My Name is Sharon and I have a Yarn Addiction

One of my co-workers, who is a crafter, is cleaning house. She asked me if I would be interested in some
wool. I don’t use wool, yet, but I said I was sure I could find a home for it between my various crafting
groups. I expected a grocery bag or two of yarn.

Come in to work, and my chair was covered with two sweater bags full of yarn! I was shocked to say the
very least! And looking at it, it appears it is all acrylic, which is perfect for the various charity projects
that I am working on. I hauled it home on the bus and set it aside to sort it out somehow.

Then, I ended up at Walmart to get litter for the cats, and my cart seemed to drift over to the craft area.
Seeing as I have been reading on Ravelry that some Walmarts are getting rid of their yarn, I thought I
would see if there were any good deals. I ended up getting 4 balls of yarn at half off (2 of them are eco-
yarn from Red Heart that I was curious about; the other 2 I liked the colour). I also ended up with 3 bags
of mill ends – but these have 4 to 5 balls in them for 7 bucks, so that’s still less than 2 bucks a ball, which
is still cheaper than buying them separate. I do plan to use these in combination with the donated yarn
for my charity crafting. 

But as you can see, I have a problem. At least it isn’t anything dangerous or illegal, but it is still a
problem. Now I must get crocheting!

PS - Did I mention the yarn I got half price last week? Yah, I have a problem.

My Pretties!

I made myself a scarf with Pomp-a-doodle yarn.  The colour is called African Violet.  I used 2 balls to make it the length I wanted.

Some of the yarn I picked up on Boxing Day at Michaels. 

Boxing Day Shopping Made Easy

I am not a Boxing Day shopper; I am not a shopper at the best of times.  But, I received my flyers and went through them to see if there was anything worth my time and money.  And I did find one thing.

Michaels Flyer

As you may know, I recently learnt how to knit, and I have picked up my crochet needles again.  And while I have not gotten through much of my stash, a girl can never have too much yarn stash, can she?  (I think some of the threads on Ravelry are getting to me!).   

Michael’s was kind enough to have several different types of yarn on sales, and generously included a coupon that was good for 25% off everything you purchased, including those items that were already on sale!  This coupon cinched the deal for me, and I headed out at 11:30 this morning to go shopping.

I got some great deals; at least, I think they were, as much of the yarn I bought was 50% off, and then another 25% off.  I ultimately spent 100 bucks; although, I did buy a hook for 10 dollars, a photo box for 2 bucks and probably about 10 dollars worth of scrap booking materials.  The great thing is, I already have projects in mind for some of the yarn, and as a result, I had to buy 4 or 5 skeins of most yarns to make sure if I changed which yarn I was going to use, I would still have enough.  :)

Not sure about this Yarn Storage Option

Dad called me today to say he had claimed the cedar chest from my grandma's home (it was sold), and he was bringing it to me after work.  I immediately imagined it as a place for my yarn to live-in instead of in various boxes. 

Cedar chest, the room isn't truly that yellow though

Once I got the chest in place, I went to put yarn in it and immediately decided this plan would not work.

It is just one large box, so the yarn would have to live on top of itself to get it all in there.  As a result, it would be impossible to sort it or to dig in and get the exact ball you want.  So I think the filing cabinet may still be the solution.

Winding Yarn

Lately I have gone on a bit of a yarn buying spree through Ebay.  All this yarn has come in lovely hanks or in the round, which is not very conducive to knitting or crocheting with.  So I have endeavored to turn these into balls which can be worked with more easily.

The first hank, well, I didn’t pre-think how to do it, I just dove in.  That is a huge mess which I may just end up tossing.  Thankfully I didn’t spend a lot of money on it, but I still hate the thought of tossing something out.

After the first failed experiment, I decided to do a little bit of reading to find a better way to accomplish this task.  Here is how I started it out, as the suggestion was to put it around a chair or something else, but my chairs were not wide enough.

Once I got down to about ¼ left, it kept falling off and I missed catching it the one time and it completely tangled.  It took me 3 hours to sort that tangle out.  :(  I still need to improve my methods, but at least I got it wound.

Organizing Your Stash

I read a great article the other day, but apparently I deleted it.  It was about how to organize your stash of yarn.  Come on, you can't deny that you have one, but is it well organized so that if you need something you can easily find it?

This article suggested putting all like colours together within a ziploc bag.  It was recommended to use the largest bags you can find and put them all in there.  So all the greens in one bag, all the purples in another, etc.  That way, when you need that colour, it will be easy for you to locate.

If you are someone that likes to keep your scraps and then make something with them, the scraps could easily be sorted into its own bag to be kept for embellishments on other projects, or for a multi-colour scrap blanket or other project.

Recycling T-Shirts into Yarn

As recycling and upcycling become increasingly relevant in our daily lives, it's only natural that we would look around to see if our favorite material -- yarn -- could be made from cast-offs. Designers have made yarn from plastic bags, old newspapers, scrap fabrics, the inner tubes of tires and more!
One of the most usable recycled yarns can be made from T-shirts. The resulting yarn is generally quite soft and a bit heavier than worsted weight. Here's how to make T-shirt yarn:
Here are some very good tutorials for making T-shirt yarn.
T-shirt yarn tutorial
T-shirt yarn video


 http://www.crochetmagazine.com/newsletters.php?mode=issue&issue_id=153&department_id=5

Rosco and the Yarn

Rosco likes to help me with my yarn.  :)

Another 3 strand blanket

Due to the enjoyment I had crocheting the 3 strand baby blanket, I decided to make it again, different yarns, and different size needle.  This time I found a 15.00 mm needle from Zellers.  The pattern actually calls for a 19.00 needle, but things can easily be adjusted.

I decided to try the yucky yarn that I took under my care back in the fall, and I quite like how it is turning out.  Unfortunately, I will run out of Yucky Yarn