Using up scraps

What do you do with scraps of yarn? You know that yarn that is not enough for some projects but to much for another, it's kinda in between. I have a few yarns like that.

I got this idea last week to try making a granny square, easy right? Well, only if your paying attention to what your doing. I found this one Never Ending granny blanket square
Simple enough right? Well, my lack of paying attention showed up in the final product, OOPs!






On one of the squares I counted off, not to bad but enough that the 2 squares didn't line up just right. No biggie cause this is my bag and if I really really really get an itch about not liking it, I could take it apart, make it a bit smaller so i'd have enough yarn. You know when you take something apart, the yarn seems to be less than what it was the first time around. UGH! I'm trying to use up some of my yarn, the older stuff. So the bag is new yarn and old yarn. The older yarn is the lovely burgandy color. Of course this Red Heart brand of yarn isn't made anymore. :(

I started another shawl in a varigated Red Heart brand of yarn. Don't know the color name cause I seem to have lost the outer label. I'm looking on Red Heart's website and it is sooooooooo slow. Not having any luck, they say they have 72 colors and it's not showing 72 colors. GRRRRR! Okay I give up, I looked at Red Heart and even I Love This Yarn brands and can't find this particular varigated color. I bought it at Hobby Lobby, i think, thus why I checked the ILTY colors as well. Oh well.

Crochet Shawl

I finished another crochet project, a shawl. I've wanted a triangular shawl for some time now but I always make excuses. I finally found, online, how to's and patterns using different methods but getting the same results, a triangular shawl. I printed a few, saved a few, 99, 100..LOL! I've had the " 1,2 skip a few.. 99, 100" thing stuck in my head for days now. Some of the patterns were not exactly what I was looking for but close. I wanted a more open style of shawl, almost netting like.

I found one pattern that was very very close to what I had in mind for my shawl but for some reason I just couldn't seem to wrap my head around the instructions and to top that off, the pics weren't that clear at all. I know I can read a pattern, I may not always understand some of the abbreviations or terms but I can find them and how to do them, no biggie, but sometimes it doesn't matter my brain just says

PFFT! I refuse to GET IT.

That can be very durn frustratin.

I've been working on this shawl for about a week or so. I didn't have to do to many rip outs (where you rip out the work you've already done), just a few. I thought I had all the math worked out but I ended up having to kinda make a few adjustments that made the shawl a wee bit off but nothing noticeable unless your really really looking for it. Despite the mistakes and the resulting size, I really like it. Atleast now I have a general idea for the next one, just need to get the materials out and adjust the pattern a bit. I didn't use a pattern per say, I read all the patterns I had and decided to use a foundation then the netting like design instead. I also added tassels to each connection point.

It's HUGE! It's almost as wide( roughly 3ft) at the top as my couch is long and if I don't have it stretched out, it's about 4-5ft long, but stretched out it shortens up some. To make it a bit neater I joined it to make it one solid edge instead of loops at every other row and in that process, miscalculated something and now the very end kinda has a hugging effect, which isn't bad, think it gives the piece a bit more character. I could have made the netting chains a few stitches less so the resulting netting effect would have been closer together and smaller. I'm sure this would have shortened the shawl but not eliminated the width any. I'd have to say the most tedious part was making the 30 something tassels to hang from it. I used Red Heart white yarn and a 10mm crochet hook and done in single crochet.






My next project is a LARGE granny square purse and after that or maybe during, fingerless gloves.

Ambitious projects

No pics today but I did finish a custom requested beanie for my youngest brothers' baby's Mama. I've decided to put a project on hold. I wanted to make some hairpin lace fingerless gloves, like these Hairpin Lace wristlets-gloves

I decided I was going to use bulky chenille. Least to say, it's not working out so hot so I think I'll just use the panels I made and turn them into a pillow or something. I still want to use chenille and have some thin chenille to work with. I also got some new yarn over the weekend, suede yarn. If I had more money, I would have bought all they had, which wasn't very many. I was not at a hobby, fabric or yarn store by the way.

At the moment, I am working on a small bag using the pink oval shaped Kniffty Knitter loom. I bought this for my daughter as a christmas present and well, she hasn't touched it or the yarn I bought her. I guess maybe she's not interested in this stuff anymore. She still hasn't finished the scarf she started, she mentioned something about being boring. I don't find the repetitiveness boring, relaxing for the most part. I can work on these looms while listening to music, watching tv or a movie. Maybe if she sees me making things other than scarves, she'll be more interested.

Oh, that reminds me, I still need to finish the pillow. I bought the pillow insert and I think I know exactly what material I'm going to use, just need to measure, cut and sew. That also means, I need to clean off my sewing machine table, it's very clutterd and you can barely see the machine. Oops! :)

Finished Crochet hat

I FINISHED! I'm very proud of this little hat.

Scarf Crazy

So I finished one scarf but not sharing pics cause it's a christmas present and if they saw it, they'd know it was for them. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I have oddles of yarn, mostly the pain in the ass stuff to work with. I also have some red heart yarn that I've had for years. It's a lovely varigated color of purple and I bought it probably 10yrs or so ago and at that time only made a pair of slippers. I wanted to do a purple scarf and use the red heart yarn and came up with this.



It's definetly an interesting combination and I even added fringe. I was originally going to knit but the main purple boucle yarn (I think that's what it's called don't have the wrapper at the moment) didn't want to cooperate. I have a crochet hook that is a size 15.50mm, largest hook I have. I worked 2 strands of yarn in double crochet on this one. The only thing left to do on it, trim the fringe up.

After finishing up the varigated purple one, I was still on this purple kick. I have this extremely fuzzy fun fur stuff in purple with bits of silver reflections in it. I was going to pair it with a dark shade of purple chenille but it just wasn't working for me, the colors where way off. Instead, I paired this crazy furry yarn with 2 strands of thin black chenille instead. I had planned on knitting this as well but once again encountered the not wanting to cooperate syndrome. The yarn was way to fuzzy and kept catching and making it hard for the knots to slide. I figure, I'll crochet it with the big fat crochet hook. Worked out much better and atleast I can "see" with my fingers so I'd know where the next stitch went. I worked this one up in single crochet and added black chenille fringe to the end by pulling it through both corners of the ends of the scarf. I think my daughter will like it for it's fuzziness and that it's purple and black. It really is furry. The only thing left to do to this one is trim the fringe and lightly brush the fun fur up so it's even more furry.





This is the most creative I've been in a long time. I have other color schemes that I want to do. I've started now on #4 scarf using Chenille thick and quick prints with size 12.75mm (US 17)knitting needles. I normally use the 15mm (US 19)size knitting needles to make scarves with. I thought I'd try something different and a bit more challenging.

Knit and Crochet

I finished the knitted scarf I was working on as a christmas present. PHew! One down and a few more to go. I have about 5 different color combinations I want to work on. I started a new scarf last night but the yarn didn't want to be knitted so I had to resort to using the largest crochet hook that I have. The yarn combo I'm using doesn't like to slide over itself very well, so that's why the knitting wasn't cooperating. I think I like it using the crochet hook better. On the other hand the crochet hook is a bit awkard to use, it says it's a 15.50mm size hook. It's much bigger than what I normally work with so there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's interesting to use. So far I like how it's turning out, shouldn't take me to long to finish this one so that I can start on the next one. I was thinking of doing something in UT colors next but not sure yet.