Update!
The clay 'blanket' can be seen, until 19th June, at the Morley College in London. Woot!

My Blanket OF the Ground

Nope, that's not a typo.  I'm making clay crochet.  Kind of.
A lot has been going on in my life this past year or so, and I won't bore you with the details, but as part of my journey I am now back at college, doin' a bit of the arty-farty.

A crochet blanket that had been stowed away for years finally got completed, and it will take pride of place in whichever house I land up in.  I love it.

We were fuffing about with clay and I got my hands on a hexagonal tile cutter.  Ideas began to flow as I played about with texture.

A bit of string theory followed...

I added oxides...

Here they are after firing.  Now they need a glaze.

I can't wait to see the finished result - they'll be going up on the wall when I have my place.

Soap Carving...

This bear was made with the Tesco Basic Soap. I ran out of room when I got to the head.

I do not pretend to be any kind of expert in this - it's just something I like to have fun with, now and again.
You don't need any specialist tools - I use an old vegetable knife - one that's not too sharp because anything with too much of an edge to it will cut in too deeply when you don't want it to...
The soap, however, is a different kettle of fish. If it's hard and crumbly it's no fun at all to use.
I was chuffed to find Tesco's own brand.
It's soft, is a nice blocky shape to begin with (no brand name as such to get rid of before you start) and best of all, it only cost me 11p.
None of it got wasted - the chips have already been melted down to make another bar of soap - but more on that another day.

 My first attempt, years ago - bear with me - the one on the left. You can still see the brand name on his side. The green dolphin was mad with Fairy soap. That was nice, once I'd got the writing off.

Tarn it! Tee-Shirt Yarn.

OK, so this is going to be a scarf at some point, and it's not a tee-shirt - it's the bottom of a skirt, but you'll get the picture.
There are other, faster ways of producing tarn, but this is my preferred method.
Are you ready?

Here's the bottom two tiers of an old frilly skirt. I kept the top half.

I'll need to remove the elastic and the gathering.

Cut in a long spiral, starting with a little curve.
Here, I'm aiming for a strip around 2cm (one inch) wide.
Take huge care not to cut anything underneath your work!

You can see the curved initial cut. Some fabric curls nicely.
More on that later.

That curling can be a pain when cutting - use your thumb to keep it flat.
If you don't, you won't be able to see to keep the strip an even width.

I've reached one full circuit. Just negotiate the 'bend' and keep going.

You can trim that 'ugly' bit, or just let it curl up and hide.

OK, so the other hand is holding the camera, but a gentle pull...

...and the tarn curls and stretches by about a third.
Don't pull too hard - you don't want to split those seams.

Yay!

Why Dental Floss is in my Sewing Kit

I like this.  It's a strong thread, with its own cutter and I use the dimple formed by the spool as a kind of thimble, to help push a reluctant needle thro' tough material.
Yes. I know the stitching's not perfect...

A cutter...

... a thimbly thing...

... and strong thread. Mint(y).

It's a Wind Up - Nostepinne Hints

 I'd made a huge boo-boo and had to unravel my three metre cardigan - honest, my gauge was way off.  As I'd already russian-joined at least twice, that was a lot of yarn.
I'm using a seed dibber (from Wilko's in the UK) with the end taken off, and smoothed over with Sugru.  As you can see, it's not all that big.

Making the foundation layer

 There are three things which help to keep yarn cakes from looking like olives... the first is to start with a wide base.  This is done by twirling the nosty and wrapping the yarn in such a way as to make a foundation layer.

Wrap the yarn 'wood to wood', twirling the nostepinne towards you as you work.

OK, so one hand is holding the camera, but placing a hand either side of the cake and squishing them towards each other will round it up.

It's getting big. Notice the yarn tail is tucked out of the way under an elastic band on the handle.

Now, instead of working 'wood to wood', change the angle a bit,  to something more upright. This creates a 'shoulder' and stops the yarn from slipping.

 

Nearly done. For the last few wraps, place your thumb on the yarn and work at right angles to the nostepinne.

Grab the tail...

... and tuck it under the final wraps...

Remember to remove the starter tail of the yarn from the elastic band...

... and slide the cake from the nosty. Ta daaaaaa! One centre-pull ball.

The Crocheted Scarf has Morphed

I frogged it again - it was too skinny and long.  It's now ten DTR across (UK), plus I picked up along one side in 1x1 rib.  This had the effect of curving it around so it sits nicely on my shoulders. Yay!