Stramenda.com

Hey everyone. I have just finished making a bag, which I made with all the terrible coloured $2 acrylic yarns that I’ve had lying about for years, and remnants I only had a small amount of.

Most of the bag is made with these yarns, held together to make one thick strand:

I made a red stripe with one strand of leftover super thick red yarn held with one strand of the rainbow yarn, and a greenish stripe is made with these, I just kept the stripe going until the pink yarn ran out:

When I got to the handle, I ran out of the burgundy yarn in the first picture, and replaced it with a pale purple yarn, but kept the rest of the strands.

So I managed to use up most of the remnants of yarn I had, and made a “bag of too many colours”, but hey, its functional ! For the lining, I used an old pillowcase, and used the excess to make two long pockets on one side, and a short pocket on the other, plus I covered the thick cardboard I used for the base with it

And now for the unveiling, the bag looks like this !

And the inside (you can see the pockets):

So all in all, a functional, semi attractive bag made from yarns I wasn’t going to be making any clothing with. The pattern for the bag is the Easy Peasy Crochet Bag and can be found here.

The handle is quite simple. When you get to the place where you’d like the handle to start, stop crocheting and (use stitch markers to mark the places so its even) chain as many chains as you’d like the length of the handle to be. In this case I chained 66, and then skip a section of SC’s and do a SC to attach the other end of the handle, and keep crocheting until you get to the other side, and do the same. Then keep single crocheting around, and when you get to the first handle, do a SC in each chain. SC around the entire top of the bag, including the handles, three times, so that the handle is three rows, then slip stitch to join at the side of the bag.

This same idea can be used to make a very low, flat handle, with just enough gap to get your fingers through.

This bag is very large, actually it measures 46cm across, 33cm in height (not including the handles), and it has a base which is 13cm wide. It will make a great nappy bag !

I finally finished it ! This was white woollen yarn which I dyed myself (see earlier post for a pic of the dyeing process). Then my friend Cheryl came by yesterday and brought some broken necklaces and beads for crafting and she had the perfect colour to adorn the ends of the scarf with !

The colours change slowly from warm reds/light aquas/grassy greens to wintery turquois and dark burgundy. It moves colours slowly, but the ends are the most different - I like its uniqueness. It is exactly 95 grams of wool. The pattern is Shelly at Crochet Me and can be found here.

There’s a new blog in town, about Op Shopping in Melbourne. It is a collaborative blog which means there is input about great Op Shop finds from a variety of bloggers, as they share their experiences of op shopping in and around Melbourne. An excellent feature is the handy locality listing down the right hand side of their page, which is probably the most comprehensive I’ve seen - it includes opening days and hours of a long list of stores.

Op shopping is becoming popular amongst crafters, who like to find bits and pieces, fabrics, yarns and oddments to create with. There are toys for the kids, and occasionally you will find that perfect piece of clothing, and designer labels are not uncommon.

My dad always liked trash and treasures and brick-a-brack shops, and I think I’ve developed a love of hunting for treasure. I find it fun and relaxing! (Thanks dad!) I have a love for all things vintage, and reclaiming and recycling is becoming quite popular, and of course there’s always the fact that you’re helping the charities of Melbourne.

Do pay a visit to this totally fun and interesting site, and perhaps find a treasure yourself

All about our August Meet-Up !

Wow. The meet-up today went BEYOND my wildest expectations. Never could I have possibly imagined a more lovely, wonderful, crochet fanatical and yarn obsessed bunch !

We were going to have a formal “show and tell” but all that went to mud as we all arrived and started admiring everyone’s projects, yarn and crochet books in a frenzy of conversation, oooohing and aaaahing.

When I almost didn’t think it could get any better, Lyndy offered to give spinning lessons to whomever was interested (that includes me!) and she even offered to look over my old wheel. (Thank you Lyndy!!!!!!!)

I could have stayed late into the evening, except that my hubby called my mobile and said “where are you?” LOL.

For the record, the attendees were:

Shellymoo (Michelle)
Laughing Purple (Sharon)
Lyndymb (Lyndy)
Laughing Peacock (Daphne)
Dawniedear (Dawn)
Cat’s Rockin Crochet (Cathy)
Angieburn (Angie)
IgglePiggle (Jacqui)
Stramenda (Cristina)
Trischa and Nen had intended to come along but had to cancel.

All in all it was an amazing success, and when I originally started this group to meet other crocheters in Victoria (as at the time I knew no-one else who had a crochet interest), I could not have imagined I would meet such wonderful, enthusiastic and talented people.

Thank you to everyone who came, shared, and laughed with us, and a special thanks to Cathy for organising the Swap, and for picking up my sale items from Ferntree Gully and bringing them to the meet for me. (I really was not aware that no one else had bought anything LOL). (Thank you Yarnplay67 (Michelle) for your wonderful items and generosity - I hope you can attend next time). Thanks also to Sharon, who today became our unofficial treasurer LOL.

I look forward to our next meet-up, which the ladies from the Eastern side of Victoria will be arranging.

Thanks again everyone, you are all unique, fun, talented, generous, amazing!

I have just discovered that dyeing yarn is addictive and very satisfying so much fun !

Yarn has to be 100% wool to take this simple dye, which is just basic food colouring (a leftover packet from many moons ago), water and vinegar.

First you wet the wool. Then fill a small saucepan with a few centimeters of water and add about three quarters of a cup of vinegar (I had 100 grams of wool) and place the wool inside, then sprinkle various colours on different areas of the wool, and press down gently with a spoon so the dye goes through to the bottom - do not mix up the colours. Then I brought it to the boil, and let it gently simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. To my surprise the dye set so well, the water poured out clear ! Squeeze it gently, and hang it on a hook to dry.

Here is what it looked like after drying. I used all the food colours I had, red, green, blue, yellow.

And here it is after rolling into a ball, and starting a lacey shell scarf:

Next time I think I will use less colours. There’s too many here for my liking, but I still think its nice.

I will post a picture of the finished scarf soon