Summer Crafting Adventures

During Christmas time, I like to make gifts for my family/friends. Last year, I decided to crochet everyone I knew a beanie, the year before I did scarves, this year who knows what crafting Santa will bring. Last December was stressful, I had a bunch of hand cramps, and near the end I hated yarn and never wanted to see a crochet hook again. This time around, I’m doing my crocheting in summer rather than waiting until last minute to get everyone’s gift finished. Also, since I barely finished Nick’s hat in time last year ( I was literally hiding in my mom’s room rapidly crocheting and tying off knots right before we exchanged gifts) so of course I never had time to make a beanie for myself. So that has been the kick off project of this summer, and my hat should be done by tomorrow.

Crocheting is nice because you can start a project, set it down, and come back whenever you have time to do a little. more. Also you can crochet as a background activity if you have a simple enough pattern. When it’s too hot out, I hide inside with the A/C on crocheting and binge watching “Shameless” and when I wanna be outside sun bathing, I bring my yarn with me to pass the time. My goal is to acquire a little stockpile of scarves/beanies that I can possibly sell at this year’s “Snowflake Bazaar”. When I was in high school, our choir would always sing carols there but it’s basically a little Christmas swap meet. Every year when the signs go up I think about how fun it would be to rent a table and sell my handmade goods to my local community but I never treated it as anything other than an afterthought and didn’t have enough product prepared before. Maybe if i get a jump start, this year will be different.

I like to keep all my yarn and hooks together, so I found this little bin and claimed it as my crafting box. I keep my hooks in this glass mason jar so they don’t get lost and are easy to find plus I just think mason jars are cute.

 

 

The pattern I’m using is from a crafting blog called “Live Craft Love” Darice provides her own simple, easy to understand patterns. I like patterns with a lot of pictures because I learn as I go and sometimes you just need a little reference to make sure you’re still on the right track. The yarn I’m using is called Yarnspirations Bernat Pop! and I got the 5 oz skein. Bernat also makes a baby blanket yarn that’s thick and chunky and makes pretty cool scarves. I found this yarn at Walmart a long time ago for like $5, I really like yarn with color graduation like this one because it’s kinda magical watching it change color in your hands as you work. The crochet hook is a size J, I always just pick up cheap hooks from Walmart whenever I need a new size for a new pattern, so right now I have a bit of a mish mosh of hooks. Know any cool patterns or have any questions about crocheting? Leave a comment below!