How to triple any yarn as you go

I just came across this video by Crochet with Tuula Maaria for a fascinating technique: How to triple any yarn as you go: The continuous looping method. 

I bet this would also work for knitters. 

Most of my stash is worsted weight stuff, but the cool thing about this technique is that it will work with whatever yarn you have, if you have a project where you need the yarn to be bulkier.

Check it out!

 

But it fits!

This meme by Nicki of Nicki's Homemade Crafts made both me and my husband laugh out loud. Too funny!

Yarn tunnel

We now interrupt your regularly-scheduled scrolling to present to you this yarn tunnel.

Who doesn't love a great yarn tunnel? 😄 This yarn tunnel comes to you courtesy of my latest WIP, which will hopefully be finished soon, so I can share it with all y'all. Stay tuned!

 

Who's got next?!? 😂

Oh the weather outside is frightful

One of my friends sent this to me. Said when she saw it, it immediately reminded her of me. I can't imagine WHY. 😉

Moon dreams

 

Please, sir, I want some more

I Made a TikTok

Well, I finally took the plunge and made a TikTok account. I kept seeing lots of fun videos being promoted by some really creative and inspirational yarncrafters on TikTok and decided I might as well make my own account there, even if it was only to hang out there and watch everyone else's videos. 😆

My TikTok tagline says: "I'm just here to watch all y'all's creative videos!" And that's true! I don't think I'll be uploading very many original videos there ... but who knows. Time will tell.

For now, I only have one video on there. I figured I should have at least one video uploaded to give my TikTok account some legitimacy. 😂

As I explained in the brief description of my TikTok post, the very first time I used my brand new Sentro 48 knitting machine, the counter didn't work. I had just unboxed the machine right before shooting this video. I cast on with some Red Heart yarn and had worked five or six rows when I noticed that the counter wasn't incrementing when the white needle passed the yarn feeder, so I grabbed my phone and shot some wobbly footage of the next time the white needle went by, in case I needed to have video evidence I could share with the seller to show them the counter wasn't working. But, wouldn't you know it, on the very next row after that the counter started working, and it has worked fine for me ever since! So I never had to send a complaint to the seller, and I continue to be totally happy with my Sentro 48 to this day. 😍 In my experience, the Sentro 48 actually runs smoother and quieter than either size of the Addis and also the Sentro 40. (I did briefly try to use a Sentro 22, but the gear was stripped on the one I bought, so I returned it right away and bought the Addi 22 instead.)

@yarncraftbysusan

My brand new Sentro 48 knitting machine. The very first time I used it the counter didn't work but it has worked fine for me ever since. ##knitting

♬ original sound - Yarncraft by Susan

 

 

Garfield's yarn cellar

Brilliant! I'm partial to a bit of fruit-forward ... blue or purple ... myself. 😉

Garfield 8/25/2019

Playing yarn chicken

When you play "yarn chicken," you win some, and you lose some. Oh well! 

OOOH, I found another skein in the stash bag where the first baby pink skein came from! I'm saved!! Bwah-ha-ha ...

Better to be lucky than good sometimes. 🙃

Still looking at the yarn

My friend Terri (who is a fellow yarnaholic) shared this Pickles cartoon with me today. IYKYK! 😂

So much joy

A good friend shared this with me. 😂 This lovely sketch is by Franklin Habit.

Changing yarn

Doggone, I HATE IT when yarn manufacturers change the character of a yarn but try to pass it off as the same color. I bought the original version of this blue just six months ago, but when I went back today to get one more skein to finish my project, this is what it looks like now. Argh.

Of course, I'm going to look around online to see if I can find another skein of the old blue somewhere. If I continued with this the way it is it would drive me crazy. LOL If I can find another skein of the old blue I'll go with that. But if not then I'm going to have to rip back this entire blue stripe and make it entirely with the new blue.

The old and the new versions of this blue even have the same frickin barcode. Sheesh!!! 😅 But, yes, I do see that the date codes are different, and the company probably considers that to be equivalent to dye lot coding.

Mesh problem

I have a slight mesh problem ... 😂

Never enough

 

I hate yarn splices

Yarn meme

*guffaw*

Conical comparison

I decided to try an exercise in making three different cone shapes with some yarn that's essentially throwaway stuff (ancient creslan fiber circa the 1970s -- in orange, no less).

I made each cone using the same pattern/number of stitches; the only difference between them is cone 1 is stitched in single crochet, cone 2 in half-double crochet and cone 3 in double crochet. Each one starts with 5 stitches at the peak and uses a standard increase through seven rows to end up with 35 stitches around at the base.

Knit to crochet: Lost in translation

I'm a firm believer that some patterns are best suited to knit and some patterns are best suited to crochet.

If you are like me and generally prefer one technique over the other (in my case, if given a choice, I would always choose to crochet a piece and only resort to knitting as a last resort).

But sometimes it's fun to take an attractive pattern that was designed in one technique and attempt to translate it to the other technique - for example, to take a pattern designed for knit and translate it into crochet.

That's what I recently attempted to do with Adela Illichmanova's lovely and unique Capucine hat, which she designed for knit. (The following samples were made with Lily Sugar'n Cream Cotton from 14-ounce cone in 02178 Potpourri.)

I worked up her basic pattern (meaning just the hat portion without adding the finishing tassels).

However, translating from one technique to another does not always yield the desired result - or if it does, sometimes it requires more than one attempt to be successful, as we will see here.

As I was working, I could tell that what I was crocheting was going to turn out to be far too small to fit an adult's head, and by the time I was about halfway through with the ridged portion, I could see what my piece was becoming: My first attempt to translate Adela's knitted Capucine design into crochet resulted in what I can only call a girl's pioneer-style sunbonnet. (And probably in a toddler girl's size at that.) So I finished it up by adding some chin ties and will pass this first translation "failure" along to one of my grandnieces for dress-up playtime. (Of course, it really isn't a "failure" if you end up with something usable, eh?)

But there is definitely a big difference between the knitted Capucine hat (left) and my first attempt to translate it to crochet (right).

Now back to the drawing board to try again! That's the fun part.

Not enough time

So much yarn, so little time...

Lap blanket in double crochet

This is the type of piece that happens when you have a skein or two of yarn and no other ideas for how to use it up! Oh well, it turned out to be just the right size to use as a lap warmer/lap blanket.