Knit and Crochet Away!

Variegated Yarn Surprise

I am fascinated by variegated yarn and how colors in the yarn flow into each other in a knitted or crocheted piece.

I needed a smaller project for a recent trip we went on to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC), which I will blog about in a future post, and so I randomly selected a variegated ball of yarn I found in my stash to start a new knit hat.

The yarn was either gifted to me by a friend; or was a ball of yarn I that I thrifted. The yarn was already rolled into a ball so I do not know what the original skein of yarn looked like. I could see some of the different colors on the perimeter of the ball or yarn but the whole set of colors was going to be a surprise to be revealed as I was knitting the hat.

Here is the yarn in the new yarn holder bowl I recently bought:

Here I am starting the hat on the Carolinas roadtrip I went out with our Asheville, NC based friends (who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville – we nicknamed our vacation “The Clean Shower Vacation” they only recently got running water and the water they have is very murky and gross to shower in):

Here is the variegation in the ball of yarn unfolding as I work on the hat (it’s been a fun surprise):

I am waiting to see when the dark purple which begins the hat will resurface.

Knit and Crochet Away!

Ran Out of Yarn But the Hat Continues…

I’m not sure which I enjoy more: crocheting granny squares or knitting hats so I usually have a crochet (see post Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Cool Community Garden) and a knitting project going at the same time.

For the past couple months I’ve slowly been working on knitting a hat with a ball of pretty turquoise yarn I found in my stash. Little did I know it was not enough to finish the hat to the size I wanted.

I got this far before I ran out of yarn to do the decrease to the crown of the hat:

I am on a plane during one my recent travel adventures that I will eventually blog about

I looked through my stash to see if I had any yarn that would work to finish the top of the hat. I found this interesting variegated hand spun yarn someone gave me which had turquoise in it:


And here is my progress on the hat after adding this yarn:

I like it because it sort of looks like I did colorwork, like in the yoke of an Icelandic sweater, though real Icelandic sweater level colorwork would be nearly impossible as my knitting skills are far away from that level of skill!

I am trying decide it I should add a couple rows of the variegated yarn to the brim/bottom of the hat too. I am also thinking about adding a pom-pom/bobble to the top of the hat with the remaining variegated yarn.

Just making it up as I go along (and using up some random yarn in my stash!)

Knit and Crochet Away!, Library Adventures

Explored a new library, tried a new group

Needle-arts crafters (knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch and other needlework) seem to be good people based on those I’ve met through blogging, so I thought I would try for the first time to join a Knit/Crochet Group instead of a quilting group.

One of the area libraries, Arapahoe Library, had a Knit/Crochet Group that met once a week.

I already belong to three Denver area library systems (have library cards), so why not add one more to my list (they are fairly laid back on who can get a library card and there are a lot of libraries systems in the Denver Metro Area), so I went to visit one of the Arapahoe Library branches for the first time – the Smoky Hill Branch.

I was so surprised on my first visit as this branch had a cafe, an awesome used bookstore, and a free seed library where you could take 3 packets of seeds a day!

Of course I had to browse through a stack of used books (that I didn’t buy) at their bookstore while enjoying a hot chocolate and a danish at the cafe:

Other cool things I discovered while doing a self-tour of this library was kits for book groups which included 10 copies of books, and an awesome Craft book section (where else would I have headed first, ha!):

So for the past three weeks I attended the weekly meetings of the Knit/Crochet Group and I met some nice people. Here I am at the group meeting working on another knitted hat; and checking out a wooden yarn holder bowl another attendee’s woodworker husband made her:

I decided not to continue with the group as the venue was too large (space for 17 people) and I wasn’t getting any work done on my project and I was getting a little overwhelmed by the crowd, all their energy and stories. I appeared to have fully transitions to an Introvert post-pandemic!

I might try another group someday in a smaller venue.