Taking Stock of my Hoard

​Last night after finishing my Granny afghan I was too wired to sleep, but didn’t want to wake D or Jo, so I decided to go down to the family room and inventory the two huge totes of yarn I have in the corner!  OMG!  In case you were unaware, a characteristic of ADHD is that you lack item permanence.  Quite literally, out of sight, out of mind!  I have so many cool cakes of yarn I had forgotten all about!  Including the Caron Anniversary Cakes which are massive!  How does someone forget 1000gm cakes of yarn, let alone 5 of them?! Or superwash wool hanks in a color called Roy G Biv?! 

Of course I had this epiphany after I got a door buster ad for Joanns where I could get the Red Heart Super Saver Ombré yarn I’ve been wanting for a low price of about $6.19 a skein including tax. So of course I ordered it in a rainbow of 7 colors and in order to potentially use it for the Study of Ombré Afghan pattern I had to get 2 skeins of each.  So another 14 skeins are going to be joining the stash later today.  

I’m not sure what my next project should be.  Perhaps the Yarnspirations Farm Fresh Market Tote made from a cake of Caron Cotton Lava Cakes?  Just kidding, I’m already on row 1!

Granny Squares Galore!

​I finished my granny square afghan tonight/this morning.  It’s massive!  Like a bedspread for a king sized bed-massive!  I downsized from my original plan of making it 16x18 squares down to 14x16.  The squares were blocked to 5” square. But then I did the Join-as-you-go method of connecting them with contrasting black yarn and that added additional inches. Then I learned of the block stitch border stitch pattern and tossed a few rounds of that on after it was all stitched together. So, yeah, massive.  It weighs about 9-10 pounds according to my bathroom scale. 

All in all, I used 3 pounds of black Caron yarn for the joining and border, plus 21 colors of various brands of yarn (Red Heart, Caron, I Love This Yarn and Big Twist) to make up the squares and the color pop in the border.  I used an H 5mm hook from Hobby Lobby that I love. I started crocheting the squares on July 2nd.  I started joining them together on July 19th.  I made 16 squares of most colors, fewer with the smaller skeins and leftover yarn from the temperature blankets.  I have 70 squares leftover to use in my next scrap project.  I also generated about 2 cups of yarn tails I trimmed from all the squares I used.  I spent most of today weaving and trimming those.  Next time I think I will weave the center (starting) end before I join them, then pay attention to putting the ending tail towards the back of the work.  I don’t mind the weaving at the end of the project but it was cumbersome with such a massive project and some tails on the front and some on the back of the work.  

Now I need to take a short break to catch up on other things before I dive into my next project.  

July Already

​I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of Crochet projects recently.   I finished 2 temperature blankets for my daughters, a shawl, 3 ponchos, a market tote, and I’m in the midst of a crocheted tee, a Tunisian Crochet blanket, and a bobbled tote bag.  I bought a lot of new yarn but I have plans to keep crocheting like crazy and this craft uses an extreme amount of yarn compared to knitting.  I ordered a blocking board yesterday to block granny squares to a universal size so I can seam them together neatly into an afghan.  I’ve always wanted a colorful granny square afghan but my squares come out wonky looking so I give up easily.  I have a ton of acrylic colorful yarns to use up in my stash and I can’t wait to start that project after I finish at least 1 of the 3 I have started.