Let's Craft Something!

Do you know how to knit, crochet, or both?  I'm sure you've heard about the amazing website Ravelry, then.  If you haven't, let me fill you in.






You do have to be a member of Ravelry to view their patterns.  Don't worry, it's free and they don't send you annoying emails.  What it is is pretty much a database of knitting and crochet patterns.  Anyone can submit patterns for it, from LionBrand down to the lonesome old blog like mine.  Other users can then comment on it, favorite it, add it to their queue, and more.

My favorite part about it?  I absolutely adore the search!  (Yes, I realize how lame that sounds.)  Say I was looking for a bag pattern.  I could type "bag" into the search, click crochet patterns, has a picture, and free.  That's how I found my hobo bag pattern.  Just putting that in has 47 pages of results!



I mean, I even found this adorable little Umbreon plush pattern on there, which I used to make one for Zach for our anniversary last year.  (Mine does not look this good, though.)  Her website is also very good if you have someone that loves Pokemon in your life!

Because I'm still pretty knew to knitting and crocheting, these are the only real features I've used so far.  I have plenty of things favorited, but I've never really used the forum, groups, yarn ideas or anything.

Feel free to check out my favorites on Ravelry (to give a small idea of how random my tastes are).  Also, check out my Pinterest for more free or cheap crafts!

Sorry, guys, but I don't have anything really to show you.  I know what you're thinking... "She got distracted by Skyrim that much again?!"  No, I promise it's a much more legitimate reason than that.  My cat seems to have developed a UTI; I noticed frequent bathroom -- well, litterbox -- trips Sunday night and didn't think anything of it.  Instead of sleeping with me like he normally does, he slept by my bathroom, near his litterbox.  His frequent trips continued on Monday, and I checked because normally, his pee clumps are pretty big.  There was hardly anything.  I did some quick research online because it was a holiday and my vet was obviously off.  I discovered it was probably a UTI and gave him canned food instead to make sure he was getting water.  Anyway, I took him to the vet Tuesday morning and they gave him a shot and some antibiodics for me to continue with.  I'm having to keep a close eye on him to make sure there are no changes.  I'm also pretty paranoid when it comes to my little baby, so I've been pretty distracted.

However, when I went to get cat food, I grabbed a two liter to keep by my desk for when I game.  I also had two one liter bottles sitting around because I'm lazy and hadn't taken them out yet.  I had toyed with the idea of steampunk jetpack before when I was planning a steampunk Rainbow Dash cosplay, but never quite got around to making it.

This is the one that I thought about basing my Rainbow Dash jetpack on.

Even though I'm short -- about 5'2" -- I thought the one liter bottles looked a little too small.  I mean, the practicality of it just won out in the end; there is no way that a tiny little jetpack like that could possibly lift me unless I was like 90 lbs.  Two two liter bottles seems pretty bulky and might get in the way... Anyway, I thought about combining the three bottles to make a more believable jetpack.  

Found on DeviantArt by Skinz-N-Hydez who does amazing costume work.

I could always go for something a little more ambitious and realistic.  But I have no job and I don't want to drop a lot of money on something like a costuming prop.  Not to mention i have nowhere to put it!

So there is my conceptual WIP.  If you have and ideas to add, sketches, or reference images for me, feel free to link them!  I'd be more than happy to check them out.  I've also gotten the links page working a little better already.  (Remember, I said this website would be a bit of a WIP for a while, too?)  Sorry this post didn't have something a little more tangible; as I said, I'm worried about my little Booger and getting him feeling better.

I finally decided on a new phone.  I went to pick a few things up from Walmart and it just to happens that our Verizon store is located in front of Walmart.  I sighed and thought, "Well, since I'm here..."  I went in, talked to one of the people there, gave them my three choices (Droid DNA, Nokia Lumia, or Samsung Galaxy S4).  The Lumia was quickly knocked from the list  -- nothing against it!  Then it was narrowed down to the DNA or S4.  Finally, she pointed out that they were the same price.  She held a DNA and took my name so that she could reserve an S4 when the shipment got in and I would be able to make up my mind overnight.  The next day, I got a Galaxy S4.



If you haven't heard about all the neat features, here is a link to a Cnet review.  It's the one with the neat little sensor on the front so that you can gesture and it will scroll.  It also has smart scroll so when you're reading, it will move the page automatically.  It has the neat photobomber eraser option, too.  Of course, I'm still loving the simple upgrades like the 13 megapixel camera and a front camera.  I haven't upgraded in that long.

The same night, I also participated in what I call, "the most redneck thing I have done in my entire life."  You see, I'm from Alabama -- the home of the rednecks.  I also like to think that I am not a redneck and generally try to steer clear of things that are thought of as such.  I went crawfishing.  And, no, that doesn't entail sitting with a fishing pole or anything of the sort, for those who are unfamiliar with the concept.  I mean, strapped on mud-boots and waded around through a drained lake at night armed with a glove, flashlight, and bucket. Am I afraid to get dirty?  No.  It's just that the mud, at points, was practically as deep as the too-big mud-boots I was wearing.  I kept getting suction stuck!  The glove was because I am a chicken and didn't want the little things grabbing onto my skin.

All-in-all, was it fun?  Yes.  I only caught one or two -- the people we went with told us it wasn't an ideal time to go, despite them getting about a bucket full of crawfish.  They're planning a few more trips out, I think, before they have their annual crawfish boil.  They said they probably needed at least three more bucketfuls.  I told them that anything I catch is pure profit for them -- I'm a vegetarian.

Unfortunately for me, Zach left on Sunday for a trip down to the beach.  He and his younger brother are going to visit their cousin for a few days.  I apparently have until Wednesday by myself.  (Well, not technically by myself, but you know what I mean.)  Maybe I'll be productive... At least that's what I keep telling myself.


It's probably just going to be more of this.  That blood dragon scared me.  I paused to heal and noticed this beautiful -- yet scary -- screenshot.  Seriously, if you haven't played Skyrim, you should.

Turn what?  Into what?  Yeah, that's right.  Turn your phone into a projector.  That's not even the best part!  You probably have all of these things around your house already.  So it really could be free!  And it's only seven small steps!


I found this through Pinterest and had to search for the original so that I could at least see the text.  I like to be able to see and read what I'm supposed to be doing; it's just one of my tutorial preferences, I guess.  Unless it's a YouTube video or something that I could just play again.

All you really need is:

1. Shoebox
2. Paperclip
3. Smartphone
4. Magnifying glass or large lens (which you can get at the Dollar Tree)
5. X-acto knife or something of the sort
6. Electrical or duct tape

By the materials needed and the photo above, you could probably already piece it together.  Still, here is the link to how to turn your phone into a projector on Photojojo.  So clever.  I have to try this.

I know, I said I might not have anything good for WIP Wednesday due to the slow going on the plarn hobo bag.  I would like to add that I managed to get a good deal done the other day while Zach was helping his brother with math.  I'm about halfway done with the bulk of the bag, but it's really just double crocheting and doesn't look very impressive...yet.

So, I decided instead of posting some inspiration, I would actually try something I've been thinking about.  When I first learned about plastic bag fusing, I was like "Okay, but what about if I wanted to add color to it?  Can I dye the plastic in any way?"  Honestly, the only places we have around here use either white or yellow bags.  (Yay small towns!)  Unless I want white, yellow, or black garbage bags, I need to figure out how to dye them.

I did a little Googling, but nothing was really helpful.  Most things just said it was much easier to do using a bag that already had that color.  Well, that didn't help at all.  Someone had suggested spray painting, and at first I was completely against it.  Then, as my search dwindled on, I thought that maybe, if you fused some plastic bags together, spray painted it, and then added more plastic over it to kind of seal the spray paint in, it may work.

I decided that it was worth a shot and grabbed the bag full of scraps from making plarn.  I didn't want to use up all of my good, hole-less bags that I would use for my plarn on a theory, so I figured scraps would do just fine.


I had my handy little helper with me because he absolutely loves plastic Walmart bags.


I used the handles since they were the biggest sections of bag that I had to work with. I cut them at the seams and down the center so I would have two large sections per bag.  I just wanted to make something large enough that if it worked well, it wouldn't just be a fluke.


And I was left with four, thin, silly top hat looking pieces of bags.  I knew they were going to be thin and probably not much stronger than regular bags if I didn't layer them.  I cut about three bags like this so that I would have twelve thin pieces like this.


I took these pieces and layered them until I could not see the pattern of my counter through them.  About twelve worked for me (3 bag handles total).  Ever had a plastic bag break on you?  Yeah, me too.  That's another reason why layers are great -- more layers means it's stronger.


According to the internet, you can use aluminum foil or parchment paper to sandwich your plastic bags between.  Since I'm cheap, I thought I would use aluminum foil for this run.  It's just a small swatch I'm testing and parchment paper is more expensive.




The biggest drawback to using aluminum foil is that you can't see the plastic as it's fusing.  If you were actually making something with fused plastic, I would recommend using parchment paper so that you don't have to keep lifting the foil.  I ironed for about ten minutes, flipping the foil about every two minutes.  I used the second lowest setting on my iron; on this setting, the aluminum foil never got too hot to touch to flip it over.



Everything I read said that bubbling is normal and that one side would look better than the other; it was also said that edges don't fuse well.  I noticed all of these things with my first trail run.  To me, the bottom side looked better and was less shiny.  I found it neat that you couldn't see any of the seams or places where it overlapped unless I held it up to the light.


Then I took it out to the garage for a spray painting -- well, actually two of them as I did two coats.  The only dark color I had happened to be black.  I thought we had a dark purple, but I was wrong.  I know, I know... If I wanted a black bag, I could use a trash bag.  I was just testing things, remember!


Now, what I thought would be wrong with using spray paint would be that it might dry and crack if you were to make anything out of it.  This is where I had the idea of using another bag or two to seal the spray paint inside of the layers.
 

So, I layered one more thin layer of plastic over it to try to seal it in.  Unfortunately, all I had were white Walmart bags.  Since I was just trying to test a theory, I didn't worry too much about the overlap; it was just another part of the test.  Turns out, the overlap is very obvious.  If you were to patch them carefully together, it would just look like a lighter version of the color you painted.


What's the verdict on this method of "dying" plastic bags?  I'd say it's plausible.  You have to be very, very careful with this method if you're going for a dark color.  I don't think it would matter as much on lighter colors.  Otherwise, try clear plastic bags for the top, outer layer.


Do you guys have any suggestions for how to dye plastic bags for fusing?  Maybe I'll try again with something different sandwiched between the plastic. Hmm.  Wait, no.  First I have to finish my plarn hobo bag!

Well, it has been a week so far of me sticking with my blogging.  I feel like that's one small victory to celebrate, at least. Unfortunately, though, I haven't been keeping up with my crochet plarn bag as well as I should have.  I partially blame not feeling well, but for the most part, I blame Skyrim.  Yes, the video game that came out two years ago.

Zach and I are pretty big gamers, you see.  We had finally gotten back into Guild Wars 2, but it lacks the storyline that Zach craves.  To fix that, he started playing Skyrim again, and I sat around and watched for a while which was my biggest mistake.  I realized I had never beaten the game and that I had honestly not played very much of it due to school at the time.  I booted up my copy and lost four and a half hours the first night.  It pretty much continued sucking up my time.

Not that I spent my entire week playing Skyrim, though!  I've been having phone difficulties for longer than I would like to admit.  My phone is about three years old, so I can see why.  They're up to the what, Droid 4?  I'm still using the Droid R2D2, which is a special edition version of the Droid 2.  I've been eligible for upgrade for a while, but I absolutely hate shopping for cell phones these days!  After spending some time on the Verizon website, I narrowed it down to two phones: Nokia Lumia or the Droid DNA.  (Not that I didn't take time to consider the Galaxy S4 and its amazing features!)  Honestly, I'm leaning towards the DNA because I'm comfortable with Droid.  I don't know though...

I remembered how much of a love/hate relationship I have with Pinterest.  I love it because I find so many neat things on there; however, I hate it for the same reason.  I can waste so much time on there pinning things I will probably never make or use.  That's okay, though, because it's inspiration none the less!  Besides, who knows when you'll nee that recipe for air dried porcelain?  (Since I haven't progressed much on my bag, I may post some inspiration on Wednesday instead...)

While I was working on my bag at Zach's house, his twelve-year-old sister wandered upstairs to see what we were doing.  Being another who loves crafts, she saw my explosion of plastic bags as I was making more plarn and was fascinated.  She asked about the bag, how I was making it, and commented that she always thought things like that were neat.  I knew she was one of the only people that I could teach (because we are both left-handed) and took time out of working on my bag to teach her simple crochet.  I promised I would bring her a hook and a small skein of yarn for her to practice with.  In my opinion, that was better than working on the bag.

That's pretty much what you missed since last Monday.  See?  I promised I wouldn't write a novel just because it was free writing!  Be sure to check back for WIP Wednesday.

 
For my first Freebie Friday, I'm happy to link Kevin and Amanda's free fonts.  This happens to be where I got all of the fonts for Let's Craft Something! and I absolutely adore them.  They're easy to read, cute without being too girly, and I don't feel like they're really kiddish.  Not to mention that they have a ton of them; I think I was still going through them after about an hour.

Their website is very easy to use and you get a full range of letters to preview.  They even include some cute little doodles in some of the fonts.  For example, the owl in my signature was included in one of their fonts.

I'm sorry my first Freebie Friday wasn't something more original than a link to free fonts, but I'm just starting out, after all.  If you have some requests for what you would like to see hosted on a Freebie Friday, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can find.

See you Monday!

My first question after reading the title would be "What on earth is plarn?"  To be honest, I had no idea what plarn was a few weeks ago.  I was looking up some stuff on embroidery when I saw something about fusing plastic bags together.  I thought that sounded pretty neat, and then I saw that you could somehow make plastic bag yarn, or plarn, to knit and crochet with.

Yarn out of something that I already have a ton of?  Why not give it a try?  I mean, if I mess up, it's not like I spent money on supplies.

I was pretty skeptical, to be honest.  I mean, they're plastic bags.  They rip easily when you put too much weight in them, so how could they be that great for knitting or crocheting?  As skeptical as I was, I figured I would try it.  A lot of people had been doing it already, so there had to be some reason behind it...


I found a super simple tutorial on how to make plarn on a blog called Gooseflesh.  The only downside is that it takes a little while to make because you want to be careful not to rip the bags.  Her measurements are all in centimeters, but it works out to where approximately 2.5cm is an inch.



If you just want the gist of how she makes plarn, here's the quick textual version.  Basically, what she does is fold the bags in half (hotdog style), and again, and again, until her strip is about an inch wide.  Then she cuts off the bags at the seams at the bottom and the handle.  From there, she cuts the bags into 2cm sections.  After you open up the sections of bags, you knot them together and ta-da, double stranded plastic yarn, or plarn.

When I cut my sections of bags, I usually go with an inch width just because it is easier for me.  Like this, I can get 12 sections of bags from one bag.  This ends up making about a 216 inch section of plarn (with each section being about 18 inches).

Another great thing about plarn is when you reach the end of your plarn string, just add more to it.  I've done this probably three times while working on my bag so far.


I only have the base of my bag done right now, but I have already used about 9 bags already.  (I'm estimating because I still have some plarn on my homemade spool of a toilet paper roll.)  I'm only using Walmart bags right now, mostly because that's what our supply is pretty full of, but also because I like the white color with hints of blue that it puts off.


Ultimately, I'm hoping to get some yellow Dollar General bags to make flowers with also for the finished product.  I feel like it would compliment the colors well and really make it look less like recycled bags.


One thing I have learned, though is to be very careful with your knots.  They can tear the plarn if you try to force them through.  This is why it's important for you to get the knots as small as possible when making your plarn.  If you leave bigger knots and get into some tighter stitches, you could end up with the same problem that I did.  Learn from my mistakes!


Have you worked with plarn before?  What are your thoughts on it?  Would you ever consider using it?  Fused plastic bags before?  What do you do with your plastic bags?  Leave a comment and let's get upcycling!

Phew! Sorry that I anticipated my return a few months in advance. I knew my student teaching would be over, but I didn't think I would be busy until graduation! Now that that is over, however, I'm going to try my best to get back into crafting!
As you can see, I've done a complete blog makeover.  Instead of using a free layout that I found online, I created this one on my own.  (With a little graphical help from the internet.)  That is not to say that I am completely through revamping it; I still have some broken links, but that will be fixed quickly enough.

I'm also working on getting my Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts linked, so be sure to check out the buttons under "Follow Me" in the top-left!

If you have any feedback for me on my layout or anything else, please let me know in the comments!  I would be happy to hear any constructive criticism.  Also, if you are interested in a link party or me sharing a button, also let me know.

I hope to begin the previously-posed blog schedule of...

     Musing Mondays

     Because it's nice to be able to vent and/or share what is going on in our lives.  I'm going to try to keep this as craft related as possible, but it's likely that I'll get off-topic.  I promise not to write a novel each Musing Monday.

     WIP Wednesdays/Inspiration Wednesdays

     Wednesdays will be dedicated to my works in progress.  These won't necessarily be tutorials, but what progress I have made and any tips or tricks that I may have learned.  (Also resources!)  If I don't have a project going or I haven't made much progress, I will post some inspiration.

     Freebie Fridays

     You know it, you love it.  Who am I to break tradition? :)  Yes, freebies.  Free printables, patterns, and the like.  Depending on the growth of this blog, I may actually give something away.  Who knows?