Yarn Addict Archives - Creative Jubilee

The London crochet bag

By Christina Lee| May 30th, 2021|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

Trying new patterns is a great way to make sure your crochet skills don’t fall to the wayside. I recently picked up a copy of Crochet Dynamite by Jaime Eads Maraia and it’s filled with inspirational gift ideas that go beyond crocheted scarves, towels and blankets.

This time around, I landed on The London Crochet Bag as a means to get creative with my yarn scraps. When tackling a new project such as a handbag, it’s important to not get caught up in intricacies of the end product, and instead, to take it stitch by stitch, line by line.

For the yarn, I used a combination of a multi-colored blue, royal blue, baby blue and violet purple. And for this handbag, it’s better to use the cheap stuff such as the Red Heart Super Saver yarn as opposed to the soft wooly stuff, since it’s a bit tougher and you’ll be schlepping things around.

Making up the body of the bag is the half double crochet stitch. Once you do a line or two, you’ll master it pretty quickly. While you’ll find yourself doing a couple of rows a day, this isn’t a project that’s easy to throw in your purse, since I had to carry four balls of yarn throughout. It might have been easier to just stick with one color, but that probably wouldn’t have been as fun and exciting to make.

Stitching together the components: the body of the bag and the handle made it come to life.

Now the question is, what will you fill it with?

‘A Starry Night’ in yarn

By Christina Lee| April 18th, 2021|Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Punch Needle, Yarn Addict|

One of my favorite museums to visit was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I traveled there on a solo trip a few years back and this was one of the things you must do when you’re in Amsterdam.

Walking through the museum was like seeing the pages of your history book come to life. Well, it was better than that, but you know what I mean. His self-portrait, The Yellow House, The Bedroom, Sunflowers, and Irises were a few that I enjoyed. Of course my all-time favorites, The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum and A Starry Night were at a different location, but nonetheless, it was there in spirit.

It also inspired me to work on “A Starry Night” with the one thing I love: yarn. I found this starter kit on Etsy that came with just about everything you need to make this piece: punch needle, hoop, monk cloth, and a set of soft wooly yarn including shiny royal blue to make the village scenes pop.

This was indeed a fun piece to work on especially since I hear there is now an Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in San Francisco. The digital experience features some of his most iconic paintings across 300,000 cubic feet of space where you can lose yourself in an array of color, texture and light.

I can’t wait to check it out!

Spreading Holiday Cheer

By Christina Lee| December 10th, 2020|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Are you making your gifts, buying your gifts, or do a little bit of both? I guess it’s a little late in the season to be asking you about your holiday gift-giving game plan, but it’s still fun to ask and hear about it. This year, I did a combination of both: making some gifts and buying others. Throughout the year, I went through a number of phases: making coffee cozies, trying my hand at new hobbies (ie: punch needle embroidery and marker drawing) and continuing to build row upon row of my knitted and crocheted blankets. Along the way, I made new friends after starting a new job the previous year and spent time checking up on old friends throughout this hard-hit year. If you haven’t already checked up on someone, it’s a good time to pick up the phone, write an email, send a card or mail a care package. All the while, I decided to dust off my crochet needles and put some finishing touches on my coffee cozies. I love making custom cozies that pair with a plain porcelain cup — especially for the holidays — since most of us are bundled up and ready for a tall cup of hot cocoa. There’s nothing more heartwarming than happiness in a mug.

For once, I ended up getting most of my holiday cards and Christmas gifts out by early to mid-December. Everything was wrapped, stuffed, packaged, sealed and stamped — all ready for my trip to the post office before the holiday rush. Some careful planning on my end helped make a handful of these gifts extra special. The best part about sending these gifts and spreading holiday cheer are the happy faces and photos of their Christmas cheer.

Scrap Blanket Edging

By Christina Lee| October 20th, 2020|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

Now that I’ve made all the colored panels for my scrap blanket, it’s time to pick up the crochet hook once again to create a border around each of the panels. Because all of the panels are unique in color and texture, but have the same pattern (single crochet), I leaned towards a neutral color to do the edging. I went back and forth on the color: navy blue, dark gray, black or perhaps a lighter shade of ivory, sand or white.

In the end, I landed on black since many of the panels had similar colors and I really wanted each one to stand out and pop. When you lay them next to each other, it almost looks like a mosaic.

All it needs is a little bit of love

By Christina Lee| August 9th, 2020|Craft Paper Scissors, Knitting, Work Hard. Play Hard. Knit Harder., Yarn Addict|

My sister has been working on this decades-long knitting project for some time now. I taught both my mom and sister how to knit years ago, and they each worked on their own knitting project. My sister pursued the Stockinette stitch and worked on this coral pink scarf. Back and forth she went, knit on knits and purl on purls. She made it through two balls of yarn before she got stuck (binding off) and left it in her desk drawer… for the next TEN years.

With a little summer cleaning, she was able to fish out her project. It came rolled up like a fruit roll up binded with rubber bands on each side to keep it from curling up at the ends. The problem with the stockinette stitch is if your knitting tension is too tight, it curls.

To finish this up, I casted-off since the scarf was already at a good (foldable) length. Then I laid it flat on the table and ironed it to reinforce its natural shape and form. And finally, it was time for the fun part, the part that everyone seems to like and want on their scarf — the fringes. Snipping away, I cut the yarn at around a length of 10 inches and adhered two pieces of yarn per stitch. When you fold it, it’s about 4.5 inches long.

Bouncy, plush and full, I returned the scarf to its happy owner.

Colorful crochet panels

By Christina Lee| June 8th, 2020|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

If you thought color swatches were only for bedroom and living room walls, you’re wrong. These colorful crochet panels are going to be for my scrap blanket. With three months of shelter in place orders, we all have some extra time on our hands. And with all the non-essential stores still closed, it was about time for me to make use of all the yarn I had stocked up on over the years.

Though I wouldn’t consider myself a hoarder, I have accumulated skeins of yarn left in the closet, unused and without a project assigned to it. I also have many balls of yarn that were partially used, half used and three quarters of the way used. And when you have a big melting pot of yarn of various colors, textures and lengths, it’s only fitting to get a little creative and make yourself a scrap blanket.

The goal is to create at least one color swatch a day. With all this added time, it shouldn’t be that hard to commit. In fact, I think I’ll finish this blanket in record timing!

No ‘one sockiatus’ over here

By Christina Lee| May 10th, 2020|Crocheting, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

I remember attempting to knit a pair of socks in my earlier years of knitting, but didn’t quite make it that far. We knitters and crocheters often start off with scarves and usually make a fair amount of them, until we aspire to do something more with the ball of yarn and knitting/crochet needles. Oftentimes, circular knitting/crocheting can be intimidating but once you take a class, follow a YouTube video or learn to read a pattern, you are soon exposed to a brand new world — a world of making your own clothes!

I’ve been wanting to revisit sock making, but always found it tricky wrapping my fingers in such thin yarn. Coming across this YouTube video on Crochet Ballet Slippers by Heart Hook Home, I got inspired to make these Sunday Ballet Slippers using worsted weight yarn size 4. Author Ashlea Konecny provides both a step-by-step video and written instructions for those who are visual learners like myself.

The best part is, you can make these slippers in a single afternoon. As long as you can make a magic ring, single crochet and slip stitch, you are good to go. But watch out for the notion of “One Sockiatus,” the idea of knitting or crocheting one sock and thinking you’re done with the project when you’ve still got another pair to make. It can offset your progress leaving your feet bare if you end up coming down with that syndrome.

Lucky for me, I was just too darn excited to finish the project!

Gorgeous sunset, ain’t it?

By Christina Lee| April 26th, 2020|DIY Home, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

The sun is shining, the weather is warm and the yarn box is overflowing. With the days growing longer and the shelter-in-place order extended, many of us have a lot more time on our hands. For craft enthusiasts such as myself, that means catching up on hobbies and dusting off the shiny new punch needle that I just got last month.

Inspired by the East Bay sunset, I found skeins of cotton candy pink, sunset yellow, aquamarine and capri blue yarn that would make for beautiful skies and lush green mountains.

Weaving together the colors came naturally. The warm pink, ivory and yellow pair well with the tranquil blue, gray and navy — each bringing their own ray of sunshine and a burst of colorful personality.

These timeless projects bring such joy in times of uncertainty and unease. What are you doing to keep your head up and your spirits high?

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