Hoooked Zpagetti

Recently on our travels we visited a beautiful yarn shop called The Wool on the Exe in Exeter. You may have read our review? Well, whilst we were there we may have made a few purchases! Whoops! One being 2 mini skeins of t-shirt yarn from Hoooked Zpagetti.
Hannah was instantly drawn to the sparkle and chose a grey glittery mini skein. Cara chose a denim blue t-shirt yarn with a white tropical theme print.

These little skeins are an excellent idea as they give people a chance to try out a new and exciting yarn without having to spend too much money. Even though it's called a mini skein there is still plenty of potential for this yarn.

Now what to make? The yarn itself is quite chunky and sturdy, so something a bit more practical or for a particular purpose.

Hannah decided on a pouch or purse. Here is what she did...

First I needed to decide upon a pattern. As the yarn is pretty hefty I knew it would need to be something simple. The easiest way I could think of was to make a long, rectangular piece of crochet that I could fold up and crochet together.
To start off I made a foundation chain, I made it as long as I wanted the pouch to be wide.

The next stage was to double crochet into the chain, then from there it was turn and crochet along until I had a rectangle the size I wanted. 

First off I tried a 8mm hook (the biggest I had to hand) this was hard work! Definitely not big enough for this job, so it was a quick visit to Mum's and a borrow of her 12mm hook. This made it much easier. The yarn created big crisp stitches and made a very interesting texture.

The rectangle of crochet that I made was approximately 7.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. The next step was to fold the rectangle, just less than half way, ready to be joined together. I wasn't sure if I would have enough yarn left for this job so I decide to add a bit more colour. In the stash I found some Patons Fab Chunky in neon pink, which I though would be a great contrast.

Joining the sides together was a doddle. I attached the pink yarn in the bottom right hand corner then double crocheted between the posts of the grey stitches, holding both layers together. I carried this on all the way around the edge until I reached the other side then worked through both layers as I had done previously. Once completely round I finished off the stitch and weaved in the ends. That was the basic pouch finished. Now I just needed a way of opening and closing it.

I decided upon a simple fastening of a bead and loop. I chose a chunky, mirrored, silver bead to compliment the grey yarn, then used the pink yarn to make a loop, easy peasy!

And here is the finished piece. What do you think?

So what did Cara do with her yarn? I'll let her explain...

Well, the navy blue yarn really spoke out to me because of its ability to lend itself to very practical items for the home. I have recently (and finally) sorted out and dusted the top of my chest of drawers and was looking for a new holder to pop all my bits and bobs into. Brilliant! Perfect excuse to use my lovely new t-shirt yarn and hook me a handy holder.

After seeing Hannah have a pretty hard time with a 8mm hook I thought I would also go with her recommendation of a 12mm. Uh, oh! I didn't have a 12mm hook and I I don't live in Devon so I had to plump for a 10mm instead. Now, I have also never used t-shirt yarn, I've made some but never actually used it, so I grabbed my note book and pencil (there is a pen eating monster in our house) and set to it.

The yarn itself is very sturdy and so I knew it would hold the shape that I wanted well. However, if I used treble stitch (tr) throughout it might not produce a solid enough construction, so I opted for the trusty old double crochet (dc) stitch.

I started with a 2 stitch chain (ch) then worked some double crochet stitches into the ring, pulling the tail to tighten. I wanted a good solid base so I worked using 2 double crochet stitches into one double crochet stitch, creating the increase, until it was the diameter that I wanted.

Next I needed to bring the sides up so this meant working each round in straight forward double crochet until it was the height that I wanted. I then slip stitched into the last double crochet and sewed in the tail end.

How quick was that?! Very quick! In fact I still have half the ball left......I'm off to make two more to make them nesting baskets! Woo hoo!

Have you tried t-shirt yarn before? We would be interested to hear how you got on and we'd also love to see any photos you have of your finished pieces.

Big love and happy hooking,
Cara and Hannah