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 by Susan, on September 18th, 2009 Never enough ... I have 31 binsful. A dining room sideboard stuffed with plarn (plastic bag yarn). Half a ping-pong table loaded with T-shirts ready to be cut into strips. And two shelves stacked with reels of VHS tape. This isn’t going to last me a lifetime. In fact, I’m totally out of green DK because I used all of it for an oversize shawl that blends about 10 shades and hues (in different amounts) into a progression of dark to light. I’ll show it to you next week, after the fringe is on. by Susan, on September 10th, 2009The volunteers at the Third Street Alliance in Easton, PA, probably think I’m the world’s worst momma. That’s better than the alternative, though. If they knew that both of my kids have four legs and fur they’d think me just plain crazy. There are days when The Boy would agree. I recently staggered into the house totally disheveled and covered in sweat, dragging an overstuffed yard-size garbage bag. On the stoop was another near-splitting garbage bag, plus a pair of smaller ones. My load was so big and heavy I’d barely made it across the street and through a parking lot to the house. It was the semi-annual Bag Day at the Third Street Alliance rummage sale. You can practically hear the crickets chirping in the gym throughout the event—until the final day. Then all hell breaks loose. Five bucks pays for whatever you can jam into a yard-size garbage bag and drag out of the building. A smaller bag is just a dollar. The crowd thinned after the first two hours. By then I had already claimed all the clothes I wanted to wear or upcycle into useful and fun crafts. Yet I hung around because I wanted to grab all of the remaining VHS tapes. I can jam 23 kid-themed VHS tapes into a smaller bag; I filled two this time. Did I mention that The Boy and I don’t have any people-children? My neighbor said I was. Until I pulled out a never-worn, never-washed, tags-still-on pair of white jeans in her size. by Susan, on September 3rd, 2009If I ever needed proof that I’m obsessed with crocheting unusual materials and that I’m a lousy housekeeper, I have it now: I can’t find my iron. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill iron. It’s a hundred-dollar Rowenta; the pro model with a heavy-duty shot of steam. I used to use it all the time to block my Aran-style knitting and crochet, especially the sweaters I knit annually for my husband, which are almost always loaded with cables and other dense textures. I blocked last year’s sweater with the wet towel method because the iron has been AWOL for about a year. That’s about the same length of time I’ve been playing with plarn (plastic bag yarn), tarn (T-shirt yarn), wire, and binding twine. Hmmmm. I’ve heard other stitchers say that their housework is often ignored. I guess that means I’m in good company. by Susan, on August 27th, 2009I used to groan every time The Boy dragged me along to the hardware store. Now I race to the car at the mere suggestion, secretly hoping he needs lumber. His theory is that lumber has to be carefully inspected. That takes time. Crocheting with alternative materials has changed the way that I look at the world: Cruising hardware store aisles is now exciting. I slowly scan every shelf and pick up anything that looks pliable or can be cut into strips. My last foray netted a huge spool of plastic-coated wire, the kind used for phone hookups. On sale! The coating is a dull ugly gray, but nothing a bunch of beads won’t spice up. Last night I tried stitching with it. I’m disappointed. The wire is stiffer than I thought it would be. The stitches are big and ugly. Just a couple of rows were enough to slow me down. I stared at the small stitched piece—something that usually fires me up— and got … nothing. I let my younger dog run away with it.
by Susan, on August 24th, 2009Five spools of fuchsia thread? Why do I have five?! I don’t have any fuschia fabric and I don’t have any plans to make anything in that color—it doesn’t suit me. Yesterday, before placing an order for thread that changes color in the sun (check it out here, I took stock of my sewing supplies. It turns out that I have way too many spools of thread colors I’ll probably never use, as well as a gazillion bobbins half full of thread in colors that I’ll probably never use. Before the recycle/upcycle bug really took root in me, I would have pulled the thread off the bobbins and tossed it all away. Not anymore. I spent most of the evening mulling over project ideas. At the same time, I was cutting t-shirts into strips. This cutting is one of the early steps in a fun and easy process that turns tees into yarn that I can crochet into really cool stuff.
What a great way to add interesting visual texture to my crocheted fabric, as well as double the thickness of the T-shirt yarn. I can’t wait to show you the Bucket Hat I’m making. The project will be in the alternaCrafts ebook that’s in the works. It’ll include step-by-step instructions to create the sewn T-shirt yarn and crochet the hat. by Susan, on August 21st, 2009One of the small pleasures in life is curling up in front of the TV with some yarn, a hook, and a sci fi show. That’s my Friday night. The house rule is that no one talks to me, asks me to get anything, or in anyway interrupts me once I settle in. Even the two dogs have figured this out. So I recently planted myself on the couch in my studio, equipped with a big ball of binding twine and some test fabric strips cut off a T-shirt. I much prefer to indulge in mindless stitching while glued to my shows … but time’s a’wastin. (I’m committed to designing and completing 20-some projects in the next two months. There’s lots of experimenting involved because I’m working with non-traditional materials.) There I am working up a single-crochet swatch in binding twine. That stitch, which I’ve now used for oodles of projects made from plastic bag strips, is boring me to tears. So I start playing with stitches that create a star effect. It turns out that it isn’t worth the effort because stitch variations have to be really dramatic to be visible in the twine. I need dense crocheted fabric that’ll almost stand on its own, so single crochet it is. And I’m going to try wearing a driving or golf glove on my non-dominant hand while I stitch. The rough twine is doing a number on my pinkie and left index finger when it feeds through for tension control. The twine dragged on the thin cotton glove I tried last night. by Susan, on August 5th, 2009Why is a crocheted star motif so hard to design in the round? Generally speaking, geometric shapes are a smidge tricky to work out when there are rounds rather than rows. It’s a breeze in knitting. If you have a piece of hand-knitted fabric pull it out and look at the stitches: Each one lines up perfectly with the one directly below it. Now look at a piece of crocheted fabric. In rows, the stitch position zigzags back and forth. A knit stitch is formed by making a new loop in the very center of the loop in the row or round below. A new crochet stitch, on the other hand, is worked to the right side of the corresponding stitch in the previous row or round. There are exceptions, of course, such as working into a chain stitch. Crocheting back and forth in rows keeps colors and stitch patterns aligned because you’re flipping the fabric. Working in the round, however, doesn’t allow for this correction. Every round shifts the pattern another stitch to the right. This means that working out a pattern for stitching in the round isn’t a matter of simply charting the work before stitching. Though I know this all too well, hope springs eternal that I won’ need to think about my design before I start stitching. Besides, I was too distracted by a really good TV show. So there I was, watching my star turn into a swirl or—even more aggravating—get lumpy at the edges. I finally solved the problem by strategically placing decreases at the lumpy spots. I’m making a tablecloth, though, so I had to make increases to compensate, plus work additional increases to keep the crocheted “fabric” flat as it grew larger and larger. That, thankfully, has all been worked out. My last challenge is to make the increases, decreases, and color changes rhythmic, repetitious, and predictable. Instructions should be elegant, so they’re easier to follow. Off I go to rip out my work again. I could stash each partially stitched tablecloth, but why? No way this Greenie’s going to toss out that failed-and-incomplete…thing. Besides, I spent a lot of time collecting and cutting those bags. by Susan, on August 4th, 2009My most important discovery when prepping plarn (plastic bag yarn) is that ripping out and fastening off must be done very carefully. Plastic bag strips lack the resiliency of most natural-fiber and synthetic yarns. (Let’s leave roving out of this, okay?) In other words, if I yank on a strand of traditional yarn it bounces back to its original state. Not so with plastic bag strips. I pull; it stretches. I tug more sharply; it breaks. Ripping out stitches wasn’t hard once I got the hang of it, but I needed to use a different technique: Unpick each stitch. Only after a loop is free of the stitch and fabric do I gently pull the working strand to release and straighten it. The process goes faster than you might think it would. It takes practice, though. And a long index fingernail. After hours of ripping out and reworking a star pattern in the round, I’d say I’m pretty good at it. by Susan, on July 20th, 2009
That’s how I got started with plastic grocery bags. I have a purely automatic habit of picking up a crochet hook whenever I sit down. (The sticks are scattered everywhere. I’m not much of a housekeeper.) One night I picked up a hook and then reached for the nearest thing, which happened to be a plastic bag. A few stitches later I was, um, hooked. I needed a steady supply. For a few days, The Boy thought I was walking the dogs more often than usual, because the plastic bag collection was rapidly shrinking. Then he saw my wonky little crocheted clutch. … Our doggie bag stash is now off-limits. The ban is fair enough, because he did the legwork collecting those bags. And my crochet experiments are using up dozens and dozens. I’ve tried different ways of cutting the bags to get the most “yardage.” Made strips of varying thicknesses to discover when the “gauge” is too weak to support a stitch. Explored stitches and patterns to find out what’s appealing and suitable for different projects. And, well, just played. |
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Now I’m working with prettier, more pliable copper and (surprise!) strings of Christmas lights.
Then it hit me: Use the unwanted and leftover thread on the spools and bobbins to sew together fabric strips.
Usually, my precious sidewalk and thrift shop finds sit in the basement until my husband (a.k.a. The Boy) gets mad about all the junk. Then I hide it in my studio. Under the bed. Inside pillows. At the back of filing cabinet drawers. Truthfully, though, a lot of it gets used up. I like to play with materials because I never know when something really fun will happen as a result.