Valerean

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

I finished pulling all the yarn I wanted for my next crochet project from my stash. I then went to the free pattern I intended to make, but after studying it a little closer I realized it was more complicated than I wanted. I also couldn't print it out on paper, and working from a pattern on a screen is uncomfortable for me. So I went back to the internet to find another one. I can do advanced patterns, but the whole point of me crocheting is to exercise my fingers and work out the pain and stiffness. I prefer the simple and easy patterns I can memorize and work without a lot of thought. I found five that that I could print out from the free afghan pattern collection on Mary Maxim's website. I ended up printing out five that I liked so I could read them over, try a few stitches and see how they worked for me. I settled on this Lion Bran Worth Street pattern , which was intended for their Mandala ombre yarn (the worsted I pulled is all #4 like the Mandala so it...

Since I finished last year's calendar mood blanket I miss crocheting it, and my fingers have grown stiffer without the daily exercise. To deal with that I decided to look around for a simple pattern to make a throw. I liked the look of this Ocean Tranquility blanket designed by Anastacia Zittel, plus it was free, so I downloaded and printed out the pattern. I decided on a sand, foam and sea colored palette, and pulled some yarn from my stash. I may add or substract skeins as I make the throw. I managed three and a half rows of the largest size throw in the pattern in one evening, so it is pretty simple and easy to work up. It's also nice not to have to restrict myself to one row per day like last year; working on it as much as I like helps exercise my fingers. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

There have been many holidays when my budget simply did not stretch to buy gifts for everyone in my life, especially when I was young. I would try to make something by hand, but I didn't always have the materials or time for that, either. So here are some ideas for gifts you can give that cost nothing but a little (or no) effort: Babysitting: Family or friends who have kids are usually always in need of a babysitter, especially when they need to holiday shop. Offer to babysit for free for them as your gift to the parents. If you're looking for something to do with kids as entertainment, make easy/kid-safe Christmas ornaments while they're with you. Drive: My guy and I celebrated Christmas last year by going out for a drive with no destination in mind; we just wandered. We ended up hiking in a beautiful park we found along the way. If you've got a car and a little gas, you can do the same with your recipient (also, offering to drive them around to run err...

Calling me frugal is like saying the sky is blue. I'm cheap and proud of that, mainly because I grew up poor. As an adult I learned how to get by with very little. I taught myself to make a lot of things that other people purchase. It is a lifestyle that I've never considered abandoning, even when I didn't have to live like that any longer. I refuse to forget what it's like to be poor, or behave recklessly with money. Example of my cheapness: my guy and I were out trying to thrift some bookcases for my sewing room, and saw this quilt rack set out in a pile of "free" things at a local thrift store. I'm always on the lookout for quilt racks; I can never have too many. At the same time, I'm not willing to pay big bucks for them. This rack was coming apart at the joints, and had a little chip in the wood, which is why I guess the folks at the thrift store thought it was trash. We asked and made sure it was free to take, brought it home a...

Back in January I signed up for these four at-home Covid-19 rapid tests the government is offering, and they arrived last week. I did not pay a dime for them or the shipping. I don't know if we'll ever use them, but I feel better having a way to test me and my guy at home. The tests are still available at covidtests.gov if you want to order some for your household.

I'm not posting this on the day I was notified, but it seems Craftsy is back in operation . They've offered me a year of access to their 1500+ online classes for the low low price of $2.49, too. Alas, I'm not biting. Other than the fact that I'm not interested in taking any online classes, how all this played out disturbs me. Many creatives who make their living via teaching online classes were railroaded when Craftsy/Bluprint/And now Craftsy again went out of business. Communication to them was very poor, or non-existant. Even Back when Craftsy became rebranded as Bluprint the powers that be screwed over a lot of content creators , too. If there is by chance some skill I need to acquire, I can find plenty of free blog and YouTube tutorials to teach me whatever I need to learn. I suggest you do the same. :)

Just a heads-up, Bluprint.com (formerly Craftsy) is making all of their 1420 online class videos free for anyone to watch until 4/9; all you have to do is register an account with the site, which only requires an e-mail. These are the class categories: Quilt (208) Sew (198) Cake (193) Knit (164) Cook (121) Photo (83) Bake (78) Paint (75) Draw (75) Embroidery (58) Paper Craft (55) Crochet (52) Jewelry (50) Wood (24) Garden (23) Other (21) Family (14) Weave (12) Spin (9) I made this quilt from a kit I bought from them back in 2018 when they were still Craftsy, and I have watched a couple of their free shows in the past. Definitely worth it for free.

While hunting around online for free quilt patterns I stumbled across Quilting Inspiration , a ten-year-old blog about quilts with a pretty amazing free pattern archive. Along with all the patterns for quilts, quilted gifts, table runners, redwork embroidery, tote bags etc., they have links to free online tutorials and also post pics of beautiful quilts they see at the big shows. They also link to just about every other quilter online, as you can see in this post about quilts made from unwanted/used clothing. Looks like all of the freebies they offer are in .pdf download, but if you're looking for a holiday-themed pattern you probably won't find as many choices anywhere else.