Yarn Collecting and Occasional Knitting
As I continue to finish things up and clear off my needles, my on-going, crochet blanket project has become a go-to. Despite it’s size, I’m still carrying it around…
Like this foggy day, I went for a spot of crochet at the Japantown Peace Plaza but forgot to bring an extra ball of yarn. D’oh.
At least I got to spread it out and take a look. I’m closing in on the end…only 2 more balls of yarn to go!
Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a good week. I did. The gift of time is my favorite thing about unemployment. I never take that for granted. What seemed like a lazy week, is much different when I look back at my camera roll.
The weather has been great. I took lots of walks.
I went on an excursion to Scrap, the local center for creative re-use.
I picked up an old wooden picture frame to make a little pin loom.
Despite my complete lack of skills with a hammer, it’s safe to say…I nailed it! :) At least for a little while, then the frame broke under all that tension. Whoops.
I got enough out of it to satisfy my urge to weave. Mostly, it confirmed that I like knitting better. I’m not giving up my needles for a loom (or a hammer) anytime soon.
Baby’s first sweater and my pair of Dotted Rays have all made progress.
My favorite progress of the week, though, is my log cabin crochet blanket. Those colors!!
And now, I get to have a weekend. It doesn’t get better than that! I’m so lucky! Happy Friday, Indeed!
Happy Star Wars Day! and May the Fourth be with you!
My intergalactic amigurumi crochet collection is growing! I gotta say, I’m happy to see this Stormtrooper killed. He’s kind of a reject anyway. If Yoda didn’t do it, Vader would have, soon enough.
While he does look more like a Stormtrooper than a Village Person, he’s a summary of everything I dislike about making stuffies. He’s just a bit off.
At least he’s less phallic than when he started. It makes me wish Rebecca Danger wrote a Star Wars book. I love her toy design. Her pieces aren’t sewn together but rather, picked up and worked more continuously.
That said, if you’re good at tiny finishing and you like fiddly bits, this is the book for you! Rumor has it, you can find it at Costco these days.
I’m not letting the dark side win, I’ll be back to crochet another day. For now though, I’m just going to enjoy a day filled with nerdy puns—and KNITTING!
May The Fourth Be With YOU!
Who doesn’t need a last minute Halloween costume?? If you’ve got a crochet hook and a bit of green yarn, I’ve got your solution!
It’s a Brain Slug! (which is pretty much what it sounds like.)
It’s a free crochet pattern. You can find it here!
I whipped this little fellow up in a couple hours. Using the safety eye was genius…It’s holding the white of the eye in place as well. No Sew Eye! And he’s sitting on a skinny little headband, just slipped the headband through his stitches and slid him into place! No sewing there either!
Honestly, I didn’t even sew the antenna, I just pulled their ends through and tied them. I even left the ends uncut on the inside…it’s just more stuffing!
I doesn’t get any easier! There’s still time…you could have a costume for that party tonight!
IF…you have the right stash.
(Really, this is a post about stash justification. It only works if you’ve got the right stash. How do you know if your stash is right? You don’t. You’ve gotta collect all the yarns. See?? Proof right here! It’s on the internet, it must be true!)
Happy Halloweekend!!
Why pack for Rhinebeck when I can crochet instead!
This guy was fun to make, even if he was fiddly. Faces can be persnickety. This one turned out okay. Better than expected even!
And he used tiny bits of scrap yarn! It’s hard to even call it stash busting because it used so little.
It’s a free pattern, with some tutorial photos.
And now, I’m rhinebeck bound!! Happy Weekend!!
For my next trick, I present back-to-back crochet FOs! There’s not much to say about this one. It’s a quickie custom job I picked up, being in the right place, at the right time. It was a kit. I followed the instructions.
Okay, I made a couple little mods, went up a hook size and tweaked it to work in a spiral rather than rows. Trivial stuff.
The fun part of this project is where it came from…Sweden! ABBA: The Museum to be exact!
This is Agnetha’s ‘Famous’ Blue Hat from the Waterloo video! They sell the kit at the Abba museum in Stockholm. I love everything about this. I definitely would have bought this. I think every museum should have hat kits in the gift shop!
And now, Dance Break!
Don’t worry, there are sequins for this hat…it will be authentic. They’re glued on, so the gentleman who commissioned my services is going to handle that part himself!
I had planned to put my hooks away for a bit but this was fun, I’m thinking I may have to hunt up some blue yarn & sequins to make one of my own. LOL! My craft card should be revoked if I can’t find sequins in my apartment! I know they’re here somewhere…
Last week there were multiple FOs for other people. This week there are multiple FOs for me. This is the part where have 10 WIPs at once finally pays off!
First up, the crochet piece I started as a swatch. It was so much fun to do that it grew into a full blown WIP, complete with yarn chicken! I got more yarn, only a single skein though. I knew then, it wouldn’t be enough but it was available and it was a dye lot match and one is better than none.
With my skein count at 4, I decided, enough is enough, even if I barely had a scarf. That’s 4 skeins of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, 780 yards. (Which I’m just now realizing is way less than I thought. Each skein is 195 yards, I thought it was 300. I was annoyed that 1200 yards wasn’t enough. ooops. my bad. I completely understand why I never had enough now! On average, crochet uses 30% more yardage than knitting. Imagine a knit shawl with 520 yds. yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve got here. and it’s just not enough.)
I’m quite pleased with my solution to the problem, in any case! It’s a button! One single button from the stash. It wasn’t even an agonizing decision, as buttons often are.
With one little plastic button, I’ve gone from shawl-that-isn’t-even-big-enough-to-be-a-scarf to the perfect garment. The stitch pattern (diagonal crochet stitch tutorial here) is predominately double crochets. They’re tall enough that a button pushes through anywhere, easily…no buttonhole necessary! (aka no planning necessary!)
Now I’ve got a beautiful shrug! Perfect for warming the shoulders without the bulk of a shawl (or the fuss.)
I realize this isn’t a new or unique idea but I’m tickled pink with it. There are lots of ideas out there. That doesn’t help me remember them all. Having the right idea at the right time…priceless! I never would have planned this and I’m pleased as Punch that this is where I’ve ended up. I may never take it off…at least until the next FO comes around!
