Tag: yarn

Crafting Projects

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting
I’ve been very productive with crocheting lately.  I finished a kitchen set for my nephew, which included dish towels, dish cloths, sponges, and potholders.  I finished a sort of similar set for one of my nieces.  Vicki asked me to make bibs for one of her student workers who was becoming a first time dad.  I asked if she wanted a small blanket and she said YES (of course) so those are done. 
Now I’m down to the octagonal blanket for Vicki I’m working on.  I’ve worked on it the last two nights.  Last night I did two and a half rows.  That is because it is circular (sort of) and I’m working my way around the outside edge.  It gets bigger with every row.  I’m about half done with it. 

When I work bigger projects like this I like to have little projects I can intersperse so I feel like I’m making progress.  It also keeps me from feeling like I’m in a rut with my crocheting.  I’ve got three more kitchen sets to do and two pairs of slippers to do for smaller projects.  I was going to give it a few days before I picked up another little project but my niece Cristi stopped in to my work yesterday. 
She totally threw her cousins under the bus and said she should be the next one to get her kitchen set.  I like to find out what sort of options they want – more pot holders or sponges vs dishcloths or whatever.  I have her very specific order so I guess I’ll pull out her colors and switch baskets.
Vicki got me this lovely basket with handles last summer.  It holds a LOT of crocheting.  She recently picked me up another one.  I have small projects in the one and large projects in the other. 
After I finish all the stuff I’ve mentioned here, in the lineup for definite projects I have an afghan for my oldest daughter, a faculty member, and one niece, kitchen sets for three nieces, graduation gifts for three students workers, a wrap for me, and berets for two of my faculty members.  Off the top of my head I need to get that all done fairly soon because I need to start thinking about what I’ll be making for gifts for the holidays and get to work on them.  I have some beautiful fleece that I want to use for shawls or scarves or – well I’m always open to suggestions.

Yarn is wonderful… Yarn on sale – HEAVEN!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting

Recently, Vicki asked me to make a few things for her to give to her co-workers.  They are small items and I don’t have a problem.  She emailed me the colors and I went to my lovely wall of yarn.  I pulled out all the colors I had but I discovered I didn’t have them all.  This meant I had to go yarn shopping.

As you saw in the last post I also made a scarf for Ana and in doing so I used up one of my colors is Sashay yarn.  I love the colors of that particular scarf.  I actually wrote down the color so I would remember it the next time I bought yarn. 

It became obvious to me that I was going to have to go yarn shopping.  The types of yarn – ruffle and crochet cotton – I needed do not go on sale often.  My thought was I’ll start with what I have all the colors for and see how far I get.  Ana came to visit and after seeing her with the scarf I realized there was a lot I wanted to try with that same color.  The ruffle yarn is $5 – $6 per skein and crochet cotton is about $2.25 per skein.  This is an investment. 

I get emails from all my favorite craft stores – Michael, Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics, Herrschners – letting me know about specials and sales.  Herrschners runs yarn sales all the time but I hadn’t seen any with these two items in particular.  Then I get a Michael’s email – I’ve just been deleting without looking at these (it’s a time thing) but for some reason I looked at this one.  Good thing I did – they have both these yarns on sale. 

The other issue then is money – I was looking at my budget and thinking I really can’t afford to go get a lot of yarn.  I’ll have to keep it to the bare minimum.  This is just sad because if there is a sale on crochet cotton in particular I want to buy all the colors I can because I go through them quickly.  In my head I was considering payments for the week and having this internal debate about being good and not buying yarn and splurging and buying yarn. 

As I realize I am of course going to do the responsible thing, I got a payment for editing.  Perfect!  I can now splurge a bit on yarn.  It’s been a crummy week for me – sinus infection, lack of sleep, weather induced pain for my arthritis – I’ve been a lot grumpy this week. 

Last night I determined I was going to stop at Michaels on the way home from work.  Their store is not user friendly at all.  From the door that doesn’t open automatically to the narrow clutter filled aisles, this is a store that is difficult for me to get into and move around.  I took my scooter though and grabbed a basket – that was not fun – but I get back to their yarn corner and just had fun.  I grabbed all the colors I needed (except for one that I’m not sure they even make).  It was fun to look at the colors and think of the things I would make and who would like what colors.  I think I rolled around the two aisles several times looking, adding up money, and enjoying selecting the colors. 

I didn’t buy one thing that wasn’t on sale.  I saved $21.  I didn’t break my budget.  I got five skeins of the ruffle yarn and twenty plus of the crochet cotton.  I picked some colors for specific people, some because I knew I was out, and some just because I liked them. 

When I left the store, I felt wonderful.  My mood was happy and I was looking forward to working with the yarns.  I even started one of the projects for Vicki last night.  Now I have to get the colors organized for my projects for Vicki and the rest need to be added to my wall.  I do think I’ll be using one or two of the ruffle skeins this weekend too. 

My weekend plan – after the errands are done – dvds, crochet hooks, yarn… heaven!!!

More Projects

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting
This weekend a friend of mine – Ana – visited.  I had a wonderful time just chatting with her.  It had been a long time since our schedules meshed and we had been able to get together.  So this last week I made her two small gifts. 
This long scarf was made with Sashay Twist yarn.  I love the way it turned out and the colors in it.  I’ll be getting this again to make more goodies with it.



This was made with scrap yarn – I had a partial skein left from some other project and hoped it would be enough to make a scarf / cowl.  I also put on there buttons from my mom who gave me a bag of old buttons.  They matched it nearly perfectly and fit Ana’s style.




Vicki picked out this yarn from one of the big buys I’d done.  There were three skeins and I was hoping it would be enough for a shawl for her. 

This is the back of the shawl wrapped around my sister Alicia.  The color is purple, blue, black which doesn’t come through wonderfully in the picture.

Here is the front – it ended up being long enough to wrap around her.  I am certain Vicki will love it. 
The shawl took me about three days to finish – it is a simple mesh using triple crochet and chains. 
The scarf for my niece is a combination of techniques.  I did a zigzag scarf for the base.  Here are the directions:
Ch 5
Row 1:  DC in 4th ch (counts as 1st DC, dc in last ch (3 dc)
Row 2:  ch 3, dc in each st
Row 3:  ch 3, turn piece, work 2 dc in end of row (with turning chain counts as 3 dc)
Repeat rows 2 & 3 until piece is long enough.

 When the scarf was long enough, I did the chain and leaf technique I used on Vicki’s valances with the crocodile stitch.  I worked my way randomly up the scarf making it look like a vine and leaves.  Then using blue and purple I created simple flowers to add to the ends of the scarf.  She will get it on Monday and I hope she likes it. 

 

Today I’m moving on to two more projects that have been sitting in my basket for a bit.  I’m not sure how long they will take but I’m hoping to finish them up soon.  I have a long list of holiday gifts to make and want to start on them before the craziness of the next semester starts.

Summer Slipping Away

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

This summer I have a long list of writing projects to get done.  I have not worked on them at all.  I submitted one article for a contest but aside from that nothing.  I need to get focused.  It just seems like there is so much going on I have no time to consider my writing tasks. 

At work, my department is moving.  This week is filled with finishing the packing process and prepping for the movers.  They are coming on Monday to take all of our stuff upstairs.  It may be a bit of a crazy week plus for myself and the student workers.  Of course there are some things that can be packed in my office now and other things that have to wait for the last minute.  The problem is making the judgement call on each item. 

Last weekend I visited Vicki which was great.  I also discovered a less expensive way to travel to visit the other two girls in Georgia – that is SUPER exciting.  The cost savings means instead of going down every other year we may be able to go down every year and possibly more often then that.

This weekend I am hoping to get some of my craft room and office organized.  I have a number of tasks to get done and hopefully can make some good progress.  Hopefully I can work on a system for keeping track of my writing projects – where they are, leads, and so on.  I’ve got ideas in my head but at the same time I haven’t solidified what I want done.  One of the things I want to do this weekend is to sort through all my available yarn and put it into the bins that Ken set up for me (it is a wire crate type set of shelves).  This will make it easier for me to see what I have which will lead to me not buying yarn unless I need it rather than guessing that I might need it.  The crafter in my head is saying you always need more yarn – there can never be enough yarn, but I’m gagging her (or trying to) and being a responsible adult. 

I have a friend coming out to have lunch and chat.  I’m looking forward to her visit as we always have a good time together.  Ken will be off with his brother cutting up wood.  It will be just us girls.  I’m excited for this as I don’t often get time with friends just to hang out. 

Hopefully all of the activities this weekend will be multiple steps towards getting some of these writing projects and tasks done.  My biggest obstacle at this point is my messy office and that will be my focus this weekend.  Then I can hopefully post (somewhere) a list of things to get done and start crossing them off. 

Danger! Beware!! Yarn Sale!!!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Finally I have a moment (or half a one) where I can put some thoughts together.  It has been a very busy period for me.  Here it is nearly two weeks later from the last time I was on here – I can’t believe that much time has slipped by. 

Work has been frantic and by the time I do work and school I’m so tired I can barely get through the night.  Registration this semester has been more stressful and difficult than in previous semesters.  I thought maybe it was just me but I talked to a couple other people and they agreed.

This last weekend I got talked into going to Herrschner’s for the day.  For those who don’t know, they are a huge mail order catalog company with a store in Stevens Point Wisconsin.  I crochet.  I crochet a lot when I’m stressed.  I like to have one big project going – like an afghan (currently Stephanie’s star shaped with an 8 mile circumference) and small projects to fill in when I want something quick to finish and feel like I’ve accomplished something. 

I have lots of faculty and student workers to make gifts for.  This gives me a target for making all my little goodies.  I’m not going to say what I’m making them for the winter holidays but they will be crocheted things most likely.  Herrschner’s was having a HUGE sale on yarn.  Instead of doing homework on Saturday like I should have I snuck off to this sale.  Stevens Point is a two hour drive so it generally turns into a most of the day event. 

Friday I printed off their internet page with all the sale yarn listed.  I circled the ones I was interested in.  Saturday we asked and they honored the prices.  I got skeins of yarn that normally cost between $7 – $10 each for anywhere from $1 – $3.50 each.  I was thrilled for the savings but also I will get to work with yarn I don’t normally buy.  Some of the yarn includes silk, chenille, fleece, and alpaca.  I’ve been wanting to work with all of these for quite some time. 

While I didn’t get homework done, I did enjoy wandering through the yarn and touching everything.  Yes I touched all sorts of yarn.  There is something about the textures, softness, and colors that just gives me a thrill.  Other women have a thing for shopping for clothes – my thing – YARN… 

Best part of the day – my husband didn’t complain at all because I spent money on yarn!!!