Experiments

I spent my weekend experimenting with a few ideas.

Right now I only have ONE skein of yarn. My husband got it for me a few weeks ago. Long storyshort: a thrift store yarn that was infected and then spread said infections to my entire stash of store bought yarn!!!!! Eeeep! So I ended up throwing out the entire stash, because ewwww gross!!!

I know, freezing it for 2 weeks was an option, but my freezer was not big enough for my stash (I just got my chest freezerast week). I tried washing a few of my most precious skeins inside a panty hose, but I have to admit, I was just grossed out by the whole experience.

We are emptying our bedroom completely of all furniture and are giving it a top to bottom, including carpet shampooing, because my skin is still crawling, just thinking about those yarn eating critters. (My bedroom is where my yarn stash was kept.)

Thankfully my handspun stash was tucked away, hermetically sealed in a plastic container lol.

But I digress.

I tried to make a few things out of this one skein. Nothing really hit me right.

A star pillow?

Nope. Just not the right colour. 😕

A few of the little flowers I made for the scarf? Nope, yarn is too thick.

Weaving on my weavette?

Not really tickling me either...

Then I remembered my friend Sandy sent me this i-cord knitter. I know they have an English name, but it escapes me at the moment. At home they are called Strickliesl.

The little i-cord maker reminded me of when I was a little girl. I had one that looked a bit like this. (Random googled image. Wish I still had my old one).

Being a bit sentimental lately, I just had to use the one my friend sent me right now. But what for?

Oh, just get started, Bridgett. It will eventually decide what it wants to be. So start I did.

After about 20 cm, I remembered dimly that, if you want to make a rug, you should work the i-cord around a cotton core of about the same diameter. Well. I don't have any cotton cord laying around of just the right diameter. Hmmmm. I could wait until I can go to the store and buy some. Or order it online and wait for shipping. Well. Nobody got time to wait around for stuff, so my mind went to find a substitute I already have at hand.

Would fabric work? I certainly have enough of that and even had a few long fabric strips ready, leftover from the kitchen crochet fabric mat I recently finished.

Went and snagged the strips. I used a safety pin to thread the fabric strip down into the already made 20 cm of i-crod tube. It worked like a charm!

Now I was all set.

Oh but how should I sew it all together?

With the i-cord maker, there is no way you can just knit it on along the way, like you could with knitting needles.

Grass baskets! My brain shouted! I have been pining to make one these last few weeks, but have not gotten around to harvesting any materials. Grass baskets are basically made with the same principles as a pine needle basket.

The grasses make up the core which you form into the desired shape, by sewing it to the previous row with either sinew, or thread.

I figured the i-cord would be a splendid replacement of the grass/pine needles. No?

What to use for sewing though? Oh wait! I have this crochet cotton I always keep fo making dish cloths!

Let's try this.

The green and white looks great against the heather grey. Can't wait for the ombre colour changes to get going! I really love the random ingredients and how well they end up working together. And it has a recycling aspect, because the core is made up of old, recycled/reused fabric. Hip, hip, hurrah!

Not sure yet, if this will be a basket, or a rug. For now I am thoroughly enjoying the process of i-cord making and sewing up. It is currently 4 inches in diameter. I have loads of yarn left over from that first skein, so there will be a few more inches before I run out. The problem is that I did some skein surgery for the other projects. I cut out a certain colour sequence,, to get the whole star pillow made out of one colour. Now I cannot quite remember the colour sequence the skein originally had lol.🥴

I really love how it is coming out. The whole thing is also quite sturdy so far. So both basket and rug are viable options at this moment. Can't wait to see it grow even further.

Hope you all have a fantastic start into the new week!

Xo,❤

B.🐝