• afghans - Crochet - Odd balls - Scrap yarns

    An artistic proposition

    March 29, 2020 - By 

    There must have been a sale on Caron one pound skeins. That’s the only reason I can think of as to why I have four of these pound behemoths, in light blue, in my house. I have been thinking of the project where I could use black and a color and all the odd balls that I have. Why not put the light blue to good use? As part of my “inheritance,” a friend’s family gave me a couple of large bags of yarn and craft supplies.  There were full skeins but also lots of small balls of yarn that added to the stash that I already have. I think this would be an interesting at home project, at least to try to get things together to make something since we are sheltering in place. It takes a while to find everything up. The light blue could be interesting. I was thinking of cream or a tan, but why not use what I have on hand – lots of light blue.

    It will be either a failure or a great artistic work. Light blue isn’t necessarily the neutral that I was thinking of when I first envisioned this project but this will be interesting and colorful. What I need to figure out is how long the stretches of light blue will be, the odd balls all vary in length and I will try to use mainly worsted weight yarn for this project. I’m going to have to crochet a row of in the stitch I want to use, then measure it and cut some lengths of that.

    I’m liking this plan. I did like this plan…

    After more thought, I have some longer lengths of yarn and enough to make more than one scrapghan – or planned colorful afghans, as some of the yarn that I’m using isn’t scraps. Instead of using the same amount of yarn for the solid color, I might make a large granny square afghan in varying shades of blue with the light blue being the main color and another with rows of a coordinating color with black as the main color. For the black with rows of color, it may be the same color in two rows or it might be a different yet complementary color.

    When I first had this idea the sky was sunny and bright and I took that as a sign to work it out, but as I sketched things out and started with a few rows to get the idea some shape in my head, I think the two afghans will definitely use up more yarn. I have enough blue that it could be an afghan by itself, but I wanted to give it a little more pizzazz.

    I made the plan, then I didn’t like that plan. As I was working on an afghan already in progress, I decided to just take small amounts of yarn from my oddballs bowl starting with the smallest amount first making a round, then working a couple of rows of the light blue, then as many complete rounds of the next color, three rows of light blue and so on. The yarn was tempting me, because the bowl is near where I sit and crochet in the living room. I found a few colors to use and plan to use this method until I run out of coordinating colors (that’s a loose interpretation). Then I will finish it off with a few rows of navy. Some balls of the yarn are too small, maybe only a yard or so, but I am not going to throw those away. I joined a couple of the leftover bits of yarn that I used together in a ball. As I looked through the remainder bowl, I found some other small bits that I will add to this mystery ball of yarn. The result of this will be a colorful mystery ball. Adding lots of colors to this mystery ball will take time to some match up. The colors that that I’m selecting for the scrapghan in progress coordinate with the light blue main color. the small odds and ends are ones that I can’t bare to part with, due to my “frugal” nature.  I can just keep adding to the mystery ball until I have enough for an afghan, which might take a while.

    A few days ago I was on a Zoom meeting and since other people were showing their dogs and cats, I showed off the project I was working on. Someone asked me if I had enough yarn to keep me occupied. I laughed and said, “yes, and I already have a few projects planned.” The afghans are only the tip of the iceberg, I have yarn ready to make a couple of hats which likely will be finished by the end of the week or at least one set and more progress made on the other things I’m working on.

    Crocheting keeps me calm and now that I’m sheltering in place like many people in other parts of the world, I’m just doing more of it.

    Happy crocheting!

  • afghans - Donations - hats - Odd balls

    Social distancing and crocheting

    March 19, 2020 - By 

    Like many metropolitan areas I’m going to be working from home for a few weeks because of COVID-19. I’ve been planning and have much of what I need, I bought toilet paper when it was on sale several weeks ago, because it was a really great sale and I have a lot of food in my freezer so I’m good. There are at least two bags of coffee beans in my cabinet, as well as lots of tea and hot chocolate.

    Now is the time to work on some additional projects that I have wanted to work on. One is to make something for myself. This is in flux, every time I look at a pattern or see something in a magazine. I have the yarn, I just haven’t found the right pattern.

    Another is to join some of the oddballs and scraps of yarn into one giant magic ball with black between each color. I either want to make an afghan in an open shell or a giant granny square. I would rather have a lot of color for this scrapghan and have it pulled together with the black. Though the amounts of the color will change, I want to have the same length of the black between each one. This requires a bit of planning. How many yards do I want to have between each color. Depending on the pattern I might want enough for a third or a half of a full row of the shells. This would be easier to determine than if I make a giant granny square because as more rounds are added, it takes more yarn to complete a side.

    There are a couple of projects that I have finished since my office closed. I completed a hat to go with a set. Completed a scarf to go with a set, picked up an afghan that had been just sitting by my favorite chair in my living room. I generally work on it during a weekly conference call, but it was shorter than the usual hour, so I only finished a couple of rows. It may get promoted to my movie watching chair in the living room when I finish the other afghan, so I can finish it sooner.

    The yarn that I have to make a skirt or dress for myself is just teasing me. I’m not quite sure what I want to make. Do I want to make a two piece or a dress. If a two piece a skirt and a drapey vest or sweater or poncho – what type of skirt? Too many decisions. A few weeks ago I borrowed from crochet pattern books from the library just because it’s the library and they are free. Since I have time on my hands with so many things cancelled, I could actually look through the books, Pinterest and Ravelry. There is something out there. When in doubt – work on a sure thing!

    I finally wound the yarn I dyed a few weeks ago with Easter Egg dye and found a bag of eight hanks Lorna’s Laces Bullfrogs & Butterflies in Cat Bordhi’s Ahah! I figured since I had the ball winder and swift out, why not make it worth the effort. In the yarn I dyed, I chose one to use for the hat, as it has once section where the colors blended together more than the others and there’s a section of dark orange/rust. I didn’t wind all of the Lorna’s that I found, just enough for a hat and scarf this time around. I’ll save the other four for another time.

    In the meantime, there are more than enough project to work on and I’m making progress on my crochet 2020 goals. Be safe everyone, happy crafting and enjoy your period of social distancing!

    Progress as of March 19: Seven completed scarves, two hat and scarf sets, one afghan, and one hat for a set
    In progress: Three afghans

  • Dyeing - trial and error

    A Dyeing Adventure

    March 7, 2020 - By 

    Last year, I dyed some yarn with Kool-Aid. I liked the yarn and the colors that I used. After Easter of 2019, I purchased some Paas kits on sale to dye some yarn. For the experiment, I used Valley Yarns Berkshire 100 Gram Hank from Webs. The wool and mohair blend is very similar to undyed Brown Sheep yarn. It’s been the base of a couple of dyeing projects that I have done – with coffee, Kool-Aid and Easter egg dye.

    This time, I let my lovely assistant, my mother, pick the colors that I would use. Charged with selecting four colors, she picked some and made an educated guess as to what one would look like. To give as much a of color variety as possible I bought four of the nine packs of color to make the yarn more vibrant. When using Easter egg dye selecting the colors isn’t always easy especially with the nine pack because you don’t know what the colors actually will look like until they are mixed with the vinegar and water. For my purposes, I didn’t add any water, just four tablets of the same color and vinegar to almost the brim of the squirt bottle. The four tablets that I used ended up being a light green, a darker/Kelly green, aqua and pink. I asked my assistant if she had a preference for the color placement and she said “don’t put the greens together.”

    I soaked the yarn before I squeezed out as much of the water as possible, laid the hanks on a heavy plastic bag to dye the yarn, then began. The colors were more vibrant than the Kool-Aid ones, but it could be the color choices or also that I didn’t soak the yarn I dyed with the drink mix long enough. When I had used all of the dye, I covered the hanks with the plastic, then rolled up the yarn and microwaved the roll on medium for about 45 minutes in 10 to 15 minute increments in a glass dish. Then I let the bundle rest to cool, rinsed the yarn, squeezed it out and then hung the hanks to dry.

    The colors were still vibrant and didn’t fade a lot once dry. The yarn is completely dry, but I haven’t had a chance to wind it up yet. Four hanks, which is 560 yards (140 yards/100g), is enough to make a hat and a scarf. The yarn from this experiment still feels soft. As last time, one of the skeins had an interesting difference in how the colors blended in one section, so I’m reserving that bit to do the hat. The pink and light green blended to make a rust/brown section.

    The fall Kool-Aid yarn dyeing experiment yielded a nice hat and scarf. One hank that was a little different and that was reserved for the hat. It worked well, the pattern that I used for the scarf curled a bit in the but I blocked it (a first for me) and the scarf looks fabulous. This was the first complete hat and scarf set that I made toward my goal this year. Thinking back, I need to look and see if I used the yarn that I dyed a couple of years ago with the Easter Egg dye, if not, I’ll have to make something.

  • afghans - Crochet - hats - red scarves

    Staying warm

    February 18, 2020 - By 

    On Friday, a pile of warm winter gear rested in a chair because it was so heavy that it pulled my magnetized hook down when they were draped on the hanger with my coat. As I waited for the bus on Valentine’s Day, I wore a hat, a scarf inside my coat, and one outside wrapped around my face. Only my eyes could be seen. I was comfortable on the bus I had to take the outer scarf off, unzip my coat and take off my gloves.

    There were several people who didn’t wear hats or even pull up their hoods as a choice. Five degrees with a negative wind chill is not the time to look cute. I saw a couple in a car looking at me as I was in my blue standing mummy glory. Whatever! I looked back at them, didn’t care. I was warm. Then I thought about the people who don’t have the option of being in a car or don’t want to wear a hat.

    Extremely cold days make me want to continue my efforts to make hats and scarves. A scarf can serve a lot of purposes and contribute to body heat. I’m still enjoying crocheting and steadily working on the 2020 goals both the quantifiable ones and the underlying one of using up yarn in my stash. My love of crochet and seeking out new color combinations and techniques hasn’t waned. While I’m not a fan of hot weather, I do like people to be warm and like to share my handiwork with others. Share – not sell, for me crocheting is a vocation and a form of meditation.

    Completed as of Presidents’ Day 2020: Five scarves, one afghan and one hat
    In progress: Three afghans and one scarf