Crochet on a Budget

Hi you guys. Welcome to our live events. My name is Brenda Kay Anderson. I'm a crochet and knit designer and instructor, and today I'm gonna be talking about budget. So for many of you, you might be thinking, uh, budget.

I don't even want to think about that, but think of this live event as being a way to still have very much fun with crochet and be able to do it for less money, OK? And so, um, I have been collecting so many ideas for this live event for a very long time because I am a very, uh, by nature thrifty person. I really. I like to, I get like a sense of pride out of um being able to do things for cheap you know and but but be being able to do really, really nice things um so that is something that like I mean I'm just that's just like part of my personality and so I've kind of been collecting all these little things that I do here and there and I wanted to share them with you guys in case this helps you kind of stay more on budget um. And be able to afford, you know, this awesome craft, OK?

And the, but the great news about crochet is it really doesn't have to cost hardly anything. I mean really you just have to have a hook and you can pretty much do everything else like crochet things, make a whole project for free and I'll explain that a little bit more um but it really, you know, compared to a. A lot of other crafts out there that you have to, you know, invest a bunch of money in some kind of equipment or, you know, no matter what you do, the materials like if you're doing a resin art you have to buy the resin you have to buy the things you're putting in it if you, you know, for so many other crafts and arts it costs quite a bit of money and I'm not, you know, obviously crochet could cost a lot of money. I mean like who hasn't been there like looking at the yarn store and thinking. Oh my gosh, I just want all of this.

Like I want like this and this and this and all these hand dyed yarns and all these things. There's so many amazing beautiful things and tools that can help, you know, make things easier, but you know that stuff can add up, you know, it can add up pretty quickly actually. So this live event is just basically gonna be like sort of like a show and tell, and also I'm gonna be going through more than 20 tips on kind of how to make this craft more affordable to you. All right, so if you guys have other things that you like to do to kind of make things more affordable for you if you have other ideas that you wanna share with people, I would love that if you would put that in the chat, um, so that we can all learn from each other. Uh, that's the one thing that I really, not the one thing, but one of the things I appreciate the most about these live events is me learning from you guys and you guys learning from each other.

It's just like a great community and I really appreciate appreciate that we can all talk to each other. Um, and like share our knowledge so, um, so definitely put that in there if you just wanna say hi if you have questions about anything that I'm talking about or you wanna know more about anything, let me know, um, especially if there are techniques that I'm talking about and you're like I'd like a live tutorial just on that or something like that, um, let me know in the comments because, um, I like getting inspiration from you. I wanna know what you guys wanna learn, so it's really helpful for me if you guys, you know, speak up and. You know, make suggestions. I love that.

OK. Well, I'm super glad that you guys are here. Um, I hope that you guys are excited to learn all about these budgeting ideas that I have. All right, so. Um, I, I also wanted to mention to you to just kind of start you guys out, the, um, the download that's associated with this event today is called the Homestead mitts.

They're these fingerless mittens and they were specifically designed to use up scraps, um, and they're, they look kind of like granny squares, but it's actually the linen stitch square. It's very similar to granny squares, but you can do them at a much smaller scale, um, even with this is a worsted weight yarn. So, um, they're really cute. They're, it's just like a nice functional piece to have, um, in your wardrobe if you wanna like still keep your hands free, but it's a little chilly outside. They're, they're comfortable and they're stretchy.

They come in three sizes, um, so that's the download associated with, um, the, this event, but, um, in the description. You guys will see like you might have to scroll down to see all of the things that we've linked for you. There's going to be a lot of things that we're talking about, a lot of ideas. Almost everything that I'm gonna be showing you is like almost everything is a free pattern that's available either on the Creative Crochet Corner website or on the raftsy website. Um, there's free tutorials that go along with almost everything as well.

Um, so we have a whole bunch of things linked for you guys so you can find that really easily if you're wondering if you wanna know a little bit more about what I'm talking about. So, all right, so let's get started talking about this. So the number one tip that I have for you guys today is just use what you already have, and you might be like, of course, I mean. I already know that, but I'm gonna be talking a little bit more about that and give you guys some some thoughts and tips on like how you're gonna use the things that you already have, um, to the best of you know, their abilities. So, OK, so the first thing when you're thinking about making a project, instead of like going to the yarn store like, oh, I wanna make a new crochet thing, I'll go to the yarn store and just see what's there.

Um, instead of doing that, first look at your stash. If you already have some yarn at home, look at it and think to yourself like, what can I make out of this? Or what can I make out of that? Like, why did I buy this in the first place? And so normally the stuff in our stash.

Is something that we wanted because normally we bought it ourselves sometimes in our stash we have sort of accumulated things from other people um and so they weren't our first choice and so sometimes that's why they sit there in our stash and we're less excited about them so for things like that. Um, challenge yourself to try and find the perfect project to go along with that, OK, so, um, That, OK. Oh wait, we'll get into that in just a second. I'll, I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a second. But, um, so the first thing I want to say, this is tip number 2.

This is to try and keep track of your inventory. So, Um, what that means is like you can take pictures of your yarn stash, you can write it in a notebook, maybe you only have like a few skeins or something, um, and it's not that complicated, but for people like me and I know there's others of you out there where you actually have like a rubbermaid bin or some kind of like big box full of yarn or bags or maybe it's stashed in different places in your house. It's really good to have a running list of what you actually have and if you don't feel like making a list you can at least just take photos and put it in a special album just to kind of remind you um if it's, you know, if there's enough stuff in there that you can't just immediately recall like oh yeah I've got two skeins of this left over from this other thing that's what I have in my stash. If there's more than that then then try to make a list and the thing that's the most helpful for me is if I have a list with. Uh a picture and then the yarn weight and then the fiber content that that is the most helpful for me but you you know yourself better and the um you know the kinds of projects you'd like to make and what is important for you to know maybe you like to know what all the colors are and you know you should make sure I mean a photo would help, but if you have a list just write down what color it is, um, if you don't have a picture of it next to it.

So just try to be um. Try to be more organized about like just having some kind of running list of all the stuff that you have, um, and if you are a Ravelry user there is, you know, there is a function on Ravelry where you can put pictures and write the yarn information. I think you can link it to their database of yarn so it tells you all of that. Um, I've never done that. I really wish that I had because I have so much yarn now it's kind of overwhelming for me to think about putting it in Ravelry.

It would take me a long time, but, um, you know, there's always, there's always tomorrow, right? But that is a great place to keep track of your stuff if you are a Ravelry user, it makes it very easy for you to have like pictures you can pull up really easily. OK, so back to the, the ugly duckling yarn in your stash. Like maybe you have some things in your stash that, um, you know, you, you just sort of accumulated maybe it wasn't what you thought maybe somebody gave it to you, you don't really know what to use on. Challenge yourself to find like the perfect project for that, um, and or just maybe it's a yarn you love and you just bought it because it was so beautiful and now you're like, I don't know what I wanna do with that, you know, I'm not really sure and it's just been sitting there because you don't already have an idea.

So, I have 22 different ways um to kind of deal with this. So this is tip number 3, which is deciding what to make and be flexible. OK, that's my tip. So there's two different ways of kind of going about this in my mind anyway. There's probably more than that.

The first way is if you are actually finding, you're you're gonna find a pattern that's written out with all the directions if you would like to work in that way, I would recommend, you know, searching, doing a search, you can go on if you're a Ravelry user you can use Ravelry and you can put in how much yardage, the yarn weight um you can even put the exact. Yarn and you can see project ideas um pop up for that like people's finished projects that they've made in that yarn you can limit it by how much yardage there is you can limit it by um the types of things you want to make like hats or whatever there are all these filters you can put on there to find like the kinds of projects and and um and patterns that will go along with what you already have. The other thing is um. If you like, if you're not really sure like. Maybe you don't, maybe you don't really know exactly, 00, I should also mention too, sorry, if you're not a Ravelry user, you can do this on other yarn company websites like for example, um, like on crochet.com and on, let me see, I think I made a list here, the ones that I found.

Oh, Lovecrafts, crochet.com. Um, and then I know that there's other like yarn companies out there where you can actually put in a filter when you're searching for a pattern on that website, um, so you can put in a filter for like the yarn weight and how much you have, um, and the type of thing that you wanna make so you can kind of narrow things down that way, um, to help you in your search to find, you know, the perfect, the perfect thing for that yarn you already have. Um, the other route you can go, so this is, you know, instead of finding this perfect written out pattern to go with your yarn, which can sometimes be hard, you can find a pattern that has, um, more of like a recipe style, so it's kind of like uh making it up as you go, but it's a certain system of making things. So like, for example, Um, I wanted to talk about this. This is, so these are the freestyle beanies.

I did a live event on this on the Creative Crochet Corner website where I taught people how to make a hat out of whatever yarn you just happen to have on hand. Um, it can be, this is, I think, a decay, possibly a light worstted weight yarn that's used in this one. This is a number. 5 or yeah I think it's a number no actually I think it might be a number 6 it's a I think it's a super bulky, but it's definitely much thicker than this yarn here. It's the same system, the same way that you make this hat and it's very, very, very simple, um, but there are lots of sort of.

It's not really exactly a pattern, um, but it's like a recipe style um made to measure some people call it, but it's a way of making things where you don't actually have written out pattern with a certain amount of stitches so that way you can use, you know, all these different yarn weights to make whatever it is that you're making. Um, another example of that is in, I did a live event where I talked about baby items, crocheting for babies, and I had shown this cardigan before that I made this little baby cardigan, very cute. The back has these cute little granny squares on it. And I talked about how I, um, basically just kind of worked this up as, you know, you don't have to think about anything ahead of time. You just are creating this the hexagons that make up the sweater and there is a Um, a video on the Creative Coche Corner website where Mary Beth Temple is teaching how to make a hexagon sweater, um, and I just looked at that and I thought, oh, this will be easy.

I'll just make that and you can just, you just keep going around and around and around until it's about the size you want. And then what I did was I just added these little granny squares to the back to kind of make it a little wider and then I added a little trim for the neck and across the bottom. So if you're more open to um. Kind of following some instructions that aren't gonna tell you every single round they're not gonna give you a gauge then you're gonna be able to take whatever that yarn weight you have and create something, um, you know, something awesome out of that and you don't have to worry about having the exact yarn that's called for in the patterns. So that's another fun way to look at finding, finding a pattern, you know, based on what yarn you have.

OK, so tip number 4, is don't forget that you can combine yarns from your stash. So whether you're looking for like kind of a moral look, like you have two different colors coming together, you might be combining this for, you know, for appearance sake. Like you might think, oh, I don't really like that color, but I bet if I combine these two and held these two yarns together, it would make something really cool. Um, or you might be combining them together because you have a pattern for like a bulky weight and you don't have a bulky weight but you have maybe a decay weight like laying around. You could or you know, two colors of decay, you could put those two together or add a decay and uh a worst of weight.

See if that comes up with the right thickness, the right gauge, so don't forget that you can kind of just hold yarn together, um, to make up whatever thickness that you want, um, and along those lines also I, I did a project that was, um, it's called Mary and Bright, it was a scarf and I was talking all about using yarn leftovers. And trying to make them look nice together, so a bunch of random colors that was kind of my challenge. I picked a bunch of random colors and then I crocheted them together with a neutral. I think in that scarf I had used a white and then I did another version of it where I picked a bunch of bright rainbowy colors and I toned it down with like a tan color, um. And that in that way I was able to kind of hold those stra, you know, two strands together and it made it the yardage kind of made the colors make sense together, but it also gave me enough yardage to make it into a long enough scarf where I wasn't gonna run out of fabric so it can kind of extend um think about.

you know, adding a second color in order to make your yarn thicker in order to make something bigger. Like if you didn't quite have enough for a scarf, well, maybe I can add another strand and crochet it up at a looser gauge, and that way it would be long enough. So that's another way to combine your combine your yarns together. OK, so, but I also wanted to do like a special little section on using up your scraps. So this is still under the whole umbrella of using what you have.

Um, so use your scraps. Tip number 5 is choose a scrap friendly project, um, or a stitch pattern. So the first thing that comes to my mind and probably a lot of other people's minds is the granny square. So I wanted to show you some ideas. We have this free pattern on the Creative Crochet Corner website.

It's called the Bonita bag. I named it after my aunt who is an avid crocheter and she's also awesome. Um, so I, um, I just love that you can use whatever, you know, random colors you have in a worst of weight yarn. So many crocheters have extra worst of weight yarn just hanging around, and this is a great use for that. Um, and in the tutorial I teach you how to put in the zipper, and then we also.

Have a fabric lining on the inside too, and I actually cut this fabric out of a pair of old jeans. So if you're thinking, I don't wanna go buy fabric, this is supposed to be about saving money, Brenda. um, you could, you know, if you have an old pair of jeans, you can cut out your lining fabric out of that. Um, so there's this granny square project, we have lots and lots of granny square projects actually on the, on the website. In fact, I have like a.

Um, a whole section of, uh, like a, a download that has a bunch of different projects in it. It's called We Love Our Grannies, and in that download there is this cute little headband that I did a live tutorial on, um, probably more than 1 year ago, maybe even 2 years ago. It's got a little elastic in the back to keep it snug on your head and just something really simple granny squares, and this is a great way, you know, to use up little scraps of yarn. Um, this was one ball of yarn that was like a color changing yarn that I used. So you might have one of those laying around or maybe you have lots of little bit, lot, lots of little bits and you can change, um, colors on every round if you want.

And I've got another granny square project to share with you guys. This one is the, um, let's see, flora, flora crossbody bag. Let's see, floral crossbody bag, um, and it's just got a bunch of granny squares stitched together. Again, it's great for using up. This is, um, a dishcloth cotton actually that this was made out of.

I had a bunch of leftover little bits of dishcloth cotton sitting around, so I designed this bag to kind of use those up. And there are other, of course, many, many other granny square projects that we have as well, um, but this one I did recently, this was a granny stripe pattern. This is a great way to use up that worst of weight. This is acrylic, um, but you could use wool, whatever you like. This, um, this is called the granny stripe beanie and I just did this live tutorial, let's see, right at the end of December, sometime in the end of December.

So, um. Yeah, and this is just a great way to use up, use up those scraps and uh this, this tutorial actually I do, I do show you how to put in a fleece lining in case you guys are interested in that because you might be looking at this and thinking, well, that's very nice, but that's not very warm. So I, um, kind of resolved that problem by putting a little bit of fleece on the inside here. All right. Also, besides granny squares, I mean, there's so many other different kinds of projects that are conducive for using up little little bits here and there, um, especially things like, uh, color work.

If you have a smaller color work project, you just have some little bits. Of color laying around. I did do a tutorial on this little color work bag because I had some leftover little bits of different colors and um you know it color work it you do have to this is stranded um it's actually tapestry crochet so there are little strings of like this salmon-y peach color behind the blue color and vice versa so. It does use a little tiny bit more yarn than if you just did this out of one plain color. So, um, you're not, it's not like you're saving on yarn by making it into a color work, but this is great for if you have not quite enough of one color to make this pouch, then you could use two colors and kind of put them together into a color work um.

You know, color white bag like this. This is called the all that all that zipper crochet pouch, I think is what it called it, but it's linked in your description if you want to check it out. It's a very fun, um fun project if you've never done color work before, this is a great place to start. It's not super complicated. There's no shaping or anything like that, um, but there is a live tutorial on this as well.

And see, I had just this little tiny amount of yellow and it made just a cute little zipper, um, I don't know, a little zipper accessory. So that's why this is why I save all of my yarn scraps, you guys. I, I sometimes if I feel like I have too much yarn, I'll go through it and then I'll donate some of the larger skeins or groups to other people, but I save all the little bits because I'm, I love using scraps, you guys. It's just like a special challenge and I also really like how it looks when you combine a whole bunch of colors together and so. Um, I, I don't ever get rid of that kind of stuff.

Um, I do also, another thing for using your yarn scraps is, um, you can do like little embellishments with it. So I taught a class or I have a class actually that's on, you can, um, purchase it on the Creative Crochet Corner website, but it's also on Craftsy if you are a raftsy member, you can watch it. Um, it's called Embellished Crochet. And in it I teach 3 different projects that are kind of like blank canvases. OK, so we had fingerless mitts and then this beret and then a bag, um, and then I teach three different techniques of embellishing all three of those things, and you can kind of switch swap and change around which way you'd like to embellish each piece.

It's kind of versatile in that way. Um, but this, this is one of, these are two of the projects from the class. This project is, um, needle felted, so these cute little mushroom details they teach you how to make these little needle felted, um, details on your mitts, and that is if you've never done needle felting before on your crochet projects, it's super, super fun. You have to do this with a feltable fabric. Or feltable yarn, so it has the detail has to be feltable plus the thing you're attaching it to like these fingers mitts at that also has to be feltable in order for this to work.

So if you're allergic to wool, this probably is not the style, you know, this is not the style of embellishment for you, um, but this is just really fun. It's basically like drawing doodling, um. Painting with yarn on your project and so you know I just had little tiny scraps of this pink but it makes it look so much cuter to have that little flower there added on to it um so I yeah I just hang on to hang on to all those scraps because you never know like when you're gonna need to put some mushrooms on a fingerless mitten. Um, this project is, this is a cute little beret. And it has um embroidered details that are made with yarn.

So these are all yarn scraps that I had. These are all wool, but they're different. Some are super washed, some are not super washed. It doesn't really matter and I just use those to embroider all these little details onto the beret. So that just makes it so much more fun than if it was just a basic white beret.

It's just it's a fun kind of project to work on. All right, let me see. OK, so another thing besides those, um, besides granny squares and um other ways of embellishing is don't overlook stripes. So if you've got lots of little yarn ball odds and ends, um, you can certainly take a very basic pattern for something, just simple pattern, and then just stripe it. You know, you can alternate back and forth between two colors if you have kind of a lot of those two colors or if you just have random little bits as long as you have enough to go around or even just a section of it, you know, it can be really, really fun.

Um, to just kind of throw that in there and combine different colors together. Um, I did a project, the very, very first live event I ever did. You guys can watch it. It's called the Bijou Headband. I was extremely nervous in that video, just thinking back to that, but it was a really fun project.

Um, uh, let's see, I think we've got a photo of that, so maybe we can show the Bijo headband and I can talk a little bit about that, but I had designed it in one color. Um, or one using one type of yarn which was self striping, but then I thought, oh well, this is just like the perfect project for using up a whole bunch of little scraps here and there. So then I made another version of it where you could see all the different stripes, um, and see all the different colors that I used, put back together, or, um, going back and forth and turn rows just to make that, um, that awesome little headband that was a very fun, uh, a very fun use of my scraps, um. There's also um an article on the Creative Crochet Corner website. It's called An Experiment in Color.

And in that article I'm talking about like how to combine. Basically it's like a system that I made up. I mean maybe other people do this too, but it's a system I made up on how to combine a whole bunch of different colors together to make it look nice and um so I had sort of a plan. It was an experiment that I did and it turned out super good. I made this really beautiful scarf uh for a friend of mine, for his wife, and I was very, very proud of it and I used up lots of little odds and ends of these kind of specialty yarns that I had like I really don't like, you know, throwing away yarn.

Especially if it's like really nice wools or silks or other things, so I have like, you know, this little stash of all these little tiny yarn balls and um and I put them together into this really beautiful scarf and then I wrote an article about it because I thought it would be it would help some people when they're trying to decide like how to know what colors to put next to each other or just sort of some kind of system um if you're just feeling lost I recommend checking out that article and seeing if that works for you. OK, and then the last thing I want to talk about about scraps is making your own magic yarn balls. So if you've never heard of this before, this is like a way to take all those scraps, put them all together into a color changing yarn ball. I've got a couple of examples here. Um, so that way all the work is done and then you can just crochet from it later and you don't have a bunch of ends to weave in.

So this, um, this little collection here represents the three different methods that I use the most. So the first method that I want to show you, this is the this is called the magic knot method. So I'm actually using a knot in my yarn, and I know like if you've been crocheting for a while, you're probably thinking, don't they tell you like never put knots in your crochet like there are some people who really, really. Do not want you to put knots in your crochet. Um, I am not the yarn knot police, so you know, you, you do what you like, um, but I generally don't use knots in my crochet, but this works really, really well for putting, um, your yarn together into a ball, uh, from all your little scraps, and I'll just actually, I'm gonna show you how easy it is, um.

This is one of those things that there's like a million tutorials for and it's not as hard as it looks. OK, so basically you're doing an overhand knot in two different places. We've got this is connected to my ball of yarn over here and this is connected to my little scrap piece that I've got. So we're going to tie an overhand knot over here with this end, and then we're going to tie an over knot overhand knot around here with this end, OK? So with this end, we're just going to bring it over and under.

And then we're gonna bring it over itself. And then under itself. And when you tie that knot, your yarn tail will be pointing in this direction. OK? So now we're gonna tie another knot, and our yarn tail is going to be pointing in this direction.

OK? So we're gonna go. Over that and under it. OK. So it's going kind of like to the outside of this little weird, not rectangle.

And then we're gonna go over this to the inside, and then we're gonna go under this pink strand. Like that. To tie our knot and see how our our strand is pointing out this way, OK? And this is, this takes a lot more explanation, but once you do it a couple times, you'll be like, oh, OK, um, it does get a lot faster. OK, so once you've got those two, you can kind of tighten them up a little bit, but they should be loose enough that you can pull on these two ends, pull them away from each other, and your knots will slide up right next to each other like this, and you can pull it really hard.

You can see I'm pulling very hard. I'm actually afraid I'm going to break the yarn, so I'm not gonna pull it so hard it breaks, and then you can trim it off right next to, next to that knot, which I know seems really crazy and it doesn't seem like it could possibly hold, but it actually does. All right. So there it is. Maybe you can hear that.

OK, so then you just, you know, cut your lengths to whatever you've got, or you can cut them shorter if you want to and you can just go ahead and add pieces as you get to them. So I like to keep a couple of these yarn balls around and once I, you know, when I finish a project if we've got like just a little bit left over, sometimes I'll just add it to one of the yarn balls. So that's a way to do it, the magic knot. This came from a tutorial where I wrote all about making a magic ball, um, using the, I'm trying to think the Russian knot is what this is called the Russian the Russian joint sorry Russian joint, which isn't a knot. um, you can see what it looks like here there's one piece of yarn hooked into the other piece of yarn and there's no actual knot right there.

It's kind of magic. Um, so if you wanna learn more about that, I did link the article for this. It teaches you how to do the Russian joint. There's also a video that is on the Creative Crochet Corner website to teach you how to do the Russian joint, but it's the same thing. You just kind of, you know, take those scraps of yarn and rush and join them together and then continue balling them up into an awesome little ball.

And this, um, I did a video tutorial on this. This is called the Spit splice, or also, let's see, a felted join, I think people call it. Um, let me find one of the joints, so you guys can see what it looks like. But I used this. I made this enormous ball of yarn for a live event that I did with Emily, Stephan and Jen Lucas, where we all made a big huge scarf together during the live event while we were teaching different things.

We knit from the center in one direction, then we crocheted from. In the center in the other direction, um, these are just our leftovers. It was a really huge ball of yarn, but here is that little felted join in there. There's multiple different ways to felt your yarn together. Here's another felted join you can kind of see here I'll put my hand under here.

So you can see what that looks like, um, but I did explain it. I, I did explain how to do the felt to joint in that live event, but also there's a video on the Creator for Crochet Corner website on how to do that. So this is just a really fun project to do. I mean, yes, it takes longer when you actually have to make your yarn of scraps, but if you just kind of leave them, you know, nearby where you do your crocheting or whatever, sometimes, you know, after you're done with the project, you could just add it to your yarn ball and eventually over time it'll grow. Um, or you can collect a bunch of scraps from other people that you know who just get rid of them, um, or you can break up smaller balls of yarn into shorter lengths and recombine them in different ways.

It's just kind of a fun, fun way to do things. And you might be wondering, well, OK, what does that look like when you crochet that up? I should say these are very bright kind of crazy colors, but I really love working with those colors. There's, you know, no reason it has to be like that, of course, to try to picture this in the colors you already have, you know, your, your scrap bins will be like kind of a collection of the things that you like, right? Because they're from projects that you've made.

So they may not look like that, but I did crochet, um, do a little crochet sample of what that felted yarn looks like when you crochet it up so you can see this is not a regular striping pattern. Some are longer, some are shorter, um, but it's just a really super fun, super fun hat. It's fun to see the colors change, especially if it's a yarn that you pretty much made. All right, so that was tip number 6, making your own yarn out of scraps. Tip number 7, making your own yarn out of other materials.

So, um, one thing I just wanted to mention was, you know, yarn is not, you don't have to make yarn out of just yarn. You can make yarn out of t-shirts. You guys have probably heard about this before, um. You can make your own t-shirt yarn by slicing up your t-shirts. I'm actually thinking about doing a live event possibly on this if there are those who are interested in this, um, but this t-shirt yarn was made out of a t-shirt.

I sliced it into like 1 inch and 24 wide strips, but you can certainly slice it into different widths, you know, depending on how thick you want your yarn to be. So let me show you what this looks like. There's a special way of cutting it out that doesn't. You know, uses up a lot of the t-shirt, like almost all of the t-shirt, um. And that's kind of the main learning part is like how to cut up your shirt, and how to have it all in one piece because, or mostly one piece because you don't want to be sewing a bunch of scraps together because that's annoying.

So I can show you how to do that if you guys are interested, definitely let me know. Um, but once you cut up your little strips, all you have to do to make it into yarn is just pull on it, and it just relies on the curling that just naturally happens with this type of fabrics. So you can see now it's just a cord. You can take those strips and just pull, and it just creates a nice round shaped yarn just like that. So easy and it's very weirdly satisfying to make this.

Um, so that's a fun route you can go. So if you have old t-shirts, you can make it into yarn. Um, you can also do this with like sheets or other thinner fabrics if you have leftover quilting fabric. Um, it doesn't curl up into that little cord, but you can definitely crochet with it and it kind of just bunches up and that's really fabulous for making like baskets, um, like very structured baskets or bags or other things like that where you, you know, it's going to be like a stiffer fabric that you create. Um, Helen says that my biggest struggle is impulse buying yarn.

I find myself tempted by beautiful yarn, even when I don't have a project in mind. Helen, you are not alone. I definitely do that. Um, and Cindy is saying that it's OK to mix up different yarn weights and colors and material. Yes, Cindy is talking, sorry, I didn't get to this earlier.

I think Cindy's talking about holding two strands together. What I was talking about before where you kind of are, um, combining your yarns together, it's definitely OK to mix up the the yarn weights and the colors and the material. Just keep in mind if you're doing that like if you're using a washable wool and a non-washable wool, then your project is gonna become like a non-washable project or like hand wash I should say, not that you can't wash it but um it's not gonna be a machine washable thing, so. Um, let's see. Oh, Marley's saying every time I see one of those limited edition yarn drops, I get this overwhelming need to grab it before it's gone.

I keep telling myself, Marley, you have enough yarn to last a lifetime. But then I imagine all the beautiful projects I would miss out on if I don't buy it now. My stash is overflowing, but how can I say no to those exclusive colors? Oh, I know it's very hard, especially when you know it's not gonna be there. It's like now or never, right?

Oh, it's very hard it's very hard to say no. Um, oh, we've got someone who's interested about the t-shirt yarn. OK, cool. And Cindy's saying, Brenda, pardon, please, if you're about to cover this, do you have any good ideas for what to do with those yarn yarn orts, yarn. I do not, let's see.

Oh wait, I've tried to use them in small projects that call for, oh, yarn ends maybe, like the little tiny bits. Try to use them in small projects that call for stuffing, but sometimes the colors are not the best choice when they show through. Um, yes, I'm, I think you're talking about just like little once you cut off like when you make those magic knots, you end up with a bunch of these, what to do with all of these little things. So if you are using a wool yarn, um, I actually have a live tutorial on this. It was called Eco Yarn School and I did it with Jen Lucas.

Um, that was a very fun project. What I did was I crocheted an orb shape like a ball and I stuffed it full of it. This this only works if it's like a feltable um yarn. I stuffed it with yarn ends of wool, like a whole bunch of little yarn ends like this. I stuffed it in there, um, and then I washed them and dried them and washed them and dry them and felted them and made them into those dryer balls that are and they're really fun.

Um, it's a really fun project. They're useful when they're done and you're not throwing away really anything. It's like a zero waste situation, which is the dream, right? Um, but when you've got acrylic ones, yeah. Really the only thing I've used these for like if you're using it, if you've got acrylic or cotton or other um fibers that aren't filable, um, the only thing I've used them for is stuffing and one thought that I have is, you know, like nobody, it seems like I shouldn't say this, but um not that many people wear pantyhose anymore, but when I was growing up it was like really popular in the 80s.

You guys remember that? So people just would have like um. Leftover old pantyhose, you know, that is unusable, maybe you get a hole in the toe or whatever, but if you have that you can stuff those yarn ends inside of there and then put that in your project as long as your project isn't, you know, like if that's a dark color and your project is white, you might still be able to see it, but that way they're not gonna pop out and they're not, you're not gonna see them through. You could kind of create that little barrier between that and the um the project itself. It's just a thought, um.

Yeah, I don't really, if anybody else has ideas on what to use these little tiny yarn bits for, let us know cause maybe, maybe you guys use them for something and you're, and we just don't know about it yet. OK, let's see. Oh, Orts is the word for the bits of scraps that you cut off. I did not know that. Wow.

OK. It's actu it actually is a word. Thank you, Cindy. I believe you. I had never heard that before.

OK. All right. See, I'm learning so much just talking to you guys. OK, so let's move on to, oh no, wait, I have a couple other things about using what you have. Um.

OK. So this tip, some sometimes people are gonna have strong feelings about this, I think. Um, but my tip, tip number 8 is to Let's see, oh wait, oh sorry, back to tip number 7, making your own yarn out of other materials. I forgot to finish this. OK, so we talked about t-shirt yarn, we talked about using fabric scraps or sheets.

I also wanted to talk about lararn, so I did a live event on this as well with John Lucas, and we, we talked about making, you know, using those thin plastic shopping bags to make your own yarn, which people call larn, um, and then we each taught, you know, I taught a knit or I taught a crochet project and she taught a knit project, and this was my project for that. This is made entirely out of those thin shopping bags that I cut into strips and then linked together to make a big ball of plasticy yarn. And let me just tell you, this is like one of the most durable things I have ever crocheted. Last night I was like, where is that bag? And I found it crumpled up underneath a bunch of sports equipment from last.

Last summer, um, this is the thing I brought with me everywhere to the beach last summer, all over the place. I mean, I've had this for, I think maybe 2 years now. I can't remember when that live happened, but it's been a while and it, it looks amazing every time I just kind of pull it out, it looks good. You can actually just rinse it off if it gets dirty and it's so durable. And it's got its own like there's nothing in here.

There's nothing in here holding this up. It's just kind of, that's just what it looks like. It's stiff enough because it's made out of plastic. This is just I, I, I really want to be making more of these because um they're, I just, I use it so often, especially every summer all the time. I love it.

um, so look for that tutorial if you guys are interested in making, you know, making your own larn and making some projects out of that. Um, let's see. OK, well, one Cindy is saying one friend keeps hers in a mason jar, OK, the yarn scraps, and it makes her happy to see all those memories of past projects. Oh, that's awesome. Um, oh, and Molly's saying I've stuffed clear Christmas ornaments with orts.

I should have known this because Molly, who is here, is actually a friend of mine, and she gave me that and I have one for my tree. Um, I don't know why I didn't think of that. I'm sorry, Molly, but I'm glad that you mentioned it, yes. OK, how many granny squares were used in the zipper pouch? OK, so I'm guessing you're talking about this one.

There are 4. So there's 1 here, there's 1 on each side here that wraps around to the back, and then there's 1 here right on the center back like that. So 4 total granny squares there. All righty, let's see. OK, so the next topic, this is the one that people might have strong feelings about.

So this is tip number 8, frog your old projects. So this means, I mean, obviously don't frog anything that you like after you make it or love. Definitely don't do that. But what I mean is just if you no longer use it, maybe it doesn't fit anymore, maybe you made it and then you're kind of had second thoughts about it. Maybe it's itchy and it's not something that you want to wear next to your skin.

Just take it apart and um once you take it apart, take the whole thing out, ball it all up, it'll make you happy just seeing that yarn like able to be reused again instead of something that you made and every time you look at it you're like, uh, I wish I didn't do this about it. I wish I didn't do that. Like if it's giving you icky feelings after you make it, then just take it all apart and reuse it in something else, um. Yeah, this is just a win-win situation. You don't have to feel like once you take something apart and you make it into something you actually like, you'll be like, yes, I'm so glad I did that, and that cost me nothing.

It cost me absolutely nothing. Um, so this is an example of one of those frogged projects. So this hat. Um, This hat used to be a shrug. I made this actually for a magazine many years ago.

Um, Maya, who is on here now, might remember this shrug, but I was, um, given yarn that was sort of like this sort of tan light pink, um, kind of cream off white color and with little bits of brown in it to use, and I crocheted it up and then I've had the sample for a while after I got it back after they photographed it and everything and it just was not colors that I would wear. And then I thought. And I am I gonna actually wear it like as time went on, I'm like I don't think I'm actually gonna wear that shrug anyway and I really, the colors are just not me and so it just sat around for a while because especially because this yarn is so soft and is so nice and I was like I need to do something with this because it's such nice yarn but it's just not me. So I did a a um a blog post about this on the Creative Crochet Corner website about dyeing your yarn with Kool-Aid, um, and so I just basically like. Undid the whole shrug, put it up in big like loop of yarn, you know, like how a hank comes when it's untwisted, um, and tie the ends and then I just dunked it in like I had a glass vase and put some Kool-Aid and some water in there and put it in there, um, and dyed my yarn and this is what it turned out like and I actually I didn't put I didn't make it fully saturated because I really liked how you could see the lights and the darks and I didn't want to get rid of that aspect of the yarn.

And I just kind of was an experiment just to see what it would do. And after I got it out, I'm like, oh, this actually is something that I would wear. It looks like a watermelon to me. Like it reminds me of just like. Happy summertime memories, which sometimes you need in a wool hat in the winter in Minnesota.

So I actually really like this hat. It's very soft and it's, you know, in a great stitch pattern and which actually this is the knotted double crochet stitch pattern which if you guys were with me earlier, I know some of you were in my last tutorial where I taught people how to make the rock candy mittens. This is the stitch pattern that I use for that. So anyway, that was, that was a win for me because I already had that lovely yarn. It was just not quite the right color and so I just changed it up a little bit.

Which, OK, so also along the same lines, if you have other yarns like maybe you have yarn in a color that you're just like, I don't know what to do with this. I'm never gonna like I don't want it next to my face because I feel like it's not a good color for me or, you know, but you're just kind of hanging on to it. Maybe it's a nice yarn, but you don't you just don't know what to do with it. Um, I had a skein of the that I had a really. Nice like sort of beigey tanny with a little bit of a green tinge um it was a merino wool it is a merino wool it's very soft, super nice yarn and I was like what am I gonna do with this?

I, I, this is not a color that I normally wear. I just want, I don't know. I didn't know what to do with it so I was like, OK, I'll just, I'll just over dye it. So I did, I actually dyed this with um. The pinkish color is, that is Kool-Aid, and then the greenish color, that is um food dye.

So the food dye needed to have a little bit of vine vinegar in it, but I was able to dye, let me see if I can find a little bit of the original color. So it's kind of, here's the original color in here. It's sort of like this tan-ish kind of color, and I didn't really mind it for like a little bit. I liked it for the transition. Here, I'll show you what this looks like when I.

Undo it. This my, my um. My inspiration for this color way was a cactus, and after I dyed it, one of my kids looked at it and said, oh, watermelon again, mom, because I made this sort of watermelon hat, um, and I'm like, it does look like watermelon. Maybe it's just telling me something I need to get some watermelon. And then, um, my, my other kid, she was like, oh that looks like wicked mom and I was like, oh yeah, I I mean maybe that kind of just sort of entered in my subconscious there and I wanted to make a um.

You know, a Glenda alphaba kind of themed thing. Anyway, I'm much happier with this color now and I'm excited to use it and it didn't cost me, well, actually I didn't have to. I already had Kool-Aid and I already had um food coloring that was kind of getting old and so I just consider that whole thing a win situation because I just used up stuff I already had in my house and now I have yarn that I'm very excited about. OK, so next up, we are gonna talk about shopping for yarns. So I have a few little tips, um.

If you find yourself like wanting to make a project, you already looked through your stash, you, you know, you don't have any scraps you want to use, and you're kind of moving on to acquiring more yarn, if you've made it that far. Um, then I would say start out with thinking about if you could do some sort of trade or swap with someone if you don't have what it is that you want. So, uh, like in your stash, if you're not going to use something that you already have, maybe you can use that to get something else. So, um, I would say, so tip number 10, organize a yarn tools, pattern book trade swap, you know, you can combine. Any of those things that you like, so you can do that in lots of different ways.

You could just do that with your friends if you have friends who also do yarny things, um, you could just meet up somewhere at a coffee shop or someone's house, make it into a little friendly party, um, or if you don't have other friends who do yarny things, um, you can look to their websites, um, well, on on Ravelry there's a special group for that and there's actually there's multiple groups, lots of groups for that. Um, the one that's the most popular, I think, is called the Karma yarn swap. I did, uh, put a link in the description for this. So that's when you offer something that you have, um, or actually, no, somebody has already offered something they have, and then you say, yep, I'll take that. And then when you do that, you're agreeing to offer what you have right after that.

So after you claim somebody else's thing. Then you offer one of your things that you don't need anymore and so in that way it doesn't, you're not actually swapping with just one person like they give you something, you give them something this opens it up to a lot more people and so that way people get more like what they want if that makes sense. It's just a really good system when I thought about it I was like, oh yeah. That makes a lot of sense. um, so there's that otherwise, um, Ravelry also has this group that's called We'll Work for Yarn.

So what you do in on that, um, in that group is somebody might have like um like say they want someone to make a hat for them, so they would offer that person. The yarn to make the hat, but then they also um offer them I think more of that same yarn. I'm pretty sure it's the same yarn, but maybe they also offer instead they say if you make this for me with the yarn I provide, I will gift you this yarn or this will be included. I will pay you with this yarn basically is what they're saying. So that's kind of an interesting way um to kind of stitch your way through a project, have some fun working, you know, working up something and then get something in return, you know, new yarn that you can do whatever you want with, um.

Also, if you're not a rivalry user, of course, there's tons of stuff on Facebook for yarn swapping or trading, selling, um, you know, might be. You might be able to find something at a lower price point if you're buying it directly from someone else, um, or also, um, So tip number 11, make sure that you ask in your neighborhood buy nothing groups. If you are looking for yarn, maybe you're looking for a specific kind of yarn then be, you know, be as specific as, as you like, um, but if you're just saying, hey, does anyone have any yarn, maybe also put something like I'm looking for these types of yarns or you know, no wool please or no acrylic please or, you know, be more specific so that way you don't say, oh yeah, just kidding, I don't want your your yarn. But um if you are more specific about it and you ask in your neighborhood group, it's pretty likely somebody will have something they just don't want anymore and they would be happy to give it to someone else just knowing that someone is going to be excited to use it. Maybe they just haven't bothered donating it maybe they feel like what if I donate it and nobody cares and it just goes in the landfill.

Maybe they'd rather just gift it to you and make you happy with that. So it's great to ask and um along those lines um. We had at my kids' school I did like a little crochet group where I taught a bunch of kids, you know, the basics of crochet and one of the people who worked for the PTO, she just put in a little thing in the neighborhood group that said, you know, we're looking for hooks and yarn, and we got way more than we could ever use. So there's definitely people out there who just want to, you know, give stuff away. So don't forget to do that, um.

Tip number 12, look for yarn at the thrift store, so that could mean you're actually looking for like a skein of yarn at the thrift store, you know, all ready to go, or you could be shopping through the sweaters looking at things to take apart. So I had done, um, a blog post about this because sometimes if I'm at the thrift store, if I'm looking through the sweaters and I see a really good sweater, but there's something wrong with it or it doesn't fit or I think it would look better as a different in a different style, I will take those sweaters apart and then um treat the yarn so that. It like you can just get it wet and kind of basically block the yarn and then you can reuse it. So this is one of the many hanks of yarn that I got from a sweater that I took apart maybe a year or two ago. Um, I've been slowly using it.

I thought I was gonna make another sweater, but then I started using it on projects here and there. So, um, I've used it on many projects. It's got this really nice little filament of like glitter in it, but it's just kind of a fun yarn and I, you know, I paid like $5 for the sweater and I got a ton of yarn out of it. Um, if you do that though, if you get stuff from the thrift store, if especially if it's wool, just make sure you inspect it and make sure there aren't any moth eggs because you don't want to bring like a pest situation into your house. You can also kind of quarantine those things in a plastic bag or put them in the freezer.

Um, that can kill the eggs too. Also, I know heat kills the eggs and that people have said that they've microwaved things, but I would be very wary and careful about that and do your own research on that. But just, you know, I just wanted to put that out there as something to think about. Um, OK, tip number 13, when you are shopping on online stores, definitely look at the clearance sections. Um, they oftentimes stores like, um, like Drops or Linda Linda Hobby, that was one that I had never heard of before.

It's spelled L I N D E H O B B Y and they sell like Their yarn is at a very good price, surprisingly very good. I mean, I shouldn't say surprisingly, not about that, not it's not about the, um, their company, it's just that it's very low price, OK, um, so I I saw that I haven't actually ordered anything from them yet, um, but there's stuff in my car I'm thinking about. Um, so that was a new one to me. Also there's Webs, um, crochet.com, Nitpicks, Hobi, Lovecrafts, all of these websites, um, have, you know, some really, really good deals on yarn, and, you know, for some of these companies if you sign up to be in a newsletter or you know a member somehow, then sometimes you have access to extra coupons and things like that that you can use, um. But also there's things to like some extra things to look for on the websites like some of these yarn companies will offer their yarn and value packs.

So if you're gonna make a sweater or a blanket, just double check and see if you can buy it as a value pack because that would probably save you some money there. Also, um, uh. A lot of these companies also have offer kits for things and you might think, well, I don't want to make that specific thing, but look at the kits and the yarn that's included and compare that to the yarn, how much it would cost if you bought just the yarn. Oftentimes those kits are actually less expensive than the total amount of yarn and sometimes there's extra things thrown in. Um, and you can make what, uh, you know, something else out of it.

You don't have to make what they're giving you the kit for, of course, like if you got a kit for a blanket, you could make a sweater or multiple things out of it, you know, it's just another way to kind of look at those kits, think about actually using the kit for something else, um, if you want. Uh, yep, and so just be looking for like coupons, close out close out deals, clearance sales, all that sort of thing. That's kind of probably most people already kind of do that, but just I'm just reminding you, don't, don't get um distracted by all the other new things on the website. Just try to go zero in on that first before you shop the rest of the site. Um, OK, and then another thing, tip tip number 14, and this is something that's new to me, is looking for mill and yarn.

So I knew that there was like mill and fabrics, but I didn't realize there was mill and yarn. Um, so mill and that means like after uh the textile industry has produced something like. Speaking specifically about yarn, after they've made fabric and they have yarn left over or they've made, you know, garments or whatever, they have yarn left over, they have the yarn on these very large cones and it's not very easy to sell it to this, you know, individual consumers that way. So a lot of this stuff just kind of ends up in a landfill somewhere or doesn't get used, um, which is really sad. There's a lot of extra waste.

But there are some companies that will buy those and then portion it out and sell them, so I found one in Michigan. This is in the United States, um, in Allegan, Michigan it's called, uh, Old Mill Yarn, and I ordered some yarn from them, so they, they had it on these huge cones. And they have all these old antique winders and then they wind them onto smaller cones so this yarn right here was wound by them off of a very large cone. This is like a fingering weight um it is a merino wool. It is extremely soft, um, and it's light enough that I can do some dyeing, which is what I bought this for anyway and when I got it, I thought, well this doesn't look like that much.

It was supposed to be like. I think it was like 1000 yards or something, yeah, something around 1000 yards and I thought this doesn't seem, and then I thought I looked at it a little closer and I thought, oh, when they wound it, it looks like it's kind of tightly wound around here. I mean it's pretty heavy. This is a half pound and so then I was like, OK. Maybe if I took that and wound it around my um my winder like uh sorry, my swift my swift, if I wandered on my swift to make a big loop like I was gonna dye it, then it would have a chance to kind of fluff up a little bit, which is what it did.

So one of these cones, which was um on sale for $10 for like 1000 yards, it's actually what the what you're looking at here, here, let me put them side by side so it looks like. You, you're not getting very much yarn, but when I actually wound wound it up on my swift, this is what it looks like in like, you know, this is what we're used to looking at when we go to the yarn store or whatever we're used to looking at it in this, not wound very tightly around this little cardboard tube anyway, it's very soft and very excited to work with it. um, they do have at this particular place, um, a lot of thinner yarns so um. Just be careful when you're looking through just to make sure that you know actually how thick, what the thickness of the yarn is. They have a lot of thinner yarns there.

There are a few thicker ones though, like there was a, I think a bulky or like at least a heavy, heavy worsted weight or an Aaron weight yarn, a couple of those. Um, so, but I'm just warning you that a lot of it is thinner. So if you're not into using thinner yarns, it might be a little bit disappointing, you know, at first to look through their selection that they have right now, I should say. OK, um, But they had lots of silks and wools and all kinds of other things. I just, there's ways to narrow it down.

So that was kind of fun for me and I wanted to pass that information on to you guys, um, in case you're interested in looking into that. OK, so, um, tip number 15, and this might seem kind of counterintuitive, but don't overlook your local yarn store. So I think oftentimes we think, well, I want to get the best deal. I am definitely not going to the local yarn store because it's just gonna be too expensive, but. When you go to the local yarn store, the people working there know a lot about yarn, and they can help you find like the, the you can just ask them and say I have, you know, kind of a smaller budget.

Can you help me find the yarns that might fit into my budget because they're gonna want to sell you the yarn. They want, they want you to know that their yarn is also affordable because I think. Um, yarn stores kind of have this reputation for having, you know, the very higher price point yarns, which are, you know, those are amazing and they're little works of art, but if you're just, you know, it's it's not the only thing you can buy at the yarn store, right? They also have lots of basics that are made by, you know, like in larger batches by yarn companies, and those things tend to be a lot more affordable. So one thing that I've noticed when you shop at the yarn store.

Is when you're looking for things that are lower price points usually they're tucked out of the way like they're not right at your eye level it's like you know like when you go shopping anywhere like the grocery store or wherever the things they want you to buy are like right where your face is basically and then if you want. Wanna find the the better deals or the the less expensive, I should say things that you have to look up, you have to look down, you have to look in the corners or in bins or other things like that. So I have noticed that, so don't overlook that kind of stuff, you know, don't be scared by like what you see immediately at your eye level in the yarn store. Um, and I, so that, uh, tip number 16 is to have a plan when you go to the store to buy yarn, OK, before you go, make yourself a little plan, say this is what I'm buying yarn for and yeah, and you know yourself like you can decide how stern you want to be about this, but if you kind of write it down ahead of time when you get to the store and you look at your list or you look at, you know, whatever information is, you can, you can be like, oh yeah, I really didn't want to spend more than. $50 today or $20 today or whatever it is that your budget at the yarn store is um but if you have a plan like this is what I'm buying my yarn sto my yarn for these are the projects, this is, you know what my like what I'm gonna cap it off at if you have that sort of written down in some way, maybe you'll listen to yourself in the future like when you're at the yarn store, um.

The other thing is that really helps me when I'm at the yarn store is I have if if you make yourself a list of like how many yards normally you need to make a worst weight crocheted basic sweater, how many yards of a fingering weight or how many yards of a decay weight, or the things that you like to make, like maybe you like to make mittens, you can write down the yardage for that instead of like one skein, 2 skeins, things like that, because when you get to the yarn store sometimes you might look and be like, OK. I think I can probably get a pair of mittens out of this large skein, but I'm not exactly sure. Uh, maybe I should just buy a second one just to be sure. But if you had that written down like how much it took you last time, you'd have a much better guess. I mean, yeah, maybe it's not gonna be perfect and it's always better to buy enough, but.

If you're kind of teetering on the edge, it really does help to have that extra, you know, that information written down so that you can refer to that, um, if you have that plan before, before getting there. OK, let's see. Oh, and so tip number 17, make smaller projects with finer weight yarns. So this only applies to you if you like using finer weight yarns. If you don't, just, you don't have to care about this tip, but this kind of goes along with what I was saying before.

I'm just going to show you a little example here. So these socks are from a class that I did called Toe Up crochet socks, I think that's what it's called, um. I designed 22 basic socks, and one is in a worsted weight, and one is in a fingering weight yarn. OK. So this is the worst weight, this is a fingering weight.

And yes, this is for my kids, so it is smaller, it's not the same size as this, but just imagine, let's just imagine this blue sock is the same size as this sock. So Because of the way, um, because this is a much thinner yarn, the yarn will go further on your project. So, um, what I mean, you get like, like more mile mileage out of it. So, um, what I mean by that is, let's see, the fingering weight takes about 400, 400 yards, let's see. Yeah.

So, Um, OK, so the fingering weight sock, this took about 400 yards. And then the worst in weight yarn sock in the same size as this sock that took less because it's a thicker yarn. It took about 300 yards. However, the way that it sold, this was not quite enough. This is the worst of weight.

It's the same yarn as this blue. This was not quite enough for one whole pair of socks. You would need this plus a little bit more. So then you're into the second skein. And even though this worst weight yarn was a little bit less expensive than this fingering weight yarn, when you buy two skeins, it's quite a bit more.

So this was like $16 a skein, so I needed to buy two, so all of a sudden that's $32 whereas if I made it out of this thinner yarn, because there's a lot more yards in the thinner skein, even though it's $22 this ends up being cheaper by quite a bit than if you make the worst in weight version. So what I'm trying to say is, you know, if, if you don't mind working with those lighter weight yarns, they go further than the heavier weight yarns, meaning that they end up being a little bit less expensive. So, it's something to consider, something to think about. All right, tip number 18, consider slower, more complex projects. So I think a lot of times where we feel like rushed and like we wanna just bang out a hat really super fast and so we get like a bulky weight yarn or something like that.

But this kind of goes along with that, you know, fingering weight yarn. It's a thinner yarn, you're gonna do more stitches, but it's gonna end up costing you a little bit less to make a whole hat compared to if you bought, you know, the same fiber content in a bulkier yarn. It's just something to think about. Also, you know, maybe you want to think about spending more time with your yarn projects. So if you're somebody who whips through projects really quickly and you're, you're, you know, making lots and lots of very simple projects, there's nothing wrong with that.

But if you're looking for a way to, to still have the same amount of crochet time, always have that kind of relaxation time at the end of the day where you wind down and crochet, maybe if you pick a more um intricate. Pattern where you have to kind of slow down a little bit um then you're gonna be spending more time with that, you know, lesser amount of yarn if that makes sense instead of whipping through stuff super quickly. Now I don't want to discourage anyone if you love making those super bulky projects. I love them too. I'm just saying this is just a thing to consider, um.

Tip number 19, choose a stitch pattern that conserves yarn. So, uh, there are An infinite amount of crochet stitch patterns and they all use different amounts of yarn even if you're doing like a solid fabric. Sometimes you know that can use a lot of yarn and sometimes it can be spread fairly thin without holes between like a flatter fabric and you get a little bit further with the same amount of yarn, right? So like the these socks, for example, this is made of an extended single crochet stitch and it was really flat and drapey, but it fills in those holes really well. Um, so it kind of goes a little bit further if that makes sense.

So think about that. Also, try to, you know, if you're trying to save on yarn, how much yarn you're going through, the kinds of projects like lacy projects, those use a lot less yarn. Um, so here's a little example of that. This is a hat that I made my daughter. I had one precious skein of this yarn, and I was like, I, she really wanted a hat and I thought, well, I don't think that's gonna be enough to make a hat.

I really can't imagine how I'm going to get a whole crocheted hat out of there. I thought I'd be about like 2/3 of the way done and then have no more yarn left, but then I was like, OK, I'll just pick a really open stitch pattern. Um, are really like, but I, I didn't want it to have lots of holes between the stitches, lots of visible holes. So I made it with the broomstick lace, which spreads out these loops in kind of this crisscrossing way. It's just a lot less dense than making the knots that are in like a regular crochet.

Um, and there aren't, I mean, there are holes between, this is not a super warm hat unless you line it, which I did. It's not a super warm hat, but if you live somewhere that isn't like as cold as where I live in the winter, it would be fine for, you know, a cold weather hat. It's just there are these little holes like you can see here there's little holes in between the stitches, um, that's gonna let the wind come through a little bit. So you know this was this, but working it up in this stitch pattern allowed me to go, you know, make the whole complete hat. There's no way that I could have done this if I had done this with like single crochet or even extended single crochet or anything like that.

So, um, just think about the stitch pattern that you're using if you're trying to conserve yarn, um. You know, it's also really fun to do lace stuff. It's kind of uh exciting. All right. Um, all right, so we've got just a couple more tips.

So tip number 20 This is sort of a weird tip. This is um. Basically, like, say, OK, let me just tell you what it is. Don't skimp on your basic tools like meaning your hook. OK?

If there's one thing. That you should spend a little more money on if you, you know, if it helps you it's your tools because this is something that over time like it could hurt your hands it could hurt your body it is not worth suffering through something if you feel like you could spend a little more and get an ergonomic hook or something like that OK so um that's like the one place I mean you don't have to go out and buy a super fancy hook. It doesn't need to be fancy, but um. You know, getting something that's comfortable and functional for you, that is not the place to be saving your money. You should be, you know, you could be saving it in other ways, um, and because that by doing that you're gonna be, you know, nobody wants to be in pain and doctor bills are more expensive than a nicer crochet hook, so, um.

OK, so this leads us into tip 21. If you have those metal hooks. Um, you can add foam crochet rollers onto your hooks instead to make them comfortable. If you already have, let's say you've got a bunch of these, you know, metal hooks, you can buy a pack of these these are just foam hair rollers. This is a very old one, so it's not quite as like squishy as it should be, but it's still gonna work, um.

The, this is just a foam hair roller and I took the wire out of it, and then you can just slide this onto your crochet handle, your crochet hook handle like this. And cut off the end actually I probably should have cut it off before I did that first. I, I did, um, here we go. I did a TikTok all about this if you want to check out the, the real crafty TikTok, um, and I show people how to do this. There's also, um, an article in the Creative crochet corner on the Creative Crochet Corner website that I wrote all about um using these to make your hooks, uh, softer.

So I usually put it on so that I can still see. Like I can still see that it says H on there. I still like to see the numbers there. Um, it doesn't bother me to not have it under my thumb. I just really like having it here and I like having a larger handle so I don't have to grip it as tight.

It doesn't hurt my hand. Um, so that's helpful for me and that's very in a very inexpensive way to update all your hooks. These do not cost very much at all. If you buy a package of them, you could probably put this on all of your crochet hooks for like a few dollars probably. Um, less, it's less expensive than um buying all new hooks.

I'll tell you that. OK, so let me see. Um, how behind am I? Woohoo. Let's see.

Oh, Molly made the shrug. I was talking about in navy. Yeah, yours looked better than mine, Molly. I remember this. OK, Molly says I've made my own kits for my stash.

I put the yard and the pattern in a project bag so when I'm ready for a new project, I have one ready to go. That is a very, very good tip, Molly. Thank you for sharing that, um, just so that takes the guesswork out of everything later and you're gonna be more likely to use something you already have that's ready to go instead of like hunting through your yard and trying to find your pattern to go with it. Um, let's see, oh, the other pouch, oh. There's, oh, this granny square pouch.

OK. So this one has a total of 6 granny squares around here and then 2 on the bottom. So it's got 88 granny squares there for that pouch. Sorry about that. Let's see, how long can yarn last?

I have two bins that accumulated so far and I have no idea how long they've been in there. Yarn can last like forever. I mean, it depends on the yarn, but most yarn can last a very, very like longer than your lifetime. So, um, if you're worried about it going bad or something happening to it, you don't need to worry about that. Let's see here.

Cindy, if you're not picky about Colway, sometimes you can find discontinued colors on clearance. Recently got some Merino yak yarn from a respected brand for socks, marked down from $28 to only $8. That's a great deal. Also look into local rescue uh reuse stores, reuse stores. OK.

We have one here that's dedicated to keeping yarn fabrics thread and notions out of the landfill. They provide jobs to people with disabilities too. That's awesome. That sounds like a great place to shop. OK, just a couple more things.

Definitely chip number 22, don't forget about your library. That is a great place to find pattern ideas, um, stitch dictionaries, all kinds of resources, and actually one of my favorite local libraries actually. lends out tools. They lend out crochet hooks and knitting needles and all kinds of stuff. So it might be if you live in like a larger city area, it might be worth looking into that because they might also do that.

Maybe you're looking for like a little tiny hook for one project and you feel like you're never gonna use it again, that would be a good place to check. Um, and then the last tip that I have is, uh, of course we need to be using our resources on the Creative crochet corner library and also in Craftsy there is so much free content that we have like we've got tutorials, patterns, all kinds of information, um, that you guys can access for free uh so definitely start there and then maybe as you're doing that you'll be like, OK. This is a place where I'm actually getting a lot of information from. You could think about being a member if you want that additional content, but just know it's uh there's always gonna be that free content for you guys, um, and I get very excited about doing these live tutorials about talking with you guys about new crochet ideas and having these little kind of show and tell things. So if you guys have other ideas about what you'd like me to do for a live event, definitely let me know, OK?

I am so glad that you guys have been here and so active in the chat. There's been lots of great suggestions, um. Yeah, it looks like, oh, we've got someone from India here saying this was very useful to them. I'm so glad. Thank you so much.

All right, thanks everybody. Thank you guys so much for being here. I'll see you in my next live. Bye.