Blue Wrap Project - Earth Day 2012

The Fashion Design and Retailing Program at Framingham State University recently hosted a design competition. The goal was to recycle "Blue Wrap", a highly durable polypropylene fabric used to wrap all medical supplies and instruments. The Blue Wrap was donated by Metro West Medical Center in Framingham.

Faculty, staff, and students were encouraged to design fashion garments and accessories that used Blue Wrap in a creative way. Basic sewing materials were allowed, but were not permitted to exceed 25% of the garment.

Ahhh, so what to do, what to do????

I love bags and purses, so I started my experiments with Blue Wrap by making a simple tote. I embellished it with a fabric yo-yo, a matching button and a tie so that the bag can be carried conveniently.

It turned out to be fairly easy to work with Blue Wrap, so I next designed a zippered makeup bag. Inspired by a dress I had seen at the mall, I put a fabric bow on the outside. I think it works much better on the bag than it did on the dress! The bag measures 6" x 5".

Blue Wrap was easy to manipulate and sew, but wrinkles in the fabric are impossible to remove because the fabric melts when ironed. It occurred to me that I could make yarn from the Blue Wrap in the same way I made "plarn" from plastic grocery bags (see my Plarn Gift Bag post). Blue Wrap came as a tube (two sheets were fused together on opposite edges) and I was able to cut a continuous 1/2" strip to get a nice large ball of "blarn".

After I had the Blue Wrap in yarn form, it was just a matter of playing around with it and knitting needles to see what would develop.

I had a shopping tote and a makeup bag so why not make a purse to put them in? The purse was knit with 54 stitches on size 11 circular needles and measured 10" x 9" (not including handles). The body of the bag was stockinette stitch and the top band was garter stitch. Decorative tabs on the surface of the purse came from the fused ends of the Blue Wrap, which left flaps in the yarn as it was cut. Initially, I was pushing them to the inside, but I liked the texture, so I brought them to the front.

All of the designs were showcased at Framingham State's Earth Day Festival 2012 and will go on a local exhibition tour during the summer. This was a fun design project that had a community feel and a "make it work" attitude that was relevant to an important environmental issue.

Carton Wallet

It's not knitting, crochet or sewing. Heck, it's not even needlework related! But as I've written before, I'm about making stuff and little crafty things can grab my attention.

When the girls were young I regularly bought the Disney Family Fun magazine because it always has great make-it projects. I still love thumbing through an issue or visiting their web site.

This carton wallet was fun to make, perfect to fill with candy, and ship off to the grandkids. I couldn't resist and enjoyed every minute!

The instructions and template for the carton wallet were perfect and I made two in the suggested time allowance of one hour.

Lace Leaf Infinity Scarf

The newest fashion trend for a scarf is to make them into an "Infinity" scarf by sewing the ends together to form a circle.   The scarf can then be worn by wrapping it around the neck multiple times or hanging from the neck like a necklace.  From a design perspective it opens up a lot of ideas.  I used a standard leaf lace pattern and just knit!  It was a quick knit, turned out well, and my daughter loves it.

Lace Leaf Infinity Scarf Pattern

Pajama Eaters

These little monsters are a pillow but be careful .....they "eat" pajama's!

I found this pattern a number of months ago over at sewfewless.com (it's a good thing I saved it then because now she's charging $10 for it!)

Other than additional reinforcing around the mouth/zipper, the only detail I changed was the feet.   The originally design is darling but when I worked the feet they seemed, to me, big and bulky, so I redesigned them to about 1/2 the size (closer in proportion to the arms)  and reworked the shape of the foot and leg into a circle.

The Pajama Eater starts to take on a personality after the stuffing has been inserted and I recommend deviating from the written instructions and determine the position of the eyes last.

This was a fun diversion from knitting and a cute sewing project for the grand-kids!

Forest Canopy Shawl

I haven't done a lot of lace knitting, only a few simple projects (Baby Fern Lace Cowl and Beaded Eyelet Rib Socks) so when I decided to knit a lace shawl I searched on Ravelry to find an easy pattern. The Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence was perfect. The instructions are well organized, excellently written and error free. In addition, she provides a short tutorial on lace knitting and provides a number of helpful suggestions. For me, the most useful suggestion was writing the instructions for each row out on a separate index card  to help keep your place in the pattern  - almost as good as a "lifeline". When I purchase a pattern I prefer them to be in books or magazines and I rarely buy only one but I made an exception here and I'm very glad I did.

I had such fun knitting the first shawl and so loved the result that I knit three more! My sister, mom, mother-in-law and a crafting swap partner were the lucky recipients. I'm ready now to work a more complicated lace pattern, however, I've got to make sure and keep one for myself.  

All of the shawls went out during the rush of the holiday season and I apologize for the blurry photos.

Yarn:  Alpaca Sox by Classic Elite Yarns
Color:  Nor'eater (1857)
Size:  57" x 23"
Needles:  7
Note: Worked to 259 stitches before edging

Yarn:  Amazing by Lion Brand Yarn
Color:  Ruby (201)
Size:  Forgot to measure :(
Needles:  7

Yarn:  Tosh Sock by Madelinetosh
Color:  Cobalt & Tart
Size:  51" x 21"
Needles:  7
Note: Worked to 243 stitches before edging

A Knitting Performance

Knitting Nation

Have you ever been to a knitting performance?  Well, I hadn't until I took in  Liz Collins' Knitting Nation  Phase 8 - Under Construction at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston during a day long performance on November 30th.  The ICA's current exhibition  is Dance/Draw (thru 1/16/12) and Knitting Nation's presentation engaged the theme through eight knitting machines stationed at various levels of scaffolding and the lines of finished knitting draped among its framework and pooled onto the floor.  

Knitting Nation is part ongoing collaborative performance and part site-specific art installation project and you can get a lot more information about the project over at the web site of Liz Collins

As a passionate knitter, crafter and artist I was intrigued and inspired by all of this and took video to capture the noise and movement of the knitters.   At the beginning of the video you see Liz Collins and a volunteer knitter working to repair one of the machines that had gone down from the constant usage.  This was a knitting project and performance that was very different and interesting.

QR Code - The knitting project that didn't work

I'm not positive, but I think this is the first post I've written where things didn't work out (it's not that this doesn't happen on a fairly regular basis but I don't usually spend the time to detail it!)   During the summer I was downloading and exploring apps for my new Android phone and one of them was a QR code reader.  A QR code is a type of bar code that can cram a lot of data information into a pattern of squares.  Companies and retailers are using them to provide additional information about themselves or a product - usually by directing you to a web page.  To use a QR code reader, you point the camera of your phone at a QR code and the image is scanned and the data is interpreted.  Below is a QR code which is a link to my ladynthread blog:

The crafting/design side of my brain immediately started thinking of different projects where I could use a QR code motif - maybe a bag or a scarf ?  Translating the QR code into knitting seemed interesting so I started with worsted weight yarn and knit one stitch for each white and black square.   I  experimented using intarsia knitting on the corner squares and for the long left and right vertical edges but the bulk of the design is knitted with the stranded method.

The knitting is 'ok',  a little ragged in spots (hey, it's a first prototype!), but unfortunately the stitched "squares" were mostly  "V's" formed with the stockinette stitch and the QR reader couldn't read it, except for one time where the light and the angle must have been perfect,   Using a fingering weight yarn and making each square of the QR code a block of four stitches might make it readable or maybe cross-stitching would work.  Printing to fabric transfer paper is probably the most straight forward approach, but for now, the whole idea is shelved until further inspiration.