Lockdown sewing and being more sustainable..

Well, at the start of lockdown you may remember, there was a run on toilet roll... No idea why, I never heard of covid causing stomach upsets, just ridiculous herd mentality I guess. Anyroad, I'd been considering moving to "family cloths" - partially replacing toilet roll for the majority of my visits to the smallest room, so I identified two bath towels that were circling the "too scruffy to be seen" pile, got the overlocker out, and cut them into strips! I overlocked both towels down the centre of the long axis, and then overlocked each into strips using an actual toilet roll for the width. I found a small basket I could keep by the loo in the ensuite, and hey presto - our toilet roll usage is now reserved for the, ahem, rear exit. Having never had to wash nappies, that's one step too far for me because it'd involve the hassle of  nappy buckets etc. The used cloths get tossed directly into the laundry basket in the same room, and get washed along with everything else. A workmate nicknamed them "fanny flannels" which tickled me no end. Well, I'm only 9 underneath... :) Two bath towels made more than enough flannels that I can have some in the wash and some ready to use. 

It takes a bit of a mental leap not to hurl the cloths down the loo - don't do that, bit tricky having a plumber in right now - but once you've gotten used to the idea, it's much more environmentally friendly. Body parts leak anyway - nobody thinks anything of washing underwear for reuse, so why should this be any different? The only thing I would say, 5 months down the line, is that darker-coloured towels are probably best for repeated washing, if whites no longer being white bothers you. I've left the downstairs loo as is for guests though, I'm not totally heartless. We don't get many guests anyway! I think the original article that inspired me to do this, the writer went out and bought specific material. Towelling works very well and why not reuse something that would otherwise get thrown away?

In a similar vein, I had a major sort out of fabric offcuts, t-shirts and knickers a while back. Jersey fabric makes a great replacement for paper kitchen towels - one use and they go into the washing machine to await the next load. I love the fact some of my cleaning cloths have the lacey edging from the undies - stylish! I even made one of those tube dispensers from more leftover fabric, which hangs  on the back of the kitchen door, to keep the rags in. 

Cotton fabric offcuts are great for handkerchiefs - I overlocked them to prevent fraying. Of course, cotton is also great for face masks, I've had great fun running up lots of different ones lately. 

Front view - yes, the bees are upside down!. I added a nosewire as the final step. Probably could use an iron.

Rear view with filter pocket - note use of hair elastics for the ear bits. For really small bits of cotton I have been known to make them into scrunchies... starting to have too many of those though! :) 

Some great ideas here from the Guardian on shopping more ethically. 

Current mood: amused

Happy New Year, and an incomplete project round-up...

Happy New Year! Gosh, almost a month since my last post. Well, December always goes a bit bonkers and I didn't even do much crafting for xmas presents either, that was just the way it was! They go into major xmas mode at work these days, something happening 3-4 days every week in December. By the time the 25th rolls around I have to say I'm calorific-ally fed up with the whole thing already! I know that makes me sound like a humbug, I'm really not. We did raise quite a bit for various charities.

Because the 25th fell on a Wednesday, there were two working days before it, and two after January the 1st. My partner had to take the whole fortnight so I matched him. Bliss - but such a wrench to go back to work afterwards!

We spent one night in the lovely Hotel Indigo at the back of the Mailbox shopping centre in Birmingham, got to try out the spa, and got a lovely view of the sunrise whilst we had breakfast on the 25th floor.



This was taken through glass - it looks like a UFO attack is in progress, but it's just the reflections of the lights from the restaurant.



Rosedale cardigan. Actually finished the handknitting in October but it's been hanging around waiting for a zip and waiting for me to insert said zip. Not sure the yarn is really my colours (it's Noro Kureypatoren, which is a DK version of their Noro Kureyon).

Some finished and almost finished projects:


Snowflake sweater. I machine-knitted the body (with hand-transferred snowflake front and back), hand-knitted the hems as the machine choked on the sequins / lack of weight, and crocheted the snowflake appliques. Not quite finished, I have a few more snowflakes to sew on, but ran out of time as Xmas jumper day was 13th December. And I won! Hurrah...



Fat quarter knitting cats top. This is a basic Prima pattern, think I could probably go down a size as this is the size 20 and the neck is a bit big. Fat quarters were two packs from Hobbycraft. I would like to have a go making this entirely with an overlocker next. Think I might need to add those little bra doohickeys on the shoulders.

Not pictured: I also made some 2x2 ribbed hats from my All gauges easy rib hat pattern, and another jumper from leftover Noro.

Leicestershire machine knitting club are running a 3 month project where we design and knit a jacket. To that end, I was asked to do some samples of edges, and picked four from Mary Anne Oger's excellent books (see below). They've been "killed" with the steam iron to make them lay flat, they are DK acrylic.



Also not pictured, I am trying to be more sustainable. The poor Cog does not know what has hit him - we have bar soap in all bathrooms now, and I'm experimenting with making my own beauty and household products. I had quite a lot of offcuts leftover from the "knitting cats" top above, and used the overlocker to turn them into rags. I've also had a sort out of undies and t-shirts, and made them into rags also. Knitted fabric is actually better for kitchen spills as it's more absorbent. Currently it's replacing kitchen towels in the kitchen. Use them once, pop them in the washing machine. The cotton offcuts are better as handkerchiefs. I got to play with my overlocker and figure out some of the settings, and I help the environment too. Win-win, I say!


Current mood: busy