Gettin’ Crafty: Crocheting for Charity in January

This year I have made a goal not to purchase any new yarn until I use up my stash. Never have I wanted to buy new yarn so badly.

Seriously, though, I didn’t realize I had so much yarn.

Most of my yarn has either been given to me or purchased at the Goodwill or yard sales. Some of what I have is also leftovers from various projects over the past 6 years that I have been crocheting.

With my desire to “use it or lose it” with regards to my yarn, I dove into several crochet projects this month.

My biggest project was a scrap yarn afghan I made to donate to charity.

I had fun crocheting this Neat Ripple Afghan Pattern by Attic24. My afghan measures 36 inches wide by 72 inches high and I still have tons of yarn left in my stash.

Once I got the hang of the way the ripples were made I really enjoyed the process. I didn’t have a plan for which colors to use other than to do a dark, light, dark, light pattern.

It was a lot of work, but my hope is that it will keep someone warm and they may feel some of the love I put into making it. I’m not sure where I will be donating this afghan yet.

One of my first projects of the month was this doll blanket. I used baby yarn to crochet the Never-Ending Blanket Square Pattern by Deb’s Crafts.

The blanket measures 18 inches by 18 inches and is the perfect size for a baby doll.

I think I will pack this blanket, along with a baby doll, in a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.

This blue and yellow afghan was started this past summer while we were taking a road trip. My intent was to purchase more yarn and make a much larger afghan.

However, I could never find yarn that matched at any of the stores I went to. So, I used what I had left and finished it as a baby afghan.

When I started this baby afghan I thought I had 2 skeins of the green. However, I didn’t, so I used all of the green and then crocheted on either side of it with the blue.

Both this baby afghan and the previous one will be donated to our local hospital.

While the ripple afghan at the beginning of this post was made with scrap yarn, I still had lots of little scraps that were too small to use.

I decided to make tiny Granny squares with them. I will be making lots more of these and will eventually make something out of them (blanket ?).

In between projects for charity I snuck in a little crocheting for one of my two favorite girls.

I crocheted the Dolman Sleeve Crochet Sweater Pattern by A Crafty House for Julia along with a Sashay Yarn (affiliate link) scarf. Both were quick projects that I think she likes.

A few years ago I had purchased three skeins of Caron Simply Soft Yarn (affiliate link) in a buttery yellow on clearance for $1.50 each, but I never could figure out what to do with them.

They ended up being the perfect amount of yarn for this sweater.

The thing I liked the most about this pattern was that each half was made as an entire piece that I simply had to crochet together (I used a slip stitch.) when I was done.

One trick I suggest for determining where the neck opening should be is to use a ruler and then mark the opening with scraps of yarn. That helped me know exactly where to start and stop.

I pretty much followed the pattern except that I made the sleeves a little longer by adding a few more stitches than were recommended.

I really have enjoyed crocheting this past month and I hope to continue using up my yarn in February. I think my Grandma would be proud.

Do you crochet? What projects have you been working on this month?

 

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