This  weekend has been hectic. Evelien found a tryout location  for making baskets, which is available monday.  So I had to move quickly in order to take advantage. Thursday saw me driving to Sort BV in Tilburg to get a new load of T-shirts, friday I spent teaching a project management class, and all of saturday and today I worked like mad to get ready for tomorrow. For I would want things to work & a little preparation goes a long way.

For starters, on friday night I re-engineered a basket to make a set of  instructions, then made a basket according to instructions so as to test them. I used yarn I already had made, the crochet-ing took me one hour. Which number is not to be extrapolated as I am truly fast and furious with the needle.

More vital statistics:

• I got 12 bags of T-shirts, each bag an average of 15 kg so 180 kg T-shirts in total
• driving up, bagging Tshirts and driving back home again took me 4 hrs
• sorting Tshirts according to colour took me 1 hr – with a little bit of help from my friends
• sorting, cutting and yarn-making enough for 1 basket took me 1 1/2 hrs – this is a time-consuming part.
• can make three baskets from  one bag of T-shirts
• proportion of colored versus white Tshirts: ideally 3:2

I prepared for the two workshops that I will do tomorrow:

• two sets of ready-made yarn
• eight sets half yarn, half strips
• eight sets of strips
• two complete sets of sorted T-shirts i.e. coloured and white
• sixteen sets of coloured Tshirts only, can make 3 or 4 complete before the white Tshirts run out. Next time: grab more white shirts.

Tomorrow will see me at Reinaerde in Houten – where old ladies with crocheting skills are awaiting my instructions in the morning. The afternoon will be spent in the company of handicapped people – handicapped how I have no idea, but will find out shortly. The  Young Intern is coming also, which is lovely.