Jellyfish: These are something that I had made a few of before COVID caused me to have a lot more free time, but I have made quite a few in the past few months. I make the bodies out of yarn left over from other projects and the tentacles out of solid black or white yarn. I like the contrast provided by having brightly striped bodies and solid tentacles.
The first one I ever made was out of a patriotic yarn, and I made the tentacles the same color. While it is cute, it doesn't pop quite like the ones with contrasting tentacles do.
Find the listing for these beautiful stuffed jellyfish here.
Knitting: There are a couple of knitting projects I have been working on recently. The first is a cross drop scarf I am making myself. I had initially planned to make it to sell in my shop, but I soon realized why such pretty yarn had been on clearance. While the color is beautiful, the yarn does not stick together well at all. I knew the scarf would not be very high quality because of the issues with the yarn, but since I do like the colors, I decided to finish it to keep myself. However, I'm not as motivated to work on things I'm keeping, so I had stuck it in a bag two years ago and not picked it up again. Since I have extra time now, I decided to go ahead and finish it.
I also am working on a brioche knit scarf. I signed up last year for Dollar Yarn Club, which includes a bunch of classes, but I hadn't yet gotten around to watching any of them. I decided to start by learning how to brioche knit, and while I'm having some trouble getting my tension right, I'm enjoying it. I might add some brioche knit items to the shop once I'm more comfortable with the technique.
Testing Patterns: I had given Mom some crochet pattern books for her birthday a few years ago, but she hadn't yet gotten around to using them yet. With her permission, I borrowed them to try out some of the patterns. One book was simply a book of squares. Most of them were modifications of granny squares, but some were stitch sample squares. I went through the book and made one of each type of square.
I chose to work some of those squares with some cotton yarn I already had, and they made beautiful trivets that I added to my shop. I made them with three colors since that's what the pattern called for, but I'm considering seeing how they would look in a single color. It's hard to weave in ends on a square.
There was also a hexagon pattern and a flower pattern. I added the hexagon to my shop as a coaster and the flower as a washcloth. Like the trivets, I am considering trying the patterns in single colors to eliminate the need to weave in ends.
Can cozies: One new pattern I tried during this time was for can cozies. The pattern called for stripes, but I decided to try it with solid yarn first, because, as I said before, I'm not a huge fan of weaving in ends. After the first one, I made a few with self-striping yarn, and I liked those even better. What I didn't like, however, was the seam. The pattern was done in rounds and called for a slip stitch join at the end of each round, but doing that left a very discernable seam that was not attractive. I ended up redoing all of the ones I had already finished, and this time, I did them in continuous rounds, and I like the result a lot better. I have already added them to the shop, but I'm considering adding rows on any I make in the future. They really don't seem to be covering up the cans very well.
Find these can cozies in my shop here.
Coffee sleeves: The book with the can cozy pattern also had a pattern for coffee sleeves. Since neither pattern takes up much yarn, I decided to go ahead and make these out of the same yarn as I used for the can cozies. Once again, the pattern used different colors but I stuck to just using one to cut down on the need to weave in ends. I also tweaked how the seam was done. The pattern called for a whipstitch seam, and I chose to use slip stitches instead because they lay flatter and create a seam that is less likely to unravel. They turned out smaller than I had anticipated, but since they're made with a flat panel that has a seam to make it round, I could easily make it bigger if needed by adding more stitches. That's one thing that's nice about simple patterns like these: they're easily adapted to make different sizes.
Mermaid backpack: The little girl my mom takes care of had her seventh birthday earlier this summer. While I normally just help Mom pick out a gift for her and pay for a part of it, I saw this pattern and knew I had to make it for her because she loves mermaids. I wasn't able to find the color the pattern called for, but I found another color in the same brand that I like even more. As I expected, she absolutely loves it and is even thinking about using it for school. It's a little small for a school backpack, but I'm glad she is so excited to use it.
Masks: I initially didn't want to make masks because I didn't want to spend time and energy making something that wouldn't be useful for very long. Even after Etsy said that it would cover listing fees for any masks listed in April, I still decided no to. Then at the end of April, I got a text from our pastor's wife asking if I would be willing to join a mask-making ministry at church, and I said yes. So far I have made 28 masks for the mask ministry, two each for my mom and I, one for my dad, and one for the lady I pick up for church. I've been making them with fabric that was donated to our church's quilting ministry, and crocheting ties out of cotton yarn. I also crocheted a mask out of cotton yarn for each member of my family, which is how I got the idea for the ties. I haven't yet added them to my shop, but since the pandemic still seems to be raging and mask mandates are driving up demand, I'm considering adding them. If people I know want to buy masks from Etsy, they might as well be ordering them from me.
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