• Creative reuse - Hats and scarves - Mystery balls

    Revisiting the past

    March 7, 2025 - By 

    A few years ago I made some mystery balls and had a plan to create an afghan. One, twice, three times I started an afghan and one is currently in progress. The project is in time out. While I was working with yarn that a friend gave me I thought I could use a mystery ball that I made to create a set. While the colors wouldn’t carry over in both pieces, having similar stitches would make it more artistic. A design house that is affiliated with Prada, Miu Miu, sells high end items with unmatched colors for thousands, so why not? People try to replicate the designer look. I chose to design my own with a twist.

    Here’s what I started with…

     

     

     

     

     

     

    First I started with the hat…

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Then I created and finished the set…

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There was a large section of color that would have made the scarf too wide, so I cheated and then finished the scarf with a chain of black. I’m ready to start the next one.

     

    Happy crocheting!

     

  • Crochet - Mystery balls

    Let the color do the talking

    July 22, 2020 - By 

    The collection of black and mystery balls that I have been amassing – I have four complete and one I’m still adding to – are waiting for the right pattern. I want something that isn’t a granny square, maybe another open shell type pattern but a pattern that will make the colors stand out. It may be as simple as two or three rows of alternating front and back post or rows or a few rows to make it seem like blocks of color.

    Any remaining yarn from a project that is medium/#4 yarn non-wool yarn gets added to a mystery ball. The amount of yarn varies in both the color and the black. No measuring, no fussing just adding yarn to the ball as I go. When the ball was about the size of a kickball or bowling ball, then I started another. The length of the color or the black is not the same either. As long as the color is a ball at least the size of a ping pong or golf ball and no larger than a medium sized plum, it’s incorporated. Larger remainder balls could be used for rounds of a hat or the centerpiece of a Granny Square afghan. Then I wind. Each ball starts with color and ends with black.  There aren’t really any rules other than no navy is included, as it would be too difficult to differentiate between it and the black. Since I don’t use white or cream too much, there’s not a lot of those included either.

    After I finish two or three more afghans, I should be ready to start. I’ve used two full 16-ounce skeins of black and lots and lots of color segments. How will this crazy afghan look? There’s some of the same black in reserve to make two rows of a border on either end, it will be done in rows. Other than that, I’ve still been thinking of how to make this colorful afghan and show off the colors with something more than rows of double crochet.

    There are a few ideas that I have considered, but I need to make sure I have enough yarn, especially if I choose a stitch pattern that creates a more solid fabric. I want the color to make a statement in a unique way other than joining colors that aren’t in the same color family. The black breaks up the flow and this will definitely make a statement.

    The main idea or theme of this afghan is another way to incorporate scraps with something that is more artistic and somewhat freeform. I’ve been paying more attention to color the swatches of color across the sky as the sun is setting or colorful bands on insects and birds.

    Other scrapghans that I have made in the past were different clues, or coordinating yarns that were used double stranded in large Granny Square afghans. I’m stepping out on crochet faith, emptied my bowl of all the scraps and I’m ready to try something different. It may be something that I replicate, in theory, another time when I have lots of odd balls of yarn. The scrapghan makes the rounds every couple of years or so when I have enough yarn left over from afghans projects. When I make scarves, I try to use as much as possible and sometimes the amount left is woven in.

    Still winding, thinking, and planning until it’s time to start chaining.

    Happy crocheting!

  • crafting - Crochet - crochet motivation - Mystery balls

    Semi-motivated

    June 16, 2020 - By 

    The number of completed items grows weekly and I have tried a couple of new patterns. No difficulty sleeping, no difficulty crafting, just a lack of motivation to do a whole house purge that I thought I was going to do. It was ambitious, I admit. The slide show features three months’ worth of work from the first day I began working from home in March until today. There were other projects that were started before sheltering in place began not featured.

    I thought I would have a well organized and completely purged home by now, especially after three months of COVID-19, sheltering in place, plus the addition of black lives matter protests and a few days of curfew to quell looting. It has been exhausting. Weekdays, I work from home and it’s not so different than being in the office, except the dress code is more casual and the commute is shorter. After working the last thing I want to do is do any work.

    I have been doing a lot more cooking. Easter was the one time I did order delivery. I enjoy my cooking generally during an average week, I’m not home often to do it. Now I’m home all the time and my dishwasher hasn’t been used as consistently since I’ve moved in. I have sorted and tossed a few things, but I haven’t been motivated to do purging, especially since unless it’s garbage there is no where for it to do. My donation bags are filling up. Even the books I’ve borrowed from the library were automatically renewed… now I can return them.

    After working, making meals and cleaning up the kitchen because everything can’t go in the dishwasher… I am always motivated to do anything except watch movies and crochet. Crocheting helps me keep occupied. I have a sewing machine, but I don’t sew well and have no material, so mask making was out. I have lots of yarn. Part of the cleaning and purging process renewed the feeling that I have toward worsted weight yarn. I don’t really like many bulky weight yarns and dk or lighter are aggravating. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but those are on the heavier side of dk. Double stranding could work, but I’m not really a fan of that either.

    Trying new things and combining different colors to use up the yarn that I had was definitely a way of purging and adding to the donation bin. Out of all the things in my home, there’s still a lot of yarn, but it’s probably the most organized, because I also didn’t want to buy any yarn until I used up what I have or at least more of what I have.

    Not wanting to throw anything away or be wasteful especially with food or yarn are traits that have intensified during the past few months. I can always use up the last bit of something in another dish or add the yarn to a mystery ball. Reading on the way to and from work was a regular part of my day, now I have to make time to read and even then it needs to be something interesting otherwise, I lose interest. Crocheting is something I do everyday: it’s calming, relaxing and I set goals for items to give away. It would seem that setting the goals would be more stressful, it isn’t, I crochet fast. I set goals for reading and I’m a fast reader if I’m interested in the book. Besides, if I don’t meet my reading goal I’ve only disappointed myself.

    Happy crocheting!

  • Crochet - Mystery balls - Scrap yarns - stashbusting

    Double the fun

    April 25, 2020 - By 

    Last Saturday, after exercising and showering before my busy Saturday of reading on the couch, I went shopping in my yarn stash. I found some yarn for hat and scarf sets and other small projects…

    AND…

    I found some pound skeins of black yarn. Along with the bag of odd balls that my friend’s family gave me and the ones I already have, I could make the multicolor afghan I’ve been thinking about. Although, instead of measuring the lengths of black, I will start the afghan with two rows of black and then continue working with one of the balls which all start with a color and end in black. An open shell stitch would show off the colors and make it interesting.

    Black ties all the colors together nicely. Many yarn companies make color changing yarns and some of the combinations are striking. Why not make my own? Wool yarns or fancy yarns aren’t included, but ombre, color changing, are all included. This is a fun and different way of using up yarn. I plucked a ball of yarn out of the yarn bowl to start the ball rolling (bad yarn pun intended) and I wrapped black around it until I felt like changing colors, then kept alternating between a color and black. I use all of the color, then wind some black around.

    This is a work in progress because I need some additional colors to add to the mystery ball with black. Two full pound skeins of black with the colors interspersed should be enough or at least a good start. For the mystery ball that’s just yarn joined together, no amount is too short. If it can be joined (using the Russian join so it’s somewhat seamless) and it coordinates with the color it’s being added so – it’s included. Unlike the black and color balls, the mystery ball is solely color and colors are matched together as they are joined. In a run of three colors, the one in the middle coordinates with the ones on either end of it. When I’m ready to use that ball, I will use it two stranded with a lighter weight black for as large of a square I can make and then complete the rest of the rounds in black.

    I’m enjoying making the mystery balls, though I need to finish a few more projects so I will have yarn to add! Double the fun of creating them and working with them! Stay tuned…

    Happy crocheting!

  • Crochet - Mystery balls - Odd balls - stashbusting

    Ode to a mystery chunky yarn

    January 14, 2020 - By 

    One of the benefits of working on multiple projects at a time is that I don’t get bored with crocheting. Also, since I’m working on afghans, after a short time, they are too large to be portable. Enter the simple, functional and humble scarf.

    I started another scarf because I needed a portable project and the other scarf I’m working on is in my desk at work. When I was sorting through my working yarn stash, I found a chunky marled gray yarn. Someone obviously didn’t like it. There was a bit of it, unbanded wound into cakes in a torn plastic bag. One bit was double stranded, likely because the previous crafter had an idea that just didn’t work out. I can definitely relate to that.

    How it came to be in my stash is probably through a thrift store, as the yarn was still in a torn plastic bag. I like it and I like working with it – a lot. Generally, bulky yarns aren’t my favorite, but there’s something about this yarn that drew me in. An N/9.00 mm hook, a simple shell stitch and the scarf was almost halfway done in about 75 minutes. What I don’t like about this yarn is that there’s no band, so I can’t buy more or even find an equivalent to an older, discontinued yarn.

    My hope is that the future recipient enjoys wearing it as much as I am enjoying working with the yarn.

    Happy crocheting!