Apollo manages one of his rare serious faces.

Month of Craft Photos: Day 1, a WIP

I first saw the "Month of Craft Photos" challenge at Untangling Knots last month, but by then the month was nearly over and I thought I'd lost my chance. Luckily, it's happening again--there's a Flickr group and everything, so it must be official!

In celebration of my newly cleaned-off, far more photogenic workspace, and in an effort to take better photos and post more, I'm jumping in.

Here's day 1, a work in progress:

A white and aqua potholder? NO WAY.

 After today, I'll post these in a once-weekly "digest" rather than one by one each day, but I wanted to kick things off on the right note. (Also, I think I'm already a day behind, but the once-a-week schedule will fix that too. Onward!)

Crocheted rag rug: Part 2

About 2/3 of the way through.

Last time I posted, I wrote the first part of a semi-tutorial about crocheting a rag rug out of old t-shirts. The rug's now complete, so I thought I'd post pictures of the finished product and share a few more tips.

I crocheted the entire thing over the course of a weekend, and it's a great project to do while you watch a movie, since it doesn't require that much concentration or counting once you get going.

I used this basic tutorial for crocheting an oval, but of course you can do any shape you like--round, oval, square or rectangle (in the round or in rows). If you're doing a circle or an oval, once you get past the first few rows, don't sweat too much making sure you're doing the "correct" number of increases around the curve. Keeping the rug flat is more important, and since your "yarn" isn't going to be perfectly uniform in width, you might have to add or subtract increases to keep things even. No big deal! Just trust your instincts and adapt as you work.

Hobbes-approved, so you know it's good.

Overall, this rug took ten t-shirts (size adult small through extra large) and its final size is around 17 x 30." If I'd had more t-shirts, I might have kept going, but I think it's big enough. I used a Lion Brand P-15/11.5mm hook, but if I do this again I might use a bigger one. I tend to crochet pretty tightly, and by the time I was finished, my hands were aching a little.

Right now it's in the laundry room being used as a place mat for the cats--a glamorous use for a very glamorous piece of DIY home decor.

If you're looking for more rag rug inspiration, or more detailed instruction, there's a great rag rug Flickr group (of course there is!). Some of the tutorials I looked at include:

• This Vintage Chica's rag rug tutorial 
• Little House in the Suburbs's no-sew rag rug (it's braided, not crocheted, but it's still pretty cool) 
• Mia's Boys rag rug tutorial
• CraftStylish, how to crochet a rug out of t-shirts 
• Craft Passion demonstrates a slightly different method for converting t-shirts to yarn.
• Bonus link: DIY Life shows how to make a market tote out of an old t-shirt.

Plus, there about a zillion more links and videos to be found with a quick Google search. Happy crafting!

New project: crocheted rag rug (part 1)

T-shirt yarn!

Raise your hand if this situation is familiar: you graduated from college in the past few years, and you are absolutely drowning in slightly over-sized, no longer wearable souvenir t-shirts from every high school and college event or activity you ever participated in. I've got sports t-shirts from high school, service project t-shirts from high school and college, club t-shirts, you name it. I even have a t-shirt that my Brownie troop made in elementary school. And I don't--or at least shouldn't--wear them anymore. I've already turned half of them into housecleaning rags,* but there are still a bunch left.

What's a crafty girl who hates throwing things away to do? Turn them into a rag rug, of course!

To that end, I've spent the past several evenings cutting a pile of t-shirts into long strips and rolling them into balls. Luckily nearly all the shirts are part of the same gray/white/blue/navy color family, so the finished product will look nicely unified.

To cut the t-shirts into strips, I started at the bottom hem and cut the body of the shirt into a long, continuous spiral all the way up to the armpits, rolling the strips into a ball as I went. I tried to keep the strips about the same 1" thickness, but didn't really sweat it. Perfectly even strips of material aren't necessary, but try to keep them all between 1/2" and 1" in width. Wider than that and it'll get harder to catch with your hook, but going much narrower might make your "yarn" too weak. Now that I've started crocheting, I would also recommend cutting off and discarding the bottom hem entirely, and starting your cut just above it. The double thickness of the fabric is really hard to stitch with and makes the final product lumpy.

A little bit of printing on the shirt is okay, but it does make the fabric a little stiffer, so avoid shirts with very large overall designs, or anything that feels stiff in your hands. Since the fabric tends to roll in on itself as you crochet, printed designs won't make the final product look weird.

For the first few t-shirts, I also cut the sleeves into strips as well, but now that I've started crocheting, I don't think it's worth the effort--it doesn't make a very long length of material, and all that joining really slows the speed of my crochet. But if you don't have that many shirts to start with, it might be worth it for you.

If you don't have t-shirts, old bed sheets, or pretty much any other scrap fabric, will also work. It is a rag rug, after all! 

*Pro tip: old t-shirts make great cleaning rags. They're soft, absorbent, tough, and if they've been washed enough times, almost totally lint-free.

It's retro and aqua: what's not to love?

Ridiculous. Ruffled. Retro.

In my last post, I think I said I probably wouldn't be doing much in the way of crafty things for the next few weeks, on account of how I'm getting married in twelve days or something crazy like that.

Really, I should know myself better than that by now. The crazy reality of getting married in twelve days is all the more reason to do crafty things, because they are an unparalleled form of procrastination. The secret to successful and less-guilty procrastination is to do something productive. It's hard to feel as though you've utterly wasted your time when at the end of the day you have a ridiculous ruffled potholder to show off, even if what you were supposed to be doing was making wedding favors.

That little philosophy pretty much defined my senior year of college as well. You want me to write a thesis? What? No, sorry, I have Very Important Afghans to make.

Sure, I may regret this in a few days, when the guests may or may not have favors or table numbers or whatever else weddings are supposed to have, but more likely I'll just look at that potholder, smile, and consider it time well spent.

Because it was.

Technical details: The pattern is from Crochet Today, a free one you can download right here. I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Seafoam and Lily Sugar 'n Cream in Ecru. (Both worsted weight, cotton-blend and 100% cotton respectively.) Size H-8/5.0 mm hook.