Yarnspirations 2015 Look Book and Giveaway

I was so excited when Yarnspirations (the brilliant yarnies behind Patons, Bernat, Caron, and Lily yarns) approached me with a sneak-peek at their new baby look book, Country Mouse & City Mouse, and the chance to preview one of the adorable patterns.

It was hard to choose one, but as soon as I saw the Mousie Snood I knew that was the one. What was even more fun was that I got to put my own spin on the design. Some of you know that I live in Colorado. It's cold here. Well, maybe not in the middle of July, but it will be all too soon. So to make the snood even more snow-worthy, I decided to use Bernat Pipsqueak to add a fuzzy edge for my mountain baby.

Click HERE to get the free pattern from Yarnspirations - Mousie Snood - Country Mouse & City Mouse.

To give it that fuzzy look, I began my Mousie Snood with Bernat Baby Blanket on Round 2 using a chainless foundation and continued working until it was the right length. I then attached Bernat Pipsqueak to the bottom of my foundation round and worked 1 hdc in the BLO of each stitch around to create the cozy fur edge.

Enter below for the chance to win all the yarn you need to make your own fuzzy Mousie Snood!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was provided the materials to make the snood, but all opinions and reviews are mine.

10,000 Fan Giveaway - Manjar Sweets

You are NOT going to want to miss this one! There's no better way to celebrate that the weekend is almost here then to win a box of granny square and yarn ball cookies from Manjar Sweets! I'm seriously in love! Crochet, yarn, & sugar - YES please! I'm jealous of anyone who gets to enter. I may just have to order them for myself. I'm no where near handy enough with an icing bag to attempt these.

Use the Rafflecopter form to the left or this mobile friend link to enter. So jealous.

play hard ~ play hooky

10,000 Fan Giveaway - Yarn Baby

Thanks to the generosity of a few amazing shops, I've put together a giveaway featuring high-quality handmade items every hooker would want to find in their stocking.

Here's how it'll work:

• I'll feature 2 shops every day - each for 6 hours - Get ready for some seriously amazing shops!
• The morning shop will be featured from 8am-2pm (MST), and the afternoon shop will be featured from 2pm-8pm (MST)
• You'll be able to enter for that shop's prize for the 6 hour time period only
• I'll announce the winners the next morning
• Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize.
• Please read the terms and conditions before entering

If you want a sneak peek at the afternoon shops, make sure to sign up for my newsletter

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** NOW CLOSED ** Winner to be announced tomorrow!

Now that all the official business is taken care of, I can introduce you to my Monday Morning shop!

Say hello to YARN BABY! If you haven't seen her gorgeous hand dyed and hand painted skeins, you're in for some great yarn porn. What's even better? She creates a backstory to each skein she crafts! Love it.

Use the Rafflecopter form to the right to enter for this beautiful hand painted skein - worsted weight, 218 yds. Stop by her Facebook page and ask her to tell the story behind it!

play hard ~ play hooky

Bryn's Flowers - Along the Way

The journey for this project started last September when I had the idea to create a yarn bomb for Bryn at the elementary school she would have gone to this year. You may know that I created and put up a yarn bomb at her preschool (it's still up!) last fall, so this will be my second in her honor. At first it was going to be something small, maybe a sleeve for a pole on the playground, but then it took a turn. I saw an incredible yarn bomb by the Ladies Fancywork Society - in 2010, they were commissioned to create a flower 'garden' for construction fences across Denver. Immediately I knew it was something Bryn would love and something that I could involve the entire crochet community in.

So far I've had an amazing, and overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and eagerness to be a part of the most epic project I've ever attempted. Fans of my Playin' Hooky page jumped at the chance to be involved, resulting in close to 300 members of the FB group I created in an attempt to keep things organized. Members had the chance to choose from 11 different flower designs, butterflies, bumblebees, pinwheels, stems & leaves, and even a rainbow. I created an online sign up sheet (again to keep things organized - both my parents are engineers so this kid had no chance of escaping OCD) and within an hour, all of the slots for crocheted items were filled. I had no idea I would get that kind of response! I've since had to add more items on two occasions so that everyone who wanted to help could have the chance to send something.

The designs we're using to yarn bomb the fence

Along with all the crocheting that's going on, I get daily words of encouragement, support, and love (and even German chocolate - scroll down) from everyone involved. I get so much strength from all of you. If you're local and want to help with set up, please let me know!

So that's where we are. I'm starting to get 6-10 packages a day with gorgeous items from all over the country (11 states so far) and even a couple from Germany and Australia. I'm going to try and update everyone through pictures, so if you're on Instagram or Twitter search #brynsflowers to see my daily photo-diary and other's contributions to the project too! You can also follow some of the pictures on my Facebook page.  Here are some pictures to get you caught up.

March 8: My first package notice!!

March 11: I had so many packages that they gave me a locker, I got my first International shipment from Australia, I'm trying to stay organized, some of the flowers in that day's mail.

March 12: My second International package came from Germany - and it didn't just have flowers in it. GERMAN CHOCOLATE!!! Happy

March 12: Today's flowers, a look at the fence we'll be covering, the German awesomeness

This was a special bird made by Beate (the same crocheter who sent me chocolate so I love her). It reminds me so much of a paper bird that's hanging on Bryn & Tara's ceiling that Beate gave me permission to hold it back from the yarn bomb and use it in the decoration of the room some how. 

PLAY HARD ~ PLAY HOOKY

Bryn's Flowers - a Yarn Bomb

The Yarn Bomb that inspired me
by the Ladies Fancywork Society

This year would have been Bryn's kindergarten year at Longfellow Elementary. She was so excited about going to school and meeting all her new friends. When she talked about kindergarten, her eyes lit up, her smile got bigger, and her whole body shook with excitement.

Then we lost her. An experience that changed our lives forever. Even though she never got to walk through her Kindergarten door, meet her new teacher, or experience all the joys of a 'big girl school', we can help keep her presence there.
I've been working with the school administrators and teachers to plan a fun and cheerful way to remember her and bring a smile to the kids, faculty, and parents. We will yarn bomb the chain link fence with crocheted flowers and butterflies - two of Bryn's favorite things.

Some of you know that I created a yarn bomb in memory of my Bryn at the beginning of the school year. Now that Spring Break is coming up, along with her birthday in April, I want this BIGGER yarn bomb in her honor.

Here's how you can be a part of this memorable and meaningful event:

• Join my group on Facebook (If you don't have a FB account, let me know and I'll make sure you can still participate)
• You can crochet items, help with set up or help with clean up, or send me zip ties
• Read the volunteer information to find the online sign-up sheet and all the details you will need to know as a volunteer
• Pick your favorite flower, pinwheel, butterfly, or rainbow color from the album in the group
• Sign up using the online sign-up sheet (the link is only available through the FB group)
• You may sign up for more than one item, but be aware that they need to be in the mail by March 18th to get to me in time

The flowers, pinwheels, butterflies, and bees we will use to decorate the fence

my Bryn

PLAY HARD ~ PLAY HOOKY

Bryn's Yarn Bomb

I've already posted about this on my FB page, but I'm trying to be a better blogger so here it is again

If you don't already know, my 5 year old daughter passed away (whoa that was hard to say) about three months ago. You can read more about it here. This summer I was driving past her preschool and had an idea for a way to keep her spirit alive using one of my favorite forms of expression: crochet of course. I wanted to yarn bomb her favorite piece of playground equipment.

The idea came to me so clearly that I could literally see it in my mind. It's a pretty small preschool and I know the teachers pretty well. They were also devastated by what happened to Bryn and I knew they would want to be involved with my project. So I went against normal YBing protocol and told them my plans. They were honored and got on board immediately. It took me about a month to finish it (I have a 4 month old that likes to occupy my arms). I even took it camping with us.

Finally it was ready. I added her name to the bottom and put it up the day before the first day of school. Since then, the teachers tell me that all the kids love the colors and ask who made it. It makes me smile to know that they can think about her while they play. Check out the pictures and the video of me putting it up, I hope it brightens your day.

A few months later, it's still stands tribute, even in the snow

PLAY HARD ~ PLAY HOOKY

Sneak Peek

I'm adding an entirely NEW LINE to my shop very soon! I just sent them off to be photographed. In the meantime, I'll give you a sneak peek at what's new!

Dyeing!

YAY! I've actually had time lately to start hand-dyeing yarn again! I had a long hiatus during the Holidays. I was just too busy and yarn dyeing takes over my entire kitchen, so I knew as soon as things quieted back down, I could get back to the fun!

I wanted to try a few new methods of dyeing and it's been fun! Not everything comes out the way I expect it, but it always works out for the best! I want to list several skeins at once so keep on the lookout for a yarn explosion at my shop!

My hands after a morning of dyeing! They're all prune-y too!

Getting the yarn ready to make a self-striping colorway. It's a lot of work, and hard to do with kids, 2 dogs, and a cat running around!

Dyeing a whole cone at once!

The softer side of Playin' Hooky

This is the self-striping colorway I was getting ready for. I LOVE this one!

My hand-dyed yarn drawer! This entire cabinet is full of yarn & yarn tools! My husband built it for me, but I haven't found drawer pulls that I like yet...

HAPPY HOOKING!

Varie-hated

Ok, maybe hate is too strong a word, but I'm talking about variegated yarn here. You know that familiar feeling when you walk into a yarn store - your hearts starts beating when you see all the amazing colors and different textures. Out of the corner of your eye, you see an amazing color combination and it's all contained in one skein! That's variegated yarn. But then you get home and start to use this perfect yarn with the perfect pattern, expecting to get a fabulous mix of colors. What you get instead is a finished product that has a distinct color pattern, exactly what you didn't want!

Well, maybe it's never happened to you, or maybe I'm just a yarn snob, but I tend to shy away from commercial variegated yarn. I'm not talking about the delicious hand-dyed stuff that's so good you should be required to get a prescription to buy it. Nope, I'm focused on the big name, usually crunchy-feeling 3-4 color yarn. Variegated yarn, by it's nature almost always gives you some pattern, just because the color repeats itself in fixed intervals. But knitted items made from this yarn usually turn out pretty cool looking. No one ever thinks of us hookers who want to achieve that same look.

 

(Neither one of these items were made by me, by the way. They're just examples of the color patterns)

Alas, I am working on a custom order right now for a kid's camo hat, I can pick the design, it just has to be camouflage colors. First of all, that's a pretty big range of color palettes, but I narrowed it down and and started searching the 3 places in my little town where I can buy yarn (Walmart, the high-end LYS, and a modest little craft store). Instead of buying 4 solid-colored skeins (most of which would not be used in the hat and I'd have a lot of yarn in colors I don't normally work with) I broke my rule.

I settled on a skein of surprisingly soft commercial yarn from the craft store (not Red Heart!!!!!) and got to work. I knew I couldn't bring myself to do a simple hdc or dc hat because I'd end up with exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Sometimes I like that variegated pattern, it's just not what I was looking for this time. I tried alternated rounds of hdc and sc. It was working for a while, but soon, a pattern started to emerge. It wasn't as obvious as the all-one-stitch hat would be, but I wasn't happy with it. Aside for the fact that I'm making this hat for my boss's kid, I knew I could create something much much better. The frogging began (frogging = ripping out your work. rip-it, rip-it, get it?).

I remembered an interesting stitch texture I saw once and thought, I could do that. It's called a 'basket weave stitch". basically it's a sc hat, but you work a ch between each sc and on the next round, work into the ch-space. Here's what resulted. There's still a pattern, but it's a little more subdue with a little more texture.In the end, I'm happy with it.

HAPPY HOOKING!

Koi Pond

I had this colorway in my head for a while before I got the money to by some more yarn and try it out! I think it turned out PERFECTLY! I got my inspiration from Japanese-style paintings and dyed it with Kool-Aid just like the green yarn in my previous post. I'm still experimenting with color designs, but I have to get a few things done before I can really get started! What'd you think of my Koi Pond?

Inspiration Mondays: YARN DYEING!

The Monday after the 4th of July is a little sad for me this year because we had so much fun with friends and family that it's a little quiet around here. I'm trying to brighten my mood by thinking about the awesome project I worked on last week when I entered the world of yarn dyeing!

My last post was all about upcycling and in the process of researching for it, I discovered an AMAZING website (Leethal-picture to above is from her site) full of tutorials, including several on dyeing your own yarn. I decided to try my hand at it. Leethal's turuorials center mostly on hoew to dye with Kool-aid and since I'm not dye hard (haha, sorry, couldn't resist) just yet, I thought this would be a easy & inexpensive way to start.

In keeping with the upcycling theme of my project, I knew I couldn't buy the yarn first-hand so I set out to my local Salvation Army-type store called Caring & Sharing. I just found out they had a small selection of donated yarn so I decided to check it out. I had high hopes, but also wasn't expecting a miracle. After all, the yarn I needed had to be wool or another animal fiber and white so that it would take the dye. I dove into the bin (

not really, it was pretty icky) and lo & behold I found it! DK weight, white, wool yarn!! Since there are no price tags I didn't know what to expect when I headed to the checkout I was shocked again when I got the whole ball (I'm still not sure how many yards it is, but it's A LOT!) for FIFTY CENTS!!

I took my yarn and headed to the grocery store to buy my Kool-Aid. I want to make something for my daughter with it, so I let her choose the color and she picked Lemon-Lime.

I couldn't wait. I took my yarn and Kool-Aid home and started right away. First step was to turn some of the yarn into a hank so that each strand of yarn gets dyed. Not having a niddy-noddy made this a little harder, but I put two chairs together and went to town.

I soaked it in hot water to wash it and prepare the yarn for the dye. Kinda looks like spaghetti!

ADD THE DYE & let it soak!

I hung it outside to dry. There are white flecks where the hank was tied. It's my first attempt, what're you going do?

Last thing to do is twist in into a hank and take a beauty shot. I used a lot of yarn so the hank was cumbersome and looks a little 'fat'.

I haven't worked it up into anything yet, but I hope to soon and of course, I'll share my pictures!

So, what'd you think? Looks like fun, huh? I've got to try multiple colors next time!

HAPPY HOOKING!

Inspiration Mondays: REDUCE, REUSE, UPCYCLE!

Happy Monday!! To brighten up the fact that today's the day most of us go back to work I'm giving you another glimpse into what inspires me. Today, it's upcycling! Don't you mean REcycling. Nope, I mean UPcycling. For those of you who know what it means, congratulations on being so hip. But for everyone else, here's a quick look at the newest way to make your life a little more green.

Upcycling, according to Wikipedia, is "the process of converting useless products into new material or products of better quality". So basically, taking things that someone got rid of and making something useful and pretty!

Crafty people of every variety have been using their creative skill to reuse old materials for about a decade, but it just came into the limelight in the last few years. At least, that's when I figure out what everyone was talking about "upcycled this... upcycled that..." Some of the things people upcycle include license plates, vinyl records, typewriter letters, hardback book covers, picture frames, colored glass bottles, crayons, denim, and of course YARN.

Since I'm a hooker (crocheter for you non-yarnies) this upcycle blog is dedicated to people who make pretty yarn from old sweaters, and new clothes from old yarn! ENJOY!

Top of the page: Upcycled Twirly Scrappy Skirt by SnugglePants

HAPPY HOOKING!!

The symbol for upcycling

Autumn Fire - upcycled sweater yarn by BKYarn

Make your own upcycled coffee can cubbies - Leethal

Berries & Cream - upcycled yarn by TwiceShearedSheep

Tutorial on how to make Upcycled Sweater Boots - Instructables

Upcycled T-Shirt Yarn by KinichiGreen

GREAT tutorial on recycling yarn from a sweater - CraftStylish