In “The Timid Crocheter: Going Green with Woll {Part 1}“, we discussed some of the differences in raising and processing organic wool compared to doing the same organically. In Part 2, I’d like to focus on buying wool yarn that’s been raised and processed locally, from within your state, or local communities.

Support Your Planet

I think the biggest benefit of buying anything locally, including wool, is the massive resources saved. Especially when it comes to fuels used in the importing and exporting of wool to different countries for scouring, etc. (like from the U.S. to China or from Australia to the U.S.). This hit on our (limited) fossil fuel supply is atrocious and could be dramatically lessened with more mindful purchasing. I realize local wool can be more expensive, but I think buying larger brands that have been imported/exported will be much more costly in the long run.

Support Your Locals

The second benefit of buying wool locally is the support you are giving to your local indie and artisan sellers. If you want your community to thrive, then it only makes sense that you purchase your goods, not through chain stores or the internet, but from your local merchants…whether at your farmer’s market or local yarn shop that supports farmers and spinners nearby. A decision to buy a few skeins of wool may not seem like a big decision or have any relevance, but I believe every purchase decision is a huge VOTE for how you want things to be done. So, what’s YOUR “vote”?

You Deserve Better

Another thing to consider when buying wool yarn is YOU. You’re making gifts, creating projects that reflect some of who you are as a person. You’re pouring time, love, and energy into what you’re doing. Part of that starts with the QUALITY of wool you use. The chances of your wool yarn being laden with chemicals is much less when purchased locally because smaller farms can’t afford to export their wool in bulk quantities to other countries for scouring, so they are forced to do it themselves or have a smaller, local company do it. So now you have wool yarn raised from local sheep and, if not processed themselves, usually in a neighboring state, so still made made in the USA! You’ll also be exposed to much more beautiful yarns…softer, more colorful, and with a “hand spun” quality. Those imperfections in hand spun and hand dyed wool are quite beautiful and highly desired. You won’t believe what kind of character it adds to a simple project!

So, next time you’re in the market for some wool yarn, look to your local farmer’s market. If you’re not sure where to start, try LocalHarvest.org

Warmly,

When it comes to goals, I can come up with about a million things I would like to achieve for myself, or the business, but most of them are just not realistic. I look back to when we first started TLC Inspirations, and feel pretty good about how far we have come over the years, and the how we’ve evolved. And, yet, we still have not achieved our ultimate goal of success.

We started out creating greeting cards and photo prints, and have expanded into sewing and crocheting the last couple years. I loved creating greeting cards, but we wanted to do more. So, we connected with others on Etsy, Artfire, Facebook, and Twitter, building a network, and surrounding ourselves with “like minded” artisans. We originally had a stand alone website, but elected to move to Artfire and Etsy. And, this past year, we decided to try a craft consignment shop, closing our Etsy shop. We have also started a YouTube Craft Tutorial Channel. Some of these things worked for us, and others did not.  We have learned a lot along the way from many of you, and we have tried to share our knowledge as we move along.

Now, back to goals:  what they are, and how to keep them.

Here are some of my personal and business goals:

• I would have never pictured myself a “blogger”, but here I am! So, one of my goals is to be more consistent with my blogging, and a bit more personal. I am uncomfortable putting my self “out there”, so this is a bit of a hurdle for me. In order to keep this one, I will need to create an actual blog schedule (I take turns with Rachel) and keep that schedule.  I can! I will! I am!
• “Tweet, Tweet” (as in, tweet more on twitter).
• Believe in myself more, and quit telling myself that what I do isn’t good enough. This is another tough one for me. I tend to be a perfectionist to a fault and, therefore, can never accept anything that isn’t exactly up to par. I am not sure how to keep this one, except to learn to “let go” and accept my creation for what it is, an expression of who I am.
• Organization is another area that I need to improve on. I have too many things going at once.  This may never change, but I can always hope.
• I want to be freer with my creativity, and allow myself to do things that are “out of the ordinary,” and fully explore myself. I don’t know where this will lead, but I want to find out!
• Create better tutorials. When we started our YouTube Channel, I had NEVER done a video! This was really out of my comfort zone. Now that I’ve done it a few times, I am really enjoying it.  My goal for this year would be to improve the quality of the content, and get a little more creative with the video itself.  ”onwards and upwards”.
• Find my “NICHE” this year!

We have had many personal distractions while working TLC Inspirations, and I am hoping that we are finally getting to a point of seeing the rewards of sticking with it, and finding our place in the “creative” world.

Here are a few tips for setting goals and keeping them!

• When setting goals, it’s important to be realistic, and set goals that you can actually achieve. Don’t set yourself up for failure.
• Make a list of short-term and long-term goals. It’s good to have milestones along a journey.
• Ask yourself, “Where do I want to be in 1 year, 5 year…?”.
• Make sure the goals you aim for, fit in your life.  How will these goals affect my family, business, my health?
• Ask yourself, “Does this goal add something to my life, or take away something?”.
• Replace a bad habit with a good one.
• Don’t beat yourself up if you falter. Pick yourself up, and try again. Or realize that you need to make some adjustments.
• Stay positive! Negativity is a waste of time and energy.

The Reason

There are two reasons I love to make gifts myself for holidays…Birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc.

1. I feel the consumerism that surrounds Christmas and every other holiday has spun out of control. And I’m not the only one…this popped up this December. We all know what each holiday is about and why it exists, but we continue to throw store-bought gifts at them. I believe our love is more thoroughly shown through the time we spend, the memories we make, the love we share.
2. I enjoy it. There is a certain sense of accomplishment involved and my heart and soul goes into everything I make, large or small. Each gift is made especially for that certain someone and, usually, is the perfect choice for them. At least, I hope so!

I made over 30 gifts this year! I know, I know. But some gifts I made in multiples for kids, most were fairly simple, and some aren’t pictured here, like the now-infamous “marshmallow shooter”…this one was a real hit! Some are not my own design, but I adjusted the tutorials to suit my materials or time constraints. I DO want to give credit where credit is due, though. And I highly recommend all of these gifts, because they brought smiles, laughter, and appreciation from my friends and family. It was truly awesome!

The Tutorials

• Marshmallow Shooter
  Cost – $2.60. We adjusted the mouth piece, sanded the inner edges and painted them a sleek black. Also included the “plans” with instructions on the back as a gift tag. I was sure to send this gift to at least two kids and one 20-something, which elicited an all-out marshmallow war! My evil plan worked perfectly
• Tile Coasters
  Cost – $2.05. I used a multitude of different decorative papers I had on hand, including vintage magazines and free print-outs I found online. These took more time because of drying time in between the layers of glue. I also substituted furniture pads (small round ones) in the corners rather than felting the entire bottoms. Worked out really well – great gift for couples and families!
• Phone Case (original)
  Cost – nothing (had everything on hand). Made with a simple single crochet stitch, lined with cotton, edged with embroidery floss, and decorated with old t-shirt scraps and buttons.
• Sewing Jar
  Cost – $3.00 (bought jar, had sewing notions on hand). Making the top was a bit tricky, had to try twice to get it right, but finally got it to work. The rest is just putting lovely sewing material inside and labeling it. Done…my mom loved it!
• Gingerbread Playdough
  Cost – nothing (had everything on hand). So quick and easy! And smells amazing. Some basic kitchen ingredients, a labeled jar, and some old cookie cutters – genius! I heard the kids broke out the playdough the second they opened the gifts. Yay!
• Duct Tape Wallet
  Cost – $3.99 (unless you want to do a color combo). This is a bit more time consuming, but it’s really cool! My daughter and I even cut out shapes (which is not easy) to decorate the front of the wallet and then decided to throw in a $5 bill for the recipient Two gifts in one!
• Wool Bobby Pins
  Cost – $2.00 (used wool scraps). This uses needle felting, so you must have a needle felting kit of some kind to do this, but they are fairly inexpensive. I made a LOT of these and gifted two sets to the teen girls in my family. They turned out very well and were very well-received!
• Emergency Purse Kit
  Cost – nothing (main ingredient: Altoids tin) What can I say? We eat a lot of mints. Modge podged <– (new verb) a mint tin inside and out, then made a small sewing kit, dropped in some loose change, hair ties, aspirin, a cough drop, band-aid, and a bobby pin or two. You can’t believe how much use this gets! I have one in my purse too
• Crocheted Slouchy Hat (loosely adapted from this tutorial)
  Cost – $3.29 (or yarn on hand). This one takes crochet time and adjustments, but I made three and they all were a little different, but really cute! Hats that teenage girls will actually WEAR!
• T-shirt Infinity Scarf (original)
  Cost – nothing (recycled t-shirts.) Gather a few colorful t-shirts, cut large squares (same width), sew pieces together in a long rectangle, then sew lengthwise make a tube, then sew the ends together. It’s soft, it’s stretchy, and it’s colorful – so fun.
• Capelet (original)
  Cost – this would cost MORE than $5 to make because you would need 4-6 skeins of yarn, depending on length, but I wanted to show it because I’m so proud of it! Crocheted from two large rectangles, then sewn together halfway up short sides. Added a large permanent wood button and cinched the other side as embellishment. My 15 year old daughter was IN LOVE.
• Photo Jar
  Cost – nothing (a small jar & printed photo). This one is the simplest of them all, inspired from a photo on Pinterest. I sent a one pic of each of my daughters in small jars to their grandfather. Makes a sweet, unique gift for someone special.

Now, I know that you may not have all the materials on hand, like I did, for some of these projects, but even if you had to go out and buy the materials….they should still fall under $5, as long as you’re good at finding a bargain! Old t-shirts from Goodwill for $1.99, yarn on sale for $2.29, old jars from the thrift store….easy peasy! There aren’t any expensive “ingredients” in these gift tutorials. Have fun…try some out and let me know what you think!

So, show your love – in a BIG {homemade} way!

Warmly, Rachel

Holidays Past

Growing up, I remember the excitement and anticipation of Christmas, and the feeling of warmth that filled my body and soul. My fondest memories were living in California, and our drives through the extremely decorated neighborhoods. They were “jaw dropping!” I mean, they had santa sleighs and reindeer on the roofs, Christmas stars that lit up the street, mechanical toys, and angels singing. It was truly amazing, and it seemed like everyone participated. In those days (yes it has been quite a few years, actually decades, yikes!), the towns and even the stores made great effort to shine with decorations. I guess what I am trying to say is, the decorations provided much enjoyment, and Christmas spirit. To me, it’s sad that things have changed due to expense, or the fear of offending someone’s beliefs.

Even though lights and decorations are a form of commercialism, they lift my spirit. I think decorations, lights, and music all play an important role in the Holidays.

I even remember carolers roaming the streets singing! Nowadays, it is either not safe, unacceptable, or an intrusion of some kind. Isn’t that sad? Personally, I would happily welcome an “intrusion” like that, but I’m happy that some of those things can still be found today, where communities provide “tree lighting ceremonies” and “Christmas festivities.”

Today’s Christmas

Christmas is so focused on shopping and getting the “best deal” that “Black Friday” has become a violent competition, so contrary to the meaning of Christmas. Something is very wrong, and it will probably get worse before it gets better. I’m all for getting a bargain, but not at the expense of someone’s safety.

It’s funny that it is NOT the presents that I remember. I remember laughter, the beckoning aromas from the kitchen, baking delectable goodies, singing Christmas songs, hot cocoa, and spending Christmas Day in our jammies. We played jokes on unsuspecting relatives…wrapping large boxes, weighted with a rock, among other fun gags. I remember decorating our tree, and my dad, meticulously hanging the tinsel, one strand at a time! The results were amazing! I miss my dad, but he is with us always. Maybe it just seemed simpler because I was a child, and didn’t have all the responsibility that fall on the adults. Maybe my parents were stressed, but I don’t remember it. I know it can be challenging to “stop all rushing around, and seize the moment,” but those moments, are the ones that count.

All I know is that memories are made of those special moments, with special people, and that is what will remain with you long after Christmas has passed. If you need a great Christmas song of the past to get you in the spirit, I have just the thing – “White Christmas” by The Drifters. Enjoy, and please have a wonderful holiday. May your New Year be a thousand times better than you imagine

Most beginner crochet tutorials start with a slip knot and chain stitch, but before we even make our first stitch, we need a few basic crocheting tools, don’t we? Namely, yarn and a crochet hook. Of course, there are many sizes and shapes to choose from and a few “minor” tools or hints that may help us out along the way.

Choosing a Yarn

There is a lot to know about yarn and how to choose the right one, such as ply, care, dye lot, and gauge, but we’re going to just stick with the basics. There are 6 basic yarn sizes that you see in the stores, devised by how many stitches can be made in a 4×4 swatch of stockinette stitch (knitting term). The larger the number, the smaller the yarn.

1. Super Fine (lace, sock): 29-32
2. Fine (baby, sport): 25-28
3. Light (dk <- “double knit”): 21-24
4. Medium (worsted, aran): 17-20
5. Bulky (chunky): 13-16
6. Super Bulky: 9-12

As a beginner, you should start with a medium-weight, worsted yarn. It’s the easiest to work with and most of your beginner projects use that weight of yarn. As for yarn TYPE, keep it simple when first starting out…a basic cotton will work just fine. Start with a light solid, so you can easily see the stitches. Also, please stay away from all “fancy” yarns when you’re first learning! I know it’s difficult, since they’re all so pretty, but absolutely NO eyelash, fur, feather, or knotted yarns. They will hide the stitch and make things very frustrating for you when you’re just starting out in crochet. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

The Right Crochet Hook

Hook size is marked directly on a crochet hook. You will see a number or a letter and, sometimes, both. The number represents the diameter in millimeters. The letters (B-Q) represent hook size from a smallest to largest scale, “B” being the smallest and “Q” being the largest. Crochet hooks are usually separated into two categories: thread hooks and yarn hooks. Thread hooks are made from steel and yarn hooks are usually made from plastic, aluminum, or even wood. Personally speaking, I prefer aluminum. There’s a nice “glide” to it. Anyway, your hook size determines your stitch size, so if you want a relatively “medium” stitch using worsted-weight (medium) yarn, then start with a size 7 hook and, depending on how you crochet (I’m a tight crocheter and my daughter is a very loose crocheter), stitch a row and see how you like it. If you find your stitches too loose, go down a hook size. Generally speaking, your yarn and hook should somewhat coincide, i.e. smaller yarn, smaller hook, and larger yarn, larger hook. You may have to do some adjusting in the beginning, but no worries. Keep your crocheting relaxed, and remember, it’s all a work in progress!

Crochet: What Else Do I Need?

Right off the bat, you aren’t going to need more than a crochet hook, a small pair of scissors, a blunt embroidery needle (for weaving in ends), and some practice yarn, but as you progress, there are things that are helpful to have on hand. When you start using crochet patterns, you will need a measuring tape to measure your gauge swatch. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to crochet a 4″x4″ gauge swatch before starting any pattern where size matters, such as a sweater. Also, once you start “working in rounds” (hats, gloves, etc), you will want a stitch counter and stitch markers to track your stitches and identify the beginning/end of your “round”.

Once you have your tools and yarn in hand, get started with our “Crochet Basics Video Tutorial”, and happy crocheting!