Between meetings on Wednesday, I decided to dye some yarn. While standing up after a long period of sitting and fixing my lunch, I selected some colors of unsweetened drink mix purchased especially for this endeavor and put a pot on a stove. The color wasn’t as dark as I wanted so I added some red food coloring.
While I worked in the afternoon, the dye pot simmered on the stove. The finished product is pretty, though next time I need to use less water for a darker color. The color ended up a dark coral color which I’ve dubbed Coral Plaza, after a movie theatre I remember as a kid. I hadn’t done stove top dyeing with drink mix only setting yarn in the microwave which requires less water. I like food safe colors for these experiments so I can still use my pots and dishes. The color is lovely but next time I think I will go back to the microwave method with less water for more intense colors or wrap the yarn in plastic wrap and steam it.
The yarn isn’t quite dry yet, I’d like it to be completely dry before winding it. Coral Plaza is lovely and I am ready to try again. I want a deeper red, maybe gel food coloring next time? Stay tuned…
Happy crocheting!
A year of hats and scarves – won’t that get boring? Not to me. Many people might find making the same thing over and over again repetitive. To keep the projects interesting, I have been using different yarns and patterns or trying the same pattern with different yarn. Lately I have been making coordinates instead of matching the hats and scarves with the same stitch pattern in both, I have been using the same yarn and changing the stitch pattern. The sets are made for warmth and may be the only warm item a person has, so I try to make the hats that don’t have a lot of eyelets or lacy features. There are many different patterns to use for scarves but to have the pattern also match a skull cap/beanie can be limiting unless the design or pattern focuses on color. A few yarns don’t need a lot to make something unique, especially if they are color changing or novelty.
Instead of matching the hat and scarf in a set, I figured why not try to use a different stitch, with the same yarn: A coordinate, instead of an exact match. The yarn is the same and gives a bit more creative freedom to the process. If there are stripes in the hat, there can be stripes in the scarf, but why not mix the stitches and match the yarn. The results have been pleasing. Especially when there are patterns that don’t necessarily lend themselves to a hat or a scarf. Long rows of ribbing can make a scarf curl on the edges and it won’t necessarily work to make a border when using a color changing yarn. A scarf can have a design with a little openwork and still be warm, a hat, not so much.
I’m at the halfway point of the 60 set goal for 2021! Just completed 30 hat and scarf sets and it’s not even April, and I’m still excited about the project. It’s really not so much about being excited about the project as much as making the sets look unique, especially if I’m using similar yarn.
The new yarn that I ordered was tempting me. I went to bed early the night the box arrived and didn’t play with any of the new yarn but the next day however, that was a different story. I selected a new yarn that I was unfamiliar with and started a hat. Within roughly 75 minutes of uninterrupted crocheting from the starting magic loop to weaving in the ends, I had a finished hat. The pattern is simple top down basket weave with two rows of single crochet for the brim.
For my past few projects I have made coordinating hats and scarves, instead of matching ones. The hats and scarves use the same yarn but not the same stitch pattern; which makes it more freeing and fun. Instead of avoiding postwork, I’ve embraced it and use different combinations as shown in a scarf that I used alternating front and back posts in groupings of two to four, made a center section of five front posts and then decreased the number of posts in the same groupings. The odd numbered groups are in the front for one row and in the back for another.
I had to look at the hat and make notes about what I did. Then I had to figure out what the scarf would look like, to keep it from being too wide, since I already knew that I wanted to make the scarf horizontally. I used the notes that I made for the hat to tentatively make notes for the scarf. One section I wanted a little wider, so I added another row of postwork. I showed my mother the notes and she said this makes no sense, she also doesn’t crochet. She showed them to my father and he said this is something you could use. He always teases us about measurements when we are cooking. Baking requires precise measurements, cooking does not, especially when it comes to spices.
With a sketch for a hat and scarf pattern in a notebook I made the hat and scarf again in a different yarn that was a little loftier in weight though still a worsted weight #4 yarn. Using the notes, I was able to follow the pattern without too much editing. For someone else to use this pattern, I need to write more specific language about the rounds for the crown but this gives me a good start and I won’t have to wrack my brain tying to figure out what I did. My notes remind me of handwritten recipes that I have from my grandmother and a late friend – the ingredients are all there, it’s just assumed you know the mechanics.
2021 will be a great year for crocheting. For this year’s crochet goals I’m thinking 60 hat and scarf sets and 10 red scarves. This will still give me time to make some other things. At first I was thinking 50 sets. But since I finished a set, a hat for a second and have made good progress on the accompanying scarf and the first week of January hasn’t even ended, 60 sets and 10 red scarves is a manageable goal. This will also give me time to work on some other projects or use some oddballs to make hats.
Since I finished my mystery balls with black, I’m looking forward to starting an afghan made with those this year. I’ve been buying yarn with reckless abandon and I’m itching to use some new yarn.
This New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020 there’s the opportunity to stay safely at home without making excuses for not wanting to go out. I’ve made a casserole and will do what I have been doing in the evenings for the past few months, sitting at home and crocheting, except tomorrow I don’t have to go to work and probably won’t go for a walk because it will likely be too cold. Nevertheless, the new yarn I’ve acquired gives me hope that more people will have something warm to wear in the future.
The beauty of working with yarn that doesn’t have a dye lot is that it’s easy to make a coordinating item or incorporate some of the original color into a hat to make something with stripes or a color block. There are a few unmatched hats and scarves that are going to be donated but I am thinking of working right up to the end of the year since it gets colder in January and many donations are made Christmas time and there’s a lull afterward though the need still remains.
Work, walk, crochet, read that’s about how my days go. The safest option is to stay at home, crochet and watch movies.
On Halloween I met my 2020 goal of 40 scarves, 15 sets and 15 afghans. The other day I noticed that I have cleared out a small space near my favorite chair in the living room. Since I’ve finished the last of my goals – 15 afghans and it’s getting cold, I’ve been making more hats and scarves. A few weeks ago, I thought I had gotten to the creative portion of my stashbusting. I haven’t even gotten close to finishing all the working stash yarn that I have; closer than in March, but there’s a bit more still available. There is a brown fleck merino yarn that I have a lot of, and it’s been making the rounds in projects. I didn’t like it, set it aside but blended with other yarns it’s very nice.
If you haven’t voted in the 2020 election already – there’s still time to vote on Election Day 2020. I prefer to vote on the day itself for sentimental reasons. Plus, there’s never a long wait and I live across the street from my current polling place.
Even in the crafting world where you would think people have something in common to make it possible to share a craft they love, it’s not often so. The craft world is just a microcosm of the world at large and isn’t a place where people can just hide with their materials and create, as much as some people would like to think. Racism won’t go away on Nov 3, there is still a lot of work to be done as a nation.