Yarns

Here's a stash buster project I've started on - partially to burn up some cheap yarn I have, and to practice the chevron stitch I've just learned:

The thing is, the red yarn and the variegated yarn here are Craft Smart yarns, bought at Michaels craft stores. I gotta say - this yarn feels like SANDPAPER. It's SO scratchy and rough! There is nothing soft about it!

I'm hoping that I can wash this with some fabric softener and it will feel a lot better; I know I had some good luck on that front with Red Heart Super Saver yarn, which also feels very rough. I made a mesh market bag with some of their deep red Claret color yarn, and with Red Heart, their dark colors are often very scratchy. Black is the worst. Well, I tossed that bag in the wash with some fabric softener, and the difference was amazing.

The pink yarn in this project is Red Heart Super Saver, and it's not too bad as far as roughness is concerned. I made a scarf with some of this, as well as some black RHSS. I've used the scarf all winter long and it's held up well, it's not too scratchy, and it has some nice drape to it (but I did make the scarf in a mesh pattern, with a slightly larger hook than is normally used with this yarn, and this gives the work some nice drape). I'm not sure if I want to continue using this pink yarn with the Craft Smart for this; perhaps I could use the pink RHSS for something else?

Well, RHSS is cheap enough yarn; if I need more hot pink I can get some.

I did find a new favorite yarn: Bernat Super Value yarn. I'm doing this with a couple of colors I found:

It's sooooooo soft and buttery. I love this yarn. This may be my go-to yarn from now on.

New Craft Blog!

HERE is a new craft blog I'll have to put into my blog roll when I get home....

In The Works....

I worked on this blanket today...I have a LOT of rows to go...

And I do mean A LOT. But methinks the colors look nice. :)

I have noticed that a lot of people think that this stitch is Navajo crochet, saying "oh we used to do a lot of this in the 1070s" - but it's not the same thing, from what I can tell. Navajo seems to involve doing rows of single crochet, cutting the yarn and finishing off at the end of every row, and adding a new row of yarn each row, instead of doing a turning chain and continuing with the next row.

That's not what I'm doing here. I'm doing 4 chain stitches, and on the 5th stitch I connect to the previous row with a single crochet. So my scarves and anything else I make with this stitch are mostly chain stitches, not sc.

So no, what I'm doing is not Navajo. It's Joseph's Coat, after Joseph's Coat of Many Colors.

EDIT May 20

This past weekend, I did more rows on this. Now it's this far along:

Still plugging. It is really getting some weight to it now, and is more blanket-like. I do have to admit that I wish I'd made the original chain longer, like about 350 stitches or more. Maybe the next one I do, I'll make it longer.

3 Joseph's Coat Scarves

I really like doing this simple, simple stitch. I made these three scarves, but the neon one on the right I might continue to add rows to, and make it a shawl or even an afghan.