https://oombawkadesigncrochet.com/2018/01/stash-buster-projects.html
Posted on 10/01/2021 5:42:14 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
My Mom RIP made over 300 lap blankets (crochet) for the veterans home in Chicago. They sent her a nice commemorative letter thanking her and saying they had plenty. She wanted to be buried with that letter and she was. I kept one she gave me and set it out at the wake in Chicago with a note acknowledging how many she had made. After the home in Chicago said enough she would come up here to visit and we made 2 deliveries to the veterans home here. She put fringe on hers and told me the guys liked to play with it.
What a nice Mom you had! Good memories!
My Lion Brand Yarn ‘Mystery Box’ is in New Jersey and will supposedly be delivered to me on Thursday. We shall see. ;)
Our local thrift store has a huge bin of yarn but I just have too many other projects lined up.
I bit the bullet a while back and was a very brave girl - sorted yarns and was HONEST about what I would and wouldn’t use up. The ‘wouldn’t use’ stuff, though perfectly fine for another project, went to St. Vincent’s for their charity. They have a huge Yarn Sale in February...and I’ll probably buy back some of my own yarn, LOL!
I am nothing if not predictable. *Rolleyes*
https://oombawkadesigncrochet.com/2018/01/stash-buster-projects.html
Saturday, the 16th, the “country” campus of our church is having a yard sale. You can rent a space for $5 or a space + table for $10. I have put in for a space .... we have plenty of tables. The yard sale is from 8-12. This little church has a nice side yard/field so I’m sure that’s where it will be, unless the weather is bad ... they have a small fellowship hall they could use - it would be a ‘squeeze’.
What I am doing is taking my 30 pairs of hand-knit mittens. They’ve been my “COVID-keep-your-sanity” project since the beginning of the years. I sit out in the porch swing, watch the birds & whatever else shows up, listen to podcasts & knit. I’ve been knitting up all the leftovers from various knitting projects. I only need about 41 yards/mitten - sounds like a lot of yarn, but it really isn’t. If I shortened the cuff, I could get by with less.
The mittens are in various colors, some are multi-colored. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of yarn balls thus far - rummaged in some more boxes and found enough for probably another 10 mittens. I’ve recently learned to knit 2-at-a-time mittens which puts the ‘fun’ back into knitting them .... no dreading having to make the 2nd after you finish the first since you finish both at the same time.
I’m going to ask $5/pair. The yarn cost is negligible, it’s just my time and you never get that back. I think the fingerless mittens would make a nice, small present for someone or it could be a stocking stuffer. I’ll do a nice tag for them so if they’re gifted, people will know they’re hand knit.
Anyway, that’s my little project. I have put down the Christmas stocking for my great-nephew- I’ve done the cuff & body of the stocking .... I am waiting on a “mushroom” brown color so I can start putting in the deer heads. I hope “duplicate stitch” works ... if it doesn’t, I think I’m going to be screwed on this project unless I can ‘screw up’ my courage & do intarsia knitting. :-)
That sounds like an excellent idea! I’m sure those gloves will go fast!
I started my next afghan, today. The one with all the shades of greens and golds and browns to represent farm fields here in The Driftless Area of Wisconsin.
I have leftover yarn to make some more lap blankets for Vets, so those will be in the rotation, too.
Mailed off my package of baby blankets to ‘Warm Up America’ yesterday when I went to town to get gas.
Pandemic Created Yarn Shortage + New Crocheters
(Diana here: Article is from April, 2021, but there’s a LOT of interesting ‘insider baseball’ information here as th why we are seeing yarn shortages - along with lots of other things.)
It’s been a year since the first North American lockdown when the world came to a screeching halt. Most of us will never forget what we have lived through and the adjustments we have made in our lives.
The lockdown created free time for many people and suddenly hobbies that were thought to being one day I will learn, suddenly became the day to learn.
The pandemic caught manufacturers and retailers by surprise in being prepared for what was next.
What few people consider is the supply chain of product movement. My specialty in my life was logistics. If you have heard my backstory, I worked in courier and then trucking as a driver and then internal office in trucking. I have worked during the Christmas and seasonal rushes over the years and man oh man, it was relentless hell. By the time Christmas came and working right up until Christmas Eve, the last thing I wanted to do is celebrate Christmas. All good wishes and sweetness is thrown out the door when things are delayed. People can be so ignorant to not see the entire picture and only think of their individual needs. The pandemic for me has been groundhog day, day after day.
Don’t even get me started on people complaining about slow deliveries. I’ve been in those worker’s shoes! It’s anything but joyous.
*SNIP*
With North America locked down and millions of workers bounced out of their jobs.
With millions more adjusting to working from home or in a limited capacity.
With staffing being cut due to social distancing concerns. It caused delays and semi-permanent adjustments to having fewer people being allowed to work in the same space.
This created shortages of people-power to be working in distribution centres and at first, ground to a halt but companies had to figure out how to work in a safe manner but still kept moving.
There was a lag-time of about a month of no shipping that had already started but was opened again. Not just finished goods but also raw materials that companies rely on.
Manufacturing is considered an essential workplace but manufacturing had to adjust to maintaining safety while doing the job. The yarn industry quickly adjusted while other companies were still trying to figure the future out. Small things we take for granted had to be considered.
While North America is trying to figure out what is going on in the manufacturing, distribution and retail sense. One thing didn’t stop, online sales which then created the next biggest wave of problems.
https://thecrochetcrowd.com/pandemic-created-yarn-shortage-new-crocheters/
(Diana, again: My ‘Mystery Box’ of yarn was supposed to be delivered yesterday. FedEx says it’s made it from NJ to KY, so there’s hope, LOL!)
Oh yeah! I’d replace the dark blue with green and the light blue with red but- sometimes it is fun to have Christmas items that aren’t traditional colors.
Behind the Scenes on How Yarn Gets to Craft Stores | The Crochet Crowd - (Video. About 8 minutes.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMVEwZ5_gB0
Let us know how your sale goes!
If I don’t sell a single mitten, it will still be fun ... cool fall morning, cup of coffee, talking to people as they come by the table ...... the drive to the country church will be pleasant as well.
Thanks! I really wish I had had these patterns before I moved the last time because I had SO MUCH in my stash!!
I’m going to print some of these out as soon as I get moved/settled so that I can use my growing (again) stash!
That is the best attitude for sure.
Beautiful. Haven’t knitted any thing in a very long time. Just got the fabric for a tree skirt, but haven’t put it out yet. Better get going.
I’ve made many a Christmas Stocking, and designed most of the ones for my own family. When my youngest got engaged, I made my future SIL a Star Wars death star fair isle stocking and he treasures it.
When I first started doing fair isle I found that using a colorful variegated as the CC could really punch up a simple geometric graph. And a pale beige or cream with a camouflage variegated is popular with boys. I charted up a hilarious stick figure man with a spear chasing a leaping dear for another son in law.
Christmas stockings are more fun than socks, because you never have to make the 2nd one and so can always be working on something fresh.
The deer pattern is intarsia and intarsia is a pita do in the round because of having to strand the non working yarns all the way around till you get back to the deer.
Last time I did a similar Rudolph stocking I did the everything but the intarsia section in the round and only had to seam up that section.
I’ve also just cut the yarn at the end of each row in the intarsia section and then knotted them on the backside because it’s a Christmas stocking and nobody is going to wear it.
I wouldn’t spray harsh chemicals (Lysol) on a newborn’s quilt.
UV will sanitize. Along with the fresh air.
What a sweet and thoughtful gift of love this handmade quilt will be. A lifelong treasure! 💕
Beautiful shawl, Granmy. Just stunning.
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