Thrifty Thursday - T-shirt Yarn

A great way to upcycle unwanted clothes...

During the course of our crafty internet exploration we came across this great tutorial by craftpassion on how to make t-shirt yarn. 

The process is explained really well and we found it easy to follow. As we both had a few bits and pieces from our wardrobes which had seen better days, we tried it out and had a few balls of t-shirt yarn ready to use in short order. Thanks craftpassion!

It is so much fun to create giant crochet using a massive hook! The contrast between our usual tiny, intricate patterns and these great big loops which grow so quickly is brilliant! 

We used a 10mm hook as it was the biggest we had but I think we could have done with a bigger hook still to keep things a bit more flexible. As we were limited on colours we created a chunky trivet which would be great in the middle of the dinner table for serving up a hot pan of food such as paella or fajitas.

Now we have tried this method we are hungry to try more colours and different patterns. This type of yarn is great for creating rugs, baskets, bags and other containers - anything which needs to be a bit thicker and more rustic. 

The plan is now to keep an eye out in thrift stores and charity shops for different coloured t-shirts so that we can get a palette together for a larger project. We were in serious danger of hacking our wardrobes up to do this, but realised that it would not be the most economic plan of action! Instead we will be patient and post again once we have the materials created to make something new but we urge you all to give t-shirt yarn a try and let us know what you did with yours. Send us a photo!

Lots of love,

TBC

Woolly Wednesday: Yarn Thickness Chart

A great resource for newbie hookers...

When we were learning to crochet, we found there was a real trove of free information, patterns and tutorials to be found online. Whilst these were amazingly helpful in getting us started, there was a little confusion in using them due to the differences in terminology between UK and US patterns.

We have already covered the different stitch terms and hook sizes in tables earlier in the blog. The final hurdle was the terms for the yarns suggested at the start of the patterns. It took a while before we realised that 'DK' or 'Double Knit' yarn is the same as 'Worsted Weight' yarn over in the states! 

Here is yet another useful table to help you avoid any confusion as you get hooking.

There will be further fibre related posts each Wednesday. If you would like us to cover a particular subject one week, please comment or email us here.

Tutorial Tuesday: Crochet Flowers and more!

One of the first books we bought when learning to crochet was Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

The book is wonderfully laid out and easy to read and understand. The crochet terms, hook sizes and wool names are all UK terminology.

We have both made several things from the book but one of our favourites has been the crochet flowers.

These are easy to make and really add an extra something to whatever you're making. - We have used them for adornments to things like purses and gadget cases, and even made a pretty flower garland!

Here's the pattern to make these lovely little flowers, it's really quick and we've found you can use whatever wool and hook size you like - it will just mean you make different size flower!!

• Using your first colour for the inner of the flower, chain 6 then join with a slip stitch in the first chain to make a circle.
• Make 16 double crochet into the circle. Join with a slip stitch and fasten off.
• Join second colour for outer part of flower into fastened off stitch.
• *Chain 3, make 1 treble into next two stitches, chain 3, slip stitch into next stitch, repeat from * 4 more times  - this makes 5 petals.
• Pull tail to close up centre hole and sew in ends.

See, easy peasy! 

One of our favourite crochet bloggers, Lucy from Attic 24, has also written a post about a pattern in this book, you can read about that here - she, like us, can't sing this book's praises highly enough.

To end the post, here's a picture of one of our creations from the book which was easy but also very satisfying to make - a lovely crochet purse with the pretty flowers we mentioned already. 

Happy hooking!

TBC xxx

Freebie Friday: Free P&P on all Etsy items TODAY ONLY!!

That's right, you read it correctly. Free postage and packing! But only for today, so be quick and visit our Etsy shop here - even multiple purchases will be posted free of charge, how generous are we!?
All you need to do is enter the coupon code FREESHIPPING at the checkout.

And as we are super lovely, if you pay us a visit every Friday, then we will have some sort of freebie every week!

Freebie Friday is part of our new way of posting entries - you may have noticed Woolly Wednesday and Thrifty Thursday already.

So remember to come back and see what the other days of the week bring, especially next Friday for more freebies!

Rave Reviewers

Are you hatching a new product, pattern or idea? If you have anything craft related which you would like field tested or reviewed by real people, we would be happy to have a go and let you and our followers know what we think. We would give a fair and unbiased review and promise we won't peck it to pieces!

Our specific areas of expertise are Crochet, Knitting, Jewellery Making, Felting and Beading, but we are constantly expanding on that range so if you have any books, kits or products which are targeted at beginners in a particular craft then we would love to have a go!

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Contact the birds by email, twitter (@twobirdscraft) or comment on this post to talk about your ideas and see if we can help.