A New Look

  It never hurts to update things and make them a little more attractive.  Today is the day for this blog.  I had the opportunity to change the look a little and hopefully make it a little more attractive and easier to read and find things that you might be looking for.  I hope you like the new look.  Stay tuned because more great crafts, knitting projects, and events are coming soon.

Day of Caring=Day of Knitting Love

  WOW!  When was the last time something went better than your wildest dreams?  This year's United Way Day of Caring Knit-In brought in more people than we expected and we were thrilled they were all there.  We knitted caps, booties, blankets, and prayer shawls and had a blast of a time.  Taking over the showroom at Lumberton Chevrolet I am not sure all the sales people knew what was going on with yarn, needles, hooks, and patterns flying everywhere.  Not only did we have a great turn out for the knit-in but we had a pile of items that were donated.  More are still coming in and all have to be tagged.  Thank you to everyone who came out to knit and donated items.  Especially those first timers who had never knitted before and are now knitting wizards.  Stay tuned for the final tally and check out our knit in page on Facebook.
  The United Way Day of Caring also involved other projects from around the county.  Projects ranged from landscaping to wheelchair ramps building and even a huge canned food drive.  To learn more about the Day of Caring check out this article in the Robesonian.

Getting Ready for a Day of Caring

  Tis the night before the Second Annual Robeson County Knit In and I can't think of a thing to rhyme with this.  Truth is I've been busy getting a head start to make sure we have lots of baby caps, and booties to share with little babies this year.  Using my knitting loom (yes I realize this is a little like cheating but it is so fast and easy and the caps are so cute) I whipped out a 4-H green hat.  The one thing I have learned is that thicker yarn is better when it comes to the loom.  Since I knocked out this cute little cap I decided, like babies a second should be on the way.  I  picked a more baby like yarn for the next cap.  It too is machine washable and will work for a boy or girl.  It is white, fluffy with pick and blue specks all around.

  Both caps will be part of the items collected as part of the 2nd Annual Robeson County Knit In which was created as part of the United Way Day of Caring.  Each year the United Way holds a day where industries volunteer manpower to help families in need and nonprofits with a host of projects ranging from building wheelchair ramps to painting buildings.  For the second year running a group of us will meet at a predesignated location (Lumberton Chevrolet this year) to knit our hearts out.  Knitters and non knitters are welcome we will add some lessons and lots of looms to our list of supplies.  So if you would like a day of knitting come on out to Lumberton Chevrolet starting at 9 am tomorrow and we will help you make neat and awesome items that will be donated to either the Cancer Center (for adult items) or Southeastern Regional Medical Center (for babies).  Last year we had about 100 items donated and hope to exceed that this year.  Any questions give Margaret Crites a call at the Robeson County Rape Crisis Center.  You can also follow us on Facebook at Robeson County's Second Knit-In.  

Stretched Out Over this Craft

  Pinterest.  Need I say anything else?  This is where this idea came from and once again it looked so easy I had to try it.  I bought a two dollar vase in case I completely screwed this up, rubber bands from the grocery store, and grabbed the etching cream that stays in the craft closet for occasions such as this.
This is a three step craft.  The first step is to place rubber bands on the vase in a random pattern.  The more they cross each other, the more unequal they are, the better.  If you have varying widths of rubber bands the more unique the design as well.
Next I covered the entire vase in etching cream and let it stand for about 10 minutes.  I was very careful about gently applying the cream so as not to disrupt the rubber bands and mess up the possible design.
Lastly I rinsed the vase in water and let it dry.  The effect is not as bold as if I had used a frosted spray paint on the vase but I admit I like that it has a modern, one of a kind look, that does not bash you across the head. 

A Hot Project!

I have to admit something. I have, thanks to a co-worker discovered a site that makes my craftiness go off the charts. The site is called Pinterest, it is a virtual bulletin board that allows you to pin anything you like to it and repin what others pin. It is the mecca of crafts, humor, food and anything that you can think of. My new found site has me a little excited, in just a week's time it appears that I have pinned about 900 items. Of course with the intent to make or experience all of the items I pin. So craft item number one (number 2 on the overall pinning list-number one is on my cake blog) was something that pulled in several people from my office for craft therapy and research. The project, crayon art.
No we are not coloring with crayons, well not in the traditional way.  All you have to do is hot glue crayons (with or without paper) to a canvas. Then you take a hair dryer and turn up the heat pointing the air stream at the crayons and let the fun melting begin.  Those are the instructions I had so needless to say I have come up with a few tips.
My first piece was one of those trial and mostly error pieces. Being a 4-H Agent I thought I would be extra creative and tape off a section of the canvas to say 4-H and only melt green crayons. Unfortunately the heat of the melting wax and the strength of the blow dryer blew the tape off the canvass drastically effecting this experiment.  I also staggered the crayons on this top.  Now I know, The more crayons pasted at the top the better. Most importantly, you need to tilt your canvas while you are blow drying the crayons so that they melt in a downward pattern and don't splatter across the canvas.

As my co-workers worked the project we found out a couple of other interesting tips. Crayola Crayons work better than off brand crayons (more color less wax). Also taking the paper off and gluing the crayons straight to the canvas allows for a neater design. Use less crayon if you want a small drip pattern and you can also allow for a hand painted design in the white space when you get done. Also if you move the dryer across the entire canvas melting all the crayons at once versus one section and then another you get a smoother design. It does take some patience to melt the crayons and make the drip pattern fairly even. Overall you end up with a really neat design. My co-workers are now working on a circle and heart patterns as well.

If you would like to see more of my future crafting projects on Pinterest feel free to e-mail me with your e-mail address and I will be happy to send you an invite to the website.

Volunteering to Burn Up a Table

As many of you know crafting and cakes are my hobby and I have a day job. Fortunately my day job allows me a creative outlet on many days. Every February we have a state conference for 4-H volunteer leaders. It is a great chance for the volunteers to receive training, network, and they raise funds for the Volunteer Leaders Association. As part of the fundraising there are basket raffles, a country store and on the last night an auction. This year the district we are in is holding the auction, and I have a tradition of making sure there is something in the auction that will hopefully fetch $100 or more. This year I am unable to bring a really big item so I am making a table with the new 4-H logo on it.

I am starting with a round that I purchased at Lowes that is one inch thick and has a 15 inch diameter. Then I printed the logo from the computer and traced it with a good old fashioned piece of carbon paper under it. With the logo traced and in place it was time to start wood burning. That took a bit of patience with all the words in the new logo. A few hours later I had the entire logo burned in. I have to admit I took a couple of breaks because the wood burning iron got a bit hot, too hot to handle almost. After debating for a bit I took a paint pen to outline the words but the paint started to run. After giving it time to dry, a little sanding block allowed me to almost erase some of the run off paint. I chose to fill in the rest of the lettering with the paint pen but not outline it so it would not run causing the letters to run together.

With the green line and clover finished, it was time to let it dry. Then a few coats of polyurethane that allowed the wood to darken and have a nice sheen. After it was all dry it was time to attach three

Dish Cloth Mania

In earlier blogs I mentioned how my dishcloth stockpile has been completely depleted. Now it is time to knit like a crazy woman and start the stockpile again for another craft show. I made sure to buy extra cotton yarn so I could get started. These are very popular because they are green (people use them and throw them in the washing machine, then they can reuse them), and the ridges in the dishcloth are great picker uppers. The cotton yarn means they are gentle enough not to scratch anything but they are also strong and will last a long long time. The ones shown here are done in white and swimming pool blue.
It only takes a couple of hours to make one. The pattern is quite simple, and it's fun because you are knitting from one corner to another. Use the size needles as suggested on the yarn. Cast on four stitches and knit the first row. The second row knit two, yarn over one, then knit to the end of the row. Repeat row two until you have the width you want (anywhere from 30-40 stitches, I like mine big so I use 40 stitches). When you get to the desired halfway point it is time to decrease the stitches. Knit one, knit two together, yarn over one, knit two together, then knit to the end of the row. Repeat this until you have four stitches left. Cast off and tuck in your ends. Voila-dishcloth. Simple and easy. I charge a dollar per dishcloth when I am selling them. Happy knitting.

4 Yards of Scarves

My first project of the new year and it is an order from last year. I know I have told you about the elusive and wonderfully charismatic Mrs. Nell. She is a wonderful lady who knows exactly what she wants and what she wanted in December were two more of my fun fur scarves. Actually all in told she wanted three and left with one that day.

As I have mentioned before I have set up at the Robeson County Historical Museums home tour each year for the last two years. This is where I met Mrs. Nell. She took a fancy to my fun fur scarves and ordered several last year. This year she walked in and picked up a white one and went on the tour marketing my hand knitted scarves to everyone she saw. She asked me if I could also knit her a cobalt blue as well as a champagne colored scarf. Apparently she gave her champagne colored scarf to a friend last year but really wanted another one. I of course agreed and set out on finding the yarn. The champagne yarn I knew existed, it was just a case of finding it and I finally (after going to three stores) did. The cobalt blue however was a little more difficult. I found many blues but not cobalt. The two closest ones were a sapphire blue and a sapphire blue with variegated black which would create a dark blue scarf, a little closer to cobalt. However I know for a fact Mrs. Nell likes solid colors not variegated yarns or even the polka dotted fun furs so I went with the sapphire blue. The scarves are both between five and six feet long and furry as all get out. They are great doubled up and much warmer than you might think because they are actually very thin. I hope Mrs. Nell likes them and will continue to increase my fun fur scarf offerings for the show this year.

It"s a Puzzle, It's a Painting, No It's a Christmas Present!

I admit it is not often when I take to painting. When I do it generally requires less thought and more action which is sometimes difficult for me when I am working on many projects (more work and less creative) than I probably should be. I talked my mother into hanging all the paintings that I did a couple of years ago on one wall in the guest bedroom of her house which left another wall more than blank. She was not happy about it and I promised her to make a new creation for that wall.

So a day or so before Christmas it was time to get started. The plan was to take several canvases, of different sizes (okay I had two sizes in each thing I opened so that is where the different sizes came from), and create a piece that would work if all the canvases were next to each other or apart from each other. In other words each canvas could stand on its own as a painting. I knew my mother preferred more contemporary designs and really seemed to like my splatter pieces. I used the colors in the room and in a glass frame that I get her in Italy as the color palette for the design. I actually sat down and sketched out the geometric design and went from there.

My acrylic paints were not being nice to me. The colors were clumping and I ended up smoothing them out with a thinner to make it work better. I worked in one color at a time and did as many shapes as I could with some of the shapes being on more than one canvas, then went back in to fill in the spaces. After getting everything together and letting it dry it was time for the fun part. I went outside and laid the entire piece on the ground and began the splatter process with my acrylic inks. I was hoping for a more metallic look out of some of the inks but they seemed to match my paint colors fairly well and I was pleased with the overall design.

After everything dried I wrapped each piece individually so there were several gifts to open on Christmas Day. My mother seemed to like the first one and second but then got a little overwhelmed that there were so many. When I laid them all out as one painting for her, she really seemed to like the design and how it all flows together. However framing and hanging is what she is concerned about now. I might end up coming up with a new design on the wall when I get done with the framing and hanging...it might be most interesting. I will let you know.

Sparkling Holiday Theme

I write these blog posts as I complete projects. However, sometimes, like with this post, I will post it long after I write it because I do not want the recipient of this gift to see the post and ruin the surprise. I found this wooden cutout of a candy cane at a national arts and crafts store. When I saw it I immediately knew I could do something with it, I just wasn't sure what. When I got home I knew this would be a decorative gift for my mother because she loves to decorate for all holidays but especially Christmas. However I wanted this to be an extra sparkly piece of decor so I came up with a shimmery plan. The entire piece got a base coat of white paint. After drying I painted the White strips and added white glitter to the wet paint. After waiting for it all to dry I discarded the excess glitter and repeated with the red stripes. After getting everything glittered and striped it was time to outline. Thanks to a fairly thin paint pen I was able to define the candy cane strips. Then after all was dry I spray painted thin coats of acrylic across the entire piece (probably sprayed it four or five times letting it dry between coats). It made the entire piece glossy and helped ensure the glitter will stay on the piece rather than fly around and get on everything else in sight.
Although rather well protected I would not display this outside in the elements, maybe under a roof or a protected area outside but not directly in the elements. It would probably be best served being stuck in an indoor plant to spread the holiday spirit and let it last even longer. As far as the Christmas present...my mother seemed to like it. However she seemed more surprised that I made it rather than having bought it that way. So Merry Christmas and I hope your holidays are sweet.

Popular Color

While I was set up at the craft show there were a couple of special orders. The first was actually for dish clothes. No, I had not sold out, but I have a tendency to make them in variegated colors and do not have many solid colors. So when I was approached and asked if I could make some in white, I said of course and asked how many. Two to three was the reply. Several people that day commented that if there had been white ones they would buy them. So I ran out and purchased three skeins of white cotton yarn and started knitting. Within two days I had all three ready for the order and will be delivering them tonight. The great thing about the white ones is that when you wash them, you can tell they are clean. I do have more white yarn so I will be making more to stock up my dish cloth collection for sale in the near future.

Swimingly Hot!

Yes, this is my traditional dishcloth. However this one seems a little hot today. I bought this yarn over Thanksgiving thinking it was an interesting color and might make a great looking dishcloth. Today on my way out of the house I grabbed it to knit with while I was set up at a craft show (for those of you who know me you know I can not sit still and have to fiddle with something). I set up and sat down to wait for customers with the yarn and needles in my hands. When I looked down the color name was swimming pool blue. Seemed rather appropriate and while selling my various designs I knitted a dishcloth, which got a lot of attention while I was doing it. When it was done I added it to the ever shrinking stack of dish cloths that I was selling. Sure enough within 10 minutes someone walked in and commented on what a beautiful color yarn it was and asked what I was knitting. I said, Oh, just a dish cloth, I just finished one with this yarn that is over there (pointing) if you would like to see what the finished product looks like. Next thing I know money exchanged hands and the dishcloth was out the door.

Snowmen Sticking In

Several years ago at a craft show my mother purchased me a wooden spoon with a snowman painted on the handle. I absolutely love the spoon and it just adds a little smile of happiness in my kitchen during the holiday season. In an effort to share this happiness I have tried to recreate that design on wooden wear of my own.
Purchasing some wooden salad forks (I have to admit I could not find wooden spoons at a reasonable price that were shaped like I wanted) I went to work on designing. A red background was what I needed to create my snowy design. Snowmen with scarves blowing in the wind, and a few snowballs (in case of a snowball fight) add a little whismy to this everlasting snow storm.
I have to admit painting on the round was a little difficult and a few lessons were learned. This is only something that can be accomplished a few paint strokes at a time. Patience is involved and it was fun to do. The forks will be priced at $5 each, and I hope soon to be able to find spoons to add to my collection.

Just Hanging Around

Every once in awhile I like to think that I am creative at something else. In the spirit of Christmas, and the upcoming craft show that is part of the Historic Homes Christmas tour, I have been knocking around with something new. I found wood plaques at a local craft store and couldn't help but purchase them. I hoped that as I held on to them they would speak to me. In all honesty I do that with a lot of things and nothing happens, so I end up collecting a lot of stuff. However in this case I thought I would try some cute little holiday door hangers and I think the idea works.
So I pulled out the paints and started working. I chose traditional colors for the background (red, green, white, and blue) and started painting. Now mind you it took about three coats to get it just the right color but that was just the background, I still had to decorate. Now what says Christmas? Is cute? And will allow my limited art talents to paint it on a piece of wood and look like something people would want to hang in their homes? So sayings, snowflakes and snowmen came to mind. I have to admit the first batch I painted ended up having to be redone because when I went to poly them the polyurethane was not mixed well and turned everything yellow. So a sanding block and a few hours later it was time to start again.
The first batch came out as planned with a couple of big snowflakes, a snowman on the hill, and Merry Christmas. I could not resist a let it snow, and Shhhhhh Listening for Santa sayings either. I did come across a plaque that looks like an old wooden danger sign and wanted to have a little fun with it. So in my best five year old writing skills I put something on that there some five year olds that I know might write, "Dear Santa, Define good..." That sign had it's own string strung through ti. The others I matched different types of ribbon to and was trying to come up with a way to secure it. Brass thumb tacks seemed to be the perfect answer. They went in easily, don't pucker or tear the ribbon, and can be removed if the customer wants to place a different ribbon on the piece or wants to display it in another manner.
The last one that I finished in time for the craft show was actually inspired by a cake I did recently. If you look on my cake blog, Custom Cakes 4 You, you will see a post titled Cake Designer Meets Baker/Decorator for Dream Cake. In it I used a scroll design to decorate the cake. I tried to use the same concept on this door hanger. With the word Noel I used a green glitter paint pen to create shimmery green scrolls on this door hanger. Now some may thing it is terribly busy while others like the fact that the scrolls are done in a variety of widths and densities to frame the Christmas Sentiment.
If you are wondering the door hangers will be selling for any where from $2-$4 dollars each depending on the size and time it took for me to create it. Even if I don't sell a single one, it has helped me get into the holiday spirit.

Cleaning Up

Way back in July the Balden County Extension office had their Christmas in July craft sale. This highlights local crafters. One of the wonderful people in my group of crafting heifers (really we have called ourselves this for years...might as well go public), took some of my items, or all of my knitted items over to sell for me. When she came back she said she sold a few of my dishcloths. I think I had about 15 or 16 that went over. I figured at a dollar a piece they are an easy buy and awfully easy make. With that in mind and knowing that we did not sell a great amount of products I figured she sold one or two. When she however handed me a check for $12 I realized I have some work to do In that trend I have been working on special projects and have made about five dishcloths.
All five are made from Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn and are machine washable and dryable making them very green. Three are daisy hombre and now I have two made from summer prints. The daisy hombre is a variegated yellow and white yarn and may look familiar. It is the same yarn I used for the place mats and coasters you read about in August.

The summer prints is a white yarn with small splashes of blue, green and yellow through it making it a light and fun pattern. Dishcloths sell for $1 each and can be reused. They make great housewarming and thank you gifts, not to mention great stocking stuffers.

Knitting a Baby Towel?

Did you know that the Red Cross classifies home fires as a natural disaster? Where I live we seem to have more than our share of natural disasters in the term of home fires that destroy a home. Recently one of our law enforcement officers in the county, home was destroyed by fire while he and his wife, daughter and newborn were on vacation. When he came home, nothing was left. Having made gifts for dispatchers and others at the local agency I was contacted about knitting some blankets. After getting some stealth information on favorite colors and needs I was able to find the right yarns as start knitting. This is the first of three blankets I am working on for the family.
Close up of blanket for the newborn girl who will be almost six months by the time she gets this I have picked a new yarn that has flecks of pink and green mixed in with the white. It is Bernat's Pipsqueak yarn in the color called Candy Girl. I was not sure about how to knit this and using size 9 needles ended up with a knit and purl design that made a flat, yet thick blanket. When you look at it the yarn makes it feel like a terry cloth towel. The design is like a pastel tie dye. It is really interesting, warm and fitting of a baby.

Taking Knitting to a New Place

So I decided it was time for something new. At the request of my mother I am knitting cotton place mats. Yes, place mats that you put under the plates on the dinner to protect the table. The nice thing about these place mats is that they are perfect for everyday use because they are machine washable and dryable. They are made from Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn, daisy hombre to be specific. My mother actually picked out the yarn. It is a variegated yellow and white yarn that will allow each place mat to be similar while being eclectically unique. The pattern is a simple knit one purl one stitching. It takes two skeins to make one place mat. Due to the time and the cost of this project (4 place mats will cost $40) I have done something special. I have also made matching coasters and a dishcloth to go with these for no extra charge. That is a $45 value for $40. You can be sure that each one is hand made, and one of a kind because there is no way to specifically replicate the color design on these pieces. As you can see they add a little whimsy and fun to a traditional table and will be a great conversation piece for any party.

Surprise???

All I can say about surprises is my father's green surprise Father's Day shirt.  You see, when I was much younger (probably about 12), on a trip to Virginia over Father's day my mother, thinking she was slick, slid my father's surprise gift into a shoe bag.  His gift was a green polo shirt.  It sort of stuck out from the shoes and my father, whose job it was to load and unload the car of course saw it when he loaded the bag in the car, but chose not to say anything.  Over the course of the 10 hour trip my mother was dropping hints and trying to tease my father who refused to play the game, making my mother more smug as we drove.  Finally when we arrived in Virginia and were unloading the car, my mother dropped one last remark for which my father proudly announced, "Are you by chance referring to this green polo shirt in the shoe bag?"  Oh it was not pretty watching her face turn red, as she sputtered, and just finally without anything to say in response let out a few choice words and got mad at him for discovering her surprise.  When she finally realized he knew from the beginning and was playing with her the entire trip, it just fanned the flames even more.  From that point on she stopped trying to surprise because she realized he was pretty quick and could figure it out with little effort if he wanted to.  It was also one of those stories that came up time and time again and the surprise green father's day shirt will go down in family history.
I tell you this story, because one it is now my job to repeat that story and allow it to go down in history, and two because it shows how surprises work in my family.  My mother, still trying to keep tabs on me realized that I was spending an awful lot of time at the pottery painting place in Fayetteville and might be working on more than one thing. 

Grapes Tile

To throw her off I made a tile that I will work into a tray, I think (or should I say that is the plan right now).  However she had a pretty good idea that something else was up.  So I regret to say that I have post dated this post because she would snoop the post and try to find her surprise, and I am not willing to make it that easy for her.  The first trivet I started working on was the one for her, however they ran out of a couple of the paints I needed.  I painted a cream background, with dark brown edges and added her initials in an Asian inspired font.  Then robin egg blue dots, to match the writing were added to the edge and chocolate brown dots were added to the middle.  Firing such a piece with a lighter color on a darker one could offer a complex situation and may not work.  However because of using the wooden end of the paint brush to add my dots, it worked out really well and I am excited to say I was able to offer her a partial surprise.  She knew I made her something but did not know what I had made.  Thus when she opened it she still had to make the surprise face and determine if she liked it, which I think she did.  I think the key to surprises in my family is just let it happen, don't give hints or clues, because someone will search for it.

A New Passion

Yes, it is true. I love all things crafty. As a matter of fact there are few crafty things that I will not attempt. Thus with the opportunity to teach an arts and crafts day camp as part of my day job I was able to introduce our youth to something I have not done before, pottery. Let me back up. The youth did not throw clay, nor do I. We decorate the preformed product. For them it was plates, bowls, or mugs (part of the group rate). When I went back a week later to pick up their finished products I was able to pick out my own to do.

Let me start at the beginning of my adventure. I travelled to Fayetteville, North Carolina to a place called "Just Claying Around." Once inside you notice tables with paint brushes, bowls of water, and a colorful plate full of numbers. The walls are lined with shelves that are loaded with various items begging for color and personality. The items range from small tiles to very large items, each with various prices. The price includes all the paint you can think to use as well as glazing and firing costs. The process is simple. You pick the item you want. The colorful plates are samples of all the paints they have. You pick your colors and paint lightest to darkest. Each time you paint you have to wait for it to dry. After about 20-30 minutes you paint over it again giving it three to four coats of paint to make sure it is solid. When you are done you pay for the item. Then it takes two to three days of drying before they dip it in a special glaze. Then it drys again before being placed in the kiln and being fired. I asked about things shattering and they said all of their products come from the same place to ensure the moisture content is even in everything they fire and very rarely do they have accidents in the kiln.

So about a week after painting (and let me say when you paint you are going on a vision because it does not look like you plan when you originally paint it) you get a call and go back to pick up your finished product. I actually started with two trivets, one for my mother and one for me. I found that having two projects to work on took the boredom out of drying. It so happened that I ran out of the paint colors I chose for my mother's trivet so my got done first. They wrapped up the other one and let me take it home to bring it back another time to finish.

For my trivet there were lots of choices and I was not quite sure what to do. I found a speckled off white for the background which ended up having a very colorful affect. Then I took a bright red and painted the edges and my initials on the trivet. I did not know when I painted it that the speckles would come through the red but it gives an neat and unexpected affect to my finished project. I picked up my finished project and took the opportunity to finish my mother's trivet as well as a tile that I hope to use in a tray. I will let you know how it turns out.

Knitting Trash?

This is sooooo cool. In case I haven't told you before, I have a job that allows me to be creative. As part of that I work with people who are way more creative than I am. I came back from a meeting one afternoon and found my co-worker, let's call her Christy, with a ball of grocery bag. To be more specific she had taken plastic grocery store bags, that we had in the office, and with the help of instructions she found on a craft web site she found on the Internet, turned them into a ball of plastic yarn. Basically by cutting the bags into loops and using slip knots to string them together there were no tied knots to get into the way of knitting. It took about four bags to create the small square I needed. Two things to keep in mind; it is probably best to use the same type of bag throughout the project you are doing because color schemes and bag densities are different based on the store bags you are using. The other thing to remember is that if you are not careful when you loop the loops together bubbles will be created when you knit so you have to pay attention when making your plastic yarn. This project was knitted with size eight needles and I would not recommend using anything small, as a matter of fact you might want to use larger needles. Overall it was a lot of fun and a great way to recycle. My next plan is to download some shopping bag patterns and make enough yarn to knit a new kind of recylced grocery bag. Thanks Christy for introducing me to this fun!