Crochet Bag

It is finally finished. My multi-colored crochet bag made with a pattern from Attic24. I also found the pattern for the flower embellishments here as well.

I really liked the muted colors Attic24 used in her bags. I would like to make another bag in slightly muted colors next. For this bag, I just used the colors I had on hand.

Reuseable Swiffer Cloths, Wayne Gretzky and The Grand Canyon

Well I sure enjoyed my spring break. The hubby and I flew down to Phoenix, Arizona. Spent a few days in Phoenix then drove up to The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde. We even saw Wayne Gretzky at the Coyotes game. It was a great get away.

While driving across the great state of Arizona, I whipped up three more swiffer covers. One is on it's way to Stewart Valley, SK for my uncle's wife. The other two are for the people who commented on my original swiffer post.

One more to make for my friend Hank in Altona. I'll start it this weekend.

Crochet in Progress

I took a break from crochet to post up some pictures of my latest project. (I need to give my hands a little rest!) I saw this crochet bag pattern by Attic24 and loved the colors and the stripe design. I gathered some bright colors and was inspired to make this bag myself. I am using yarn that I picked up at Value Village - a second hand store. I can often find big lots of yarn there for $2-5. I decided to use up some of my yarn stash for this project.

I couldn't figure out why my bag kept getting bigger and not taller...until I realized that I was increasing one more stitch in each row (well after I was supposed to stop increasing!) In all I added about 2 extra inches in width to this bag. Oh well - there's no going back now. I'm just making the correction now and going with the flow. I guess I'll just have a really big beautiful bag to put my knitting/crochet projects in!

Net Shopping Bag - Plarn

I just finished this plarn bag. I found the pattern on www.myrecycledbags.com

This bag was created using the plastic bags that my tupperware came in. Each piece was wrapped in a clear plastic bag and since I had such a successful tupperware party, I had plenty of material to work with.

The net pattern allows the bag to stretch to fit whatever is inside. It didn't take long to make as it had an open design.

Reusable Swiffer Cover

I love my swiffer but always feel a little guilty about throwing out the swiffer cloth when I'm finished with it, I had heard about people making reusable swiffer covers and had wanted to try making one. I found this pattern and tried it out tonight. It took me about 90 minutes to make and it was really easy to crochet. I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn. This would be a great project to use up left overs of cotton yarn left over from making dishcloths.

I tested it out on my kitchen floor and it picked up the dust and dirt very well. (I decided against putting up a picture of the "after" shot. No one needs to know how dirty my floor is!!!) After I use it I just have to toss it in the washing machine. No waste and no more spending money on swiffer cloths just to throw them away.

I plan to make some more of these. I will make one of these for the first three people to comment on this post.

Plarn Shopping Bag

I made this plarn shopping bag for my friend VHN's daughter. Her daughter is very eco-friendly and VHN said that she thought she would enjoy a bag made out of recycled plastic bags. I just made a larger version of this bag. I started with 30 chains across and then followed the pattern from there. I had to adjust the placement of the handles to fit the bag. It worked out pretty good. I had started it awhile ago but ran out of Sobey's bags. Thanks to my sister for saving hers for me.

I placed the wooden spoon beside it to show about how big it is.

Here are 25 reasons to use reusable shopping bags.

Giant Tiger Plarn Bag

I finished this bag for a student of mine. He brought me 40+ lovely yellow Giant Tiger bags and then asked me to make him something. I made this little bag from this free pattern at www.myrecycledbags.com

Now of course all of the rest of the children in the class want me to make them a bag too. One boy even brought me 10 plastic bags. I told them that if they want me to crochet the bag for them they have to make the plarn. We are now going to have a lunch club to make plarn!

If they want the bag, they will have to do some of the work for it. Sounds like fun!

Amigurumi

I found the pattern for this little bear and decided to make it for my hubby for Valentine's Day. This was my first venture in the world of Amigurumi. I liked it so much I think I'll stay for awhile! He thought it was pretty cool too, so I made him a little travelocity gnome mascot to help him cheer on the contestants on the Amazing Race. I made this little lion too.

Check out my links and blog roll to find other really amazing amigurumi.

I realized that none of my amigurumi have eyes - yet. I plan to add some. Soon. Until then, they aren't going anywhere! Literally - they can't see!

Plarn

My latest hobby is making plarn (plastic yarn) and then creating bags out of the plarn. I have made several different plarn bags. I found the patterns at myrecycledbags.com. I have completed 4 bags and have two more on the go. I just need to get a few more bags to finish them off.

I even used a plarn bag as a door prize for a tupperware party I had. People thought I was a little crazy at first - you're cutting apart plastic bags to make more plastic bags? - but once they have seen the finished product they think it is pretty cool. Many of my co-workers have given me their plastic bags to turn into something cool. One of my students actually pulled a large bag of Giant Tiger bags out of his backpack and asked me to make something for him with them. That is the current project! How could I refuse?

Here are a few of my plarn bags:

Crochet

My maternal grandmother taught me to crochet one summer. It was a terribly hot August and so we retreated into the basement where my mother told me I was to "spend time with grandma" out of the heat. This was where I first learned to crochet - and with fine crochet cotton!

Now I enjoy using mainly different yarns - cotton, acrylics and plarn (plastic yarn). I crochet dishcloths, plarn bags and my latest interest is amigurumi - little tightly crocheted creatures (see the links).

This is a hotpad that I made to go with my snowman dishes. It is two layers.