I recently crocheted a six point round ripple and the center was bowl-shaped. So I looked around for a picture tutorial on how I might block the crocheted afghan. I haven’t tried blocking an afghan before as usually they lay flat but this one had an issue and I was so hoping that I could straighten it out by blocking it.
After looking around the Internet, I read several different tips on how I might do the blocking but nothing with photos. Well as I’m a visual type person, I wanted photos with step-by-step instructions. After reading a few ideas, I set out on my own and created my own picture tutorial for blocking my rumpled-up afghan.
Here is my round ripple baby afghan before blocking. As you may see, the center is all rumped up and isn’t laying flat at all.
I put down a plastic garbage bag on the carpet and then placed my afghan on it. I gently stretched the points and center and then pinned it down into the carpet to flatten it. Put your pins in at an angle to hold down your blanket as you stretch it. Push down on the center to flatten it further and move your pins to stretch the afghan until it is laying down as flat as you can get it.
Next dampen your afghan with a wet cloth or use a spray bottle to gently wet the material. With the cloth or your hand, flatten the center down and move the pins as needed to stretch the blanket flat. Move the wet cloth around as shown to moisten the yarn so it blocks evenly.
After dampening and flattening your afghan, allow it to dry completely before removing the pins and moving the blanket off the plastic. The next day my blanket was dry so I removed all the pins and the blocking was very successful as this baby afghan is relatively flat and looks much better now.
I hope you find this blocking tutorial useful. Blocking can be a great way to fix those round ripple and star afghans that just don’t like to lay flat after you finish them. Take heart and try my blocking tutorial to fix your projects should you need a little flattening.
This week I present my latest recycled plastic bag project. I call this my orange crush plarn purse. The purse was crocheted using orange newspaper bags and white plastic grocery bags. You can check out my plarn making tutorials that show how to make the bags into a yarn from either newspaper or plastic retail bags. The base was made using just the recycled bags from orange newspaper delivery sleeves. I then crocheted with two strands of plarn held together — one strand orange and one white. This combination created the orange and white color blend for the main body of the purse which was crocheted using a granny stitch.
Next I added a beautiful pair of purse handles that I picked up from my local thrift store. I was so excited to purchase these brand new, still in the package, handles for just 99 cents. The black handles just added a great final touch to the purse.
This cute purse crochet pattern can be found free over at Debi’s Hooks and Yarns blogspot. I modified her pattern by working 10 rounds in the granny stitch as I needed just a bit more height for my purse. Debi crocheted her bag using two strands of worst weight yarn so you can change up this pattern pretty easily depending on if you want to use plarn, yarn, or even tarn (t-shirt yarn).
Until next time, happy crafting and make it a great day!
I have a recycled gardening project to share with you all. I’ve heard about self-watering planters that you can make yourself and after searching around the Internet, I found several different versions. For my planter, I used 2 recycled plastic buckets, a tin can, and a piece of plastic piping I found in my basement.
Here is my recycled self-watering tomato planter. I say recycled as I didn’t buy anything for this project and all the items were either recycled, repurposed, or re-used. Now for the details…
I get these buckets for a dollar at my local grocery store’s bakery. They are food grade so they are perfect for making the self-watering containers. I used this DIY tutorial link at urbanorganicgardener.com to make the planter with the pipe. There is also a tutorial at the same link that shows how to make the planter without the pipe and also a plastic pop bottle version too.
Here is a closeup of the can I used for my wickering can. It’s a 15 oz bean tin can with lots of holes drilled into it. This can was the perfect height for inside my self-watering containers as it just reaches inside the top of the stacked containers.
I made two of these planters in the past 2 weeks. Now I’m just waiting and hoping for lots of tasty tomatoes to grow in my self-watering containers. I’ll post again later this summer to let you all know how it works out using this method.
I present my first recycled soda pop tab bracelet. I crocheted these two bracelets using some lightweight yarn that I received in a swap. The yarn was a bit thin so I doubled it up to crochet these bracelets.
Here is the link for the original soda tab crochet pattern that my bracelets were based upon. My friend Kristy created a video which was really helpful for me to understand how to assemble the bracelet using the recycled soda pop tabs. You can view Kristy’s video tutorial below.
I used 12 tabs on one bracelet and 13 on the next one to make it a bit larger. I also added a leaf to the one stitch on the top bracelet. The original pattern calls for 12-14 tabs. Just check the fit of your bracelet as outlined in the video for the correct number needed for your project.
Recycling egg cartons into fire starters is easy and a very frugal way to start your fire. Whether you are starting a fire in a wood stove or campfire, fire starters are always a handy thing to have on hand. I love making my own fire starters from recycled materials I have on hand.
I use old egg cartons for my base and then add bits of burnable materials such wood shaving from a chain saw, pencil sharpener, or a miter saw. I put some wood shavings in the bottom of the egg carton holes and then added bits of cut up cardboard and scraps of cut up yarn. The added scraps of materials make your fire starters easier to light and help the burning process to produce a great fire starter.
Next I melted leftover wax from an old candle in the glass container it came in. I placed the glass jar in some water in a sauce pan. Over gentle heat, warm the wax until it melts. I added more bits of old wax to the jar as needed to cover the materials in my egg cartons. I used an old spoon to dribble the wax over each fire starter in the egg carton.
Click on photos to supersize
I added some lint from my dryer in one egg carton set as shown above. Dryer lint burns well and is a wonderful material to use for making fire starters.
I dribbled more wax over my fire starters and here is the final results. Now just separate the individual filled egg holders from each other which results in 12 very wonderful fire starters.
Closeup of the finished fire starters made from recycled materials.
If you are into recycled crafting, you might want to try crafting with vcr video tapes. The beauty is using these reels of pre-made materials is that you simply just need to open up the cases and away you can go with your crafting. You can use my tutorial on how to turn vcr video tape into “yarn” to craft your projects.
This week I broke down some old vcr tapes that I had to crochet this purse. I added some lacy ribbon yarn that I got at the dollar store for 99 cents to add a different look to the project. Below is closeup of my finished project.
Recycling video tapes into craft projects is always fun and while it’s not the easiest material to work with, the results are very pretty. The unique shine of the tape is beautiful and the ribbon yarn gives it a colorful finish. Plus its a great way to recycled those old video tapes that so many people just have laying around and can’t figure what to do with them. Well here ya go!
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Free Crocheted Video Tape Purse Pattern
Purse measures 9 inches wide and 7 inches long
Strap length is 32 inches long
Materials:
2 VCR VHS Tape Reels (only used about 1/4 of each reel)
One 3/4 inch button
3/4 oz Lion Brand Trellis Lacy Ribbon Yarn (Pastel Garden shown)
Hook:
N (9 mm) crochet hook for main purse
J (6 mm) crochet hook for flap trim
Using 2 strands of video tape held together, Chain 20.
Rnd 1
Hdc in 2nd ch from hook in each chain. Continue around the corner and down the back side of chain by working a Hdc in every stitch of chain.
Drafts from around doors and windows is never a good thing. But you can craft your own draft stopper or dodger from recycled materials to save on your heating bill and help keep your home warmer.
You can use scrap pieces of plastic bags or other stuffing material to fill the shell of the draft dodger. For this particular project, I crocheted my draft dodger from recycled plastic bags. It was a great opportunity to use the many different colored plastic bags that I have been saving. Each stripe only takes between 2-3 bags each. It’s hard to find colored bags in large qualities so this was the perfect project to utilize the pretty colors that I have been collecting but didn’t have enough of one color for a large project.
I crocheted my draft dodger and then stuffed it using the scrap pieces that you get when you make plastic bag yarn or plarn. When I make my plarn, I have the end pieces and the handle portion that I don’t use as I assemble the loops. So I took those leftover plastic bag pieces and used them for the stuffing of my draft dodger. You want to stuff the draft dodger before you close the ends. I put in a few pieces of plastic and then used a broom stick to push them into the shell of the draft dodger. You want to stuff it somewhat loosely so that your shell isn’t too stiff and so it doesn’t stretch out the shape of the tube. I stuffed from one end until it was nicely filled to the halfway point and then closed that end of the tube as shown in the pattern below. Then I repeated the stuffing for the other end.
That completes the project and below you will find the free crochet pattern details for the draft dodger. Adjust the length as needed for your door or window. But most importantly enjoy working this recycled craft project.
Draft Dodger Crochet Pattern
Materials needed:
Variety of plastic bags made into Plarn
Approx. 56 plastic grocery bags
Stuffing material for inside the draft dodger shell
Hook: J (6 mm) U.S. size metal hook
Description: Draft Dodger
Measurements: 3 inches wide x 38 inches long (or width needed for your door or window)
Directions:
With J hook, ch 18 and join to form a ring. Make sure your chain is not twisted and your stitches are facing out. This pattern is worked in the round and is done in single crochet stitch.
Sc in each stitch and don’t join at the end of each round but rather just continue working in the round for 5 rounds in each color. At the end of the 5th round. Finish off at the end of 5th round by cutting the plarn and working a slip stitch into the next two stitches to end the round smoothly.
Ch 1 at the beginning of each new color and slip stitch into the last […]
With Easter just around the corner, I thought I post some of the recycled Easter baskets that I have crafted in past years. So if you are looking for recycled Easter basket projects, let me share a few links of free patterns with you. This cute green Easter basket was made from a recycled plastic soap base and then I crocheted the top using plastic bags.
Maybe you need something a little smaller, if so check out this mini plarn Easter egg basket. It’s a real quick and easy pattern. Also it only takes about 3 to 4 plastic bags made into plarn to crochet.
Should you need a large Easter basket, here is my big recycled Easter basket that I crocheted from some purple plastic bags that you were given to me several years ago. To this day, I’ve never seen bags this color again and was so fortunate to be given them by a reader of this blog.
I hope you enjoyed this little parade of recycled Easter baskets that I have crocheted. Happy Easter Everyone!
A few weeks ago I shared my crocheted oven mitt project that I made from a recycled cotton bed sheet. At that time I hadn’t been able to line the oven mitt but I just got the lining done and wanted to present the photo tutorial.
Here is my finished product with the lining sewn inside the t-yarn oven mitt. This lining project would work for any crocheted or knitted oven mitt.
The first step in this lining project is to lay out and cut your lining fabric and heat protection material. I used some scrap fabric that I had on hand along with a piece of Insul-Bright insulation material. Insul-Bright is an inexpensive material that provides heat protection and is designed for use in oven mitt and potholder projects. You just need enough fabric to cut out two oven mitt shapes and one shape from the insulation material. You need to cut out two thumbs from the printed lining fabric and the insulation material.
Next step is to
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