Tag: yarn

crochet:: no more sleeps, it’s tomorrow right now

Hello my friends in yarn!

You guys had fantabulicious fun-word-of-the-day submissions.

Thanks so much for playing along.

Without further ado and because it’s past my bedtime on a school night, the winners are::

Patricia Ponte

yarn giveaway 4

Wynn

yarn giveaway 2

HappyCat13

yarn giveaway 3

Deirdre McKinnie

yarn giveaway 1

Congrats y’all!

I would also like to add that had HappyCat not won any yarn, she would have gotten the honorable mention for the word pupfartlet.  I can’t say that one without a giggle 😉

I would also like to tell you all again thank you for visiting my little corner of the interwebz and that I truly wish I had enough stash yarn to send you all because that was a whole lot of fun.

Now, if the 4 winners will please shoot me an email (yarnchic40@yahoo.com) with a mailing address, I will get these all out on Saturday morning.  Because I work days.  Even though I wish I were retired.  I have till 2032 until retirement.  So yeah, I’ll be mailing it all on Saturday morning.  Time to make the donuts.

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crochet:: i’m cleaning out my stash, so let’s have a giveaway

Not even gonna try to fool ya.  I need to de-stash.  I have favorite yarns and I have favorite patterns.  I also have not-so-favorite yarn that is DOA because I lost changed my mind about a pattern.  I can’t just let it languish in my magical craft closet, so I feel the need to share.

Here are the choices:

yarn giveaway 1Yarn Bee “Intrigue”:: sport weight and sparkly, midnight blue, 2 skeins @ 3oz/251 yd ea., acrylic

I made a sweater with it here in pink.

yarn giveaway 3

Deborah Norville, “Serenity Garden Yarn” :: fingering weight, hibiscus red, 2 skeins @ 2.29oz/185yd ea,  100% microfiber

I made socks with it here in purple.

yarn giveaway 2

Deborah Norville, “Serenity Garden Yarn” :: fingering weight, mountain heather, 2 skeins @ 2.29oz/185yd ea,  100% microfiber

yarn giveaway 4

Yarn Bee “Highland Thistle”:: heavy weight and fringey, mackay blue, 3 skeins @ 3.5oz/111 yd ea., acrylic

I made a hat with it here in pink.

Now that the disclaimer and the photos are posted, if you are interested in playing along and can give a good home to some needy skeins, please leave me a comment with your choice.  And the fun word of the day.

My word for the day is twatwaffle.  As in the jerk at the DMV told me to go to yet another line and I replied, “you sir are a twatwaffle”.

Yes, to be one of the 4 proud new caretakers of this lovely yarn, please leave a comment with your fun word of the day and your choice. If your name is randomly drawn out of a hat, I will ship it to you US Mail next weekend.  Unless you are said twatwaffle from the DMV because I will magically lose the one with your name on it and not be awarding you any pretty yarn.

To reiterate::

1.) your fun word of the day

2.) your choice in orphaned yarn

3.) you may comment either here or on my fb page, or both ~ that means you can get up to 2 entries

4.) contest closes on Tuesday 9/10/13 by my bedtime, cuz I just can’t stay awake till midnight

Good luck friends 🙂

crochet:: dream big

I’ve been calling this one Frankie’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamghan.

I’m using 14-round grannies and the join-as-you-go method with fingering weight wool.

dreamghan 1

And holy cow I’m nearly finished with 2 whole rows.  Out of 12.  This will be taking just shy of forever.

dreamghan 2

Today I did the choosing of the next 4 rows.  When I got done we pretty much looked at each other and said, “half way by Christmas?”.  And laughed.  Because yeah, this is definitely taking just shy of forever.

dreamghan 3

Ready…

Set…

GO!

dreamghan 4

Have a ridiculously amazing Sunday!

crochet:: bits & pieces & staycation, oh my!

11 days of bliss.

ELEVEN WHOLE DAYS.

I have not had this many days off in a row for 15 years, and I’m incredibly happy about this staycation.

There will be making and cooking and maybe a new crochet business venture!

I am working away on Frank’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamghan and although progress is slow, we are both ThRiLleD with how it is turning out.

dreamghan 1

I’m using 14-round grannies and the join-as-you-go method.

dreamghan 2

I’m going to give a plug here for Knit Picks wool ~ lovely colors and amazingly easy to work with.  This labor of love afghan is going to be my Favorite Of All Time.

In other news, I am still enjoying the Smash Booking thing. I need to share some of it soon.  I’ve  been saying that for awhile and yet not delivering, you say?  Duly noted, I shall take pics this week while I’m off work.

One of the things I’m using in my Smash Booking is washi tape.  I have a washi tape crafty crush cos the stuff is just so cute!  So, I have made a little container to keep my growing washi tape stash.

washi tape box

I’ve gotten several orders for dishcloths and caterpillar cocoons lately, so much of my making seems to be on those items lately.  The good news is that I have a couple more new ideas percolating in the far reaches of the crafty portion of my brain and will be testing those patterns during my staycation.

Ta for now!

Have a ridiculously amazing day.

life:: social media purge

Twitter

Pinterest

Facebook

Goodreads

LinkedIn

Instagram

Bloglovin

WordPress

Ravelry

Craftsy

And that my friends is merely a SAMPLE of my social media.  I keep a spreadsheet to remember all my passwords.  There are 39 lines on my spreadsheet.  And that just ain’t right!

In the past 2 years, I have made a conscious effort to be more social to overcome my introversion.  How’s that working out for ya panic attack girl?

I have done it to get my name out there so that when I market a book, I will have well-placed outlets at my disposal.  How’s that book writing coming along?

 I tried to interact with others more, I just am not into it.  My book writing is at a snail’s pace.  I waste too much time with social media.  I even missed International YarnBombing Day this year!  That just ain’t right either!   Too many different apps and sites and forums and trolls.    The one I like the most is this little bloggity blog site we call WordPress home.  I interact with all kinds of lovely people from fantastic places and we humbly share the things in life that move us.

This week, after a little thought on the subject I read multiple blog posts by people that felt similarly.  Why am I working so hard and spending so much time trying to be something I’m not?  I’m just not that social, nor am I a marketing mogul.   I truly prefer the positive side of life, and yet I’m feeling like a friggin creeper at a train wreck.

 I am embarking on the journey to extricate myself from time-wasting social media.  Buh-bye Goodreads and Twitter and Bloglovin.  So long forums and message boards and Instagram…bring on some silent reflection, bring on more music, bring on the yarn.

I have not given up human interaction completely, just completely honed in on the social media that is worthy of my time and effort.  It was a spring cleaning of sorts that is making me feel much better.  So if I have connected with you on some of the platforms that I am no longer a part of, please know it’s not you, it’s me.

One blogger captured my thought so completely about being an artist at heart and how being overly social squashes that creativity.  And really, if I saw one more Instagrammed plate of salmon filets on a bed of arugula with tangerine-peppercorn-mango salsa I was going to hurl.

So my friends, you will continue to find me here at WordPress.  My family, you will still find me on Facebook occasionally.  And Lord knows,  I lurves me some Pinterest and Ravelry because I never have to talk on those.   Most of the others are already gone, and the rest are being phased out as we speak.  I am vowing from this day forward to not be seduced by social media, I will merely use it wisely and spend more of my time creating.

Art is life

and

life is art.

yarn 1

crochet:: getting my geek on with the hobbit & some tunisian

tunisian colorwork potholder 2

I finally got a chance to see The Hobbit this weekend, and yes I totally geeked out that they mentioned crochet in the movie 🙂

While I watched, I finished up testing this new potholder pattern in Tunisian Colorwork. Which I have decided is a ’thing’, and I think I totally made up that name. I am so ahead of the curve sometimes. So when you hear that Tunisian Colorwork is a ‘thing’ you know where you heard of it first. Right here. With me. Because I wish to be a crochet goddess and have my own book someday where I publish this lovely pattern that I created in Tunisian Colorwork.

tunisian colorwork potholder

What do ya think? Did I say Tunisian Colorwork enough times to make it a ‘thing’?

Doesn’t it look like fun?

Because it totally is.

tunisian colorwork potholder 4

I found color inspiration here, if you happen to like knowing those things.

And well the rest? That was inspired by the need to decide what stitch to use on my NEXT BIG THING afghan. Oh, and the need to have a small project to do more wool testing. Why am I so paranoid to start a 100% wool project??? Perhaps because blocking a king-sized afghan will be next to impossible…perhaps because I don’t want to spend 12 bajillion hours making it only to ruin it when I launder it for the first time?

tunisian colorwork potholder 3

With that said, I am soliciting any and all advice. If you have a tip for working with real wool, and how to care for the finished product…I implore you to share. Pretty please? Frank says he wants his new afghan before he gets sent off to the nursing home. Something about not having the energy to fight off all the little old crazy cat ladies that will inevitably want his blankie…

crochet:: regardless of my inability to choose a pattern, we have a winner!

Congratulations to Liz!

Please check your email and let’s get this yarn on it’s way to you 🙂

OK, it’s like this.  My deadline to pick an afghan pattern and a winner was set for tomorrow and I still can’t decide what to do.  I mean I have made a TON of progress, but I’m still unable to, well come up with THE ONE perfect afghan.

 You were all so awesome to give me great ideas. I like parts and pieces of all of them.  I am such a flake sometimes.  I have also spent 3 days with a massive case of the flu so please cut me a little slack here.

yarn give away

A huge THANK YOU to all of you for your lovely ideas and inspiration.  All the suggestions have helped me narrow down my search.  I’ve made it 2 basic patterns; although I’m not so sure about the stitch yet.  Quite honestly, my brain is still a little too mushy from the flu.  You can check them out here and here.

I also promised to let you all know about the properties of my Knit Picks yarn trials.  It’s nothing too new or out of the ordinary for wool, so my findings are as follows:

It felts easily.

It shows no signs of pilling.

It shrinks quite a bit.

It makes a nice firm fabric.

It’s nice and soft after felting and not scratchy at all.

On that note friends, I am going to watch a little game called football.

Go Ravens 🙂