These notes look like chicken scratch – I understand them, but the notes that I have in my pattern books aren’t for anyone else – just like when you are sharing a recipe with someone that you have memorized, you wouldn’t just give someone a list of ingredients and say go for it and expect the same results. To me, this means something and I would use this again to remind myself how I started a particular scarf. There are so many patterns that I know that I just sometimes look at a yarn and think that would be great…

Want to get it right this time Want to get it right this time Want to get it right this time “Complicated” – Poi Dog Pondering This is how I feel when I have to frog projects and rip things out. Only to have to rip out a section and start again. I tried a new-ish stitch pattern. I liked how it turned out the first time I tried it with a different yarn and thought that the stitch pattern would look nice in a color changing yarn. It did but the yarn was a heavier weight and made it…

I am currently excited and infatuated with stripes in scarves. I do like self-striping yarns, but I want to be able to control the stripes. Though scarves are on the menu for this year there are still small bits of yarn remaining that will make some interesting stripes. When I first made some scarves years ago, I just used an eight-ounce skein of Red Heart or some other yarn and that was enough to make a scarf. I generally used eight ounces as my rule of thumb for making a scarf, which worked if I was doing something that wasn’t…

What I have learned during my sabbatical year which could also be called my year of scarves and baby hats is that my gauge for my foundation chain is very firm and depending on the stitch pattern, it’s a bit too tight. To combat this, I chain more loosely or need to go up a hook size for the foundation chain. This is only an issue if I am making scarves with a long starting row, several wide horizontal rows, instead of creating the scarf with lots of short vertical rows. I am solidly a worsted /Aran weight girl, bulky…

Failures in crafting don’t mean that we give up; failures could lead to better ideas and greater inspiration.

“She didn’t get it from me.” I was with my mother and a lady we know complimented me on my hat and scarf set. She said I did a good job and then looked at my mother. My mother said as she often does: “she didn’t get that from me. I have never known how to do that, my mother either.” My mother is a talented lady in many ways, and has never crocheted nor showed a desire to learn, BUT she is supportive and my champion. She bought me my first full set of hooks, which I still have,…

Many of my friends who work with yarn are knitters. I participate in a regular group and sometimes I’m the only crocheter there. This doesn’t bother me. I’ve been going to meetings long enough that they just tease me about how fast I crochet. I don’t think I go particularly fast, it’s a medium speed. Not everyone likes to work on the same type of projects or use the same type of yarn, which makes me think of even though there are a lot of people who like to craft for charity, they don’t choose the same types of recipients.…

Yarns speak, we must listen and make what the yarn wants to become.

Many people ask me to make things for them or for others and I politely tell them no. It’s not that I don’t enjoy making things, I do. There are at least six WIPs (works in progress) at tucked away in various places. I love having dozens of items to donate to people in need, but I like to make the items on my terms. After a long challenging day at work or even during my lunch break, I like to be able to have something calming and relaxing to do. When I finish, I finish. Crocheting is not as…

One of my goals for this crocheting sabbatical year is to try different techniques one of which is cabling. My first attempt which was based off of a tutorial I saw on YouTube has not sold me on the idea of cabling. In my crochet reference library I found a pattern book with a variety of crocheted Celtic cables. Knowing how to do front and back post work is a foundation of working cables. I worked on a sample which I was going to use as a scarf and I’m not excited about the outcome. There are some other patterns…