Come Learn and Share Information about Recycling, Crocheting & Recycled Crafting


Basketweave Crocheted Hat

January 7, 2025 No comments yet
Basketweave Crocheted Hat

Here is my last hat I crocheted for 2024 for Warmth for Warriors. It is a basketweave hat pattern by Breann Mauldin. This easy crochet pattern features a basketweave brim that works up into a good looking hat.

The only changes I did do was add one additional round before starting the basketweave brim portion of the hat. I wanted a little larger hat and this is a good way to do that. I also do count the chain-2 as a stitch throughout as I think it looks better for the basketweave to keep the stitches even in appearance.

Using an H (5 mm) crochet hook, my hat is an XL adult size measuring 22.5 inches around by 9 inches long. A nice roomy size for one of our Veterans to receive this winter to keep warm.

Here is the pattern link to the

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2024 No comments yet
Recycled Christmas Card

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas! May your hearts and homes be filled with love and peace this holiday season. And may you have many blessings in the New Year.

Alpine Mini Christmas Stocking

December 9, 2024 No comments yet
Mini Alpine Christmas Stocking

I tried out a new mini Christmas stocking pattern. The Alpine Christmas stocking pattern features 4 different sizes you can crochet. The jumbo stocking is about 22 inches long and the sizes go down to the mini stocking which is about 6 inches long. The mini size is perfect for the Warmth for Warriors stockings that I crochet each year.

Here is the first little stocking I crocheted using the mini stocking directions.

This stocking is a bit wonky as the red yarn was very thin and the white yarn was much thicker but it still turned out to be a cute stocking. Plus I learned and got better with the Alpine stitch as I worked through this stocking.

Once I figured out the specialized stitch, I moved on to another stocking and used yarn that was of equal thickness. This green mini stocking turned out much better looking and I think I have crocheted the Alpine stitch pattern more actually now. I also crocheted the toe in the same color as the main stocking which I thought looked better. Check out the photo below and let me know what you think?

Teddy Bear Dolls

November 23, 2024 No comments yet
Girl Teddy Bear Doll

I had the opportunity to participate this year in Operation Christmas Child. Shoeboxes are filled with toys, school supplies, and personal care items for children for Christmas. The boxes are sent all around the world to many different places to bless the children and share the gospel.

Our women’s bible study got together and filled 53 boxes this year. Many of us made handmade gifts as well as store-bought goodies to fill the boxes. I crocheted two teddy bear dolls. Here is my girly bear with a skirt that I crocheted. The skirt crochet pattern for this doll is found here.

Next photo is of my bare bear doll. These bare or PJ bears are fun and quick to crochet.They make some cute teddy bear dolls for children.

Honor Crocheting

November 11, 2024 No comments yet
Unfinished crochet project

When a crocheter dies they many times leave behind a unfinished project. Often family who find the project(s) don’t know how to go about finishing the item. Sometimes you see these things at thrift stores or estate sales. I am always sad when see them and wonder about the crafter who left behind some work of theirs in progress.

I recently was given a big tote with lots of yarn from a friend’s relative that had passed away. Inside the tote, I found this partially finished crochet project. All the yarn was in a bag with even the crochet hook still attached to the project. It looked like a scarf and it was in a basic double crochet stitch which I could easily identify.

So I set off to finish up this project. I call this honor crocheting as I am honoring the person who started it by finishing their project for which they left behind when they died. I am not positive that she was crocheting a scarf but it was easy for me to finish it and honor her work. Here is the finished scarf below.

Mutant Potatoes

October 23, 2024 No comments yet
Mutant looking potatoes

Halloween time seems like a good time to share my mutant potatoes. These strange and scary potatoes were grown in my garden this year. I was so surprised when I dug them up and discovered how they had grown into these strange-looking shapes.

I found out that these potatoes were stressed and that is what caused them to grow so strangely. There is a good article here about the reasons and how to avoid this from happening. Apparently lack of rain, hot weather and not enough watering are the main reasons that you can end up with potatoes looking like these do.

When this happens your harvest will be much smaller as the potatoes didn’t grow and spread out like they should have. When the potatoes are dry for too long, it causes

Sea Blue Granny Shawl

October 7, 2024 No comments yet
Sea Blue Granny Shawl

I found this pretty Sea Muse Print Yarn at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would make into a lovely granny shawl. I purchased 3 skeins of 5 ounces each to crochet this granny shawl pattern by Louise Howe. The free pattern is found here.

I used a H (5 mm) crochet hook and followed the pattern as written. I did crochet one row of SC

Potholder Towel Combo

September 13, 2024 No comments yet
Fall Potholder Towel Combo

Here are a few potholder towel combo ideas. First is a Fall themed potholder from the Dollar Store that I added a towel to the bottom of the potholder.

The towel is folded in half and I used a needle and thread to run a baste stitch through the center for gathering. I then gathered the center of the towel to match the bottom of the potholder.

Below is a photo of the front with it pinned in several areas. You can either machine stitch the towel to the potholder or hand stitch it in place. For this project, I hand stitched the towel to the bottom edge of the potholder. I was able to hide my stitches using brown thread and pulling up under the red trim edge of the potholder. I secured the towel tightly by doing many stitches and making sure it wasn’t going to pull loose. See photos below for more details and you can click on them to supersize the photos.

More Baby Lovies

August 25, 2024 No comments yet
Brown Granny Bear Lovey

Here are a two more baby lovies that I have crocheted for the local hospital. These lovies are crocheted using a ponytail hair tie for the centerhole and then a store-bought stuffed animal used for the center.

The first lovey is crocheted using lavender and white yarn with a stuffed dinosaur. This lovey features a round ripple design. Here is the link for the round ripple baby lovey pattern details. My finished size is 21 inches wide.

Next is a granny stitch styled lovey with a white dollar store bear added for the animal. The pattern details on how to crochet this lovey are as follows


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About Me

Hello, I’m Cindy or aka RecycleCindy. Welcome to my blog site that is dedicated to recycling and crafting. I love to crochet and create crafts and other useful things from recycled materials. I share many free tutorials and patterns for creating recycled projects as well as other handmade items.


Here is a direct link to all my free patterns available here on My Recycled Bags.


Thank you for stopping by to visit and for your interest in My Recycled Bags!