A home for my woollen charity projects

I made a really exciting discovery this week. My fortnightly Yak and Yarn charity crochet group meeting was coming up. This always spurs me onwards to activity so that I can go to the meeting with something to contribute: a new pattern for us to try out, some completed products to donate... you get the idea.

 

Anyway, we have a sweet new member who is super keen and getting through my donated yarn stash at high speed. The softest acrylic is almost gone and there is just the itchy type left. I have an issue with working with it. I'm not quite sure how I become so sensitive to scratchy yarn but I do think that some of it is related to living in a warmer climate. When it's humid and you're feeling a little hot the fibers do chafe. I've gone soft since I moved to Texas. Another theory of mine is that I have been exposed to far too much gorgeously soft wool in the yarn store where I teach. Soft AND spoilt!

I do have some donated wool in my stash but the local charities we crochet for prefer items that are machine washable. My wool is hand wash only. But this week I found a charity, the Warm Hands Network, that actually prefers wool because it's warmer. The projects go mostly to Northern Canadian children. There is a Ravelry group too which of course I've joined. The garment I was talking about last week has been put to one side and I've started on a blanket of approximately 36" x 36" dimensions.

I do adore the bobble blanket that I made back here and I found this diagonal bobble striped blanket on Ravelry: The Blackberry Salad Striped Baby Blanket by the rather marvellous Tamara Kelly of the Moogly Blog. I'm guesstimating about having equal quantities of orange and brown colors. I should really just make the calculation and figure out how much I need but I'm missing a yarn label or two and I find it oddly entertaining examining the yarn as I go along wondering if I have sufficient. We all have our quirks! The bobble stitch pattern IS rather yarn hungry and when I look at the picture above it doesn't seem to add up. I may need to supplement to complete it but that's OK. And time is on my side because there are two main shipment dates and I can't possibly make the closest date Jan 30th.

I'd love to know if you know of another charity that accepts wool and/or if you have a charity project on the go... just comment below! Have a wonderful week y'all!

Hooky hat wearing weather

Hats have dominated the last week or so. I had my first Yak & Yarn meeting of the year and had a tip off that a new member had made numerous hats (while I was away she emailed me to ask if she could bring them to my house - this was a bit of a giveaway). I had to stop making my second Take Two Crochet project and hook up a few hats for the homeless to show willing. She made sevens (yay!) and I managed three. I'm not competitive, honestly! 

 

I received an e-newsletter from the inspirational Betsy Greer, the godmother of the Craftivism, who I have met in person and written about here. She interviews fellow craftivist heroes on her blog (love it!) and sends links to related projects. Anyway, one of the links was to the Pussy Hat Project so I've found some pink yarn in my stash and selected the crochet pattern with the cable ribbing. I'm just about to  join up the sides with crab stitch, my favorite seaming stitch, which is functional but decorative. And I should meet the deadline to mail it to Washington for the march. I do like taking part in a Craftivism project for a good cause.

I love seeing something in the crochet world go viral in the world of non-crafters. Right now  it's all about the Messy Bun Hat or Ponytail Hat. Last week a non- crafter was in the yarn store where I work looking for yarn for a friend to make one for her. I've also spotted it coming up on my Twitter feed. I have short hair but if I can see my daughter looking gorgeous in one of these free crochet patterns: It's All About the Messy Bun by June Nemeth!

Anyway, I do hope you're having a wonderful week y'all whatever you're crafting!! If you don't want to miss my blog articles and you're reading on your desktop computer please do sign up to receive an email with a link. It should be top right. And I'm on Twitter and Instagram too. If you've been making hats this month please do let me know in the comments below!

Christmas & charity crochet hats

Occasionally I come across a pattern which I adore and just want to make over and over again. It's called Reversible Strands and has been favorited on Ravelry almost 8000 times so evidently other hookers are loving this pattern as much as me! The swirling lines of the cable / front post stiches are very pleasing to me.

At my charity crochet group Yak & Yarn we have decided to move onto making hats for the homeless this winter as well as scarfs so I was looking on Ravelry at crochet men's hat patterns and came up with this one. The designer, Nancy Smith, is particularly talented with crochet cables. Looking at her website, NLS Stitchings, I discovered that she is friends with the amazing Margaret Hubert and has two stunning patterns in one of Margaret books which is also one of my favorite crochet books: The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet (2nd edition) 

I haven't exactly followed the pattern, I almost never do, but I am very happy with the resulting hats that I will give as gifts. The bright one is for one of my dearest friends in the UK and I made a more manly one for my brother. I will make more with my Yak & Yarn group for charity.

Crochet cables seems very on trend right now. The Fall edition of Interweave Crochet focuses on crochet cables with 10 cable projects and even tutorials for those new to cables from experts.

I have also flicked through a copy of the recently published Celtic Cable Crochet by Bonny Barker in the yarn store where I work. The Lavena Poncho on the front cover is even making the knitters want to learn to crochet! It is fantastic!

Let me know if you've been making anything with crochet cables recently. And have a great week y'all!

Yak and Yarn is back

My Yak and Yarn group resumes it's meetups this week after a big summer break. I have so missed these sweet crafting friends. In June we moved our daytime meet up to the yarn store where I teach. Our coffee shop venue had become far too busy during the day. I finally decided a change was due after hearing that one of our group had driven around the parking lot three times and then returned home. The back room at Nimblefingers is a peaceful and welcoming space surrounded by beautiful yarn. Aaaaahh, what better? Bliss!

 

I designed a sampler crochet baby blanket and distributed patterns modified for two different yarn weights before we broke up for summer. I do tend to give myself these self-imposed deadlines. So we will see how everyone is getting on with these! They are my test crocheters and I'm interested to hear their feedback. I haven't yet completed joining my nine sampler blanket squares or decided on a suitable edging but I must do this before the meeting. I know I will be presented with several more gorgeous baby blankets for our charity cause and as the fearless leader of the group I need to keep up!

I had such fun choosing which nine stitch patterns to use in my sampler blanket. One of the great joys of crochet is the huge number of stitch pattern possibilities. It's impossible to ever get bored. I selected patterns from two of my favorite resource books: The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet by Margaret Hubert and The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper.

My criteria was that they had to have a similar amount of open space to match, be suitable for advanced beginners, have a small number of repeats to easily convert the pattern from worsted to sport weight yarn and have straight edges all the way around for easy joining. On our very first joint charity project, where we all made single crochet squares, joining slightly different sized squares (because everyone works to a slightly different tension) was difficult since single crochet is a dense stitch. Doing the initial joining of my sampler I can see that these more open squares are forgiving and stretchy.

 

 
Anyway, do let me know if you'd like a copy of my sampler blanket pattern and once I've had feedback from my group and updated it I'll email you a pdf copy. You can send me a private message via my Crafty Escapism Facebook page or @craftyescapism on Twitter or Instagram.

Happy Birthday to Yak and Yarn

My crafting group Yak and Yarn is one year old this month. And we are going to eat cake and celebrate!

We meet at a local café twice a month (one day time and one evening meeting to cater for all). We have three core members. I am know as The Fearless Leader which makes me smile because if you know me I'm very relaxed. I set the dates and let people know via our Facebook group and email list. I also research pattern ideas for our group projects.

Audrey is our Head of Charity. I started the group just as a meet up with no particular mission other than fellowship for yarn lovers. Then Audrey was asked for blankets for a local charity and so our joint projects began. After the blankets came the scarfs for the homeless and then baby blankets for a third local charity. Making things together has really brought us closer as a group and given us a sense of purpose. But there is no judgment if someone is working on their personal project instead.

Roxanne is our Head of Recruitment. She has been doing an awesome job asking her friends and neighbors to join us and even teaching her friends so that they can take part too.

As for the other members we have a real mix of nationalities: American, Kiwi, English, Scottish, Indian, Russian, Italian, Canadian.... apologies if I've missed any of you. Houston is a very culturally rich place. Our youngest member is 12, a daughter of a member, and our oldest is in her 80s, the mother of a member in Indiana (satellite members are welcome to join). People come and go and that is fine by us. Life is busy and priorities change. But I feel confident our group will continue ... 

PS The pattern for this adorable slice of birthday cake by crochet designer Donna Childs came from the most recent 10th Birthday Collector's Edition of Interweave Crochet.  The yarn store where I work has just starting stocking this magazine. I am SOO happy. It's just marvelous!

Yak & Yarn group growth

Last week we had our first daytime yak and yarn meet-up. Since we began in March it has been one Sunday evening a month (with the summer off) but we have members who live further afield and so to accommodate we have doubled our monthly meetings to two! Wow!

Rather remarkably lapghan #13 originates from Indiana (yes - Y&Y has gone national!). One of our daytime members taught her mom how to make our square while visiting and returned recently to find her mom had completed 63 squares, enough for our blanket. Love this story. It just warms my heart! And I am finishing up the joining of lapghan #14. It's a patchwork design this time since I have the final squares in many different colors.

We still have worsted weight yarn left over so we are making scarfs for the homeless using this rather nifty pattern I found online by Evelyn Mayfield on her blog Prayersncrafts. The half double crochet stitch is sturdy but hooking into the back of the loop gives the scarf a pleasing stretchiness. Simple but effective - my favorite kind of pattern.

And our next project (#3) will be baby blankets comprised of classic granny squares in a lighter sport weight yarn using a 4mm hook. I have written out the pattern since there isn't an original designer I can attribute the first granny square to. I am a big fan of the humble but versatile granny square.

The joy of crafting with others

There is something wonderful about crafting with others, getting out of your house and enjoying the fellowship of other gentle yarny folk. My first experience of this was back in Bristol in the UK in the winter of 2011. My local pub, the Victoria, a short stroll from my house, hosted a first Sunday of the month "Knit and Natter". The kids, younger then, were in bed and my husband happily watching Top Gear. There were eight of us knitting and I realized at that first meeting that I had been crafting in a silo up until then. We sat in the railway tunnel part of the pub (maybe it actually was a disused railway tunnel) - from a silo to a tunnel - and I enjoyed a pint of cider as you do in the West Country while we chattered about nothing in particular while our fingers were busy. Bliss.

And then shortly after moving to Houston in the spring of 2012 I signed my kids up to swimming lessons and was delighted to discover a fellow knitter doing her stuff in public with children occupied at the same time as mine. And so an impromptu group began of four of us knitting together and it was the BEST part of my week. But after a year or so the children's activities changed and our happy yarny meet ups ended.

Fulfilling the thirty hours of teaching crochet for my two certificates led to more communal crafting. For several months I carried my hooks and yarn everywhere looking for willing guinea pigs among my friends. Pictured above several victims learning while camping at a Texas State Park! Asking the yarn store owner if I could teach on her comfy sofa led to my current job running their Friday knitting and crochet workshop.

My master teacher asked me during my assessment if I was crafting with a group (the workshop doesn't count) and encouraged me to find one. Well now I have Yarn People at my public library each week (following my original knitting swim mom), a fortnightly craft group at church which has just started and my own monthly Yak and Yarn meet up at a local café which I started after attending a day long craft retreat in January this year. That's probably more than sufficient. 

 

 

Laphans for Yak and Yarn

Our Yak and Yarn group which only began in March this year has been having so much fun making lapghans together for local charity Angela House as our first joint project. And if my calculations are correct we are putting together number 14 currently. Yay!

I have been taking photos of each one before delivery to the ladies but I lost photos clearing my cellphone so I am missing some. I thought they were on the cloud but alas no. I lost photos of the two quilts made of fantastic African material by one of our talented Y&Y members. Technology can be a tad annoying at times!

Anyway, here are the photos I managed to salvage of early lapghans and the most recent beauties we have made. We made single crochet 5 inch squares using a cardboard template and for the majority of the lapghans added an edging of single crochet and single crochet joined the squares together.