I wrote this article for the local fishwrap which has yet to publish it- but I thought it was worth a bit of a lark . . .
Craft. The popular buzzword of the hip twenty-something crowd whose teenage pastimes consisted of carving obsenities into desks and doodling skull tattoos on each other during 4th period. These kids have grown up and they are everywhere. Magazines like CRAFT and ReadyMADE are filled with DIY (Do It Yourself) projects and punkish crafters with funky bangs. Blogs abound with kooky creations and how-to manuals for every level of crafter. Even Martha Stewart has gone from Susie Homemaker to trendy fashion-crafter. And Juneau, we are not immune to the crafting bug. We have been infected, and I’m not afraid to say it feels good.
Juneau is a special sort of brewing pot for the crafter. Cold, long nights and a nurturing craft community steer us to make anything we can with our hands. Pods of crafters get together to stitch, scrapbook, draw, bead, sew, paint, reinvent, reinterpret and more. Don’t let me go on. I think it’s time for us to band together, throw some thoughts around and learn new crafts. Plus, I just want to steal all your great ideas. I mean trade . . . yes . . . “trade.” In the meantime, if all this craft talk has your fingers itching, I have the answer. You want craft? Now is your chance.
Project : Recycled Sweater Scarf Level: Beginner Basic Skills Necessary: shopping, cutting with scissors, using a washer and dryer Hipness Score with the Indie DIYers: 4 (okay, I made that up)
Let’s break it down. You need a cozy warm scarf for these freezing days (let’s not forget the wind chill factor) and you don’t have time to knit or crochet because you need it, basically, yesterday. You want it to be unique and just the right size and probably out of something deliciously warm like wool. Okay, let’s do it.
ONE: Go to Sally Ann’s (that’s Salvation Army), St. Vincent de Paul, your closet, your mom’s closet (probably not your roommate’s closet) and get a 100% wool sweater. Find one that appeals to you on some level.
TWO: Throw the sweater in the washer on HOT and then in the dryer on HOT. Normally you want to keep wool away from heat and the dryer at all costs, but this is the brave new world of crafts. Here you are performing a process called fulling (similar to felting for those in the know). By heating and drying the wool you fuse the little stitches together to create one piece of fabric. The benefit is that when you cut it, it won’t fray. Check the sweater after the first wash and dry. If it continues to fray, throw it in for another round to do the trick.
THREE: Now you have a tiny sweater. You can either give it to a friend as a gag gift or cut it up to create a scarf. Decide how wide you want your scarf. Cut off the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater (the edge stuff that has a different texture).
Measure the width of the scarf up from the new bottom of the sweater and mark a line. Cut on the line. Now you have a hip tube. If you want, throw this tube on. You’ll find it makes a sweet 80’s shawl, double it for a neck gaiter or pull it on for a bum warmer.
FOUR: If you are going for more of a traditional scarf, cut the tube up one side. Voila: scarf. Try these tips to jazz it up. Buy two sweaters with contrasting patterns and piece together a long funky thing. If you’re hand sewing don’t worry about making the stitches neat. Make them zig-zag and criss-cross a bunch - that way you can be messy and say it was on purpose. Or attach a design on the end using felt. With just an iron and some double sided fusible interfacing (ask the lovelies at Jo-Anns to help you find it) you can iron on any shaped felt patch. Perhaps a bunny, a skull, your initials; your imagination is the limit.
FIVE: Show it off. Be proud of your craft.
It was super interesting- you use special hard-core dyes (no paas vinegar here) that saturate the eggs in seconds.
This is the kitska- it has a tiny funnel which you heat over the candle and then scoop beeswax into. You draw the wax on with the pointy end of the kitska and then you dye over the wax. Then you melt the wax off and crazy things are accomplished! Then if you're super kooky you try to blow the egg out to get rid of the insides. That was a wild time- I'm keeping those pictures hidden . . .
Lucy was really having the time of her life, she was just faking disdain cuz that's how she rolls.
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