Valentine Change Purses

On Valentine's Day my hubby and I met 3 other couples for lunch. I wanted to take a small gift for the ladies so I made the change purses shown above. They are so handy because you can throw them in your pocket with your credit card and cash and not have to lug your purse along.  I used the pattern for the strip zip version of Cash and Carry from Atkinson Designs http://store.atkinsondesigns.com/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details_ws.asp?Shopper_id=6044421648456044&Store_id=913&page_id=23&Item_ID=1033
and personalized it with their names. So my friends loved them but their husbands all complained because they did not get them!

The Only Crocheted Twisty Scarf

So before Christmas I decided to re-learn how to crochet. Back in my college days (some 40 years ago) I was quite the productive afghan maker. Through the years I got away from it but I figured it is like riding a bike and assumed it would come back to me.  I always like to give my daughter and daughter-in-laws something little that I have made for them.So I bought a small introductory to crochet booklet and found a pattern at this site http://goodtimesithinkso.blogspot.com/2009/08/sunroom-spiral-scarf-crochet.html for a twisty scarf. Off I went to Michael's and bought enough yarn to make 3 of these scarves.  Well here is the first one I made for my dear daughter-in-law.

 

 

 

So here's the deal on my experience of re-learning to crochet.  Yes the process came right back to me and I could crochet for hours. However, my fingers actually ached from all the crocheting. So after this one was finished I promptly took the rest of the yarn back to Michael's and I now know why I no longer crochet!

 

This left me with the problem that I still needed to make something for my daughter and other daughter-in-law the week before Christmas. I decided to use some of my fabric and make these cute zippered change purses.I used a pattern from Atkinson Design called Cash and Carry. They turned out great and my fingers did not ache when I was done.