Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Showing posts with label rag rug. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rag rug. Show all posts

Saturday, 19 January 2013

Crochet and more crochet

 With the snow rather halting any work outside I have been doing a lot of this



Cutting up a couple of old, holey fleeces to make cushions for the cat carriers and yarn for a crochet cat blanket.

 Untangling my good Debbie Bliss yarn, where naughty Cassie cat has a play with it (Arrrggghhh!)



Sorting out lots of ends of aforementioned yarn to use up in granny squares.



using this pattern - nice and straightforward, although I have a fancier centre square and border squares planned!

 So far I am well ahead with my plan to crochet at least a square a day - I have done 25 squares so far since Jan 1st and also have several several other items part completed :-)


 The view from my crafting table - all very cosy :-)

How are you occupying yourself during the snowy weather?

Thursday, 3 January 2013

Crochet rag rug - still a wip.


For all those who wanted a photo!

Still not completed, but you get the general size and shape from this photo

Saturday, 22 December 2012

How I made the rag rug yarn


For those of you who are interested

I cut up the cotton fabric into inch wide strips - and wound then into balls of yarn for easier handling.

Most of my tee shirts are not tubular round the middle section, so I could not use the "continuous spiral method" described in this link ( kindly given to me by Blue Witch ). They have seams up each side, so I had to cut them into long continuous strips, with a thicker section where I turn around and cut back down again.

As I also used the arms of some long sleeved tee shirts this gave me shorter lengths which have more knots in the ball of yarn.
 
So, having cut and joined the strips of tee shirt,  I then made a foundation chain of about 75 stitches using a 15 mm hook - I just made the chain as large as I wanted the width of the rug to be (about three feet)   and then I used (UK, not called the same in US!)  double crochet in rows, back and forth, - the rug is about 4 feet long now and VERY colourful :-)

The knots merge in with the holes in the crochet loops and it feels fine under foot, and I am very pleased with it :-)

Hope this helps you to get started.

Flannel shirts would work for this I think, as would fleece (spun polyester type) blankets - they can be found very cheaply in charity shops here so I am going to make one of these as a cat bed, next.

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Crochet rag rug making

  As you may recall, I have been slowly learning to crochet. Recently I decided to crochet a rag rug.



I have loads of old, worn or holed cotton tee shirts, which are no good for charity donation, so I keep for making rags. I had a look and sorted out some in bright colours to make into cotton yarn
 


 I cut strips about an inch wide and tied them together.


because the fabric is 100% cotton all the trimmings can go in the compost!





And then I started to crochet... using a 15 mm crochet hook


As you can see, it is going to be a good sized rug! It keeps me occupied during these dull wet days where I can't do much in the garden.

I will keep you all posted as to how I get on :-)

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Photo of the crochet recycled rag rug

For all those who wanted a photo!

Still not completed, but you get the general size and shape from this photo

Friday, 30 November 2012

More detail on my crochet rag rug

For those of you who are interested

I cut up the cotton fabric into inch wide strips - and wound then into balls of yarn for easier handling.

Most of my tee shirts are not tubular round the middle section, so I could not use the "continuous spiral method" described in this link ( kindly given to me by Blue Witch ). They have seams up each side, so I had to cut them into long continuous strips, with a thicker section where I turn around and cut back down again.

As I also used the arms of some long sleeved tee shirts this gave me shorter lengths which have more knots in the ball of yarn.
 
So, having cut and joined the strips of tee shirt,  I then made a foundation chain of about 75 stitches using a 15 mm hook - I just made the chain as large as I wanted the width of the rug to be (about three feet)   and then I used (UK, not called the same in US!)  double crochet in rows, back and forth, - the rug is about 4 feet long now and VERY colourful :-)

The knots merge in with the holes in the crochet loops and it feels fine under foot, and I am very pleased with it :-)

Hope this helps you to get started.

Flannel shirts would work for this I think, as would fleece (spun polyester type) blankets - they can be found very cheaply in charity shops here so I am going to make one of these as a cat bed, next.


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