Monthly Archives: September 2024

Uses for Scrap Yarn

You can use up all your scrap yarn by crocheting coloful granny squares with it. Get an easy, free basic granny square pattern here!

A few days ago, a friend asked if he could have some of my yarn and embroidery floss. He doesn’t crochet, knit, sew or cross stitch, so I was puzzled by the request.

“What are you going to do with the yarn?” I asked him.

He said, “I’m going to use it to tie flies for fly fishing.”

Turns out that he didn’t need big pieces; he was happy to have a bunch of little pieces of my scrap yarn.

I was more than happy to give the scraps to him. I rarely throw any pieces of yarn away, not even the pieces that are too small to do anything with…so they tend to accumulate in my stash. Yay! I made a fisherman happy, and decluttered a bit at the same time.

More Ways to Use Up Scrap Yarn:

Use up your scrap yarn by making cute little loom-crafted flowers! Haafner Linssen’s book, Crochet Loom Blooms, shows you how to do this. Photo courtesy of Interweave.

Use your scrap yarn to crochet flowers
Make granny squares
Find more free scrap yarn patterns for crochet and knitting HERE.

Halloween Crochet Patterns: Halloween is the Ideal Holiday for Beastly Crochet

Brenda K.B. Anderson’s pattern book, Beastly Crochet, wasn’t specifically intended to be a book of Halloween crochet patterns. However, if you celebrate Halloween, October is a great time for crocheting the patterns in the book. That’s because this pattern collection is all Halloween friendly.

Beastly Crochet Book by Brenda K.B. Anderson, Published by Interweave

For example, let’s take the critters on the Beastly Crochet book cover (pictured.) If you look closely at their mouths, you’ll see these little monsters are stuffed with candy. They’re the perfect storage units for all the Halloween candy your little trick-or-treaters or party-goers might collect on Halloween night.

Cute, aren’t they?

You can crochet and felt them using the pattern and instructions given in this book.

If you want to make Halloween costumes for yourself or a child you know, this book has patterns you could use. There’s a super cute pattern for Sasquatch Slippers and Mittens, which I think might also work as bear claws. So you could dress up as a sasquatch or a bear if you make these. There’s also a vampire hat which could be the basis for an interesting Halloween costume.

The sweet skull hairpins are totally Halloween friendly. If those aren’t quite what you had in mind, you can check out bunches more knit and crochet skull patterns here at this website. The link takes you to a list that’s mostly free patterns aside from the ones included in this book and a couple of others that are worth paying for (in my opinion). Beastly Crochet also includes a sugar skull bag pattern, which I think is a little creepy — but I guess that’s the idea, right?

One of the fantastic things about this book is that the patterns are great for Halloween, but you can also use them at other times too. That translates to a great value for the time and money you spend on both the book and the projects. A big thumbs up to that!

Overall I really enjoyed this book, which tells you a lot since I am not someone who ordinarily enjoys crocheting skulls or creepy projects.

If you want more details about the book and its contents, I invite you to click here for my detailed book review.

See Also:

Fall Brings Sweater Weather

Autumn is the time of year that many knitters and crocheters most look forward to. We can’t wait to savor pumpkin spice lattes, and we’re excited to cheer for our favorite college football teams. But, best of all, we love to get out our handmade sweaters and flaunt them — and fall is definitely the best season for that.

When the trees decide it’s time to transform from green to rich hues of orange and gold and red, we’re there with our cameras in hand, ready to snap selfies showing off every intricate cable or colorwork motif in our handiwork.

Fashion trends come and go, but sweaters are eternal. And, if you knit or crochet, you can never have too many sweater patterns.

Are you thinking of knitting or crocheting a new fall sweater any time soon? If so, there are some outstanding sweater pattern books you should be aware of.

Traditional Danish Sweaters for Fall and Winter

Traditional Danish Sweaters — A Knitting Pattern Book Published by Trafalgar Square Books

If you’re interested in knitting warm wool sweaters featuring classic Scandinavian motifs and styling, you’ll definitely want to take a look at a lovely pattern book called Traditional Danish Sweaters. This book is a unique combination of history book, design workbook, sweater knitting pattern book and knitting stitch dictionary. The designs included in this book are all wearable ones that I think will be of interest to knitters who are interested in working sweater patterns.

The Crochet Closet

The Crochet Closet: A Crochet Sweater Pattern Book by Lisa Gentry, Published by Leisure Arts. Photo Courtesy of Leisure Arts.

The Crochet Closet is not a new book, but it features lovely crocheted sweater designs that look as fresh and new now as they did when they were originally published.

One of the best things about this book is the inclusive size range. The book includes sweaters patterns that have been graded for a broad range of sizes, including extra large sizes.

If you enjoy crocheting sweaters, this book is definitely worth your consideration.

Learn More About The Crochet Closet Book by Lisa Gentry

Enjoy the sweater weather this year, my friends! Happy knitting and crocheting!

By Amy Solovay

September Crafts: Fall-Friendly Craft Ideas to Work on This Month

Fall Craft Ideas

September Knitting

September Planner Dashboard Plus Fall Craft Supplies and Project Ideas — Pictured here: Fall-friendly yarn includes Andean Treasure, High Desert and Bare Hare by Knit Picks; My September Planner Dashboard is by Maggie Holmes / Crate Paper; I’m writing in my planner with Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Pens; I’m reading Nordic Knits by Birger Berge, published by Trafalgar Square Books; and I’m going to use my Clover Takumi bamboo knitting needles to knit a cabled scarf using one of the patterns in this book.

September Craft Ideas: Try Entrelac Knitting! Entrelac knitting is a technique you can use for creating intriguing textured projects that appear to be woven. Pictured here is a book by authors Heidi Eikeland and Mette Hovden that is focused on giving you projects using this technique. Trafalgar Square Books is the publisher.

Maja's Swedish Socks -- A Sock Knitting Pattern Book by Maja Karlsson, Published by Trafalgar Square Books

Maja’s Swedish Socks — This is another fantastic book filled with fall-friendly knitting projects. It’s a sock knitting pattern book by Maja Karlsson, -published by Trafalgar Square Books.

September Planner Crafts

September Garden Journal Pages for Discbound Planners Like Happy Planner, Arc or Tul

If you maintain a physical planner, junk journal, scrapbook, or art journal, you might want to decorate your September calendar pages, journal pages or scrapbooking layouts with seasonal stamped images or embellishments. I invite you to check out the following pages for ideas:

Garden Journal Pages: This page has information on how to put together September garden journal pages plus additional pages for the other months besides just September.
How to Create Your Own Planners and Calendars
How to Make Your Own Academic Planner: School Diary DIY Calendar Project Idea

September Scrapbooking and Journaling Ideas

Fall Themed Mini Album Titled Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice Featuring Supplies by Simple Stories

You’ll miss out on seeing some of the world’s most inspiring scenery if you sit at home on your couch during the month of September. This is the time of year when the trees are showing off their most splendid color schemes. If you have a park or a hiking trail nearby, you can feast your eyes as you go for a stroll. You’ll want to grab a friend and your phone or camera and take photos of the all the beauty that you encounter along the way.

Then you’ll want to document your memories in a scrapbooking layout or mini album.

Fall Themed 6x8 Pocket Page Scrapbooking Layout With Photo of Utah's Dixie National Forest

Fall Themed 6×8 Pocket Page Scrapbooking Layout With Photo of Utah’s Dixie National Forest

If any of these fall scrapbooking projects look interesting to you, you can click the photos to find more information about each one. If those ideas aren’t quite what you had in mind, you can check out this page of scrapbooking ideas to find a wider variety of projects.

September Holiday Crafts

Snowflakes Crochet Pattern From the Classic Christmas Crochet Book by Heidi B Johannesen and Pia H. H. Johannesen, With Photography by David Bering / Montgomery

Christmas will be here before you know it. If you celebrate this holiday, and you plan to give handmade gifts to your inner circle, you’ll want to consider devoting some time this month to making Christmas crafts. I’ve posted bunches of free Christmas craft patterns here at this website, and I’ve also reviewed bunches of amazing Christmas craft books you might like to know about.

September Art Projects

Reinterpreting Autumn — An Original Collage Painting by Amy Solovay

If mixed media art is your jam, why not make an abstract collage featuring fall colors? Pictured here is one possible idea you could use for inspiration, but there are zillions of possibilities beyond this one.

September Crochet Projects

Pictured above, you can see work-in-progress shots of the fingerless gloves I’ve been crocheting this month.

I am enthralled by this design and am planning to release a pattern for it soon. However, I’ve had a major setback with that, because my computer died earlier this month. Beyond that, my own personal projects are somewhat on hold while I help my husband with copywriting for his tech startup.

So this pattern release has come to a temporary standstill while I navigate those real-life issues.

The fingerless glove pattern is stuck in testing phase; I’m working my way through testing the design myself and fixing minor oddities in the pattern before sharing it with a broader group of pattern testers. If you’re interested in helping me test this pattern, please drop me a comment or contact me, and I will get you the details of the test as soon as they are available. In the meanwhile, please be patient with me. Thank you for your understanding.

Find More September Crafts and Other Fall Craft Ideas to Carry You Through Autumn

The projects posted above are just a small sampling of the ideas posted on this website. I’ve put together a list of fall crafts that are seasonally appropriate for September, October and November crafting in many regions of the Western hemisphere.

Of course, if you are in Australia, you’re likelier to need spring project ideas right now, so I offer you this list of spring ideas instead.

For even more ideas, you’re invited to check out our main index of craft project ideas. Happy crafting!!

By Amy Solovay

Happy Fall Card Making Idea With Bear Cubs and Autumn Trees

Happy Fall Card With Bear Cubs and Autumn Trees

Last fall, the lovely people over at the Lawnfawnatics Blog hosted a challenge with the theme of “Awesome Autumn”! Pictured here, you can see one of my entries for this challenge; I made a card featuring cute bears, autumn trees and an expansive blue sky.

In my opinion, the best thing about this card is the soft, watercolor-y appearance of the surfaces made from papers from the “Watercolor Wishes” paper pack by Lawn Fawn. The grass looks so velvety, the trees look so lush, and the sky looks so dreamy thanks to these beautiful papers. This design wouldn’t be at all the same if you just used a solid colored cardstock (I tried making a similar card using different papers, and I do like the results, but I LOVE the look of this finished card much more than I like the other one — and it’s the “Watercolor Wishes” papers that make the most significant difference between the two designs).

Supplies You Will Need for Creating a Similar Happy Fall Card:

“Den Sweet Den” stamp set by Lawn Fawn

Lawn Fawn Simple Stitched Trees Border Die Set

Watercolor Wishes Patterned Paper by Lawn Fawn: To create this design, you need the green paper from this pack for the grass, the blue paper for the sky and the yellow and orange papers for the leaves on the trees. If you don’t feel like coloring your bears using Copics or other markers, you can also use the orange or the yellow paper for stamping the bears (which is what I did here). It could also be pretty to try making a card like this with a different color, like the purple or the pink, for the sky — to emulate a sky at sunset.

Milo’s ABCs Stamp Set for stamping the “Happy Fall” sentiment

A scrap of white cardstock for stamping the sentiment

There are different ways you could cut out the “Happy Fall” sentiment to make it look like the example pictured here. You could use a scalloped circle die to do the job. Or you could use a circle template plus scalloped scissors. I opted for the circle template plus paper edgers, but you’d likely get a more even shape if you went for the die instead.

Walnut Stain Distress Ink for stamping the bears

Fired Brick Distress Ink for stamping the “Happy Fall” sentiment

Stormy Sky Distress Oxide Ink for inking around the edges of the card in the spots where the paper is blue at the outer edge

Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide Ink for inking around the edges of the card in the spots where the paper is green at the outer edge

Brown Marker: You might or might not need this, depending on how you use your dies. The hillside and the tree trunks can be cut in one piece; if you use the green Watercolor Wishes paper to do this, you’ll end up with a lovely green hillside (which you want) with watercolor-y green tree trunks (which you probably don’t want). That’s where the brown marker comes in; you can simply color over the green tree trunks to make them brown. Another option would be to use an ink blending tool and ink to color over the tree trunks.

Peach Marker or Other Coloring Tool: I used a Marvy Uchida highlighter to color the scalloped edge around my sentiment, but there are a lot of possibilities for this; you could use a Copic marker, a colored pencil or really, any coloring media for this.

I love how this card turned out! Thanks for dropping by to check it out.

Posted By: Amy Solovay

More Fun Paper Craft Projects Featuring Lawn Fawn Stamps, Papers and Supplies

Craft Ideas for Using Lawn Fawn Stamps, Papers and Supplies

Knitting, Crochet and Crafts

Find Fun, Easy Craft Ideas and Instructions