13 March 2012

T-shirt basket pattern


 







































(Ta-dah! This is the first crochet pattern I have ever written. I hope it makes sense!
Sorry for possible mistakes) 
You can find out more about the basket in the previous post here.
You'll need two M-L sized T-shirts of colors A and B - whichever you like. Here you can find one of many tutorials on making T-shirt yarn. It's easy and you'll love it.

I used 7 mm hook; you can use any large hook that's comfortable for you. Crocheting with T-shirt yarn is quite a physical exercise, so, if you want to have strong fingers, you are welcome :)

Start with making a magic ring.
Every row begins with ch 1. First sc of every row is worked into the same st (the one from which you make ch 1). Every row ends by joining with sl st.

Row 1: 7 sc in the ring (7)
Row 2: 2 sc in every st around. (14)
Row 3: sc, 2 sc. Repeat 7 times. (21)
Row 4: sc, sc, 2 sc. Repeat 7 times. (28)
Row 5: sc, sc, sc, 2 sc. Repeat 7 times. (35)
Row 6: sc in every st around. (35)

Now the simple increase part is over, and the fun triangle part begins.
How to change the color smoothly: I give example for sc, but the same principle applies to any other stitch. Color should be changed during PREVIOUS stitch.
Work sc as usual to the point where you have 2 loops on your hook and you're going to finish sc with pulling hook through both loops. You needn't fasten off every time you change color. Just leave the color A to hang in there and use color B: yarn over and finish sc. When you're done with color B, you can pick up color A and continue with it like nothing happened. And the other way around.

From row 7 to row 12, work 1 sc in every st.
Row 7:  6 sc with color A, 1 sc with color B. Repeat 5 times.
Row 8: 2 sc with color B, 4 sc with color A, *3 sc with color B, 4 sc with color A* repeat 4 times, 1 sc with color B.
Row 9: 3 sc with color B, 2 sc with color A, *5 sc with color B, 2 sc with color A* repeat 4 times, 2 sc with color B.
Row 10: 4 sc with color B, 1 sc with color A, *6 sc with color B, 1 sc with color A* repeat 4 times, 2 sc with color B.
Now you can bind off color A.


Rows 11-12: sc in every st around. (35)
Row  13: sc, sc, sc, sc2tog. Repeat 7 times. (30)
Leave a loop for hanging and fasten off.

Now you have your own bathroom (well, not necessarily bathroom) basket. Isn't it nice? :)

12 March 2012

T-shirt yarn

I made T-shirt yarn in November, and couldn't imagine the long and painful fate that awaited it :)
At first I was planning a bathroom rug. I made 2 attempts in that direction:
As you can see, both were a disaster. Anyway, I didn't have enough of old T-shirts for a rug of satisfying size. So I had to give up that plan.

Next, I thought of a T-shirt scarf - they were overfilling Pinterest boards at the time.
Scarf looked OK - about 12 meters of  braid, by the way. It was almost finished (a few months in that state, to tell you the truth) when I said to myself: hey, actually this yarn was made for CROCHET!
So, after tedious couple of hours of unravelling braids I again had this:

Also I had an idea in my head, inspired by these pictures from nice blog Sort of pink:




















I liked the triangles on the rug and the idea of basket, so I mixed them together. Here's what I've made:

 Now I'm working on a pattern for this basket. I'll post it as soon as I can :)