Craftster Zippered Pouch Favors for Asheville Adventure

sheepBlue & I made favors for everyone who attended the Asheville Adventure Meetup.  The black canvas zippered pouches were purchased on Amazon, then I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the skull with scissors logo from silver glitter htv, and everyone's usernames from either teal or magenta htv. 

Each was filled with the custom swag we had printed up, including stickers, buttons, temporary tattoos, and pencils, along with gum, lip balm & Sharpies.  The pencils were a funny story.  I tried to order 'DIY-Do It Your Own Damn Self' on the black, 'Crafty Bitch' on the pink, and 'I run with scissors' on the silver.  Oriental Trading Company refused to print the words 'damn' or 'bitch', but said 'I run with scissors' was okay.  I switched the black pencils to read 'Asheville or Bust 2019', and the pink pencils to say 'Crafty like a fox'.  When the box arrived those ones were fine, but the silver pencils had a label that read 'I run with scissors', but the pencils themselves were covered in Bible quotes!  I'd love to see the look on the face of the church lady who ordered her bible verse, when she opened my pencils!  Thankfully they reprinted and sent the new ones right out. 

The stickers were printed from VistaPrint, and the buttons were done by an Etsy seller I've worked with in the past who is fast and pretty dang affordable.

sheepBlue did the awesome temporary tattoos, but sadly I didn't get a picture of one, or even get one of the tattoos themselves.  My pouch had been taken out of the box for the group to save space, and somehow I never grabbed one.  sheep, if you have a pic, could you post it below?

I didn't want the gentlemen who were joining us to feel left out, so they got favors too.  Reusable water bottles filled with a snack sized sleeve of pistachios, a small flashlight, a matching carabiner, a bundle of paracord, a tube of mint lip balm, a Sharpie, and one of the Asheville or Bust pencils.

All the Lanyards

I knew we needed name tags for the Asheville Adventure Meetup, but hated the idea of boring stick on ones.  Plus I wanted to include everyone's avatar, for folks to help put a name (or screen name) with a face.  I saw that several of the sets of name tag holders on Amazon came with lanyards.  Boring black string lanyards that no one would ever use again.  No thanks!  So I made my own!  There are 31 in the picture, but I want to say one more I made is missing...  Most are beaded, but there are also some braided leather, some faux leather cording, and some cotton corded ones, for those who didn't want a lot of bling.  My hope is that those who wear lanyards at work can get some more use out of them, and those who don't can repurpose them by simply removing the giant clip that attaches to the name tag, and wear them as long necklaces, or as wrap bracelets. 

Adventurers, I didn't get individual pictures of them, so feel free to post close ups of yours!

Antique Key Necklace

This was made for LeapFeetFirst in the Asheville Adventure Swap.  The swap had partners who had not 'met' or didn't know one another well here on Craftster, get to know each other by exchanging a letter, and later a medium crafted item as well as a craft supply that your partner could use and some sort of local treat.  The final portion of the swap was optional, and allowed for partners to bring a final small crafted item to give their partner in person. 

The pendant base is an antique key.  It was decorated with a glass Christmas light bulb, stone beads, freshwater pearls, antiqued charms, a paper bead, bits of ribbon, and anything else I could find. 

Crocheted Car Accessories & Striped Seatbelt Cozies

My husband & I have been a 1 car family since we were dating.  Somehow, this always worked for us.  For a while we worked near one another during the same shift, later I walked to work and he took the car to his job, and after that I started working from home.  This helped us save money, and was good for the environment, but over the past year it has been hard.  With his job further away from the house, and me often handling our errands and things like taking the dog to the vet, it seemed time to get a second car.  He chose the Fiat 500e, an all electric vehicle which he can charge at home and work, and we could afford to buy outright.  That left me to inherit our cheerful little red Prius-C.

Since it became mine in August, I've been wanting to make it a bit more 'me' that I did when it was a shared vehicle.  So I have been working over the last few weeks to create some crocheted accessories for it, including a steering wheel cover, shifter knob cozy, and finally some seat belt cozies.  The steering wheel cover was made from Sylver Santika's Steering Wheel Cozy pattern with I Love This Cotton! yarn in black, burnt sienna & strawberry violet.  If you give the pattern a go, be sure to pay close attention to the pattern, which requires specific gauge sizing, and three different hook sizes.  If you're not careful about the gauge, you could end up with a cover that is too loose and slides around while you drive.

I made up the pattern for the shifter knob, without paying much attention.  The center circle is a granny circle, similar to the one found HERE. After that I worked a few rows of sc in the round, and finished with 2 rows of dc, in which I didn't connect the ends with a slip stitch, but rather simply turned the work and crocheted in the opposite direction, decreasing as necessary to try to get the right size for my shifter knob.  There was some trial and error, and frogging of stitches, before I got it to the right size.  Once I was happy with it, I put it onto the knob, then used the tail of the yarn to stitch those last two rows closed around the shaft.  The yarn was the same I Love This Cotton!, with the addition of the color pewter.

Finally there were the seat belt cozies.  Being very short, I often have problems with seat belts cutting into my neck, and so I created some nice soft cozies to keep from being scratched while I drive.  I went with a fun striped pattern and mismatched buttons to increase the crafty girl vibe.  I've written out the pattern below.

Striped Seat Belt Cozies

Skill Level: Easy

Materials:
-50 yards of worsted weight yarn in 4 colors (per cozy)
-4.5mm crochet hook
-yarn needle
-scissors
-five 1/2" or 5/8" buttons per cozy
-hand sewing needle
-button thread

Notes:
-Fits standard 2" wide seat belts.
-Written in US crochet terms
-When changing colors, you can stitch over the tail of the new yarn, leaving less ends to weave in.
-This pattern follows the color scheme for the black cozy pictured below.  You can make each cozy a different color, or keep them all the same to suit your tastes.

Abbreviations: 
Ch = chain
Hdc = half double crochet
Dc = double crochet

Color A: Black
Color B: Red
Color C: Grey
Color D: Purple

Instructions:
Row 1: With color B chain 22. Hdc in 3rd ch from hook. Hdc in each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 2: Change to color A. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. NOTE: Ch 2 does NOT count as hdc from here on. (21 hdc)

Row 3: Ch3, turn work. Dc in same st, ch 1 and skip next hdc to form buttonhole. Dc in remaining sts across. (20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp)

Row 4: Ch 2, turn work. Hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 5: Change to color C. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 6-8: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 9: Change to color D. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Row 10-12: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 13: Change to color B. Ch 2, turn work, hdc in same st and each st across. (21 hdc)

Rows 14-16: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 17: Repeat row 5. (21 hdc)

Rows 18-20: Repeat rows 2-4. (21 hdc; 20 dc & 1 ch 1 sp; 21 hdc)

Row 21: Repeat row 9. (21 hdc)

Finish off and weave in ends.

Sew on five 1/2” or 5/8” buttons. Fold over your seat belts and button closed.