odds and ends

I hate to waste things.  I have boxes of fabric scraps, and I keep all manner of tiny bits of wool.  For the most part, if they are long enough, I use them to crochet granny squares (or hexagons).  This little beauty is not actually a cat blanket (sorry Lilly).

It's a little stool cover for the free piano stool I got at the dump in VT.  I may have to felt it a little to get it to be a nice snug fit, but that will have to wait until we next go up.

Last weekend, though, our neighbours gave us a cd cabinet.  They were just going to throw it out.  Initially I was going to put it in my studio for storage, but I realised that it was substantially bigger than our current cd tower and that I could fit all our cds in it (rather than scattered around in boxes).

But that left this old IKEA cabinet which is 12 years old...what was I to do with it?  It struck me that it would make fantastic storage for my wool stash.

I like to keep my wool in the lounge room by the TV as that's where I do most of my work.  I've tried many different storage options.  I like to store my wool by colour (kind of like paints), and for the last few years I've kept them in ziplock bags.  But Lilly likes to chew the plastic, and I find I have to make such a mess to find anything....so we will see how this goes.   It works better for skeins than it does for balls.

But then I was left with all my "scraps'; little tiny balls and even smaller odds and ends in more plastic bags.  So I decided to make some little crocheted bowls/baskets to a) use up those tiny scraps and b) have a place to put my little wool balls.

These are so easy to make.  I literally "lick spliced" all my scraps longer than about a 12 inches (but too short to make even the smallest crocheted square).  [lick splicing is as disgusting as it sounds:  you lick your wool ends, then roll them together between your hands; basically felting the two ends together].  Then I used 5 strands of wool and a big crochet hook and went to town.  If anyone is really interested in these, I can write up a proper tutorial - let me know.   I love the rainbow look.  I may throw these in the wash to felt them down a bit, but at the moment they're fine.  (the green one at the back I made another time and that has been felted).

And sick as I am (oh yes, this is a NASTY cold and it has totally taken hold- lots of movie watching with a sick Ella yesterday), I managed to make 3 of these yesterday; totally busting my odds and ends stash and providing some cool storage for my little wool balls and my crochet odds and ends.  And still feeling totally rotten today (on my birthday), looks like Ella and I are in for another day of movie watching.  Now, I just have to find something to do with my hands....

I did make two new cushion covers earlier in the week:

In my etsy store of course.