Dog food bag bag

This project started with a Rangers baseball game. If you've ever been to a major league game, you know that more often than not, there are freebies handed out to spectators as they enter the ballpark. On this particular day, volunteers were handing out sturdy bags bearing the Rangers logo.  Very handy things, these bags. Our entire family attended the game, so we went home with a good collection of reusable shopping bags.  Days later, I got to looking at the bag, and thought, "Huh. These are made out of the same stuff as dog food bags." That sturdy, nearly indestructible woven plastic material that can't really be recycled. We have a big dog that eats big food that comes in those big 40-lb bags, and we'd been throwing those bags away.

So the next time we emptied a new bag into the food bin, I removed all the binding from the bag, folded it neatly, and tucked it away. Did the same with the next bag, and the next, and the next, until I had an embarrassingly large stash of empty dog food bags.

Lest I become a case study on Hoarders, I decided I needed to finally do something with those bags!  So that's been my project this week while I've been home with the crud.

The hardest part of this project is cleaning the bags. Dog food is oily, and I'm still trying to find the easiest/most efficient/inexpensive way to de-oil. So far it's been trial and error, and/or a cumulative effect of several different approaches. And of course some brands are harder to clean than others.

Materials:
~ Woven plastic dog food bag
~ Sewing machine & thread
~ Optional: fabric, webbing, bias tape, bling, etc.

Step 1:  Completely remove binding stitching and tape from top and bottom of bag.
Step 2:  Wash bag thoroughly inside and out.
- - -
Step 3:  Hang dry.

To make two bags, cut down one side seam (can be done before washing to make that step easier), then cut the bag in half. Use the remaining side seam as the bottom, sew up some new side seams, turn down the top and hem, and add some gussets. Add fabric or webbing handles.

To make one big bag, cut two four-inch strips off the top for handles if desired. Sew bottom seam and add gussets. Turn down top and hem.   Fashion handles from strips and attach.

Note: The feed dogs on the sewing machine are veritably useless on plastic, so wrestling the material through your machine and achieving a straight, even seam, takes a bit of practice.

When the yarn stash outgrows the brain

It was bound to happen some time, right? After 30+ years of crocheting and crafting with yarn, I'm surprised it's only been recently that my brain could no longer catalog all the brands and colors and weights, and whatnot, of all the yarn I have tucked into tote bags. Perhaps that's an indication, not of the copious varieties of yarn in the tote bags, but rather my aging mental capacities.  Eh.  Let's just pretend.

Because I have sooo many different yarns (*wink*), I've started to catalog them. I'm not putting any monumental effort into the process, so I've only started, and it will likely take me a while to get 'em all processed, but here's my strategy:

~ Record the yarn's brand, color, and color number on half an index card (mine were super flimsy, so I folded each whole card in half)
~ Punch a hole in the top
~ Crochet up a tiny swatch (mine is single crochet, five stitches wide)
~ Attach swatch to card (I went with safety pins instead of staples)
~ Put all swatch cards of like brands on a single ring (I'm using a shower curtain ring)

The ring pictured is exclusively for my Red Heart Super Saver solids.  RHSS Variegated/Flecks will get another ring, as will my RH Softs, Impeccables, Lions, etc.:

I had a few colors that were in ball form, the skein wrappers long gone, so on a recent trip to Walmart, I took the entire ring with me and stood in the yarn aisle matching swatches with skeins and recording the info there. And inevitably picked up a few more colors I didn't have.  Go ahead, tell me I didn't look like a hard core crocheter with this big swatch ring and seven skeins in my basket!

Another bonus to cataloging this way: Planning a color scheme or stripes no longer requires dragging out entire tote bags of yarn. Just pull swatch cards and line 'em up, switch 'em around, swap 'em out... Easy.

And when I'm running low on a color, I can take the swatch card with me to shop, so I can be sure the colors are the same.

Maybe years from now, when I have a hundred tiny swatches of discontinued colors, I'll stitch 'em into a watercolor quilt-style afghan.

Gramma's trivet

 

My Gramma taught me to crochet. My earliest memories of her have yarn and crochet hooks involved, and stacks and stacks of afghan squares.  She made each grandchild a uniquely colored afghan--mine was pink. She also crocheted dolls and towel toppers and slippers and potholders and trivets and all kinds of things to give away or sell at craft fairs. As she got older and her hands and eyesight failed her, she crocheted less and less, until Alzheimer's and dementia took away that part of her.

This past weekend at my mom's house, I ran across a trivet Gramma had made... probably more than 25 years ago. And my heart twinged a little bit. (Pardon poor quality of the first two pics--I took 'em with my phone).

I say 'ran across' as though it was an accident. Truthfully I went looking for it, so I could re-create it. I wanted to figure it out and write down the pattern. Even though she probably didn't make up the design herself, it's still a sentimental connection to the Gramma I remember. So while I was there at my mom's, I did my best to duplicate the trivet.  Mine turned out bigger, but it's likely a difference in size of crochet hook. My hook of choice is I/9, and Gramma always used an F or G. 

Here's my trivet nearly finished, beside Gramma's trivet.

This morning I picked up the pattern I had scrawled on the back of a choir program, and worked it again, looking only at my notes, to make sure I had it right.  Also got a little creative on the color scheme.

And then I went a different direction, making multicolor rosettes for an as-yet-to-be-determined project (afghan? shawl? table runner? bag?).  Pattern for both the trivet and rosette are below.

I used worsted weight acrylic yarn and a 5.5mm (I/9) hook. These are US terms.

Cluster = 2 dc together into same stitch.  (YO, insert hook, YO, draw up loop, YO, draw through 2 lps. ^YO, insert hook, YO, draw up loop, YO, draw through 2 lps, YO, draw through all 3 lps on hook.)

Ch 4, join into ring with sl.st. in 1st ch.
Rnd 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1st dc). 11 dc in ring. Join with sl.st. to top of ch2. (12 st)
Rnd 2: Ch 2 (counts as 1st dc), dc in same stitch, chain 1; *2dc, ch 1* in each remaining stitch. Join with sl.st. to top of ch2.
Rnd 3: Ch 2  (counts and 1st half of cluster), complete cluster from ^, ch 1, cluster in 1st chain space.  *Cluster, ch 1, cluster* in each remaining chain space. Join with sl.st. to top of 1st cluster.
Rnd 4: Ch 2  (counts and 1st half of cluster), complete cluster from ^, ch 3, cluster in 1st chain space. *Cluster, ch 3, cluster* in each remaining chain space. Join with sl.st. to top of 1st cluster.
Rnd 5: *6dc in chain space, sc in top of cluster* 12 times around. Join with sl.st.

FOR TRIVET: Make 2, put back to back, then sc the edges together to join them.
FOR ROSETTE: Work Rounds 1-3. For Round 4: hdc, dc, tc, dc, hdc in each chain space, sc in top of cluster. Join with sl.st.

Ruffle Ruffle Ruffle Ruffle pillow

So I usually try to have a portable project to work on every weekend, because we're always running here and there, and I sometimes have some down time where I like to have something to keep my hands busy. This was my project this past weekend. And unlike a lot of my projects, I actually finished this one in a timely manner. Began it Sunday evening and finished it this morning.  A ruffled pillow, inspired by a photo (which is pinned on my Color and Whimsy board) from this post on Attic24. Mine is much more... um... rough, shall we say? *ahem*  Definitely more...chunky.  But I love it.  And it's certainly colorful/whimsical.

My original thought was to write up a pattern for it, but really, it's a hot pretty mess.  The front was a make-it-up-as-I-go endeavor, and the back--in order to make it fit the wonky front--was a mathematical challenge. If anyone is interested, I can write up some very basic instructions.

Into the beginning

Yes, another blog. This one to share my return to moxiedom, finding my chutzpah, refining my design sensibilities, experimenting, creating.

So I guess it started when I created my 'Color and Whimsy' board on Pinterest to collect objects and ideas that utterly appealed to me. Once upon a time, my life could be defined by those two words, and in some ways I miss that. I realized that I'd like to reclaim a bit of that former self, a pursuit which would dovetail nicely with my ongoing Moxie Reclamation Project.

So welcome to Moxiepants :)