carrier bag plant pots

Goodness me, what a lot of lovely new visitors! Welcome to all who’ve popped over from Jen’s fabulous My Make and Mend Year blog – and thank you to Jen for nominating me for her creativity blog hop.

I must admit I was slightly alarmed when Jen got in touch to ask if I minded being nominated. I had a quick flick through my blog and realised I’ve barely posted anything about making things for ages. It’s all been running and cake and gardens round here lately.

But in truth I *have* been making and mending, just ordinary everyday things that barely seem worth the bother of taking a picture of. I was going to whizz round and take a few photos tonight of things I’ve made recently, but worryingly I can’t find my camera… Last seen as I was leaving to go to the community allotment on Sunday… Most distressing.

So I was going to tell you about the bag I made to hold my alto flute from an old tartan skirt. And about the wicker chair with a broken leg that we found in a skip and fixed for the garden. And the top I altered to give it a better fit. And the cleaning cloths I made from my old pyjamas.

I love it that botching things has become part of my everyday life now.

However, since I can’t take pictures of any of those things, I thought I’d show you something I made recently to send to a friend. I haven’t sent it yet (I’m trying to finish off something else I’m making to send with it!) and she doesn’t know she’s getting it, so I’m hoping she’s not reading or it might spoil the surprise…

My lovely pal is Fay, of The Wind and The Wellies fame. You should pop over and see her – she’s recently moved house and rescued some battery farmed chickens. She’s also given up carrier bags. So what could be a better present than a pile of, er, carrier bags.

Hmm, perhaps I could have thought this through a bit more…

Strangely enough, this project came about because of something I read on Jen’s blog, about making ‘plarn’ – or yarn from plastic bags. Unlike Fay, I have so far failed to give up plastic bags, and had a cupboard full of them to experiment with.

I followed the instructions on Jen’s blog, and after a bit of trial and error, ended up with a very passable strip of plarn.

I tried to crochet it into a circle, which took several attempts (my crochet skills are not up to much).

Fortunately plarn is forgiving, and if you’re reasonably careful you can unravel it and try again.

I was trying to be all clever and make pretty patterns and colours using carrier bags from different shops, but I got overwhelmed and my first attempt came in all one colour, which was actually quite dull, and I became pretty grumpy. Still, I ploughed on, watching Le Tour on the tv at the same time, and eventually I managed to figure out how to give my plant pot holder sides (that took a few goes, and I’m not even going to try to explain how I did it, because this was a couple of weeks ago and I have no idea. Sorry!)Again, it took LOTS of trial and error to increase the stitches up the sides to make it fit the plant pot. I spent all day on the floor, crocheting and unravelling, cutting and starting again, until I began to seriously wonder what on earth I was doing.

I mean, poor old Fay is trying to get rid of plastic bags, right? Hmm.

Eventually I made it to the top of the plant pot, and did a passable attempt at finishing off.

Yay! Although I admit, not very exciting to look at.

I did make a second one, this time with no bottom and with jaunty orange and green stripes, but I failed to take a picture of it and now I can’t, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Each plant pot holder used about 6 or 7 carrier bags, so I’m hoping that even if Fay doesn’t want these ugly looking things in her house, she might appreciate that I’ve saved a few bags from landfill and use them in the garden.

They’re waterproof, after all…

So there we are, a little kind-of-creative something from me to try to justify Jen’s glowing and lovely comments about me (thank you again!)

It’s late here now, so I’m going to come back and answer my blog hop questions properly another day (hopefully when I’ve found my camera!)

Night all 🙂