Reinventing the rug

OK....the tshirt rug wasn't working for me the way it was. i don't know why i didn't figure that out some time ago. i already used 5 shirts and it was a fight all the way. i cut the tshirts at 1.5 inches and finally figured out that was just too thick. the crochet hook was more than 1/2" thick for pete's sake. so i ripped it all out to start over. i cut a couple more tshirts at 3/4 inch...that seems to work much better. i could use a smaller crochet hook and it didn't hurt my hands as much.

Here's what i have so far...4 shirts worth...36 inches wide and about 6 inches long. now i get 2 or 2 1/2 rows per shirt...much better.

Here a closer view.

I'm using double crochet throughout...it is nice and soft and feels good to step on. no wonder dogs and cats like to lay on your clothes...they are soft. LOL

Oh, and the 5 shirts that i ripped out....well, i am cutting those in half....after all....3/4" is half of 1 1/2" so i couldn't just throw those shirts away. it is very comical to try and cut down the middle of about 40 feet of tshirt that is all curled up. and it makes lots and lots of fuzzies that are now all over the house...and all over me...and the chair...and the floor....sigh!! 

But my rug is gonna be pretty and i'm gonna love it cause i made it myself and the Duck is gonna love it because it will give it some pretty, too.

Last night's progress....until 2am....LOL

When you stay up till 2am you get a lot accomplished. and it is fun.....until your dog wakes you up at 7:30 so she can go outside and chase things.

Last night i worked on my cross stitching some. it has been a week since the last progress picture so i thought i would show you where i am with this. i haven't worked on it EVERY night this last week...but most nights.

It's coming along nicely. clouds are partially filled in and some of the house is done. i find i like it much better since i did the outline stitching first. much less counting to fill in the parts.

And you know i had to start that tshirt yarn crocheted rug didn't you. i'm just obsessive like that. here are my last 16 tshirt purchases from 2 thrift stores in town a few days ago. i cut up 3 or 4 of them yesterday.

Seem to be a lot of orange/gold and dark blue in there. i might not cut that white one yet and give it some dye...perhaps the light gray one, too.

So i took 2 balls of yarn to the house last night and 2 different crochet hooks to try them out. it is sort of a struggle to crochet with these huge hooks. the smaller hook was too tight and the rug felt really hard. so i pulled that out and tried the super large hook. i haven't crocheted in a very long time...i remembered the chain stitch and single crochet stitch. but wanted it to go quicker....so i tried double crochet...but i kept thinking it wasn't right. so i had to go online to find a video on how to do a double crochet. sure enough...what i was doing was not correct. but here it is so far.

This is 2 tshirts worth...it is 38" wide (rug-wise) and about 3" long. long way to go...hahahahaha  the blue is the first chain, a row of single crochet and then a row of what i thought was double crochet. i started a new row once i relearned the double crochet....it is as wide as the other 2 rows. i didn't want to pull the blue out and start all over so i just left it. i'm ok with that.

When i started the chain....i thought it was about 24" long. i just eye-balled it. i was very surprised when i measured it this morning and found it was 38". i am usually pretty good at eye balling measurements. apparantly not this time. perhaps it stretched somewhat while i was working on it....that's my story and i'm sticking to it. i think it will all be double crochet. it goes quicker and looks good. it is soft to the touch yet a bit heavy. i think it will be pretty cushy to step on. it will be the duck's first fabric accessory. LOL

And on the quilting side of my brain...while perusing blogs this morning i found a quick quilt top that i liked made from 2 jelly rolls. the part that caught my eye was .... "what is 1600 inches long when it starts and finishes at 48" x 64"?".   gotta give this a try. this morning....right after finishing this blog. it's calling me. LOL

Looks really simple and fun. they say one lady finished her top in 35 minutes. don't know about that...she must be an Indy 500 sewer. but i figure i can spare a couple hours on it. i have 2 packages of Bali Pops to use...Mint Chip and Mocha Mint. i have had these for a bit and pick them up every once in a while to use on something and then put them back. i wanted to use all of it together. this pattern is perfect for that.

OK...can't chat any more....things to do.

Later

From the bowels of my closet...

4 more tshirts gave up their life so i could craft....hahahahahahahahaa

You know i just couldn't get the idea of the tshirt yarn out of my head. i thought of it as i went to sleep last night. the first thought in my head this morning was...i'll bet i can find some tshirts to use in my closet. so i went a searchin'....and found 4 'volunteers'. LOL

I am all excited about this. this one is more a yellowish-gold than the picture shows....weird.  all cut up

This one is all pulled and ready to roll.

Here we go.....5 balls ready to crochet.

Oh....i have to go on the search for a fat crochet hook...sure hope i have one.

Just a thought....dare i look in hubby's closet? hahahahahaha    wonder if he'd notice.

Now...talk to myself.....i can't start these right now.....i have to finish March's quilting obligations....they have to wait till the end of the month....put those back....forget about it till later.

I believe Tuesday i will go to town and check out our thrift stores...we have a couple stores and shirts are really, really cheap. bet i can score some tshirts. it's a plan.

Don't even look at those balls........you can't do that till the end of the month....put THAT DOWN!!!

Cross-stitching and tshirt yarn

The hand applique quilt corner blocks are now finally finished....after procrastinating for some time on the last one. so i need to move on to the next nighttime project to keep my fingers busy (instead of clicking the mouse on those computer games...LOL).

So i am starting the second in the series of 3 Amish pictures that i have to cross stitch. this picture is the middle one and about twice as wide as the first one.

The chart covers more than one page in the book.....i won't think about all those stitches yet. the first picture took me 31 days to finish....i'm thinking this one will take 2 months. oh well, what else do i have to do with my life, right?

I got started about 8:30 and went to bed at 1am. tv absolutely sucked last night...everything was either too stupid to watch or a repeat. usually i have HGTV on and am watching the housing shows...they were all repeats. blech!!!   this is how much progress i made in that time.

Yep, top border and cloud outlines. a very long way to go. this is where you will find me most evenings for the next 60 days....working away diligently.

In my blog reading the other morning i came across Polka Dot Pineapple....what a cool name for a blog. on her march 27, 2008 post she has a tutorial for making tshirt yarn. you can crochet or knit things with it....rugs, placemats, mug rugs, etc. i was intrigued....or perhaps just easily impressed. LOL   i loved the idea and went in seach of a tshirt to try it out. my closet is full of tshirts but options were small.....they either had something embroidered on them or it was a favorite that i didn't want to use. but someone had to be a volunteer. so i chose a lime green that i had dyed some time ago.

Her instructions were so easy to follow....lots of pics, too. after just a few minutes i now have a ball of lime green tshirt yarn. more to follow....another excuse for a thrift store trip...need more volunteer tshirts to cut up.

The Duck needs a lovely colorful crocheted rug by the bed. and perhaps another by the back door...and who knows where else. would be nice to find lots of white shirts that i could dye all different colors. the search is on.....woohoo!

If you want some tshirt yarn too....go check out this blog.. fun, fun, fun

http://mousechirpy-polkadotpineapple.blogspot.com/2008/03/tutorial-t-shirt-yarn.html

Time to go finish up that customer quilt on the frame. and then quilt my #1 UFO challenge for this month.

Later