Last Month in Crochet

To start July on a happy note I made a basket out of fun bulky yarns from GuChet to hold a collection of the more GuChet yarns with which to play.

I cobbled together a baby bird out of one partial skein of Premier Parfait XL Pom Party yarn (say that ten times fast!) and learned a lot from modifying the pattern.

I made a patternless tray basket out of a single skein of Chinese t-shirt yarn.

I crocheted a gift bag out of one thrifted skein of Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Polo.

I crocheted a liner using Premier Parfait in crème de menthe for the art yarn gathering basket I made back in June.

I made this throw out of Premier Puzzle in the Marbles colorway, an unusual, very pretty yarn, a skein of which I got in a mystery box.

I crocheted a little basket to hold my rescued embroidery thread while experimenting with Hobbii wool blend boucle yarn.

I made this holiday hat with one skein of Premier Basix Multi in Merry Multi.

I crocheted this dishcloth out of Sugar 'n Cream in Rainbow Bright while working on my tension issues with cotton yarn (you can see the problem I have by the difference in the first bottom rows versus the rest of the piece.)

I crocheted a cowl/infinity scarf combo of my own design from one skein of beautiful Mountaintop Yarn hand-dyed worsted in Bed of Roses.

I made a pair of slipper socks out of Sweet Roll in the colorway Pistachio Ice Cream while testing a one-skein crochet pattern to see if it was suitable for a beginner (and it was.)

Finally I finished crocheting a bed-size ripple afghan out of Premier Parfait Glitz yarn, which we will put to use in the guest room during the holidays.

Altogether I used 41-3/4 skeins of yarn during July, which brings my total for 2026 to 260-3/4 skeins.

I'm really happy with how much I did over the last month. Part of this is due to the fact that I had a nice long vacation, but summer always inspires me, too. Let's see how much crochet I can get done in August.

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On the Beach

Last week my guy and I went to walk Daytona Beach, which was mostly (and eerily) deserted. This is what our beaches used to look like when I was a kid. It was a beautiful day, cold and breezy but calm. It feels like 2026 is getting off to the right start.

Eight Plus Numbers

When I was looking up the retail on the small lot of yarn plus a tapestry kit I got a lot of surprises. This Red Heart Roll with It Sparkle skein in "Diamonds" was actually a cake that sells $10.99 on Yarnspirations. The lot included two Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo skeins, which retail for $8.99 each, and stuck in the center of the buff color I found a 5.5 mm crochet hook. This is a skein of 100% Icelandic wool, which can be really expensive. It's marked with a price tag of $7.00, and I found it selling for $8.00 online. The needlepoint kit is the biggest surprise of all. It makes a pillow, and hails from the UK, where it sells for £45.00 ($60.76 US). Since it's flamingos I definitely have to finish it if I can. Altogether my eight plus lot retails for $125.04; I paid $21.30 total for the lot with the buy-it-now option and one penny shipping. I indeed got a very nice bargain.

Not So Cheerful

Since I finished the January crazy-quilted tote for my calendar project I jumped back on making the Iris throw, working this time with Bernat Giggles in Cheerful Blue. From the start this skein seemed determined to give me trouble, not anything cheerful, as I had to contend with a big knot of yarn I tugged out along with the center pull strand (I didn't take a pic of that.) This yarn is 90% acrylic and 10% nylon, and come in a 3.5 oz. skein. Not sure why they added nylon to the acrylic, perhaps to make it softer. The color is nice, and it's fairly smooth, but it also splits easily and wants to pucker, pop and untwist, especially when you tear out stitches. Naturally I had to tear out two and a half rows to correct two mistakes, which aggravated me because the yarn was untwisting when I went to crochet it again. To add icing to this terrible cake, I ran out of the yarn on the final row. To keep the symmetry with the other sections I had to pull a compatible color fro...

Thrifty Crochet

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