Darn Good Yarn

Speaking of yarn, here's another awesome place to buy some:  DarnGoodYarn.com.  All the yarn there is recycled, made from things like banana fibers, newspaper, and recycled sari silk.  They also sell patterns and ready-made items.  Look at these yarns:

Recycled Sari Silk Yarn

Banana Fiber Silk Yarn

Reclaimed Cotton Yarn

According to the Darn Good Yarn newsletter, they saved more than 6,000 pounds of waste from landfills in 2011 alone by recycling things into yarn  And right now they're giving away $75 of their yarn to one lucky person.  Might be you, might be me... let's find out!

Loophole Yarn from Six Skeins

I won a giveaway last week!  The Made With Love U.K. blog offered 100 grams of yarn from Etsy shop Loophole (aka SixSkeins), and I won!  I chose a skein of this hand-dyed sock yarn called Limelight, and it arrived in the mail yesterday!  Isn't it beautiful?

It's so fresh and zesty and spring-ful, isn't it?  In fact, this yarn has inspired a whole bunch of new ideas for crochet patterns that I can't wait to get started on.  Good thing I've just finished my current crocheting project and ready to start a new one!

Back. Again.

Since the last time I blogged, we've moved, we're mostly unpacked, and I'm starting to get back into crafting. At last! Which means I'm also getting back to my blog :-)

I just listed this sweet hat in my shop:


It's a 6-12 month hat I made from 100% merino wool. Divinely soft! And I love the happy, springy colors, don't you?

Here's my current project:


Yes, I'm knitting! Crazy, I know. I realized I'd pretty much forgotten the little I'd learned about knitting, so I decided to jog my memory and use up a bit of left-over yarn and make something small for Mercy -- I was thinking a Barbie blanket for her to play with when she's older, but I think I'm going to run out of yarn before I make a whole blanket, so it'll be more like a Barbie throw or rug or something. But again, don't you love these colors? Bright and cheery, and I love them!

And finally, my friend Julie from This Cosy Life gave me this gorgeous yarn as an early birthday gift:


It's hand-dyed cotton chenille from Etsy shop Crochet 4 U 2 Dye 4. I'm going to make Mercy a sun hat from it as soon as I finish my little knitting project. Fun, fun, fun!

Yarn, Glorious Yarn!

I took Mom (and my kids) to the local yarn store today, A Stitch in Time. What bliss, what joy! I bought a yarn winder and swift! And also a bunch of yarn, including this really interesting kind made from corn fibers. It's really soft -- I can't wait to use it to make some things for my shop!


I also bought yarn for a custom order for a baby hat, which is what you see on my swift and winder here. It's a lovely super-wash merino, with pretty pinks ranging from dusty rose to delicate pink. I'm going to start that hat as soon as I've posted this and linked to it on my Facebook page.

Finally -- Facebook!

I have finally made a page for my shop on Facebook. I know, I know, took me long enough, right? But better late than never. My page is here, and I'll be posting all kinds of stuff there. Like what? Like new items when I list them in my shop, a link every time I post here on my blog, news about sales I run, treasuries I create or am in -- all kinds of stuff. You can even request custom items by posting on my wall! And who knows, I might even run a giveaway for my FB fans only. Anyway, it'll be the quick and easy way to stay up to date on everything Huggermugger! And you can "like" me right from here by using the handy-dandy tool in my sidebar.

In other news, I'm all excited because I've sold enough items since Thanksgiving that I will be able to buy my very own yarn ball winder and swift! If you don't know what those are, here are a couple pics. Basically, any time I buy awesome yarn that's sold in hanks instead of a ball or center-pull skein, I have to wind it up into a ball in order to use it. Which takes a looooong time by hand. But with a winder, it takes a matter of minutes. You loop the yarn hank around the swift, then attach one end to the winder and crank the little handle, and before you know it, you have a beautiful, center-pull yarn cake. Wooo! I can't wait.

A First

If you're wondering what I've been up to for the past couple weeks, wonder no more. A good deal of my time was spent crocheting this dress for Mercy. I bought a couple hundred yards of divine hand-dyed yarn from my friend Julie back in June -- it's the same as this yarn she's selling in her shop, ThisCosyLife. I knew I wanted to use it on something special for my baby girl, but I just couldn't decide on a project. I wanted to try making her a dress or other piece of clothing... but I've never crocheted clothing before. I felt daunted by the idea.

But I started looking at crochet patterns for baby dresses. I couldn't find any I really liked -- they were all too complicated or too frilly or just not what I wanted. I wanted a simple, sweet sundress she could wear to church or the mall or whatever.

Then I said to myself, hey, I know what I want -- why don't I just make up my own pattern? I make up patterns all the time! What's the worst that can happen -- I have to unravel it and start over. Big deal. I knew my 200 yards of yarn from Julie wouldn't be enough for a whole dress, but I had some wool yarn left over from another project that was a lovely peach and just matched one of the colors in Julie's yarn. I figured between the two, I'd have enough.

So, after much trial and error, ripping out stitches and redoing, I have the sundress I wanted. Simple, colorful, and feminine without being fussy and frilly. I even had enough of Julie's yarn left to make a matching diaper cover! I found these perfect buttons at the craft store, and my first attempt at crocheting clothing was complete!

I plan to offer my original pattern for this dress in my shop soon -- I just have to write it up first :-) And now that the dress is done, I can get back to blogging and post about the two books and three recipes I've been meaning to share.

Twist of Fate Treasury

I made a treasury today. I was supposed to be going to see Avatar, but Daniel protested taking his nap for so long that I ended up missing the movie. So instead I made this treasury, which I call Twist of Fate:

You can go see it here, and if you're an Etsy member, I'd love it if you commented on it!

I didn't actually plan to do a blue theme, but after choosing about half of these yarns, I realized I was being drawn almost exclusively to blues, either because of the blue characters in Avatar or because I was a bit blue about not going to see it today. Or maybe just because I love the color blue. Anyway, I think this is the prettiest treasury I've made yet.

My7Kids

No, I don't have seven kids suddenly -- number two won't arrive for another couple months yet. Actually, My7Kids is the name of one of my favorite Etsy shops. This shop specializes in yarn, so you can see the appeal for someone like me who loves to crochet (and is still trying to conquer that whole knitting thing). But the yarn from My7Kids is especially cool because it's recycled!

This yarn starts out as a sweater, usually a commercially made one bought from a thrift shop. It gets unraveled, washed, and then redyed. Though the photographs mostly show artful hanks and twists of yarn, it actually arrives on your doorstep in a convenient center-pull ball, which I personally prefer to those artful twists (because those tend to turn into a big tangled mess when I try to use them). I've bought four different yarns from this shop, and they are awesome! I haven't had a chance to use the two balls I bought most recently, but I'm planning to make things for Huggermugger from them once I finish a couple projects I have going.

The other cool thing about My7Kids' yarn is the way the different colors are named. Three of the skeins I've bought were called Boromir, Inigo Montoya, and The Shadow -- I happen to love Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, and the old radio show The Shadow (the movie was pretty good too), so you can see why I might be attracted to those particular yarns.

Right now, My7Kids has lots of yarn named after/inspired by the movie The Christmas Story, so if you're a fan of that movie, of recycling, or just of yarn in general, definitely check My7Kids out! The prices are incredibly reasonable -- all the yarns in the shop at the moment are under $20 and many are under $10. I may have to pick up a couple more myself, as a matter of fact.

My7Kids is run by Nikki, a Christian stay-at-home mom who homeschools her kids -- in other words, she's a lot like my mom and me, just with more kids. You can learn more about Nikki by reading her blog, My Thoughts on Life, Yarn, Kids, and Other Stuff.

Finally Finished

I have finally finished my first real knitting project! Remember that lovely Italian yarn I picked up last month? I used the turquoise to knit a scarf for my friend Emily, who's in college in Minnesota and complained to me last month that her current scarf isn't wide enough. So I made her an 8"-wide scarf. It which covers my ears, nose, mouth, and chin, so I hope she thinks it's wide enough too!

This yarn is a wool blend from Jo-Ann's Sensations Bellezza Collection, and I had lots of fun working with it because it has a hand spun texture, with sections that are wide and thick and others that are thinner. And through it all runs a shiny silver strand to add extra glamour. The hand spun texture is what makes the edges uneven -- I'm not that bad at knitting, honest!

As for the black scarf I was knitting for my son... I ripped it all out because it got weird. So either I'll start it over, or maybe try something entirely different.

$25 in 45

While driving to meet a friend for lunch on Saturday, I discovered a Jo-Ann Fabrics. So I simply had to stop in on my way home and scope it out. Forty-five minutes later, I got back in my car, $25 poorer. But look at the awesome stuff I got!

They had some nice sales on yarn, and I got these wool/synthetic skeins for less than $2 each --they're made in Italy and amazingly soft. I might try to knit something with the blue yarn if I ever finish the scarf I'm attempting to make for Daniel. The russet yarn... I'm so making myself something from it, I just adore it. If there had been more than one skein of it, I would have gotten more. I'll have to go back and see if they restock it! As for the orange... dunno yet. I'll think of something!

I also got these fabric quarters for 99 cents each! I've got an idea for a new product for Huggermugger, and this fabric will be perfect for it. More on that new idea as it coalesces.

Yay -- another craft store not too far away! Me happy.

And in other news, Jenn of TheOldOakTree featured me on her blog, 365 Days of Etsy! I haven't had a sale since November, so maybe this exposure will help business pick up a little.