The Yarn Inheritance

I have received a LARGE amount of yarn from a lady who is 94 and going into a nursing home.  A LARGE AMOUNT.  As in THREE garbage bags (yes, sir, yes, sir 3 bags full).  If nobody wanted it, there was a dumpster waiting for it.  So now it's in my living room.  It's not entirely yarn, there is some crochet cotton and rug making stuff as well.  Oh, and a kit to make a clock.  Guess I've got my "spare time" this winter planned out...

I found a pattern at Dollar Store Crafts for the World's Easiest Crocheted Scarf and decided to give it a try.  It is extremely easy.  I had never crocheted before and was able to make this without any difficulty.  The only stitch you need to know how to do is the chain stitch and there is an excellent video posted along with the pattern showing how to do it.  Pretty simple.

 Crochet a bunch of really long chains (8-10 feet long) out of whatever scrap yarn you have (this is a great way to use up yarn).  I think I had ten.  Make sure they're roughly the same length.

 Decide how you want them to go together.

 Knot them together every 8 to 12 inches or so.

 You can trim and reknot the ends once you're finished to neaten it up.

Ready to wear!

As I have said, it was very easy and quick to put together.  The chains took me 3 evenings to do (I didn't use all I had made because they didn't look right).  Actually putting the scarf together took about 10 minutes.  I'm certainly going to be making more of these - I've got a lot of yarn to use up!  Thanks for visiting today.

Warning - Craft Fail!

So I'm finally getting back to craft posts!  That makes me happy because it means I have gotten to make something (or in this case, TRIED to make something).

I saw this tutorial on how to crochet flowers and I thought they would be really great to use on my cards.  They were so pretty and the dear lady showed how easy they were to make.  One problem - no crochet hook and I had never crocheted in my life.  Then yesterday, when I was at the mall getting a new mat for my porch to replace the one the cat destroyed (long story), I noticed they had a bunch of sewing/knitting/crocheting stuff marked way down.  There was the perfect little crochet hook for only 69 cents!  So I bought it in great anticipation of making marvelous flowers...

While I was waiting for my bread to bake this afternoon, I thought I would try out my new crochet hook.  I fired up the video tutorial and began to create.  After several attempts (and much rewinding), this is what I produced:

Somehow it doesn't look much like a flower.  I don't know what I did wrong - I was trying to follow her as she skillfully stitched away.  If I ever happen to need a tieback for an orange curtain, I've made a good start on it.  ;)