Just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Enjoy my Christmas gift I am sending out to you all from My Recycled Bags.
May you and your family have a most blessed Christmas. Merry Christmas!
I am busy finishing up a few last minute Christmas gifts. I love crocheting towel toppers and using holiday towels make wonderful gifts. Here are a few I crocheted using the double-layer method. You fold over the towel and crochet through both layers to create a useful kitchen towel and an attractive gift.
These were crocheted using the free pointed handle towel topper pattern. I added a jingle bell for the closure in place of a button.
These are fun and quick projects. You can crochet the complete towel topper in just a matter of a few hours. So if you are in need of a last minute gift, consider hand making a gift which will be long remembered after a store bought item.
I have been working on an order of clothes pin bags crocheted from recycled plastic bags. These bags are crocheted using recycled plastic retail bags cut about an inch thick. The strips are joined by using the looping method to create what is called plarn.
Here is one more I crocheted with white plastic bags along with a few rounds of blue bags for an accent stripe. I love adding the ribbon to the projects as it spices up the recycled bag look.
I have crocheted many clothes pin “peg” bags over the years. This is one of my earliest plastic bag patterns that dates back to 2007 when I started my blog. Here is the free plarn clothes pin pattern.
Feel free to use the pattern to crochet your own recycled clothes pin bag or for charity work. It is also fine to sell the clothes pin bags you make using my pattern and please just provide pattern credit to My Recycled Bags. Also I do acccept orders for this bag and have one available for immediate purchase at my products page.
Twiddle muffs are used by people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia. The twiddle muffs provide them with something to hold and manipulate, and something to fidget with thus the name twiddle muff. The result of twiddling with the different textures and items on the muff has a calming effect on a person. Plus it doubles as a hand warmer which can provide additional comfort for a person.
It is a great project in which to use recycled materials. I set out to use such things as plastic juice rings, plastic bags, old buttons, beads and ribbon along with different textures of yarns.
I had this special green plastic bag that was sent to me from an on-line friend. I used the green bag to crochet this 4-leaf plarn clover.
I used fun fur to crochet around a recycled milk jug ring that is sewn on the twiddle muff below.
I have this big bag of cotton scraps that I have been trying to use up. I decided to crochet some star dishcloths and attempt to reduce my stash of bits of cotton at the same time.
Here is a closeup of the purple star dishcloth.
This pattern is called My Star Dishcloth and dates back to 2008. The pattern is free and does require light blocking and pulling on the points once done to get a flat lay to the cloth. But of course after washing,
It is November and a great time to start making warm hats. I crocheted these baby hats using a pattern from Beverly Qualheim.
It is a free pattern with options for different baby sizes. I found that if I crocheted just 30 stitches to start the hat, it comes out just about right for a newborn baby. The pattern is quick and easy to crocheted and is worked side to side. Once done, you stitch up the seam and gather at the top to close.
The finished size of my hats are
It has been a year since I have made a post in My Pink Journey. As October is breast cancer awareness month, it has become my yearly check-in with you all.
In what I have called My Pink Journey began back in 2008 when I was first diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer. 2008 was a year filled with treatment which included surgery, chemo, radiation and Herceptin maintenance for a year. It was a rough and difficult year to say the least. But the good news, I kicked cancer’s butt and have remained cancer free for 9 years now. Wow 9 years feels awesome!
The NFL has a great saying, Make a Crucial Catch regarding breast cancer. I like this slogan and it really applied to me as I found my own lump and got it checked out early. Early detection is very important so do make that appointment, have a mammogram, do self-exams, and above all, be diligent and don’t wait.
So as we wrap up October,
You may be wondering how recycling and dishcloths go together? Well I had received this pretty green glass jar with a flower arrangement in it recently. It is a lovely jar and I thought it would be a nice item to recycle and decorate for an upcoming charity fundraiser. So I rolled up a few crocheted dishcloths and placed them in the jar and I added an inspirational ribbon as an embellishment around the top. Here is the finished project which I call a recycled jar of cloths.
I also tried out a new dishcloth pattern called Ship’s Helm. This is a super easy and very fast pattern. Here are the three cloths I crocheted using the pattern.
I have a new resource for brown plastic bags! Local Safeway stores have gone back to the brown plastic retail bags and I just love recycling them into new reusable tote bags.
Here is the recycled plastic bag or plarn tote bag I crocheted with the brown retail sacks. I also used some red plastic newspaper bags that an on-line friend sent me that her Wall Street Journal was delivered in. The red bags were just right to compliment the brown bags with the red writing on them and made for a nice stripe on the tote bag.
But the special thing about this recycled tote bag is the dual handles. It has the normal hand grip handle in the middle and also a 30 inch long shoulder strap. So you can either grip the bag with your hands or throw the long strap over your shoulder.
I followed one of my basic crocheted plarn tote bag patterns found here but with a few modifications. My changes were for the first six rounds, I worked single crochet (SC) stitches
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