I'm Too Busy Impressing Myself to Blog Right Now

So, you know about me and thrift stores, but did you know I learned to crochet in 4th grade (and taught myself to knit in college)? Well, so happens my Mom gave me all the old crochet hooks she saved from when I was a kid and that led me to start to notice that thwarted crafters occasionally release excellent yarn to the thrift stores around here. Lots of 'onesies and twosies" odds and ends stuff, but when you get $20 worth of Merino wool for 99 cents, you grab it. Well, I finally amassed enough compatible yarn to actually make things.

But what? All my old patterns are sadly recognizable on the old threadbared site (really). In fact, I'm so happy in yarn heaven right now, this could almost be Scott's story.

But I don't really have enough yarn for a heavy bag and work out outfit for my husband, so what to do what to do...

Ha! And the young people shall lead us: My niece got me looking at Pinterest.

I. Love. Pinterest.

I didn't really understand Pinterest before but now I see the sheer power of it and it is fabulous. I went over, typed in crochet, and a world of cool pattern images opened before my eyes. I typed in garden, too, just for the heck of it. Just go do it. Sheer eye candy.

Anyways, I found a pattern (ironically not on Pinterest, but I did pin it there since). I altered it to fit the yarn I had and made this while I was stuck on the couch with some crazy-ass bug that still has me coughing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that scarf set off another bug. What to make next?

Sadly, I am drawn to very textural yarn that is a royal bugger to try to crochet with (likely why I find so much at the thrift store) and I frankly didn't feel like casting on 250 stitches to knit the lovely scarf I found, so I did the next best thing.

I created my very first pattern.

So easy it is ridiculous. I started it during the hockey game period breaks last night, and this afternoon I was done. (Speaking of ridiculous...what are they feeding those Hawks? Serious hockey love going on here.)

Is this not the sweetest thing? If you want the pattern, talk pretty to me and I just might share it. Or I might not. Not sure yet. But at least you can see what is happening over here and if you are a yarn lover yourself, use it for inspiration...

Comments

[Di]

Love. Love. Love!!

[Kevin Moriarity]

My wife is an avid knitter. She raves about a site called Ravelry (https://www.ravelry.com/account/login). It's sort of like Facebook and Pinterest just for knitters. Also, she's a member of the Fox Valley Knitting Guild, which meets once a month. I do their website: http://www.fvkg.com. Check these out if you're getting back into knitting!

[Erin]

Ooh! Did you add another color since I saw it last?

[Kate]

gorgeous!

[Laura]

Thank you guys! Kevin, I did check out Ravelry. Great suggestion! And the FVKG site...wow! The members really do some stunning work! I'm still playing with the crochet hooks but I have no doubt the knitting needles will be coming in the future. The stuff I did in college was pretty basic (though the sweaters did all get worn, in public even), so I'm sure I could learn a ton from the Guild when I'm ready to take on more skilled pieces. You are a man of many hidden resources!