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Crocheted Flower Coasters

March 1, 2024 No comments yet
Crocheted Maybelle Coasters

I used the Maybelle flower pattern to crochet these cute coasters.

The pattern is very versatile as you can use the flower motif for headbands, blankets, bags and many other things by simply joining the flowers.

I used a G (4 mm) crochet hook and just a small amount of

Seamless Helmet Hat

January 24, 2024 No comments yet
Seamless Crocheted Helmet Hat

I have an option now for my original crocheted helmet hat pattern. This option allows for a seamless crocheted hat so you don’t have the noticeable seam down one side.

Seamless hat option:
Start with a magic circle or you can chain 3 to create a ring to crochet into. You don’t join or work any chain 2 to begin each round. You simply crochet into the next stitch of each round without turning or joining.

Round 1 – 6 DC in magic circle (6) (corrections made 1-30-2024)
Round 2 – 2 SC in each stitch (12)
Round 3 – 2 DC in each stitch (24)
Round 4 – Now starting with original hat pattern, work round 3,

Baby Granny Lovey

January 10, 2024 No comments yet
Granny Lovey Center Hole Start

Babypoohsmom from Crochetville shared with me her crocheted baby lovey or lovie, using a store-bought stuffed animal. You crochet the lovey separate with a hole in the center for the stuffed animal. This way the lovey can be washed without the stuffed animal if necessary.

Using a ponytail hair tie, you crochet around the tie with 36 stitches. I used a H (5 mm) crochet hook for my baby granny stitch lovey. The pattern used is based off this YouTube video.

This is a Dollar Store bear that is about 5 inches tall. You can use any type of stuffed animal that you can fit into the center hole. I am planning on recycling some stuffies that I find in gently used condition for future projects.

I did 3 rounds of double crochet (DC) in the same brown color as the base row around the hair tie. Then 3 rounds in cream, 3 rounds in brown, 1 round in cream, 1 round in berry red, 1 round in cream again followed by 1 round of SC in cream yarn for trim. Finished size of the lovey is 15 inches wide.

I do my granny stitch start corners a little different. For granny corner start I chain 3,

Baby Hats Using Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn

November 6, 2023 No comments yet
Grape Kool-Aid Yarn Baby Hat

A few months ago I shared that I dyed my first batch of wool yarn using grape Kool-Aid. I dyed just one white skein of wool yarn in my first attempt. You can read the full post here about how I dyed the yarn using Kool-Aid. I was really happy how my test came out and here are the baby hats I crocheted using that yarn.

First I crocheted this ribbed band baby hat. The free crochet pattern is found here. I used a G (4.25 mm) crochet hook for this project and did add few extra rows of the ribbing to reach a hat length of 5 inches long.

Next hat was crocheted using the

Halloween Crocheted Towel Topper

October 18, 2023 No comments yet
Halloween Towel Topper

I picked up a few of the Halloween kitchen towels at Dollar Tree to add towel toppers to them. These themed towels are a fun and quick project that I am using for a upcoming fundraiser.

The towel topper is added to the towel by simply folding it in half and crocheting along the top edge. No cutting or sewing is needed. The first row is challenging but using a fine point steel crochet hook really helps. Once that first row is complete, the rest of the pattern works up very quickly. The free crochet pattern is found

Baby Dog Lovey

September 18, 2023 No comments yet
Baby Dog Lovey

I crocheted this baby dog lovey using Aggie May’s round ripple blanket pattern. I started with 4 rounds using aran cream yarn for the center of the lovey. An important tip is to use the same color for center of lovey as the animal so you can hide the joining. The dog lovey pattern is available
free here.

I first crocheted the round ripple blanket to 21 inches wide. Some loveys are smaller but I like it a little bigger to accommodate the dog head. Here is the lovey blanket before adding the dog to the center.

Next is a photo of the head after I added the muzzle and nose. I had to play around with it quite a bit to get everything lined up and get the nose just right.

Here is a closeup of the dog lovey below.

Baby Bobble Blanket

September 6, 2023 No comments yet
Baby Bobble Blanket

Our local Stitchers group was asked to make some baby blankets for the hospital nursery. I chose this bobble baby blanket pattern to crochet for the hospital charity. There are many different sizes you can make using this pattern. I started out by chaining 133 stitches using a H (5 mm) hook to begin the crochet pattern with a single strand of yarn.

Crocheting the bobbles for me was very labor intensive and hard on my hands. So rather than having bobbles every 4th row, I only crocheted two rows of bobbles on the ends of the blanket. The remainder of the blanket is worked in half double crochet (HDC).

Here is a closeup of one edge of the baby blanket.

Dyeing Yarn with Kool-Aid

July 22, 2023 No comments yet
Before Dyeing Wool Yarn

This post is about my test of dyeing wool yarn using Kool-Aid. This is my first time dyeing wool yarn using Kool-Aid. I used a small 50 gram skein of 100% wool yarn from Thorobred in white for this test. Here are before and after photos of this dyeing test.

I used the Woolfest bag method to dye my wool yarn. I love that it just uses the sun’s power to work the magic of dyeing the yarn.

Here is how I processed my yarn. I unwound the skein of yarn and unfortunately found it had several breaks and wasn’t a continuous strand of yarn. That is why you see a few separate pieces hanging to dry in later photos.

I used grape Kool-Aid in a gallon sized ziplock baggie for this test. I added one packet of Kool-Aid to a small amount of water in the baggie with gloves on. I then added more lukewarm water about halfway to fill the baggie as shown in the photo below. Next I mixed it around and added dampen yarn. With my gloved hands, I mixed up the yarn and swished it around to get all the yarn wet and colored. Next I placed the baggie flat in the warm sun to dye for about 3 hours. I did squeeze the yarn and swish it around a bit a few times just to make sure it would all get dyed from the Kool-Aid.

After 3 hours out in the summer sun, I rinsed the yarn gently in lukewarm and then cool water as not to shock the yarn. As suggested, let the yarn cool down and then rinse it until the water runs clear. Here is a photo of the yarn after rinsing.

Patriotic Rectangle Granny Blanket

July 9, 2023 No comments yet
Patriotic Rectangle Granny Blanket

I meant to post my patriotic red, white, and blue rectangle granny for the fourth of July but got distracted. So a few days late but in honor of our Country’s freedom, here is my Veteran’s honor blanket.

This blanket was crocheted for the local Veteran’s outreach program and will be given to a Veteran who needs a blanket.

Finished size of this rectangle granny blanket is 40 inches by 50. I chained 41 to start and used this free rectangle granny blanket pattern from Suzetta Williams. I have made this pattern before and have a few modifications that you are read more about here.

Below is a closeup of a corner that shows the edging.



About Me

Hello, I’m Cindy or aka RecycleCindy. Welcome to my blog site that is dedicated to recycling and crafting. I love to crochet and create crafts and other useful things from recycled materials. I share many free tutorials and patterns for creating recycled projects as well as other handmade items.


Here is a direct link to all my free patterns available here on My Recycled Bags.


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