I have returned...um ... again and hope to start updating about some projects I've done this year as well as sharing links to other awesome sites I love and you will too.
Since I'm back now I'll start with my two projects of this week.
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Some weeks I have NO projects running. It's a bit of a downer but I know fall and winter are when things pick up. This week though I've had two custom orders completed and ready to send. This was one that was requested a few weeks ago. The problem I find with many of my projects is that I don't have many stores around my area that carry the yarns I would like to use. All I have within 30 miles is Walmart. It's great for some projects I can use Red Heart Yarn for but I wanted this one to be super chunky. Lion Brand Wool-Ease would have been the greatest to use in Apricot or Pumpkin. I figured I would wait until the next time I went out of town to grab it at Hobby Lobby.
Now, just to be clear, I do not approve of Hobby Lobby using their employees health insurance options to prove their religious beliefs mean something to them. You're closed on Sunday because you love God, got it. You don't believe you should pay for your employees birth control or for the morning after pill but you will pay for viagra and buy your products from third world countries that beat and demean woman so you can sell it for a profit, got it. Now you won't hire anyone unless they sign a paper stating the unmarried employees will abstain from sex. Hobby Lobby will continue to profit and push their "above the law" rules in the name of God. I do not approve of this and hate even giving them my money.
That said, I'm disgusted with myself that I love their I Love This Yarn brand. If I could order it directly from Turkey and avoid Hobby Lobby, I would. I have yet to find a yarn that is as soft, pliable, long lasting, easily washable, low frizz and inexpensive as this brand is. I'm going to look though because I don't want to continue giving them money.
Back on subject. So I went to Hobby Lobby in the next town when I had business up there and searched for 20 minutes to find they had Lion brand and they had Wool-Ease but NO pumpkin or apricot colors. In fact they had no chunky colors in any orange at all. I thought it was bad when my local Walmart store didn't care any of our school color yarns (which is basic maroon and light grey, seriously who doesn't have light grey yarn...this gal) but it's October and you're a major chain that sells a lot of yarn for fall projects and you didn't even have a section in the Lion Brand area for the one color that's popular this time of year. sigh. The only color close in a brand soft enough for a small child was...you guessed it, I Love This Yarn. Which was also the only light grey I can find without special ordering. (BTW I would order my yarns but I need $50 worth to order from Walmart and Red Heart for free shipping and $35 for Amazon plus a long wait and I'm usually impatient :p )
SO Extremely long story short (too late) and I brought home Desert Glaze, I Love This Yarn and jumped on this project. I do not have a pattern to work with and recently have just learned the cross cable crochet stitch so I got started. I hope to work up a pattern later for this but it was super simple really. The little guy who is receiving this hat is almost a preschooler. I don't have exact measurements. The fox hood was requested without a cowl or scarf but some sort of tie. Because this tie is weaved in and out and has pom poms on the end it won't be able to be removed without cutting the tie off or taking off the pom poms. The ends are rolled up like the cowl hoods you see online. I really hope they enjoy it. :) It's not super chunky but it will still be soft and warm.
A friend said she knew someone wanting a snowman hat but for a girl. I've done one with Bernat Wedgewood Ombre colors for boys. Two actually. One with black dots for eyes and mouth and one sleeping. This one I have used Lion Brand Purple Haze of the Homespun style. I must admit that I love how soft Homespun is but I hate crocheting with it. It, to me, defeats the purpose of learning to crochet. I know that sounds bonkers but you simply can not see where to put your crochet hook to make even numbered rows! If you can't learn to wing it, don't use this yarn style. I find it hard to use because I'm sooooo borderline OCD and if I can't make sure everything is even and match I twitch a little in my mind so using Homspun is like a twitch fest. I had to seriously force myself to relax! How crazy, right?! :p I made the braids extra long on this hat in case it's for photos. Long braids are just adorable and we all know you don't actually tie them anyway. :p I also gave her little eye lashes and a bow. The bow is White Sparkle and the grape band is Purple Neon, sigh, of I Love This Yarn. I know, I know, it's like an I Love This Yarn addiction I have. It's harder to quit using it than it is to quit eating chocolate! I have found there is a Hancock Fabric store in my neighboring town that may have the yarns so I'm going to check them out the next time I'm there or convince myself to suck up the $5-7 per skein shipping charges with most yarn suppliers online. EEK! ;)I hope to have more posts coming and maybe some new patterns to share. :D
