I haven’t posted in a while, but that does not mean I haven’t been crocheting.
I have been working with a lot of different yarns, I bought some, and was gifted some on a trip (used some of that up already). I’ve been using some that I already had by creating new color combinations with different colorways of one of my favorite yarns with oddballs and making fun color combos. I had to take a little break because I needed to make a shower gift in a hurry. It’s the end of June and most excitingly… I have passed the halfway point of my hat and scarf goal, made a single hat and also made two red scarves. Things are going well, summer has just begun which means lots of outside concerts and movies where I can sit and watch and crochet.
Here are a few things that I’ve been working on…
I went into my working stash and pulled out some yarn that I bought at a great discount. After a test run, I bought a lot, so I try to only use a bit of it each year until it’s used up. That way groups won’t get six or seven sets in the same color in a donation batch. The browns (Lion Brand, Shimmerie – discontinued) was my most recent at-work project until I only had a few inches to work on and brought it home to finish. The multi-colored self striping yarn is Red Heart’s discontinued Colorscape in Rome. I really like this yarn, and it was discontinued when I happened upon it. I’m looking for a similar yarn that I would like.
Premier makes great yarn and I buy from them frequently. Puzzle is one of my current favorites, their sister company, Universal Yarn also makes Major which is the same weight, just different colors and price point. I have a smallish stash of leftover oddballs from projects because one ball of Puzzle or Major won’t quite make a set. So, depending on the pattern, I have varying amounts of the yarn leftover. I decided to take a few colors and use them to make one-of-a-kind colorful sets. Puzzle uses the similar colors but doesn’t follow the same color changes as Major. I had a bit of some yarn from Ice Yarns, a Turkish company. It’s very similar to Puzzle and Major, but doesn’t have specific names and as it happens with me… It was discontinued. The weight is about the same, so I included some of the Ice yarn with the Puzzle/Major combos. I like the variety. Most of all, the yarns are machine wash and dry and soft. I could buy just another ball of the Puzzle but the dye lots may not be the same. The experiments with the colors were interesting.
There are a few more small balls that I wound into cakes to get a better idea of how much I have and what I can combine into sets. For one set, I played a bit of yarn chicken, and I might just make a few warm hats with what I have combined with a Puzzle yarn that’s in shades of gray, to save me from the frustration.
Overall, I like the outcome and use up the bits and pieces (something I learned from my grandmothers, not to be wasteful).
Happy crocheting!
The first set worked up well, so I wanted to try again with different yarn in different colors to see if I still liked it. For the second attempt, I worked the scarf vertically in a dark charcoal and black and white marl yarn. Halfway through the scarf, I grew tired of the color changes every other row.
While the houndstooth pattern takes a while to change colors for an overall project, this pattern has possibilities for fun, colorful designs especially to use mini skeins or oddballs for hats and accents in scarves. The stitches were fine and took a while but remembering or being able to find the single crochet in the dark rows to make a double crochet became mind numbing and I know that several rows aren’t perfect but they worked out, regardless of the non-alternating flub in a few spaces.
Bulky yarn isn’t my favorite but I was gifted two giant balls and figured why not make a lapghan in a granny rectangle? It’s working up nicely and bulky yarn gives an almost immediate sense of accomplishment. A lady asked me about blanket yarn when I was buying yarn in a large store and I said I had an idea for a project, but it’s not my favorite. The yarn was gifted to me. It’s soft, feels like velvet and is not too difficult to rip out, if necessary. It’s just not something I would choose, it’s looking nice so far.
After a few false starts, the afghan I started making using one of my 
Before we get too far into the New Year, I need to share my totals for 2022:
It’s Halloween and that means that there are 55 days until Christmas! Time to get moving on those holiday gifts!
If you haven’t planned what you are making for a winter holiday, then do it, because it may take a while to get the yarn you need. ALSO – pro-tip – don’t buy just enough of what you need, if you can, purchase an extra skein of yarn. Depending on your gauge and tension, you might use more than the pattern calls for or the yardage may vary from the amount in the skein or hank. Yarn chicken around the holidays is not fun!
Using yarn that I was familiar with was a good plan. Different colors don’t really change the functionality of the yarn but different weights do, so all of the yarn I took with me was yarn I was familiar with, so I could just dig in my bag and work on a project. As I was leaving home, at the last moment, I threw a couple extra skeins of yarn in my bag and they came in handy so I had enough for the entire trip.
The plan was very good using untried yarns can be frustrating Since my return, I haven’t completed as many projects. I have made a hat, but I’ve also restarted a scarf with a new or yarn, and gave up on a project with another new yarn (that yarn is now in the donation bag). Also, I’ve been combining some odds and ends to make more hats, and started a couple of red scarves.
During 10-day trip I was able to finish nine and a half hat and scarf sets. The last half of the scarf was completed once I returned home but I still consider it part of the vacation crocheting projects and the cross country train trip put me at my goal of 100 sets! Whoo hoo!
A few of the most recent sets are shown here. Eight months of the year have passed and 90 completed sets – that’s an accomplishment! Wow! My uncle likes to joke that I am running a sweatshop…maybe he’s right.
I saw a yarn online and thought it would be interesting to try. It’s a nice red and black that I could use for the red scarves that I make. When I got it, I dove in and tried it. First attempt: I made a set, double stranded and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t quite as thick as I thought, but it wasn’t quite right using two strands, either. Second attempt, I tried one strand and made a set. 
It was okay then after starting, restarting and after the third start of a scarf – I’ve given up on it. I am just not going to use it anymore. After several attempts on this third project, I put the partially completed project, the stopped project (which could be considered a test swatch) and all the rest that I bought into the donation bag for someone else to enjoy. There are just times when you need to give up on a yarn. I wanted to like it and in some ways I do, it’s soft and I like the colors, it’s just not fun to work with. Crocheting is about fun and relaxation for me and I was struggling. Not in the “I don’t like how this stitch looks” or “I think this would be better” inspired restarts that I am wont to do. This was, I made two projects and thought I would like it better if I tried something different the next time, well, I didn’t want to put myself through the abuse and I let it go. Very cathartic.
It’s not so easy when you find yarn that you think you will like and don’t because it ticks all the boxes, right weight, material, color. Buying online can be challenging because you can’t touch the yarn. Even when you try something new what you see in the store, you don’t know if you will like it or not, until you use it. It’s a chance we all take, which is why many people stick with the yarns they have used because crafting can be expensive.