I just had to follow-up on my Christmas in July stocking making. I crocheted 17 mini stockings in July for the Warmth for Warriors. We are having a stocking-along event for them over at Ravelry at the Good Things Together group. We are having so much fun and accomplishing so many stockings that we have decided to extend the event until August 8.
So it’s not too late to join in on the fun of crafting mini stockings for the troops. Plus there is even a prize that you have a chance to win should you participate. You just simply need at least one stocking to be entered for the prize drawing of a free pattern. Click here
It’s time again for another Christmas in July stocking drive for Warmth for Warriors. We are once again making mini Christmas stockings for the troops and sending them in to be filled with little items for Christmas gifts for our soldiers through Warmth for Warriors (W4W).
Each year the miniature stockings are filled at W4W Headquarters with soaps, toiletries, and candies for our troops for Christmas. The little stockings filled with treats are a wonderful way to say thank you to our troops and give them a little Christmas cheer during the holidays. We also need donations of the little hotel sized soaps, shampoos, chapsticks and other small items for stuffing the stockings.
Good Things Together over at Ravelry is hosting the special Christmas in July event. More details including how you can participate and win a prize can be found here.
You can crochet, knit, sew, weave, or loom any Christmas stocking for our troops. We try and aim for the Christmas stockings to be about 6 inches in length. But a little bigger or smaller is fine too. Here is a link to some free patterns should you need some project ideas for making stockings. Be aware that our deadline this year for arrival at W4W headquarters is
Here is my latest round ripple blanket that I have been working on. I was lucky enough to get a few more brown skeins of yarn donated to me so I could finish it up. There are no stores anymore in my immediate area that sell yarn. The local senior center that donates yarn to me was shut down for months so I wasn’t able to get any yarn from them either. Last week they opened back up and I was so excited to go in and obtain yarn from them to finish this blanket.
Finished size is 52 inch wide. This blanket will be donated back to the senior center for their Veterans Outreach Program. Hopefully some Vet will enjoy the blanket and find comfort in using this blanket crocheted with lots of love.
These last few weeks, I have been busy crocheting more hats for the Warmth for Warriors annual hat drive. These hats were crocheted using the free Red Heart Ridged Hat Pattern. I first saw this hat on a Red Heart yarn wrapper and really liked the look of the crocheted cables on the hat.
I have crocheted this pattern using a I hook and also a J hook. Both times the hat is too short without having to add some additional rows to get the desired length I need for a men’s hat size.
I have found that if I add 3 extra rows in the middle I am at about 7.25” long in length. Then I crochet rows 14-17 (4 rows) for the trim rows. Length is about 8.5” long and fits nicely.
Here is one more hat I crocheted using the pattern and added some camo type yarn for stripes.
I have had lots of time on my hands lately to crochet with all the stay-at-home orders. I thought it was time to break into my huge stash of plastic bags and crochet a new recycled plastic tote bag. This bag was crocheted using mainly white plastic retail bags made into plarn and I added blue and green yarn to give it a Seattle Seahawks color theme.
This tote bag was crocheted using my free ultimate recycled bag pattern. I added stripes using regular yarn by doing 3 blue HDC (half double crochet stitch) rows, 3 green HDC and then 3 more blue HDC rows along with plastic bag yarn to crochet this bag.
Finished size is 12″ wide by 13″ long with 7″ handles. I think it would make a nice book bag so I may donate it to the next library fundraiser. So in honor of my beloved Seahawks,
My little No. 6 cast iron skillet needed a new handle cover. I made the other one several years ago and after time, the covers do fray and need to be replaced. I love crocheting my own homemade handle covers using recycled t-shirt material. I cut the old t-shirts in thin strips and create what I like to call t-yarn. The t-yarn makes great handle covers, potholders, and trivets. You can find my t-yarn making tutorial here.
I cut my t-shirt yarn very thin for this project. It’s about 1/4 inch wide and gently stretched to curl the “yarn” which makes it smoother to crochet. Here is the link to the free t-shirt yarn skillet cover pattern.
I crocheted this handle cover for a total of 12 rows using an I crochet hook. This is a bit smaller than the original pattern because
The Mother Bear Project is featuring striped bears for April. With the extra time I have this month with the stay at home order due to the Coronavirus, I crocheted two mother bears.
This bear has a striped skirt that I crocheted using this bear skirt pattern. My bears are crocheted seamless without joining and done in rounds. This bear was done in BLO (back loop only) single crochet except for the head. I have experimented and think the head looks better crocheted through both loops in single crochet.
Now here is a striped bare bear crocheted using Red Heart Stripe yarn in colorway Parrot Stripe. This little guy was crocheted in BLO for the entire bear. As you can see his head appears smaller and not a nice looking as the first bear. I think if I added more stitches the head would look better in BLO so I may try that next time.
If you are new to the Mother Bear Project, you can find the Ravelry group here. The Mother Bear Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children, primarily those affected by HIV/AIDS and by giving them a gift of love in a handmade teddy bear.
Come join in the bear-making
As many of us are under stay-at-home orders, I have taken this time to enjoy all the extra time I have to crochet. I have lots of yarn, plastic bags to recycle, and so many projects to work on. There are all those charity crafting projects to work on. There are hats and mini Christmas stockings to crochet for Warmth for Warriors. Then there are gift items I can get done for upcoming birthdays and of course in-advance Christmas gift making. Anyway for those of us who love to knit and crochet, this is a grand time.
Oh don’t get me wrong, I do miss my work and my friends. I wish I could use this time to get-together with loved ones and friends but this is not the time. We need to stay home and keep our social distancing with the Coronavirus raging in so many areas. We don’t want to needlessly chance the spread to those more vulnerable.
So check out all my free patterns for crafting ideas should you be looking for a new pattern to try. Come join me in making hats and mini Christmas stockings for the troops through Warmth for Warriors. And of course, grab those stashed plastic bags and recycle them into some plarn to crochet a tote bag, purse, or other useful item. But overall stay safe and healthy.
I tried two new hat patterns for Warmth for Warriors this last month. Both of these patterns are free from the author’s website. First one I did is the cable & stripes hat by Dianne Hunt. Her blog Cre8tion Crochet has the hat pattern available free. I love the results of this hat pattern!
This second one is called ribbed wonder hat. This pattern calls for the hat to be crocheted with bulky yarn but I crocheted it with worst weight yarn. The free ribbed wonder hat pattern is found at 365 Crochet Knit Too site.
This hat pattern is worked by crocheting in the back loops to create a knit-look ribbing. As I said, I used worst wool for my hat. I started with chaining 45 stitches using an I hook for 44 rows. The hat is a bit tight on my head so next time I think I will do 46 rows but I do crocheting tightly. So if you use worst weight yarn, check your fit before fastening off. My length was fine at 8 inches with the folded cuff as shown above.
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