Thrift Store

The Marklund Thrift Store has become one of my regular stops lately. They drew me in with their 50% off sale a few weeks ago. That's when I got this bundle.
Looking for blankets/rugs to line the dog crate, I found this large, never opened, factory stapled, bag of yarn and stuff. I had no idea what the project was supposed to be because the paper enclosed was folded to the inside. There were many, many hanks of some kind of yarn,
a very large piece of burlap and some kind of hooking tool. It was marked $15 and but it was 50% off. I didn't want to buy more acrylic, I like to look for wool or unusual fibers (in sweaters) when I go there. Hmmm, so what to do. I flipped the bag around several times and then saw a hole in one of the plastic seams. The yarn felt very scratchy. Since this looked quite old, could have been some low quality acrylic. Still not satisfied, I continued to look closely. I noticed each hank was tied with a piece of string with a tag and a hand written number on it, most likely a color code for whatever this project was meant to be. Then I saw it, one of the tags was flipped to the other side and printed on it was "100% Pure Virgin Wool"...ooooo, the felting possibilities!!!

Icelandic Shawl

Today is not just about crochet but about knitting. Even though I don't knit, I subscribed to the Knitting Daily weekly newsletter just for patten ideas. This is one of those ideas. Next week Knitting Daily is going to publish the knit instruction for this shawl. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it....I don't know if it was the colors or the patterns of the rows or what. All I know is that I HAVE to make this. So, not knowing how to knit this presents a couple of challenges....
1. I don't know how to knit
2. Not sure I could even correctly read a knitting pattern
3. Don't know if I could translate a knitting pattern to crochet
With that said, however, I am determined...I WILL figure out a way to make this shawl!! Stay tuned.....

The NEXT Next Generation Crocher

Wow, I'm so proud!! Meet the NEXT Next Generation Crocheter, my daughter Sydney. She learned to make a chain last summer when she was 5, couldn't get the hang of the first row of SC. She showed an interest again last week so we found her hook (AMAZING!!), I let her pick out some yarn from the scrap stash and she was off making necklaces and bracelets out of chains in no time . She found a basket to keep all her stuff in - hook, yarn and a pair of scissors. Yesterday she wanted to learn the next step. So we got it all out and she actually did pretty well with the first SC row this time, finding the "bumps" on the back of the chain was much easier than the two loops...whatever works best. On to the regular row of SC...she struggled a bit finding the two loops but she is a very determined child. We put it away before she got too upset and we'll try again tonight. She loves when I bring home new yarn and let her go to the craft store with me....this apple doesn't fall far from the tree!!