1. Red & Green, Blue & Silver or Turquoise & Hot Pink (if you’re feeling retro), are suddenly your favorite colors.
2. You think “Black Friday” sales at the mall are for losers; you started shopping for gift-making supplies in July.
3. Your secret love of packaged jingle bells can now be unleashed without embarrassment.
4. You sacrifice your mani/pedi AND hair budgets to get a Yudu, so you can screen print catchy (yet ironic) holiday tees for all of your friends. Here are a couple of suggestions:”Yule be hearing from my people!” or “It ’tis what it ’tis”.
5. You notice how the flat sides of a dreidel are the perfect canvas for some Glam-it-Up Crystals!
6. Anything in your house that can be folded, printed or painted on suddenly becomes wrapping paper.
7. You lay awake nights thinking about Christmas card themes and whether or not to actually make the individual cards yourself OR just stage a holiday photo for all of them, which would then include handmade costumes for all subjects involved. It’s a really tough decision.
8. You buy knitting needles in sizes that you already own, because they’re offered in candy cane colors. You feel that you neeeeeeed them, before you can cast-on for that Fair Isle stocking you want to knit. It just makes sense.
9. Although you’re not normally a tea towel kinda gal, you must admit that they’re pretty adorable with punch-embroidered holly on them. You then purchase a punch embroidery set and RSVP yes to all of the parties that will require host gifts. Your towels are going to be awesome.
11. Your excited about the over abundance of advertisements in your mail this time of year, because it means more newspaper for you to turn into yarn to make Extra-Eco Frames for everyone on your gift list.
12. If you can Dremel a hole in it, no item is safe in your house from becoming a tree ornament.
13. You change the organization of your Tulip Fashion Paints so that the holiday colors are in front, thereby including your craft supplies in your decor aesthetic. Oh, you love them so!
14. Instead of reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to your children, you gather them ’round to flip through the Holiday Issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine.
15. It makes absolute sense to you that the aisles in Michaels stores are filled with wreaths, pine cones and flocking spray as of June 1st–as long as there’s also a 50% off coupon to buy them with.
16. Instead of taking vacation days off to visit your out-of-town family for the holidays, you reserve them for December trips to the Bust Craftacular in New York, the Blue Genie Art Bazaar in Austin, and the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago.
17. Instead of tree decorating parties, you throw Make-Your-Own-Merriment soirées. People unwilling to use Fabric Markers or Collage Pauge, are not invited.
18. You feel that the best pairing with spiked, Spiced Cider is crochet.
19. This is your favorite television season, because there tends to be a lot of knitwear in winter episodes.
20. “The Festival of Lights” seems like an open invitation to incorporate LEDs into that cape pattern you saw on Burda Style. You’re pretty sure there’ll be instructions on how to do that over on the MAKE website.
21. You’re campaigning to change the saying, “Give the gift of giving.” to, “Make the gift of making.” Wait, what?
22. Instead of trolling the pages of Amazon for ideas of gifts to buy, you spend hours looking on Etsy for ideas of gifts to make. You feel better knowing that if you run out of time, you can always purchase something from their that’s been handmade by someone else.
23. It’s sequin season, right?
24. Starting at around October, your kids’ teachers start dropping color hints just in case you should decide to make them a scarf instead of getting them another Starbuck’s gift card. They usually bat their eyelashes at the same time.
25. You have a bumper sticker on your car that says, “Honk for Handmade Holidays!” or “Deck the Halls with D.I.Y.”
When in Micheals or Joanns you keep eyeing the knittng/crochet yarns that are on sale in colors you love that you suddenly already plan on knitting/crocheting them into holiday gifts for your family or friends. LOL.
The March YarnYAY! Box crochet project is 𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘵, a crochet, boomerang shawlette. The shape is more commonly seen in knitted pieces, but I love it because if you want the piece to be larger, you just keep working it in the established pattern.
𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘵 is worked with a sweet, as-to-go edging and optional, appliquéd, chain-florets. I designed it to be worn as shown here, scarf-style, but with the option to go full-shawl. You do you!
𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗼𝘆𝗮 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 — 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗝𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿 — 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗬𝗔𝗬! 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝘅 (𝘁𝗮𝗽, 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼, 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗬𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗬𝗔𝗬.𝗰𝗼𝗺)
MODEL FUN FACT:
The gorgeous human modeling this shawlette, Kat Roberts, was the main featured young woman (swipe to see) in the infamous 1992, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog video “Nothing But a G Thang”. That video didn’t age well, but man, she sure did! 🤩
#yarnyay #crochetersofinstagram...
We are so excited that our friend and YarnYAY! Design Manager, @juliamadill's Overprint Bag design was published in the Spring '23 issue of @pompommag !
We love the graphic look, and environmentally conscious purpose of this crochet tote so much, that we've put together two colorful, Montoya Merino Light kits to celebrate!
Go to the YarnYAY! shop link in my @vickiehowell bio to learn more AND get a 20% off discount for the digital issue of the magazine.
Oh, and keep your eyes open for a crochet-along, coming on 3/29!
𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝗦𝘁. 𝗣𝗮𝗱𝗱𝘆'𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆!🍀
The YarnYAY! 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘉𝘰𝘹'𝘴 featured shade of 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘺𝘢 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 (Desert Jasper), feels right at home with this holiday, so 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀! See below for details.
Side note (that likely no one by me will care about): Giving away hanks on St Patrick's Day, of my Montoya Merino yarn feels appropriate as my dad used to always say that my brother and I were Spirish (Spanish + Irish). Thank you for listening.
HOW TO ENTER TO WIN:
👉🏼Follow @vickiehowell and #yarnyay
👉🏼Tag a friend with this post
👉🏼Comment on 3 of my posts with this emoji: 🍀
*𝘜𝘚 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺. 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘹 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 (𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘥) 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘋𝘔. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝟹/𝟸𝟶/𝟶𝟹 𝘢𝘵 𝟷𝟷:𝟻𝟿𝘱𝘮𝘊𝘛....
So very many of those are so very true for me. lol
When nothing short of a homemade stocking will do for the new baby!
I got one Vicki.
When in Micheals or Joanns you keep eyeing the knittng/crochet yarns that are on sale in colors you love that you suddenly already plan on knitting/crocheting them into holiday gifts for your family or friends. LOL.
I just discovered your blog today and I. LOVE. IT. *laughs* Will definitely be going through the archives!
Happy Holidays!
Jennifer ^_^
Avalon 76: Glad to have you here–welcome!