My first crocheting experience began when I was about 13 years old while watching my sister (who is only 3 years older than me) crocheting a pair of gloves for herself.  I was so amazed by her crocheting skills after seeing how nicely the gloves turned out, that from then on crocheting became one of my hobbies as well.

During the summer I keep busy with being outdoors and working in my flower and vegetable gardens, but during cold winter months, I enjoy reading, watching movies, trying new recipes, and crocheting.

As much as I enjoy crocheting and doing other crafts, all my completed items are either donated or gifted to others, rather than kept for myself, since it gives me so much pleasure to watch others enjoy my creations.

Today I will share some of the crocheting items I completed this winter.  I create my own designs and patterns for some projects but also use UTube tutorials for the more complicated ones.

The above hats, scarves, headbands, trivets, and coasters were crocheted from a donated yarn and will be shipped to and enjoyed by orphans and needy families in Ukraine, with the cooperation of Basilian Nuns in various Monasteries there.

Last winter I also crocheted hats and scarves for the same project to help orphans and needy children in other parts of Ukraine.  We also crocheted some blankets for ladies residing at a senior facility.

This baby blanket was fun to make, as it was a new pattern for me, and here is the link to the UTube tutorial, in case you wish to give it a try.

This baby blanket has a matching dolly blanky so the little girl and her dolly can have matching blankets.  This is a very easy pattern even for a beginner, and you can follow it on this UTube link.  I changed the egging pattern of this blanket to one of my own to give it a personal touch.

I just love this baby peacoat pattern with a matching hat and crocheted it for a family member as a gift.  It is called the “Dora Cardigan” on the UTube video tutorial.

I changed the sleeve pattern to make it a little fancier but used the same stitch type to match the rest of the coat.  I also made it a little longer than suggested and used a scalloped edge to finish it off all around the coat and the sleeves.

These scarves, the headband, and a child’s hat were made for family and friends as special gifts.  The white Infinity Scarf was my first project of this type, and it actually looks like it was knitted rather than crocheted, but very enjoyable to make.  I try to learn new patterns for all my projects, just to keep them interesting and fun because counting stitches all this time can get quite redundant.

Since you can go on UTube and select any pattern you wish, I will not be sharing links to all my projects for that reason.

Baby hats and booties, the girl’s scrunches, and decorative flowers are the most fun to create, and so adorable.

It was quite a change from crocheting cute baby blankets to plain blankets and throws, but these were created for very special people in my life, making the project more interesting.  If you look closer at the bottom blanket you will notice that I crocheted and attached small mittens to the top sides of it to slide the little hands into them and make it cozier while wrapping oneself in it.

Last but not least, my very interesting project which I never thought I would ever engage in, but per special request, I actually gave it a try.  As you easily guessed from the above picture, it is a crocheted beer Cozy Koozy Mitt.  It actually came in handy this winter for the receivers of this gift, to keep their beer cold and their hand warm while attending an outdoor event at a local brewery…:-)

I hope you noticed the above link I provided to the UTube video tutorial for this Cozy Koozy since lots of other people felt this was such a great idea and are very eager to make these for themselves.