Tag: acrylic

Back to hats

On By CarynIn Craft

When I have a plethora of yarn remnants on hand, I default to making hats. I like to experiment with different stitches and construction methods, and it uses up the yarn in a useful and quick way. This round, I’m exploring the folded brim. Making a hat longer than necessary, then folding it up to double over the ears does a better job keeping ears toasty and warm than a single layer.

Photo description: off-white acrylic crocheted hat showing the full length
Photo description: same hat with a brim folded up

I constructed the hat with double crochets in concentric circles, then for the brim did single crochet in the back loop and changed direction each round. This makes for a lovely squishy accordion-like fabric.

I do wonder if I could achieve the same effect crocheting in the back loop one round and the front loop the second round, to avoid the awkward turnaround where I tend to accidentally add stitches. Hm.

All wrapped up

On By CarynIn Craft
Photo description: mesh basket full of hand wound balls of acrylic yarn
Photo description: mesh basket full of wound cakes of acrylic yarn

I finished rewinding all the yarn remnants into cakes. It might not make a long term difference in the neatness of the stash, but it soothes my soul to have them all center-pull. We’re all different.

Ball to cake

On By CarynIn Craft

Every knitter or crocheter has their own preference for the form of their yarn. My friend prefers to wind her yarn into balls before she gets started. With purchased yarn, I dig into the middle and pull the yarn from the inside, then wind the remains as cakes on a winder, or nostepinne style balls. I have a whole bag of remnants that are balled and I am rewinding them as cakes.

Photo description: yarn bowl with hand wrapped ball of yellow yarn going to a Royal ball winder clamped to the counter

I tried using my ceramic yarn bowl, but it isn’t up to the speed produced by the winder, so I dropped the ball into a basket so it didn’t roll around on the floor.

Poncho fix

On By CarynIn Craft

To make the poncho that I made from a free blanket wearable, I used inexpensive acrylic yarn to do a blanket stitch around the neckline, then crocheted into the blanket stitch.

Photo description: single crochet into a blanket stitch, video here

I then alternated rows of shell stitches, 3 on the first row, two on the second, and decreased at the V on each side.

Photo description: crochet added to the neckline of a 2 rectangle poncho

I don’t know why one side has more stitches than the other, but I didn’t count, so that is probably the cause of the error. The crochet did help keep the poncho on, but I still hate wearing it. I even tried wearing it sideways with a “V” on each shoulder. That was better, but the corners on my hands were annoying.

Photo description: same poncho, but turned 90 degrees with the V neck on the shoulders

I’m very glad I did this trial with inexpensive materials, and did not put in hours knitting something that I would hate wearing.

1×1 colorwork

On By CarynIn Craft

I have been fascinated with Wool & Pine’s “Seaglass” series of knitwear patterns and have been collecting patterns, but haven’t tried knitting them, until now. A friend gave me a bag of skein ends, which are all the same yarn size, but a variety of colors, which was perfect for the pattern.

Photo description: start of test piece of 1×1 color work laid against photos of cardigans from Wool & Pine

I am currently randomly choosing two colors for each row. The original pattern was in the round, but for the cardigan they have a clever way of knitting and cleaning up the edges. Here is a link to the pattern. My test piece is a good opportunity to test my understanding of their method and play with color to see what I like, and what I don’t. I already know that for me I need to not stack similar color intensity, or have rows with the same hue, even if they have different shades.