Since you can crochet with anything you can wrap around a hook, we have many choices to crochet with. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve crocheted with? I’ve used plastic grocery sacks, plastic newspaper sleeves, horribly rough old Aunt Lydia’s rug yarn, macrame cord, string, twine, fabric strips, and the routine yarns and threads.
I have a hard time crocheting with the plastics of grocery sacks and newspaper sleeves. The fabric strips are really hard for me. These three items seem to cause a lot of problem with my wrists, so I figure it’s best to stay away from them. However, there are lots of people who DO crochet with them. Rag rugs, rag baskets, floor mats, etc are all items that can be made plastic or fabric. There has recently been a long discussion on the crochet-along group about making coiled items with fabric strips. They are nice to look at and would be a great way to recycle all sorts of old clothing, but it’s not for me. I’ll use the old clothes to piece a quilt top. That’s not hard for me.
Macrame cord is no fun to crochet with. I now have some wonderful wood hooks in super large sizes – U, V, W from jenkins ____________. They are beautifully finished and glide nicely thru the yarn. But, they are a tad difficult to hold onto – and I have large hands. It probably takes more practice than I was able to give when I crocheted an emergency scarf on Christmas Eve!!
I couldn’t tolerate working with the old Aunt Lydia’s rug yarn. A large trash bag of it wound up being donated to a weaver who created things for charity. The texture of this yarn was just too rough for my hands. And, the colors were not much to look at. I did make a great shopping net tote with this yarn before I gave up on it. The thing is indestructible!
String and twine are both okay to crochet with IMO. I prefer string. Twine has some of the same problems as rug yarn, being rough and difficult. String, on the other hand, is cheap and soft and crochets up nicely. I once combined plain old string with a strand of thin chenille in a gold color. The resulting fabric was a beautiful color, much richer than the ‘old gold’ chenille looked like on its own. I prefer string to the peaches and creme yarn that is so often used for potholders. I just don’t like that stuff much.
A better cotton for potholders is carpet warp. This 100% cotton yarn is very tightly woven and is about a DK weight. It’s easy to find online or at a weaving supply store. It comes in a wide array of colors and is extremely durable. As its name suggests, it is used as the warp (lengthwise strands) on a loom – so it’s the backbone of the woven item where the crosswise strands create the design. The warp isn’t seen much in weaving. It’s an almost perfect yarn for crochet items that will be used for rough wear. At about $6/ball, it’s pretty well priced too. And since it is very tightly woven, it’s a breeze to crochet with. No risk of splitting this stuff with your hook.
I can’t think of anything else I’ve crocheted with – but I’m sure some intrepid crocheters out there have found other things to wrap around their hooks…..
I have crocheted with wire, to make a necklace. Have a happy day Gerry
I have done a lot of crocheting with fleece strips. I hate wasting anything and with fleece material there is a lot of waste when you cut off the edges. I have made rugs, baskets of all sizes and have tried different stitches. I did one rug in afghan stitch. Way too hard on my wrist. I love that the rugs are soft and washable. I have also cut the fleece in very thin slices, braided them and sewed them together like a rag rug. I rarely take pictures, but a few of my fleece things are here.http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w58/rainbowridergrma/recycle%20re-use%20repurpose/
A garden hose…
Actually my Uncle taught me that. Though it wasn’t exactly crocheting to make anything it did make it extremely easy to store without tangling.
Amber,
Your fleece rug is a great idea! Good for you for coming up with that nifty idea. I have a problem crocheting with some fibers because of my wrists – fabric strips, for instance. I’m not sure I’d be okay working with fleece but I do love the idea.
Thanks for sharing.
jd
I have been crocheting since I was a child, she taught me to chain stitch with my fingers so she could use the long strings for light pulls. She taught me single crochet so I could make Barbie clothes. I started reading patterns to make afgans and now I am very experienced with over 30 years making doilies and lace with thread of all type. Recently I began to crochet jewelry with 30 guage wire. I have crocheted with plastic grocery bags and fabric strips and more recently, with the tape from old cassette tapes. Making jewelry with fine wire is one of my favorite mediums these days.
I have used clothes line to crochet a hot pad. It was suppose to be a rub, but it hurt my wrist to much to make it that large.
I made a couple of bathmats with pantyhose, cut into strips. My sister still uses one in her guest bathroom. It’s great, dries in a flash and looks as good as when I made it more than 20 years ago!
I’ve also used a kind of plasticky twine to make a curtain to separate a room in my apartment. I finished the curtain, but never did hang it up.
I’ve also done plarn to make a mat to go under a friend’s plants. These days in my area, they charge for plastic bags so my days of using plarn are over.
Interesting topic!
I crochet a purse with pull tabs from soda or beer cans using a medium size nylon twine. I also remember when I was younger my mother made a hat from soda or beer cans. She cut out the can into rectangles, then punched holes around the can and crochet them together and added a brim. I don’t remember her ever wearing it :).
Many years ago a fabric store went out of business and I “inherited” 2 cases of pre-packaged bis tape. Every color under the rainbow. I used a very large hook and crocheted the strips into a rug for the kids bathroom. After they finally wore it out it became a blankie for the furkids.That cotton wore like iron LOL.
Probably the weirdest thing I have ever crocheted was the flower toilet crack hider! We bought our house a year ago and we are on SS and disability so we are on a budget. Well right near the flush handle there was a crack we didn’t notice when we saw the house (not that it mattered), but we have other things to repair before we buy a new toilet, so my husband glued the part so it wouldn’t break further and I hid it with a flower to cover the spot as best as possible. Hopefully the link above to flickr will show you the picture. Merry
https://secure.flickr.com/photos/53297502@N07/6776314553/
Nothing really unusually—I’ve crocheted with plastic coated wire. I find most fabric, plastic bags, twine hard on the hands.
I love the idea of polar fleece, I think that would be easy to work with. Also silk ties cut into strips are easy on the hands. Bias cut fabric isn’t as hard on the hands as straight grain because the bias cut has a little give like yarn.
Susan
The weirdest thing I have crocheted with is tape from a cassette tape. Rough on the hands and not something I will do often and maybe not again.
I tried crocheting a gift for my dentist with dental floss. I gave up on that. I made a basket for my daughter’s baby shower from strips of plastic table cloths in her colors.
Spanish moss, i collected it from the trees and loosly crocheted a chain and wound it around twigs n pinecones for our centerpiece this last thanksgiving. Understand we go camping each year for thanksgiving and everything is cooked between the grill and firepit, so this worked out well as a centerpiece that the animals could play with after. Also strips of flannel plaid fabric to make a circular rug.
I had to smile, news is slow you can tell when your local papers sunday cover page shows an older lady recycling plastic bags into rugs.
I spent one winter cutting plastic bags up and crocheting them into purses and bags. Not that unusual, but I enjoyed it. I just made my own patterns for the bags, but had directions from someone on cutting and using the strips. I sold them at my spring yard sale, but still have one of the bags for “sentimental” reasons.
Clever!
Susan,
I bet you’re right about the bias cut fabric. That’s easy enough for me to try. Thanks for the idea!
jd
Wow! I have lots of packages of old bias tape. They are easy to find at thrift stores and garage sales if you aren’t picky about color. I’m going to have to give this one a try. Thanks for the idea!
jd
Helen,
I bet if you wanted plastic bags, you could get hundreds of folks to volunteer to send them to you! I like the bathmat idea. Thanks for sharing!
jd
I like to play with old fishing line. The only problem with the line is that it’s monofilament, and is really slippery. I melt the knots together a tiny bit with a candle flame so they don’t slip. It makes GREAT dish scrubbers!
The weirdest thing I’ve crocheted with is actually something I use to help me crochet with plastic strips. I hated how the plastic would get “stuck” and tried to find an easier way to get it to move over the hook and thus I discovered…
Lube.
Yeah.
But it works. And that’s what’s important… right?
Hi JD, I’ve crocheted with finely cut aluminum can strips. Takes awhile but uses the same technique as wire. Again a bit hard on the hands but creates a very flexible piece. Enjoy reading about others ideas especially the bias tape. Great idea for an article. /;)
I’ve crocheted with plarn, fabric, copper wire, video tape, sisal, yarn, and most recently inner tubes. Inner tubes are very hard to crochet with. I used a hook that I made from an old broomstick. The inner tube makes a great doormat when finished.
About 30 years ago I was gifted some really strang yarn. It was almost like shredded nylon rope. I think, if I remember right, it was from a company called Phentex. I made a bikini out of it. Why??? I don’t know. It was before I had 5 kids and gained weight. I never wore it, I never, ever wore bikinis, but the pattern was there, the yarn was there, the hook was there……