I Ran Out of Yarn!!!

It's every crocheter/knitter's worst nightmare - running out of yarn before the end of a project. I was mere yards away from the finish - only a few clovers to go - when it ran out. That night I ordered more online... but it could take up to two weeks to get here! Now I'm considering figuring something else out for my swap partner with yarn I already have.

Has anyone else had this happen? Did you frog the whole project?

The Mother-Daughter Scarf

So my obsessiveness over yarna nd crochet in the last few months has spurred my mother to pick up the hook again. She picked up some yarn and picked out a pattern, and we're each making a scarf. It's called Spring Petals Scarf, which is funny to me because you'd never wear a scarf in the spring, but oh well.

Commissions

I've been getting more and more "commissions" - as in people want me to crochet them things. Most recently I agreed to make a crochet viking helm and beard for a random marine deploying in January. I told him I couldn't make it to a deadline, but since I intended to try it anyway, I told him he could have the first. I don't like the idea of charging for them - but I don't mind the idea of bartering. Just sayin.

Homemade Gifts

This year I'm making a large number of gifts. Most of the time I'm pairing it with something bought as well. For example, a scarf/cowl/mittens with earrings or a book. To the left is a hood I made as a gift - and I already have a second of the same pattern - different yarn - in mind. This one is pretty heavy, though soft.



I am also doing things I haven't done before, like making hats. I haven't yet made the Madelyn hats, but I am working on this Cthulhu-Beard hat for my friend Nelson. I only ever see him one a year - the weekend before Thankssgiving - and he said he wanted this hat. I miraculously found the pattern on Ravelry and I'm almost done. The only thing left do to are the tentacles.

My next projects are ones that need to be completed within the month of November. I have 2 swap gifts to work on, plus a Stash Down A-Z project - a scarf that begins witht he letter A. I'm not super excited about it, but I think it'll be quick and I'll use up some yarn I haven't been too keen on using. Which is the point of the Stash Down A-Z group anyway.

Headwear for a Cause

Madelyn, my grandmother's cousin's granddaughter, who would be my third cousin, is 4 1/2, and I have never met her. My grandmother wrote to me today and told me that she has leukemia. This isn't a new thing - apparently this upcoming December marks the anniversary of when they told her the cancer was in remission.

On this anniversary the entire family celebrates Remission Day. One of the ways they suggest celebrating with them is to knit hats for children in the oncology ward where she was treated.

HERE is the blog the family has for my third cousin's battle. I am considering making hats, as they suggest. I've never made a hat before. Hood, yes. Hat? Not yet. I think this might be a good time to try. And if it comes out too small or too big, they can always give it to somebody else who needs it.

I'm thinking of using these patterns I found which were made for the Chemo Cap Challenge.

Crochet as a Coping Mechanism

So the DH (Dear Husband, as the internet calls them, I guess) was in the hospital for 10 days, and I may have reverted to crochet as a coping mechanism for the first week. Then my naturally cheerful disposition returned and I was fine, but in the beginning I just didn't want be still. I needed to count everything. I popped out quite a few projects and queued up far many more.

Now that he's home and I'm at a reasonable rate again, I'm afraid I've gone a bit too far in committing myself. But I have 2 months before Christmas with a couple of things to be done by mid November. I just need to prioritize - my big problem is I want to do the "fun" ones first, not the ones that I need soonest!

To Spin or Not to Spin...

The deeper I get into my love of yarn and crochet, the more aware I've become of the idea of spinning. As in spinning my own yarn, with which to crochet. It boggles the mind. So the craft would be more a process, from one end to the other, instead of a quick pick up of cheap acrylic for a hastily done scarf.

It's still madly confusing. I have no idea what the different betweena top, a roving, or a batt is, or the different between a top drop spindle or a bottom drop spindle. But part of my is intriguied by the idea of it all. Of course, it may turn out in the end to be far too tedious for me... but I might like to try.

A Spindle Kit on Etsy

The Project Bag

I don't know what you use your project bag for, but I keep yarn, hooks and patterns in mine, roughly one project per bag. And I don't need anything fancy - no hand-made for me. In fact, the absolute BEST project bag for me is a $3 gift bag with a flat bottom.

The biggest qualification I have for a project bag is the ability to keep my yarn in it, and to be able to pull yarn out easily and without tangling or tugging issues. The flat bottom is key for this. Only now I'm in short supply, because I have a huge number of projects going on. You can see that here are three projects, and they aren't even the two I'm working on most recently. Obviously I need more gift bags.

The Amazing Cowl and Armoring Up

I was extremely productive this weekend. Over the course of 3 days (Saturday through Monday) I started and completed two projects. The first was a cowl, using Lion Brand Amazing yarn, in the Aurora colorway. This was my first use of it, and I love how it came out. Plus the pattern was great. Who knew that single crocheting into only the back loops made such great ridges?! Amazing.

Then I made another pair of the crocodile-stitch gauntlets. I used Amazing yarn for this as well (this time in the Rainforest colorway). It gave it a definite halo, but they look just like gauntlets a dryad or swamp-thing would wear.

Mithril Gauntlets

So I'm making mithril gauntlets. Not out of mithril, which I assume is hard to crochet with, but with Vanna's Glamour. The first is almost done, and it looks pretty awesome to me.

My Gauntlet Project on Ravelry

The finished product, completed Friday afternoon:

Pins & Needles

I took a jaunt downtown to Princeton during luncha nd looked up the LYS (Local Yarn Store) Pins & Needles. One of the sales ladies asked me where I lived. She asked where I bought yarn around there. I told her I usually just bought yarn at JoAnns, but recently I've become a fan of the nicer stuff.

"Ah," she replied. "You've become a yarn snob."

I immediately rebelled at this, but I didn't want to dissuade her of the idea that I wasn't. I wanted to fit in with her club of yarn lovers. I do love nice, soft yarn... it's just so darn expensive! I can buy 4 skeins of decent, 100% wool or whatever, for the price of one at this place! Ridiculous!

I did pick up two skeins, costing me $37, which was pretty ridiculous considering I could bag maybe 5 times that much at Michael's for that price, but hopefully it'll be worth it.