The Compost Bin: rags

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 rags. Show all posts

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.

Monday, 18 June 2012

De cluttering

I have just "sold" some books back to Amazon using their new Trade In scheme. I am really pleased , as I got £60 in Amazon gift vouchers, for books I would have given to the charity shop otherwise. Interesting scheme! And I do still give books to charity shops :-)

I have SO many books - I am having a bit of a de clutter here at Compost Mansions and lots are finding new homes. I must admit I am surprised at the prices some of them made with Amazon :-) Nearly the new price in several cases ( teaching textbooks mainly, from my course 2 years ago)

I have also had a clear out in the Pink Bedroom, which is the guest room but tends to become a bit of a dumping ground for "stuff".

So am pleased that I now have 3 dustbin bags full of stuff to go to the charity shops in Ledbury, as well as another bag of old clothes for rug making and duster making.

I attribute this burst of energy to my following The Harcombe Diet for the last week and not only have I lost some weight, but I do feel amazingly energetic - so a win-win situation all round :-)

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