Scientific evidence that knitting mends the soul

I loved this video! Just had to share it. A recent Mayo Clinic study reports on the health benefits of knitting and crochet:


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Progress...

Still collecting bags to get my bags for beds project started. The collection is growing and I now have about 40 bags to work with. It's kind of a blessing that the bags are coming in slowly since I don't have a lot of time to work on the project with grading and such.

Vacation is coming in the beginning of October, which means I'll finally have the free time to really get working on the prototype mat. Little by little, I'm getting the bags I have ready, cutting them into strips and making plarn balls to they're ready to be crocheted.

In the meantime I'm working on little instant-gratification projects like the upcycled cookie wrapper wallet. More to come this weekend...

Cookie wrapper coin purse

I got back home from the bodega with my cookies, psyched to try out the Terracycle wallet project from the NatGeo site. I was curious to see how well the cookie wrappers would fuse together, but I was a little doubtful that it would form a decent fabric to make something I could actually use. I was pleasantly surprised!

I decided that I wanted to use the foil side out instead of showing the label, so I placed the wrappers in between two pieces of copy paper as the instructions said and carefully ironed on low. It fused together really fast!

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I'm not sure if the iron was too hot though, or if I left it on the paper too long, because the plastic crinkled up a bit. I went ahead and used the new "fabric" anyway. I cut off the messy edges and folded the fused fabric into an envelope shape. Since fusing was so easy I fused the whole bottom of the envelope together so I wouldn't have to worry about sewing it together.

I can't follow any pattern without at least changing something, and this was no exception. The instructions for the Terracycle wallet called for scotch tape and velcro, neither of which I had in the house, but I had thread and buttons, so I made due with that. I think the final product turned out pretty good for my first attempt at fusing wrappers.

When I wanted to put on the button, I quickly discovered that the fused fabric is not very easy to sew through. It's a bit easier if you poke the holes first with a pin. Since I was stitching so close to the edges I noticed that the plastic ripped a few times. I assume that this wouldn't be as big a problem with embroidery or if sewing with a machine, but I haven't tried either yet.

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The finished product looks nice and seems pretty durable. The best part is that I know that those two wrappers were put to a good use instead of going in the trash! (... and that I got a great excuse to eat more cookies!)

A great excuse to eat cookies

In my email this morning I got an article about an American company called Terracyle that recycles empty food wrappers into useful products like backpacks, shower curtains, pencil cases and folders then sells them in large chain stores across the U.S.

The Terracycle site is full of great products made from completely recycled materials, and links to an online store where you can buy them. http://www.terracycle.net/ My only complaint is that they only ship within the states. I guess if I want ecofriendly upcycled stuff like theirs I'm just gonna have to make it myself!

After looking around a bit I came across the instructions for turning a cookie wrapper into a wallet. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/earth-day/4314/Overview44#tab-cookie-wrapper-wallet What a great excuse to eat cookies! I've gotta try this project, so I'm off to the bodega to pick up a couple packs...

Off to a slow start...

Well I've been collecting bags from friends and co-workers for a couple weeks, but so far I've only got about 30. I've started cutting the bags into loops and joining chains to make the yarn needed to crochet. I'm on my first ball of "plarn" but I can't do much more until I get more bags.

I've sent out emails and I've had some offers to help on facebook, so it's just a matter of waiting...