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In this issue, we'll offer some suggestions to help you set up a more efficient and organized system for storing your yarn scraps, plus give you a couple of great scrap-yarn projects to help you get started putting your new setup to work. We'll also share feedback from readers that address some previous questions or concerns, as well as a couple of interesting letters about our "A Look Back at Crochet Hooks" feature. And finally, did you know that Talking Crochet will be getting a new look next issue? We'll tell you all about it!
Storing Your Yarn Scraps
Crocheters store their yarn scraps in all manner of ways, from bags or containers stuffed in whatever closet has room to a variety of creative storage bins made from buckets, boxes, crates or totes. For maximum efficiency, easily accessible cubicle-style storage units make it much easier to sort, store and locate scrap yarn colors when needed. Plastic crates make great storage units; they come in a variety of sizes, stack easily on top of each other and are relatively inexpensive at discount department stores.
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Before setting up your choice of yarn bins, be sure to select a wise location, preferably in an unobtrusive place in the living area of your home where it's cool, dry and clean. While you want the location to be handy for you, you do not want it to be accessible to pets and small children. Avoid places like an unfinished basement that can incur water leakage or mold, or a garage that houses dirty machinery, chemicals or little critters that might decide to nestle in or chew on your yarn.
Once you have selected a good location and set up your preferred type of storage-bin unit, you need to sort your yarn scraps by color and value. To help you see the colors more truly, lay them out on a white or neutral-color carpet or sheet. If you look at the color wheel below, you'll notice that the colors are arranged in "families" by value from lightest to darkest, so you should sort your yarn scraps in the same manner. Put each multicolored yarn in the pile with its predominant solid color. Put black, white, off-white and gray yarns in their own separate piles.
Once you have all of your color groups sorted, store them in the cubicles in whatever manner makes the most sense or is most workable for you. One way is to put the darkest-value shades of each color in the cubicles across the bottom row. Leave the column of cubicles on the right or left end free for the black, white, off-white and gray yarns.
In the corresponding cubicles across the next row, put the next darkest shade of each color, and so on with each row, ending with the lightest-value shades in the top row (similar to how the color groups are arranged on the color wheel). If you have only a small amount of several colors, they may be able to share cubicles.
With a small investment in time and effort and relatively low cost, you can have a well-organized system for efficiently locating specific colors in your leftover yarns when you need them. In addition, being able to view all those wonderful colors in various shades at a glance will be sure to inspire lots of crochet creativity when planning your projects!
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Scrap Project Inspiration!
Now that you have created an efficient yarn-scrap storage system, here are a couple of colorful, great-looking scrap projects to let you put your new setup to work. Our Granny's Attic afghan offers a different twist on the traditional granny-square look with its diagonal, bi-color blocks. This project offers lots of opportunity to use up scrap colors and creates a very striking afghan.
Our Country Rug design is created using the more traditional granny square pattern and is also a great project for scraps. It's quick to crochet using a large-size hook and two strands of yarn held together throughout. The squares join as you go, so there's no sewing involved! You can easily make the rug larger by adding more squares to each row and more rows to the pattern before working the border.
Go check out your yarn scraps and enjoy crocheting these colorful, creative projects!
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Help With Lark's Foot Stitch
Thanks to many of our readers who responded to Pamela's search for information on the lark's foot stitch in our last issue. I really appreciate all of you who wrote with a Web site link that features both written instructions for this stitch as well as a link to a video tutorial. Click here to access the site.
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Tambour Hooks
In our April 14, 2009 issue, we included an article on tambour work. A number of readers have written to ask where the special hooks for this technique can be purchased. It's true that tambour hooks are not as easily found or readily available as regular crochet hooks, but I found an online source at Hedgehog Handworks.
If you do a Google search for "tambour hooks" or "tambour crochet hooks," you might be able to find others. Keep in mind, however, that you can also use a regular steel thread crochet hook for this technique, as in the tambour work Pansy Doily pattern included in the same issue. Back to top
Plastic Milk Bag Teddy Bears
Also in our April 14, 2009 issue, we included a feature about a Canadian woman who creates teddy bears from plastic milk bags for children in Third World countries. We provided a link to the story. When readers clicked on the link for the story, a message appeared that the page was no longer available.
We check all links in the newsletter several times, right up until just before each issue is sent out. Sometimes, however, in that period between the mailing and the time readers open their e-mails to read the issue, a link that we have included in the issue can be removed by the provider. It's simply a matter of unfortunate timing that we can't control. Luckily, this happens very infrequently, but we're sorry for any stories or features that you may inadvertently miss when it does.
As for the story about the plastic milk bag teddy bears, I did a bit of searching online and found it at these sites as well: Toronto Craft Alert, BC hydro, and Yahoo! News Canada. I'm hoping at least one of these links will still be viable when you read this issue.
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A Look Back at Crochet Hooks
In our May 5, 2009 issue, we looked at the evolution of the crochet hook and included photos of vintage hooks made from a variety of materials. Two of our readers wrote to share some interesting information about uniquely crafted crochet hooks in their own families.
From Mary Sue:
"My grandmother, who was born in 1880, told me that she learned to crochet as a young girl from another girl who had made a crochet hook from a chicken bone. I imagine a lot of women back then used what they had to create beautiful things."
From Darlene:
"I really enjoyed your article on the history of crochet hooks. Here is a photo of a hook that belonged to my Great-Grandmother Kerstin. It is made from the leg bone of a turkey, which tells me that no matter what the circumstances, if one needs to crochet she will find a way. This special hook is probably 100 years old or more, and feels like ivory now."
If you have any unique, old-time crochet hooks in your family, please write and tell me about them. And please share photos too, if you'd like!
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Talking Crochet Gets a New Look!
Your next issue of Talking Crochet will have a different look and be presented in a new truncated format. While it will be a bit different at first and might take a little getting used to, it really does offer some benefits to make your newsletter-reading experience easier and more enjoyable.
For one thing, with its reduced e-mail size, the new format will help reduce the volume in your mailbox a bit. You'll also be able to see the content at a glance from the newsletter summary section, and you can then click through to read specific sections as you wish.
There will also be a printer-friendly page for each article, enabling you to print just those articles you want to keep on file. And while at the Web site, you can browse through old issues of Talking Crochet (which will still be in the old format) and check out all the other great features there.
I hope you'll find that the old saying "change is good" is true in this case, and that you'll enjoy your new Talking Crochet experience!
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