Crochet on Earth Day and a new free pattern

Its Earth Day today April 22...details of this commemoration can of course be searched on the internet ;)
I thought of posting today to remind ourselves to be more conscious of our choices for our crochet hobby. We can crochet with more earth-friendly materials (have to do a search on that as well...). Better yet, we can crochet with recyclable materials such as plastic bags, old t-shirts and other fabrics on hand. Try to make your own paper yarn, t-shirt yarn, plastic yarn. Some even used old VHS tapes as yarn. (see google images)

Another option is to buy recyclable materials at the thrift shop. I previously bought used sweaters and cardigans made of yarn that can be recycled. (posted here) The prospect is good, however, I have yet to find the time to actually make projects from those recyclable materials :p
There are plenty of free patterns on the internet using plarn (plastic yarn) or tarn (t-shirt yarn), or just substitute whatever you have on patterns requiring worsted weight or bulky yarn.
Crocheted flowers and purses are practical projects for recycled materials

Another crochet earth-friendly way is to use remaining threads to make home decors that at the same time will save your wooden tables from scratches and stains. I've got that covered with this new free pattern, Pinya Glass Cozy.
Each cozy used only 11 gms of thread (size 8 cotton thread).

Blue Glass Cozy

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Crochet - finished or not

I still have some patterns and projects to finish...which already has taken too long. Sorry to keep some of you waiting. I really plan on sharing more free patterns this year - so far its still in-the-making. I promise to do this, soon...
I only managed to do little projects, little home improvements and the usual chores. And here's some of the little projects I made:
First, here's an illustration I recently made for my pattern Teeny, Tiny Heart. Since I don't have a program (or rather don't know how to use one), I drew the chart by hand and improved it with some photo editing on picmonkey ;)

Teeny, Tiny Heart

Last January when the weather was a bit cold, I got inspired to make baby booties from the Red Heart Super Saver yarns that I bought last December. Here's my baby nephew wearing his sneaker booties.

He wanted to play with it ;)

crochet sneaker booties

Then I have another nephew, about 18 months old. He, his Mom (my sister) and his Dad (my Dutch BIL) live in the U.K..They came to visit last month, He's so adorable! I love how he mimics the dogs' barking and he's fond of all kinds of animals, including bear stuff toys :) Here's a recent photo of him enjoying a lovely spring day, back in their place.

And this is the project that I made for him - a recycled denim baby book. Its made up of 4 flaps or 8 pages in all. I crocheted the letters, numbers and bear appliques. The heart applique was made from the above Teeny, tiny heart pattern :)

Lastly, here's another cell phone purse I made following my pattern Chic Cell Phone Purses. I modified the bottom and used a slightly bigger hook, and made a shoulder strap. I'm not sure I'll use this though, the strap is not long enough  for crossbody.

More of my crochet projects next post ;)

Editing your crochet project pics

Most of us are eager to show-off our handmade projects, and we like to take photos and post them on social media. Sometimes, we aren't happy with our photos. It may be because either we don't have the right gadget, or we don't have the skill or patience to take wonderful photos.
I know little about fixing photos in my computer...so I do most of the editing online. For free and high-quality features I go to PicMonkey. They also have Royale features at an affordable price, though if you wish to try these features for free (totally free), you can do so for one day. Otherwise, you can use the regular features anytime :) Go give your photos a makeover and have fun with it too ;)