Can you say horder?

I guess I could be called a hoarder of yarn. Although not to the extent of the hoarders of the show “Hoarders, Buried Alive”, I do have a large supply of yarn.

I took this weekend to completely go through my yarn stash. I was amazed at how much yarn I had. I really only had 4 whole skeins, the rest of it was partial skeins and small balls of yarn.

I came across many items, besides the few I’ve posted on here, that I had made quite a while ago. I came across two baby blankets, three afghans, two vests, some hats, and quite a few partially made items.

I didn’t want to have to go “rummaging” through the stash to try to find a particular yarn so I, once again, organized my stash.

When I started, I had about 16 bins of yarn, knit/crochet books and supplies. I was able to cut it down to about twelve, and that was with throwing a lot of small remnants of yarn away.

I separated everything. I have one bin for baby yarn, one for cotton yarn and thread and novelty yarn such as fun fur, etc. I have a couple of bins with finished items as well as unfinished projects (hopefully to finish one day). I have about 3 bins of crochet books and magazines and patterns. I have a bin for my full/almost full skeins of yarn. Then I have a couple of bins with leftover yarn, sorted by colors so when I’m looking for a specific color, I’ll have all the variations of that color in the same spot.

My task now is to try to come up with some projects that I can use a lot of this yarn up. I will be doing a lot of socks, hats, slippers and some scrap busting afghans. And for the baby yarn, I’m going to find some preemie patterns to use up the small amounts of baby yarn I have. I am going to try to find some thread patterns to use up my thread, even though I’m not crazy about working with thread. But who knows, I just might find that gorgeous thread pattern that I just can’t pass up!

What is good about this whole thing is that I can keep doing the thing I love to do most, and not have to spend any money doing it, at least until the stash is gone.

X Scarf Pattern

posted by:

Bende

I’ve always wanted to design my own patterns, but always felt it would take so much of my time to first of all think of a project, figure out what kind of design I want and then to try to make it and write it all down on paper. It just seemed like such a daunting task.
I decided over the weekend that I really wanted to try it out and that I would just start with a smaller project. I thought maybe scarf would be something I could attempt. And the finished product could be a Christmas gift, if it came out ok!
After a couple of tries, I came up with a pattern I liked and here is the final result. I think it makes a pretty scarf and I have a person in mind that will get it for Christmas! I think next I will make a pattern for a matching hat!
This scarf is a narrow scarf (approximately 3.75”) and made with the cross stitch which I refer to as “X stitch”. If you wish to make the scarf wider, you just need to repeat the pattern until it is as wide as you want it.
This scarf pattern is using the cross stitch with rows of double crochet. I used Simply Soft yarn, but you could use any worsted weight yarn. I hope you enjoy this pattern!
Supplies:
Size “I” hook
2 oz. Simply Soft yarn
Instructions:
Chain 238
Row 1: DC in 3^rd chain from the hook and in each ch to the end of the row. Chain 3, turn.
Row2: DC in first 3 stitches, skip next stitch, dc in next stitch, dc in skipped stitch (X made). {skip 1 dc, dc in next stitch, dc in skipped stitch} to the last 3 stitches. DC in last 3 stitches. Chain 3, turn.
Row 3: Repeat Row 2
Row 4: DC in each stitch to end of row, Chain 3, turn
Row 5: Repeat row 2
Row 6: Repeat row 2
Row 7: Repeat row 4
Fasten off and weave in ends.

Slipper Socks

Now that I have a couple of patterns under my belt, I’m feeling a little more confident that I can do this. I was planning on doing a slipper pattern, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that so I decided to do a pair of socks. Since I was not quite ready to attemp socks with a heel, I made these slipper socks without a heel. They turned out ok and seem pretty comfortable.

This pattern is using just the basic stitches like double crochet and single crochet. The majority of the pattern is alternating the double crochet and single crochet…doing a single crochet in a previous double crochet and doing a double crochet in a previous single crochet. I made this to fit a woman’s size 10 foot, however since there is no heel, I think it will fit any size foot. If you wanted to adjust the size, you could always change the size of your hook.
SUPPLIES:
I Hook
Approximately 3 oz of each color, worsted weight yarn
With Color A, Chain 4 to begin. SS into the first ch to form a circle, ch3Round 1: 10 dc into circle, ss in top of beginning ch3Round 2: Ch3, (dc in next st, 2 dc in next st) around. SS in top of ch3. (15 dc)Round 3: Ch3, (dc in next 2 sts, 2 dc in next st) around, join (20 dc)
Round 4: Ch3, (dc in next 3 sts, 2 dc in next st) around, join (25 dc)
Change to color B
Round 5: Ch 3, *dc in next st, sc in next st, dc in next st, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * to last 3 sts. DC in next st, sc in next st, dc in last st. Join
Round 6: Ch 3, sc in first st. *dc next st, sc in next st. Repeat from * to end of round. Join.
Round 7: Ch 1, *dc in next st, sc in next st. Repeat from * to end of round. Join in ch 1 at beginning of round.
Change to color A
Round 8: Ch 3, *sc in next st, dc in next st. Repeat from * to end of round. Join in top of beginning ch 3.
Round 9-31:  Repeat round 7 & 8, with last round being round 7.  Change colors after 3 rounds of a color is made.
Round 32: Ch 3, sc 2 tog (decrease made), *sc in next st.  (dc in next st, sc in next st) 3times, dc in next st, sc 2 tog.*  Repeat from *to* 2 more times.  SC 2 tog, dc in next st, sc in next st, dc in last st.  Join in top of beginning ch 3.
Round 33:  Ch 1, dc in first st, sc 2 tog, dc in next st, sc in next st, dc in next st, sc 2 tog, sc in next st, dc in next st, sc 2 tog.  (dc in next st, sc in next st) 3 times.  SC 2 tog, sc in next st.  (dc in next st, sc in next st) 3 times.  Dc in next st, sc in next 2 sts, dc in next st, sc in last st.  Join to beginning ch 1.
Round 34:  Ch 3, dc in all stitches around.  Join in top of beginning ch 3. Fasten off.
Tie: Chain 80, fasten off.  Weave tie through dc’s in Round 34.

Baby Due

Well, another baby is due in my family so I will be starting on a new baby project. If it was a girl, I would give her the green baby outfit I showed you the last time I was here...but she found out it's a boy so I've been on the search for a baby boy outfit. I went to the site where I got the green baby outfit pattern from and found just the perfect outfit to make. I started it last night and look forward to completing this really cute outfit. I will post a picture of it as soon as it is finished. In the meantime....here are some hats I've made over the winter: