A short time back a notice popped up on my Facebook that there was going to be a crochet along with Maggie Weldon.. and the invitation was… well inviting. I love to crochet. Maggie Weldon is a Designer in the fascinating and fabulous world of Crochet, I have received her newsletters for many years, it was worth a check. I clicked on over and the first thing I saw was a pillow with Santa Clause and a Reindeer. It wasn’t even crocheted I thought… hmmm. A little further down I read how she was going to make up the crochet pattern to match the original un-crocheted pillow a step ahead of us, I was curious how that would look.
http://www.maggieweldon.com/
I have tried crochet along’s before, never getting past the buying of the yarn. Except once on an afghan. Its pieces are in a little bag just waiting to be sewn together and edged. Don’t get me wrong, there are hundreds of finished items, just not so much done on the “Alongs”
I thought I would give it one more go, do another crochet along and this time finish it… heck, start it. I have to overcome this, I have to finish a crochet along just once, and I think this is the one.
This looked like a simple project that would not interfere with my felting projects but could be done while playing “Plunder” on fb. Still not 100% sure if I was going to join in, I read the material list. I start thinking about where to pick up the materials when a pang of guilt hit me… I looked at all the previous yarns I had bought now sitting so pretty together on a shelf, also in a few large clear bags, in a basket, and well you know how stashes can grow… I told myself, I just could not buy anything more until I made that mound smaller. I decided if I was going to do this, it would have to be made from the yarn that I have in my stash. I am faced with a double challenge now. I would not buy a single new yarn, even if I had no white, and I would finish it. Self and Home improvement all in one kit.
So for me the Crochet Along was on! I will finish this and it will look good. I keep telling myself that.
Taking the list, I start the hunt for as close a match as I could get. 1:Cardinal Red, 90z. Shoot. I hardly use red except as accent and 9 ounces is a nice amount. I found one 5oz skein of Red Heart-Soft Yarn in the color of Paprika. Paprika? When did I buy that and why? I was getting a little less enthusiastic by this lack in a main color . Then I remembered that I had a big plastic tub full of yarns pushed way in the back of the shed outside, please please please I said as I ran outside, let there be a red. Guess what I found… Yes! 4 skeins at 3.5 oz. of a reddish color yarn. It is far different from what is called for, but by golly its got red in it.
- A dark red with green replaces Cardinal Red
Red Heart Symphony - Redwood. This is the substitute. Fuzzy, thin, a right pain to work with. The fuzz catches sometimes and arrrggg… I learned right off that undoing your work and trying again can lead to knots that won’t come out. I feel the yarns thinness too much even with all that fuzz, so I doubled it. I changed the hook to an H. It worked up close enough to gauge that I was happy. It all went well for a few rows so I stopped counting each stitch, but when I went back to counting somehow I managed to find a few extra stitches that had made its way in. I managed to lose them without too much trouble but somehow in the process it still ended up stretching to 20 inches instead of 18. My tension must have relaxed as well as I went along. This is fine with me, besides it had to be ok, I could not bear to undo it.
For the Green I substituted with a Rainbow Boucle, Green Print Rainbow. Its brightness more than makes up for the dark of the red. I worked with two strands of it as well keeping with the reds two strand fullness. It feels so thick and soft, I love it and it does balance weight wise with the red. I have just finished the first striped piece and am getting ready to start the rest of the front.
Red,Green,Browns,White all together now!
The brown I found is called Divine by Patton, it has some black mixed in and is also a fuzzy yarn. This is the worst yarn to work with but I think it would look really good and I almost want to jump ahead and get the worst over. There is no making mistakes with Divine. But I am not. I am not feeling that brave in the progress just yet.
The other is Redheart Soft Yarn in Tan.
I did find that I have some white yarn. Yea! But just as I was about to do a mental happy dance I noticed something. There is a small snag, this had been the yarn for a punch-loop rug and had been cut in 2 yard lengths. I have a lot of it. My skill at joining yarn together and then hiding it is weak. I guess I will get a few chances to practice. I am going to look again for that other red. I think it will need it, the paprika looks too orange. (part 2 soon to follow…)
Part 2:
In case you are wondering, I did manage to find a bright red that worked so much better. I imagine it was redheart supersaver. That is what it felt like. The rest of the pillow worked up quicker than I expected and it went together easy. Blow the whistles and sound the horns! Yes I finished it! I even got all the loose ends tuck away. In my excitement of finishing a crochet-along, I took a picture and posted it to Maggie’s page and my own Facebook page. The thought of wordpress buried under my accomplishment in crochet. My grandson loves it and grabs it often to use. It is soft and fluffy, not too loud but with a bit of bright color. It is a project I would never had done on my own. I am a bit old to believe in santa. So thank you Maggie for your wonderful work. MaggiesCrochet.com
