Upcycle your old plastic bags into a water bottle holder. It’s easy to crochet this handy little water bottle holder from recycled plastic bags and of course it’s an excellent eco-friendly green craft idea. First you make your plarn or plastic bag yarn as shown here.
The base of this holder is the same as my can cozy project that I crocheted recently. I just added another row on the cozy and then crocheted the strap to finish off the water bottle holder. This holder is designed with a 3″ round bottom and holds either a small water bottle or reusable beverage container.
Just click on the green more button to view the free crochet pattern for this green crafting project.
April 22 is Earth Day and the kickoff of the beginning of the Green Generation Campaign over at Blogger’s Unite. Let’s all celebrate this great day by Recycling, Reusing, or Repurposing. These are my favorite three Rs. I try very hard to live by them and while nobody is perfect, maybe today we can really dedicate ourselves to the cause. Anyone who reads this site on a consistent bases knows that it’s a crafting site which uses recycled materials most of the time. Yes I love to crochet and at times share projects that aren’t necessarily recycled or green but are fun and frugal. That’s the joy of crafting. It’s the use of ones spare time to create something special that isn’t available at any retail store.
But maybe you aren’t a crafter and want to recycle all those old vcr or cassette tapes. Check out this link to GreenDisk and you can choose to use your own box (20 lbs or less) and it costs only $6.95 for the Technotrash Pack-IT. Put all your tapes in there and ship them off. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to recycle those old tapes and save them from the landfill.
If you are a crafter, then consider making your own plarn and crochet something wonderful from trash. You can check out all my free patterns here. I offer everything from grocery tote bags made from plastic bags to potholders and purses created from reused denim jeans to clutches crocheted from repurposed cassette tapes.
So on this Earth Day 2009, please enjoy our Earth and remember the three Rs. Recycling, Reusing, and Repurposing. It’s a great way to preserve this wonderful Earth that we all love and have a great time green crafting too!
Here is my first full-sized round ripple or RR as most crocheters refer to this wonderfully shaped afghan. This was crocheted using Aggie May’s RR pattern from Crochetville. I used some scrap yarn and added some Red Heart Super Saver skeins to complete my RR. This is going to be a gift for my Mother’s upcoming birthday. I know it’s not a recycled bag but I just wanted to share my RR as it was so much fun to crochet!
Click to supersize photos
I added the edging as shown above to my completed RR. The edging was done by repeating the following stitches:
Ch 3, double crochet (Dc) in same stitch, then skipping one stitch and slip stitching (sl st) in the next stitch. Just keep repeating around your RR evenly. Make sure that the Ch 3, Dc are always at the top point of the ripple. You may have to skip two stitches occasionally to get it even especially at the top points.
I love felting and here is my latest crocheted tote bag. It is crocheted with 100% wool yarn and then felted on the hottest setting in my washer for about 18 minutes. It really sunk from the original size before felting which was 17″ wide x 18″ long to the finished size of 11″ wide x 12″ long. I added a felted flower to the flap along with a magnetic closure.
Click to super-size any of these photos
Closeup of the tote bottom
Here is a photo of the wide bottom of my tote bag. By adding the increase stitches as you crochet the beginning of bag, the bottom is able to extend and have a flatter surface. After you felt the bag, make sure to form the bottom so it dries in the correct shape so that your tote bag can stand up on the flat bottom. Enjoy the free pattern!
Felted Flower Tote Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
8 ozs Lion Brand Dark Teal 100% Wool Yarn (3 oz skeins)
1.7 ozs Caron Variegated Adobe 100% Wool Yarn
1 Magnetic button closure
Hook: H (5 mm) U.S. size metal hook
Description: Felted Blue Striped Tote Bag with Flower Closure
After felting bag measures 11 inches wide and 12 inches long with 27 inch straps
Directions:
Ch 55
It’s been quite a while since I crocheted with cassette tape and created a recycled bag from it. So I figured I’d better break out some of those old tapes that I have been storing and get busy with a new recycled craft project. I call this the clam shell clutchClam Shell Cassette Tape Clutch Pattern
Clutch measures 10 inches wide and 5-1/2 inches long at mid point.
Materials:
2 cassette tapes (60 min. tapes)
1 ball Lion Brand Trellis Pastel Garden lacy ribbon yarn (1-1/2 ozs)
1 Velcro button
1 Gold button for embellishment
Hook: Metal J (6 mm) crochet hook
Ch 10 using 2 strands of cassette tape and one strand of Lion Brand yarn.
Pattern is crocheted using 3 strands of material held together throughout project.
I recently saw this cute spiral scrubbie and just had to try the pattern. It has such a unique look and I could just picture adding some recycled plastic netting to the design for added scrubbing power. The green and red scrubbie is crocheted with recycled lettuce sleeves cut into strips. You then just crochet with your yarn and the netting held together. Here is my square scrubber tutorial that I made using the netting and it has pictures how to cut the lettuce netting so you can crochet with it. In this spiral pattern I worked two rounds with the netting and then two rounds without. I used cotton yarn but worst yarn works fine too. As shown, the other scrubbie is worked all in cotton according to the free pattern that Judith has here.
Here is another scrubbie I crocheted using one of those plastic nets that they put around a ham. The ham netting is much thicker and harder to crochet with. I had to cut the ham netting into wider strips of about 1-1/2 to 2 inches wide otherwise I couldn’t connect the cut links. The lettuce sleeves are much softer and easier to crochet with. But the ham netting does make for a very good and stiff scrubber. I crocheted only three times the 2-row sets using the gold colored ham netting to complete this scrubbie.
Anyway I just wanted to share this fun spiral scrubbie pattern and show how by adding a bit of recycled material, you could create a very handy scrubber. Enjoy this green craft idea!
Here is a quick and easy little crochet project for all those green crafters who love recycling trash into treasures. It’s a handy can cozy that can be used for a soda or beer can. Keep your favorite beverage cold and save some plastic bags from the landfill all at the same time.
This project is completed by creating plastic bag yarn by cutting about 9 recycled plastic sacks into strips. If you are not familiar with the process, I have a picture tutorial found here that gives you all the details on creating plarn.
So grab those plastic bags and crochet yourself a recycled plastic can cozy today!
Free Crocheted Can Cozy Pattern
Materials needed:
Blue and white plastic bags cut into strips 1 inch wide and interlocked to create plarn to crochet with. (Approx. 7 blue bags and 2 white bags)
Hook:
J (6 mm) size metal crochet hook
Description:
Recycled Plastic Can Cozy – measures 3 inches wide and 4-1/2 inches tall
Directions:
Using blue plarn, Ch 4 and join with a Sl St to form a ring.
It’s time to crochet some recycled Easter egg baskets for the upcoming holiday. I want to share my latest creation which is a mini Easter egg basket. It holds one egg and can be used as unique gift idea. Fill your plastic egg with something special or simply place your gift inside the mini basket. The link to the free crochet pattern for the mini Easter egg basket is found here.
Here is a large recycled Easter basket that I made last year. This durable basket is crocheted from some special purple plastic bags that a friend from Crochetville mailed to me. I know purple bags are hard to come by but even using recycled white plastic grocery bags can create just as cute of a Easter basket. Simply add a colorful ribbon bow tie to spruce up your basket as I did with the mini Easter egg basket project.
Here is the free pattern link for the large plastic basket below.
March 10, 2008 is a day I will never ever forget. It is the day that I was told that I had cancer. I was shocked and my life was forever changed by the news. I remember having to go outside and just walk. I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that I had breast cancer. My first thoughts were wondering if I was going to die. Then how was I going to deal with this? What was going to happen now? When you are first diagnosed with cancer, I think the fear is the worst. With me, I just didn’t know what it really meant. I felt okay but I knew that there was a terrible time bomb inside me and it was ticking away.
I quickly learned as much as I could about breast cancer. I read everything I could and talked with several different doctors so I could understand the ramifications of my diagnoses. For me, knowledge was power. Power to know what to expect and to prepare myself and my family for what I’ve have dubbed My Pink Journey.
At this one year mark, I am happy to report that I am doing well. Yes I still have some issues I’m dealing with such as my very short hair that doesn’t seem to want to grow. The unpleasant side effects of Tamoxifen, tight muscles under my arm from radiation and a bit of lymphedema on my side where I had lymph nodes removed. But really I’m faring quite well considering all that I have been through.
Thanks to my faith, family, and friends I have been able to survive this cancer battle. The battle is never really over once you have cancer. You learn this pretty early on. You must be vigilant and keep close tabs on the big C. It’s quite wily and you must forever guard against its return. This is an important message for everyone to have those cancer screenings done as early detection such as I had can make all the difference in ones survival rate.
So thank you again to everyone for your love, prayers, and support during this last year. I don’t know if I could have made it without all of you. Remember enjoy life and be thankful for each and every beautiful day of it!
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