One At A Time Please... NOT

For those of you who know me, you know that I love projects!

Any project.

Indoors, outdoors, creative, DIY, construction.  Yep, any project.

I enjoy the whole process, from beginning to end.

The coming up with the project to physically working on the project to appreciating and enjoying the end results.

Currently, I have no outdoor projects (to which I'm adjusting (although I have been eyeballing the park's picnic table that is badly in need of some sanding and a paint job (good thing I don't have my sander here))) but I have plenty of indoor projects to keep me occupied (and out of trouble, ha!).

In fact, I probably have too many projects going on at the moment.

For starters, I have thoroughly been enjoying making scarves out of the Red Heart Sashay yarn (see Etsy shop on sidebar) and probably have WAY more skeins that I should but, hopefully, they won't stick around long once I've got them made.

I've recently found some new colors that they offer...

... gold, silver, teal, solid black, red and cream, variegated green & tan, blues. etc.

I've made a few of them already and they work up beautifully...

... these are ready to be photographed and listed in my Etsy shop.

I've also started my first quilt.

The top is finished, the batting and backing are in place and it's all basted together to begin the top stitching and quilting...

... I had to wait until I could get to town to get the right color thread before finishing it.  (CountryBoy tickled me one night at dinner when I was talking about the quilt.  He says, "you lost me at basting".  Bahahaha, I knew he was picturing me with the kitchen baster in hand and trying to figure out why and with what was I basting a quilt!!!)

Another project that recently came up is crocheting a baby afghan for a friend...

... can you guess what she's having, heehee?!

Seeing all these projects either half-finished or waiting to be started (and taking up precious space in the 5th wheel) can sometimes be overwhelming and I say to myself, "Self, you should only do one at a time".  Then reality sets in I say, "Yea, right.  Like that will ever happen"!  I simply enjoy the variety of projects that are going at the same time and figure I can do whichever one appeals to me at the time.

Makes perfect sense to me.

So, I will continue to have several projects going at the same time simply for the variety.  Thankfully, I tend to finish the projects that I do start.  I don't think I could stand to see so many unfinished projects lying around and maybe that's what keeps me motivated until it's done.

The difficult part of having so many projects going is deciding which one to work on first, ha!

That's the decision I'm facing as soon as I publish this post.

Hmmm, which one do YOU think I'll start on first today?

Till next time,

Conquering Crazy Yarn

I've never been one to wear scarves.  I never needed a scarf when living in Florida.  But now, it seems that scarves are in style. Yes, even in Florida!  Maybe not the warm and practical ones but definitely the stylish, pretty and fun ones.

This time last year, I was going to visit family in upstate New York, where it's cold, windy and snowy.  I thought that would be a good time to get a scarf or two to help keep me warm.

So, Christmas before last, I started collecting a few scarves.  OK, two scarves to be exact.  And both of them are pink (imagine that!) and practical.

Now that I'm out west where it's cold and the wind is horrendous I thought it was time to add another scarf or two to my collection.  A pretty and fun scarf that can be worn to church or that would dress up a pair of jeans and cowboy boots!  And preferably, one that I made.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to spend part of the day trying to figure out the Boutique Sashay yarn from Red Heart that I bought to make a ruffled scarf using a pattern I found in a crochet magazine.

This yarn is not your typical one-strand yarn.

At first, it looks more like a ribbon.

And then, you open it up and stretch it out...

... and it ends up looking like that.

Yikes!  What the heck do I do with THAT?!

After reading the instructions several times I started working on the scarf hoping that it would all start making sense as I went along.

No such luck.

So, I googled video instructions on how to use this type of yarn.  I found a video from Red Heart, the manufacturers of this yarn, and watched it.  The video cleared up a few questions but was not produced very well and a lot of the instructions were left out (like starting Row 1 after the chain, the most difficult row when crocheting) leaving me still in a quandary.

I started and ripped out at least five times.

Then I happened upon THIS video and it was the exact look I was going for and super, duper easy.

From beginning to end, it took less than two hours to make this scarf.

In fact, the original pattern I was going to follow called for two skeins to make one scarf whereas this pattern only took one to make an approximately seven foot long scarf.

I'm sure you know what I did with the other skein... I made a second scarf after supper!

They're super fun and easy to make so I will be making lots more of these in every color that Red Heart offers and I'll be posting them on my ETSY site for purchase (after I've made myself one of each, heehee!).

If you'd like a scarf or two like this and would rather not go through ETSY than just email me and I'll be happy to whip one (or two) up for you.  The yarn comes in many different colors so I'm sure we could find something that would suit your style and taste, woohoo!

Are you working on any craft projects or renovation projects right now?  I'd love to hear about them!

Till next time,