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cool birthday gift idea for boys

I was at the bookstore the other night and found a book called How to Draw Cool Cars.* These weren’t your average cool cars, but super fast ones like Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lamborghini — you get the idea. I had never seen anything like it and knew I needed to get it for Wyatt’s ninth birthday.

A few years ago I made a bunch of crayon rolls, including one for Wyatt with car fabric. You can’t really draw a Lamborghini with crayon, though. It just doesn’t seem right. So, I made him a much more grown-up colored pencil roll.

felt pencil roll

I have this really nice, thick wool felt that I got at a garage sale a few years ago. I never knew what to do with it, but it had Japanese characters printed on it with a sparkly gold ink. I knew I had to save it. I was so glad I did. It was perfect for this project!

felt pencil roll

I saved the printed part of the wool for myself. It will make a cool crochet hook roll, don’t you think?

stash: If you don’t have a use for a certain fabric right away, but it speaks to you somehow, I recommend keeping it in your stash. It might just be waiting for the perfect project to come along.

*I can’t find the exact book online, but this one looks similar.

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sweater wool 220

upcycled sweater yarn

After yesterday’s trade, I got to thinking about my stash. My projects are usually small: hats, scarves, fingerless gloves. There’s no way I’ll use an entire sweater’s worth of wool or cotton for anything. So, I’ve decided to keep some and share some. First up is the beautiful cream and gray wool I’ve been working my way through. It looks so lovely after I took the kinks out. I’ve got a skein of 220 yards in my shop. You’ll find more pictures and details there, too.

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my creative space

In my creative space today, I’ve been trading work for materials. Last week, a friend saw my happy little airplane and asked if I would make one for her son. “I’ve got sweaters to trade!” She even checked the seams to make sure they weren’t serged.

sweaters for unraveling

The original airplane was really big. Much bigger than I thought it would be. Would it be ok if I made a smaller version? “Deal!”

mini small airplane amigurumi

I find this happens a lot in my circle of crafty friends. We’ve all got items we’re ready to pass along and services to use for trade. It’s a never ending re-cycle.

The list of creative spaces keeps growing! Visit Kirsty’s blog to see them all.

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she’s a very kinky yarn

recycled yarn

After working with my white sweater wool, which I took the time to soak and unkink, I’ve decided that I prefer its smoothness for granny squares. So, tonight is bath night for the rest of this sweater wool!

recycle: I’m also in the process of unraveling another sweater. Just because. Maybe I should start listing some in my shop!

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my creative space

granny square scarf

In my creative space today (and tomorrow and the next day…) are granny squares. I had no idea how relaxing these were until I stopped making them. Then I felt a hole, like something was missing, and I realized it was clusters of double crochet!

I’m using my recycled sweater yarn for this one simply because it’s so soft and nice to work with. Whenever I start to feel stressed, I take a deep breath and grab a square.

What’s in your creative space today? Why don’t you pop on over to Kirsty’s blog and join the fun!

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my creative space

I’ve got some tough decisions in my creative space today. I was given this beautiful hand-knit sweater from my friend Tana. It’s big. Really big. Too big to be refashioned with my ’80s sweater tutorial. She was thinking I could use it to make a felted tote bag. I can’t bear felting it. The stitch work is so beautiful.

recycled wool sweater

This is what I’m thinking: take apart the seams and make smaller bags out of the front and back each. I would serge the edges to keep them from unraveling. I really like the colorway of the yarn, which is Cascade 220. I think I might unravel the sleeves and use the wool for some granny square scarves.

What do you think? What would you do with it?

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a weekend of sweater unraveling

I’ve been thinking about white lately. Not bright white, but ivory, soft white and ecru. I’ve been keeping my eye out at the thrift stores, but all I could seem to find was that yellowish cream. Yuck. I even strolled down the yarn aisles at craft stores, which I haven’t done in a long time. I couldn’t bring myself to buy new. Not when I had so much at home.

Then one day while I was digging around in my stash closet I saw a beautiful, un-felted Gap sweater. It was the perfect color white and so soft: wool, nylon, angora rabbit and cashmere. And it had perfect seams for unraveling (those Gap sweaters always do!)

Friday evening I used a seam ripper to carefully take apart the front, back and sleeves. Saturday evening I unraveled it with the help of my swift and ball winder. This is what I had Sunday morning.

unraveled wool sweater

Don’t you just love how un-knit yarn looks like ramen noodles? Usually I will just work from noodle-y yarn, but I decided to try and get some of the kinks out. I soaked each bundle in cold water for 15-30 minutes.

unraveled wool sweater

After soaking, I hung them up to dry. I put a few wooden blocks in plastic grocery bags to weight the yarn at the bottom.

unraveled wool sweater

Look at what I have now! Isn’t it beautiful? Goodwill is having their 99 cent sale this weekend. I might have to check out the sweater rack.

unraveled wool sweater

thrifty reuse: I bought this sweater at a garage sale for $1. Can you believe it? Here’s my favorite online tutorial for unraveling a sweater for yarn.

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mixing bread bags and wool with crochet

A long time ago I started to crochet a tote out of plastic grocery bags. I thought it would be a good way to keep the bags out of the landfill. It wasn’t fun. The plastic was sticky and it hurt my wrists. Then my recycle guy started accepting the bags for curbside pick up. That was the end of the guilt and the project.

The past few weeks, I’ve been taking a hard look at what we put in the trash. Was there anything else I could possibly recycle? Tea bag envelopes? Receipts? Bread bags?

I did some investigating and my recycling guy only accepts newspaper, dry cleaning and grocery bags. If I can’t put them at the curb, what else can I do with them? I know others have crocheted them just like grocery bags, but when I tried, they kept breaking. Plus, I’d need to eat a lot of bread to make anything substantial. Then I got an idea. What if I cut really thin strips and held them along with something else?

crochet bread bag and wool

I am totally loving this! I’m using recycled sweater yarn that has a bunch of knots. The plastic hides the yarn imperfections and the yarn keeps the plastic from breaking. If the plastic does break, the yarn holds the “fabric” together.

This is so much easier on my wrists! And check out the pretty colors! Not bad for some plain old gray recycled yarn.

crochet bread bag and wool

So far I’ve used bread and tortilla bags. I’ve also got a salad bag to throw into the mix. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

recycle and reuse: I love thinking of new things to knit and crochet. The yarn is from my first attempt at recycling sweater wool. This is a good project for both frugal and green crafters!

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oversized swatch becomes cute wool clutch

Last weekend my friend Jennifer drove up from Kansas City to hang out. It had been over 20 years since the last time we’d seen each other. We had a lot of catching up to do. She wanted to learn how to knit, which is a great way to spend your catching-up time. I cast on some wool to show her how to start. We kept talking and I kept knitting. Without realizing it, I had knit all of my yarn. What was I going to do with this gorgeous rectangle?

Hand Knit Wool Clutch with Denim Lining and Zipper Closure

I folded my oversized swatch in half, whip stitched the sides and added a lining. The result: super duper cute clutch! The good thing about me finishing this so fast is that I got to show Jennifer how to bind off. She caught on quickly and is doing awesome with her first scarf. Another person successfully converted to the fiber arts. Yay!

Visit my etsy shop for close up pics of those lovely garter stitches.

stash: This is a great stash busting project. Yarn was gifted to me by a friend who was ironically destashing it. Denim lining from my garage sale stash. Thrifted zipper.

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two dollar deals!

The past few days I’ve been cleaning and straightening the house because my parents arrived last night for a nice, long visit. I am looking forward to some serious sewing time while they are here!

I did manage to get out a little bit and score some serious thrifty deals. Thursday, my daughter and I went to a garage sale looking for kid stuff. Instead we found a London Fog wool coat for my husband. I swear it is brand new. It was even his size, so no alterations needed. It was a mere $2. Can you believe it? I had to pinch myself. And he likes it!

london fog coat

Saturday afternoon I went out with an actual mission. I’m tired of having a door knob in all of my photos and decided I need some kind of wall shelf with pegs to hang my totes and refashion projects. I found this on sale for $2 at the first store I visited. I’m going to paint it white. Yay!

shelf

I still had some time to myself, so I went to a few more stores just to browse around. I’ve been looking for some pretty sheets to make some pajama bottoms and happened to stumble upon these bright and cheery flowers. These were also on sale for $2.

flower sheets

thrifting: Some days it feels like I never find anything at the thrift stores and I wonder why I even bother. Then I have jackpot days like this and it reminds me that the extra effort is worth it!