September 13, 2008

Crafts for Winter

After a couple of really busy years in which there was no time for home improvements or crafts - or housecleaning for that matter - things have returned to what my mom would call a "dull roar" around Casa de Binky. This means cleaning up, throwing out, and lining up the new projects.

I've got a pile of stuff in my living room that is waiting to be donated/freecycled, and even more already went out to the trash (including the guest bed that the helpful kitties worked hard to "make smell like us" after an extended house guest departed. I also sorted through years of filed bills and old journal articles that I had printed off in the days before online access, recycling a dozen boxes of office papers and shredding several more of the bills and old checks.

The cat pee bed resided in my "studio" where at one point I kept my pottery wheel in an ill-advised attempt to convince myself that one did not need water on the same floor where one threw pots, but recently was the repository of a lot of junk in piles masquerading as "someday I'll get to" projects. Instead of getting a new bed, I got a five dollar spread to throw over the plywood base and a few square sitting cushions (like this but plain) to put on top. In an instant the platform converts to a crafting surface with the addition of a cutting mat. I've got an old 1950s chrome and formica table kind of like this that holds the sewing machine, and a waist high table with a bar stool for beading and fiddly work. Plus there is room for my mom's old love seat - with a chenille throw, of course - and a small coffee table that I trashpicked liberated helped recycle for sitting back to sip tea and do needle-work.

There is also, now, a hook on the door and the cats are no longer allowed free access to conduct their "fragrant" business.

Sounds awesome, right? Especially when I describe the window that is nestled into the dormers, which has a lovely view of the sunset over the neighborhood, which is clearly visible from the loveseat and the sitting area/cutting platform. Except for the fact that my house doesn't have a/c and this darling space is in the attic, where it is about 95 degrees on a good day. This means planning for winter projects.

The first up is one that appeals to my recycling impulse - the rag rug (I'm planning to use a combination of these two patterns/techniques). In the Great Throwing Out of Ought Eight, anything that looked wearable has been put in the charity pile. Then there was the vast pile of old t-shirts: ratty, holey and stained. Many of them were, or had once been, white. Gross, and bland. So I got some RIT dye and boiled up some shirts in red, blue and green. Once they were dyed, they had to be cut into thin loops as per the instructions above. Should you attempt this, I highly recommend not using scissors because after about two shirts you will want to quit. Which is the point I hied myself to the local quilter shop and bought a deee-luxe rotary cutter.

Voila! seemingly endless loops of colorful, soft fabric, waiting to be joined and wound into a giant ball. All over the kitchen table. I'm thinking that it will be at least a month before it is cool enough to sit up there and crochet, and more than that to have a cozy cup of tea. But even though my tomatoes are still green on the vine, I'm getting ready for the snow.

Posted by binky at September 13, 2008 03:15 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Craftastic!


Comments

What's snow?

The rag rug project sounds like a lot of fun.

Posted by: Casey at September 14, 2008 09:30 PM | PERMALINK
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