UPCYCLE A FLEECE PULLOVER TO MAKE MITTENS & A SCARF

I’d been reading craft blogs about making mittens as a great way to upcycle outdated sweaters. I like the results and had put that on my “wanna-do” list for gift-making ideas.

So, this past month I decided to make mittens from upcycled sweaters as Christmas gifts for all three grandchildren. My search for suitable thrift store sweaters didn’t produce such good results. But I did find several fleece pullovers that had the fuzziness and weight that seemed right for mitten making. Fleece also turned out to be a good choice because the cuts don't fray.

The fleecy children’s clothing I found turned out to be more colorful and cheaper than those for grownups. So, I bought three pullovers in children’s sizes. For the girls, a lavender (shown) and striped print pullovers, and a solid red one for the boy.

A day or two later I took the pullovers and sat down to cut out the mittens. I saw that I had enough material to cut the mittens out of the sleeves and that I would have a lot of material left over. I could turn these left overs into something else. That’s when I decided to make matching scarves – infinity type for the two girls and one long one - sewn together as two rectangular pieces - for the boy. I’ll be describing the design of the mittens and infinity scarf here and won’t elaborate on the boy’s scarf since it was simple one that wouldn’t present any particular problem. Time needed for this project was about two afternoons, one for the mittens and another for the scarf.

Materials for child-sized mittens and scarf

• child’s fleece pullover in good condition
• Marker or pen for tracing
• Scissors
• straight or safety pins
• colored medium weight yarn
• crewel embroidery sewing needle

Steps for mittens

Find a mitten size: The mittens need to fit the hands of the child that you have in mind. The best would be to have a trace of the child’s hand. But, if the child is at a distance and you don’t know how long it might take to get someone else to trace and send out a hard copy, then , you’ll have to look for a pattern – usually you can find one on a craft blog in toddler’s, as well as small and larger children sizes.

Flip over and trace: Turn the pullover inside out and lay it flat on a table. Begin by carefully cutting up the pieces of the pullover. Separate the neckline and sleeves from the torso. You want to save the biggest pieces possible. You will probably be able to use the sleeves for mittens. Trace the mitten shape around it with a marker or pen. Add about a half-inch all the way around your hand to allow for seams. Leave plenty of room for the thumb inside each mitten and an inch or two below the palm to cover the wrist. Make sure to have the bottom of the mitten wide enough so that the hand can easily fit through.

Pin it and cut: Secure the front and back layers with several pins. This will keep the two layers even while you cut and sew. Cut it out, following the shape of the pattern. You will need two pieces for each mitten. (I avoided using two pieces by folding the sleeve material in half and making a mitten that looked somewhat like a miniature kitchen mitt.)

Sew: Thread your needle with the yarn and do a blanket stitch along the edge – with the right sides on the outside. Then, if you like, crochet a slip stick in a second round to emphasize the decoration.

In case the pullover sleeve didn’t have a particular cuff finish or you were forced to use a portion of the sleeve that was above the cuff, you can make one. Do it the same way as you do the seams by sewing around the entire cuff and finishing off with a single or crochet slipstitch. (That’s what I did.)

Repeat: Repeat all steps on the other pullover sleeve for the second mitten. These mittens don't have a a particular left and right presentation.

Steps for the infinity scarf (One size fits all.)

Cut: Lay the pullover on a flat surface. You will be working with the body of the sweater. All you have to do is cut a straight line underneath the armpits of the sweater. Cut off the finished edge from the bottom of the sweater or leave it finished as is. You can also fold your piece to make it double weight. It's your call.

Stretch it out: Just stretch out the material a little bit and pull it apart. This helps avoid a stretching out after you’ve put an edge on it.

Sew and/or crochet an edging: Sew a blanket stitch to hem the pieces - both top and bottom. You can stop there or continue another round with a single crochet or slipstitch like that used on the mittens.

And, there, you have it – mittens and fleece scarf, ready to gift wrap.

MY LOVE FOR BLUE AND WHITE THINGS.

I want my home to celebrate the blue-and-white color tradition. New, old, traditional, vintage or folk, if it’s blue and white I love it all. You might ask: Why blue and white? Why not blue-and-green or red-and-white or some other combination? Well, I’ve discovered that a focus on blue-and-white is a very positive influence in my life. When I see blue-and-white around me in my personal space, I feel harmony and confidence.

Our pro-high-tech, consumerist society is plagued with industrial chrome, plastic grays and glossy black, colors which reinforce human-inspired activity and complexity. Color therapy research indicates that the combination of blue and white is a very special one that represents simplicity, sensibility, and aesthetics. To achieve harmony and simplicity of spirit, we need to rediscover the colors of our natural world.

The combination of blue and white can help us rediscover our true roots in nature. The blue signifies blue sky and the sea and symbolizes fidelity and serenity. White is the color of clouds, stars, and candle light and stands for purity, new beginnings, and unity. When combined, blue-and-white creates a sense of completeness and aesthetic harmony. And , as far as I'm concerned, all that adds up to domestic color therapy. That’s why I want the bulk of the things I acquire, make, and display in my home to include these colors.

As I’ve pursued my predilection, among other things, I’ve finally found a set of mismatched vintage dinner plates, saucer plates, and cups that make up my blue and white table collection. I like to see all the ways that the different dishes coordinate. And collecting disparate dishes is much less expensive than heading out to buy a complete set. They’re more interesting, too.

Mismatched blue & white dishes add charm to an informal table.

Perhaps my preference for these colors at the table has to do with my fond childhood memories of Blue Willow plates. Also, I have always been drawn to traditional Japanese home decoration and applaud their simple and dignified homes. Over many centuries, the combination of blue-and-white has been a strong element of Japanese style in home and table decoration. (Of course, the Japanese aren’t the only people to emphasize blue and white, and the folk art of many countries has a blue-and-white tradition.)

So, I’m always on the lookout for blue and white finds at the thrift stores. But I’m willing to go slow. I can’t just throw out or give away a lot of things just because they aren’t white or blue. What I’ve done up to now is add some blue-and-white things to my home – for example, some curtains and sheets, a tablecloth, napkins, dishes, and a few small accessories. As you might imagine, I'm also doing my best to emphasize natural materials - wood, stone, cotton, ceramics, etc.- at my house.

So, here’s my recommendation. Try out the power of blue-and-white in your decoration and see if it doesn’t help you to have a more complete and harmonious home. Choosing these colors should also help you find the strength to focus on your personal causes. Obviously, domestic peace and harmony depend on something more than blue and white house decoration. You must also simplify, de-clutter and clean your home.

 

MY OFFICE SUPPLIES, SCRAPBOOK, MEMENTOS, AND GREETING CARD DRAWER SHRUNK TO SHOEBOX SIZE

As you have seen from earlier posts, I fully believe in peace and harmony in the home. That's why I've been busy these past months striving for minimalism in my home. Among my first projects were getting rid of extra furniture items, excess bed and towel linen, and deplasticizing my kitchen.  So, recently, I knew I would have to tackle the junk in my drawers. And, just  a few days ago,  lacking more pressing things to do, I decided to open up one of my drawers and organize it.  My goal was to do this in one afternoon. It was after lunch and I hadn't done much of anything on such a rainy Thursday.  I started by opening the lower drawer of the two-drawer file cabinet in my bedroom.

I have had to face a lot of challenges in my transitioning to a lighter lifestyle and I've found that tidying takes a lot longer than you would think. Can you imagine that, at first, I thought paring down a whole house would take only a few months?  But the year is almost over and the more I work at it, the more I find major loads of junk that don’t need to be around my home. Looking hard for some justification, I like to blame this slow progress on my husband, who isn’t totally on board for this adventure. But, then, again I, personally, have a lot that I still need to do - what with the cleanliness, the organization, and the day-to-day clutter that I also help create.

It's good to have organized file drawers.

But, I did something today – I worked on clearing out misplaced things in the bottom drawer of my file cabinet. What I found was a unsettling combination of craft and scrapbook materials, English as a Second Language lessons (now dusty from my teaching days), pens, sundry office supplies, assorted greeting cards, and other mementos that I had “filed away” for some later date when I could get to them. Oh, and also I found a few knitting and craft patterns that didn’t’ make their way to the four large scrapbooks that I've dedicated to dreaming about and documenting my handiwork projects.

What went and what stayed.

I saw some improvement as the afternoon progressed. I organized and got rid of almost all the things that don’t have any place in this drawer, including, of course, my husband's misplaced files. That was easy enough.

I also discovered what looked like 100 greeting cards for all occasions and blank notes. Not being much of a greeting card person, that supply could easily take me well into my next lifetime.  Obviously, most had to go. I chose to set aside all the specific greeting cards for give away and keep about thirty with nice designs and a white page inside. Those – in my own handwritten note - can be used for birthdays, anniversaries, get-well and even for condolences.  They should last me a while and when they run out, I plan to buy totally blank note cards and print up the fronts with my own colorful artwork.

Office supplies continue to make up most of the space in the drawer and that’s the way it should be. I tossed the extras. For example, I kept only one of the four big letter stencil sets and about a third of the pens that I had collected over the past couple of years. Dried up glue and no longer working scissors quickly found their way to the trash can.

My personal documents were transferred to the top file drawer that I, as yet, haven’t organized the way I want.  Now, the ESL file is up there, too.

Crafty pages have been reassigned to scrapbooks on a shelf.

Smallish sundry mementos and sewing materials have found their way to a few boxes in the closet where I usually stash them.

I have to admit that I still have a smallish stash of pens and other highly useful office accessories near my desk and consequently, outside the bottom drawer. But, given their utility – by proximity – for the time being, they'll have to stay where they are.

Oh, and did I really get everything down to the sought after shoebox full? Well, that was just me, daydreaming, again. In truth, I haven’t accomplished all that I set out to do -- yet. But I now have a large pile of throw-outs and destined-for-the-thrift-shop that accounts for about half the former contents of the drawer. So, I guess it will take another rainy day inspiration to finish the task. And just cheating a bit - I have a couple of over sized boot boxes, on reserve, that might fit the shrunken contents of my second file drawer - whenever I get back to work on it.

MY (ALMOST ALL) HOMEMADE LIQUID DISH SOAP

Making your own household cleaning products isn't really such a big deal – but it may seem that way at first. The truth is that it’s actually easier than you may think. It’s all a matter of routines. That’s what I told myself when I began this adventure with homemade laundry detergent. And on my very first try, happily, it that turned out to be an excellent product - far superior and much cheaper than anything I could buy at the big box store.  .

After that, I felt that I could also make my own homemade liquid dish soap - something that I use a lot of  because I totally lack a dish wash machine. (And that's a condition that I've had most of my adult life, making me a more-than-experienced dishwasher by hand.) It turned out that all my early tries at making a homemade dish soap failed – for months. And all those trials were in contrast to my homemade laundry detergent that was a success from the very first.

The recipes for homemade dish soap – and there are many of them online - kept falling short of my needs. Most weren’t soap-like at all. Some were slippery and thin and others just didn’t suit me at all because they left a nasty oily scum on the dishes. After many tries, I finally came up with something that works for me.  The recipe that I’m following now leaves squeaky-clean dishes and glassware and rinses off without any residue. And I don’t hesitate to share with others.  It takes only a few minutes to make – in my case, that’s 5 minutes about twice a week. That's pretty good return for my time considering that I've lowered my dish soap bill to about 15% of what it was just a few months ago.

The best part of it is that this homemade dish soap is earth-friendly. We all know that most commercial dish soaps are loaded with toxins, and even some of the "green" cleaners contain harsh chemicals. Beyond that, the second ingredient in many popular store brands is sodium lauryl sulfate, something that is considered to be a health-hazard and a carcinogen. So, why continue using products that we know are bad for us and for the environment? And that, especially, when we come across a recipe for an eco-friendly liquid dish soap that is non-toxic and does a great job.

This dish soap is non-toxic, cheap and works! 

Ingredients
-1 and 1/2 cups of boiling hot water (with some lemon, orange and/or grapefruit peels thrown in, if you like a bit of pleasant odor).

- 3 heaping tablespoons of grated laundry soap

-1 teaspoons of super washing soda

- 1 teaspoons of borax

Using your homemade dish soap
I use a funnel to put all the dry ingredients in a glass 2-quart, recycled fruit juice bottle. Next, I dump in the almost boiling water - having removed the fruit peels - in the bottle and stir vigorously with a chopstick. Then, I add a quart of plain cool water and shake it all up.

So, as you  see, this recipe is super easy. You just make up the batch right in the bottle. It’s initially somewhat liquid but it thickens up after it cools. If it’s too thick later on, just shake it up,  add a little warm water, and give it a good shake. It'll do fine.

As to the dishwashing method, this may take a bit of a variation over what you usually do with commercial products. I transfer a quarter cup or so of the liquid to a plastic bowl and wash my dishes with the dish rag, separately – meaning that I don’t let the dishes soak together and rinse them, one-by-one. The soap suds up only the slightest bit on the rag and it's better not to add more water to the rag while washing a dish (or a few dishes at a time, depending on the amount of grease to be eliminated).

NOTES: The amount of thickeners needed - washing soda and borax - may vary some, depending on your water supply, so adjust accordingly. Although I wouldn’t want everyone to quote me on this, you may still have to throw in a couple of squirts of a commercial dish soap (the most natural one you can find) to be sure that you get great results. Sure, that’s an added expense but it may be the best way to go with very hard water - like I have.  I only have to buy one small bottle of commercial soap every three months. For me, it's well worth the extra few cents.

The homemade dish soap that I make doesn't hurt my hands. But, it may bother yours - washing soda and borax are fairly strong chemicals. So, be prepared to use gloves for dish washing if you notice any skin redness or itching.

Related post
HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT IS A NO-BRAINER

COOKING OIL SPRAYS: ANOTHER THING TO THROW AWAY - FOR GOOD.

A lot of foodie-consumer-products are touted to be natural-like and more convenient for you. And some of them are supposed to help you cut calories. The reality is that most of that is just BIG-FOOD manufacturers' hype. Less costly natural ingredients are almost always more healthy and don't have to seriously add to food preparation time. The case in point, here, concerns commercial cooking sprays in aerosol cans. They contain oils, an emulsifier and a propellant to create a fine mist of oil onto a surface making it nonstick for cooking. The sprays are expensive relative to regular cooking oils. They also use many more natural resources - particularly, the aluminum cans.

This post urges you to toss out the oil spray can and get cooking in a healthier way. And, if you still need convincing, here is some more bad news about aerosol cooking sprays.

Unhealthy additives.
The aerosols in use in these sprays tend to be toxic chemicals and, even in tiny amounts, can't be good for your health. Just one glance at the ingredients and you'll know that it isn't pure or natural. Yeah. Ugly things like soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, dimethylpolysiloxane, dimethyl silicone, and artificial flavors. The long-term effects of eating these chemicals on a regular basis are not well known but can't be good. As to lawful half-truths in advertising, some have simply listed a "propellant" as ingredient. Needless to say, they don't want to have to spell out what substances are in there. But word has it that the usual propellants are petroleum gas, propane, and butane. (Anyone in their right mind would want to avoid propellants.)

Genetically modified foods (GMO’s)
Most of the soy, corn, or rapeseed/canola commercialized in the US is GMO. (And that's as much as 90 percent according to some sources.) For years, scientific studies have shown that GMOs create health risks such as infertility, auto-immune disorders, diabetes, and changes in the gastrointestinal system. GMO foods also contain higher levels of pesticides than conventional crops.

Damage to the lungs
Because the aerosol particles are so tiny, you just can't stand back far enough to get away from them when you spray. So the cook - and any one else nearby in the kitchen - is always breathing in some part of the spray when they are in use. Over time, that kind of chemical exposure is a serious risk for respiratory disease.

Bad for the environment
Most cooking sprays contain propellants, all of which are greenhouse gases. That can't be good for the earth.  And the nitrous oxide, used in some, is particularly bad in that it doesn’t break down easily. That means they create environmental damage for many decades.

Unnecessary packaging
The manufacture of aluminum cans represents huge amounts of resources. Then, after use, most of the spray cans end up in landfills. Only a small fraction get recycled. But those also require a recycling, a process that involves a great deal of heat and electricity.

Help solve the oil spray can problem by not participating in it.
Don’t look to BIG-FOOD manufacturers to do you favors. Now that you know more about them, do you actually want to use cooking sprays? And the same can be said for many other foodie-consumer-products. Real food, in the form of fruits and veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, and good grade oils, bought as fresh as possible and prepared in the kitchen is what's best for you.

You can always do just what has been done for centuries by carefully using the right amount of oil for each type of food preparation. I remember that as a young girl, we used measuring spoons to add the oil. We also spread out the oil with our fingers onto the baking sheets. But, now-a-days, we tend to do our best to avoid such direct contact with the gooey oils. Fortunately, there are at least a couple of good ways to do spread out the oil without skin contact.

Solutions to the cooking spray can dilemma.
If you think you can't live without cooking sprays, there are some really good options to the commercial ones. And these alternative are less costly in the long run, more earth-friendly, and healthier.

First, you can always buy a hand-pump mister bottle at a big box store and fill it with your favorite cooking oil. But these misters tend to clog up and need a lot of unstopping. (I tried them a while back and decided it just wasn't worth all the fuss.) 

 

Second, you can do what I do now to avoid the use of commercial sprays. I dispense my regular cooking oils - sunflower, coconut and olive oil - with a drip pour spout. I drizzle a few drops of oil into the pan or skillet. If I need a more uniform way of spreading it out - like for baking tins - I use a small silicon spatula to baste the oil onto the cooking surface. I use two bottles - one for regular cooking oil and another for olive oil. The color-coded caps keep me from grabbing the wrong one in a rush.

The little bottles with drip spouts are recycled soy sauce containers. I bought the spatula at a big box store. They work well and clean up perfectly with warm water and regular dish washing suds.
 

FOUR EASY THINGS TO DO TO MAKE YOUR WASH DAY MORE EARTH-FRIENDLY

You can lower your wash day energy use and your carbon footprint, beginning today, by doing these four Earth-friendly things. And, the best part is that  you won't have to face any big struggle. I've done all this for months and years with great results. And I'm sure my laundry chores don't take much longer or more sweat than those of other people who follow the philosophy: “ I'm doing-what's-easiest-for me.” 

Stop using small to medium-sized plastic detergent bottles

One of the worst things that we've done to ourselves is to embrace the plastic age as if it were some miracle. It's not a miracle. It's a world-wide nightmare producing destruction of wildlife habitats and slowly poisoning everyone of us. The situation is really grave. Some studies show that there’s more plastic than plankton in parts of our oceans. So, reduction of our use of all kinds of plastic is an absolute necessity for both health and the ecology. And one of the worst plastic items that you can buy for home use is the detergent bottle.

Many people are buying small and medium plastic laundry soap containers several times a month. If plastic bags are a bad idea – which they are, those heavier plastic bottles are even worse. What's more, the liquid detergent in those bottles doesn't wash any better than the dry products and takes up a more space, on a wash-by-wash basis. Changing out from plastic detergent bottles to cardboard boxes or large plastic containers is a good place to start. You'll be doing Mother Nature, your own family, and generations-to-come a favor by refusing to buy small, plastic laundry bottles and keeping those items out of the trash, once and for all. And, if you want to, you can buy good laundry detergents in small or medium cardboard boxes. But, if you do industrial-sized laundry during the month, go ahead and buy the largest container - cardboard boxed or plastic - that you can find at the big box store. 

The plastic detergent bottles that you have right now can be easily recycled at home or given away to someone who'll use them. Recycle those huge plastic buckets  for use as a storage container for non-food items like for garden or barbecue tools. If you have some regular-sized plastic detergent bottles, recycle them as clothes pin holders or put small amounts of dry detergent in them so you won't have to carry about or dip into those larger detergent containers for every wash.

Hang some clothes on a line

Line-dried clothes smell better 

There's a big problem with tumble dryers that use electricity to generate heat. They require a lot of electricity and create a huge carbon footprint. How big are we talking about? More than you would imagine. One source says a tumble-dried load produces more than 5 pounds of CO 2 emissions when washed at 40°C. (That, of course, includes the major part that happened at the electric plant.) And, while gas dryers produce somewhat less carbon, the very best thing that can be done is line drying. And line-drying is doable most anywhere on a line or clothes rack. Not ready to hang up all the laundry? Then, start hanging up some part of it. It is super easy to hang up the towels and bed linen on a clothes line. Just doing this faithfully will eliminate several rounds of machine drying and save a lot on energy bills.

And, of course, with the mild to hot weather these days, the very best place is outdoors where the summer sun will dry them fast and leave them with a heavenly meadow-fresh odor. I hang up just about everything in the summer months, eliminating a lot of energy costs and enjoying the sweet smells of of line-dried laundry. Maybe, for some reason, you can't leave clothes hanging outside now or at other times of the year. Even so, you can hang up some lines, in the basement, in the garage or a breezeway and make good use of them. With a little ingenuity, even apartment dwellers can find space to line dry a part of their laundry.

Years ago, when we were kids and the family lived in an apartment, my Mom hung up the linens and towels all winter long in the kitchen to dry overnight. She had Dad hang the lines in such a way that we could walk around the clothes, if necessary. The small items were hung on a wood dowel drying rack near the gas stove in the living room. Most of the time, the laundry did dry by breakfast time. If not, she left them a few more hours. Slightly damp towels could be rehung in the bathroom, awaiting use there. 

While, these days, I don't need to follow closely the steps my Mom took to dry our laundry, I still swear by line drying. Thankfully, now, I have a nice outdoor area where I can hang up clothes and good drying weather almost year-round.

Wash the clothes with cold water

As you can imagine, the higher the water temperature of the wash, the more electricity you'll use. And, hot water wash is not good for clothes or for the ecology. The U.S. Department of Energy says that, in a conventional washer, more than 80% of the energy used for laundry  goes to heat up the water. So, save yourself some money and lower your carbon emission footprint at the same time. It turns out that cold water works great for regular loads. When you have oily or other stubborn stains, try a pre-soak with stronger detergent or stain remover and then use warm water wash.

There are plenty of special, cold water laundry detergents available that can wash your clothes beautifully without hot water. And most modern detergents, including the cheaper ones, work equally well on regular laundry – even if they don't say they're cold water products.

Run the washing machine to its full capacity

You'll get higher wash day efficiency if you load the machine to capacity rather than with just a few clothes. Fill your machine to its limits. For regular loads, you can use your eye to judge when the machine is full. Heavier weight stuff might need to be weighed – to know for sure. Remember, just one large load takes a lot less energy than washing two loads on a lower setting. If you need socks or underwear or a particular shirt for the next morning, wash it out by hand and hang it up somewhere where the air will get to it. It doesn't take long to do.

When I was a child, it was considered “good hygiene” to wash out your own underwear, socks, and handkerchief in the bathroom sink when you prepared for bed. I routinely did this and left the hand wrung-out clothes on a hanger on the back of my bedroom door. They could stay there as long as necessary to finish drying. Our towels were also hung on a towel bar on the back of our doors. Back then, it was considered unsightly to hang a lot of stuff around in the bath room. Although I don't do all of that, today, with just my husband and me at home, I think those habits were more than justified. When I visit in the homes of other people, I continue to do these simple things. And, if my hosts haven't put up hooks on the bedroom door, I hang up my towel and washed out underwear in the closet space that they've left for me. It keeps down on bathroom clutter and helps save on washing machine loads.

STOP USING THROWAWAY PRODUCTS, RIGHT NOW.

There are some things that we do without thinking because they've become a habit - at home, in the car, in schools, at our work places, even as part of our social life. They are so common that we don’t see them for what they are. We've even been made to believe that throwaway items are part of our "rights" to have an easier life and reduce unwelcome work. Well, think again. Those “disposable” products that you use almost daily have a rather small cost to you - or, at least, it appears at the time. But they have a huge cost for the environment and most will never be recycled, ending up at dumps where they take up space for years or centuries or getting incinerated where they poison the skies over our cities and farms. And some of them, especially the soft plastics, are a real danger to your health.

Say "no" to food-related plastics.*

Plastics are made from toxic substances that contaminate earth, air and water, both in their manufacturing and in their disposal as trash. Once created, plastics are non-biodegradable, and while they can be transformed, but they don’t go away. Only about 5% of plastics ever get recycled. Burning and putting them in landfills only removes them from our immediate vicinity, but their toxic waste will make it back into the environment. The presence of plastic trash around us, or anywhere they get to, continues to poison our air, water systems, rivers, and oceans. For everyone, plastics in the environment mean added risks of cancer and birth defects. For many species of animals and fish, it has already created much illness and is accelerating their extinction.

You'll want to have the least contact with soft plastics as possible. When people use plastic packages for foods, the chemicals tend to filter from the packaging to the foods they contain. It’s worse yet when plastic containers are heated in microwave ovens because that accelerates the migration of toxic substances.

The only way to reduce the damage that is done by plastics is to cut back on their use, and thereby, overtime, slowing their industrial production. You can do your part to overcome this problem by refusing to buy plastic products. That means trying to extend the lifetime of the useful existing plastic items that you already have and refusing to buy new ones, even if that creates some personal inconvenience. Start by saying "no" to throwaway products. You’ll save money, be healthier for it, and do good for the earth -- all at the same time.

- Tell the sales person that you want paper instead of plastic cups at the fast-food window. Stop going to places that only have plastic throwaway cups.

- Buy fresh food products, whenever possible, and carry your own paper or cloth bags to the markets. Ask the man behind the counter that you want your meat or cheese wrapped in paper instead of plastic.

- When you buy processed foods, search for those that come in glass bottles or metal cans. Buy larger-sized products so that the containers can be reused; recycle them when you're finished.

- Make sure your using as few cleaning products as possible. Look for large-size packages or containers for these products. That way you won’t have to buy so much plastic on a regular basis. Reuse or recycle all these containers.

- Don’t buy plastic bags or plastic wrap. Wax paper and butcher paper are excellent products for your temporary food storage and lunch bag needs. If you want neater packaging, you can use a bit of tape to hold the paper together.

- Whenever possible, use paper bags for the kitchen trash. Of course, someone in your family will occasionally come home with plastic bags. When that happens, reuse them for trash or as lunch bags. All extra plastic bags should be carried to the supermarket for recycling. None, except the dirtiest one, should go into the household trash. If you are required to use a large plastic bag for trash removal day, line your largest trash can with it, and make sure that is the only plastic bag you use during the week.

- Don’t buy plastic throwaway drinks. Always carry your own metal drinking container and water when you leave the house. When you have to buy or carry an occasional drink outside the house, look for the aluminum cans. Serve drinks from bulk containers or provide canned drinks at gatherings. Cans have a much better chance of being efficiently recycled than plastics.

- Don’t heat or store fatty or acid foods in plastic containers. You’ll heat and store just as well and avoid risks, using the glass containers that you've recycled

Say: "No." to excess paper use, too.*
Just a few years ago, almost nobody thought about the use of paper products in the home and office. We used a lot and wasted even more. Paper was cheap, and if anyone mentioned all that wood being used for paper, the easy answer was that trees were totally "renewable" resources. We know that that planned re-growth was mostly a fantasy and that our wasting of paper is inexcusable if we hope to save more of our forests. Clearly, it isn’t possible, or reasonable, to eliminate all paper usage in the home – we definitely need some toilet paper and paper for print outs from the computer. On the other hand, with a bit of effort, we can get “greener” on this issue and reduce our paper consumption a lot. Here are some of ways that you can cut back on or recycle paper products.

- At home, use dishes for food and not paper plates. Take your own dishes and utensils to picnics and other large-scale events. (You don't have to ask permission on this, just show up with your own and use them. If others don't understand, explain it to them.)

- Use rags and kitchen towels instead of paper towels. They're free or very cheap and completely re-usable. Kitchen towels don't need to be expensive or you can easily make them at home. Old newspaper is great for cleaning up spills and for cleaning windows glass and mirrors.

- Use cloth napkins and forget about paper napkins. Make your own napkins out of an easily washable fabric or buy small white terry-cloth towels – the kind that can be bought in bulk at the hardware store.

- For computer printing, be sure to print on both sides of your paper. Cut the paper in half if you needed only a small piece of it printed. Use the rest for printing or as note paper.

- Carry home and use scrap paper from work (or any other place where you can get it).

- Pay bills on-line (or by phone). Use email instead of writing letter and notes and get your news from the Internet rather than newspapers or magazines.

- Use washcloths instead of face wipes and cloth handkerchiefs instead of tissues. These last for many years. At home, use cloth diapers and plastic over-wraps. Paper diapers are justifiable only when the child is taken out of the house for several hours at a time. You can carry an extra paper diaper for quick changes.

- Carefully, unwrap gifts and save gift-wrap paper for future reuse. Also save cardboard boxes for storage or shipping containers. When possible, ship in paper envelopes instead of cardboard boxes and recycle crumpled paper as padding for shipping or storing fragile items.

- Save greeting cards and calendar art for craft use by cutting out shapes or pictures. And send e-cards instead of paper cards.

**These sections were adapted from earlier posts to Grandma Susan's Almanac Calendar, Dec. 2010.)

THINGS TO DOWNSIZE RIGHT AWAY: CASE #1 – LARGE, FLUFFY BATH TOWELS

Even if you haven’t gone through some major economic emergency that has forced you to reduce your former household size, you probably have some kind of plan to downsize and/or take the clutter out of your house. You know - in your heart of hearts - that having all those possessions is getting to be a burden and your soul longs for a lighter material life.

Downsizing seems to be about people's stuff, but it's really about their attitudes and values. And nobody says the process is easy. In fact, many people report a lot of emotional baggage around letting go. We, understandably, tend to identify with our possessions, so downsizing, for any reason, means a confrontation with who we think we are – our very identity. For example, many people with shelves and shelves (and walls) of books say that all those books mean something to them. Can that possibly be true? Of course, not. But their own identity is tied up with trying to be that person who would read all that (and more). You have to let go of that fantasy self and find a new one who says: “I’m only going to live so many more years, and the chances I read or need to look up something in all of these books is close to zero."

It’s the person that has to change. And, beside books, here's a list of other "sticky" possessions that most people find it hard to part with:

Collections of photos, mementos, and family "treasures"

Antiques and favored furniture

Clothing and other “creature comforts”

Stuff they thought they’d use in the future

On the brighter side, and if I’m reading correctly a lot of blog posts, many people report both happiness and relief when they get rid of clutter and downsize. Here's the nitty-gritty  - we all know that it isn’t good to hold on so much to the past, and things are a lot of our past. Too much energy is involved in maintaining all that baggage. And, properly done, we can let go of what we no longer need and create a better future for ourselves. So, I'm challenging you to take that step and make a healthy commitment to look ahead – instead of behind.

At any rate, it isn’t necessary to begin downsizing and reducing clutter with our very most treasured possessions. We can begin elsewhere. There’s a lot to choose from. In this post, I propose just one change that you can do today to declutter and downsize. And it doesn’t have to affect your identity or your creature comfort.

Case # 1 - The Large, Fluffy Bath Towel

Here, I talk about a creature comfort – the bath towel – and how I changed my attitude toward it over the years.

When I was a child, we didn’t have “nice” towels in the bathroom at our house. Well, most of what we had to dry ourselves with after bathing were called bath towels but, clearly, they were leftover items from years of use. My Mom, true to her past in the Great Depression and WWI, was thrifty and didn’t throw towels away until they were literally rags. Then, she used them for rags.

Tending to be small – just big enough for the purpose that they were intended for - our towels were thoroughly wet when you got through drying. That was a fact of life, and, as far as I could tell, no one seemed to worry themselves about it.  The towel, one for each of us, was hung up in the bathroom and used for a week – drying out in the approximate 24 hours between baths. We didn’t have a shower back then. When hair was washed, a second towel, often the dirty one from the week before that was still in the hamper, was brought into action.

Back in those days, regular people - those who weren’t "rich" - made no effort to put out matching towels and wash cloths. Maybe, in the living room or the bedroom, but the idea of bathroom décor just wasn’t heard of.

So, as a child and teenager, I had made comparisons and felt somewhat left out, seeing that our better-off relatives and friends had newer looking and comfier towels. Later, I saw sets of large towels with matching wash cloths in magazines and on the TV. They were ever so large and fluffy. That spelled out luxury to me.  I vowed that, someday, I would have sets of plush  towels and wash cloths that would grace my (dreamed of) large linen closet. And that they would be the heavy, fluffy type. I guess I bought in, big-time, to the media hype of having the "boutique hotel experience."

So, what happened over the years? Well, my husband and I finally got good paying jobs and the cost of cotton items got cheaper, due to foreign trade. Yes, and, for a long time, I prided myself on buying and using large, fluffy bath towels.

Years, later, came a life-changing set of crises – children then on their own, thankfully. At the end of all that, my husband and I were forced to move across country and downsize our living quarters. In the condo that we gave up – the one that I thought would be our retirement home for the rest of our lives - there was a sizeable linen closet and nice bath. So, bathroom decor, including nice towels, was, if not a priority, at least a possibility.

But, from there, my husband and I went to live in just one room in the house of a friend - along with a shared bathroom. So, a lot of downsizing went on. No furniture was taken with us, and only clothing and some personal items made it that far. Of course, I hadn't gotten rid of all of my beloved “creature comforts.” Yes, I had traveled cross-country with four of my largest and most plush bath towels along with matching wash cloths.

Also, at about that time, I began to adopt greener alternatives and started blogging about Earth-friendliness. So, a lot of things came under scrutiny. Those included washing procedures – energy-related things - like always filling up the machine to capacity, using cold water, choosing less harmful detergents, etc. I also found out that cotton, although the products are available to us fairly cheap, have a huge impact on water use and that the people who collect cotton and make the towels do so under terrible working conditions with wages that don’t even feed them well.

That’s about the time I began to look at my fluffy bath towels differently. They took up a lot of space in the closet. They took up too much room in the washer. They didn’t dry as fast as other clothes in the dryer. Also, I had, over the years, lost a lot of my former interest in matching towel sets. Bathroom décor no longer was a priority in my life.

That’s when I decided to change out my old bath towels for smaller, light-weight ones and give my old ones to a local charity. I found a couple of "downsized" towels at the thrift store and purchased another two - half the length and one-quarter the the weight of the older ones. To my surprise the new ones worked fine, and I’m happy enough using them - no regrets. So, now, I’ve solved one volume–related, material problem surrounding bath towels use. And, oh, I'm still working on some of the social and ecological ones.

By the way, I’ve yet to convince my husband. He still has his old towels. Anyway, he’s not likely to buy himself any new towels, and so eventually his towels will be lighter by wear, if not by intent. My pledge is that I’m not buying any larger, fluffy towels for me or for him.

So, this is my take on bath towels. You can get along very well without all those large, fluffy towels. Get rid of them and buy smaller, lighter versions. If you balk at buying more stuff when you already have towels, here’s an idea. Cut those big towels in half and make a pretty crochet edging around the “new” towels. I’ve wanted to that with my husbands’ towels and made my intentions known.  So far, he hasn’t let me do that.

Related posts
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THINGS TO DO WITH LEFTOVER CANDLE WAX

Earth-friendly folk, like most of us aspire to be, are always looking for recycling projects. We know that  there's a lot of waste in our homes and that, with a little imagination, we can find new uses for things that, previously, we threw out.

A tin can can be a candle holder.

So, here’s another reuse wonder – making useful things with leftover candle wax. If you burn candles frequently, like I do, you’ve seen how candlewicks tend to be used up first, leaving a lot of extra wax at the bottom. What 's left of the candle is not trash.  It’s a potential treasure.  So start collecting that extra wax that remains in the container. It can be easily made into several recyclable projects for your home. 

Recycled candles

Save extra candle wax, sorted by colors or by scents. Use these leftovers as candle supplies to make new candles. Make sure you have good, clean wax leftovers in a quantity that makes it worth your while. If you have too little wax in the container or if it has got too much soot and other ugly stuff, it’s best to toss it.

(I buy only white or cream colored candles with very little scent, that way I can use all my extra wax without bothering to sort it.)

- Heat the wax in a double boiler until it liquefies. Use a pan that will only be used for this purpose in the future (and never again for cooking). Having the wax over boiling water is a safety measure. Wax can change color and smoke at a temperature of about 250 degrees, and hotter than that and it can catch fire.

- Use your rinsed-out tin cans as the molds. The small vegetable cans are just the right size for votive candles. (Taller cans can be given a fancier look when holes are punctured around the top, according to some design.

- For the wicks, buy braided wick or pre-dip twine or heavy cotton string in the melted wax. Place your wicks on a flat surface so they remain straight.

- Make 2 small cardboard circles for each can, one slightly smaller than the bottom, and another a bit larger than the top; punch a hole in the middle of each circle. Grease the cans so that you can take out the bottom cardboard circles before burning the candles and, that way, the same cans are reusable over and over.

- Insert the wick in the bottom circle, with an inch or so below, and hold the wick up while you fill up the can with melted wax up to 1 or 2 inches from the top.

- Place the top circle on top of the melted wax with the wick pulled through the middle hole. Let the wick hang over the side of the can.

- The candle will set quickly in the air at room temperature or it can be placed in refrigerator to speed up the process.

- When the wax has set, trim the wick to a length of 3/4 inch, and your candle is ready for burning.


Wax ornaments

You can use leftover melted candles to make decorations that can be hung on a Christmas tree or elsewhere in the home.

Begin by melting the leftover wax. Add a candle scent if you like. Then, pour the wax into molds (the kind with both a top and a bottom). Before the wax hardens, cut off pieces of satin ribbon and attach loops in the tops of each ornament. When the wax is completely dry, pop the ornaments out of the molds. A set of these ornaments make nice gifts.

Great fire starters

Any leftover wax - even the sooty kind with ugly bits - is reusable for this project.

Take a large cardboard egg carton and place sawdust or tiny bits of newspaper in the egg part of the carton. Fill it up about halfway.

Pour melted wax over the sawdust or bits of newspaper to the top and allow to set.

Cut the carton into individual egg parts, and use one egg part at a time to start a fire.

Related posts

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A RIBBON DECKED, TIE QUILTED PILLOWCASE AND A PILLOW HEADBOARD

As we enter the early spring, at least by the warm temperature at this latitude - at the TX/MX border – I begin to think about my annual trip to the north to see my two sons, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and other relatives. And as always, I’ve got to make some handmade gifts for my dear ones. Those are usually knitted clothing items or decorations for the rooms of my grandchildren and something from the kitchen for the adults – candy, cookies, jars of jams, etc. This year I’ve come up with the idea to make my two grand daughters faux headboards for their twin beds made from pillows. So, my task - as is the subject of this post - was to come up with a design for some brightly colored, quilted pillowcases that are the focus of this project.

I decided to make two tie quilted pillowcases for each girl – one for the wall and a matching one for the bed. I’ll travel by plane or bus carrying the quilted pillowcases. It will be up to my son and daughter-in-law to provide the pillows and the decorative rods and help me put the rods on the wall. (I hope they won’t mind too much the way I get them to do extra work completing “my projects”.)

Why pillow headboards are popular
Nothing catches the attention more in a bedroom than an attractive headboard. But not all beds come with headboards, and the formal ones that can be purchased or made by a skilled carpenter are expensive. So, we have the option of creating our own informal wall treatments (faux headboards) that, colorfully done, can liven up the decor of any bedroom.

Some faux headboards include curtain rods or other horizontal tubes fixed on the wall above the bed where various attractive things can be hung. And there are several simple methods for making this type of headboard. Here, we focus on the pillow headboard. You won’t need much design talent and only rudimentary carpentry skills to make this one. And a hanging pillow headboard gives any bedroom a comfy, informal look.

More than just attractive, the hanging pillows serve an important purpose. It’s a perfect place to keep extra pillows that, otherwise, are inevitably on the floor in the morning. Beyond that, what with a longer rod, multiple hanging pillows and a round bolster, a regular twin bed can do daytime duty as a daybed.

Tie-quilted pillowcases give your bedroom a country look

About this project
With some pillowcases, ribbon, a nicely designed fabric for the quilted part, quilt backing, needle and thread and a decorative rod, you can manage to nicely display your extra pillows and find them in place (on the wall) every morning. The best part is that you may already have most of the makings for this project in or around your home.

After researching this topic on the Internet, I realized that the main problem with most of these pillow hanging projects was that they were not sturdy enough for small children and would end soon with ripped pillow cases and rods pulled off the wall. That’s why I decided to use both a top and bottom hanging rods with the hardware firmly attached to the wall by anchors or toggle bolts, along with four ribbon loops and buttons on the pillowcase.

Try out this project. You’ll be happy to know that it can be made with inexpensive materials and quickly completed with a minimum of hand sewing. According to my calculations, the approximate cost for each ribbon decked, quilted pillowcase is $20 and about $15 for the matching one for the bed. That, of course, doesn’t include rods or pillows. And you may already have extra pillowcases and fabric or find these items at the thrift store, so you might not have to spend so much at all.

Pattern for a pillow headboard and two quilted pillowcases
Materials
- 2 decorative rods - as wide or a little wider than the bed with their hardware. For economy sake, these rods could also be pipes, dowels, or even small cleaned-up tree limbs for a rustic cabin look. And, instead of commercial rod brackets, you could use industrial sized eye hooks. Open hooks might pose a hazard for children.
- 2 standard-size pillows, not the deluxe or overstuffed kind – one for the bed and the other for the wall.
- 2 standard pillowcases in a solid color
- 6 yards of 1” grosgrain ribbons in one or two colors- that’s about 42” for each of 4 ribbon rounds. (Grosgrain ribbon is relatively expensive and can be substituted with some other kind of ribbon or fabric strips that were the proper size.).
- One yard of plaid or repeating pattern cotton cloth that coordinates with the color of the pillowcases (That’s a half-yard for each pillowcase. Same for padding below.)
- One yard of fleece or other soft fabric for quilt backing. This easily could be something recycled - like an old adult-sized sweatshirt
- 8 medium-sized buttons - can be in coordinating or contrasting colors - for the wall pillow. Having buttons on a bed pillow, while perhaps attractive, isn’t a very practical option.
- Sewing needle and heavy cotton or nylon thread (for the buttons)
- Scissors
- Straight pins and large safety pins
- Measuring tape
- Drill
- Wall anchors or toggle bolts
- Crochet thread and upholstery needle
-  Soft sport-weight yarn for the ties

Instructions
Lay out the two pieces of fabric on a table. Be sure that the batting layer is slightly smaller, maybe a ¼" on all four sides, than the top fabric. Measure all sides to make sure the placement is centered correctly. Pin quilting piece in place.

Fasten safety pins where the ties are to go. It’s a lot easier to adjust the placement of safety pins than to have to try to remove a bunch of ties. Make the ties of all three layers – decorative fabric, batting, and top of pillowcase. You’ll probably need to put a piece of cardboard inside the case to make sure you don’t pin (or tie) the backside to the front side. Then make the 20 ties or the number you want to join the pieces.

Using crochet thread, blanket-stitch the quilted piece in place on the front side of the case.  (I use large, obvious blanket stitches with embroidery thread in a bright color to add even more handmade decoration.)

Put the pillowcase face side down on the worktable. Cut four pieces of 42"-long ribbon. Place each ribbon in position as shown in the picture. Fold the ribbon in such a way that the seam where the two ends meet is exactly in the back of the pillow. There should be 2 inches of ribbon, doubled, extending to accommodate the top rod and another 2 inches, doubled, at the bottom for the bottom rod. Pin the ribbon in place every 4 inches down the front and back from the side of the case. Using fabric glue, attach the ribbons to the case. Hand-sew the two ends to the backside of the case. Repeat with the other three ribbons. (The length of the ribbon extensions might have to be llonger depending on the diameter of the tube you’re using.)

Take care to sew on the buttons, as shown in the picture, through both front and back of the ribbons and pillowcase. Correctly attached buttons will help prevent ribbon slippage and case ripping.

Rod placement should be 4" more than the height of the pillow when it’s flat against the wall above the bed and centered over the bed. Attach the second rod under the first and 2" above the bed. Drill and screw the brackets or other type hooks to the wall using wall anchors or toggle bolts.

Insert a pillow into the case and hang the pillow from the curtain rod. Put the rod on the wall. Run the second rod through the ribbon at the bottom of the case and put it in place.

When your pillow creation is hung up over the bed, everyone will admire your smart handiwork. And your quilted pillow headboard can be the inspiration to do even more country–style decoration.

ROUND IN CIRCLES AGAIN: THE CROCHETED ROUND RUG REVISITED

More than two years ago, I wrote a post on crocheting the round rug - also called the circle rug. That post was a celebration for  having finished my first round rug. (See related post below.) Having made what I thought was a good effort and spent time in what seemed to be endless hours of rounds of crocheted and pulled out stitches, my first rug was quite nice. Since then, somewhat embarrassed to say, I’ve not made any more rugs like that. There are some reasons for that. The first is the fact that I’m much more of a knitter than a crocheter. The second is the rather unfortunate conclusion that my stash of leftover yarn, none of which was wool rug yarn, produced an initially nice-looking rug but one that captured every speck of dirt and lint on the floor and didn’t wear well under foot steps either. I removed it from the floor and later repositioned it on the back of the bench that sits at my dining room table. It looks pretty there. On the other hand, there are two benches at my table, so one is cheerfully decorated with a rug and the other one isn’t.


A round rug will look good any where in your home.

It was the unadorned bench that inspired me to make another circle rug and it’s also the theme of this post. Having spent too much time stressing on knitting better mittens, I was in the mood to do a simple crochet project, so I decided to make a round rug out of a several hunks of leftover yarn. Basically, I didn't follow any written pattern, I just used my K hook, and half-double crocheted in rounds until I had a rug the same size as the other one that’s in our dining room. I’ve learned a few things about crochet over the past months and, happily, my experience with crocheting the current rug is different. So, I wanted to share some ideas that have come to me in the process of making my new rug.

These rustic-looking rugs hold some secrets
What goes around and around (like the rows of this kind of rug) comes around. That’s the story of the circle rug. Ever since the US colonies (and before no doubt), almost every home had one or more round or oval rugs, made from wool yarn or rags, depending on the financial situation of the household. I remember back in the fifties, that the round rug was a popular floor covering for what were the first family rooms – back then we called them “rec-rooms".

Since that time, the handmade round rug has dwindled in popularity and is more associated with grandmas than with the younger generations. Still sometimes they are found as an element of down-home style in a bedroom or sitting room. And there are still plenty of modern-type craftspeople that produce all kinds of crocheted rugs –both room-size, floor rugs and mini-rugs that serve as hot-mats and table covers. The mini-versions make well-appreciated gifts and sell well at craft fairs. Also, many of these round rugs are made from rags or repurposed/leftover yarn, and as such represent the true spirit of trash-to-treasure projects.

Beyond all that and on a more mystical note, it’s said that the old handmade circle rug was symbolic of a never-ending journey and, for the meditative types, the crocheting of each succesive row could be part of a prayer daisy chain (mandala-effect).

Why round rugs are, at first, bothersome to make
A lot of people think that crocheting rugs is a real chore that takes too many hours and calls for expert hooking skills. Well, yes, and no. There are a few common problems that are seen with these projects. First, be prepared to spend a lot of hours learning how to make even looking stitches. Second, sometimes, in the middle of making the rows (really concentric circles), a kind of ripple forms at the outer edges. If that happens, you've used too much yardage. You’ll need to unravel some rows until the rug lies flat and re-do the stitches. You can do one of two things to prevent this situation – usually after the first “disaster” - make fewer extra stitches as you increase or use a tighter tension in all the stitches. Third, if you see a sort of big bubble forming somewhere, then your outer rows have too little yardage. You’ll need to correct the problem by ripping out some rows and then using a looser tension or making additional stitches. All in all, you don’t have to see exact circles or absolute flatness as you crochet your rug. You can overcome minor variations from “perfection” by washing the finished item and letting it dry flat.

Having experience all of the above bothersome moments, I offer here a simple patterns and some hints about what I’ve learned while making two crocheted round rugs. Here's the pattern for this rug. You'll see that this one varies a bit from the one described in a previous post.

Pattern for a 39″ crocheted round rug
Materials
Size 10.5 or K crochet hook
About 8 large skeins of rug yarn or the equivalent in a variety of leftover, worsted weight yarns
Darning needle
Measuring tape (a gauge for width of concentric circles and to let you know when you've finished)
Scissors

Instructions
Use a double strand of yarn throughout. It’s easier if you take the trouble to wind both strands of yarn into balls. This helps in maintaining even tension in your stitches.

- To make the center ring, attach the strands of yarn to the hook with a slipstitch and chain five stitches. Join the chain to create a circle. Pull tight into something of a knot.

- For the second row, insert the hook into the stitches of the center ring instead of into the outer part of the stitches and single crochet.

- Make half double crochet stitches with a few increases at equal distance in successive rows and chain one stitch (upwards) to start new rows.

- Keep adding rows until your rug reaches 39 inches or the width you decide to make it.

- For the final row, single crochet all stitches for a tighter edge. When the last row is complete join the yarn to the first stitch in the next to last row with a slipstitch. Cut off about 5 inches of remaining yarn and fasten off by pulling the yarn through the last loops on the hook. Finish off the rug by pulling all loose threads toward the back. Use the darning needle to weave the ends into the stitches.

- You can stop there with what’s sure to be a nice-looking rug or adorn it more by adding a fringe made up of strands of all the colors in your rug or only with the color of the last rows. Or you can make a looped edge (single crochet paired with two chains) to finish off your rug.

Notes
If at the end you discover something of a loose hole in the exact middle of your rug, you can chain stitch an even smaller circle (with just a few stitches) and “plug up’ the hole by sewing the smaller one inside the larger.

When yarn rugs get dusty, just take them outside and beat them. When really dirty, small rugs can be cleaned in the washing machine on gentle cycle and line dried. Larger rugs should be sent to the dry cleaners.

I never use a stitch marker and continue row on row making my color changes visible. This gives the rug a bit of a spiral look instead of exact circles. I also don’t worry about differences in number of rows with each color since one of my goals is to use up my yarn stash. I like these little variations because they give the product a more ‘artistic” or folksy look. You can be careful with these details if you wish. If you do, your rug will look more “traditional” than mine.

Note:
While I said (above) that you would need only 2 strands of worsted weight, I might have been wrong. As I continued crocheting my rug, I found that some of the yarn that was supposed to be worsted weight was lighter than what I started with and ended up using 3 strands in order to make it match in thickness. So, if you're using different weight yarns, like I was, you'll probably need to make the same kind of adjustments.

Related posts
Crochet a round rug
UNRAVEL OLD SWEATERS AND KNIT NEW THINGS.
DOING HANDICRAFTS IS USEFUL AND FUN
EMBRACE A SIMPLE HOME
LEARN TO MAKE SMART, THRIFTY AND EVER SO USEFUL TIE QUILTS
CHECK OUT THIS QUILTED TABLE RUNNER IN BRIGHT SUMMER COLORS

LEARN TO MAKE SMART, THRIFTY AND EVER SO USEFUL TIE QUILTS

In my last post, I wrote about bucket lists – a way to go about reaching some of those very personal, lifetime goals that all of us have. Now, usually, I don’t share my own most intimate goals in this blog. But, now and again, I do. And, even if I don’t mention them, my readers probably can guess what some of them are. Anyway, here goes a bit of personal stuff. One of my life-long desires has been to be a skilled needle worker. As you can see from my posts, lately, I’ve been working on knitting – and, pleased to add, doing this a little better. Another of my secret goals is to be a quilter. But, I spend a lot of time knitting and really haven’t a lot of patience – or good eyesight - for long hours of detailed quilt work. So, this post is about a technique called tie quilting that doesn’t require so many elements and works up fast. A tie quilted cover can be done in just a day or two.

Maybe you've heard about tie quilting. At least, those of you who are past fifty or have some rural background, somewhere, probably slept under one – whether you remember it or not. It’s the kind of quilt my grandmother made. We called her Maw Maw T. Raised in the Appalachian countryside, Maw Maw T. was a busy woman who lived in the city most of her married life, and as such, didn’t have a lot of time to do detailed needlework. So, when she needed an extra cover she made quilts held together with ties instead of endless stitches.

Now, Maw Maw and (Gran) Daddy T. raised a family of 4 children, plus more than a few nieces, nephews and others who lived for short periods with them, during the Great Depression. Back then, the last thing that any reasonable person wanted to do was throw out used things that had the possibility of being repurposed into something else that was serviceable. Among Maw Maw’s many "make-do" talents was transforming old sheets and blankets into curtains and drapes - window draft stoppers - and cozy tie quilts. Those tie-quilts held up very well – even better than most hand-stitched quilts do, at least better than the modern versions, I’ve seen. A couple of her tie quilts may still be around today but I don’t have one, anymore. Sadly, the only one I had – a small floor quilt/mat made for a baby, I believe - was stolen along with a box of linens and covers many years ago when I traveled by train through Mexico. Maybe my sister or a cousin still has one. (I’d like to know about that. Comments on this, anyone?)

But back to reminiscing, Maw Maw T. used to fill these tie quilts with improvised batting that included such things as torn and raveled blankets and quilts, worn-out clothing, and even flour sacks. Depending on the kind of the batting, some of these quilts were summer-weight and others were quite heavy. I used the small one that I lost years ago as my yoga mat. (Having used a collection of blankets and commercial yoga mats after that, I never again had a mat that I cherished as much as Maw Maw’s tie-quilt.)

Now, Maw Maw T. not only used blankets for the batting, but also sometimes as quilt backing. She'd tie the top material to a blanket and then attach the whole thing to another blanket. That created a double-thickness cover that really kept you warm. Back then, the bedrooms were unheated, but we slept warm under a bunch of cozy quilts, topped off with a duck or chicken feather comforter. The warmest quilts had a batting of old army blankets. The material on the top and bottom was soft and the harsh-textured army blanket was enclosed – so much nicer for the sensitive skin of little folk.

And, so to get back to my topic, if you have a few old blankets – something like those ugly, felted from use wool blankets or some pilled, polyester blankets with the satin bindings, get them out. You’ll find them to be great repurposing items and a lot cheaper than a roll of batting.  Not-so-attractive blankets are also an easy “find” in yard sales and thrift stores. And best of all, this project is great way to show off a few charming vintage sheets. You’ll be surprised at the speed and ease that covers and sheets that have been gathering closet dust can be made into lovely tie-quilts.

What you'll need for your tie-quilt
•Dense weight –about 300-count - cotton sheets. You'll need one or two of them, depending on how you’re putting your quilt together (2 sheets and a cover or 2 covers and a sheet).
•One or two blankets. The hidden, middle layer cover can be stained or a bit holey or even an old worn-out quilt. The front and back layers should be in good condition. All layers should be about the same size and everything pre-washed in warm water.  The backing cover needs to be several inches wider and longer than the top two, so that part of its outer edge can be folded over the front.
•Good sewing scissors
•50 or more large safety pins
•Heavy crochet thread
• Large embroidery needle
•Tapestry needle
•Thimble
•Strong, sport-weight wool or acrylic yarn, either a coordinate or contrast color

Instructions
Cutting and pinning
Cut front and batting (center) piece to the same size. Use a clean floor space and lay the bottom cover or sheet out flat, right side down. Tape the corners to the floor. Lay the blanket or old quilt on top of the bottom cover, right side up. Line up the edges so that the top layers are least 2 inches from those on the bottom. Trim 3 sides of the bottom layer to extend 2 inches beyond the top parts. The fourth side will be the longer, head-of-the-bed part of the quilt, and it should be trimmed to about five inches. If your quilt is supposed to be a floor mat or some decorative piece other than a bed cover, then all four sides should be trimmed to 2 inches.

Place safety pins all over the blanket, pinning all three layers together at roughly 4-inch intervals. Begin at the center and work out so that any the work will be even without the need of tiresome basting. Make sure that the blanket lies flat as you pin. Then pin along all four edges.

Tie-quilting
Thread the yarn on the tapestry needle. Use the thimble and make sure the needle passes all the way through to the bottom. Start in the center of the quilt and make a 1/3-inch-long stitch through all 3 layers. Leave about 2 inches of yarn sticking up for the tie. Knot the threads. Just take hold of the 2 threads and pass the right over left, tug lightly, then right over left, tug lightly, and then left over right, pull tight. Trim the threads to 1/2 inch after knotting. Go out from the center, stitching and knotting with about 4-inch intervals between ties. Just be sure the ties line up visually. You don’t have to be too precise in this process. Don’t do any knots where the binding will be sewn on.

Once your quilt is completely tied, trim the backing (three sides) to 1.5 inches beyond the edge of the top pieces. The top part should be trimmed to 4 inches. (If you’re making a floor mat, make all 4 edges the same width.) Fold all edges in half and turn them over the top and pin them in place. Square off the corners. Hand sew with crochet thread or machine stitch the binding in place. You’ll be through faster than you can imagine!

Whether your new tie quilt is a thin, summer weight throw or a heavy, keep-a-body-warm cover, you’ll be pleased with the results. And there’s no need for all your quilts to be designer beauties. It’s just fine for them to be well-put-together, utilitarian items. That's what traditional quilting was about - worn materials set to good use instead of being thrown out. And your tie quilt will surely be smart, thrifty, and just right for some bed or other place in your home.

There’s a lot of beauty in quilting, and this tie quilt project is something that even a total beginner can do. So, if you’re hesitant about beginning to quilt, try making a smaller version - a cuddly tie quilt for a baby. That will give you the practice and confidence you need to do bigger projects.

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