I love to use decorated jam jars to store my crafty notions like buttons, pom poms and embellishments. I'd had a couple of empty jars languishing on the dish drainer for months when I re-read The Joy of Less by Francine Jay. The books includes a section on re-using food jars around the house, which spurred me on. However, I don't think Miss Minimalist would approve of the number of jars I have or what I keep in them...
First, the tedious job of cleaning the jars. I had already soaked them and disposed of the remnants of their original contents. However, I gave them another soak and scrubbed off the labels. I then used lighter fuel to remove the last of the glue.
For the jar covers, I used a simplified version of the storage jars pattern in Claire Montgomerie's Crochet for Children book. I know, it's coming to something when you have to simplify a pattern intended for kids and rated "easy" at that. The specific changes were that I used variegated yarn rather than stripes in multiple colours and I used continuous spiral thought rather than slip stitching at the end of the round.
First up was a former Tesco Finest Olives jar. I used a lovely purple aran yarn from stash with a 4.25mm hook. I crocheted a flat circle using a 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42 double crochet pattern. Once the circle was just a little smaller than the base of the jar, I worked even in rounds until the cosy reached the lid of the jar. You need the cosy to be a little smaller than the jar so it fits snugly around using the natural stretch of the yarn.
The second jar used to contain Jo Malone body creme, so it's good to get my money's worth from the jar. This time I used a lovely, soft, hand-dyed chunky, which I've lovingly christened "rainbow vomit", but in a good way. Same process but with a 5mm hook this time.
Normally, I decorate the lids of the jars only, so I can see the contents. Obviously, the cosies hide the contents, so I decided it would be sensible to decorate the lid with a sample of what's in there; plastic flower and heart buttons in the purple jar and wooden buttons in the rainbow jar.I simply glued the buttons onto the lids with Bostik All Purpose glue.
The cosies were very quick and satisfying to make and the pattern works with any size of jar as you just keep increasing by 6 stitches per round until you get the desired base diameter.
Well, I may be a crummy minimalist but my jar re-use is beyond reproach...
Melx
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