Effortless Cowl

I went to Michael's to browse for more yarn and found some gorgeous Loops and Threads Charisma yarn on sale for half off. Each skein was only $1.25! I had never crocheted with bulky yarn before, so I got a few skeins to try it out. I chose this Effortless Cowl pattern. Based on Ravelry user comments, I chained 130 for the foundation instead of the pattern's recommended 87. I'm glad I did this, since it's just long enough to loop twice around my neck. 87 chains would have been far too short.

Overall, I decided that bulky yarn is sometimes difficult to work with. However, the difficulty could be due to the pattern - half double crochet (hdc) stitches can be tricky with the best yarn. The yarn itself is incredibly soft and a much nicer color than the photo represents. 

Time on this project: 4 hours, 10 minutes

Time total: 71 hours, 40 minutes

Ruffled Blankie

I really enjoyed making this ruffled blankie. The ruffled border was lots of fun to crochet and definitely spruced up the simple base pattern. I used worsted weight lavender yarn from Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! brand, since it tends to be softer than Red Heart yarn.

Time on this project: 9 hours, 40 minutes
Time total: 67 hours, 30 minutes

Donation day!

Yesterday I took most of my items to the Safe Harbor resale shop to donate! The resale shop is very similar to Goodwill in terms of merchandise for sale and prices, although the shop lets Safe Harbor clients and their children shop for free. Furthermore, most of the employees are volunteers and all of the shop profits go to benefit the Safe Harbor organization. If you're interested, more information can be found at their website. 

I packed a box with two baby blankets, five child hats, three dishcloths, a scarf, a cowl, and a pair of baby booties. Since all donations to Safe Harbor are tax-deductible, they gave me a receipt for my donation. I have several items still sitting at school that I didn't have room to bring home, and I'm planning to donate those over spring break or during the summer. I really enjoyed bringing my donations to the store; the employee I talked to was very happy to get them. It feels like I'm really making a difference to this organization. 

Martha Cowl

I found the pattern for this Martha Cowl scarf on Ravelry. I crocheted it using navy blue yarn from Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn brand. The pattern was wonderful - very simple and elegant, especially with the eyelet stitches - although I followed users' comments from Ravelry to make a few changes. I chained 201 stitches for the first round instead of 150 to account for using a thinner weight yarn. In addition, the flower in the pattern was difficult for me to work out, so I used the flower from this Cozy Flowered Headband instead. Overall, I really loved this pattern and definitely plan on making it again!

Time on this project: 5 hours, 30 minutes
Time total: 57 hours, 50 minutes

Brrr Baby Beanie

Winter break has proven to be an excellent time to get some crocheting done! I used the Brrr Baby Beanie pattern, a magic loop, and some more stash yarn I found laying around at home to make this beanie. I'm not too fond of how the yarn worked up but the pattern turned out nice and simple. I'll probably make this pattern again sometime with different yarn.

Time on this project: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Time total: 52 hours, 20 minutes

Rib-wrapped Kid Cap

I found the pattern for this Rib-wrapped Kid Cap on Ravelry a couple of years ago and used some stash yarn I had at home to finally make it. I really liked the pattern! The only adjustments I made to it were to crochet it in the round and start with a magic loop. Magic loops are my new favorite technique; they make it so much easier to tighten the top of hats.

Time on this project: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Time total: 50 hours, 15 minutes