fiber arts and handicrafts

[Maria]

I love the tree! And the octomermaid is cool, but kind of alarming to imagine as a real monster.

I learned crochet from my grandmother when I was 8 or so. It's handy for making stuff. I've lost track of the number of hats and scarves I've made over the years. I've tried to learn knitting, but I don't like it as well. You have to watch your fingers as you go, whereas I can crochet with my eyes shut if need be. My grandmother was almost totally blind when she taught me, so I learned to do it by feel, too. It doesn't matter if you skip a stitch in crochet, but everything will unravel with knitting if you do.

That's a cold weather hobby for me, though. There was no way I was going to sit under a wool blanket during summer time, so that project has been on hold. As fall temps appear, though, I'm starting to think about working on the blanket again.

[Impenitent]

Making plarn.
Cut off handles and bottom seam to make a tube from the bag.


Flatten well and fold or roll up, leaving approx 1inch unrolled.


Snip the folded section of the bag into even strips, ensuring the 1inch edge at the top remains uncut.



Unroll it all and cut diagonally through the intact edge to create a long spiral strip.






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[Maria]

I've been saving bags to do that. I really ought to just go ahead and do it. Lots of my older cloth shopping bags are falling apart. Thanks for the pics, Impy!

[elengil]

Making plarn.

That's pretty slick! ... okay so I spin it and then.... how do I make the bag? I mean, is it knitted, crocheted, woven? Is there a pattern?

[Impenitent]

I crochet. I made up the patterns as I went along, and basically developed two bag styles that seem to work best for me.

One is a cuboid bag, which basically requires two rectangular pieces approx 10 inch square, which are then stitched onto a long strap approx 2 inch wide by 48 inch long. For the strap, I use two-ply plarn for strength, and for the two sides I use single ply because it gives the sides some give.

The second pattern, I commence crocheting a flat circular piece, and when it gets to my desired diameter (bw 8 - 10 inches) I stop increasing the stitch so the flat circle starts to build sides like a bowl. I keep going until I get the depth I want (bw 8 - 10 inches) and then crochet the strap - again about 2 inches wide. The straps shouldnt' be too long because they stretch noticeably with heavy weight in the bag. I use two-ply plarn for both the bag and strap.

I don't know the name of the stitch I use bc I learned to crochet and knit when I was a wee one from my mum, and she didn't have any names for the stitches either. However ' i can say it's a very simple stitch for the bags - three an the needle, pull through two, pulll through the other two, pull the the single; then do it again (I bet those instructions are meaningless for those who don't speak Zoi. I'll see if I can find some photos or youtube vids tomorrow to illustrate what I mean).

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[Maria]

That kind of sounds like a triple crochet stitch: http://www.lionbrand.com/how-to-crochet ... e-crochet/

[Inanna]

I would love to speak Zoi.

[elengil]

I don't crochet BUT my sweetie does! I'll do the spinning, he can make the bag
That is a fantastic looking bag, though. I can so appreciate how fetching veggies must look through it!

[Impenitent]

Maria, I use one fewer stitch on the needle before pulling through, so I guess that's a double stitch rather than a triple stitch?

I'd love to see what others come up with!

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[Impenitent]

My most recent lot. As you can see, I've modified the round bag pattern.


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[elengil]

Impy those are so pretty!!!

So technical question: do you ply the plarn or use it single strand? lol

[Impenitent]

For the round bags, I use double strands right through because the weight of contents is distributed equally and I want to prevent over-stretching the bag. The straps need to be hefty! The first bag I made was with single strand plarn and the straps were long, so the first time I used it to bring home 6ltr milk (for yoghourt - we don't drink that much milk! lol) the bag and straps stretched so much I was carrying the milk at knee-height.

With the cube bags, the straps need to be hefty, so 2-ply and tightly crocheted bacause they take all the weight. The sides of the bags can be much lighter knit and even decorative stitches can be used.

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[elengil]

That's so awesome! Totally going to be making a plarn bag now! <3

[Primula Baggins]

If I were making a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, I would have some of the costumes made out of this kind of material.

It's really beautiful, but it's also really practical; and easier than raising sheep in the post–zombie apocalypse urban wastelands.

[Impenitent]

You inspire me, Prim. I think I'll make a jacket.

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[Primula Baggins]

Cool!

[elengil]

I need to try this!! Not necessarily around the stone, but just in general, I've always loved that look but never thought to try it but stumbled across this today and now I really want to do this!!

[Maria]

I don't have time to watch the video, but the concept is great.

[Maria]

OK, I made a bag out of bags. I made the mistake of using a much thicker, shinier plastic bag in the middle which gave it a completely different feel and weight. I think I would have liked it better with just the flimsy little grocery bags so that it would have had a consistent texture.

I could have planned the colors better, too.

I think I'll store plastic grocery bags in it.

bag.jpg (218.35 KiB) Viewed 7994 times

Edit: The more I look at it, the uglier it gets!

[elengil]

So for the medieval feast we join in with each year, I offered to make site tokens - little whatnots that you get to both prove you've already paid but also to be a sort of commemorative of the event. Some people make whole things out of collecting these tokens, and there is no standard form - they can be anything from an actual medallion kind of thing to useful objects.

In this case, we decided since it was a feast we'd make cloth napkins as the site token! I volunteered, of course, because I am insane. But one of the other gals offered her talents in whatever use I may have of them. So we decided on napkins and she carved a stamp and she stamped 112 napkins and I sewed up the edges using a decorative stitch on my machine.



The stamp was based on the little critters that hang out along the margins of the Bayeaux Tapestry (which isn't a tapestry at all, it's an embroidery) and applied with silk screen ink, then heat set with the iron!

Was fun, if a LOT of work to sew!