Monday, April 5, 2010

Spring is Here: what I'm knitting that's not a sweater

Recently, I've been delving into some very serious fiber arts tasks.  Reclaiming yarn is something I have some experience in;  Zach and I sometimes search for sweaters in thrift stores to unravel.  In fact, I have a whole sweater's worth of gorgeous brown tweed that someday will be a sweater again once I find the perfect pattern.  This time, I am making my own yarn out of fabric.  Its much thicker than I thought it would be, but I'm using it to create a lot of useful items.

He're a rug I've begun out of old t-shirts and some fabric I've had laying around for probably 10 years.  I'd love to finish soon, but it REALLY hurts my hands to knit, its so huge.  I should have probably got on board with some size 19 needles instead of the 15's I already had.  The good news is, the cat ALREADY loves this small rug, he's sleeping on the unfinished project right now.  I'm going to try to get this one done this week.

To make fabric yarn is pretty simple, but THIS is one of the best tutorials I've seen so far.  There are a few things to consider:  The t-shirt must have no thick paint printing and it also helps to not have side seams in the shirt you're using.  For my rug, I included shirts with side seams, but its just a rug and you can barely tell.  I've made some other yarn that is very smooth that I may use to make some kind of container.  Its very thick and I think it would make a sturdy basket or storage box.

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