Straws Suck: joining the ranks of the recycling madwomen

Plastic Free July again. after the last few years, my single use plastic consuming has dropped drastically. This year the focus of PFJ is on plastic straws. I haven't used them since the children were small, and then only for craft projects, so no challenge for me there.

mix your own jasmine tea

My PFJ pledge is to give up using tea bags...a hidden source of plastic. We have all found the empty tea bags in the compost, tea leaves, tags and string are long gone but the bag persists.

It is difficult to track down which tea bags contain plastic, which include an adhesive made from pvc or polypropylene used to seal their edges. This is how the fill your own bags work..ironing melts the plastic to seal the bag. The only way to be sure if your bags do not contain any plastic is to contact suppliers. In the Uk, Co Op Foods with Typhoo removed plastic from their teabag range and PG Tips made the change to seal their bags with cornstarch.

Tea pouches are available, they either  have a fold in flap much like a pillowcase or two holes punched in their open end so they can be suspended over a cup. Infusers come in all shapes and sizes.The options are many, not forgetting the delights of a full pre warmed tea pot.

There are still quite a few teabags in the pantry so I have pledged to collect the tea bags strings to knit a tea bag free celebration scarf.

This is Irene who inspired me  to take on this mission: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-06/woman-makes-scarves-out-of-teabag-strings/9841612. Her scarves are a labour of love that have involved the whole community and they look amazing.

I see the process as a reflection of the persistence and tenacity we need to address the problem of plastic in our environment. One tiny tea bag at a time.

Irene tells us we will need 2000 strings to complete a scarf. There are certainly not that many in the cupboard so I will cheerfully accept donations.

Tie up your tights

My father banned me from wearing stockings when I was a teenager. The poor man had seen far too many lumpy white legs bulging in his time, thought the idea of his young daughter in a suspender belt was far too much for him. Thank goodness that in the late sixties we saw the first stay up stockings, then came the revolution of panty hose.

Once we used to darn our stockings and glue them to our legs with nail polish when they laddered, now tights are so cheap to buy (and so much easier to wear) they have almost become a throw away item. It can get cold here and the extra warmth a pair of tights can give is often necessary.  At the beginning of each winter, I am thrilled when it turns out my drawer has pairs of cobwebbed with snags, sags, holes and runs.

It's exciting as a retired pair of tights is a great resource that can stretch to a long list of uses!

TOES 

KIDS

Classic use is to create ‘grass heads’ for children to grow.

To do this, cut the foot plus about 10 cm from the leg of the tights.

Place 1 tablespoon off grass seed in the toe and cover with cup of potting mix or sand.

Tie the open end into a knot that sits up tight to the filling.

Roll in your hands until round or oval in shape.

Add stick on or embroidered eyes at this stage if you like.

Fill a cup or glass with water and sit the head in it, so it rests on the rim while the tail hangs in the water.

Keep moist and watch grow.

BIRDS

I have experimented with filling these completely with wheat. In the hope I could hang them in the chicken pen for green feed. It didn’t work...the tights are too fine for the hearty wheat shoots and they get very congested.  Worth trying again with smaller seeds though.

FRUIT

Toe bags are useful to protect individual fruits from bird attack

They will simply slide over the larger fruits and their elasticity will hold them in place.To protect smaller fruit tie gently above the stem to secure.

You can also tie paper bags with thin ties. After all, you only get two feet per pair!

LEGS

My fave!

Begin by cutting the legs off the pant. Leave enough leg attached to tie a knot in.

Cut across the legs in 2 cm strips create a collection of useful rubber band type thingies that you can use to tie up your hair.

Cutting them into strips makes the most excellent garden ties. They will stretch for miles and are very gentle on the stems of plants. They are strong and durable and will survive a whole summer of intense heat before they lose their elasticity. Best of all, thgey stay put if you tie them in a bow so you can remove them easily!

If you need longer and wider strips for heavier jobs, cut each leg down the sides into two pieces.

PANTS

HANGING BASKET LINERS

Tie a knot at each leg hole.

Stretch the waistband over the sides of the basket. Pin in place with pegs while filling with potting mix, remove after adding your plants.

STAGHORN FERNS

Again, tie off the leg holes.

Slip the tights over a plank that is cut to the size of the backing board you require that has a predrilled hole in it for hanging.

Pull the pants up from the bottom over the timber.

While flat fill firmly with damp peat moss or sphagnum moss.

Tuck the fern pup into the waist line, leaving the shoots free, and tie with a long leg tie to secure if needed.

I also have a very nice clump of Spanish Moss (tillandsia usneoides) that has been growing nicely tucked into one of these ‘bags’ for two or three years.

ALL PARTS

Absolutely essential for making scarecrows

The pant tops make great heads if you don’t want to use tights for the rest...you can leave the legs on and create pony tails or twist them up into little topknots.

Take three pairs of tights.

Head

Cut the legs from one pair and tie off the pant legs to make a sack.

Stuff with straw and insert a broom handle or long stake.

Tie off the excess to secure tightly to the stick or wind around with gaffer tape. 

Body: Take the other two pairs.

Stuff fairly firmly with straw, including the legs.

One pair will be top of body and arms, the other will be hips and legs.

Tie knots at the ends of the ‘arms’ to shorten. You can knot again if you wish to create hands as well, remember to push some straw down so they are not ‘empty.’

Lay your body pieces on the ground and tuck one into the other to form the waist.

With a sacking needle and string or a bodkin with wool, sew together around the middle, rolling him over as you go. 

Dress your scarecrow .

Fix a crossbeam just below the head to support the arms then secure your scarecrow to his support.

If you would like him or her to pose on a chair or perch in a tree, cut the centre pole to the length of the body before dressing.

Not so scrappy after all

Behind my armchair I have a mountain of bags and boxes that are no longer hidden. They threaten to topple over the back and I fear that this would be the end of my yarn buying for a while. They contain various yarns for projects in progress, leftovers from projects past and for projects not yet imagined. I am a compulsive collector hoarder of craft materials and shiny things.

My daughter recently gave birth to our fourth grandchild. I have always welcomed the new babies with a handmade cot blanket. Never knowing the sex in advance, they have always been patchwork, multicoloured and bright. With a recurring family allergy to wool, they are usually made from cotton and bamboo or ramie blends of yarn. I can’t throw away the smallest pieces, the colours are so lovely, and these balls are a great way to recycle scraps. They are soft to touch and lightweight and they wipe clean with a damp cloth. The youngest children have either a ball or a cot toy made from off cuts and others have gone to jugglers and other peoples cats.

This is what you’ll need:

Newspaper

5 ply wool or knitting cotton scraps

A ball of scrap wool and a bodkin

Method:

1. Scrunch up the newspaper into tight balls. One double spread of The Australian is enough to create a large ball, a quarter of a sheet, the smallest.

2. Take the scrap ball of wool and begin to wind it around the newspaper ball, taking care to keep the ball as round as possible until the newspaper has disappeared under an even layer of wool. Tuck in the end securely. You should now have something that looks like a ball of wool.

3. Using the bodkin and a 5 ply thread, begin to chain stitch around the ball, fixing the stitches into the wool. When you come to the end of a piece of thread, finish it by threading a few running stitches across the winds of wool.

4.If you find that the wool is slipping as you embroider it, you can run some lines of running stitches over them at any time to help keep them in place.

5. Continue to embroider close rows of chain stitch to cover the ball. If you want to hang the finished ball, leave the ends of three rows as loose thread in the same spot and plait them together when the ball is finished. Trim any loose ends.

6. The balls are easily reshaped by rolling in your hand as you are working, so don’t worry too much if they don’t seem completely round.

During the last few difficult weeks, the process of making these little balls, their soothing roundness and the comforting repetition of the simple task of embroidery have allowed me a place of calm, of softness and quiet normalcy. They now fill a bowl on the table, their bright colours a happy focus in a time of sadness.

nirala