Ice Cream Koozie and Gift Bags

Hi all -

No big accomplishments to share with you yet, so I thought I'd share some little things that I've made. A while ago I ran across a blog that described how to make an Ice Cream Koozie. What a wonderful idea! I like to eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream (a little too much!), but I hate holding onto the cold carton. I've always just wrapped the carton in a dish towel while eating the ice cream (because who likes to use a bowl????), so when I saw this blog I knew I had to make one for myself.

I think I made mine mostly like the directions describe, but I'm not sure since I really mostly just looked at the pictures and made it my own way. One change I did make was to add a layer of a extra firm sew-in stabilizer (Pellon 926) in the middle. I thought that would keep the koozie from flopping around and would add some extra insulation for my fingers. I think it was a good decision. I really like the stiffness it provides. I can still feel some of the cold through the koozie, but it works great. I also decided to round the corners because I thought the square corners would get in the way and rounded corners are easier to turn. I meant to add the elastic a little bit above the middle of that edge, which I thought was so obvious that I didn't think much as I did it, so, of course, I ended up putting the elastic a little bet below the center of that side. Oh well, it still works! Here it is going for its first test drive:

The other thing I've made since my last post were several Christmas gift bags. I try to make reusable gift bags for all of my gifts now, but they can take a while to make so I'm happy to get a start on my Christmas bags.

These are all of the gifts that I have so far so I'm completely caught up. Hopefully, I'll be disciplined enough to make new bags for each gift I get or make so I won't be rushing at the end! If you're interested, I wrote a blog post last year describing how I make these bags.

Well, that's all I've completed lately. I'm in the middle of knitting a little beaded scarf, so hopefully I'll be able to share that project soon.

Nancy