Sauerkraut

Someone at church sent an email out whether a few people might like to make sauerkraut together. Home-fermented kraut is very healthy. The vitamin C level actually goes up. There are beneficial bacteria from the lacto-fermentation. None of us had ever done it before. Prior to meeting, we read lots of online recipes and watched a number of videos. From what we could tell, it's the kind of thing you can't screw up too badly.

This morning three of us gathered at one of the homes. We used a food processor to slice the cabbage. We used pickling salt and pounded the cabbage using a potato masher, and of all things, canning jars. It was more fun than doing it by myself at home. Instead of buying a food-safe plastic bucket, I decided to pack it into this gallon jug. It seemed to be the best container I had. (I do not plan to use the spigot on the bottom.)

Sauerkraut has to be weighed down so that the cabbage stays under the juice. I put in a red coffee can lid which could be folded to get into the jar. I used tuna cans as weights. They are in plastic bags for cleanliness reasons.

UPDATE
I fermented it in a bottom kitchen cabinet for about 2-3 weeks. It didn't smell great. I thought of putting it in the basement laundry room, but I wanted to keep a closer eye on it. Once I thought it was done, it was kept in the fridge.

It turned out crunchy, too salty, and kind of beery. My cousin, Alison, makes sauerkraut often. She says beery is good. So there you go! Mostly, I used it in soup. After I took some out, I didn't keep a weight on it. By January, it had fuzzy white dots on the surface. I threw the rest away, which was only about 1 1/2 cups. Time to make some more!

Tie Dye 2009

The Unity Church of Crystal Lake has an annual Tie Dye Sunday. I first attended in 2007 and every year I have gotten more enthusiastic about it. Last year (2008) I borrowed Tie Dye 101 from the library. I made matching tiger stripe shirts for the whole family. I was taking the picture, so I am not in the shot ;).

This is the family photo of the shirts I made at the 2009 Tie Dye Sunday.

The kids made a shirt each for themselves. The big theme this year was the spider pattern. Beth did a bunch of bullseyes. Her shirt is so vibrant. Ben's spider looks like a maple leaf (or some other kind of leaf...).

It was so much fun, I purchased a tie dye kit from Dharma Trading Company and invited Jim's sisters over on Labor Day weekend. I wish I had taken pictures of the fun we had but my hands were dirty most of the day. It was a lot of work setting up, mixing the dyes, and trying to keep everything clean.

This was supposed to be a star. The example in the book looked so much better. The more I wear it, the more I like it, though.

When Jim made this, he had a landscape in mind.

Here is Jim's patriotic spider.



The kids' spirals turned out well. I particularly like the rainbow spiral. I coached Ben with the instructions from the book and it worked like a charm. Beth was going for a spiral with only 2 colors and lots of white around them. The instructions were not clear as to where to put the dye and she isn't so pleased with the result.

I haven't photographed everything we made. I'm saving a mistake for Halloween ;). I did figure out how to make peace signs. There's a very good video on youtube. I made one for myself and two patriotic peace signs for Jim's sister & brother-in-law. We gave them away before we took pics. They turned out awesome. Maybe I'll get a snapshot when the two of them wear them on the same day. So that's for another post....

More Shopping Bags

Below are two shopping bag patterns. The first is patriotic mostly because I have a LOT of red and blue newspaper bags. The difference with this one is I managed to continue the colors on the sides. It was kind of tricky. The second bag is made entirely of bread bags and other food bags. I used a few frozen vegetable bags as well. These two bags are the same size but photographed differently.

Latest creations

This is a tote bag with cosmetics case. The tote is made from St. Patrick's day grocery bags and unusual green newspaper bags. The cosmetics case is mostly produce bags and a few clear newspaper bags. I got a bunch of old buttons from Donna - how awesome! The buttons match on this set. I mailed it to someone I admire and I'm not sure she received it. I hope I'll find out some day.


This is a purse made from newspaper bags. I trimmed it with leftover magenta yarn to keep the strap from stretching too much.

This is a tote bag made entirely from bread bags and other bags that food came in. I crocheted it single ply because this material is thicker than grocery bags.

This is another purse made from newspaper bags. It is 2/3 the size of the purse pattern because it is a gift for my daughter, Elizabeth, on her 9th birthday. :) I have 8 unique colors of newspaper bags. I made balls of plarn with the same sequence of colors. I had to mix them up every now and then to prevent common repeating patterns in the rows.

The Art of Plarn-making

I finally wrote my plarn-making directions! I hope you pardon my messy closet. I have a wonderful workshop set up in the garage but the closet is in the living room. I can keep an eye on the kids or TV while cutting up bags.

Step One: Prepare the bags

Flatten bag and fold in half vertically.

Cut off handles and bottom and cut bag in half horizontally.

When I’m cutting up a lots of bags for a project, I prefer to cut them all up at this step before moving on to next step. It goes faster for me to have a pile of bag slices.

Step two: Cut into plarn

I use a bungee cord in my closet to hang a piece of the bag horizontally. A paper towel holder also works very well. If you try to cut a whole bag at once, it doesn’t spin as well.

Then I cut it like this:

Make 1 snip, then pull strip with hand while holding scissors steady. The bag will spin on the bungee cord. Depending on quality and condition of plastic, you will have to adjust the speed and scissors position. It takes a little practice. The strip width is usually about ¾ inch (2cm).

Step three: Roll it into balls of plarn.

Usually I double the plarn when I crochet a bag, so I roll it that way after cutting it.

Shopping bag pattern

I found this pattern and I was excited to try it out.

The picture below is of a bag I made from grocery store bags that had green writing on them for St. Patrick's Day. Normally that store has red writing. I almost didn't have enough bags to make this and I had to ask everyone I know if they could check if they had some of these green ones. I sewed it together with green yarn.

This one I gave to my sister, Laura, for her birthday.

I made this bag wider. I think the colors are very sunny. The stripes are made of newspaper delivery bags. I got the orange and yellow yarn from my mother. They are scraps from her knitting projects. 

Plarn Crafts!

I have no idea how I found out about crocheting with cut up grocery bags. Once I found the idea I googled and read as much about it as I could before I attempted it. My first attempts ended up becoming lunch bags for my kids. They usually get school lunches but every now and then, they are very proud to bring a snack to school in those bags. I should take pictures of them.

This purse and tote bag are some of the earlier things I made. The tote bag is made entirely out of Target bags. I cut the plarn into a single strand ball.* It is done with a double crochet stitch. It's not all that strong and very stretchy. I've made later things with double strand plarn. The handle is a weak point. It tore the 2nd time I used it. I mended it with yarn. Now I use acrylic yarn around the inside of handles when I make tote bags. I got the purse pattern here. It's the first crochet pattern I've ever followed.

I offered to make a tote bag at my church service auction. The winner of the item paid the church $15 and has to save the bags. I will turn them into a tote bag, purse, or other creation within my abilities. Sandy won the auction and gave me a great idea: newspaper bags. The bags that newspapers are delivered in are colorful and make nice accents to the tote bags. I made this tote of various things I had laying around for my friend, Amy. There are newspaper bags, bread bags (tough to work with!) and a plastic lei that my kids had destroyed. Amy is one of my cheerleaders and always encourages me.

This is another purse where I was experimenting with a flat bottom.

This tote was made on the airplane. I was up very late the night before cutting up the bags so I'd have something to do during the flight. I had more colored plarn than grocery bags, which gave me many rows of color. It's a smaller bag compared to my Target bag tote. The top blue handle is actually a shopping bag I happened to get with something I bought on my trip! The newspaper bags are way too soft to make a handle. I sent out an email to my church asking for people to collect their newspaper bags. Every week I get a new bunch. I am so thrilled. I have yellow, orange, blue, 3 shades of red, two shades of purple and clear.

* I don't cut them the same way most websites show you. Instead I put the bag on a horizontal paper towel holder, use one hand to cut with scissors and the other hand pulls the strip. Then I tie the ends and roll it into balls. I'll post my method for cutting the bags eventually. I need to take pictures. I read about this method somewhere and I can't find it any more.