coasting right along

Martha Stewart's "Craft of the Day" today was THIS twig trivet. Since there's not a darn thing you can't tweak and think of in terms of Laura Ingalls Wilder and "Little House" - why not make a cottonwood twig trivet, or a coaster? If you've been to De Smet, you know you've got a baggie full of cottonwood twigs lying around the house somewhere; better to use them as a resting place for your morning cup of coffee or tea (which is, of course, a man's drink in cold weather).

That got me thinking of other LH coaster ideas, and I came up with a couple. My favorite is the "Crocheted Rag Rug" coaster. In These Happy Golden Years (Chapter 33), there's a crocheted rag rug on the floor in Reverend Brown's sitting room; Laura notices it when she and Almanzo are there to be married. Crocheting a rag rug is both time-consuming and expensive unless you happen to have a really, really large rag bag, but a coaster? A few scraps and fifteen to thirty minutes, tops, if you're already a crocheter.

Cut cotton fabric into 1-1/2 inch strips, and sew the strips together into one long piece. The 4-1/2 inch square coaster I made took 18 strips that were each about 20 inches long. I used some retro fabric I bought at a quilt show in Walnut Grove over ten years ago (there's your connection). They were in a box right next to my baggies of rocks and twigs.

I used a size K crochet hook, but I have a larger one that I usually use for rag crochet; I just wanted this work to be as tight as possible. I cast on 11 and crocheted 8 rows in single crochet; make sure you tuck raw edges to the center of the strip as you work. Weave ends and tack them in place. It's reversible, machine washable and dryable.

How about a "Pepin Pebbles" coaster? Using epoxy or a hot glue gun, attach pepples in rows to a square piece of heavy clear plastic. Let dry. Using a mat knife or small scissors, cut plastic as close to pebbles as possible. Probably not the best place to rest the good willow-ware, but awfully cute.

I'll probably be thinking of LH coaster/trivet ideas all night. Similar to the twig idea, how about using LH site pencils sawed to length? Corncobs glued together, with one of the inside ones wrapped in a handkerchief? Wood burned with checkerboard squares? Braided straw circle, no crown? Red checked tablecloth square? Sweet Williams pressed between two layers of glass? Mini quilts? Fake fur cut in pelt shapes?

A square of slate? You can write your name on it with a slate pencil. Can you use a slate pencil for a swizzle stick, I wonder?
- posted by pioneergirl at 7:59 PM