Yarn Covered Bottles

Oh how I love the craft projects I come across on Pinterest.  I saw this particular one the other day and absolutely loved the colors and the idea.  So easy!  Here is the original pin, however it only links back to a picture:  http://pinterest.com/pin/98305204335936975/.

Today I raided the cabinet under the sink where I keep old bottles and containers I've saved.  I found three bottles that would work great and then I grabbed my favorite colors in yarn.  A little tacky glue for me and some construction paper and a glue stick to distract my toddler, and I was ready to begin.

Here is a picture of what I started with.  As you can see I used a wine bottle, beer bottle, and a glass Pepsi bottle.  I chose to do 3 different colors of yarn, but you could make them all the same color or even use multiple colors on each bottle.  I also removed the labels from the wine and beer bottles before I started.  The labels on the Pepsi bottle were painted on so I didn't bother with it.  I could have probably scratched them off or painted the bottle, but there's really no need when you are covering it up with the yarn.

To cover each bottle I started with a small amount of glue covering about 1 inch of the bottle all the way around at a time.  Work slowly turning the bottle as you go laying the yarn down over the glue, making sure to keep the yarn straight and close together.  Keep working adding more glue as you cover up each section all the way to the top.  You don't necessarily have to cover the entire bottle.  You could just cover a section in the middle, perhaps to just cover up a label and leave the rest of the bottle exposed, especially if it's a pretty color glass.  I honestly think the beer bottle turned out the best with the dark brown color of the bottle showing through slightly.  The other 2 bottles were clear (Note: the wine bottle in the picture above is not the one I actually ended up using.)

This is what the bottles look like finished sitting on the corner of my mantle.  I love how they turned out!  This was a super quick project and extremely easy to do.  I foresee doing this again in the near future!  I can already think of a few other spots I'd like to put them! 

Receiving Blanket Rag Rug

In my last blog I shared how I picked up a new hobby and was teaching myself to crochet.  I started off small with a simple scarf and a simple stitch.  But I quickly became hooked on finding new things I wanted to learn to crochet.  I stumbled across a few rag rug tutorials on the Internet and decided that would be my next project.  It seems the t-shirt rag rugs are quite the fad these days, but I came up with another and more sentimental idea. I decided to use our son's old receiving blankets to make the rag rug.  Our son is 4 years old, but I've saved nearly everything from both our kids, and this seemed like a much better way to keep the blankets than in a tote in a closet!

Here's a picture of the stack of blankets I started with.  I ended up only using 8 of them.  A couple were in too bad of shape they probably shouldn't have been saved in the first place.  Once you've decided on your "material" of choice, next comes the most time consuming part of the project:  turning it into "yarn" to crochet with.

Each of the tutorials I read explained different ways of doing this part, but they didn't work out so well for me.  The first blanket I started off by marking off lines on the blanket every inch and made all of my cuts before I began tearing.  Not all of the tears ended up where they were supposed to, so I scrapped that method.  I found the easiest way to do it was to simply make a small cut about an inch in from the edge of the fabric and tear a line down to the other end, stopping about an inch from the edge.  Then you make another cut on the edge about an inch over from where your tear was and repeat the process.  You end up with one long piece of "yarn" by making these zigzagged cuts.

Once you finish the tearing (which is quite the stress reliever by the way!), roll it up into a ball to make for easy tangle free crochet when you get started on your rug.  All the tutorials I read recommended preparing all of your balls of yarn in advance, but I did each one as I was ready for it.  I didn't know how big the rug would actually get, or how big I really wanted it to be, and I also didn't want to cut up any blankets I wasn't going to use.  So I did one at a time.  Here's what one blanket looks like as a ball.

When you are ready to start, you'll probably want a pattern to follow.  I looked and looked and basically discovered that most people don't use a pattern to make rag rugs.  For a beginner who's not really sure what they're doing, I suppose that's good and bad.  I did finally figure out how to get started with the round rug by  chaining 6 and then making a slip stitch to connect the chain.  If you already know how to crochet that will make sense to you.  If not, watch a couple "how to crochet for beginners" videos on YouTube.  Everything I know about crochet know, I learned from there (and a little trial and error on my own).  Then do 2 single crochets in each stitch of the chain.  From there you just single crochet in each stitch and keep going around and around the circle.  Every so often, add an extra single crochet in a stitch to increase the size.  Keep it loose or else it gets hard to work with.  And if the edges start to pull up, you should be adding more extra stitches to increase the rounds.  If the rug starts to wrinkle and doesn't lie flat, you are probably increasing too often.  It's all just see how it feels as you go.  This picture below is the first blanket finished.

 Three blankets done.  The second two blankets I used were identical.  Joining the blankets is probably the trickiest part once you actually start making the rug.  Knotting them together can leave a bump that won't be that comfortable to stand or sit on.  I found this tutorial, http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2010/02/rag-rug-tutorial.html, that has a great tip on how to connect each ball of yarn, so that's what I did!  If there are any little ends or corners that stick up just push them to the back of the rug.

Four blankets done.  It was just under 2 feet across at this point.  I'm still amazed at how easy this turned out to be and how quickly it grows!  At this point I was no longer working on it in my lap.  I laid it on the floor in front of the couch and sat on it while I crocheted.  It is really soft, but then again it is made from well worn cotton and flannel receiving blankets!!

And here is the finished rug.  After 8 blankets, and a couple scraps to help finish the blue all the way around the edge, it came in at 34 inches in diameter.  And fits perfectly in front of the kids' bookcase in the playroom.  

I'm planning to figure out how to make the rectangular version next because I'm in need of some rugs for the kitchen.  When I do, I'll be sure to post all about it here!

Cool Crochet

A few weeks before today's date nine years ago, my grandmother attempted to teach my sister and I how to crochet.  My great-grandmother was in the hospital at the time, and I believe it was a method of keeping us girls occupied and quiet while we spent many hours visiting with her there.  My great-grandmother passed away on December 15, 2002, and after that I never tried to crochet again.  Until now.

My new obsession, also known as Pinterest, made it perfectly clear to me there are so many things I want to be doing that I'm not.  People are so darn crafty and creative, and I want in on that!  I kept coming across some beautiful pictures of things people have made such as cowls, headbands, baby booties, etc.  I set a goal to teach myself how to crochet all over again and get started making something, anything!

Looking back all I really remembered about our lessons in that hospital room was that the yarn was white or maybe cream and that we wanted to make scarves.  I couldn't even remember if it was actually crochet or knitting (I had to look up the difference to figure it out)!  I also fairly certain we never made anything that could have passed for a washcloth, let alone a scarf.  I also had to look up what I would need to get started.  I had no idea there were so many different types of yarn and so many sizes of crochet hooks.  On a tip from a great friend, I checked out YouTube and found some how to videos.  This one, http://youtu.be/eqca00LdmAc, seemed to be one of the most helpful.  I took her recommendation for what type of yarn and hook to start out with and immediately made a trip to the store to get them.

I only picked up two skeins of yarn, two crochet hooks, and a package of yarn needles.  For less than $10, I was starting a new hobby.  One that is entirely portable, lightweight, and you can put down and pick back up whenever you need to, which is quite often when you have little ones running around the house.

After watching nearly every result for the search "how to crochet" on YouTube, I got started.  About fifty tries later, I had my first row of single crochet.  Even once I got going, I can't tell you how many times I pulled out multiple rows, all the way down to the first chain, and started over.  Practice makes perfect right?

Well it is by no means perfect, but I am so happy I picked up this new hobby.  It's been a couple of weeks and here's what I have so far.  There are a few spots where it's not consistent, I missed a stitch on a row, or I added one by mistake.  I quit pulling out rows when that happened because I like the idea of this being my first piece and imperfect.  I hope to hang on to it and compare it to something I crochet years from now!  My daughter wanted to check out what I was doing and tried to run away with the yarn pulling a bunch of it off the roll.  As you can see I've got a bit to untangle before I can keep going now, but that's okay.  I get excited by the thought of being able to pass this skill on to her one day (when I actually have skill at it!), but for now I am just enjoying the fact that I'm making something.

It will still be a long time before I get to anything fancy like baby booties or flower bows, but I got started and that's the first step. I think my great grandmother would be happy to know that I've finally picked this back up, and I hope she knows that I'm thinking about her today.