Caron Yarn Review

by Kelly

A few days ago, our camera went to the camera shop. (Yes, there are still people who repair cameras. We were surprised, too! )We're hoping it's repairable, but in the meantime I can't take a picture of the cross-stitch project I'm currently working on, so instead let's talk about yarn.

Mostly my yarn habit is fed by Donna. She buys great big bags of random yarn for me at garage and estate sales, she invites me over to take my pick from her stash, and she occasional buys something that catches her eye and gifts it to me just because.

But sometimes I have to buy yarn. And because I am extremely cheap, I want quantity for my money. So I succumbed to the lure of Caron One Pound Yarn.
And I was kind of really happy...and kinda not really happy.

First of all, one pound of yarn is actually pretty impressive. It's about the size of a cat or a small dog. And it's 826 yards of yarn, which is more than enough unless you're yarn bombing the Brooklyn Bridge.

 And best of all, the yarn is acrylic but it feels and looks more like the expensive cotton yarn I've bought in the past. So as far as the quality of the yarn goes, it's worth the money. If I was making a bag, this is the yarn I would choose, because it really is very sturdy, almost more like a cord than a yarn.
 

But here's the catch - I'm not sold on the color quality.

I ordered one skein of white and one skein of black, since those are the colors that I am chronically short of. I used the white for my Broomstick Lace Shawl and I was really happy with it...but the black, not so much. In a dark room, the black yarn looks fine. Once you take it out into the sunlight, however, it has this unpleasant greenish tint to it that makes it look really cheap. Which it is, in all honesty, but still.

I know that black is a tricky color, and maybe I just got a bad dye lot. But will I try this yarn again? Maybe. Maybe if I can find a local yarn shop that will let me take a skein outside to see the yarn color in the sunlight, without fearing that I will abscond with their merchandise.

So if you hear about someone being jailed for stealing yarn, rest assured that it was probably only me, and that it's all just a big misunderstanding.

Easter Goodies

by Donna

I'm always looking for holiday goodies to crochet. I found some for Easter and I thought I would share. I found this basket and decided to try it. It is very simple. It uses a cool whip bowl for the inside of the basket. After I made this one I started thinking of other uses for this basket. If you left the handle off you could use it to put a plant pot in, you could put potpourri in it, use it in the bathroom to put bath oil beads in or decorative soaps. You can find the pattern here.

The pattern for the blue egg with the cross is here. The other eggs I made without a written pattern. Someday I will write down what I did and post them here on our blog.

Here is a link to a web site that has lots of Easter patterns. I'm sure you can find something you would like to try.

Here is a link to an e-book with Easter crafts.

You still have a few days til Easter. Make something colorful!

I Could Do That - Crochet in Stores

by Kelly

Have you ever come across something in a store and think to yourself, "Well, I could do that." ? Well, Uncommon Goods has embraced crochet items in a big way...

via Kid Crave via Must Have Cute

Panda Rug Only $65.00. But hey, it's handmade.


Also see Black Cat Headphones and  The Isle of St. Marie Tote. 
at Uncommon Goods. Also things that I could make myself...

Crochet Risqué?

by Kelly

Crochet has lately made great strides back into the fashion industry, after languishing unloved in thrift stores since the '70's.  I've seen crochet bags in Eddie Bauer stores, cardigans in the teen store Forever 21, and shorts, swimsuits and full blown dresses in Victoria's Secret.

And while it's great that crochet designers are shattering the granny stereotype, some of the items that I've seen are a little too daring for me to actually wear. Check out this halter top, for sale at Craft Is Art...

or this erm...skirt for sale at Tags.com...

The skirt is available only in size XS, which lets me out anyway, even aside from the price, which is a 'gosh price' if ever I saw one.  Would I wear this even if I had the build of the model in the picture? Ahhh...no.

 But the most risqué item I've seen by far isn't actually for sale in stores...it is however, available as a free pattern at Knitty.com. This is a knit pattern using red liquorice ropes which is quite ingenious, actually and...well, you'll just have to see for yourself here. I'm not sharing the picture, but there's nothing especially offensive about it...it's on Knitty, after all. I just don't want to ruin the surprise.

I'm wondering what future generations will think of crochet, when they have these items to look back on...

Broomstick Lace Shawl

by Kelly

I fell in love with Broomstick Lace a while ago, but I wanted to do something unique, not just a run of the mill afghan or scarf. Unfortunately, there just aren't that many patterns available for Broomstick Lace items, so I put off learning how to do it. But then I saw this Hourglass Jacket over on Stitch Diva Studios, and my fate was sealed.

The pattern is available at her site, but much as I would love to make this, I'm not quite up to fitted garments yet.  So I decided to take the new ideas she brings to this and make something simpler...like a shawl.

One of the things that really struck me about the jacket was how the different sizes of 'peacock eyes' helped to define the areas - smaller eyes for the waist, and larger eyes for the rest. I also loved the shaping. She did this with increases and decreases of the Broomstick Lace, something that's not supposed to be possible. Check out her YouTube videos here and here to find out how easy it really is.

I had two Broomstick lace needles from an Ebay auction that I won ages ago - a size 50 and a size 17. So I took the plunge, and made a sample swatch using both needles. Then I fooled around a little more, did a quick Google search for shawl patterns, bought some yarn (*sigh*) and voila, here's the finished project:

 Here's another pic, out in the sunshine:

I've listed it in our shop here under the name 'Spring Blossom shawl'. It was lots of fun to make, especially the blossom rows. The only part I wasn't fond of was sewing in all those ends. Oh, and I learned how to make the blossoms from the book 'Hawaiian Lei in Crochet' by Roberta Wong.

Since the pattern is my own, all I need now is a few helpers to test knit the pattern. Anyone want to learn how to crochet Broomstick Lace?

The Bible According to Mel

Spring has sprung in Illinois - 5 days of record setting temperatures and no end in sight. And so as is the case every year, my fancy turns to gardening. I'm trying something completely new this year, Square Foot Gardening - a rather revolutionary concept in home gardening - or at least it was when it was first introduced in the 1970s by Mel Bartholomew. He's back with an updated book and we are drinking the Mel kool-aid. The concept is simple - really simple and easy - which appealed to me. You build 4x4 foot boxes, grid them off into 16 squares and plant x number of items per square (depending on how much spacing the plant needs). Last weekend we built 4 boxes and this weekend we filled them and actually planted! I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds, but we put in the traditional early Spring crops, spinach, shallots, peas, lettuce and strawberries, etc. When they sprout I'll post some pics. It's gonna be a great growing season!

Works in Progress

by Kelly

Here's the afghan I'm making with the Super Simple Hexagon pattern from a previous post. What do you think?

I've discovered there are two problems with this kind of afghan. First of all, there's the seaming. It's kind of a let down after all the fun and easy work of making the hexagons, to be confronted with a lot of boring seaming. Of course, you could connect them as you go, but that limits the spontaneous nature of the hexagons, because now you're chained to a full blown afghan project again.

And aside from the seaming, there are the gaping voids along the edges. Lots of people make half hexagons. They aren't difficult to figure out, if you have a picture on hand. Of course, that still leaves a pointy side edge.

Or maybe I could just put a border around the whole thing, like Adi Keren did:

via Flickr

Check out her Flickr stream here for other goodies, including a sweet baby blanket made out of tiny crochet flowers.

I'm off to see if I can create half-hexagons. Heigh, ho.