Learning something new!

I have three birthdays coming up in the next couple weeks. I also saw a baby blanket the other day that used something called the popcorn stitch. Now I love popcorn and I love crochet, but I don't really need a baby blanket. So last night while my husband and daughter where hanging out with friends and I was home with a sleeping toddler (ack, I guess I should say preschooler now that he's 3. I just don't want to admit he's growing up this fast) I decided to make something with this new stitch. It's turning out really cute. There is a definite rhythm to it, single, double, double, skip2, repeat. Right now I'm not exactly sure what it's going to end up being. Could be a scarf or a wrap or maybe a lap blanket or throw. Since I'm pretty sure that at least one of the people with an upcoming birthday also reads here, I really can't say much more than that!

Moving the blog!

I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I made a new gmail account and new blog address for the etsy shop. That way I can keep it separate from my personal blog and I don't have to worry about hitting my max on pictures.

I also decided that this back tracking is just getting too confusing. So the new blog will start in the here and now and may have some flashbacks to earlier projects.

The new blog can be found at http://rescuedyarnsandmoresblog.blogspot.com/

Wow, sorry...

I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in over a week. My bad. Things have been busy as usual. On the days that it is nice, I've been getting the kids and myself outside to play and explore. On rainy days I've been working on projects for the etsy shop and just for fun. Somehow, I ended up neglecting the blog. Well, here I am, back again.

Let's see...I somehow forgot that while working on the sweaters and rugs, I also decided to make a wrap for Alison. She had wanted a poncho for awhile, but I wasn't really sure that she would actually wear it. I wanted something a little more versatile that she could wear, play with, cuddle up under, etc. So I went for a wrap. I was about half way through my first attempt when I realized that it wasn't turning out quite how I had planned. There was no way that I was going to frog it all. I wasn't sure what to do with it. Then it hit me, she always stays up at night reading, so I made her a pillow case so she could have an extra pillow to lean up against the wall or her headboard while she was reading. But then, I didn't have a wrap. I decided to start again, but this time with one of my knitting looms. It made a much nicer size and weight wrap for her. She still hasn't worn it much, but she does play with it and cuddle with it. I need to get some pictures of her with her wrap and pillow and then I'll post them.

Making THE Sweater

So somewhere during the rug making process, I decided that I should make a sweater for my mom. I got some practice yarn and tried out the pattern that I had found and once I got the hang of it, it went fairly well. I was worried about actually making the flat pieces into an actual, wearable sweater, but thought I'd give it a try. I mean, I'd crochetted a rug or two why not a sweater?

I worked furiously at it. Every spare moment I was either working on a rug or a sweater piece. The first big problem that I ran into was that the front piece I made was about 2/3s the size of the back piece. Not Good. So I had to take it all apart and start over. I had to pretty much abandon the pattern except for the part of how many stitches to start with to get the pattern itself right. I took notes as I went so that I could do the exact same thing for the other side. I finally got all three parts done and started working on the sleeves. When I got to the top of the first sleeve I started to doubt how these pieces were really going to come together. Nothing looked like it would fit right. So I got a ton of safety pins and started pinning it together. That's when I realized that the sweater was going to be way too big for my mom. I was sad, frustrated, tired and just plain out of luck. There was no way I could get it done before Christmas and now I didn't have a present at all. I finally decided on making mom a small purse out of the yarn and in the sweater pattern so she could at least see what it would look like. Then I tucked a picture of what the sweater was supposed to look like in the purse. I brought the bag of half done sweater to the Christmas party too and after dinner we took it out and it was huge on her. Luckily the 1 1/2 sleeves I had done fit right. But everything else had to be ripped out and started all over again. By the end of January I had finished it and it fit! Big thanks to mom for being so understanding about her present being a month late.

Usually after Christmas, whatever crafty thing I've learned to make that year's presents falls to the wayside. But for some reason, I really liked to crochet. I have a bunch of friends, in real life and online, who knit and their projects always amazed me. I decided that I wasn't ready to give up this new craft.

Rug, rug, rug...sweater?

After I made the first rug, I decided that although it was time consuming, it was fun and pretty easy. So I decided to make more. But where to find the amount of fabric that I needed? I thought about buying clothes at goodwill, but lately they've been increasing their prices and I couldn't afford to spend $2-3 dollars for a shirt just to chop it up. I thought there must be another way. So I went door to door asking at the thrift shops about what they did with the clothes that didn't sell. I found out that most of them either turn them to rags or send them overseas. I did find one small shop though that threw the clothes away. I made arrangements to go their next sorting day and pick through what they had. That day it was a blizzard out. Luckily my husband had the day off, so I didn't have to take the kids out with me. I stood on a loading dock in sub-zero temps sorting through carts of snowcovered clothes. After a few minutes I couldn't feel my fingers any more, but I came home with a trunk full of soaking wet rug making materials.

First I had to haul them in basketful by basketful and run them through the dryer. Then I started to sort them into piles of like textures. I really had no clue what I was doing when I had been going through the carts in the snow storm and I really wouldn't learn until I started working on the rugs. Next time I make rugs I won't mix t-shirts with sweatshirts with old cotton pants. While the colors might look good together, it is hard to make all the different textures work together.

I also learned that using scissors to make the strips was long, hard work and horrible on my hand. I borrowed a rotary cutting wheel and bought a big cutting mat and that made the job easier on my hands although it was still very labor intensive and I could only do it late at night after the kids were in bed since I didn't trust a 2 year old near the sharp blade.

The first rug I hand knotted each piece to the next. I knew that if I was going to make 2 rugs before Christmas (it was now the beginning of December) I had to find a faster, easier way. My friend had given me an old sewing machine, but not having touched one since junior high and it needing some work to be functional (there was a 3wk wait just to get it cleaned and serviced), it just wasn't going to work for me to get the rugs done. Luckily, I happened upon a brand new sewing machine for about the same price as it was going to cost to clean and tune up the old one. Soon the assembly line was started. Strips were sewn and huge balls were wound up. In the end I had 2 more rugs. One for my brother for his shop office and one for my mother in law for her living room.

At this same time I was also worried about what to make my mom for Christmas. I had made her a felted purse, a shelf out of books, and woven scarf in previous years and I just didn't feel like I had a good idea for her this time. After I realized that crochet made sense to me, I started searching for something to make her. I took out more crochet books from the library (I love inter-library loan!!) I found a sweater pattern that I liked. I was really scared to try making such a big project and something so different than anything I'd ever done before. Plus it was ambitious to think that I could finish 2 rugs and a sweater in less than a month. I was determined to do it though and ordered the yarn for the sweater the first week of December.

Next up...adventures in sweater making...otherwise known as "What the heck was I thinking?!?"

From bags to rags...

I'm not sure exactly how I made the jump from shopping bags to rag rugs, but that's how the obsession morphed. I guess I thought that if I could handle making a bag, a rug couldn't be that much harder. Not sure how sane that rationale was, but I knew I had to try.

I watched tons of youtube videos about rug making. I looked through lots of flickr accounts of rugs people had made. I saw knitted, knotted, braided, toothbrushed, and crocheted rugs. Talk about overwhelming. I knew knitting was out. Braided seemed easy since I knew how to braid, but it seemed too time consuming, first you had to braid then sew the braids together. By this time Christmas was fast approaching so I had to find a quick and easy way to make them. I nixed the toothbrush rugs because I'd either have to make a toothbrush needle or buy one and I could only find them online. So that left knotting and crocheting and I thought crochet looked like more my speed.

That left me with having to learn to crochet. Back to youtube I went and watched all sorts of videos. Found some yarn in the kids' art project box and bought a small crochet hook (they're only $1.50, I figured if it didn't work out I wasn't out much). After the kids went to bed I'd sit in front of the computer with my yarn and hook watching tutorials and trying to figure out the abbreviations for all the stitches. After a few days of trying things, ripping them out and trying again I thought I might just be able to crochet a rug.

I went back to the store and got a big crochet hook. I dug out some clothes that I was going to take to goodwill and chopped them up and gave it a try. My initial tries were rough. But finally they started to look like something.

I remembered that I had a bag of old jeans that I had saved to do something with and they became my first ever rug. I loved how all the different colors of blue blended together. While it looks lumpy and bumpy in this pic (well, because it was), I had just finished it. After washing it and stretching it and walking on it, it laid down and is a wonderful rug.

Up next, further adventures of rag rug making...

So how did this obsession start?

Late summer of 2008 I started to look ahead to Christmas and what I would be making for presents. Every year for the past few years I've learned a new craft, made presents and then promptly never did that craft ever again. I've always had fun making the presents, but by the time I'm done with them, I'm done.

Last year that changed though. I started off with the idea that I should make a recycled, reuseable shopping bag. I really had no idea how I would accomplish it, but I had my heart set on it so I forged ahead. I started taking all sorts of books out of the library. I got macrame, knot tying, knitting and crochet. Books from before I was born, books that were brand new. I got books about recycling from both the kids' and adults' sections. Nothing seemed just right though. I knew from previous years' attempts that I couldn't knit. Just can't do it. I was stuck. Then while searching online I came across knitting looms. It seemed pretty straight-forward. Wrap your yarn around a bunch of pegs, use the hook to lift the yarn over and presto! You've made something. So armed with a 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and a vague sense that I could do it, I went shopping and came home with a set of 4 knitting looms of various sizes.

I decided to really go green by using the massive collection of plastic bags that had accumulated in my laundry room as my "yarn" (it's affectionately called plarn in many crafting circles). Making plarn wasn't too bad. Slice the bags into 1/2in wide circles, loop the circles together and roll into balls. Time consuming, but mindless. Working with it was a different story. I wasn't prepared for how hard it would be to work with. I did finish the bag. But it was in no way present worthy.

I liked the idea of the woven bag, even though I didn't like the plarn. I was downstairs playing with my kids when I stumbled on a half used cone of heavy cotton string. I decided to give it a try and it made a much nicer bag. Now that I liked the material, I had to find a more refined look. I played around quite a bit before I came up with my favorite design (which I just realized I didn't take pictures of, oops). I made several of the bags. I gave away 2 in swaps and the rest of them I used for Christmas presents with a loaf of fresh baked bread and apple butter that I had made and canned in the fall. As great as the bags are, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to make something...more...and that's when the rug obsession hit...