Making a blog

Welcome to Things Worth Making. I started this blog as part of a directed reading course at the University of Victoria, but now I'm updating it because I love it. I also have a personal blog called Tentative Plans. It's more personal than this one.

UPDATE: I deleted Things Worth Making (I'm trying to simplify my life, yo), and moved all posts to my blog Tentative Plans. All of the posts have been tagged with the label Things Worth Making.

As you might guess from the title of the blog, I write about making things. For now, I will focus on crafts and baking, because that's where my limited expertise lies, but the possibilities are endless! I document my own projects, but I also write about projects that I wish I had time to make and people who are making things that inspire me. I encourage you to leave comments because I want to know how you make things too. Sometimes my friends write about things they make, and if you want to write about something you made, I might post it. Ask me!

This is my first post, so I'll start by telling you the story behind my masthead. My sister has an interest in making things from recycled "garbage," and she recently convinced my Ukrainian Baba to use her crocheting skills for a less traditional project. This is one of the products of their collaboration:

This bag is made out of plastic grocery bags. I decided to use a picture of the bag for my first Things Worth Making masthead because I like the colours and the illusion of texture that it brings to my computer screen. Of course, its personal significance also appeals to me.

I'm not sure where my sister found the pattern, but it wouldn't do you any good anyway because Baba adjusted it as she worked. However, the instructions for a plastic bag tote at Marlo's Crochet Corner look like they produce similar results.

I also found some great patterns that take this medium to another level. I especially like the cosmetic bag crocheted from bread bags and the Rag Bag Tote over at My Recycled Bags.

Gooseflesh has a great tutorial for making plastic bag yarn. While you're there, you need to check out the artwork she makes with the yarn, such as the Crochet Sea Creatures. The creatures highlight the importance of finding coloured plastic bags to liven up your creations - a difficult task when most stores are hardly thinking of these artistic endeavors when they design their white bags.

Please comment if you have some experience with plastic bag yarn or if you want to let me know what you think about my blog. You know how I like comments.