Imagine...

...yourself making a baby blanket and...running out of yarn...again.  That's how my morning went.

I'm using yarn out of my stash and honestly, I thought I had enough of it.  I will have to pick up one more skein of it at the store, if I can find it.  Wish me luck.

Fiddling...

Yesterday, I felt like I just needed to crochet something.  It didn't matter what.  I just needed to crochet for a bit.  So I started with a purple square.  Nothing serious.  Not your typical square either.  Just rows of dc back and forth.  Then I wanted a motif of some kind.  So I ended up with a four petal flower or some sort.  Kind of ugly, but that's ok.  Then I messed around and around and around with trying to embellish the square.  I tried different edgings all around and then some just along the bottom.  I even tried a blanket stich around the edge and also a running stitch along the outer row.  I took photos of each of these (but I deleted them) and in the end...I decided that I liked my little square just as you see it.  Will I make any more of them?  Who knows.  It felt good to fiddle with my yarn yesterday and that's all that mattered.

Ripping It Out

Yesterday, I got in and got something done.  I ripped out my first attempt at the Crochet Mood Blanket.  You see, I didn't like it so I reworked it into smaller squares.

 This is what needed to be ripped out.  With a little bit of trial and error, I got it done.

 And this is what I ended up with.  After that, it got easy.

And now I have a bag of little balls of yarn that I can use on my "new" Crochet Mood Blanket.

Yarn Ends

I've started saving my yarn ends.  I don't know why.  Other than I see everyone else saving theirs.  Goodness knows, I have a lot of them that I just dump in the trash.  So tell me...what do you all do with them?

These are my ends from this morning.  A good pile started already.

Irritating

It's extremely irritating to work with a skein of yarn and little specks of a different color are located throughout the yarn.  In this case, the yarn specks are black and they are woven in amongst the white yarn so I can't just pick them out.  If I don't cut the yarn, then I'll have this black showing and that's not what I'm wanting to see in the finished product.  *sigh*  To say it's irritating is an understatement.

Slouchy Hat

After finishing up the Little White Christmas Tree, I made this Slouchy Hat.

 If you want to make one, you can read how I do it here.

 I used this yarn, provided by the lady.

And I ended up with the same thing that happened the last time I used this yarn....HIVES.  Great.

WIP Update - Dottie Angel Scrap Blanket

Here lately, my husband has a real knack for getting on my last nerve and then pinching that nerve until I'm about to explode.  And it's ALL MY FAULT.  Each and every time.  *sigh*  When that happens, I try to keep myself busy.  Last night, I kept myself so busy that I finished the 3rd panel of the Dottie Angel Scrap Blanket.

 I had Medium J hold it up for me since it's way taller than I am and almost impossible to take a photo of when it's lying on the floor.

Then I took care of those pesky yarn ends.  That way I don't have to deal with them later on.  I'm being such a good girl lately.  lol

Dazzle Aire Yarn Project(s)

Yesterday, while waiting through the 6 hour Dish Network installation at my home, I used up the first skein of the Dazzle Aire yarn that my friend brought to me and asked me to make her something out of.

 The first item I made was a basic scarf.

There is still one whole skein of this yarn left and also a WIP of some sort that needed to be frogged.

So, I set out frogging the WIP.  This yarn is fuzzy to some extent.  And it was constantly tangled up in the stitches around it.  The frogging experience ended up being a 2 hour ordeal.  But at least it's done now and the yarn is all rolled up in balls.  Now I just need to figure out what the next project will be with it.  I'm thinking a slouchy hat.

Next Project

Even though I still have two WIP's left to work on, I decided to start the next project on my list.

 A friend brought me a small gift bag of yarn that she had bought at a garage sale (as she liked the texture of it) and asked me to make her something out of it.  She didn't care what I made.  Personally, I've never seen this brand of yarn before and I was dazed when I read the label...it cost $1.16 per skein.  Wow!  Wonder how long this yarn was in someone's stash???

 There were 2 skeins of yarn and a partially worked piece in the bag.  The skeins are knitting worsted weight and contain only 4 oz. each, so they aren't very big.  The yarn is made of 60% Creslan and 40% Nylon.  I personally think they are kind of scratchy, but they do have a nice fuzzy texture if you like that sort of thing.

I started my friend a scarf out of this yarn.  It's just something basic and I'll put fringe on the ends.  If there's enough yarn left over, I'll make a hat to go with it.

Yarn Stash

Ok...I finally have all my yarn in one place (mostly...since I have a bag of it out by the couch where I'm working on it) so I am finally posting a photo of my yarn stash.  It also helps that Erin asked to see a photo of it.  :)  Thanks for motivating me Erin.

This stash takes a bit of explaining.

The two red tubs to the left contain some finished items.

The big box to the left has my blocking board sticking out of it.  It has skeins of yarn in it as well.  Plus there are two big tote bags on top of the box that also have yarn in it.  

The box with the yellow dot has finished items in it.  Sitting on top of it, the 2 baskets have patterns and hooks and needles in them.  Of the other two boxes, the bigger one has yarn in it and the smaller one has things like my pom pom maker, etc. in it.

The mesh bins on the right (one white - in front, and one black) are full of yarn.

The black and white bag on top of the mesh bins has what's left of my Simply Soft yarn in it.

That's my stash girls!  Sorry for the yucky photo though.  I should have probably cleaned up the area first.

What I'm Working On

After a very busy week and then catching up on housework this morning, I have been able to finally sit down with my yarn for a bit (while the laundry is being done).

 I made these white circles last week or so and have been waiting to put the faces on.  They are just simple circles starting with a magic circle.  I'm using Red Heart Super Saver yarn out of my stash.  The colors are black and white.  The hook size is an I.  These are eventually going to become a banner/bunting for my sister's Halloween party.  I actually wish I'd have made some for myself now.  I don't mind though.  There's always next year.

My inspiration came from this photo on the internet.  I didn't have a pattern but just guessed when I made them.  If you would like to make these and need some help, just message me and I'll post what I did.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!

Today is....."I Love Yarn Day"!!!!!!

I think I've found my new "favorite" holiday.  :)

Still Trying...

I'm still trying to find a couple of coordinating yarn colors to go with the yarn from my stash.  (This will be a Stash Buster Project...hopefully.)

 The yarn from my stash is shown above.

I'm wanting to make a baby sized blanket using the Fantasy Blanket pattern found here.  The pattern used 10 different colors of yarn and I'm no where near that yet.  I think I have enough of 5 of the colors above but I'm not sure.
**edited to add...it uses 12 different colors of yarn for the pattern.  sigh.  i might have to choose another pattern after all.**

I did buy 2 colors today so that makes 3 more that I need.  My only problem is trying to "match" the colors.  With the variegated yarn I'm using (pastel colors of yellow, pink, green and peach with white), I don't think I could successfully add purple and blue tones.  I'm not necessarily "matching" colors but more like trying to stay in the pastel range.  I plan to go downstairs in a bit and dig through my yarn stash again and see if I have anything else that might coordinate with what colors I already have.  I'm hoping I have some peach stashed away but I don't think so.  Anyway, I could really use some input from everyone on what they think.  Please and thanks.  :)

Scrap Yarn

I have a couple of sisters' that have amazing luck when it comes to finding bags of yarn at yard sales, thrift stores, etc..  I dug one of the bags out of my stash area last night.  I went through it and picked out some colors that worked together, then got rid of any discolored or dirty yarn, rewound the smaller bits and now I think I have a pile of it ready for a scrap baby blanket.  Now I have to decide what pattern I want to use.  I wonder if there's a good pattern for when you are using variegated yarn?

Pet Peeve

I don't have too many pet peeves but messed up yarn is one of my main ones.  I hate spending all that money and then have a problem with it.  When I was working on the scrap afghan, I kept having really thick sections of yarn in with the regular width and I didn't feel like cutting those sections out.

 Can you see the really thick stitch next to the regular ones?

 Look at that big fuzzy mess!

And there it is again!

This just kept happening.

Anyone else ever experience this???

Stash Buster - Mystery Yarn

 Last Summer, my sister, Lea bought me some yarn from a garage sale.  I dug this skein of yarn out of my stash today and decided to make something with it.  I have no idea what this yarn is, though.  Anyone know?

It's a very textured yarn, that's for sure.  I tried out a few patterns but you really couldn't see any detail, so I am making a basic baby blanket using dc stitches.  I'm on the 5th row now so it's going fairly quickly.  Once I get it done, I'll post a photo.

Oops! (again)

Remember my "Newest Project"?  The baby sized version of the Living Room Afghan?  The one that I ran out of yarn on?  The one that I lucked out and found more yarn for on Sunday?  Well, I've got a problem.  It seems that the yarn (Lion Brand Pound of Love in White) doesn't match up.  Yep...the dye lots are different enough in color (imagine that....for White yarn) that when I started crocheting with the new skein it's extremely NOTICEABLE.  *sigh*  After mulling it over for awhile, I finally decided to just make the whole thing over with the "new" yarn.  So...the top piece in the photo is the "old" yarn and the bottom piece in the photo is the "new" yarn.  I ended up making the new piece a bit smaller simply because I thought the old one was a bit too big.  So...I will be frogging the old one and seeing what I can make with it.  What a pain in the rear.  But it's been a good learning experience for me.  I seriously didn't think that White yarn differed a lot in color.  Now I know better.

I Found It!!!

Guess what?  Sunday when we were out of town shopping for Small T's birthday and for Prom, we stopped at Michael's (Hobby Lobby was closed...darn) and I found the Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn I was needing to finish the white baby blanket.  Woo Hoo!!!  So...I bought 2 skeins of it, just in case.  Now I get back to work on the blanket.

By the way, I hope to update the blog a bit more this evening.  I've been subbing at the school this week so my evening hours are pretty limited with having to fix dinner in a hurry and then zipping off to all the evening activities, plus...I've been needing to go to bed at a decent time so I won't be tired the next day.  So, hopefully I have a good day/afternoon/evening and have time to get on here tonight.  Have a good day everyone!  :)

Some of my yarn stash...

Speaking of digging through my yarn stash, I sorted out the colors that would go with my living room furniture and put them all in this mesh bin.

I ended up with:

2 full skeins of Cafe Latte

1 1/4 skeins of Ranch Red

3 full skeins of Coffee

3/4 of a skein of Warm Brown

2 full skeins of Medium Thyme

1/2 and 3/4 skeins of Dark Sage

1/4 of a skein of Carrot

3 full skeins of 3/4 of a big skein of Soft White

and 3/4 of a skein of a mystery green color (I think it's some sort of Sage color)

These are all Red Heart Super Saver.

I'm not sure what I'll make with these yet, but I'm leaning towards some sort of afghan for the other part of the sectional sofa.

A Gift

I should have posted about this last month, but I got side-tracked.

The day before Valentine's Day, a friend of mine, Lori, brought by a couple of bags of stuff for me.  She had been cleaning out the basement and came across some yarn that she had bought and had never got around to using.  She mentioned that there was enough yarn in the bags to make a blanket.  Heck, there's enough yarn to make a couple of blankets.  Plus a pattern book.  Lucky me!  

I have to admit that I didn't really look through the bags until this morning.  *Shame on me*  I was completely thrown by exactly how much yarn she gifted me.  I definitely need to tell her thanks again.

 One bag contained 7 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in the color Mission.

The other bag contained 5 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in the color Adirondack.

Wow!  Such lovely yarn.  I'm already thinking of ways to use it.  :)

Thanks so much Lori!