Two weeks ago it hit me, crochet project fatigue. I’m ready to make something larger. For the past decade or more I have been occupied with making afghans between 10-20 per year. When I decided to take a break this year for a crocheting sabbatical and only focus on technique, hats and scarves, I wanted to step back and not concentrate on large projects. When I decided not to make afghans this year. I thought that 50 scarves, and 60 hats were a manageable goal for the year. Well, not only was it manageable, but achievable. The new goal of…

Ten adult sized hat and scarf sets. That is part of the new goal. Since I have completed 57 little red hats and 50 scarves, I need a new challenge. The new red hat goal will be 75;  10 hat and scarf sets. Two sets are already complete and I’m working on more little red hats.  This doesn’t seem like a big enough goal. A big goal would be 60 scarves and 10 hat and scarf sets. It is possible. I want possible, yet challenging. New goal: 75 scarves 10 hat and scarf sets 75 little red hats In 2019,…

A few weeks ago, I found a crochet-a-long for an afghan that piqued my interest because the center section would allow me to make a creative top down hat. I made a hat with a few modifications to the center section of the afghan because I didn’t want it to be too big. It was ok and on the smaller side, but the next one I made worked out beautifully, then I decided to make a third with a change in the pattern – same basic premise and it also turned out well. As I’ve mentioned before, patterns are like…

Forty nine completed scarves as of today, July 18, 2019. My goal was to make and give away 50 scarves this year. I have 49 completed scarves. I don’t know how that happened. This has happened before where I just finish something and then begin a new project or two after putting the last one away and not thinking about my goal being met. I guess I just lost count. The way that I discovered that I had two additional scarves was when I decided to consolidate my storage and put them all into one container. I counted the finished…

Costa Rica was great! I had a relaxing time and saw monkeys, iguanas, colorful magpies, lizards, raccoons, pelicans, vultures and more. We stayed at a resort near the forest and Pacific ocean which I considered glamping because we were so far away from a town and I’m definitely a city girl. There was a lot of time to relax. I preferred sitting in the shade near the ocean where there were boats, birds, crabs, monkeys and other sights to occupy my time as I crocheted. For those who have been following I was wondering how much yarn to take on…

In a few days I am leaving for Costa Rica and I am getting ready for my trip. I still have a degree of uncertainty about how much yarn to bring, but I have decided to bring enough for a few hats (5 skeins) and enough yarn to make 6 scarves. I was thinking five until I started reading more about travel times. I can look out the window and be engaged with other people when I’m crocheting. Reading is a closed activity, whereas crocheting allows me to be able to still talk to people. Plus, the ride from the…

There are times when you abandon a project and can’t even unwind it because the yarn doesn’t unravel well. I was working on a scarf that I had set aside and forgot the pattern and when I started working on it again, I did something different. The different wasn’t really noticeable but the yarn wasn’t working well with that pattern. When I tried unraveling it, it snapped apart. The yarn worked better with an openwork pattern rather than shells and cables. I don’t know the name of the yarn, I bought it at JoAnn in a value bag and it’s…

In a few weeks I am going on a trip to Costa Rica and staying at an all-inclusive resort. I have started making a list of things that I need to get that I normally wouldn’t take on vacation – extra sun screen, bug spray and maybe some tablets for stomach issues. What I am having trouble figuring out is how much yarn should I take with me. A couple of years ago I went on a cruise and we had several days at sea. I didn’t plan well and ran out of yarn on the trip. There were activities…

I few weeks ago I reached my halfway mark for scarves – 25 out of 50. Last week, I finished my 30th hat. Though hats are smaller than scarves, the hat milestone meant more to me since I haven’t been making hats as long. (Or at least hats that I felt I really liked.) Over half of the hats that I have made this year are top down. I think I prefer bottom up hats – start working at the brim, upward and then decreasing for the crown. I have figured out the math to make several interesting patterns so…

I have two yarns I want to put together and I was trying to maximize the size of the scarf based on the amount of yarn that I have. I was pre-planning with avoiding yarn chicken if you will and this fear of not having enough yarn combined with the desire to not buy a jumbo skein just to complete a row was at the forefront of my mind. I started with a pattern in mind, then I realized that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to do that, so I started again, realizing I wouldn’t have enough yarn for that,…