Gifts of warmth, and fashion

the past two weeks have been spent making cowls.  I have a dozen or more nieces and nephews that i like to try to make something for for Christmas.  It's been t-shirts and hats in the past-  this year it will be cowl scarves and felted sweater mittens.
With the cowls, i tried to get fancy and tricky and make them into mobius strips.  this gives a nice full twist in front.  the mobius strip is easy to crochet.  you just twist the chain once before attaching it to start the next round.  this is cool too because you end up adding a row on BOTH sides every round.  So, it makes it easy to put a stripe on both sides or a fancy stitch. 

And speaking of fancy stitches-  it is great making something so quick as this-  i don't get bored and i can try out new crochet stitches.    You can see a little on the pink one that i added a ribbed edge.  i had never done a crochet ribbed edge before.  it is made by doing a FRONT POST DOUBLE CROCHET in one stitch, and then a BACK POST DOUBLE CROCHET in the next.  this might be old news to a lot of you-  but it was new and exciting to me.
I'm making a nice hat to go with the green one that i will post about soon.

I also tried my hand at plastic bag fusing this last week.  This is a gift for my sweet nieces birthday in a couple weeks.
   
I fused the grocery bags using this tutorial. then i just sort of winged it on the pattern.  Simple construction really.  i just cut out a front piece and then the back with a flap and a strip for the sides and the bottom.  i sewed in some belt loop things around the perimeter for the red scarf to run though.  and the sweet picture on the front flap is Maya,  the recipient.  i wanted to fuse plastic around the picture-  but that didn't work.  so i just sewed on a photo.  i don't know how long it will last.  i also now wish i had put some kind of clasp closure on it.  but not bad for a first project.  And if Maya is a bag junkie like her mother, i think it will be well received.

And now to make more cowls. 
also, i could give more details  on what i did above if anyone is interested.   
and i now have a blog-  please visit.  www.mahanaworld.com