October 8, 2024

Monochrome Crochet Scarves

October 08, 2024 7 Comments

 
I didn't get a lot of crocheting done over the summer, but now I have found my crojo again just in time to participate in the October Sustainable Craft Challenge Blog Hop. This month's theme is Monochrome, and as a crocheter with a large stash of yarn, I knew exactly what yarn I wanted to use for this theme. Caron Simply Soft Freckle Stripes (Stone) is a black, gray, and white yarn that I fell in love with and bought just because I liked it, which seems to happen a lot. When I bought it, I did not have a project in mind for it. I just wanted it. This is a sustainable craft challenge, and usually I say my crochet projects are slow fashion, which they are. However, this time, I want to bring up a different topic...  overconsumption. 

As I mentioned before, I have a large stash of yarn. I've been crocheting for over 20 years, but I started buying more and more yarn once I opened my Etsy shop. And when I see pretty yarn all over Instagram and Facebook and in my email and all the ads that pop up on my phone and magazines in the mail, I get the urge to buy all the pretty yarn whether I have a project in mind or not. And when I go to the craft store, and they're having an awesome sale, or they have a great coupon on their app, I usually buy more yarn because who passes up a good sale!? So I have ended up with all this yarn, and when I look at some of it, I think to myself, "Why the heck did I buy that?!" It's very common for crafters to end up with big stashes of supplies whether it's yarn, fabric, buttons, stickers, paints, scrapbook paper, etc.  I see crafters posting about destashing all the time. Now, I have reached a point where, I'd like to use up this stash of yarn and not buy anymore. 

So one great way to use up a yarn stash is by crocheting for charities, and that's what I'm doing. I previously used up a lot of my blue yarn by crocheting blue hats for the Hat Not Hate anti-bullying campaign. And now, I'm participating in Operation Gratitude's Clear Your Stash Challenge.  For this charity challenge, knitters, crocheters, and loomers are making hats and scarves using any color yarn from their stash, and these handmade hats and scarves will be given to deployed troops and veterans during the holiday season. As an Army brat and Navy wife, I'm all for making things for the troops. AND....  Last deployment, my sailor husband came home with a crochet hat that I did NOT recognize. 😕 And when I asked him about it, he said it was donated by Operation Gratitude. He said some guys got scarves too, but they didn't have enough for everyone, so he was only able to get a hat.  (I always make hats for my husband to wear during deployments, but it didn't occur to me to make him a scarf.😆) So now, I'm making scarves for Operation Gratitude. 😊 And the first three scarves I crocheted were made with monochrome yarn.

June 30, 2024

Crochet Orca

June 30, 2024 2 Comments
School is out for summer, but during Teacher Appreciation Week, I made this orca as a teacher appreciation gift for my son's teacher. I noticed during parent-teacher conferences that she had a crochet crayon pillow and a pencil pillow in her classroom, so I decided to make her an Orca pillow since the kids had recently learned about Orcas, and the teacher really likes them.

May 7, 2024

Rae Dunn Inspired Cutlery Placemat

May 07, 2024 5 Comments
I have been wanting to make a placemat for when I snack or eat lunch at my craft room desk, and I finally did it! I was inspired to go ahead and make a placement when I saw that this month's theme for the May Sustainable Craft Challenge Blog Hop is Typography. I knew I wanted to create a placement with Rae Dunn styled font/words. For this project, I decided to create the placemat using the Basic Cutlery Placemat pattern by Pukapuka, and I used Lion Brand Wool Ease Recycled Yarn to make it eco-friendly. ♻😊

March 31, 2024

Easter Gnome Scarf

March 31, 2024 0 Comments
Since I've been making gnome scarves for holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and St. Patrick's Day, I decided that I migh as well make an Easter themed gnome scarf. As with my other gnome scarves, I created this scarf by following the Fall Gnome Scarf pattern by Heidi Yates/Snappy Tots and made some modifications. This pattern is so fun and can be made with a variety of color combinations. 

March 5, 2024

St. Patricks Day Rainbow Scarf

March 05, 2024 6 Comments

I've been wanting to create a St. Patrick's Day themed scarf for a while now, and I'm pleased to say that I finally got around to making one! I was inspired to go ahead and create this scarf when I saw that the theme for this month's Sustainable Craft Challenge is RAINBOW. I decided to crochet a scarf where one half is in rainbow colors and the other half is green. I knew I wanted a pot of gold and a lepruchan. To create this scarf, I followed the Fall Gnome Scarf pattern by Heidi Yates/Snappy Tots and made some modifications. This pattern is so fun and can be made with a variety of color combinations. 

February 6, 2024

Crochet Patchwork Heart

February 06, 2024 14 Comments
I've admired the Crochet Patchwork Hearts created by Vendulka of Magic With Hook and Needles for a while, so when I saw that the theme for the February Sustainable Craft Challenge was Heart, I knew this would be the perfect project for the challenge. I decided to crochet the heart using yarn that's already in my stash, and instead of using fiber fill, I'd stuff the heart with yarn scraps.