Urban Frugal

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  • UFOs and WIPs no more!

    UFOs no more…

    Many times people talk about WIPs – works in progress or UFOs – unfinished objects. While I may have five or six projects in progress at a time, I do finish them. If I abandon a project, I try not to let something languish too long. This past week, I finished several projects and then started a few others. Scarves are the most portable projects but generally I may have anywhere from two to four afghans in the works as well. Here are a few of the finished projects from this past week.

     

    Navy is my favorite color. Then any shade of blue will do. Then I like neutrals – dark brown, black, but who am I kidding? Give me blue, blue, blue!

    Yet, when I’m working on different crocheting projects, I choose colors that I may never wear but are bright and fun. Just because someone is in need, doesn’t mean that they can only have drab colors. Some organizations request colors that won’t show dirt very easily, like cream or white. And while I don’t generally work in white, because it would be too difficult to clean, a tan or khaki color won’t show dirt as much and that’s about as light as I go. (For a gift where I know the recipient has access to a washing machine, that’s different.) There are lots of other colors that are bright, fun and fabulous and will make people happy. Though I’m not a fan of pink, I will select a few pink hues or a rich magenta that will brighten someone’s day as well as warm their neck.

    As I’ve mentioned before, scarves are projects where I can do a test run on a yarn to determine whether or not I really like the yarn for a larger project. I might not make an afghan out of a color changing cotton and viscose yarn, but it made a lovely scarf. A shocking pink afghan might not be to everyone’s tastes but in a scarf it can provide just the amount of whimsical cheer that is needed in the bleak, dark winter in Chicago.

     

  • I like this scarf

    I like this scarf, I like this yarn and the one remaining ball that I have from the project is going directly into the donation bag. This is a tape like linen yarn which changes from a flattish cotton tape to a sleek satiny section and changes colors throughout. The colors are fabulous and this made a wonderful scarf with incredible drape. Since I choose a shell pattern, it will be warm but I wouldn’t want to use this for an afghan.

    I purchased the yarn in a sale online which I just decided to try because the “price was right” as my father says about a deal that is too good to pass up. The yarn which is cotton and viscose and a #3 could possibly be used for a shell or a light sweater.

    There are several projects that I am working on now. One afghan I keep at work to crochet during lunch, another that I started because everything else in the works was too large or not enough to work on during my knitting meetup group and a scarf that is the perfect purse sized project. Unless I really don’t like the yarn, I finish the project, and end up finishing several things all about the same time. My current count is 5 afghans in progress and one scarf since I finished the other that I was working on. When projects become too unwieldy to carry every day, I just have a larger project that I can leave in one place. During lunch, I can complete three hats or a scarf a week. Since I donate afghans as well, I figured, why not just keep a larger project, that I don’t have to transport as often.

    Some of the things that I have in progress are shown below. Generally, on the first day, I get a good burst of crocheting energy and lots gets done, then the items get added to the rotation and finished in good time. “Good time” depends on how excited I am or interested in the project which makes me want to work on it more frequently.

    Even though I have several projects in the works, I am always looking to see what my next project will be and which yarns from other projects can be combined to make an afghan or a scarf. I had some yarn in a couple of bags in different places and then realized that I could combine the colors with some bridge solids to make something interesting. I haven’t decided how the afghan will start, but these colors are a good start for something new.

  • Appreciating mom

    Mother’s Day was a few days ago and some of the ads that I saw for craft stores and supplies were targeting mothers. Seeing those always makes me laugh because though my mother has always supported me in crocheting and other crafts that I have pursued, she never crocheted.

    When I was eight and decided that I wanted to crochet, my mother asked my aunt (my uncle’s wife) what I needed, then took me to the store to let me choose the yarn I wanted. She has always supported me and still supports me in my pursuits. She critiques my work (color choices) and tells other people about my crocheting and other projects.

    Later, after I began to show some talent for crochet, she was added to crochet magazine, book and yarn lists because she would buy gifts for me. Since buying my first materials, she bought my first full crochet hook set (which I still own), yarn basket and other accessories over the years. She will tell people that I can read patterns and charts and that I’m really good at crocheting, but she would rather play bridge. She has no desire to learn to crochet and said that when she was in college, a lady at the company she worked for (one of the owners) tried to teach her to knit on company time. She tried, but never took to it. Just because she couldn’t knit (or crochet) didn’t mean that she didn’t appreciate others’ work, it just wasn’t the work she chose or liked to do.

    Not every mom is creative or even supportive, so I am glad that my mother has always supported me and encouraged me in my pursuits. Mother’s Day is only one day in which we celebrate mothers but we should also celebrate the mothers (and step-moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc.) who are also our greatest cheerleaders every day, not only the second Sunday in May when we celebrate them.

  • All bets are off!

    All bets are off!

    When it comes to buying materials or ingredients for things, I’m all for saving money and buying what you need, except when it comes to yarn (and ground beef). When I buy ground beef, I can always make something with it, pasta sauce, tacos, burgers or make extra taco meat and freeze individual portions for a meal at a later date.

    This is kind of how I feel about yarn. While I do have a sizeable working cache of yarn, I do reach a point where I use most of it up and have to replenish or find something to break up the monotony of a project. This year I have made a commitment to make 40 scarves as a personal goal so I have been buying up yarn in scarf sized lots – especially for untested, new yarns. Rarely do I abandon a project because a scarf is a low stakes project and I will generally finish a project if I like the yarn unless it is wonky or terrible. I may not use the yarn for a project in the future, but I will like it enough, there’s the possibility I will purchase more.

    The age old question arises – how much is too much yarn. I belong to a few crochet groups on Facebook and there are some devoted to certain types of yarn. Mostly the acquisition of the yarn, because there are more pictures of yarn hauls than of finished projects. Then there are posts that people will share of what another person has generously gifted them and there is a picture of the haul.

    People have given me hauls of yarn and I will either use it or share it with other crafters. There are some yarns that I don’t like using. Currently I have five works in progress – some I work on in various places, such as during lunch at work, so I leave this growing afghan in a bag under my desk. I have in my crochet basket by my bed, another by my favorite chair, a small portable scarf that will fit in my purse and an afghan I just started at my knitting/crocheting group this week – solely because my other projects were too large and unwieldy to work on at the time (and I like to work on scarves during intermissions and talks, not in a group).

    I don’t think there is too much yarn, if you are actively using it. There are times when I slow down on my active purchasing, but if an incredible sales comes along or there is a yarn I want to try out, then I will get it. I won’t refuse yarn and I won’t pass up a great sale, especially knowing I will use the yarn.

  • When to give up

    Giving up on this one

    Everyone talks about and shows what they are currently working on, but what about those items that you have put in “time out” or have tried to forget about because they were so painful? I’m not talking about those first projects when you were first getting the hang of crocheting or knitting, but the ones that you had high hopes for and ambitiously thought… this will be great. Facebook, Pinterest and scores of sites on the internet are filled with beautiful work crafted by skilled crocheters. Even the trials and tests of patterns weren’t perfect the first time.

    What happens to those? Last time, I mentioned that I was giving up on a project because the yarn was too splitty. There is also some yarn that I purchased from a thrift store and I think the donor had unraveled the yarn from a project that had several color changes, because what I thought was a small ball of yarn with one long strand, was really a ball of strings wound together. I used some in a project and then I just put the rest in the donation bag.

    When projects don’t work out, many people don’t often talk about them. I think that the mistakes and foibles should be on display so that other people see that all crafters don’t have superpowers they are people who struggle and get frustrated in their craft as well. As long as you keep crafting and moving forward, that is all that matters.

  • On my hook

    Here are some photos of the recent projects I have been working on. The yarn that I dyed with Easter Egg dye and was all dyed together yielded an interesting dye pattern. I am fascinated how this turned out and will try this again. I liked the yarn, which I purchased at Webs.

    The remainder variegated yarn that was too much to add to my mystery ball without being overpowering have been put together in this colorful afghan. Instead of completing a certain number of rounds in this large granny square afghan, I complete as many rows as I can. There are a couple of colors that have an odd number of rounds or incomplete rounds. The black pulls everything together. I wasn’t sure about this at first, but as I have progressed through this afghan and tried to go smallest amounts of variegated to largest, it’s starting to grow on me.

    There were several reds and variegated red skeins in my working stash. I decided to make a mitered granny afghan with large swaths of red separating the variegated sections. It’s shaping up well, though I didn’t have enough of the red that I started to use, so fortunately I was using a non-dyelotted yarn from a big manufacturer and just bought a bit more to finish up this  one. It’s fun only working on two sides and it works up quickly.

    Everything isn’t all roses in crochetland. I have a scarf that I have been working on and I have decided to abandon it because the plies of the yarn are too “splitty.” I have tried different hooks and a different stitch pattern. I think this was just a defective skein. Twisting it just a little bit more has made it better, but I’ve put it aside too long and it’s been floundering for several weeks. (Generally, I complete a scarf a week, along with working on other projects, so I’m done with it.) I’ve had it for a while and it was a gift, so I will just take my hook out and put it in a bag for donation. Someone else might not have the same issue that I have with the yarn. It’s ok, but there are so many other great yarns that I have that I don’t want to waste time on a project that I don’t enjoy.

  • LYS Day

    Saturday, April 21, is the first Local Yarn Store Day.

    Go out and support your local yarn shop! It’s not about need or greed, it’s about shopping local. There is always more space in your yarn stash. For those who have a yarn store in their neighborhood… treasure it and patronize it. I’m still scouting out a new LYS closer to my home, since my favorite closed a couple of years ago, and I always encourage people to support their local businesses.

    Go to the TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) site for a list of participating shops.

  • Project planning

    To plan or not to plan… That is the question.

    Often, when I begin an afghan I don’t purchase all of the yarn at one time, unless it is a solid or variegated that I have become smitten with and plan to use.

    Generally, what happens is,  I begin a project with some yarn that I have in my working yarn bins (completely different from my stash) and hopefully fish out enough to complete the project.

    Another scenario is that I have selected too much yarn, in that case the remaining yarn goes back into the bin or I decide that I am going to start something and see how much I complete before running out of yarn, then I go to the reserve and see what will work. Since I buy many neutral colors to use for afghans and also use many non-dyelotted brands of yarn, this works well, especially if I need just a yard or so to complete the project.

    Then there is the third type of project which requires me to go to the store and purchase something suitable to go with the rest of the project. This doesn’t happen often, because I try to plan and have more than enough – sometimes a skein or so remaining which I can use for another project.

    My method would probably drive some people mad, but I look at it as a way to use up the yarn that I have in interesting and unique ways. When there is too much left from a project, but not enough for a scarf and too much to add to the yarn bowl for future mystery ball use, I will make afghans with stripes or bold swaths of color. When as many complete rows as I can finish are done, then I take the remainder and add it to the yarn bowl. I try not to waste yarn. When it happens, its because it is too twisted, or knotted, so I toss it.

    Making an afghan and sometimes a scarf is like cooking, just throw some complimentary spices together and see what happens. In this case, using complimentary yarns will yield a n interesting project. This picture shows some variegated yarns that I am using for a granny square afghan. The plan is to complete as many rows of a particular color as I can and then each section of color is separated by 3 rows of black yarn. Next post, after I have completed a few more rows, I will show the work in progress…

    Fellow crafters – do you always plan your projects or play chicken when you run out of yarn?

     

  • Possibilities

    Yarn and a hook are possibilities.

    There are 10, 080 minutes in a day. How many of them do we spend doing things we don’t necessarily want to do? Like waiting for something or traveling to a place? Reading while on a bus works for some, unless you get motion sickness.

    Of the 1440 minutes in a day, I spend 45-60 of those crocheting. Some days more and some less but every day I make time to crochet. During my lunch break at work and also during talks or large group seminars where there is a crowd and I’m just listening are opportune times to get a few rows done. When I watch television, I’m generally working on a project. In a group setting, especially with my regular knitting and crocheting group I can be more social if I am crocheting than if I’m reading a book. It is more open than being closed off with a book. Weekdays, I may crochet less and weekends more but several hours a week, there’s a hook in my hand.

    For me, it takes about four hours to make a scarf if the stitch pattern isn’t too complicated. Over the course of a week I can make a scarf. A baby hat can be completed in one sitting. Of course life and other obligations sometimes interfere and some weeks I’m more productive, but as long as there’s some progress, it’s not an issues, especially since it’s not a race and any day where I have crocheted, I have been productive. I’m sure I’m like other crafters and the only thing that seems to cooperated and work out is your craft.

    People often ask – “where do you find the time?” I have the same amount of time that everyone else does, I just choose to use some of that time to crochet.

  • Unveiling

    The shower gift was a big hit. Here is a picture of the baby blanket and hat. The blanket is to use now and is a 38 inch square in a washable white yarn in a shell stitch. The hat is  for later – sized for a 3-6 month old child so it can be used in the fall.

     

    The two color scarf made it to a strong finish. I decided to do a border, so that the future wearer won’t snag the yarn on the side where the colors were changed. I didn’t have enough of either color left to do a complete border, so I did one half of it in one color and the other in the other color, which works well together and isn’t obtrusive. This two color scarf is a good option for random balls of odd skeins I see and want to work with in the future.