Valerean

With my leftover Just Yarn from my bargain yarn experiment I decided to swatch the three free patterns I printed out for next year's calendar project. The first was the Twilight Shells pattern, which I really thought was pretty and a strong contender -- until I realized I had to crochet nine double treble stitches to make each shell. Double trebles are what I've nicknamed double trouble, as you start by yarning over three times and then hooking through four sets of two loops. Not only is the stitch attention intensive -- you can't blink or you'll drop a loop -- but because it's so tall it's a monster to keep the proper tension. After the foundation row the whole project is nothing but double treble. I'm not a masochist, so I'll pass on this one. The next pattern I swatched was the Easy Peasy blanket with the straight rows of granny stitches. It does live up to its name -- you just make granny stitches on top of granny stitches -- but I felt...

Since Halloween I've been trying to keep a good attitude about the hellidays holidays, and I think it's helping make the fall season a little better for me. Halloween was really fun this year because I got into it and even had a little party for me and my guy. It's hard to be upset when you're partying. Crocheting is helping, too. I've been so depressed over quilting, and my lack of any real progress in that department this year. On the other hand with my crochet I'm like a throw/hat/scarf factory. My hands have never felt better, and with the cold comes pain and stiffness, so I need as much crochet therapy as possible. All the things I'm making with crochet really help me feel not so useless and crippled. The quilt show really inspired me this year. I found a way to quilt next year's calendar project without taxing myself too much. I still have a wonderful job and remain employed, for which I am eternally grateful, especially now with so ...

This month I really need to decide on what sort of pattern I'm going to use for my 2026 calendar project, which is going to be a crocheted king size blanket in multiple colors. My main requirements for the year is an easy repeating pattern that doesn't work up too heavy, and that I can finish in 12 months. Since one row per day isn't a problem I'll have to swatch out whatever pattern I pick and let that tell me how many rows I need to crochet in a week to get the blanket done in a year. I've been looking at free printable patterns over at Yarnspirations and I really like this ripple pattern . I've never made a ripple stitched project before the granny ripple last month, and it would look nice in multicolored yarn. The problem is maintaining tension, especially on the down jags, but I think wearing one of my yarn tension rings will help with that. Another contender is this Easy Peasy pattern , which is basically straight repeating rows of granny ...

I don't often buy new yarn. A few times this year I have; skeins from Michaels on a bogo sale, some white and variegated yarn I wanted off Amazon, and this dollar store chenille to make a pumpkin costume for my stuffed pup. I prefer to thrift my yarn because frankly it's cheaper and I can get a lot more for my money. Also, I'm not a yarn snob. Any cheaply-priced yarn is fine with me. I did like working with the Premier Just Chenille yarn, which was soft, fluffy and pretty nice quality for $1.25 per skein, so I decided to try a different variety from Dollar Tree. I bought four skeins of the Premier Just Yarn worsted acrylic for $5.00 total. The soft gray is a color I really like (and wear a lot), and the softness of the yarn impressed me. Acrylic yarn is usually a bit stiff. Since I need some new winter hats, I decided to make one with the Just Yarn worsted gray. My first impression was that it works up smoothly and has a sturdy but comfortable hand to i...

Here are the results of my latest round of wannabuts, or items I want to thrift but only for the price I want to pay. This messy yarn lot will need a lot of TLC, which is why I only wanted it for my minimum bid of $9.00. Alas, I lost it in a brief bidding war to someone willing to pay $12.99 for it. This yarn and fabric lot intrigued me, but only for the right price -- and I won it with no challengers for $8.99! I've always wanted a DMC floss cabinet, but thrift auction buyers fight ferociously over them. New they retail starting at $50.00. This one seemed to be no different -- I was outbid by another buyer -- but I thought I'd try one more bid with the max I was willing to pay for it -- $14.00 -- and unbelievably, I won it. Now I have a thrifted cabinet that is a dream come true. Two out of three wannabuts is a very good round. :)

By the time this post publishes I will have attended the county quilt show (all the things in the pic were what I bought there in 2024.) Last year I had a lovely time at it with my guy and my favorite person, and invested in a few things for myself, but this year I will probably just go to take pics of the quilts and only buy a little fabric for a friend and finished quilted projects made by the guild members (my way of showing support.) I need to stop buying fabric for myself, as my ability to quilt things by hand is almost over, and I already have enough to last me ten lifetimes. It's a little sad, but it's also part of life. I've been hand-quilting for over thirty years with hands that have been partially crippled, and I knew the day would come when my fingers would no longer cooperate. I'm happy I was able to quilt as long as I have. It's tempting to wail over losing my dexterity, too, because honestly it does seem so unfair. Then I think of what my lif...

The 10 oz. jumbo variegated yarn I thrifted from a Goodwill in The Villages turned out to be a lot of fun. I used almost the entire skein to make this scarf, the pattern for which is free online. I found the pattern on the inside of the label for the self-striping yarn I used to make my previous scarf, and thought it would like nice in variegated. No problems with the pattern. After the foundation row there's a one row repeat of V-stitch and triple double crochet clusters, which kept it interesting even if it was a bit mindless.The odd thing about the yarn was the color variation shifted a bit in the middle of the scarf, but I liked the effect. Once it reached 72" as per the pattern I fastened it off. I had a small ball of yarn left over, so it was a decent one-skein project. Two 5 oz. skeins of worsted would make this if you don't have a jumbo skein.

The yarn lot I thrifted with multiple skeins of the same yarn just arrived, let's see if it really was the bargain I thought. There are 26 skeins of yarn, including vintage skeins of Natura white (11), Dazzleaire (3), K-mart labeled ombre (2), Bernat Baby Softee (2), unlabeled big Mohair (2) and one moonlight mohair, all of which are discontinued. There was also a tool which I think is for knitting in the round. Downside: just one; some of the skeins were obviously stored in a not too clean place, and have some debris on the outside, so I will need to hand-wash those before I use them. Upside: The white acrylic yarn, which was the reason I bought this lot, is in very nice, clean shape. Six of the skeins were actually still in their shipping bag from the original manufacturer. Quite a bit of this discontinued yarn sells for big bucks now. This skein of Moonlight Mohair retails for $14.70 on Amazon. Dazzleaire sells for around $8.99 a skein these days. Na...

I've been tucking a little money away all year so I could shop at the county quilt show, and this was my haul. I really didn't buy a lot of fabric by comparison to past years, and I spent about half my money in the guild's boutique buying things they made like the placemats and chili pepper hot pad; this helps support their work. I also got some fabric carrots and a pin kit. I visited many of the vendors, who offered some very cool bargains. One was this mystery bag from The Quilted Peacock. Lots of scrap and yardage fabric inside, plus a book quilt pattern and a walking foot for a Janome. I'm going to pass along the latter but I might make a book quilt out of all the fabrics. :) One vendor complimented me on my OOAK shirt, which a dear friend made for me. So I bought these embroidery threads from her booth. You say nice things to me, I buy something from you. :) I met the guild member who made this adorable note pad holder as I was checking ou...

This was last year's Thanksgiving dinner, which we actually had on November 14th because Kat was visiting. On the official day she had left, so my guy and I went out wandering and actually ended up eating at a fairly nice meal at a busy Cracker Barrel. This year I am probably going to make two dinners, one on the official day for two or (possibly) three people if our nephew moves in, and one in December for (possibly) three or four if our nephew has moved in but isn't visiting his children for the holidays -- and Kat (possibly) visits again. That's a lot of possibilities, right? Unhappily we live in an age when the youngsters are totally fine with expecting me to pull a Thanksgiving dinner out of thin air at a moment's notice, possibly because they've never had to make one. It's fine. I've learned to be flexible (and not expect anyone to have manners anymore.) Saves me a lot of grief. In order to make two Thanksgiving dinners without a lot of no...

On Friday I attended the annual county quilt show, and took a ton of pics. This year was even better than 2024. If you'd like to see the quilts from the show, check out my album here.

It's time for another round of wannabuts, or thrift lots that I want but only for a minimum bid. I have some pathological need to hand wind yarn, it seems, because I can't resist a messy yarn lot like this one. It will need a lot of TLC, however, so I am sticking firm to my minimum bid. This lot combines yarn and fabric, which also prompted me to wannabid. :) I really, really doubt I'll get this DMC floss cabinet, as the thrift auction buyers fight ferociously over them, but nothing ventured. Before I could write this post I won this wannabut yarn lot for my max bid. It's a bit of a jumble, but almost all of the skeins have labels and are in colors I want. It will arrive soon, and when it does I'll show you why it was a real bargain. Stay tuned to the blog for the results on the other lots. Image credit: all of the pictures in this post came from the original auction listings on ShopGoodwill.com.

Here's another small lot of yarn I bid at and won at the thrift auction. I counted 25 skeins of yarn, some quite vintage (the three skeins of Dazzleaire are probably 30 to 40 years old) but what interested me is one type of yarn that I go through at the speed of light. There are something like ten skeins of white acrylic worsted yarn in this lot, which is my most-used yarn. It's also quite unusual to find ten skeins of matching yarn in any thrift lot. Although the white is what I really want, the other skeins are interesting, too. I see some that look like mohair, a couple of variegated in colors I like, and even a skein of Christmas red and green metallic yarn. When the lot arrives I'll show you what it looks like in person. Image credit: all the images in this post came from the original auction listing at ShopGoodwill.com.

I'm at the county quilt show today, and I'm also almost two weeks ahead on pre-published posts for the blog, so it's time to start doubling up again. Today I have a rant about health insurance, and how the current regime is making my last seven months before I go on Medicare a nightmare. First, I should point out that I have type 2 diabetes, moderate to severe arthritis in most of my joints, and artherosclerosis, which is a serious cardiovascular disease. I am treating my conditions with diet, exercise, and (for the diabetes) medication. I'm a ticking time bomb for all of these reasons, plus the fact that I'm 64 years old. There is no way I can live safely or even afford physician care without health insurance. One hospitalization would bankrupt me; we'd lose our house and pretty much everything we've worked all our lives for. Before the Affordable Care Act I paid about $800.00 a month for health insurance (I am self-employed, and this is one of...

Once I had the foundation of the pink-only quilt put together, I needed to create my own template for the destroyer, and work out where I would put my poem. An hour and a lot of erasing later, I cut out a very rough template for the destroyer element. I also thought the bottom right would be the best spot for the poem. Th top, sides and bottom of the quilt will have flamingo appliques everywhere, and I want the poem to be easy to read by the beholders. During my breaks (and mostly out of idle curiosity) I started making the scarf pattern I found on the back of the label for the self-striping yarn, using a thrifted jumbo skein of Red Heart Super Saver Wildflower yarn. It's fairly mindless and pretty enough that I want to finish it, so that will be my next side project.

Last night I had a bit of a quandry as I discovered the fabric I thrifted for the backing of the pink-only quilt had stains from being soaked in dirty water, probably from a garage being flooded. It's so light I couldn't see it until I had it under the sewing room light. Since I don't know if I can get the stains out, I decided to use the dark pink fabric I thrifted for the backing. I then put it together with thrifted batting and the top made out of thrifted pillow cases and pinned it. I'm ready to start adding the fabric elements. On my breaks I made a winter hat out of a skein of thrifted variegated yarn using this pattern plus four extra rows to add a brim, which I flip down to keep my ears warm on cold mornings. The leftover yarn is about 1/3 of a 5 oz. skein of Red Heart Super Saver Macaw, so it took 2/3 of a skein.

While I'm working on my pink-only art quilt I'm also going to be crocheting some small projects on the side, which helps keep my trigger fingers from locking up. This 5 oz. skein of Red Heart Super Saver Polo Stripe was included on one of the bags I picked up in the Villages; I've never before tried self-striping yarn. Some folks think you can't make a lot with one skein, but actually there are a ton of projects that required only a skein or even smaller amounts of yarn. I decided on my no-pattern scarf. I just crochet foundation row of chain stitches in the length I want for the scarf (in this case, 65") and then just do rows of double crochet until I run out of yarn. This skein lasted for nine rows. Here's the finished scarf, which took me two nights to crochet while I've been quilting. The yarn does stripe and the color shifts are gradual, so it doesn't have sudden changes. That little bit of aqua yarn is all that's left of t...