I am crocheting teddy bears for the Mother Bear Project and have some extra clothing ideas to share. I sent for the crocheted seamless bear pattern and found the pattern very easy to follow with lots of opportunities to make variations on the bear’s clothing. A group over at Ravelry is having a KAL/CAL for the Mother Bears and there are some amazing ideas being shared over there if you’d like to check it out. Here is the link to the group.
After seeing another crafter make an adorable hoodie, I knew I just had to make a bear with a hoodie too. If you knit there are instructions for the Bears in the Hood found here but I only crochet so I had to improvise and create a hoodie for my bear.
So after a little trial and error here are the pattern details for a crocheted Mother Bear hoodie.
I’ve been busy crocheting more mini Christmas socks for the Warmth for Warrior stocking drive. I have been involved in the campaign to make little Christmas stockings for the troops which are filled with small items for our troops for several years now. As you can see below, I have crocheted these mainly using yarn but in the center you will see that I have a recycled denim and plastic bag “plarn” socks too. It’s fun to mix and match the yarns and materials to make the stockings each year.
I mainly use this little Christmas stocking pattern to crochet the socks with just a few changes. I crochet the stockings to 6 inches so I decrease the number of rounds in the original crochet sock pattern by
I have been crocheting purple baby hats for the PURPLE baby crying awareness campaign. PURPLE Crying is a program to help parents, caregivers and others understand this normal increased crying in healthy infants and prevent abuse such as shaken baby syndrome.
Details for the hat drive can be found here. They do ask that the hats be at least 50% purple in color and be simple with no straps or hanging pom poms etc.
Here is the baby size hat pattern that I adapted from the adult crochet hat pattern for this project. I have options in the pattern directions below for a 3-month old baby, newborn, and a preemie sized hat.
Enjoy the free crochet pattern and I hope you will support this is very important baby awareness campaign by crocheting or knitting a purple hat.
Baby Striped and Ribbed Band Hat Pattern
Finished baby ribbed hat measures:
3-month old = 14 inch circumference by 6 inches long with WW yarn
Newborn = 13″ cir by 5-1/2″ long with WW yarn
Preemie = 11″ cir by 4-1/2″ long with Aran yarn
Hooks:
H (5 mm) US sized crochet hook for 3-month baby
G (4 mm) US sized crochet hook for newborn and preemie babies
Changes for preemie size baby hat shown in italicized text below.
Materials: 1 ounce Worsted Medium Weight or Aran Yarn
(1 oz of yarn for solid color and 1/2 oz of contrasting yarn for stripes)
With main yarn color, Ch 3 and join to form ring. Hat pattern is worked in the round without turning.
Rnd 1
Ch 2, work 11 Hdc in ring and join to beg Ch-2. (12)
(Ch-2 counts as first Hdc st.)
I have been working a new venture and wanted to take this opportunity to introduce my new blog My Useful Ideas.com
My Useful Ideas is a blog where ideas will be shared that are designed to save you money, help you solve a problem, answer a question, fix a problem, explain how to deal with a situation, and generally help you out. I am not an expert but will share with you ideas and solutions that I have found work and that are helpful in everyday use. Some of the ideas are very basic and which you may have read about in the past but I write to share my experiences and hopefully help out someone who may have not had to face the same challenge yet in their life.
My new blog will allow me to have a place where I can share my non-crafting ideas and keep this blog more for recycled crafting and crocheted craft projects. It is my plan to share helpful ideas for everyday living and beyond. Topics will include everyday challenges such as
Check out this cool reusable tote bag I received in the mail. I just love the size and the message of this bag. It’s a roomy 14″ by 14″ tote constructed of heavy canvas and is one of the go green items that Dakota’s Personalized Gifts is offering their customers. They generously sent me this bag along with a set of their bamboo kitchen utensils to review.
The bamboo kitchen set includes 4 different spoons and spatulas along with tongs, chop sticks, and even a potholder. Plus it comes in an authentic bamboo stalk for storage. It features the wide grain of bamboo slats for beauty and durability. Overall an attractive and useful set for the price which includes free personalization on the items.
All the items I received were very nice but I must say that the tote bag is my favorite item. While I love making my own recycled bags, I am really going to enjoy using this beautiful tote bag with its great eco message. So if you are looking for some green gift ideas, please check out Dakota’s green living line of products.
I crocheted these felted baby slippers using just a small amount of chunky wool yarn that I had left over from a thrift store purchase. I was inspired by the cute felted woman’s slippers that Guro created. Guro has a new blog site where you can find all kinds of beautiful new craft projects that she has created. I just love all her beautiful crochet projects. Click on over and check out her gorgeous designs.
I wanted to make baby slippers to fit my Granddaughter who is 10 months old. So through trial and error, I finally came up with a pattern that after felting fit her feet.
My finished slippers before felting were 3″ wide by 5″ inches long with a toe depth of 2″. After felting the slippers are 2.5″ wide by 4.25″ long. Guro has graciously allowed me to post my baby version of her slipper pattern below. Enjoy and happy crafting to all!
Felted Baby Wool Slippers
Crochet hook: J (6 mm) crochet hook
Yarn: 2 ozs Bulky/Chunky weight wool yarn
2) small star buttons
Rnd 1
Ch 2, work 6 Sc in 2nd ch from hook. Don’t join as this pattern is worked in rounds without joining.
I want to share with you a unique company I came across on the web. Turtle Mat is a creator of all types of mats for the home. Not just useful by the door, Turtle Mats are now widely used in kitchens, bathrooms, boats, RVs, dorms, offices, and utility rooms. Turtle Mats are manufactured by one of the world’s largest and most eco-friendly textile groups. The group has achieved carbon negative status by planting one million trees every year and by producing green energy in its own hydroelectric plants. The group is also at the forefront of initiatives to reduce waste, cut water usage and use fewer chemicals.
Turtle Mat also supports the Marine Conservation Society, the only charity in the UK dedicated to caring for our seas, shores and wildlife. Through their Adopt-a-Turtle campaign, they are working to save marine turtles from extinction. In the last year, Turtle Mat customers have helped raise over £5,000 through their adoption scheme. To find out more about adopting a turtle, visit their website at Marine Conservation Society.
So should you need a new doormat, you of course could crochet your own recycled rug like this plarn round rug. Plarn rugs are fun to make and are very durable. But maybe you aren’t a crafter and want to shop for beautiful and practical doormats from a green eco-friendly company. I recommend you check out the collection of lovely mats and rugs that Turtle Mat offers.
Using recycled materials and promoting eco-friendly projects is always a goal of mine here at My Recycled Bags. But maybe you aren’t a crafter and want to be able to buy a unique gift or product that is eco-friendly and organic.
The Travelling Souk offers a wide range of products under their Eco Souk line. They offer Fair Trade products that are organic and eco-friendly. Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability.
Eco Souk embraces and encourages beautiful products promoting ecological and sustainable manufacturing practices and where all the workers have been paid a decent wage.
Wherever you see this symbol the product is either Fair Trade, ethical, eco-friendly, organic, recycled, green or natural. These cool-looking organic cotton oven mitts and peg bags were among my favorites at their site. Both of these items use organic, eco friendly raw materials and manufacturing methods.
So whether you want to make your own eco-friendly oven mitt or peg bag, you can check out my free patterns. Otherwise please check the unique eco-friendly products and gift ideas available at Eco Souk.
What comes to mind when you think about recycling? We all know the importance of recycling when it comes to plastic, glass, tin, and paper but what about electronic trash. Electronic waste is defined as discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken electrical or electronic devices.
Electronic waste or e-waste includes computers, entertainment device electronics, television sets, and mobile phones just to name a few of the most frequently found e-waste items.
Today I want to focus in on mobile phones. Each year nearly two hundred fifty million phones cell phones are discarded and many get thrown away and end up in our trash and landfills. Cell phones contain toxic chemicals and hazardous materials such as copper, lead, arsenic and zinc products just to name a few of the concerning materials.
So what is the answer? Well mobile phone recycling of course. Not only can you turn your e-trash into cash, you can be helping our environment by keeping them out of our landfills. By recycling your old mobile phones you keep them from leeching into our Earth, contaminating our water aquifers, poisoning our animals and thus harming all of us.
One company in the Uk is making it easier to recycle some of those 68 million old mobile phones found in the UK. Sell My Mobile is the UK’s number 1 mobile phone recycling price comparison site. They help you to turn your trash into cash by providing an easy to use search box that will help you identify the make and model of your mobile phone. Then by comparing all the UK’s leading mobile phone recycling companies and with daily updated price checking, you can choose the best deals possible when you sell mobile phones.
Is your old cell phone broken? Never fear — Many of the merchants listed even pay out for broken phones. You could still receive up to 90% of the original working phone offer depending on the level of damage your phone has. The reason is that even damaged mobile phones can be repaired back to factory standard and parts can be reused and refurbished by retailers.
So whatever type of e-waste you may have, please consider recycling it rather than allowing it to end up in the trash. When you choose to reuse, refurbish and recycle, you are making a positive move in making our world greener. A greener world is definitely a goal that we all can support and reach towards. Remember every little bit helps.
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