of the final row on the tree to just work
Here is a Dollar Store towel and 2-potholder set. I took these Dollar Store items and added some crocheted cotton to spice them up.
The brown Dollar Store towel was folded in half and a waffle towel topper pattern was added to the top. The free double layer waffle towel topper pattern can be found here. Super easy with no cutting, sewing or other prep needed before crocheting the towel topper onto the towel.
Here is a closeup of the potholders.
Another Ravelry member of our Warmth for Warriors group introduced me to this Grannies Square blanket pattern. The pattern from Doug Speeckaert features a repeating 2-row granny square pattern which looks great and lays flat. The free crochet pattern link to the pattern can be found here.
In this next photo of the center, you can see how you do a traditional granny square type stitching and then the next row is a fill-in row of double crochet stitches. I think this really helps to allow the blanket to lay flat and not ruffle.
The pattern works nicely for using scrap yarns for each row and then I crocheted a few rows in the same color of yarn to create my blanket. I also used two skeins of Red Heart Stripes in latte stripe for the first blanket. I crocheted both of my blankets to a lapghan size for use by Veteran’s in wheelchairs. Both blankets are 32 inches wide.
Here is one more blanket crocheted using this blanket pattern. I call this lapghan blanket Blues Grannie Square.
Crocheted towel toppers are an excellent charity item. They are quick to crochet and are a desired item for charity fundraisers. They also make excellent gifts.
I have several different free crochet patterns for making towel-toppers. Here is a link to all of my towel topper patterns.
The next few towels use the pointed-handle towel topper pattern. These dollar store towels which once you add the crocheted towel-topper, really make a nice handmade gift.
Another is one of the new Christmas towels at the Dollar Tree, which makes a great candidate for a towel topper as shown here. The jingle bell closure adds a bonus for a Christmas-themed gift.
Next is a Fall themed towel that I got on clearance.
Here is a new crocheted baby hat pattern to share. It combines a scalloped edging that I have posted before but I added it to a hat mainly worked in the round. I like this crochet pattern as the hat doesn’t have the normal joining. Therefore it doesn’t have the noticeable line running down the back of the hat where the joining was made.
Below you will find the free crochet pattern for this hat. Please use it freely for gifts, charity and fundraisers. If you use a contrasting yarn for the scalloped edging, just join the new yarn and chain 1 on the inside edge of the hat. Then work the scalloped edging instructions as written.
Scalloped Baby Hat Pattern
H (5 mm) crochet hook for newborn size – 4.5” long by 12” Cir – Gauge 3 HDC rows=1”, 4 HDC sts=1”
G (4 mm) crochet hook for preemie size – 4” long by 11” Cir- Gauge 7 HDC rows =2”, 10 HDC sts=2”
Baby weight yarn (light 3) – 1 Ounce of yarn
Ch 3 to start and join to create a ring or use a magic circle to begin.
It’s nearly Halloween again and time to share some recycled Halloween ideas.
Over at My Useful Ideas, there is a great post about celebrating Halloween with less Trick-or-Treat trash. Every year the Halloween holiday creates tons of leftover trash. Everything from pumpkins to plastic candy bags, old decorations and costume castoffs. Then there are the candy wrappers and dropped candies that can be found on the sidewalks and along the streets.
Let’s face it, Halloween creates a lot of trash. But there are alternatives and ways to help make the Halloween holiday a bit more greener with less trash.
First consider using recycled decorations and a recycled or reusable candy bags for trick-or-treating. I have several patterns and ideas for making Halloween candy bags and decorations here.
Here is one crocheted plastic treat-or-treat basket that could be reused year after year. It is made from recycled plastic bags and the base is a recycled microwave dinner tray.
It was time here at My Recycled Bags to crochet a new recycled plastic bag project. I needed a basket for the local nursing home fundraiser so out came my green plastic bags that I have been collecting. I cut my bags into 1 inch strips and assembled a ball of plarn to begin my recycled plastic basket.
I used this free recycled plastic basket pattern to crochet my basket with a K crochet hook. I did a modified version of the basket pattern by crocheting less rounds so it was shorter. My finished size is 5 inches tall, 22 inches around and about 7 inches across top.
Most of the green bags matched but some were a shade darker and lighter. As you can see, these different shades of green give the basket a cool blended color look.
I crocheted a towel topper onto a dollar tree towel and added a matching green dishcloth to complete this little green kitchen ensemble. Here is a close-up of my double-layered towel topper which uses the pointed handle towel topper pattern found here.
I won this Houndstooth hat pattern through a raffle on Ravlery. I wanted to crochet the pattern in wool yarns for the Warmth for Warriors hat drive. Here are the two wool hats I have crocheted so far with the pattern from Liz McQueen.
It is not a free pattern but I was fortunate enough to win it as otherwise it is $4.50. I do think the pattern is well written and includes many step-by-step photos to help a person crochet the hat. The pattern calls for a I (5.5 mm) crochet hook. I used a smaller H crochet hook so I found the hat a bit short so I added more rows to achieve an 8 inch long hat.
As a bonus, the hat is reversible. Here is the other hat I crocheted in green and tan wool yarns. Below are two photos showing the two different looks of the same hat. Isn’t it cool how different it looks reversed?
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