Åpenbaring

I hate to say it, but OMG! I am so freakin' stoked! I started poking around on upcycling groups on Flickr, and discovered a craft that really hadn't made it into my consciousness until now, namely fusing plastic bags to make fabric. Here is a tutorial on how to fuse the really thin plastic grocery bags you get in the US. Check out this amazing bag lady coat (there's a close up of the wild patterns here) and this sweet little coin purse made out of US bread bags. Then, for a totally different look, there's this minimalistic striped bag. Very, very, very, very cool.

We of course have massive amounts of plastic bags, so I've spent most of the morning sorting them by color and have started cutting some up. Yay! Of course the process of fusing the bags itself is highly toxic, since you're melting plastic. Definitely something to do in warm weather with the doors and windows wide open. But once you get over that stage, the project possibilities are endless. I'm guessing (though I have yet to actually try) that the process of layering and fusing is really fun and challenging, since that's where you can build up patterns and layers into interesting designs.

I got so excited about this that I almost forgot to mention that I did actually (finally) finish the ripple baby blanket last night. It's blocking now. I was a little bummed to see that my gauge changed from the beginning to the end (the first few ripples are much looser). I'm hoping the blocking will even that out a bit.

I haven't cast on for a new project (still plodding along with the curtain), but I suppose technically this new plastic bag obsession counts as one (but since I'm just cutting up bags, I think it's okay, at least in my world, especially since I'm the one who imposed the rule about not starting a new project until the curtain is done!).

Tonight E is spending the night at his aunt's house so that KE and I can go to dinner at a colleague's house. I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing, but we have to start this kind of social activity some time.