Basketweave Afghan

I crocheted this afghan last year, right before Christmas. I've made serveral basketweave afghans in the past few years, but kept this one for myself. It has 3 colors in it, and is crocheted with an I hook. To create the basketweave, you make a treble crochet (wrap the yarn around the hook 3x) and then hook it into the row of double crochets below the current row. It's a really simple pattern (as are most of the things that I make!), but I think it looks really nice when it's done. I don't work on afghans very often during the summer, but now that it's getting cold outside, I'm going to start work on a few larger items again. The craft show season is upon us, and I like to have a stack of these sitting around to keep folks warm!

(cost: $30-40)

Green bags (made in white!)

These are my earth day/recycle project that I've been working on. To make, you cut plastic WalMart/grocery bags into 1 1/2 inch strips horizontally and loop them together to make your yarn. Once I did that, I crocheted them using a half-double crochet with an N hook to make the bag you see. Very simple pattern -- the bag itself works up pretty quickly. The hardest part of this particular crafts is making the "yarn." (cost: $8-10, depending on size)