A Whopping Yarn Shopping List (and Slurpees)

Last night I was dying to have a Slurpee from 7-Eleven... but what fun is it to go alone so I persuaded my three brothers to come with me. That in itself would not have been difficult, but of course I had to surprise them, since it is not every day I have a Slurpee craving. So I told them that I needed them to come with me to Joann Fabrics to help me buy yarn. This was true as Joann's only allows you to use one of each coupon type in a transaction. I had more coupons than I could use, because an extreme coupon-ing friend of mine gave us 6 Joann's flyers from the paper.

Somehow whenever I go to the craft store I find myself lost in a pile of wondrous hobbies... I needed a list or one way or another I will forget something or begin to stack clearance fibers into my basket. So I dug out my handy dandy embroidery floss organizer that I had never used and put a scrap of each yarn that I needed onto it.

Whopping yarn shopping list: Put yarn that you need on floss organizer

Sure I could have just written out a list the yarns but this way I did not get to the store and wonder "what in the world was I thinking when I said light brown or sock monkey grey". As a yarn enthusiast I saw the bit of yarn and said "Oh! That was the yarn I used for such and such a project that I'm going to make again." or "Well, I know they don't sell that yarn anymore but since I'm starting a new project I can use this yarn over here that looks just like it!"

Even better yet I was able to make a game of it for my bros. I just pulled off one scrap of yarn for each of them and ask them to find one that was like it. First one back won! (of course with a no running rule.) This worked fantastic and my eight ("and a half" as he would say.) year old brother loved it!... the 18 and 15 year olds were not so thrilled but enjoyed it. Once we found the yarn I doled out the coupons and a few bucks, check out and headed down the street to 7-Eleven. On the way I heard the story of how the cashier had asked my brother what he was going to make. (lol, don't you just love how friendly they are at Joann Fabrics?) He replied that he was "going to knit or crochet something." I'm not sure if she believed him or not as she did make any remark in return. We then joked about how he could have claimed he was making hand-grenade cozies and other unrealistic guyish stuff.

My Spoils

I was glad to come home with my spoils in one hand, a Slurpee in the other and a belly full of laughter.

Inline Crochet Hooks

For the longest time I was unaware of the differences in crochet hooks, the only thing I really cared about was whether it was medal/aluminum or plastic... And even then I'm not sure I payed that much attention. But when I started making the fleece blankets with crochet edge I noticed that the inline hooks  were easier to push through the slits in the fleece. Of course at the time I did not know the different names. Since doing the fleece blankets, I've found that the inline hooks make working with "fluffy"/"fuzzy" (such as Red Heart Baby Clouds) yarn a lot easier. The inline hooks also eliminates part of the "twist" required to keep the yarn on the hook when you pull it through other loops.

      Inline     Out of line

Sorry the pictures are a little blurry, it is hard to get clear images of shiny objects.

KB Adjustable Sock Knitting Loom

A few Christmases ago I received this neat adjustable sock knitting loom by KB. It is really easy to use and very compact. The hardest part to knit is the sliding section because you have to work around all the pegs that you're not using.

 I decided that it would be best to start with something small, so the first project I did was these cute little baby socks. The pattern was on the DVD that came with the loom. It used 30 pegs and I decided to put 1x1 rib at the top.

 The thing about socks is that you have to make two matching ones. After I finished the first one I began to wish that humans only had one foot because it seemed like an impossible task to make one exactly the same. Turns out that it really wasn't that hard, since it was easier to count the stitches of the first one once it was off the loom. I'm not sure if I did the same amount of rows on each sock but I think I got pretty close. :)

My Homemade Yarn

Okay, I know you're wondering..."What in the world is that?"... And "What does that have to do with crocheting or yarn?" Okay maybe you already know, but about a couple of years ago that is what I would have wondered.

 "That" is my handy, dandy, home made version of a drop spindle.  To see what a drop spindle is and what it does should be clear after watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gXTWgMeMgI After I watched this I couldn't wait to start spinning my own yarn, and even though drop spindles are relatively cheep I was able to make my own without having to wait for a package in the mail.

This is the results of my first attempt at using the drop spindle. I started with wool roving I found on ebay. :)  For the most part its pretty even except at the very beginning. I am now knitting it into a little hand bag.

My "Craft Room" Storage

 This is how I store my fleece for baby blankets, it's already pre-cut and ready to go.

 

I roll them up and put them inside my Ikea Expedit bookshelf so I can see all the different fabrics at once and pull them out with ease.

As you can see I have no shortage of yarn, only storage for it. I have found that most of the time sorting yarn by color rather than by type is more useful.