Fabric Yarn

After searching online and at department stores for T-shirts to cut up and make fabric yarn, I finally found a shop on Arab Street (Bamadhaj Brothers) that sold a stretchy sort of jersey fabric. I don't think it's cotton, but that might be better at repelling dirt when I use it to make a floor cushion. I got 4 metres of about 1.6m wide for $35. I think that makes more yarn than 4 or 5 t-shirts.

Cutting it into a single strip was painful! I think it took about 6 hours, more or less. Couldn't do it in one go. Considering I bought it on the 2nd of July and it's now the 24th, I suppose I can say it takes me roughly 3 weeks to make a batch of fabric yarn, life included.

Wound as I went, to prevent a horrible mess of loose yarn accumulating, especially since I knew it couldn't be finished in one go. Grabbed the nearest handy thing to serve as a spindle, which happened to be a kids kaleidescope.

Took care to wind it as a centre pulling ball. It was tight around the spindle at first, but pulling out some of the middle yarn opened up more space in the centre so the kaleidescope could be pushed/pulled out.

SO glad it's done. Now I really hope it will crochet up well! More importantly, I hope there'll be enough for the entire project. Really don't relish the idea of buying more fabric to cut. Ugh. Next time I'll just go with the t-shirts, saw some at Giant Supermarket. T-shirts will cut up much more quickly as you can cut multiple layers at once. This fabric was rather thin and floppy. Maybe if I had folded and pinned it down properly it might have cut up faster. Oh well. That comes of barging ahead without really thinking it through first.

No. 35 - Crochet First Order Stormtrooper

Original stormtrooper had gone to Matthew's friend (who broke his leg in two places while trampolining at Matthew's birthday party at a trampoline park). Made a replacement, 100% acrylic yarn, 3.25mm hook. Worked into back loops only for the immediate white round after black rounds. The helmet detail was a little tricky. I should have made a thinner black band above the eyes instead of following the pattern blindly. I always make the elbows higher than indicated in the pattern.

No. 34 - Crochet Flared Skirt for Baby Bop

3.25mm hook, 100% acrylic yarn. Used a foundation chain for the waist band so that it would be more stretchy than starting with a regular chain. Finished the hem with a shell edging.

Made this entirely at KK Hospital for Women and Children while Rachel was there for a week to have a plexiform tumour removed from the lower right side of her face.

No. 33 - Yoda III

Yoda, my first crochet creation, went missing! So I made another one, Yoda III. 100% acrylic yarn, 3.25mm hook. Yoda the 2nd had gone to my brother.

Then Andrew found the first one behind a side table. Oh well. Here they both are, Yoda and Yoda III.

They're a clear instance of how yarn and hook make such a big difference to the final product. Using exactly the same pattern, a slightly thicker yarn but smaller hook (3.25 instead of 3.5), Yoda III still turned out a tad bigger.

No. 32 - Crochet Boba Fett

Made this tough guy for Sean for our 16th wedding anniversary. The colour changes in his helmet were interesting to work. I modified the pattern slightly, moving the elbows higher. I didn't bring brown yarn with me so the magazine belt was made afterwards as a detachable item instead of worked into the rounds of the body between the sage green.

He's shown here with Princess Leia.

No. 31 - Crochet Bow Hair Clips

100% acrylic dk yarn, 2.75 mm hook.

These came about because of the bow tie for the Tsum Tsum Donald Duck. The first one came out too big, so I tied it onto one of the black hair clips I had bought the girls for school. That's the red one. Decided to make a few more in the colours they like.

They're simple tubes/cylinders made with a neat way to join each round (starting in the stitch after the slip stitch join) so that the top and bottom edge of the cylinder lie flat. Then wrap the yarn around the middle to give it the bow shape.