Happy Holidays & 31 Knit Scarves

I want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of love. I hope you all have a joyous New Year too!

I knit 31 scarves (and 1 hat) between last year and the beginning of this year and donated them the local library who puts up a Christmas tree each year in the lobby and decorates the tree with the knit and crocheted items. These items can be hand made or store bought. The library collects these knit and crocheted accessories which they then donate to a local clothing closet which distributes to the needy. Here are the scarves I knit. Some that I knit were exact duplicates, so I only photographed one of them, because I was running out of branch space, lol!!! Hard to get a good photo of all of them together, so I grouped them.

I used up a lot of novelty yarn like eyelash yarn to knit these. I didn't want to use wool, since if they got improperly washed they would shrink and felt and might not even fit a doll then! Plus wool can be itchy and expensive to use and all these yarns were soft to wear.

I knit all almost all in garter stitch and long rectangles, except for one cowl and a few triangle shaped scarves. One I crocheted too.

Next year I hope to knit and donate hats of all sizes. Not sure how many hats I will complete in a year, so we'll see...

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Lip Balm Holders

I made three Lip Balm Holders. These are fast and easy to make if you don't add hand applique and hand embroidery stitches like I did, LOL!!! Sewing on a sewing machine would really make these fast to sew. I followed Rochelle's free tutorial (her blog is eSheep Designs), but I used wool felt instead of ribbon or faux leather as she suggests using. These are great to clip on your handbag for easy access. Her tutorial is here.

My Lip Balm versions:

This is the back side of the lip balm holders. I figured since they swivel it may as well be pretty on the back too.

Here is the front side of the holders. You can see the folded place where the lip balm fits into.

I clipped this lip balm holder to my Carriers Conquest handbag. You can see my lip balm in the pocket holder.

The back of the holder.

If you have a ring on your handbag, these clip on easily.

Thanks Rochelle for the tutorial!
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Daryl's Drive: An Easy Street Bag Pattern

Gosh it's been a while since I posted. I am about 99% better now. I have had sciatica for 18 weeks now, and 4 weeks ago I was 95% better I decided to follow a yoga dvd for doing back stretches, then wham I must have aggravated something, because the sciatica pain came back, but not as bad as the first time thank goodness. So I hope to post a bit more regularly from now on.

Okay on with Daryl's Drive I feel so honored and special to have this bag named after ME! It's a thrill!!! But it's also a beautiful style bag too!

Christine, of Chris W Designs, designed this bag as one of her Easy Street pattern collection of bags that are designed to be easier and faster to sew, but still have some great design elements too. Like I love the hidden phone pocket on this bag, and the shape of the bag too.

Since this bag was named after me, I wanted a fabric that would say "me", so I used a fabric that was designed by Kathy Hall called Celebracion by Andover Fabrics. It is designed from the Museum of New Mexico's Museum of International Folk Art (located in Santa Fe). The fabric is bright, colorful, it's a large floral print and all of that says "me"!!! Lol!!!

I hope you like the Daryl's Drive as much as I do. And hop over to see all the testers versions too. Plus you can receive 20% off the price of the Daryl's Drive pattern right now when you sign up for Christine's Newsletter. 

There are a couple of ways to add the straps. One is like this with rivets (although I cheated and used hot fix silver dots to look like faux rivets, lol!!!) or with a hardware I didn't have, but you can see some of the testers and Christine's strap hardware here.

The side of the bag can be pushed in like this or pushed out for a puffier look. On the back side of the purse behind the upper band is a hidden cell phone pocket, which makes it so easy to grab your phone. Don't have a phone (like me), then put your keys in this pocket instead like I do. You can see the pocket in some of the testers versions.

Inside there are slip pockets and a zippered pocket.

This is the fabric I used.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
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