Crocheted Tote Bags

 Last year I saw a pattern for a crocheted tote bag that was made from the bits and pieces left over from other projects.   I have found crocheting and knitting to be a very peaceful activity, one that I can do alone or with others.   It keeps my hands busy while my mind is free to watch a movie on TV or think about just about anything that's on my mind.  

I've made a bunch.  A bunch!   I keep buying yarn on sale at thrift stores and Austin Creative Recycle and garage sales.   The variety of colors is fun.  I love adding a few feet of yellow to a basically blue bag.   Or shots of orange to a brown one.

My first giveaways were to some of my retreat friends - I brought in four bags to a retreat and they were all claimed. 

  

I gave bags to the two ladies who run the retreat center. 

 (The cat there really loves it!)  

The next month, I brought two bags to another retreat and gave one to the friend who couldn't attend but is a part of the group.

At Christmas, I gave bags to another two great nieces.

Now I'm making another batch to my other retreat friends.   My yarn stash is four times the size of the one I started with, but I've had a lot of pleasure in this endeavor.

Orphan Quilt Finds a Home

My great-niece had a fire in her home a year or two ago.  I had thought it was a small fire, but found out a few months ago that she had lost quite a few things.   Loses included a rag rug that I had knitted for her, two quilts that I had made, and a quilt or two that my mother had made.

When I found out, I was in the process of finishing a quilt made of orphan blocks.   You know, the ones that were left over from a project, the ones that were test runs, the ones that didn't come out just right.  They had been living in a box in the corner of my sewing room.  The orphanage.

Anyhow, I had started a quilt of these in a retreat some time back.   But after deciding that it looked like a neighborhood, it needed a community garden.  And although I had some fruit and veggie blocks in the orphanage, the garden needed more.   So the partially completed top sat for a while. 

In my never-ending quest to finish up projects, I made a few more blocks and added them to the community blocks.   I decided that Lizz would appricitate a quilt with houses and stars and dogs and a bison and a community garden.   So I bordered it and finished it off.

At Easter, I gave the quilt to her sister who was here for a visit.  I also sent along a grandmother's flower garden quilt that my daughter had and wasn't that wild about.    She has so many quilts and was happy to pass this one on to Lizz. 

The rug, alas, will not be replaced.   Knitting with strips of fabric is very hard on the wrists and I'm just not up to it anymore. 

I love it when it all (well, almost all) works out.

My orphan quilt has a home.
My mother's quilt has a new home.
My daughter knows that Granny's quilt will be used and loved.
My great niece has quilts in her home again.
And I have space in my sewing room for more fabric!

Special Olympics Scarf

This was an easy, relaxing way to put some spare yarn into use and hopefully put a smile on someone's face.

The Texas Special Olympics Scarf Project is looking for 3000 scarves in green or blue.

Guidelines are on
http://colouringwithyarn.wordpress.com/special-olympics-scarf-project-2/2015-special-olympics-scarf-project/

Rug in Brown and Red

My Great-Niece Elizabeth saw the other rug that I was knitting and liked it.  So I offered to make her one.  Two months later, I'm almost done.  Her sister will be staying with me at Thanksgiving, so I plan to finish it up and send it back to north Texas then.
Here I am at Bee meeting, showing it off:

We meet once a month, and Show and Tell is usually the best part of our meetings.   Some of us have know each other for 25 years or so.  (Actually, Bonnie and I met 40 years ago.)

So good to have long-lasting friendships!








And here, I'm working on the border. It goes a lot faster than the center. Then to sew it on.

Doodling with yarn

After receiving a leaf-shaped dishcloth knitted by a fellow retreater, I've been doodling with cotton yarn. This yellow one was finished yesterday.
It's knitted. I finished a crocheted red one for my daughter and a brown and white one for my granddaughter.
Sometimes it's nice to have a very small project available to do.