Drying clothes the frugal way

I sent these photos into one of my favourite blogs a while ago, Frugal and Thriving. Click on the heading to this post to see it there.

Here's what I wrote:

One particular day the weather was good for drying clothes, but I could see that a storm was on its way - and I didn't have time to bring clothes in and out unnecessarily. Looking around the backyard I noticed a spare piece of pool fencing that had been discarded by someone at some point, which we had claimed a couple of years ago. It makes a perfect place to hang clothes up to dry!

We set it up on the balcony, as you can see. It's easy and (most importantly) quick to bring the whole thing either under shelter or inside when rain starts to threaten.

Yes, it is a rather odd feeling to see our personal laundry (albeit clean) decorating cyberspace!

Gloves Made Out Of Socks!

The other day I was sitting working at the computer feeling quite miserable, because my hands were so cold. Wearing gloves was no good, because I have a lovely Apple magic mouse which is brilliant, but which requires the warmth of bare skin to make the scrolling and navigation functions work.

The solution? Make some gloves that can roll or fold down at the top.

Criteria? They would have to be quick (I had to get back to work), and would have to be made from something I already had on hand.

So... I raided my husband's sock drawer (hooray for people who give socks as gifts year after year!) and found a lovely pair of socks perfect for my plans. A few snips later, and my hands and arms (these were mid calf socks) were toasty warm. Bliss!

Here are some instructions I put together in a spare moment; hope you can make sense of them.



I've made at least 6 or 7 pairs by now, each better than the rest. I encourage you to experiment until you find a thumb shape that works well for you. Maybe when cutting the slit for your thumb you might like to cut out a few millimetres at the sides, making it a very skinny elongated oval rather than just a slit.

Take note of the warning to ONLY use a ball point needle when sewing stretch fabrics like socks. The seam will run and look very ugly in a short time if you don't. If you really don't have access to a ball point needle and just have to make some of these wonderful gloves (glovvoks? sokkovs?) right now, then use a loose back stitch and sew the thumb in by hand.

Op shops are great places to find cheap socks to experiment on; our local thrift store sells socks for 20 cents a pair.

Good luck, and let me know in the comments how you go!