surprise, I’m alive and stashbusting!

Not because I’m quitting crafts or anything — quite the contrary — I need room for more, of course!

I hope you’ve all been doing well, and I really hope to start blogging more with the stuff I’m making and stick to it this time (cuz I know I say that every time, and I do apologize).  I’ve still been sewing, crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, embroidering, jewelry making, and even doing more “eclectic” type stuff with bones and bugs I find outside, I just need to share it with you guys!

I will say I have been busy partially due to the fact that my bestie (who is an insanely creative crafter) and I are now running a craft vendor booth called Hyperfixation Station (click here for the linktree, and you can see some of the stuff we have for salethrough Facebook as well as our Instagram if you feel like following or just taking a peek at some of the crafts we’ve been up to and markets we’ve participated in).

So anyway, stashbusting.  My yarn was overflowing my dresser, I bought another set of storage drawers, and I still had trash bags and baskets and storage ottomans full, so I decided it was time.  I got rid of a ton of my worsted weight acrylic yarn by thrifting a large wooden picture frame and filling it with pompoms I made with the medium and large Clover pompom makers (I just used hot glue to stick them on):

It’s hard to tell the scale but it’s pretty big — I feel like I’m carrying a large waitress tray when I hold it — and it got rid of SO MUCH YARN, it was so nice!  I’m hoping to sell it at a market, as I don’t really have a good place for this in my house, but I think it’s a pretty quick and cute way to use up scraps!  One lady at a market commented that she used to make things like that in the 70s, and I thought that was pretty cool, as well, how things always seem to come back around.

Another kind of addictive way I’ve found to stashbust smaller scraps is by making “wind catchers,” which is just to say I’m using spiral crochet to make pretty decorative hanging things!  Here’s what I’ve got so far (and I intend to sell these, as well):

They’re fun, quick, and pretty!  Here are some closeups so you can see a bit better:

You can see some of them have more rows than others, some of them have crab stitch outer rows (which is probably my favorite border stitch of all time, honestly), and some of them look wound more tightly than others (which is dependent on your stitch count choices), so there’s a lot of room to play with these!

There are other projects I’d like to share, too, but I’ll just stick with these stashbusters for now.

Do you have any go-to or favorite stashbusters you’d recommend?  I may be out of most of my worsted acrylic now, but I’ll eventually end up with more that I don’t know what to do with (as well as other yarn weights), and I’m open to other ideas, too!

I’ll try and come back soon with more of the stuff I’ve been working on, but until then, thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is full of beauty and peace!

PurlSoho hat: ta-da!

The pattern was the Classic Cuffed Hat but I didn’t do the cuff, so I can’t call it by it’s actual title, hehe.

Classic Hat | Not Your Average Crochet

The hat is made of 105 yds of PurlSoho’s Merino Script yarn (aran weight, 100% merino) in colorway 1530 Ice Blue.

Classic Hat | Not Your Average Crochet

I made some changes in the pattern, though; obviously I didn’t make the cuff, so the brim is 2″ instead of 4″, and I also worked the brim flat, joining in the round only when I started on the body of they hat.  This split brim goes at the back of the neck and makes it a lot easier to pull the hat low over the head and ears without bunching/pushing up at the back.  I also had to go up a needle size, using sizes US 6 & 8 instead of 5 & 7 (which I did try first but was too small — my last PurlSoho project had a tighter gauge as well, perhaps I should just start going up a needle size with all their patterns).

Classic Hat | Not Your Average Crochet

And finally, I made a couple of pom-poms to put on top, but I can’t decide which I like best.  Faux fur poms are all the rage right now, apparently, but I don’t have any and I think these are super cute:

Classic Hat | Not Your Average Crochet

The pink one was made of KnitPicks Comfy Worsted and the light blue was made of KnitPicks Stroll Glimmer.  Maybe I’ll leave the tails long and just tie them onto the top of the hat with the bow on the inside, then they can be interchangeable.  Or maybe I can put safety pins on them and change them out that way.  What would you suggest?

Well, that’s all for today, thanks for stopping by!