Definitely Darn Good

When I got out this skein of silk yarn from Darn Good Yarn to test the fiber I went through my memory files to recall if I've ever crocheted with silk before now (I believe so, around 2004. I was experimenting with a lot of fibers back then.) As I recall I made one wrap out of recycled sari silk yarn, and I did love the colors yarn, but it was a bit nubbly.

This sport weight silk yarn is not nubbly or stiff at all. It has a wonderful texture and glides through my fingers like silk (of course!) The colors are vibrant and the changes are lovely. There's this little blip of orange between the yellow/gray and pink/gray sections that I find utterly charming.

It works up fast, too -- this is how much I was able to crochet in about an hour. I usually avoid yellow and pink yarns, which in the past were unhappy memory trigger colors for me, but thankfully I've gotten over myself and no longer avoid any colors. I like how this yarn is working up, too. I'll probably keep going until I use up the entire cake.

The colors remind me of Birch State Park, a place we went to when I was a kid for cookouts on holidays. There was what seemed like an endless forest there that I traipsed through looking for animals and bugs, and the bright Florida sunshine on the palmettos and pines with all the wildflowers looked a lot like the colors in this yarn. Good memories for once!

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On the Beach

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Last week I realized on the 14th that two weeks of 2026 flew right by me, and right now I'm writing during the third week. I wanted to be finished with more projects by now, but life and work have to come first. I think this might be when most crocheters start a new shiny project to boost their spirits. Not me. I kept working away at my first project for the year, and here's why: I don't like being surrounded by unfinished things. I also tend to get fatigued and abandon projects more easily if I've left them by the wayside to do something else. Finally, the payoff of the finished project gives me a much better spirit boost than messing around with several projects at the same time. I have a couple of strategies for sticking to working on one project at a time, which I can use to keep myself focused on reaching the finish line. Planning my next project is probably what I do most often by pulling the yarn from my stash, getting out the printed pattern for the...

Thrifty Crochet

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