DIY: Pot Holders Knit from Ocean-Tossed Twine - Remodelista
Photography by Justine Hand for Remodelista. On any given summer day, it’s not usual to find Marnie Campbell stationed at Rock Harbor, in Orleans, Massachusetts, knitting away in her signature orange beach chair. Weathered and worn by the sea, these bits of detritus from lobster traps and fishing boats develop a salty patina that renders them more pliable and pale. Last weekend, my daughter, Solvi, and I tagged along on one of Marnie’s foraging expeditions in search of any flexible fibers, natural or man-made, that might find new life in her creations. The best place to search for twine is at the high-tide mark, where it becomes entangled in seaweed. Twine is also used to mark off nesting bird sites. Here, keeping a respectable distance from the protected area, Solvi and Marnie harvest twine from previous years. Can’t wait to see what Marnie does with it. After Marnie has harvested her twine, she untangles and sorts it according to color. Solvi helps wind the untangled twine into a neat coil. Cleaned and sorted shipwrecked twine. Marnie’s discoveries differ greatly in terms of thickness and pliability–the more time in the water, the softer the twine. So Marnie has to experiment to find the right knitting needles for each batch. Evoking the high-tide line, this hot pad was fashioned from natural cotton rope (also found on the beach) interwoven with a fine stripe of man-made green twine... ...as well as brown seaweed that Marnie soaked in water to make it flexible enough to knit. Marnie’s worktable displays various pot holders and scrubs in, from top to bottom, a deep seaweed shade, natural cotton, mariner’s green, sea foam green, and natural jute. Marnie’s salty knits can be used as trivets, potholders, table mats, or scrubs. Fittingly, Marnie uses what’s called a lobster pot knot to connect two different twines. Mats in mariner’s green hang by the beach. Each of Marnie’s marine-twine knits is one of a kind. Marnie works on a tangle near some of her creations. Prices vary depending on the size of the piece and weight of the twine; generally $20 to $50 for smaller pieces, and $100 and up for larger ones. This post is an update; it originally appeared on September 17, 2014, as part of our Style on a Budget issue.