Tagged: wool

10 Reasons to Love Alpaca Yarn - Learn why this natural fiber is well loved for knit and crochet projects 20

Yarn

10 Reasons to Love Alpaca Yarn

Dubbed the green sheep and the miracle fiber, alpaca gets a lot of love from knitters and crocheters. Alpacas are really cute, fluffy animals whose fleece is prized as a luxury fiber. They are tough little creatures and they have been part of our fiber story for millennia. Is alpaca fiber really all that? Yup! Here’s ten reasons why you should you consider adding alpaca yarn (etsy link) to your stash. Alpaca is softer than cashmere, and you won’t have to unravel thrift store sweaters to feel good about using it. Alpaca is stronger than sheep’s wool. Alpaca fiber is hollow,...

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Green your laundry: Make your own wool dryer balls with this tutorial. Dryer balls reduce drying time, saving evergy and money. They are also a great natural fabric softener, perfect for sensitive skin! 14

Craft Projects / Yarn

Green Laundry Tip: Make Your Own Wool Dryer Balls

Have you heard of wool dryer balls yet? They are a safe and healthier alternative to fabric softener with an added benefit: they absorb moisture, reducing the drying time of your clothes, saving time and money! What’s best is they are easy to make yourself on the cheap. Do wool dryer balls really work? Yup, they sure do! For years I avoided store-bought fabric softener because my sensitive nose and skin couldn’t handle it. I was also worried about the toxic chemicals in fabric softener coating our clothing and getting into the water system. I used white vinegar in the...

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How to Make a Felted Wool Rug. Explore felting crochet with this beginner's project 14

Crochet Techniques / WIP and FOs

How to Make a Crochet Felted Wool Rug

You gotta love when the addiction factor of crocheting goes up a notch. This is what’s happening to me with experimenting with felting. First you get to get in the meditative zone of making something and then you get to change it all up, shrink it, stretch it, and it’s something different. Love! After tackling a practice felted crochet swatch, it was time to try something bigger but still easy enough for a beginner’s felting project. My original goal was to make a bath mat, but I soon learned that a felted crochet of knit piece will keep felting if...

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WIP and FOs

Mudroom Storage Hanging Baskets

With colder weather on its way, it means it’s time to start making scarfs, hats and gloves, yippee! I don’t really look froward to the snow, but I love to crochet all the things that go with it.  With 3 boys in the house I soon realized I was going to need somewhere to keep all their winter gear tidy. The boys will run in to change into dry mittens real quick and fling everything around looking for the ones they wanted. Our mudroom was quickly getting taken over, so enter these hanging storage baskets. It was a fun and...

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Crochet Techniques / WIP and FOs

Learning to Felt Crochet – Tips for Making a Practice Swatch

  Felting crochet, a new adventure for me! Would you like to come along and try it too? What is felting? Felting is when you take an animal fiber like wool and put it through a process that will mat the fibers together. Washing wool in hot water and agitating it makes the fibers rub up against each other and tangle producing a fabric that is now solid, softer, fuzzier and smaller. Tangled yarn is usually a disaster, but felting will change the size, look and feel or your fiber and project in a good way – hopefully. To felt...

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Find Good Deals on Yarn at Tuesday Morning - Sakeenah 6

Yarn

Check the Store Tuesday Morning for Yarn Deals

I keep hearing about the store Tuesday Morning as a good place to find deals on craft items like yarn and sewing notions. I finally got the chance to head on in there. It has a fun vibe to the place and there are lots of different offerings. I was with my 4 year old who started asking for everything in the store, so I made a quick beeline for the crafts. There was a small section of yarn. They had some hanks of hand-dyed Andes wool for around $8. They were very nice looking, but I didn’t have plans...

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Angora Rabbit 14

Yarn

Thoughts on Becoming a Yarn Consumer

Internet jokes abound about yarn shopping/hoarding addictions. No doubt you’ve seen this: I laughed, you laughed and then probably we all headed over to Joann’s website to look for sales. Reviving crochet in my life has changed my habits of consumption. Prior to becoming a yarn addict, I tried hard to avoid buying anything new, joining The Compact for a year and striving to curb my use of plastic – thanks for the inspiration, Beth Terry. Then just like that,  I found myself gleefully in the checkout line of big box craft stores with pounds of acrylic in my arms....

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