As soon as I envisioned The Original Trash Frapp (I feel like that should have a TM or copyright symbol next to it! Ha! But I share freely, so nevermind!), I also came up with a Green Tea Frapp version since that's truthfully what the original containers held. It's my one occasional Starbucks indulgence, and it tastes so much better than it looks!
I knew exactly what plastic bags I'd need to replicate that sick, chalky green colour (I love that colour, incidentally. It just looks so septic, so why sugar-coat?): the President's Choice/Superstore green plastic grocery bags.
Another Trash Frapp: The Plastic Smoothie
For a smoothie, you'll need different colours than the greens of a Green Tea Frappuccino. Light pinks and yellows are both examples of a difficult colour range to find in plastic grocery bags! A tip right off the bat: if you use the 'loop' method to make plarn (link here / video here) and not the spiral-cut method (where you get one long strip, exactly like how the t-shirt yarn was made in the other tutorial), you can alternate colours by linking loops from several plastic bags in a repeating or randomized order. This will give a slightly stripy effect to the work (think something like this - striped orange and pinkish sedimentary rocks in Arizona), though it won't be nearly as bold as it would if you were to connect the long strips of plastic from the spiral-cut method (this one has the potential to make your smoothie look like it has different layers, like this - layered Jell-o parfaits).
 |
| Multi-coloured bag smoothie |
Materials:
- empty frappuccino container, domed lid and straw (all washed and dried, of course! No stickiness, no germs!)
- a bunch of plarn in the colour(s) of your choice (see note above on how to do this)
- some white (or primarily white) coloured plarn for the whipped cream
- scissors
- glue (optional)
- appropriately sized hook (I used 3.0mm for the frapp, 4.0mm for the whipped cream).
So, as with the original, these are GUIDELINES only. You might have to make adjustments as necessary (don't be alarmed - they'll be easy! If it starts getting too wide, undo a bit and don't put in as many increases, or do a few more rows of sc only before increasing at all. If it doesn't fit up against the sides of the cup, it's too narrow and needs more increases (undo some, and increase here and there by doing 2sc in a st, instead of just 1 sc in a st). This is part of the fun, and I promise no one will go back and count your stitches to see if you 'screwed up' anywhere!)
For the frapp or smoothie part:
Round 1: ch 2, sc 8
Round 2: sc in each st around
Rounds 3-6: 2 sc in each st around
Round 7: Front Loops Only - sc in each st around
Rounds 8-10: sc in each st around (there are 6 sc rounds from the base or so. I added the odd random decrease (sc2tog) as the plastic stretched and the shape widened too much, but this will vary depending on your tension and the plarn used)
Round 11: sc around about 1/3 of the way. 2 sc in the next st. Then continue to sc in each st until a point approximately 2/3 of the way around. 2 sc in the next st. Continue to sc in each st until the last stitch (2 sc in the last st)
Round 12: sc in each st for a full round
Round 13: repeat round 11
Rounds 14-16: sc in each st for a full round
Round 17: repeat round 11 again
Round 18: sc in each st for a full round
Rounds 19-21: sc to height
Round 22: sl st around to finish off the final round. Weave in ends.
Before assembling (i.e. before stuffing the 'frapp' into the cup), use some additional plarn and chain a length long enough to encircle the bottom of the cup. This helps to minimize the gap between the main body of the drink and the plastic cup.
For the whipped cream topping, I simply followed the pattern here (Spiral Scrubbie, by Judith Prindle), with a change in the hook size (4.0mm) and obviously replacing plarn with the worsted weight yarn. I found it from Norma Lynn Hood's 'Cake Sachet' pattern on Ravelry (which is too small for this project).
I didn't connect the spiral to make it flat as the pattern suggests, and I left room in the top for a straw. I turned the otherside up and under after partially (but not completely) cinching it closed as the pattern suggests.
Work in straw through the hole in the centre of the 'whipped cream'. You can glue the whipped cream to the domed lid and straw (definitely recommend gluing the straw to the whipped cream at the very least), so that the 'lid' of the smoothie is made up of all 3 parts (whipped cream, straw and domed lid). Or you can leave the pieces unattached, depending on the final intended usage of the plarn smoothie container.
And there you have it! Delicious and calorie-free. And it cost nothing (well, I suppose making the plastic in the first place 'cost' our planet something as it destroyed the air and wasted valuable natural resources, but let's not get too depressed now! The plastic smoothie was free, it reused wasteful, nasty plastic to make something new, and when we no longer have a use for our little plastic smoothie, we can take it apart and recycle the cup and perhaps the rest of the plastic, too).
**************************************************
LATE ADDITION: The No-Whip Top
Round 2: ch 1, sc into ring 12 times, sl st to join round.
Round 3: ch 1, 2 sc into each st, sl st to join
Round 4: ch 1, (2 sc into first stitch, 1 sc in next) repeat around (sl st to join)
Round 5: ch 1, (2 sc into first st, 1 sc in next 2 st), repeat around circle (sl st to join)
Round 6: ch 1, (2 sc into first st, 1 sc in next 3 st), repeat around circle (sl st to join)
Round 7: ch 1, (2 sc into first st, 1 sc in next 4 st), repeat around circle (sl st to join)
Continue pattern until desired size is reached, following the pattern (increase the number of 1 sc st sets by one each round).
Finishing off: sl st around edge. Weave in ends.
(Incidentally, if I was to re-do this pattern, I'd make the hole for the straw smaller, maybe ch 6 in the beginning instead of 8 for this size of straw).
No comments:
Post a Comment