Where’d the yarn go?

I decided to revamp a few of my older items with better accessories but I’m having a real problem finding certain yarns. Caron Simply Soft for example, at Walmart, Joann’s, Michaels.. there just aren’t any colors! Maybe 7, or 2! It’s the weirdest.  I wanted to make my big winged pony have rainbow hair but any store around here has no colors.  So bizzare.

Learning Cables

I really love cables and I’ve only really ever seen them as knit.  Well I decided to sit down and learn them from this Annoo Crochet video.  It was for a pillow but I quickly figured out how to do it for 1 or 2 cables.  I had to watch the entire video twice and back up to several spots over and over, and I finally got it. You’re basically crossing over the space of 6 to make the cables. Thanks so much to this channel to get me started!

That being said!  It’s… really  not that hard.  It’s basically the starter section then 3 rows that repeat.  That’s IT!!  Here are steps I wrote for myself.

In this example each cable takes up 6 spaces with 2 on either side.  So if you want to do 1 cable it would be 2+6+2=8  or 2 cables would be 2+6+2+6+2= 18 and so on.  Now you can do as many as you want.

For my pictured ear warmer, which I wore outside today and it worked very well, I did the following.  Trust me, it’s pretty easy when you aren’t watching 30 mins of steps!

1. Chain 18+1, turn, SC 18.  Or foundation SC 18, chain 1, turn.
2. 2 SC, 6 DC, 2 SC, 6 DC, 2 SC . Repeat as needed. Chain 1, turn.
3. 1 SC in each of the first 2.  Now we’re at the 6 DC’s.  Front post Triple in 3rd and 4th DC’s. Then work a front post triple in the 1st and 2nd DC only BEHIND the triples you just made.  Then do two front post DCs into the 5th and 6th DCs.  (This is a RIGHT leaning section).  1 SC in each of the next 2.  Repeat front post section for as many  DC’s as you started with.  End each one with the 2 sc’s, chain 1, turn.
4. SC all across. Chain 1, turn
5. 1 SC in each of the first 2. Now we’re working on top of the 6 front posts we did before.  There will be a right, left, and a middle.  Front post DC in each of the first two triples from the 3rd row. Front post triple into the 5th and 6th front post DCs.  Then working IN FRONT of the triples you just did, front post triple into the middle two front posts from below. (this is a LEFT leaning section)  SC in the next two, repeat as needed. End with 2 SC. chain 1, turn.
6. Then just repeat the right and left sections with the SC’s in between.  So we went right, then left, then right, then left.

I have my eye on a blanket pattern that has several kinds of cables I’d like to learn.  I’m a little wary of patterns not making the best of sense and this isn’t someone I’ve bought from before, so I’m going to try to check into their youtube examples first.

Custom Waffle Stitch Poncho

Finished much much quicker than I figured.  Michael’s saved the day with same day curbside pick up.  I really have to just… stop buying from Joann’s.  I found a cool yarn, the Vanna’s Choice which has lovely colors, ordered 10, and they cancelled the order like 10 minutes later.  Apparently this has been out of stock for a while!  Man.  I think they did that to me before too.

Anyway! I finished the fringe today, it really came out nice.  I was wearing one of my own versions the other day when I was cold.  I really do love ponchos!

Almost all hats SOLD OUT!

Wow the twisted witch hats sold so quick!  All the Ginger Spice hats sold over the weekend, the Green Tean ones are long gone, and all I have left is the rose hat.  I’ve been trying to find a yarn similar to the Tea Cakes but the new version of it from Caron doesn’t have very good reviews, which is disappointing.  Maybe I’ll play around with a double-strand one but getting the gauge correct will be interesting.  I’ve made blankets doing double-strand and I’m concerned it would come out too big with a double One Pound (which is a favorite of mine).  Hmm.  Well I have a coupon on Michaels for 25% off so maybe I’ll just stick with a bulky and hope there is a good quality version with a good colorway.

Scrap Yarn Makes me Creative

So as I’ve mentioned I like making the twisted witch hat with bulky to super bulky yarn.  After I used all the Green Tea and Ginger Spice, the only bulky I had left was some cream white with cool threads of brown and tan twisted through it, a little bit of the black, a bit of the grey from the last of the Ginger Spice, and several yards of Green Tea left.

I put together this hat with it and honestly I love it!  I think I will keep this as mine and sell the last Ginger Spice hat.

I used the last of the bulky black for the brim edge, the last of the Ginger spice for the brim, the white for the rest of the hat, and the last of the Green tea for the vine and leaves.  The black roses were done using Caron Simply Soft in Black, that I had laying around from who knows what.  And it’s minor but for the vine I started with the brighter green which changes upwards to a more dark green, I like to think it’s like it’s evil and dying as it goes up.

Anyway the Twisted Witch hat pattern can be found here and I highly recommend it.  The child size in bulky or super bulky yarn seems to be ideal for most heads but I think it’s easier enough to chain around your head and just stop increasing at that point but continue to follow the pattern.

The roses I found on youtube here on She’s Crafty’s channel.

The vine is just a chain with a basic leaf pattern you can find anywhere.  It’s just a chain 7, then down one side, sc, hdc, dc dc, hdc, sc, then the same thing around the other side.