More Stars...

I've been experimenting with more of those Recycled Plastic Christmas Stars...

This time I'm using bread bags.

The plastic has been spun to give the plarn some some twist - which gives better stitch definition.

The print on the bread bags makes for a more colourful decoration..

But I still prefer the simplicity of the plain white ones which I showed you yesterday.

Recycled Christmas Stars

I'm loving these RECYCLED Christmas Stars... and I just know I'll be making a squillion of them this Christmas Season.

Especially since all you need to make them is a plastic shopping bag and a tea bag string, plus a pair of scissors and a crochet hook.

Oh - and an iron and a couple of sheets of baking paper or brown paper bags.

So firstly, I cut the bags into plarn - which is plastic yarn - just one continuous length of plarn about 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide.

Then I crocheted the plastic into the stars using this pattern here. It's in German - but don't be deterred by that! There's a simple chart, and since there are only two rounds of crochet needed, the chart is very simple and easy to follow.

One thing I did different from the pattern: I didn't begin with a magic ring. I thought that tightening the ring would overstretch the plastic tail and BREAK it. So instead I worked a ch-4 loop at the beginning.

Because the stars were a bit soft and tended to curl in on themselves, I decided to iron them flat. Nothing fancy - I just popped the stars between two sheets of baking paper and held the iron over them until they started to melt a little. The iron was just on it's usual setting, which I think is the cotton one - not the highest setting, but one down from there.

Then I sat them flat while they cooled. 

The ironing process shrank the stars a little, and fused them. The plastic actually melted and the stitches stuck together. it created a thinner but stronger star - more suitable for hanging on the tree.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll be able to see where the plastic has fused - especially around the centre hole.

Once they were cooled, I just threaded a tea bag string through one of the holes near the tip - and knotted the end to form a loop.

I'm thinking these will look brilliant on our tree this year!

Winner Announced

We had so many entries for the Fishie the Plastic Bag Keeper challenge...





Just look at them all!

So many shapes and sizes and colours and styles...

But I do have a clear favourite.

This one stole my heart the first time I laid eyes on it:



So a huge congratulations to Jorel for her Scrappy Fish - I love how unique and quirky it is!

It has so much character...

Now Jorel will be able to choose what I should design for the next Crochet Challenge, which will be run in December 2012.

And before I go... here's a few of my other favourites up close.

Juanita designed some fabulous fins which she has kindly shared the instructions for . Love the eyes on this one, too:



Shhshh produced this magnificent Koi, and based her fins on Irish Crochet leaves:



Julie used a different style of fin to create a shark:



Grayhare added some serious BLING to jazz up her plastic bag keeper...



Lise went with a magnificent array of bold colours:



And I love the cartoony eyes on this entry from Esther:



Finally a CAT-FISH  from Wendy... love here interpretation of the pattern:



And the fully tested version of the pattern is now available for sale!

Quite a number of the testers have made a second one already - and are planning to make more as Christmas gifts this year...

Click here for more details about purchasing the pattern.

Fishie the Plastic Bag Keeper

The October Challenge has been revealed... and if you want to join in the Crochet-Along this month, you can join us in my Ravelry group here

It's a little unusual, but this month's pattern is a Plastic Bag Keeper shaped like a Fish. You store your bags in through the tail - and take them out through the mouth!



Mr Goldfish tells me that it looks more like an eel than a fish - and I think he might be right. It would probably look More Fishy if you added some fins...

In fact, you could have all sorts of fun with this pattern. Forget the fish idea - you could make it into a tiger, a pig or an echidna. Or anything else you can imagine. You already have the basic bag body - so you could embellish it any way you like.

Or just leave it plain. These colours are gorgeous on their own. Leave off the eyes and let the ripples of colour be the main feature... Choose colours to match your kitchen.

As always, the Challenge runs for a month. You can join in the fun HERE at Ravelry.

simple maths

bag for sale - click here for details

how did I make it???

40 plastic bags

plus...

2 audio cassette tapes

plus...

a macrame belt

plus...

some kitchen string

plus...

some fabric remnants

and...

a length of scrap wool

... and there's even a pocket inside

recycling an old belt

Thanks for all your responses to my last post. I do love to hear feedback from you... it's always of interest to me to hear what your experiences are... and also the ideas that you have

I especially love the idea of fusing the woven plastic (thanks frill.friend)

Also... I hadn't ever thought of adding beads into the plarn as I ply it... another fabulous idea! (thanks echo)

Well, the body of the plarn bag is finished...

but what to do for a strap???

Experience has taught me that as a general rule, crochet straps s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

I wish it wasn't the case, but they do.

Or maybe I just put far too much STUFF into my bags???

Anything is possible...

Now that I think about it though... I've only ever worked crochet straps widthways. I've chained say 6 sts, and then worked short rows of sc until I reached the length that I wanted.

I usually work a row of sc down each side of the strap for extra stability, but I'm wondering if I would get a better result if I worked the entire strap sideways... like I chained 80sts, and then worked 6 rows???

Well... that's something to try another day... because today I've decided to use a belt.



Sometimes I like to make a feature of the buckle... like I did with this bag

But there's nothing that I find terribly interesting about this one. So the plan is to remove the D-rings (which I'm sure will come in useful for another project at some point) and just use the fabric for the strap.

Now... off to find something for the lining...

recycling plastic bags

I've been thinking a lot about plastic bags lately... and how to use them in my craft.

There a challenge running for the month of May, over at my group on Ravelry... to create a project which recycles a plastic bag.

Any kind of project at all.

Using any technique you like.

Which got me to thinking... there's so many things that I haven't yet tried with plastic...

One is to FUSE it... to take about eight layers of plastic, sandwich them between sheets of greaseproof paper, and then iron them so that they fuse together. The resulting plastic sheet can be cut and sewn, just as you would with fabric.

I've tried fusing once before. It wasn't exactly successful, so I tossed the idea... but I'm starting to think that it would definitely be worth another try.

The second idea that I would love to try is WEAVING with plastic strips. I saw a fabulous bag (you can see it here) which I would love to make. It uses woven squares of plastic, which are then patchworked together and stitched into a bag... and it looks amazing.

Despite those ideas running around in my head, I started on an entirely different plastic project:

I'm working on a crochet bag... using two strands of plarn (plastic yarn) and on strand of audio cassette tape. It's my first attempt at combining plarn and cassette tape.

So far, so good... Stay tuned to see how it goes!