Tarn: Allover-Print Fabric Cutting

If you're making tarn (t-shirt yarn) from cotton-knit fabric with an allover print, then you'll need a special cutting technique, which will let the print show in your tarn. When tarn is cut “across the grain," or horizontally across the t-shirt, its edges curl upward and inward, so that the wrong side of the fabric is mostly visible in the tarn. When cut "with the grain," or vertically on the t-shirt, tarn’s edges curl downward and inward, so that the right side of the fabric is mostly visible.

With printed t-shirt fabric, you can use a zig-zag cut, consisting of vertical cuts that allow the tarn to curl so the print shows. It works especially well with rugs, like the Tarnation Rectangle Rug. This is not a perfect solution, because the corners don't curl. Also it is much more time-consuming than other cutting techniques. But the results are often worth it.

Here's how to do it:

1. Cut off the t-shirt hem, seams (if any), and top. Save the scraps for stuffing toys, etc.

2. Make a straight cut from the bottom up to 1/2" (1cm) from the upper edge.

3. At the top edge, move over 1/2" (1cm) and make a straight cut from the top down to 1/2" (1cm) from the lower edge.

4. At the bottom edge, move over 1/2" (1cm) and make a straight cut from the bottom up to 1/2" (1cm) from the upper edge

5. Repeat steps 3-4 until you run out of fabric. (see picture)

6. With your scissors, round off all of the corners.

7. Taper the ends if you'll be using the hand-stitch method of connecting your tarn strips. (see Step 7 in How to Make Tarn)

8. Trim the seams/sleeve hems/collar off the remaining t-shirt fabric, and repeat steps 2-7 for each piece. You don't have to start with a rectangular shape--just be sure your cuts are running generally "with the grain," and not across.

Tarn produced in this way will curl inward towards the wrong side of the fabric, leaving the print side showing. The curved corner flaps don't curl, and they will be worked in as you crochet or knit. Sometimes a flap will end up on the surface of your work, but since it has the same print as the surrounding stitches, it usually blends in--not noticeable if you're standing on a rug. You can see some flaps in the photo below. The gray and tan sections of the rug were made with printed tarn.

You can find more tips for the Tarnation Rectangle Rug  and Tarnation Oval Rug in the following posts:
How to Make Tarn
Choosing Fabric for Tarn
Saving Your Hands and Arms When Using Tarn
Making the Print Show
Mending a Tarn Rug

Tarn: Making the Print Show

Most of the time, tarn curls in on itself to show only the wrong side of the t-shirt fabric. This gives a nice, workable "yarn," but it doesn't allow the t-shirt print to show when you knit or crochet with it. Showing the print is a great way to add visual interest to a tarn rug, like the Tarnation Rectangle Rug.

There are two ways to solve the problem. My usual solution is to turn out the print side when I get to it while I'm working with the tarn. This takes some extra time, and it's a bit tedious--but with the way t-shirts are normally printed, you only have to do this for a few stitches, then there's a long stretch of unprinted tarn.

(The second way to solve this problem involves using a zig-zag cutting technique.)

Here's how to turn out the print while you are crocheting. Do this for every loop of the printed stitches. For example, for an sc (US term) stitch you will make 2 loops, each being made with a new turnout.

1. Fold the working tarn longwise so the printed side is showing.

2. Hold the fold in place with your non-dominant hand, and hook the tarn, keeping the fold intact under the crochet hook.

3. Carefully draw the loop through, making sure the printed side of the tarn is still showing.






You can find more tips for the Tarnation Rectangle Rug and Tarnation Oval Rug patterns in the following posts:
How to Make Tarn
Choosing Fabric for Tarn
Saving Your Hands and Arms When Using Tarn
Allover Print Tarn
Mending a Tarn Rug

Choosing Shirts for a Tarn Rug

When the shirts you cut for tarn are assorted in fabric content and thickness, your finished item can come out kind of wonky after machine washing and drying. That's because the fabrics draw up differently. In a square or rectangular piece, like the Tarnation Rectangle Rug, it can be a problem, while in a round rug, oval rug, or mesh piece like The Ultimate Recycled Market Bag, it's not even noticeable.

When your rug comes out of the wash looking like the picture above, just give it a few yanks with your hands grasping the row-ends, and the stitches will even themselves up.

But the real solution is in being choosy about which shirts you select for the rug:

1. In the best of all worlds, you would have 5-10 shirts in your closet that were all made by the same manufacturer in the same fabric in complementary colors.

2. In the second-best world, your shirts would still have labels in them stating that they have the same fabric content, and the thickness of the material feels about equal... again in colors that work well together.

3. If you have barely enough shirts, and you're dying to make a rug, just go for it. The rug will still look great, and you can yank it back into shape after washing.

It also helps to follow these suggestions:

4. Make your foundation chain run down the long side of the rug (like in the Tarnation Rectangle Rug pattern, and not like the rug pictured above). Long rows hold their shape better in the wash.

5. Use your thickest fabric with the highest cotton content for the middle rows, and the thinner blends for the beginning and ending rows. As you can see in the rug pictured above, the middle black stripe is the weak link. That's because the stronger rows above and below pull on the black stitches in the wash. If those weaker stitches were on the ends, they wouldn't get jerked around so much.

6. Consider saving your mismatched-fabric shirts for a mesh bag or an oval or round rug. (Here's an oval version of the Tarnation Rug: Tarnation Oval Rug.)


You can find more tips for working with tarn here:
Saving Your Hands and Arms When Using Tarn
How to Make Tarn
Making the Print Show
Allover Print Tarn
Mending a Tarn Rug

Avoiding the Owie with Plarn

Working with plarn (PLastic yARN made from cut-up plastic bags) can be very hard on your hands and arms. I once thought I was getting arthritis in my elbow, but it turned out to be the plarn projects I was working on every day.

Here are some tips for saving your hands and arms from the pain that can go along with plarn work. You can use these with The Ultimate Recycled Market Bag pattern.

1. Work loosely. It’s the pulling that makes plarn hard on your muscles and joints.

2. Stick with crochet. I love knitting, but for plarn, knitting causes the strands to “grab” the needles, causing a lot of pushing and pulling to get each stitch made. Crochet can be done loosely enough to minimize the grabbiness.

3. Mesh crochet is best. When you work with chained loops instead of inserting the hook into actual stitches, the pushing and pulling is reduced even more.

4. Cut your plarn only one bag at at time. When you make a bag’s worth of plarn, work it up, and then stop to cut the next bag, you’ll be giving your hands and arms a much-needed rest.

5. Use the crinkly type of plastic bags, like you get from the grocery store. This plastic slides easily, and it’s less grabby than softer plastic from bread bags, ziplocs, etc.

6. Cut your plarn thin, but not too thin. When you use the strung-together-loops method for making plarn, the strands are doubled, so you can cut the plarn loops 1/2” or 1 cm wide and still have plenty of strength. Anything wider than 1/2” will be hard on your hands.

7. If you must use soft plastic bags, cut the loops 1/4” or .5 cm wide. Bread bag-type plastic is strong, so the thinner loops work up with plenty of strength.

8. Avoid using a plastic hook. Metal or a very smooth hardwood work better for reducing drag on the plarn.


You can find more crochet tips and variations for The Ultimate Recycled Market Bag pattern in the following posts:
How to Make Plarn
My Old Crochet Hook
Cotton Yarn Market Bag
T-Shirt Yarn Market Bag

Smooth-Finished Chain Circle

When crocheting in the round, like for socks, mittens, hats, or sleeves that start at the cuff, it’s nice to have a smooth circle from the joined base chain. After all, it will be a very visible end of the finished item. But what to do about the little jump in the circle that appears at the knot?

Here’s what I have come up with:

1. After finishing the piece, use a yarn needle or small crochet hook to draw the tail yarn through the chain beside the knot. That would be the next-to-last-made chain of the foundation or base chain that the knot and tail are “pointing at.”


2. Then split the tail yarn into 2 strands.


3. Draw one strand back through the first stitch in the first round, on the other side of the knot, in the inside of the work.


4. Tie the 2 strands together, and work in ends.

For more crochet tips to help with the Witch Warmers in Crochet pattern, see the following posts:
Forming a Base Chain Circle
Avoiding Stiff Crochet
Swatch Wars

Forming a Base Chain Circle

For me, this can be the hardest part of an in-the-round crochet project: getting the circle made without a twist in the base or foundation chain. In order to crochet in the round, usually a number of chain stitches are joined to form a base chain-circle. This is how the ruffle starts on the Witch Warmers in Crochet armwarmer and legwarmer.

Here’s how to do it:

1. When you have finished chaining, hold the hook with the last-made loop in your right hand and the front of the chain facing you.

2. Grasp the hook-end of the chain between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, and then grasp the chain a few inches or centimeters out from the hook with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Be sure the fronts of the chain stitches between the hook and your left hand are facing you.


3. Slide the left-hand thumb and forefinger to the left along the chain stitches, straightening and smoothing for a few inches or centimeters.

4. With the hook still in your right hand, release your right-fingers’ grip on the chain and re-grip the chain farther along, next to the left-hand fingers.

5. Repeat until you have reached the end of the chain stitches--the first-made chain.

6. Keeping the end of the straightened chain in your left hand, let go of the chain with your right fingers and bring the hook (still in your right hand) and the first-made chain end up and around so the hook and the yarn tail are pointing at each other, again making sure the fronts of the first and last chain stitches are still facing you.


7. Slip stitch into the top loop (or the front) of the first-made chain.


8. If you’re using a removable stitch marker, place it in the loop on the hook.

For more crochet tips to help with this pattern, see the following posts:
Smooth Chain Finish
Avoiding Stiff Crochet
Swatch Wars

Tying Off After Joining

When you join 2 crocheted or knitted edges, sometimes the last joined stitch can become too loose as the item is used, even though you tied off through the final stitch’s loop. Here’s how to securely tie-off, using the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet as an example:

1. After joining, cut the working yarn and tie off the last stitch.

2. Split the end yarn into 2 strands.


3. With a crochet hook or yarn needle, thread one strand of the end yarn through the next-to-last joined stitch.


4. Tie the 2 strands of end yarn together tightly in a knot.



5. Work in ends.

For crochet tips and variations on the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet, see:
Scrappy Turban
Novelty Yarn-Trimmed Turban
Slip-Stitch Join
Avoiding Stiff Crochet

Slip-Stitch Join

Here’s how to join the top of the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet, without sewing. It works great for other things, like afghan pieces, too.

1. Place the two pieces to be joined with their right sides facing each other on the inside and the edges to be joined lined up together. This will produce an invisible seam on the right side.

2. As in the Fortune-Teller Turban, if the working yarn is already attached at the beginning of the join, chain 1. If not, then insert your crochet hook through the first stitches at the end of each of the two pieces to be joined. Draw the end of the working yarn all the way through and tie a knot to secure.

3. Slip-stitch the upper edges together, pairing-up the edge stitches on each piece. When you slip-stitch, draw the working yarn through the back loop of the front-edge stitch and the front loop of the back-edge stitch (the inner loops of the front and back edges).

4. For a secure end, when you come to the last stitch of the join, slip-stitch through the front and back loops of the 2 edge stitches, and then tie off.

For crochet tips and variations on the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet, see:
Scrappy Turban
Novelty Yarn-Trimmed Turban
Tying Off After Joining
Avoiding Stiff Crochet

Avoiding Stiff Crochet

Working in front loop only.
Many folks feel that crocheting produces a very stiff fabric, which can be uncomfortable to wear and gives a less-than-desirable drape. If you’re in this camp, then read on!

I discovered that working in only the front loop or the back loop of the base stitch increases the flexibility and drape of a finished item. My grandmother used this approach, but she never explained it to me--I just noticed that we were doing the same thing. Also it helps to use a hook that is larger than the yarn label recommends, for making a flexible crocheted fabric. This is very important for the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet pattern, to provide the right amount of drape.

Of course, the first row usually has a length of chains as the base, so there’s no front or back loop. But subsequent rows of single-crochet, double, etc. will present two top loops, which are usually both worked through. Using just the front or back loops for a row helps the stitches move easier as the finished item is worn or draped. It also produces a nice-looking ridged texture in the work.


Working in back loop only.
For crochet tips and variations on the Fortune-Teller Turban in Crochet, see:
Scrappy Turban
Novelty Yarn-Trimmed Turban
Tying Off After Joining
Slip-Stitch Join

Swatch Wars

Actually the war is with my poor brain. I have just learned from a wise tester for the Fortune-Teller Turban pattern, that
a) flat swatch makes pattern gauge, counting stitches in a stretchy FO gives a way different gauge, and
b) smaller swatch means higher gauge (more stitches/inch), and larger swatch means lower gauge (fewer stitches/inch).

Go figure... and while you're at it, give thanks for wiser knitters and crocheters than yourself.