One of my most colorful hobbies is yarn crafting, especially crochet. I currently have three crochet projects on which I am working. You may find it strange that I don't finish one project before beginning another. But if you could see inside my brain at how my mind works, you would understand. :)
I love to crochet because I can turn a plain ball of yarn into a different creature entirely, but I get bored doing the same stitches over and over and over. So I put one project down and start another, just to keep things interesting.
My first project is a long-term one, a large afghan. I have already made two of these types of afghans before, but this time I am making it big enough to fit on our king size bed. I am using kelly green and white in Vanna's Choice yarn. Two strands are held together and crocheted with a size N hook. Using such a large hook enables the project to stitch up quickly. Unfortunately, since I am making such a large afghan, it will also use many skeins of yarn. I have already used 14 skeins and I have run out for the time being. I usually get my yarn at Michael's or Jo-Ann but Vanna's Choice hasn't been on sale for a while so I am waiting until I can buy more. It retails for $3.99 but many times it is on sale for $2.79 or even $2.50, and they give a 15% teacher discount, which leaves me paying around $2.37 or $2.12, respectively. If I needed just a few skeins, that wouldn't be such a big deal, but I estimate I have at least three to five times more yarn that I've already used. This is going to be one expensive and labor intensive blanket! Here's a sneak peek of what it looks like so far:
My second project is called Americana Afghan. I downloaded the pattern off the Lion Brand website. It is absolutely gorgeous and made with a gorgeous yarn called Heartland. Here is what the project looks like on their site:
This yarn in made in the U.S.A. and the different colors are named for various national parks in the United States. The ivory shade is called Acadia, the blue is Olympic, and the red is Redwood. It is super soft, 100% acrylic, and machine washable. I currently have three out of the 20 panels done. I had never made stars before and I am enamored by them.
For some bizarre reason, I thought I would have this done by this Fourth of July (I started it around June 29). Yes, I realize I was off my rocker. (Remember my brain is But my friend Amy suggested I give myself another end date of Labor Day. I think I can make that deadline, as long as I don't start too many other projects in the meantime.
Speaking of which, the last project I have started was begun today out of necessity. I was on kitchen duty this morning and I got lots of water on my wood floor. We haven't replaced the kitchen rug we got rid of a while back and so I mentally made a note of doing that. But then my crochet-obsessed brain started thinking "maybe I could crochet one". I looked up a few online and decided that instead of buying more yarn (which I most definitely do not need), I should use what I have. I went down in the basement and raided my yarn stash. Here are the cotton yarns I have in my possession:
I am going to just use a simple half double crochet stitch and make rows of colors to form a 2' x 3' rug for my kitchen. I think I will use the solids for sure but I'm not sure I'll used the variegated colors at this time.
Luckily, Michael's has these Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarns on sale this week. Yes, I know I said I don't need more yarn, but I do need more yarn. There is no blue and I can't make a rug without blue! ;) Here is my progress so far:
So now that I have posted that I have started all these projects, I hope I will feel obligated to finish these projects in a timely manner so my readers can see them. If you do see me in the coming weeks, please ask me about my progress on these projects, OK? I am trying to motivate myself to finish them and that just might do the trick! Thanks!
(and get your projects done too!)
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