Thrifty Crochet

One thing I've been saving this year are the reusable bags in which some of my purchases are shipped. If they have a zipper or a ziplock slider top, they can serve as storage. They're also good as temporary holding bags when you're sorting through yarn and working it into your stash, or isolation bags for thrifted yarn you're debugging. Here are two zippered bags from Mary Maxim, and two storage container bags from Amazon. In these four bags I was able to fit all 59 skeins and balls from my True Gamble lot . This will keep the yarn neat and tidy while I take my time sorting through it. Any kind of presentation bag also works as storage or for small projects. I got this really pretty fuchsia bag with the mystery yarn skeins order from Southern Skeins, and I absolutely will reuse it as a project bag, and then perhaps a gift bag -- maybe for the items I make out of the yarn that came with it. :)

After showing you all the new things you can buy that are crochet-related and (mostly) $10.00 or less, I have one more purchase to talk about: a thrifted lot of yarn, tools and pattern books I recently bought via the Buy It Now purchase option. This mixed lot isn't typical at the online auction site, but once in awhile they do appear, and usually for a good price. In this one I counted 22 skeins and balls of yarn. There are also nine metal crochet hooks. Since these retail new for $2.58 that's over $23.00 worth in value. This cute pattern book retails used for $10.00. And this pattern book sells used for $6.00. The yarn is a mix of new and unused and leftover scraps, mostly the former. Looks like it was purchased on sale from the green mark down stickers. At $5.00 resale per skein or ball the yarn is worth $110.00. These are all colors I can use, and the weights are also desirable. I'm really intrigued by the lavender skein, as they l...

I rolled my dice to decide what the first crochet project of July would be. The dice decided on #1, which is this Bernat star blanket pattern , and my third go at a star blanket. I'm hoping I fare better with this one than I did with the last two. Sometimes I get stubborn and keep making certain patterns until I figure them out. This is a baby blanket made with #3 weight yarn, and perfect for this collection of Amigo DK yarns I have from Hobbii, so that's the plan. For the rest of June, however, I have to finish work on the tote for my calendar project. Onward!

To finish the scarf I made from Hobbii Azalea cotton/acrylic blend yarn I first hand washed it. That's what the manufacturer recommends, but I personally don't trust any wearable with cotton in it to the washing machine. The yarn does shed a bit of dye, so if you make something from it I'd hand-wash by itself. Since Hobbii recommends not drying it in the dryer (not that I would with that cotton content) I also dried the scarf flat on towels on my back porch. In case of shrinkage I clipped the edges of the scarf to the towels. Here's an infrequent problem with wet-blocking scarves: mine was too long for the table, and I didn't want to put it on the floor because my pups are too nosy. So I just doubled it over -- I know, not the ideal solution, but it actually worked fine. The scarf didn't appear to have shrunk after washing and drying, and now it's ready for wearing this winter.

Working on the Warm and Wonderful throw from the Make in a Weekend booklet of textured lap throws was a breeze the first day. Here's how much I got done before I called it a night, about 30" of the 48." If I'd put in a couple more hours on it I could have finished it in one day. Here's the finished throw after one more night of crochet. It took two entire wheels of O'Go Colorama yarn in Salt and Pepper, and two skeins of light gray bulky mill end yarn from Herschnerrs. The booklet is right that it takes a weekend; I would say this is an easy two-day make for a confident beginner, probably about ten to twelve hours of work. It took me about three hours each night, so six total if you're fast. Thoughts on the pattern: with the five row repeat and just double crochet and chain stitches it couldn't be simpler, really. This is more like a wrap than a lap throw (kind of in between both) but it would suffice for a smaller person like me. I...

I haven't been thrifting much yarn lately, mainly as thanks to my friend B sponsoring the mystery yarn series I have enough at the moment. That said, when I need something specific I go straight to the auction site and see if it's available. I'm also noticing that there aren't as many bidders lately (lots of crocheters and knitters don't work in summer.) That's probably why I landed this mixed lot with two one-pound skeins I wanted for $9.99 with no challengers. I've never tried that loopy yarn, either, so I'm interested to see how it works up. I went looking for specific colors, too. This lot appealed to me because of that, and the multiples, some of which are still packaged. The ivory at the top right is anti-pilling yarn, something I've also wanted to try. I also won this lot for $9.99 with no challengers. I bid on this lot of (what appear to be) 5 new skeins of Wool-Ease Thick and Quick, which I also won with no challengers. ...

As threatened, I got started on the Warm and Wonderful throw from the Make in a Weekend booklet of textured lap throws that I landed on by rolling the dice for the next project's pattern. Whew! Say that ten times fast. I began by using one of the two indentical O'Go Colorama wheels in Salt and Pepper from my stash so I could begin and end it with the same gradient yarn. This booklet is one I purchased from Amazon for $7.11 as part of my $10 or less series for the blog, so while I'm at it I'll review that, too. The pattern is one of ten in the booklet, which has throws made from bulky and super bulky yarn that you supposedly can work up in a weekend. All of the throws in the booklet are pretty basic, so I think it's suitable for a confident beginner who can read patterns. This booklet, while a bit pricey, would make a nice gift along with the yarn and hook to make one of the projects. You could put this all in a basket for a crocheter friend, or jus...

Rather than blindly make another star throw, I decided to let fate tell me what I should do for my next project, and chose six patten options (actually fifteen; the booklet contains ten patterns.) Then came the pretty mystery dice I recently purchased. I rolled a 4, which was this booklet of bulky yarn throw patterns you can supposedly make in a weekend. This was a lucky roll as I need to review this booklet for my $10 or less series. I chose the Warm and Wonderful pattern because it requires on 7 skeins of #5 weight bulky yarn. I don't have a tremendous amount of bulky yarn in my stash, and I really want to see if I can make the throw in one weekend. Here are the bulky weight skeins I pulled from my stash for the project. I'm going to finally use some of my thrifted O'Go Colorama wheels, the last of the Herschnerr's mill ends, a Premier Puzzle in a solid gray that I was recently gifted, and some other complimentary colors. The palette is very ca...

Back in early May I began making a scarf from the Hobbii Azalea yarn I ordered to give their fingering weight cotton/acrylic blend a try. I also used this free Aurora Scarf pattern from their website for a scarf made from one cake of Azalea. I figure it would take me two, maybe three weeks. It took almost seven weeks to finish. I didn't work on it every night, and I set it aside a few times to work on some single-skein projects. I'd say I put in several hours on maybe 40 nights making it. Thoughts: the gradient from green to blue is quite pretty and consistent. The pattern (definitely an easy beginner variety with rows of double crochet and chain spaces) worked up for me with no issues. I liked very much how sturdy the cake was, and how it stayed in cake form almost to the very last row. Reservations: as I first observed this is not a yarn for novice crocheters. It is four strands of very thin thread that are not twisted together, which are quite challeng...

Having too many projects going at the same time left me unwilling to start another until I finished the Azalea scarf, so I've been waiting to jump on my June tote for my calendar quilting project. I also had a problem to solve with the fabric remnants I wanted to use for it, in that I needed complimentary solid fabric to top it on both sides. I have very little of that in my stash, and no fabric stores near me except Hobby Lobby (where I won't shop), so I decided to thrift the fabric. After we walked a park in Lady Lake I stopped by a thrift store across the street and found some excellent candidates: queen sheets and pillowcases. The pillowcases were $1.00 each, and the sheets were $4.00 (blue) and $2.00 on sale (green), for a total of $8.56. All of them are in new condition. Why do sheets work so well as fabric? A flat queen sheet is 90" X 102", which is almost three yards of 90" fabric. Try to buy that new for a couple of bucks. You do have t...

My third and final mystery yarn bag arrived from Etsy seller TOOKuteKreationz in a box so huge I thought maybe I got someone else's order. Let's look inside and see what it holds. Give me a moment, as I am speechless. Okay. This is probably the biggest surprise mystery yarn order I have ever received: a huge amount of labeled yarn, most of it new and all of it gorgeous. Several colors and brands are multiples. Whee! I know off the top of my head that Big Twist Super Nova yarn is currently $6.97 a cake. I got two. Big Twist Prism is discontinued, and runs about currently $10.00 per cake. Mandala Sparkle is $6.34 per cake at my Wal-Mart. Here are two in my favorite palette of white, gray and pink. Everything is clean, odorless, and simply beautiful. Two of the skeins have little UFO projects still attached, which I find charming. This is definitely the best value of all the mystery yarn bags/boxes/what have you to date, as there are 24 skeins and c...

The blooming flower throw I made from Premier Puzzle and Hobbii Amigo Chunky yarns did take five days in the end, but I probably could have easily finished it in four. I just decided not to rush the big finish. This throw gave me a bit of a hard time, which is probably why I ran out of yarn about 24" from the end of the final row. I added on some Loops & Threads Charisma in off white, which is a weight 5 but a tiny bit chunkier, but the only bulky yarn in my stash that would work colorwise. One does what one can, and it's not a gift but something to remind me that keeping at it is worth it in the end. I think. Thoughts: I do like the Premier Puzzle yarn quite a bit, as well as the Hobbii Amigo Chunky. Both were soft and glided well for #5 yarns. The Puzzle yarn had a couple of factory knots and one 12" frayed section that I had to cut out; the Hobbii had no frays and only one factory knot in five skeins, which is pretty darn good. The variegated Pu...