July 2023 Goals

 Wow, it's still June (the 28th to be exact), and I've already set goals for July! 

Here's the Cliff Notes version that is on my one-page ongoing to-do list: 

#amibook - Cactus

#amiwars spotlight

Blue Use Up

Crazy Critter

Green Use Up

Hilde

Mermaid Kitty

Open Mouth Cham.

Orange Use Up

Pink Use Up

Red Use Up

Yellow Use Up

1. So, for the #amibookchallenge, where you make an item from a pattern book you have purchased, but never used, I am going to dive into the new cactus amigurumi book I got with my Mother's Day gift card, and make one of those! DONE (and this also used up yarn from the green use-up)

2. I'm still participating in #amigurumiwars2023, so once the spotlight designer is announced, I will be making something from that designer. I made the penguin from Monster Hook: DONE

3. I'm trying to focus on working down my stash this month... so I am going to pull one skein/cake/ball of yarn in six different colors from my stash and keep going with it until I finish it off. You may notice purple is missing from the rainbow of colors. I am pretty low on purple yarn at this point! So, #3 is Blue. As I pull the yarn and use it up, I will add pictures. 

Here is the blue yarn I chose: DONE 

I made five projects from the blue yarn: 

4. My Crazy Critter Challenge for this month, chosen by Random Number Generator, turned out to be a light blue dinosaur with gray bumps. DONE

5. Green Use Up - I pulled some green-blue yarn from stash... first project was a mushroom. I also made the cactus above, and two axolotls DONE

6. I'd like to make another Hilde the Highland Cow, pattern by Yarn Society - DONE

I'll add... I double-dipped... I used the red yarn I picked for the red use-up

7. I have two patterns I like for Mermaid Cats - so I'd like to make up one of them this month... or maybe both! DONE and DONE

Made a mini - 

 

Then I made a bigger one. 

8. Open-Mouth Chameleon has been on my restock list since last September! It's time to restock him! DONE

9. Orange Use-Up - DONE

I used a double strand of worsted weight and a K hook to make up my Happy Huggy Cat. This guy is about 30" tall! (I forgot to measure to get his exact height!)

I thought I had enough left over to make a little purse... but I ran out with one row to go, so it has a brown top! 

10. Pink Use-Up

11. Red Use-Up - DONE

 I made Hilde, a gecko, an octopus and a chicken! 

12. Yellow Use-Up

Didn't get to the pink and yellow use-up.. but I had two custom orders that kept me busy: 

I got an order for a turtle matching game... 

And the customer who bought the burgundy cow wanted an orange one, too! 

June 2023 Goals

 Oops... It's June 5th and I've already finished two items on my June list, and I realized I never put up a blog post! 

Well, here goes... I made up my list at the end of May, and did a YouTube video  showing off my May finishes and listing my June goals. 

#1 - For the #amibookchallenge, I will be doing a standalone pattern this month: Sassy the Sugar Glider from Critterific Crochet. DONE! 

#2 is my Crazy Critter Challenge - this month's number made the critter a purple chicken with yellow dreadlocks. DONE I finished it June 4, but haven't had a photo shoot for it yet. It fell behind a box of yarn and I didn't find it until June 16! 

#3 - Amineko Cat - DONE - this is a pattern that has been on my wanna-make list for years. I finished it late Saturday night, 6/3. 

#4 is the Aliyasaurus - my granddaughter drew me a picture of a dinosaur, and I'm going to make it up in crochet. DONE! 

This is her picture for inspiration. 

And this is the finished Aliyasaurus: 

#5 - I have a skein of Sashay yarn I want to use up... but not for a ruffled scarf. I want to find a way to use it to accessorize amigurumi. DONE

I made Patches the Bear from One and Two Company, and used Sashay for the skirt: 

I used up the rest of the Sashay to make a couple of bowls... 

#6 is the spotlight designer from Amigurumi Wars - I'll be doing the brushed bunny by Krawka. DONE! Hmm... I thought I had a picture... I guess the bunny needs another photo shoot! 

#7 - I have two small cakes of boucle yarn left over from the hat I made in May. I want to use them up for a gecko or dragon. DONE

#8 - I have a large cake of white/gray/black boucle and a smaller cake of a fuzzy gray acrylic - I want to make projects with those two yarns until the yarn runs out. DONE

This big boy finished off the gray yarn (the legs and frill are made with a different gray yarn), and put a big dent in the boucle! I've already started a dragon with the boucle... but I think that will only use about 1/3 of what I have left! 

Then I made a dragon: 

Then I made a snake... I had about 1.5 ounces of the boucle left, so I grabbed a cake of light purple yarn and started a gecko.

I ran out of the boucle with two legs to go, so I used black worsted weight yarn for the back legs... you'd have to look pretty close to see the difference! 

So, as of June 19th, I am DONE with my June goals. I'm testing my own pattern for my Happy Huggy Cat, so I can get that pattern published soon. 

Yellow Tag Special

 

I stopped at a Savers thrift store... noticed as I went in that yellow tagged items were 50% off. I was looking for a booster seat for when the grandchildren come over for dinner. I browsed through the craft section of the books... no crochet books that caught my eye. Looked for the booster... Nope. Browsed the endcaps where the yarn is displayed. They had a lot of yarn, and to my surprise, there were a lot of yellow tags! Oh, well, there goes the yarn diet! 

I ended up getting 8 bags, a total of 3 pounds, 9.3 ounces of yarn, for $14.64

Here's a glimpse of what I got, and as I make items, I will come back and update this post. It's sort of like my Blair Farm Stitch Project  post from a couple of years ago. I will change the text describing the yarn to red once I've finished it. 

Bag 1 was $1.50 after the discount. Two balls of Red Heart Super Saver. One was 1.33 oz, the other 3.29 oz.

Bag 2 was $1 after the discount- mostly Red Heart Super Saver

.58 oz red, .91 burgundy, 1.7 oz burgundy, .46 orange, .44 yellow

.31 oz of Annie's cotton/acrylic blend in orange

1.65 for Bag 3 after the discount

a 1-oz skein of DIY yarn in brown and 3.73 oz of Annie's 100% cotton

Bag 4 was also $1.65 after the discount

5.2 oz of Homespun in Burgundy, a 2-oz skein of Peaches & Cream,

and 1.92 oz of a mystery fuzzy orange yarn

Bag 5 - also 1.65

Annie's acrylic in brown - 1.02 oz

Just Cotton in Green & White - 2 oz

Studio Sampler in browns - 1.78 oz

Bag 6 - $2 after discount

A green/blue pastel ombre - not sure if it's Red Heart Super Saver - 3.67 oz

Jamie Baby in Yellow - 2.03 oz

Baby Boucle in yellow - 1.55 oz

Bag 7 - my most expensive bag, but that big ball of gray boucle was worth it! 

$3 for the bag after discount

Boucle - 10.07 oz

Black Velvet 1.53 oz

Blue Cotton  1.71 oz

Fuzzy Gray worsted - 5.17 oz

Last but not least... oh, but it is one of the least priced... 

1.00 after discount

Small quantities of Red Heart Super Saver

Brown 1.45 oz

Green 1.17 oz

Yellow .53 oz

White .58 oz

Here they are caked up and sorted... acrylic yarn in the big bag

Cotton in the small bag

Orange, gray boucle, and gray fuzzy yarn are set aside for immediate projects! 😄

First project done - a hedgehog from the mystery orange yarn. 

Then I started a leggy frog, but I lost at yarn chicken.... I pulled some Bernat Boa from my totes, added some yellow eyelash yarn, and gave her some extra fancy legs! 

This big boy finished off the gray worsted from bag 7 and put a dent in the huge cake of gray/black/white boucle. The pattern called for sport yarn and a 2 mm hook... I used two strands of yarn and a K hook, so he's about 2 feet long! 

I kept going with the gray boucle and finished off these two: 

Then I added some light purple yarn and finished off the boucle with a gecko! 

I pulled the green and one yellow from bag #6 and had a green & yellow party... 

First, a squid. 

Then a gecko.

Then a cute little purse.

Then I polished it off with an axolotl

Some of the red went into this guy's sweater... Somehow some blue got added to the bag, and I used that in the pants. The bag was at 1 pound, 5 ounces before this project. 

 Misc. orange and yellow got used up for this scrappy pumpkin.

This used up the Studio Sampler from Bag 5.

The blue yarn that got added was used up with this guy. 

Bye-bye red! 

Yellow got used up for Butter Lambs... getting a head start on Easter! 

 Brown became a highland cow

The last of the red went into this guy. 

The small cake of black velvet yarn got combined with white to make this chicken. 

So, as of mid-December, I finished off the yarn. I'm sure I've missed some projects along the way. I have already sold $35 worth of items from the yarn, so I've got my money back twice over.