My Crochet Journey EP4

Here we are, a new era in the crochet adventure. A total change in my attitude towards designing. "Quality, not Quantity".

So want does this mean for Canoe Mtn Designs? If I'm not going to produce 3-4 designs every month, what do I do with all of the yarn I purchased over the winter?! Looks like I won't have to buy yarn for quite a while lol. You know how it is..... when there is an amazing sale..... you need to stock up! Yarnspirations had some yarn at 50% - 70% off so I stocked up on some of the available colors. Since I make so many blankets every year, I purchased enough of the colors to make many blankets.

Side Story: I don't think I ever explained how I came up with "Canoe Mtn Designs". Well, when I look out my living room window I'm looking straight south at Canoe Mountain. As I was trying to come up with a name for my new design business I happened to be looking out the window for inspiration, and there it was.

This photo was taken as we were driving into town on our way home from Texas at the beginning of April. As you can see, Canoe Mountain is quite impressive! Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is where I live.

For the rest of 2025 I really want to get back into crocheting for fun and donating.

Yes - designing is fun (though a bit stressful as well), and I donate everything, but I wasn't creating with the intention of donating. I was creating to make a pattern and sell it. That does make it stressful and not quite as enjoyable as I feel crocheting should be. The yarn in the photo below is some that I bought with the intention of making hats and scarves to donate. The 2 bottom bags are unlabelled. They feel like Red Heart, not soft at all. Will make that yarn into scarves and wash before donating in hopes that it gets softer.

The top 4 skeins are Premier Sweet Roll Vivid. I have a friend who loves to use this yarn for hats for kids. She showed me some photos of hats she did I thought the colors were awesome! I have 3 skeins of each color, so hoping I can make at least 2 hats with each color.

These are the hats and ear warmers I created with the Premier yarn. Aren't the colors amazing?! The yarn is nice and soft as well & easy to work with. Unravels well too.

I'm still working on the Red Heart yarn.

It's been fun working on hats, ear warmers and scarves where there wasn't any pressure to produce a pattern. Just crochet for the enjoyment of crocheting and producing something pretty someone will wear and enjoy.

Don't worry - there are new patterns coming :) Lots of blankets lol. I am taking a designer course, it's been a bit of a bust so far, not very helpful, too much "fluff" that isn't useful. But one thing that was said has really stuck with me: "We crochet for US, and write the pattern for THEM". A lot of my designs have been something I thought other people might enjoy and want to purchase. It hasn't always worked out that way. So maybe I need to crochet/design what I want, write the pattern, and if it sells great! If not, well, I had fun making the project, coming up with the design, using the yarn, and donating the finished item to someone who needs it. Right now I feel that I need to make blankets. So many ideas in my head.

These are finished blankets. Some are in testing, some I have just finished.

There are also a lot of beanie & scarf patterns that need updating as well, so watch for those!

I have also found out that I work/think better if I have a regular schedule. Being retired means there isn't a schedule lol. We have been home for 3 weeks, but I still feel like I'm trying to catch up. Hopefully in a week or two I will have a set time of day I can work on crochet and not worry about anything else.

That's it for now. I will post about my crochet journey every now and then when I think there is something fun to write about.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your crochet journey!

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