That Wasn't So Bad!

My first March Mulligan is done! Woo hoo!

I finished this red plarn bag in January, 2009. After a couple years of service, a piece of the plastic failed and my handle started to ravel.

No need to panic...

I cut up another bag (one bag sufficed for this repair)

and started with a new strand of plarn in what is the top center of the hole in this picture:

I single crocheted to the side where the stitches were raveling and then chained a new chain to pull through the existing stitches. Then I continued the single crochet to where I started. Next I went around again with a slip stitch with a smaller needle to reinforce everything. All there was left to do was to work in the ends of the broken strand.

I then went around the other handle with a round of single crochet and then with a slip stitch even though it wasn't ripped (yet).

The second handle was quite stretched out and doing the repair on both made them match again. Plus I think they're both stronger now than they were originally.

My bag is slightly stretched out, but otherwise good as new again!

I am very happy to have it hanging with my other bags again (well, some of my other bags; I really do have a lot), ready to be useful.

When we put the coat rack in the entryway, I told Troy to leave part of the bar sticking out past the hanger for my bags. He finished it with a plastic cap and I have a perfect place to put all my bags.

Keeps them off the floor, and they are still very handy right by the door.

That makes one mulligan done; three more to go!

Beyond Plarn

Any guess what this is?

About half the people who've seen it have known right off the bat: it's VHS tape.

I've been wanting a new lunch bag, so I started knitting with an old movie no one had ever watched (and never was going to watch!).

One old movie and a garbage bag lining plus some creative work yielded this result:

Now I'm thinking it's too nice for a lunch bag and may claim it as a purse. Decisions...decisions...

First step in making the purse was to take apart the cassette tape to get at the video tape.

Then I knit a large rectangle of mesh. Not having a pair of super-large needles, I just wrapped the tape around my needle twice while knitting each stitch. Then when I came back to knit them, I knit one loop and let the second one drop. This is an easy way to fake a large needle. (Stitch size is related only to loop size.)

It was also a way to make the tape slide over the needles a little easier. The tape stuck to the needles like crazy. It wasn't pleasant. And while I'm complaining I'll add that the tape was very noisy! Crinkling and squeaking. I couldn't knit while watching TV! Ha ha, but somehow I made it through:

Once it was knit, I slip stitched down each side with a crochet hook to make it the right shape. Project Stats
Started: 22 May '10
Finished: 09 Jun '10
Pattern: I made it up!
Materials: one reel VHS tape, one purple garbage bag, $0
It was very amusing at this stage because it would stretch every which way and not hold any particular shape.

The next question was what to line it with. I've been thinking quite a while about doing some plastic fusing and yesterday decided to try it out. My mother-in-law sent me a couple of big garbage bags that were a beautiful colour of purple. It would set off the black beautifully.

First step was to cut off the bottom and fold it into thirds.

This gave me six layers which I thought was a good thickness to try, and also gave me the right width for the pieces I would need for the purse.

To protect my iron, I laid the plastic between two layers of an old poster. (Parchment paper works too, but I didn't have any.)

And then ironed away. Not too hot, keep the iron moving. Flip it over and do it on the other side:

Eventually you have a sheet of fused plastic. My sheet did not come out as smooth as some I've seen in pictures. Apparently it depends on the plastic composition (which varies widely in plastic bags) but I was pretty content with how it came out.

The plastic shrank quite a bit. (No surprise.) It was no longer wide enough for my original measurements, but turned out to still be wide enough for what I needed. Nice when that works out!

So then I cut out the pieces that I needed. One large rectangle for the front, back and bottom (all in one), and two pieces for the sides. Sew it together, remembering to use your teflon foot because it won't stick to the plastic:

Then cut out narrow strips and sew them on for handles.

The plastic turned out to be perfect for folding into shape. I pressed two creases to shape the bottom, and pressed the seams so it formed a nice "box" with handles to fit into my VHS bag.

Slip it inside and finish by sewing around the top edge.

The finished bag has a great shape

and looks pretty sweet!

I can't wait for the next project that absolutely must have some fused plastic!

Re-Finishing My Embellished Bag

So back in May I wrote about this "fancy" plarn bag I made. I was pretty happy with the little tote, but not long after finishing it I took that field trip to Chicago and found some nice plastic hoop handles at Soutache.

The handles struck me as just the thing to elevate this little tote from "homemade" to "hand crafted" (if you know what I mean).

I've had the handles sitting around since then, moving them from pile to pile. When I realized last night that I had the whole evening to craft if I wanted, I thought of this project which had been waiting so patiently for so long and thought, "This is it. The time is now."

And so....
First thing: take out the old handles. I found the end and carefully picked out the final knots and raveled the top few rows of the bag. Yes, I could have cut. But--do I have to say it again?--I am a purist and would rather pull it all out and reuse the plarn.

And I did. I crocheted a new top to the bag, this time leaving room for the handles to nest in the final three rows.

(The pink yarn is marking the centre; it won't stay there.)

Setting the handle into place,
I threaded a long string of plarn onto a big needle,
and sewed the hoop into place.
After the hoop was sewn into place, I then did a backstitch along the edge of the hoop stitching. I'm not sure why, it just seemed the thing to do at the time. And I think it did give a more finished edge.

I can now give you the new Embellished Better Plastic Bag:
I see none of the greens match, but that makes it more charming, right?

Plarn Gets Fancy

You may recall that I made another plarn bag while teaching the class at Red Purl. I made the small size so that I wouldn't have quite as much work to do. (I'd hate to have the students waiting for me.) It turned out as a nice little purse size. Or a small project bag, if you prefer.

I then had some fun with the brightly coloured bags that I had been saving. I mean once they're gone, they're gone. But the time had come to break them out and cut them up.

I made three different styles of flowers with patterns I picked up from Ravelry. (Where else?) The first pattern was a two-tone designed by SkaMama that I did in white and dark green.

The second was a simpler two-tone number by Drops design. I used a lighter green with pink.

And the third was a very simple two-round crochet flower by Mimi Alelis' Crochet and Other Stuff.

I adlibbed the stems, first crocheting them and then finding it easier to do the chain stitch with a tapestry needle. I also improvised the leaves. I just sewed them down with a few stitchesProject Stats
Started: 16 Apr 09
Finished: 13 May 09
Pattern: my own
Materials: Walmart bags &
various other
Size: 11.5" x 11.5"
of plarn right down the middle.

I think the flowers helped the bag a lot but it's not the sort of thing I'll do all the time. A little too fussy for me. (I'll take 3 hours of straight knitting or even crochet over 1 hour of fiddly stuff any day.) But sometimes you just gotta do.

The plan is to give this to my cousin. I think I gaffed on her Christmas present last year, and hopefully this one will better represent the sincere affection I have for her.

How Did the Class Go?

Oh yes, thank you for asking...

The Better Plastic Bag class went well. I thought I was prepared with what I had to say. I had handouts. (Three of them.) I demonstrated how to prepare the plarn, discussed using different colours (stripes or spots), and got everyone started on her bag. By "everyone" I mean the one student. Yes, I had one student, but went ahead with the class anyway. (Why not?)

She was very excited to learn and did very well. I was very happy that she had some crochet experience. I could have shown her if I had had to, but it would have really slowed us down.

I got her started on the base of her bag so that she could work the next two weeks on the body of the bag. Then next class we can work on the handles, and hopefully even finish the bag that night.

I myself started another (smaller) plarn bag so that I could work on the same project along side her. It seemed a little silly to pull out a different project to work on while she was crocheting in my class. (And not working on anything at all seems so silly as to not even be considered!) I should have no trouble getting it done to the handles by next class.

I'm planning to embellish it. Something along the lines of the bag I talked about making in this post. That bag really wasn't getting anywhere, so I threw it into the frog pond. (Speaking of which, ripping out what I had done on that bag gave me a ball of plarn for the first time. Usually it works better to just add loops as you go, but there is no way I am wasting all the plarn that I had crocheted into that bag. So now I have quite lengthy bit of plarn so I can really go to town!)

Now, as to the embellishing, should I decorate with leaves or flowers?

Better Plastic Bag Class

It has been announced, and published on Red Purl's website and I quote:

PLARN:
BETTER PLASTIC BAG with Christina

2 lessons, 4 hours total

Date & Time-Thursday April 16 & 30th 6-8pm
Cost-$25 plus materials
Experience Required-Some crochet or knitting 

Details-Tired of all the shopping bags piling up in your house? Turn them into a Better Plastic Bag for projects, groceries, day trips, whatever! You'll learn how to make plarn [PLastic yARN] and how to crochet it into a tote. Choice of two sizes and two handle options. We will also discuss how to work with different colored bags to create patterns. Now go round up all those bags and your neighbor's too! Please bring to class:  A total of 60-100 shopping bags, but you don't need to have them all at the first class. (Bring 10-20.)  Scissors for cutting plastic.

There it is. You'll also need a large crochet hook, size K (6.5 mm) is good. Amy has them available at the shop if you need to buy one.

I happen to know that there is still space available but less than a week until it starts. If you're interested, contact the shop soon. Either stop in or call the number on her website. She's not open Tuesdays or Wednesdays so there really aren't that many days left to sign up. Stop procrastinating: you know you want to try it.

It's my first formal class, but it's not like I haven't taught this stuff before. I did a lot of tutoring in our church knitting group for one. It's a little ironic that it's a crochet class since I think of myself much more as a knitter. But, fortunately, it doesn't have to be one or the other. Lots of people I met in Red Purl had asked for a class, so I guess I'm just giving "the people" what they want.

Just a note about using better plastic bags: be prepared for attention. People love them and will think you are so clever that they will want to detain you in conversation just hoping some of the cleverness will rub off on them. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Preparations for a Vest (and a Class)

I made a trip to Red Purl today. Had to get out for a bit. Had to take a drive in the glorious sunshine. Also couldn't wait a minute longer to wind the wool I bought about a week ago.

So I bought these two skeins of wool from Estonia

last week but didn't take the time to wind them at the time. Then I had to look at them at home realizing that I couldn't actually work with them because they weren't wound yet. Very frustrating!

They might look like a variegated colourway, but that's not quite true. Instead of changing colours every so many inches, one colour goes on for yards and yards before changing to the next colour. So as you knit you get wide stripes of consecutive colours.

I'm planning to use it for a patterned vest and it's going to make it look like I changed colours all the time, when really I worked from one ball and it did the work for me. (It's similar to self-striping sock yarns, although in the sock yarns the colours change much more often.) It's a great trick for making yourself look very talented while doing a simple fair isle!

I've been gloating to myself about this wool every time I've looked at it for the past week, and really couldn't wait another minute to roll it into balls, and then perhaps start my swatch. (Oh, I can't wait...)

Can you see the stripes in the ball?

How it changes from light in the center, to dark, to light, to dark, etc? This will be the "main" colour in the vest and will be used for the waist, armhole and neck ribbing. I'll have to see how I get the two arms to match...hmmm, something to consider as I go.

And then the one I really love:
Green to purple to orange a couple times. Amy has a sample knit up in this colourway and I just love it. It's going to be so fun to work with!

I think the two colours will play well together:
We'll have to see how the light and dark variations of the grey play against the more drastic colour changes of the other. Always an adventure!

And while I was at Red Purl and we had some time to talk, Amy and I picked some dates for the class I am going to teach. Oh yes! Hadn't I mentioned it? I am going to be teaching my first class at Red Purl to show you how to make a Better Plastic Bag for yourself! Look for details soon at Red Purl's website.

Maybe I'll see you there,

christina

One More Tote

I got my red bag done tonight. I just love it. As I've said before, the red looks so rich and deep. Very surprising effect coming from plastic bags, but it works.

My niece came through with the few more bags I needed to finish it up. I ran out on the very last row! So I was frustratingly stopped just as I thought I was finished. I got them in the mail last week I'm embarrassed to admit, but finally tonight took the time to finish the bag while watching a football game I'm not very interested in. (Some also call it the Superbowl.)

I considered a fancy scalloped trim on the top, but in the end decided nice and simple would do the trick. It's a little smaller than the other large totes I've done, and even smaller since the handles are "inside" the bag instead of sewn on the top, but it's nice to have a variety of sizes, right? This one is 12" x 4" and 13" tall.

All for now. I think I will cast on for a hat exchange going on at the Purl Friday the 13th. Everyone brings a hat, and Amy says "lady luck" will determine which hat you go home with. I'll give pictures after the exchange because I wouldn't want to give away any secrets before their time!

-christina

Catching Up

Let's catch up on a few projects I've started or finished lately:

1. I started a red better plastic bag yesterday.

I am just loving the solid red colour; it's surprisingly rich and looks like it's just been soaked in dye. It looks like I'll have plenty to make at least one large tote. (Phew!) This bag has a rectangle bottom (about 4" x 12") and I'm not sure yet how tall it will get. I think I will do short "in line" handles (like the black and white book bag) instead of the longer handles I did on the other large totes.

2. I cast on for another Hat Fit for a Boyfriend. This one is for a co-worker's son who was recently deployed to Iraq. It's cold at night so I thought a soft, light-weight, Malabrigo hat would be just the thing. I should have enough of the same brown left over from the two hats I made previously.

3. I finished my Birthday Cowl. I had a few false starts but really like how it turned out. First of all, the Malabrigo colour "Snow Bird" couldn't look better! Second, it fits well and is so warm; it seems to keep a cushion of warm air around my neck--so nice!

I did modify the pattern slightly. It's a biased rib, written to slant from right to left. But doing decreases right to left means you have to do a slip stitch decrease (aka ssk) which is a) time consuming because you have to pause in your forward momentum and "back up" to slip and pass the slip stitch over; and b) not as attractive. No matter how you do it, the ssk is never as smooth or nice as a simple K2tog. But the K2tog leans left to right so you can't use it in this pattern...right?

Nope, you simply need to accept a left to right slanting bias and reverse the instructions. So sl1, k1, psso, k6, yo, k3 becomes k3, yo, K6, K2tog. Simple, right? It was, and is. And then I made one more small change: I didn't like the hole left by the YO so I just picked up the yarn from the previous row. (This is exactly equivalent except the YO makes the yarn a little longer and that's what I didn't want.) So my final pattern was k3, M1, K6, K2tog.

3. This session's Caps for a Cure:

I did the yellow in November and got the red one done during my travels and time off over Christmas. I like the Foliage pattern a lot. They will be sent to a cancer center in LA, CA. (Why do they need hats in such a warm climate?? Mostly because of A/C being set too cold! :pet peeve alert:)

You may notice I tried a little modification on the second cap at the crown. I didn't really like the heavy look of the four two-stitch "ribs" going down from the top so I tried the second cap with a one-stitch rib. Besides not really liking the look, this was also suggested by the pattern which has you decrease the extra rib stitch where they end in the pattern: if you have to take it out later anyway, why put it in in the first place?? So I took it out. I'm not sure it's a big improvement, but it was fun to try and turn my irritation into action! I also fiddled with the decreases: the pattern had a left leaning double decrease which really should have been a center double decrease. That was definitely an improvement, but I'm quite sure you won't be able to see the difference in these pictures.

4. And finally: what happened to my Candle Flame Scarf?

I got it finished in early December and it came out great. The Kitchener stitch to connect the two halves worked great and the seam is nearly invisible. Despite being made from the delectable Malabrigo, it turned out a little itchy on my neck. I have been advised to wash it in vinegar and then treat it with hair conditioner (wool being animal hair after all). I haven't yet tried this, partly because I'm quite enamoured with my cowl.

[ETA: the Candleflame scarf won a 2nd place ribbon at the 2009 County Fair (knitted hat, scarf or mittens set).]

Up next, I bought supplies today for the lovely "Sahara" designed by Wendy Bernard.

I'll be doing it with cap sleeves out of a silk/merino mix and the trim is a silk with sequins. Oh...it's so exciting! I haven't cast on yet because I need to take a breath and some time to get ready to do the necessary swatching and gauge-checking. (So tedious; so essential.)

And I also bought a unbelievably lovely Malabrigo lace weight in "Jewel Blue." At 470 yds I thought it might be enough for a shawl, but now I'm not so sure. Looking through lace shawl patterns has got me all fired up, but first things first. (And first, the Sahara!)

All this makes me wonder, how can I convince my hubby that I really should leave my job and be a stay-at-home wife?

Let me know if you have any great ideas on that!

-christina