Yarn Spindles

If you've read any of my posts lately, you will know that my current favorite yarn is the Aunt Lydia's Fashion 3 Crochet Cotton.  I am obsessed with it.  I love everything about it: the bright colors, the all cotton-ness, the fact that it's so small so all my projects look hand-crafted and not homemade-y.  Yeah, I make up a lot of words, but you get the point. I am crazy about that yarn.

I am not crazy about the way that that yarn comes.  It comes in balls. Not pull skeins.  I suppose that it would tangle too much if it was in a pull skein, but still.  I spend solidly half of my crocheting time pulling yarn from the ball, chasing the ball across the room when I have pulled too vigorously and it rolls off the couch, and then re-winding the mass of yarn that has come off as it rolled around on the floor.  I am unwilling to crochet from a ball rolling around on the floor, if you're thinking that might be an acceptable solution to my problem.  But I had to do something about it.

I went to Target, thinking that they might have something I could use to keep my yarn from rolling around on the floor.  I looked at paper towel holders, closet organizing systems, and I even toyed with the idea of using one of those free-standing toilet paper holders.  None of them were perfect though, and I knew that I would have to fuss with whatever I brought home to make it work.  I knew that I could come up with something better.

When I was in college I took a sculpting class.  One of our projects required an armature, which we made from plumbing supplies and a block of wood.  Something about that project popped back into my mind to use as a solution to my problem. I took a trip to Home Depot to see if I was right.

I picked up two 1/2" metal floor flanges from the plumbing department.  I got two 1/2" x 5" pipes that were threaded at both ends, and I got two 1/2" caps to seal the ends.  I then went to the paint department and grabbed a can of aqua spray paint and some clear gloss spray.  My grand total at checkout was right around $25. (Pardon my hand and camera shadow in the picture! lol!)

I got my supplies home and went to work.  I threaded the pipe into the floor flange, and then twisted the cap onto the other end of the pipe.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!  It took less than a minute.  I grabbed a sheet of paper, so I wouldn't spray paint the lawn, and I went outside.

I put two light coats of the aqua paint on the pieces.  I used a third coat to hold on some glitter, because I love glitter almost as much as I love size 3 crochet cotton.  Then I sprayed the heck out of it with the clear gloss.  I let it dry for about a half hour.  It was a warm sunny day, it might take longer if it was overcast and cold.

My new yarn holders work great!  The spindle parts work like the thread holder on a sewing machine, so I don't have to pull as hard to get the yarn off, and the ball just spins instead of rolling around.  The floor flange is heavy enough that I don't pull it over, and I can see making a bunch of these for when I'm working with lots of colors.  Tres Convenient!!


xoxo

Glamorous Crocheting

Hello Dynamos!
When Mims was about 4 months old, I tripped on my neighbor's front porch step and broke my left pinky.  I am left handed, so it was extra tough.  It won't surprise you that Mims did not seem to take it easy on me because I had a broken finger.  Four-month-olds are selfish like that...

Ahahahahahahahaha!!!

Okay, so my finger was broken at the knuckle, and it still (five years later) doesn't close into a fist all the way.  And it hurts when it rains, but that is not the point I am making.  Where I was going with this story is that I need  to crochet with those ergonomic big-handled crochet hooks or my pinky aches for the rest of the day.  Alas, the big-handled crochet hooks are four times the price of the skinny aluminum ones, and I have a set of the skinny aluminum ones, so OBVIOUSLY I needed to make my own handles.

Yippee! I could make anything I wanted. And I wanted glitter!  I saw a video awhile back that The Crafty Chica did on glittering a floor.  That was what I wanted my crochet hook handles to look like!  Fabulously, glamorously, Zsa Zsa Gabor-worthy glittered!

When I got to the craft store to pick up some polymer clay, I found that the Premo line of polymer clays had glitter colors!  Hooray! My job was half done! I picked up a package of red and blue glitter clay and went on my merry way.

I made my hook handles (1/2 oz is about right for a handle, 30 min at 275 degrees!), and they were glittery and beautiful, in a subtle subdued sparkle sort of way.  A coat of resin helped bring the sparkle out, but it wasn't the fabulous over-the-top blinding-myself-when-I-crochet effect I was looking for.

So, I got out a hook that I had made a handle for in a flat turquoise color, and I got out my micro-glitter.  I gave the handle a thin coat of uv curing resin, and then glittered the heck out of it.  When it had cured, I went for round two, making sure to cover all the spots that weren't sparkly enough!  When the 2nd layer had cured, I gave it a thicker top coating of resin to seal all the glitter inside, so it wouldn't get on me and my projects.  Glitter hook, super awesome. Glitter on my face, not so much.

All in all, this project was super fast and so much fun I would highly recommend you glitter yourself some fabulous hooks.  And my pinky doesn't hurt!

Oh yeah, one last thing, I couldn't help myself.  I crocheted a cover for a green handle with my favorite Aunt Lydia's Size 3 Crochet Cotton.  So soft and squishy, and I like that the green shows through!

xoxo