Ballin'

Today, I have a little Yarn Hack for you! 

I came across a free pattern for a pretty crocheted flower. It's worked with one ball of crochet thread, but with two strands of thread held together. 

Since the pattern only requires one ball's worth of thread, I didn't want to buy two, just to be able to work with two strands at once. I've tried working with two strands off of one skein in the past, using both the center-pull end of the yarn and the outside-the-skein end of the yarn, but that always results in a big tangly mess. And with the Aunt Lydia's brand thread I wanted to use for this project, I can never find the center end of the thread anyway, with how they tightly wind the ball around a cardboard core.

But I hacked myself a solution that will result in less wasted yarn and less tangles while working with two strands of one ball of thread!  

First, I wound the entire, new ball of thread into a center-pull ball. 

Then I pulled this towel holder out of the Goodwill pile (a counter-top paper towel holder could work, too), and put the freshly-wound ball on it. Then, working from the outside of the ball, I put the outer tail of thread back on my winder, and re-wound the thread until I had two balls of thread roughly the same size. This ended up being more tedious than I thought it would, as the ball on the towel holder didn't want to unwind smoothly. I had to guide it and unroll it by hand a lot of the time, to prevent it from tightening up on the bar. But it worked ok enough for me to do it again next time I need this trick.

I took the two balls of thread off their perches & called it done! I now have two center-pull balls of thread for my flower project. Because I'll be working from the center of each ball, there won't be any tangling issues. And because I'm leaving the outsides of the two balls connected (I didn't cut the thread you see running from one ball to the other), once I'm done with the project, I can re-wind the unused thread into a single ball again. And a single ball of leftover thread can be used for a wider variety of future projects than two balls half that size.

So there you have it! One ball becomes a pair, and leave them attached for less frustration and more possibilities! 

(Yes, I am a 12-year-old boy at heart. ;) )

"Oh, I'll just... Nope."

I recently found a mystery crochet-along that seems like it'll turn out to be a cute project! And wonder of wonders: I even have suitable colors in my yarn stash, just waiting for a purpose! All right! I'm ready to dive into this fun little piece!

....Wait. Nope. Nevermind. Can't. *sigh*

See, I'm missing something vital. The right crochet hooks. Because I lost the vast majority of every hook I owned.

Back in May, the husband & I went on an amazeballs vacation to Mexico to attend my best friend's wedding. It was a great trip, and my very first out of the US! Awesomesauce! And since we had some significant layovers there and back, I packed up a few different crochet projects and my container of hooks, not knowing what I'd want to work on when. I tend to overpack, especially when it comes to crafts.

On our way back home, I learned a very valuable lesson: Different countries have different rules as to what you can take in your carry-on.

The USA's TSA doesn't give a crap about craft supplies. Crochet hooks present zero problems at all, and are allowed in carry-ons on domestic flights, as well as when flying from the US to another country. Mexico's airport security has a different opinion. They didn't care that I had crochet hooks in my bag while coming into their country. So I didn't think anything of it while packing my bag to head home. But, no. Mexico's airport security forbids crochet hooks on flights out. I got my entire crochet tool supply confiscated: hooks, yarn needles, plastic stitch markers, paper clips (poor girl's stitch markers), and even the container itself. *super-mega-epic-grumble* They took the whole container & everything in it.

Could have been worse. I mean, hey, they let me leave without a pat-down or handcuffs! ;) But what a bother to lose so many hooks!

I've been able to manage my craftaholic-ness up to this point. I've been finding projects that use the few hooks I have left (which were safe at home and not in the confiscated container by stroke of luck; I'm SO HAPPY the thread-weight hooks I inheritted from my grandma were safe at home!), and doing non-crochet projects as well.

But now that I'm gearing up to dive into Holiday Gift Crafting, I'm feeling the loss of my tools. I'm not fully armed any more, and the funds are pretty tight. (I maaay have realized only a few months ago that I had a hefty sum still unpaid on a credit card, so I'm holding my financial reins super tight until that debt is gone.) So I'll have to start budgeting in the extra cost of each hook I need for each project I decide on, and hope I get gauge with the listed hook so I don't end up buying two or three hooks per project.

Lesson learned: Be careful when travelling outside the US when you have craft supplies in-tow! But hey, at least I know that from this point forward, I won't have any hooks lying around that I'll never need! Silver linings!