Inland Crafts

A little over two weeks ago, I volunteered at the craft show, Inland Crafts . I love to go to craft and art shows so I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer. I was hoping to meet other artistic people in the area and have a chance to see the show. I also was hoping to find some ideas and inspiration for my own projects. I was nervous about going. I had never volunteered at this show before.

At the show, I had a great time. The other volunteers were all very nice. They had all been volunteering at the show for years. I was a ticket taker and I had a good time chatting with the customers. I found out about other craft shows in the area. I also found out about many artists I liked. The show had artists from the inland NW area and beyond. In case you are interested, Here is a list of artists that participated in the show. If anyone is interested in crafts and visual art, I highly recommend volunteering at a craft show

Warm Up America

One Night, I was out looking for buttons to mend a shirt. I had gone to 2 stores and I couldn’t find a button that matched. I was frustrated. At one craft store, a woman was crocheting at a table. I went to see what she was crocheting. It turns out that she was there to let people know about Warm Up America. The group makes blankets for needy people. For Warm Up America, people crochet or knit squares and drop them off at a collection point. Then, they have a joining party and make the donated squares into blankets that they give to the needy. I think that it is a good idea. Hearing about Warm Up America cheered me up a little when I was irritated. I have some odd bits of yarn and I haven’t known what to do with it. One example is some bright yellow acrylic. I am not crazy about the color or cheap acrylic yarn. I definitely would like to make some squares for this. It would be a good way to use up some of my odd yarn and help others during these hard times. Here is a link to Warm Up America.

Reusing Yarn

When I make something that requires a gauge swatch, I will put the swatch in a bag and set it aside. A gauge swatch is a sample made to see how big your project will be. You knit a sample of the stitch used in the pattern and measure how many stitches per inch you knit or crochet. I don’t want to throw them away but I am often not sure what to do with them. As a result, I have a bag of gauge swatches that sit on my shelf.

Lately, I have been thinking more about repurposing. One day, I was straightening my craft area and I looked at my bag of old swatches. It occurred to me that I could unravel the swatches and reuse the yarn. Lately, I have wanted to do some smaller crochet projects like headbands, motifs or granny squares. The swatches would produce the right amount of yarn for small projects like that.

The beauty of crochet is that even small bits of leftover yarn can easily be used for projects. Granny Squares are great for using up odd bits of small yarn. The book, The Happy Hooker has a beginning granny square pattern. For this project, I unraveled two beige and two gray swatches. I used some of the beige yarn to make a headband. I used the grey yarn to crochet an edging I have wanted to try. Here are pictures of some of the yarn I unraveled and the two projects I made with the yarn.

WIP Wednesday

I haven’t made much of any progress on the Kigali lace Wrap or the Cable Scarf. I have been spending most of my time knitting a Christmas present. I am not sure if the intended recipient reads my blog and I want it to be a surprise. So I am not going to say what it is or post a picture. I am almost done with it though.

I decided to unravel the summer top. I realized that it was going to be much, much too long. I also wasn’t that that excited about the project. I like the yarn though; t is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I will have to find something else to do with the yarn this spring.

FO Friday

I finally finished the Short and Sweet and I am happy how it turned out. I enjoyed the stitch pattern. I will enjoy wearing this. I would definitely make this pattern again. Next time, I would make it a little longer though. When I was crocheting the second sleeve, I was afraid I was going to run out of yarn. I was going to unravel the other sleeve and make the other sleeve shorter than the pattern calls for. Instead of unraveling, I took a break from the pattern for a day. As it turns out, I wasn’t doing the sleeve right. I was adding in an extra repeat without realizing it. Once I realized that and crocheted the sleeve correctly, I had just enough yarn.

If you make this pattern make sure you read the errata sheet. Some versions of the book The Happy Hooker printed the pattern with errors. Also the front part can be confusing. The designer wrote up this to help. Also, the website knithappens.com has this resource to help with that. As I stated before, I found the sleeves confusing. When I was crocheting the first sleeve, I wasn’t sure I was doing it right. I had to redo the 2^nd sleeve 3 times before I finally finished it.

Fall Colors

I grew up in Western Washington where we have 3 seasons; rainy, not rainy, and a short summer. The local joke is that we get our week of summer each year. I always wanted to live somewhere with 4 seasons.

I currently live in Eastern Washington where we have changing seasons. I like experiencing the different seasons. However, it comes with a little melancholy. If you are enjoying good weather, there is always the thought in the back of your head that this will not last. For example, I was not ready for summer to go. It has been a good fall though. The fall colors have been great this year and the weather has been nice.

I took these pictures of the fall colors not too far from where I live. When I would go for walks, I noticed that the fall colors are especially bright this year. On one of my walks, I brought my camera along and took some pictures. I am not sure the pictures do the colors justice. Of course it is supposed to start snowing soon. I also hear it could be a hard winter here so I am enjoying the fall while I can.