Sack o' Strips

Day 240: I'm weaving rag rugs again after finally getting over two dozen t-shirts washed and cut into one-inch strips. I wanted to do them all so that I would have the broadest selection of colours to draw from, and I realized I was going to have to find a better way of randomizing them than jumbling them all up together on the floor and then stuffing them into a 5-gallon bucket. I hit upon the idea of tossing them into the dryer, and it worked beautifully except for the fact that they're rather tangled up on themselves. That said, I always stretch each strip before I weave it. Pulling them free from the snake's-nest accomplishes that part of the job quite well. Each rug takes about a pound and a quarter when the strips are cut this size. I haven't weighed the bag, but I've already got one completed rug on the roller, and I've barely made a dent in the supply.

Stripping

Day 33: Thanks to a generous donation of over a dozen t-shirts by a friend, I'm almost ready to weave more rag rugs again. This is the most laborious part of the process, i.e., cutting them into one-inch strips. It has been made easier by the invention of the rotary cutter, but there was a time when it had to be done with scissors (t-shirt fabric can't be torn because it is a knit). The rotary cutter also creates much neater edges which, of course, in the weaving are left raw. They curl in on themselves by their very nature and are unnoticeable in the finished rug. This is an excellent way to "re-purpose" old tees. Even if the fronts are stained, the backs are almost always usable. To weave, simply overlap the strip ends by an inch or so. The few tails which invariably stick up add a rustic look to the rug. Best of all, rag rugs are heavy enough that they don't need a backing.

Dead T-shirts

Day 122: Inspired to action by a discussion with a friend about hoarders, I decided to do a little "de-stuffing." De-stuffing occurs at least once a year, and is defined as a purge of unnecessary items, sometimes mild, sometimes brutal. It keeps me from being buried in objects I never use, and as any half-baked psychologist would undoubtedly assert, it provides a sense (largely false) of being in control of my life. To this end, I binned half a dozen pairs of old shoes, set aside overly snug pants to be taken to a thrift shop, and sorted a dozen t-shirts into a pile to be turned into rug strips. As you have heard me complain several times, I'm desperately short of material for my posts, so I thought I'd have a go at converting rug strips into an Orb with PaintShop Pro. Orbs are fun to make, and often give quite unexpected results. My first attempt was rather blasé, so I backed out of it and hit it with a "wave" distortion. My rug strips became Rickrack! The Rickrack translated into a delightfully psychedelic Orb. So how do you make an Orb from a photo? Start with a square. Using the distortion tool in the photo processing software of your choice, convert the polar coordinates from polar to rectangular. Then flip the image vertically, and convert the polar coordinates from rectangular to polar. You'll probably have some other options available for changing the background colour, etc., but those three steps (polar to rectangular, flip vertical, rectangular to polar) are crucial to success and must be done in that order.