Tarn!!

I made tarn! What is it? It's simple cutting an old t-shirts into a continuous strip to make a ball of yarn. That said ball of yarn is knitted or crocheted into something wonderful like a bag, hat, rug or maybe a pillow, to name a few. The only rules, which really aren't rules, is that you should use old t-shirts not brand new ones. Thus the recycle part comes into play. There are lots of tutorials on the web to help you learn how to make your tarn. After cutting up your first tee you will be an expert, at least at cutting.

Craft Passion is a very nice, very clear picture tutorial.
Eloominator is another tut that shows you using that cutting wheel thingy. lol I have one too but don't ask me what it's called.
Polka Dot Pineapple, yet another wonderful tut with excellent pics and instructions. PDP is really into recycle/upcycling so she has all sorts of great ideas for using up old jeans to make coasters, wire and scraps of fabric to make flowers and even painting window screen pink to make poinsettias!!

To make sure I didn't ruin a t-shirt I practiced with a piece of paper first. Just get a piece of paper and tape the ends together to form a tube, you've got the perfect practice piece. This will help you get used to where to make that first diagonal cut. If your diagonal cuts are off you will end up with a bunch of single loops instead of one continuous piece. Once I had the paper yarn down I was ready to make my own t-shirt yarn!














































Since I've added links to such wonderful sites with instructions I'm not going to bore you with a tutorial myself. Instead I'll show what it looked like after cutting my strips leaving the one inch at the top, stretching after the diagonal cuts into one continuous strip and finally, my tarn ball! Oh, and check out my sewing scissors with the animal print hand, they make me feel like a real seamstress...not.
So what now, what to make, what to make with my first tarn. I have already started begging for more tees from the guys who for some reason don't want to part with them, hmmm. If you follow on ravelry take a look at some of exciting rugs, hats and bowls there on the From Trash to Treasures and Got T-Shirt Yarn groups. Oh, I almost forgot Petite Purls, great website with patterns for the cutest tutu, blanket and an awesome red hat. You will find it hard to believe these things are made from cut t-shirts!


Keep stitchin'