Showing posts with label upcycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcycling. Show all posts

Thursday, 4 July 2013

T-Shirt Yarn Rugs - Different Techniques

Being in India for more than 3 years didn't make me accustomed to its weather. These days it is so humid outside that you are covered in sweat within 1 minute. The only way to stay indoors, in a cooled room, with fan too. We don't have AC in our drawing room, so any visit to it is a challenge, and we almost stopped watching TV there. Though last Sunday I attempted to sneak into it, switched on the fan at a high speed, and managed to have a look at the Big Bang Theory, after which I had to retreat into a cooler location. I look forward to the season change. 
The monsoon hasn't arrived yet in its full power. I hope the rains will not bring more devastation as they did to poor people in Uttarakhand. The tragedy is still echoing, the news is about it still on all the channels but unfortunately not much can be done now for those who lost their family members, or got a huge psychological shock for the rest of their life. 
Our life here at the foothills of Himalayas has been quite and I am grateful it has been this way. You can call it a "slow living", with all its ups and downs. Yesterday I had a unique chance have a mid-week break with my D, as he had an off, so I couldn't afford leaving him alone at  home :) We didn't do much cooking, had some street food, maggi for dinner (it is okay sometimes). Now I hope my morning exercises will not go in vain, I always hope after such "heavy" days. Besides I also did some crochet, to my pleasure and satisfaction. 
The rug below was made last weekend from that T-shirt yarn I proudly presented you last week + yarn produced from the grey  t-shirt kindly provided by my colleague. I like the the color transition at some places. I am not so fond of lumps and uneven edges though. Also it was so difficult to crochet this yarn at times, my right thumb was aching a lot when holding the 8 mm crochet hook. The rug is about 12 in (30 cm) in diameter, but I plan to add few more rounds to it, as it looks unaccomplished.
So yesterday, as soon as I had some free time during the day, I commenced and finished another crochet rug. This time it  was inspired by Pinterest, and involved clever usage of acrylic yarn. See the tutorial here. Really, I am amazed by the thought that once came to a person's mind to make it this way! Yes, there is expenditure of  acrylic yarn, but also a good stash buster of it, in addition, no thumb ache and t-shirt yarn is being utilized economically. I used only half of the blue track pants and half of a green t-shirt. More is left to make another rug? a table mat?
Furthermore, the edges are much neater, almost no lumps, the rug feels soft, though thinner that the first one. My D's verdict after seeing both the variants was: "That one (red and black) looks more like a mat, and this one (aqua) you won't lie on the floor, it's too good for this purpose". I agreed, still I insisted that aqua one would be his bed side mat, he had no means of retreat and surrendered.
The mat is now resting on my D's bed side. It came out about 45 cm (18 in) in diameter. My D told me he put his feet directly onto it when he woke up, but he didn't dare to stand on it with his slippers. So sweet, my dear! I am planning on making a rectangular mat in the same technique, as to lie it in front of our bed. As I found out in India people don't usually put mats (at least I haven't seen this yet), as mostly everyone has marble floor which stays cool in the hot summer season. However I long for coziness in my room, and such kind of details simply make me happier. I am sure my husband doesn't mind to have all of that too. Hope you also had good project to do and enjoy.

I would like to share a call from a fellow blogger and a doll maker Teresa of A Magical Whimsy, who needs help for her son recovering form West Nile meningitis. Please, follow the link and may be you would be the one interested to buy beautiful hand made dolls, Teresa put links to in her blog. 


Take  care of yourself, my dears! Have a blessed day! Happy Fourth of July to all who celebrate today!

Monday, 24 June 2013

Upcycling and Lavender Obsession Weekend

It is never enough when you have only one weekend day. Saturday is already not a weekend when you spend 8 hours in the office and come back home in the evening just to have food and sleep. And Sunday looks like this: all the house work and outing plans, and all the crafting plans are messed up, and the day runs so fast, you won't notice it is already evening... Though we watched a movie Raanjhanaa yesterday (yea, I know a bit of Hindi), I wish I had one more day off. My favorite word here is "nevertheless", yes in spite of all that I squeezed few minutes of hurried crochet.
Here is what it was - making of T-shirt yarn! It is a wonderful upcycling time pass, which brings a lot of joy as you have to cut, tie, spin, and weave it. I collected few of my old clothing items for this project - one T-shirt and two capri. I need much more and my D already showed me some of his old stretchable track pants kept in the cupboard... He knows what a girl like me wants :) 
After all the cutting I got the stripes, which were tied together and spun into a ball of yarn.
 Isn't it all mixed, crazy-colored and much shabby? I started crocheting something with it already, and would show this soon when finished.
My D looking at all of that process, noticed: "You haven't done yarn shopping for a long time now...". I said: "I am busy with my blanket, so don't need to buy more as of now". His reply was: "That's okay, I don't mind". Hehe, he still remembers I spent quite much on yarn last time but of course, if I say I need more of it we will  buy. A pleasant addition to t-shirt yarn were these buttons I cut from one of the capri. I can re-use them somewhere else.
I wanted to share my latest obsession with lavender color and lavender fragrance. Here are few latest purchases - lavender cream, oil and soap. They smell wonderful! All of them are Indian cosmetic brands. I also have lilac-lavender face wash and one more bottle of oil... Somebody stop me.
While writing about my happy times, I was continuously thinking of emergency situation in Indian state Uttarakhand. People there haven't had any food for 5-6 days, and rescue operation is not able to save them all at the same time. The rains are coming and today there has been an alert that land sliding have happened again. How much a person can take? How much more suffering? All in God's hands but here he is selfish and  deaf, and letting people rely only on each other. Nature has no mercy at times.
I wish you to have a peaceful and safe day, be happy and cherish every moment of life.
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