Kangaroo Leather Experiment

Yep, you read the title correctly... kangaroo leather. I ended up being given an entire bag of kangaroo leather scraps when I purchased a gift from a retail store near my workplace. The store sells traditional western apparel and gifts, including many items made of leather. Since leather is made from animal skin, there are many different types of animals that can be used. This includes kangaroos!

Keep in mind that I have absolutely no experience working with leather.

What to do with a bag of kangaroo leather? Well, I decided to experiment. I started by sorting the thin strips and the chunky pieces into separate piles. Ranna cat was fairly interested in this process, so I gave her a strip to play with.

My hope was to crochet with the strips. I wanted to make a belt or a mat with my 8mm hook. However, working with the leather turned out to be way more difficult than I expected. It did not slide nicely on the hook, instead clinging to the hook and to itself. The results were... um... interesting. By interesting, I mean horrible.

Yikes. Maybe a second run would be better? I selected the thinnest leather strip that I could find and tried again with the loosest tension I could manage. The results were a bit better, but still sloppy.

It seems as though leather strips are not ideal for crochet. At this point, it was time to go rogue and try other crafts. Braiding the leather looked decent.

Tying a bunch of knots in it didn't look too bad, either.

Finally, I remembered all of the macrame hemp jewelry I used to make in high school. I tried out a simple style with the leather and it worked out well.

By this time my hands smelled funny and I hadn't accomplished much. Thus, I ended my short and sad foray into the world of leather. I think I'll stick to what I know. Do you have any experience working with leather?