October is breast cancer awareness month. Unless you have been living under a rock, I’m sure you seen all the pink stuff promoting breast cancer. Everywhere you look you find pink stuff. Pink NFL apparel, pink Halloween pumpkins, pink grocery bags, pink hats, pink jewelry, pink signs, pink websites, pink purses, pink key chains, pink coffee mugs, pink umbrellas, pink packaging, pink pink pink pink everywhere. I think you get my drift.
Some survivors feel companies are exploiting breast cancer and just slapping a pink ribbon on everything in an effort to sell their products. I’ve read that the pink ribbon, as a symbol, tends to pretty up what is a pretty ugly disease. Some say the pink ribbon is easier to look at than the disease itself.
Cancer is a nasty, cruel, and deadly beast. It attacks our healthy cells, assaults our bones and blood, destroys our vital organs, and invades our brains. Cancer takes our hair, our loved ones, our body parts and our lives. It causes pain, despair, misery, sorrow, and death. Cancer is not a pretty picture by any means, pink ribbon or not.
Many people feel overwhelmed by the constant pink reminder of cancer. I know I’ve never really been a big fan of the whole pink thing. I remember when I first was diagnosed with breast cancer, I didn’t want anyone to know and I sure didn’t want to wear pink cancer stuff. I remember being given a free pink baseball cap at my cancer treatment center. I did not want to wear it. Maybe I was in denial but I didn’t want to publicize my cancer by wearing pink. Later as I came to grips with my cancer and accepted it, I did wear my pink baseball hat. I don’t know if I am making any sense but these are the many thoughts I have about the whole pink thing. Oh don’t misunderstand my feelings about cancer awareness. If all the pink ribbons will help some women to get their mammogram or do self-exams, I’m all for it. I only hope that companies aren’t looking to profit off all this pink stuff as that just isn’t what this is all suppose to be about.
So please during this month of breast cancer awareness, do focus on the important message in all this. We all want to kick cancer out of our lives and the lives of others permanently. I pray for all those fighting this terrible foe, may you have healing and peace as you move along your journey. But ultimately I hope and pray a cure can be found once and for all!
Here is a quick and easy way to recycle your yogurt cups and make some cute Halloween treat cups. I have been wanting to do a recycled craft project using yogurt cups and I came up with the idea to crochet these cup holders. I used some orange yarn I picked up from a thrift store along with a strand of vcr video tape. Here is my tutorial on how to use vhs video tape as yarn if you are new to this recycled crafting site. You hold one strand of yarn along with the video tape to crochet these treat cup baskets.
Once you have the little basket crocheted, insert the yogurt cup inside and you can fill it with treats. These also would make wonderful Halloween party favors. Please enjoy this recycled craft project and Happy Halloween!
Recycled Halloween Treat Cup Pattern
Materials needed:
3/4 oz Orange Yarn
Small amount of recycled Vcr video tape
Yogurt cup
Hook:
N (9 mm) metal crochet hook
Description:
Halloween Treat Cup – measures 3 inches wide and 3 inches tall with 9 inch handle strap
Directions:
Rnd 1
Holding one strand of vcr tape together with orange yarn, Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.
I was asked recently for a round toy ball pattern. Well ask and you share receive. In an effort to continually make this blog a comprehensive library of free patterns using recycled materials, here is my free crocheted toy plarn ball project.
My recycled plastic toy ball has a 5 inch diameter and reminds me of a nerf ball as it’s soft. It would be a great toy for a child or a play toy for a pet. It also is a wonderful way to use up those little scrap pieces of plastic bags that you have leftover when you create your plarn. You can use the handles and end pieces to stuff your toy plarn ball.
This is a simple pattern but I had to re-work it four times to get it round. Who says creating patterns is easy — LOL. This toy ball is worked all in one piece and my final product is pretty round. You could probably easily adapt the crochet pattern to make it a smaller or larger ball as desired.
Please enjoy the pattern and you can find a list of all my free recycled craft patterns here.
Free Crocheted Round Plarn Toy Ball Pattern
Materials needed:
*Plastic bags cut into strips 1 inch wide and interlocked to create plarn. (Approx. 12 plastic bags)
The tutorial on how to create yarn from plastic bags can be found here.
*Scraps of plastic bags for ball stuffing.
Hook:
J (6 mm)size metal crochet hook
Description:
Recycled Plastic Toy Ball – 5 inch diameter
Directions:
Using plastic bags cut into plarn, Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.
I just finished crocheting another plarn clothespin bag from recycled plastic bags. This pattern and project is one of the most favorite plarn patterns here at My Recycled Bags. Not only do many people copy and crochet this pattern for their personal use but I also sell many of this recycled bag each year.
Please feel free to crochet this handy clothespin bag for yourself or as a gift for the upcoming Christmas season. Here is the free pattern link. Maybe you don’t crochet and would like to purchase one of these upcycled clothespin bags. If so you can find this item offered here for sale.
I have been busy lately crocheting baby RR (round ripple) afghans. These are so much fun and a great way to use up stashed yarn or scraps you may have. These were all made using Aggie May’s pattern from Crochetville. There are several different free versions of the RR afghan pattern available on the Internet.
I created this edging which has a layered-look as I used a sport weight yarn and a worst yarn.
Edging Instructions:
Using sport/baby yarn, Ch 3 in any space on the RR, Dc in same space, Skip 2 sts, Sl St into next st. Repeat working *Ch 3, Dc in sm st, skip 2 sts, Sl St in next st.* End with Sl St to base of first Ch 3. FO.
With new worst yarn, work same edging as above but work from behind first edge row. They creates a ruffled layered look.
Here is my baby blue scrap yarn RR that I crocheted using up several different skeins of miscellaneous yarn that I’ve had on hand.
Both of the baby afghans above were crocheted for 3rd Annual Afghans for NICU Babies Christmas drive. Kathryn over at Crochetville is requesting baby blankets for this year’s drive. You can read more about the drive here if you’d like to help this very special cause.
This last RR afghan was crocheted for my Granddaughter Ana. I am thrilled to share that Little Ana was born Sunday, September 13. She is so cute with dark brown hair and a button nose. She is the most precious little baby and we are all feeling so blessed with her healthy arrival.
Here is a little scrubbie I crocheted using recycled produce netting bags and cotton yarn. These large red nets were sent to me by reader of my blog who asked me if I’d like to use them in a recycled craft projects. I was thrilled to receive her package that contained about 10 of these large red nets. I cut them into 1 inch wide strips and looped them together just like I do with my plastic bag plarn The red netting is stiff and a bit hard to crochet but it makes a wonderful scrubber when you are done.
Here is a photo showing a net and a sample of the cut strips. You can click on any of my photos to supersize them.
The nets are circular and open on both ends so I just cut across the middle to make my strips. Here is the link to my picture tutorial I made showing how I cut green plastic lettuce netting into strips and assembled them.
To complete this little kitchen set, I crocheted my star dishcloth. The free pattern for this dishcloth can be found here.
My star dishcloth shown here was crocheted all in cotton yarn but I do have an option if you’d like to add a recycled plastic center for extra scrubbing power to the dishcloth.
Below you will find the free pattern for the scalloped pot scrubber.
Enjoy!
Scalloped Pot Scrubber Pattern
Scrubber measures: 4-1/4 inches Square
Hook: Metal J (6 mm) sized crochet hook
Materials:
3/4 oz – Bernat Holly Jolly Prints cotton yarn
1 – large red produce plastic netting bag (cut and looped together)
Holding cotton and netting together, Ch 4, Sl St to form ring.
Several people have asked about hats lately so here is a recycled floppy hat made from plastic bags or plarn. It’s crocheted using plarn and you can add ribbon to the finished project as shown in the pictures.
Here are several photos showing the floppy hat. It stretches nicely to fit your head as shown above. I hope you enjoy this recycled hat project and happy green crafting to all!
Recycled Floppy Plarn Hat Pattern
Materials needed:
One ball of plastic bags cut into strips to create a ball of plarn approx. 22-25 bags
2 yards of ribbon
Hook: N (9 mm) USA size metal hook
Description: Floppy plarn hat measures flat 9 inches long from top center to edge with 19″ head circumstance and 4″ brim
Directions:
Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring. (Don’t turn throughout)
Here is my latest t-yarn or tarn project that is created from recycled tee-shirts. I cut an old white tee-shirt up into a very narrow strip about 1/4 inch wide. The shirt I used had no side seams so I just cut around and around the body of the shirt to create one long strip. I then gently pulled on the strip to curl the t-yarn into a nice thin strand which I used to crochet this baby bib. Here is a tutorial on how I cut and curl the t-shirts into curled t-yarn or tarn.
So if you haven’t already tried crafting with recycled t-shirts, check out the process and give it a go. It’s a great way to repurpose those old t-shirts into cool new items.
Free Pattern for Crocheted T-Yarn Baby Bib
Materials needed:
One white T-Shirt cut into 1/4 inch wide strip and stretched to curl into T-yarn (about 1/2 of shirt used)
1/2 oz of cotton yarn (Pink used)
One hook and eye closure
Hook:
H (5 mm) USA size crochet hook
Description: Baby Bib measures 7-1/2″wide at middle and 11″ long
Directions:
Ch 18
I can show and tell my pink baby kimono and Mary Jane booties now that I’ve given this set to my daughter-in-law. I’ve been having so much fun crocheting all these girlie things for my future granddaughter who is due to be born in less than a month.
This crocheted kimono sweater works up in one piece and is a highly customizable kimono wrap. I used pink Red Heart baby econo yarn and added white trim to my sweater. Here is the crochet pattern link.
I crocheted these adorable little Mary Janes to complete my gift for the new baby. I used Abigail Goss’s free pattern found here for the Mary Janes. I added the little white flowers to tie in with the pink kimono’s white trim. I’m looking so forward to seeing the baby in this cute little crochet set later this fall.
As a sneak peak to my next project, I’m working on a new recycled t-shirt yarn (t-yarn) baby bib. The t-yarn strips were cut really thin from an old white t-shirt and then crocheted to make a baby bib. I’m almost done with the bib and writing up the crochet pattern now. I will post the t-yarn bib and free crochet pattern next week. Until my next post, enjoy and happy crafting to all!
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