A while ago (two years, actually), I won a fantastic basket of yarn in a raffle. Nice yarns. Beautiful yarns. Cottons, wools, and mohairs, to be precise. But I soon discovered a problem: there is very little you can make with just one skein of yarn - and the basket held no duplicates! I don't really care to make 20 cell phone cases or finger puppets, which seem to be the sum total of the brilliant, one-skein patterns available, so the yarn sat unmoletsed in that basket for TWO YEARS (can you believe it?). Finally, I decided I needed to either use the yarn, or toss it, so before going to Texas I decided to just start a project I'd been wanting to try (
Stimson Ave. Stole) with a skein I had and see how far I got. :) It managed to be about half the proper length, and the other skein I used for the edging got me half-way around and then ran out - but I'm glad I did it anyway. The little girls get it to play dress-up with, and I know now how easy and beautiful the pattern really is. :)
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Ta-dah! Definitely something I will make again, with the proper yarn amounts. :)
This last week I "finished" the stole and began to search for a pattern that could be used for some lovely, lavender, lace-weight mohair. Fingerless Tea Gloves! I think I will be able to get at least two little girl pairs out of the skein (no prizes guessing who
those will go to)...I love how delicate and lacy they are!
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After starting numerous projects and not having anywhere close to the right length of yarns, I finally found a pattern for these fun ruffly
neck-warmers. I made one of wool (the green/tan one) and one of...some other, mysterious, unlabeled yarn (I have a hunch it's at least partly acrylic). I think they're wonderful, but the picture is model-less, as I've yet to get buttons.
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After the wool neck warmer, I was left with simply scraps of wool - too little to be made into anything, and too much for me to feel like throwing it away. It is such nice wool! So I've started a sort of "scrap quilt". Only it's crocheted, and not really a quilt at all, just a little zig-zag pattern made out of cozy wool. This one will be a long time in the works, as I will only add to it when I have useless lengths of wooliness left over from various projects. But I like the idea, and feel quite happy with it. :)
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Then there was a great, thick skein of cotton. A while back mama had made some knitted washrags that had different patterns on them by alternating your purl/knit stitch, so I decided to try it for myself! Here is
washrag #1 (
#2 is still in progress):
And finally, remember when I mentioned that the neck warmers needed buttons? Yes, well, I went to Joann's to get said buttons, but...did not...that is to say... when I returned home, it was not with buttons. I returned with some absolutely gorgeous, brilliantly-colored, happy-smiley bamboo silk skeins, which I've been making up into fun
flower-granny squares for a blanket. I don't know yet if it will just be a lap blanket (all I could make with the squares I currently have) or if I dare go back to Joann's to buy more skeins - what with yarns, and fabrics, and patterns, that place is downright
dangerous to the pocket-book!
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And those are the projects that have been keeping me busy this week. I find that I phase in and out of obsession with regards to yarn - apparently I'm in the thick of one such phase now. :) Linking up with Kirsteen from
Life in My Houseful of Boys today! :)
