Playing with fibre: Crocheting with kelp (re post from July 22 2008)

(re-post)

I  beachcombed this length of kelp at Ogden Point on the weekend; actually, it was on the path near the sidewalk when I claimed it.  I can just imagine some child joyfully treasuring it and a parent saying, "You're not bringing that wet, smelly thing in the car.  Leave it here." 

It was wet and smelly and I dragged it along the road to the car where I keep a supply of plastic bags for such transport.  First I hung it on the sea wall to take its picture and two interesting conversations with separate people happened. 

Many thanks to the man who gave me the latin name and common name for the kelp and looked a bit puzzled when I said I was going to knit with it; and to the woman who was visiting from the Prairies and said her grandmother in Victoria used to spread seaweed on her garden for nourishment; all best to that grandmother, the reason for the visit, and for her interest in my using it as knitting material.

Actually, I crocheted with the kelp.  But it was Tunisian crochet where you put stitches along the hook and which is said to be the link between knitting and crocheting.

It was very interesting to work with as a fibre; the closest I have come to the texture and process is when I knit with elastic bands but the kelp felt alive. Good lord, maybe it was. This just now occurred to me!  If I had thought of it then - and that man had confirmed it - I  would have trotted back down to the ocean and tossed it back into the water.
Here is what the result looked like when first finished.

I thought it was quite beautiful and I put it out on the deck, admired it during the rest of the day.

This is what it looks like now.  It does look - well, dead.  I truly am feeling badly about the whole thing.

Posted on June 11, 2018 at 04:22 AM | Permalink

I  beachcombed this length of kelp at Ogden Point on the weekend; actually, it was on the path near the sidewalk when I claimed it.  I can just imagine some child joyfully treasuring it and a parent saying, "You're not bringing that wet, smelly thing in the car.  Leave it here." 

It was wet and smelly and I dragged it along the road to the car where I keep a supply of plastic bags for such transport.  First I hung it on the sea wall to take its picture and two interesting conversations with separate people happened. 

Many thanks to the man who gave me the latin name and common name for the kelp and looked a bit puzzled when I said I was going to knit with it; and to the woman who was visiting from the Prairies and said her grandmother in Victoria used to spread seaweed on her garden for nourishment; all best to that grandmother, the reason for the visit, and for her interest in my using it as knitting material.

Actually, I crocheted with the kelp.  But it was Tunisian crochet where you put stitches along the hook and which is said to be the link between knitting and crocheting.

It was very interesting to work with as a fibre; the closest I have come to the texture and process is when I knit with elastic bands but the kelp felt alive. Good lord, maybe it was. This just now occurred to me!  If I had thought of it then - and that man had confirmed it - I  would have trotted back down to the ocean and tossed it back into the water.
Here is what the result looked like when first finished.

I thought it was quite beautiful and I put it out on the deck, admired it during the rest of the day.

This is what it looks like now.  It does look - well, dead.  I truly am feeling badly about the whole thing.