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Here are more of my hats & scarves for our local homeless shelter. I am almost to the end of my yarn stash! Hats and Scarves

Thanks to new friend and avid quilter, Ilene, I am learning to quilt—finally! Here are on-going pictures of my first project, a quilt for Bob to use while watching TV on cool evenings. It is called Zigzag or Rail Fence, and is supposed to be easy; we’ll see! I am enjoying working on it, except I have to do it indoors. Knitting or reading I can do outside!

I managed to work up all my “plarn” and this is my last bag. I call it my “Bag of Many Colors” as I was able to use the last of my colored bags. I am now working on using my yarn scraps to make caps & scarves for a homeless shelter.

December 2011 -- I use my “plarn" bags for grocery shopping but some checkout clerks don’t like that the bags don’t fit well on the bag racks. So, I designed this bag with a flat bottom and longer handles to fit. I had some leftover fun fur so I used that in a couple of rows for a little fun. It was fun designing the bag as I don’t do my own designs very often.

My goal this summer is to attempt to work up all the “plarn” I have (plastic bags made into yarn). I finally prepped all the bags from family & friends and have made 2 rugs and 2 bags. These rugs are the first I’ve made; the round pattern is from Cindy at MyRecycledBags.com and the heart-shaped one is a Leisure Arts pattern. The tote bag is also Cindy’s pattern and the round bag is from Christinascrochethaven.me. All are easy and fun to do and the completed projects take up much less space than the huge balls of plarn!

February 2011 -- Now that the holidays are over, I can share some of my fall projects. For several years my husband has given our oldest granddaughter, Shelby a hippopotamus for Christmas. This year I made this one from plarn; unfortunately I didn’t put the pattern source on the pattern so I can’t reference it. We bought a blank music box at Build-A-Bear and Bob recorded a brief portion of the Hippopotamus for Christmas song before I inserted it into a foot. The hippo is made from gray plastic bags with black bag remnants for the eyes.

I made this purse for our youngest granddaughter, Grace from a pair of her uncle’s army fatigue pants. It’s lined with some leftover quilt fabric and the pink polka dot ribbon was added to make it a little girly. She loves it!

Granddaughters Abby & Shelby requested sweaters so I made these, using Caron Simply Soft yarn and Bernat’s Hooded Sweater pattern.

My friend Tina saved yellow bags for me to make this entirely yellow bag with a shoulder strap. It really turned out pretty; I might have to make one for my favorite Indy Car driver, Sarah Fisher whose major sponsor is Dollar General!

Oak Haven is having their annual flea market in January, so I’ve made several bags and bracelets which I hope to sell.

Since we’ve been spending a lot of time at the pool, I decided we needed a swim bag. Thanks to Cindy at myrecycledbags.com for this pattern, which I modified to make it a little bigger and put a pocket inside for keys, phone, cash, etc. It measures 22 ½” X 16” and holds 2 large towels, sunscreen, books or any other items we might need at the pool. It also dries easily so I don’t have to be concerned about it getting wet.

June 2010 -- Here is a picture of granddaughter Shelby, with the “plarn” purse she requested for her birthday. It is lined with a pair of her grandpa’s jeans. Thanks to Cindy at www.myrecycledbags.com for the pattern. The second picture is a bag I made for a friend, adapted from another of Cindy’s patterns.

I’ve also discovered another organization to support: Soldiers’ Angels where there are several opportunities to support our military. I encourage you to check it out.

February 24. 2010 Thanks to Cindy at www.myrecycledbags.com for the pattern for these cute Christmas gift bags. The red one is made of T-yarn (made from a couple of my old t-shirts) and the other 3 are from plarn with a little fun fur worked in (this project would have benefited from Target bags as they have more red in them!). I plan to use these for my grandchildren’s goodies. The cell phone charm I worked up as a suggestion from my sister for stocking stuffers.

This sweater is the latest I’ve made for Guideposts Knit for Kids. This sweater is special because my sister-in-law Cynthia spun the wool fiber into yarn and sent it to me to knit the sweater. It is a very soft, pretty yarn that worked up nicely and this is truly a project of love. Thanks, Cynthia!

I made this Fruit of the Spirit bracelet based on Galatians 5: 22-23. I like the way it turned out and am including the card with each bracelet.

February 1, 2009 -- Here is a backpack I just completed for son, Eric, made from recycled plastic bags. He is a Target shopper, hence the red color in the flap. I enjoyed designing my own pattern and was pleased with the result.

If you are interested in purchasing any of my items, or would like the free patterns, please contact me: curlytop@mccorkles.org.