Thrifty Crochet

I've always loved crochet as a reminder of my grandmother, something I can do practically in my sleep, and a way of finding calm through art, particularly over the last year. I'm writing this post on the first day of Fall, which I'm not dreading near as much as usual because I've been so wrapped up in making a blanket with this yarn: Premier Puzzle in the colorway Marbles. It's been a consistent source of happiness when I most needed that. Happiness is, like everything else, impermanent. I went to order more of this yarn when it went on sale, and Marbles is out of stock. Sigh. Hopefully they get more of it. Based on the yarn I already had in my stash, I thought I would get at least 64 hexagons out of the yarn. But I actually got 72, so I arranged them in an 8 X 9 rectangular grid. I'm not very tall, so I don't need a long blanket. To join the hexagons I'm just sewing them in strips with a yarn needle, and then I'll sew the strips toge...

To make the first DIY Advent calendar, you'll need 12 or 24 small skeins of yarn, 6 or 12 pairs of solid color ankle socks (white also works), a festive skein of yarn, and a plain or holiday decorated bucket or basket to hold them in. For demonstration purposes I'm only going to making eight little gifts. Put the yarn skein in one sock, tie the top with the yarn, and put in the bucket. Since they're all the same I wouldn't bother with number tags. The bonus here is the gift wrapping, which can be worn after all the skeins are opened. No gift wrapping waste! For the second DIY Advent calendar you'll need 12 or 24 standing lunch or gift bags, the same number of small skeins, tags, and number stickers. My little wicker suitcase turned out to be too small for my idea, so get a bigger one of these. :) Place your skein in a bag, fold down the top, hole punch it and tie on a tag with a number sticker. You can also fold the tops of the bags in the acc...

While out wandering with my guy I picked up a tin holiday bucket and a little suitcase-style picnic basket for cheap. To these I added a hand-painted wood utensil sorter/drawer organizer I already owned. These three will become my advent calendar holders. I then stopped by our local Dollar Tree and picked up some inexpensive gift bags, tags and tissue paper. I also got two bundles of new, solid color socks from my thrifted sock stash, and (not pictured) a thrifted skein of dark green and metallic gold yarn from my yarn stash. Before I get into making the calendars, let me show you an old, inexpensive gift wrapping trick I learned about forty years ago, when the only bags like this we had were brown lunch bags (and you can still get a pack of 100 at Wal-Mart for $2.62.) Accordion fold the top of the bag before you place your gift inside. Once the gift is in the bag and you're ready to seal it, draw the ends of the top fold up, tape them together from the back t...

Advent calendars are not something my family ever did. I'm not sure why; it just wasn't our tradition (admittedly we didn't have any others, either.) I started an annual tradition with my family by purchasing a little Christmas tree music box with mini ornaments you took out of tiny drawers at the base and used them to decorate the tree. I think I got it from Avon. Children loved it. I've been hearing other crocheters online talk about buying advent yarn or yarn kit calendars since about June, which perplexed me. Then I did a search this week to get an idea of what they cost, and holy cow, are they expensive. Many are hundreds of dollars , or the cheap kind ( like this one at Wal-Mart ) that aren't surprising at all and don't appear to be worth the low price. The costs and the lack of value involved in these things make me wonder if I can make a DIY advent calendar for a crocheter myself. This will be just for fun, of course, but it could make a neat ...

Figuring out how to put together hexagons may seem easy, until you lay them out on the floor and realize you're not sure what shape to sew them together in, or how many more you need to crochet, or you're me. One of the great things about the internet are the free online tools you can use in a browser to figure out such things, like this one with a hexagon grid generator . Although my blanket won't look exactly like this, it did help me tremendously with figuring out what I did want to do with the layout, and how many hexes I'll need to do my version of it.

Things have calmed down considerably since my guy had his surgery. I will not be care-giving this month for the other family member having surgery, which frankly was a huge relief, as my back is in very bad shape already. My numbers overall on my own quarterly blood tests improved, likely thanks to a very active summer. I'm making good progress on the happiness project as well. I have four skeins left, of which I intend to use three for hexes and the fourth to sew everything together and (possibly) crochet a border once everything is joined. To date I've made 42 hexagons, and another four last night using up the current skein, which is a little over nine per skein. I should be able to crochet about 70 to 74 hexes altogether. If you want to calculate how many hexes you'll need to make for a specifically sized project, try this free online hexagon calculator .

I thought I'd take a look and compare four surprise boxes I've gotten this year from Premier to show the variety you can get. This is the latest, a really wonderful selection of wool and acrylic yarns that I want to try out. I often end up ordering new yarn based on what I like from the surprise boxes. Also, Premier usually includes some premium items like the knitting needles and spools of thread here. The number of skeins varies slightly from box to box, but I've never been disappointed once by what I received, which is more than I can say for other manufacturer's mystery boxes (sorry for the slightly blurry pic here.) In this box I got my first skein of Premier Puzzle in the colorway Marbles and my first Parfait Chunky Glitz. I've since ordered quite a few skeins of both. Premier is smart to send out their yarns this way, because that's a very positive marketing tool. You can fall in love like I did with Puzzle and Glitz, or not waste your m...

I thrifted three oversize t-shirts to wear as pajama tops, which are much cheaper and softer than new pajama tops, which are currently ten bucks each at Wal-Mart. One of them (the blue with the lemon print) was brand-new. Yellow tags were 50% off on that day, so I got all three for $5.35, and donated 65 cents to Goodwill, making my bill six bucks total. If I'd bought them retail it would have cost me over thirty dollars. I also finally cleaned out my thread catcher last night, and the strata indicates I'm doing quite a bit of work with yarn these days. I might use this pretty fluff to stuff some lavender and lace sachets.

The second half of my Premier order has arrived, let's see what happiness it delivers. Here is the rest of everything I ordered. I got a second box of the pale rainbow colored Anti-pilling Everyday DK mini skeins so I'd have enough for a charity project. Four skeins of Farmstand, two in the colorway pumkin, one in Carrot and one in Cucumber, and three skeins of Anti-Pilling Everyday DK in Cream. I ordered a second mystery box because I needed the joy, and Premier always delivers that. Let's take it out and admire the mysteries. :) Twelve beautiful skeins of yarn, two more spools of thread and a pair of gorgeous knitting needles. I could not be happier.

I've put together my latest batch of donations for our local church thrift store. I'll be taking over seven blankets and throws for them to sell. Earlier this year I did the same, only to discover back in June that whoever purchased two of them was selling both as vintage in an antique mall (I made them in February.) It was a strange situation that made me rather uncomfortable; I was happy that the thrift store made some money off my work, but not too happy to see the purchaser profiting as well by hoodwinking antique buyers. I meditated on the matter for a long time before I decided I would keep donating my crochet work to the thrift store. It does help raise money for the church's missions, which benefit the poor and hungry in our local community. What happens to them after that is, like much of the creative work I put out in the world, beyond my control. In other news I finally got caught up on my housework yesterday, cooked a decent dinner from scratch, pra...

We all fall in love with certain yarns for many reasons. I think color, stitching ease and how it works up are my main criteria. Sometimes I fall for a yarn I'd never thought would appeal to me. Other times I dislike yarns everyone seems to love (but we're not focusing on the negative today.) Yarn is like everything in crochet, up to the preferences of the maker. I just thought I'd recommend the brands that make me a very happy hooker. :) My current #1 favorite is Premier Puzzle in the colorway Marbles. This is a 100% acrylic #5 bulky weight variegated yarn in colors that never before greatly appealed to me. Yet something about it makes me so happy -- maybe because I think of summer everytime I look at it. The yarn stitches and works up beautifully. No troubles, no problems, just pure delight. Lion Brand Mandala Ombre in the colorway Serene is a 100% acrylic self-striping #4 worsted weight (on the lighter side) yarn with bright and beautiful colors that gli...