Yarn Hacker | Adventures in Crochet and Fiber Fun

As par of the 100 mile food challenge, I’ve started looking around me for food sources.  I came to realise there are a few right under my nose, or rather, right over my head.

The first is the mulberry tree out my front door.

For years I have thought of this tree as a shirt and shoe staining menace.  After spending a few hours under the tree picking fruit…

and on the roof (through the door to nowhere), I’ve found a new appreciation for these sweet berries.

This bowl was soaked and frozen, and is making its way into deserts:)

I shared my summer stash bust plans with everyone a few weeks ago.  Yesterday, I sat down and typed up the list of projects and who they are for.  I realized I should probably call this my 2008-2009 stash bust.

Though I have recipients in mind for most of this stuff, I’ll leave off the names so I don’t ruin any surprises.

Enough afghans and crocheted towel sets?

I am not color blind, but I might as well be.  When it comes to choosing colors, I have a hard time deciding which colors will work well together.  Heck, it wasn’t until I started hanging out with gay men that I could put together an outfit that didn’t clash hideously.

Here are a few work-arounds I’ve found for choosing colors for my crochet projects:

Ask an opinion I gather colors I like for the crochet project, and ask people what they think.  Whether it’s a friend I’ve brought with me on my yarn procurement mission, someone working at the yarn shop, or a random fellow fiber fan standing next to me, it always helps me to get and extra set of eyes on my yarn color choices.

Working with commercial lines I’ve found that working with the same line of yarn in similar colors is usually a safe bet.  This works for super mega yarn brands, but not always with smaller, botiquey lines of yarn.

Kaleidoscope This is a trick I remember my great aunt, who was an amazing quilter, using when selecting fabrics.  Pick up a kid’s kaleidoscope-  one of those things that makes everything looks like a good acid trip. I lay the yarns side by side and take a look through the scope.  Sure,  there are funny looks involved, but it gives me a much better idea of how the colors will look together!

I first heard of the 100 mile food movement about a year ago.  At the time I thought about how challenging this must be.

The more I think about it, and the longer I work in a grocery store, the more excited I get about the idea.  My darling and I went to Detroit’s Eastern Market last weekend, and I was blown away at the quality and freshness of the food we brought home.  I wish I had pictures, but my camera goofed on me (or I should say, I goofed using my camera).

The quality of food is the first reason I’m transitioning into the 100 mile diet.  The more I think and read, though, the more reasons I find to do this.  The diet will:

• Decrease my carbon footprint.  Regional food uses seven times less oil than food shipped across the country.
• Support small farms.  As much of a capitalist as I am, I dig looking out for the little guy.
• Support my local economy.  Goodness knows we need it right now.
• Most importantly, I’ll know what I’m eating, where it came from, and I can find out how it was grown:)

I’ll keep you updated with my progress in the next few weeks!

The stash bust continues!  I just finished working in the ends of this stash bust piece, a cute crochet do-rag.

A few notes about this pattern before you begin:

• You can use any type of yarn for this free crochet pattern.
• I used an acrylic yarn somewhere between sock and worsted weight.
• Kitchen cotton would work well, though it would be thicker and bulkier, so you would want to reduce the number of rows.

What I used:

about 50 grams microfiber yarn

Size E crochet hook

Needle to sew in ends

ch 5, dc into first ch, ch 4, turn

Row 1: 2dc into ch5, ch1, dc, ch4, turn

Row 2: 2dc, ch1, dc into first ch.  dc, ch, dc into turn ch.  ch4, turn.

Row 3-32:  2dc, ch1, dc into first ch.  *dc, ch, dc into next sc.  Rep from * across, ending with dc, ch, dc into turn ch. ch4, turn.

Tie off, sew in ends.

Ties (make 2)  Ch 50.  Sew in ends and attach with a half hitch to the corners of the last row.

Those of you who know me know that it’s been a rough week. It’s always difficult to loose someone, especially when they’re a young vivacious presence in the world. The tricky part of the social expectations around death and funerals is the sort of hierarchy of mourning. The further removed from the deceased one is, the stronger one is supposed to be for those who were closer. This can leave one to deal with grief on one’s own. Though I can’t say I’m alone, when I have music on my side. This morning I’ve been soothed by the voice of Drew Nelson.   This album, in particular.

Just food for thought.  Or the soul.  Either way you want to look at it.

After an entire skein of camoflage yarn, I took a break and decided to make something pretty. I decided to use some of the crochet thread to make a belt from Fabulous and Flirty Crochet. I once made this for my BFF the Pixie, but remembered what a pain the bullion stitches were to crochet.

I got half way through it and decided to use it as a new headband instead.

So the stash bust continues. So far I am elbow deep in camouflage granny squares. When I have used variegated yarns in the past, they always seem have a strange stripy effect - Especially these camouflage yarns. They are more of a camouflage colored yarn.

I was very impressed, though, the see the way this part of my yarn stash worked up as a granny square. With proper blocking it will actually look somewhat camouflagey!

One skein down- now to sew in all of the ends:P

Last night I came across storyofstuff.com.  Story of stuff is a very direct look at the materials market’s global effects.   Though overall I don’t think it presented me with much I didn’t already know, the way this video brought together the entire picture was humbling and downright scary.  It’s led me to take a look at my day-to-day life with new eyes, and has put my mind to re-purposing many things I have around.  More of that to come in the near future.

Please, take 20 minutes out of your life to look at this.  If nothing else it will make you think!

Today I finally did something I have been planning for over a year. I took an inventory of my yarn stash, and came up with crochet projects for just about everything I own.

The first step was dragging the entire stash into one room

then separating the yarn from the other stuff like:

Unfinished Crochet Projects

Kitchen towels waiting for crocheted tops.

Random Granny Squares.

Roving… Anyone up for a felting day?

Misc. crochet and craft tools (and a box of beads that went to Leeannderthal)

And trash.

Then the yarn I could actually crochet with was separated by type and/or material:

Spindle Spun Yarn

The threads

Kitchen Cottons

Acrylics– this pile was much larger than the photo makes it look:P

Wool and wool blend.

Then came the question, “What will I crochet with all of this yarn? The answers came to me as I rolled around in the piles like this guy wanted to:

I made a list of crochet projects as I went, and separated the yarn, by project, into shopping bags.

Tomorrow I will pick a bag at random and start the project.