Monday, September 27, 2010

Another Craft?? Oh, No !!!

But oh yes! :-D

Back in the 80's, I did quite a bit of crocheting. And now I'm picking it back up again, something to do while watching TV at night. At first I thought about organic cotton washcloths and soap savers but then I thought, I have SO much yarn around here from my weaving days, I might as well use it! Most of it is wool, some linen, I thought I had some cotton but I guess not. So I'm thinking felted bags, purses, cozies. The wool I originally bought for weaving rugs. Most of it comes from the Bartlett Yarns in Harmony Maine. Beautiful stuff! So I started practicing with little pouches.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)


The red one on the left I am using as a cozy for my Droid .. a perfect fit! It has not been felted (the cozy, not the Droid!)



The yarn for the light colored cozy on the far left did not come from Bartlett Yarns. I remember weaving a rug using that and it was the softest rug! I felted this piece. It came out ok, but not great. The little white pouch was made from some wool my friend Tricia spun up. Cute! :) I'll use it the next time I ship some earrings.





The piece in the middle is the first piece I practiced on. It's made with wetspun tow linen that I had originally bought to use as a warp for rugs. Extremely strong! I did this round robin - crocheting round and round without joining. It looks like a stairwell! LOL. Work on it is messy, but after 30 years, well, ya know! After washing it, it's very supple and soft. I have plenty of this linen, and I think it will make nice clutches and bags.



I tried to really felt the next 2 pieces, but they didn't felt the way I wanted them to. They just sort of fulled. :) I think because I was doing a double crochet, which isn't a very dense stitch. And the hot water took most of the color out of the blue one.





And now I'm getting serious! I have some Dark Sheeps Gray from Bartlett Yarns that is just gorgeous! It is a very bulky homespun yarn, natural, not dyed. I'm making a bag with shoulder straps. I'm using the half double crochet stitch, which is very dense. I'll be felting it. This is what I have so far

(Be sure to click on the photo to enlarge. This yarn is gorgeous!)


It's going to be large!!!



3 comments:

Anne-Marie said...

The phone cozy is super cute! This would be great for preventing scratches in your purse.

Karley Ziegler Mott said...

Nan, WONDERFUL! I tell you, I don't think we're ever content until we add just one more thing to make :)

Aunt Nancy said...

Thanks, Anne-Marie, it's perfect! Nice and thick, it does a great job of protecting my Droid.

Karley, I'm always seeing crafts I want to try! :) SO many fun things to do!