Smiling crocheted test tubes and beakers with eyes.

Tangled Up Crafts

Crafts and other adventures with Amanda.

Amanda

4 minutes read

One thing I like to do with my hobbies is spend money on them. Yeah. I’m probably not alone in that.

When I picked up crocheting again, I wanted some fun projects to work on, and some nice yarn to try out. My tastes (and budget) have improved significantly since I started my afghan 17 years ago. I no longer need to limit myself to bargain-bin Red Heart Super Saver yarns and cheap metal hooks bought with coupons. I talked to a crafty friend (Jenn at craft.jenn.dev) and did some searching around online and decided to try a subscription box. With a new yarn and a new pattern to try every month, I couldn’t get bored, right? Plus, I’d get to try some fancy yarns and hopefully learn something new!

After a couple weeks of research, I decided to give myself the gift of a Knitcrate box. I ordered the January 2020 box for my birthday and decided to see how it went. Knitcrate is a yarn subscription box delivered monthly. A nice teal box shows up on my doorstep, and inside are 2 hanks of some of the most amazing yarn I’ve ever touched, a booklet with at least 1 knitting pattern and 1 crocheting pattern (plus 2 sock patterns for people who get a sock-yarn box and the occasional bonus pattern), and a small surprise of some kind.

My first Knitcrate, the lovely turquoise box. My first Knitcrate, January 2020 yarns, chill out box.

The first box was amazing. So I keep getting them. I’m patiently awaiting my 4th box, which should be showing up on my doorstep sometime on Monday. Yay! Right, so the first box had 2 hanks of 100% Merino superwash yarn in two different but related colorways. I’ve never worked with wool before. I had no idea what Merino or superwash meant. I didn’t know what a colorway was and had never seen yarn in a hank before. I was learning a lot right from the beginning! I was also in over my head. And obsessed. And I bought 4 more hanks of the yarn, 2 in each colorway, because I had no idea what to do with it. Fun!

I think in future posts, I’ll do a review of each of my Knitcrate boxes. But so far they have been everything I hoped for and more.

Now, the inspiration of today’s post was an ad I saw on Instagram from Furls. (Yes, I am very susceptible to yarn advertisements.) Furls is a brand of crocheting (and knitting) tools, and they have a yarn line too. I ran across the site (furlscrochet.com) one day while searching for a yarn bowl and I found the most beautiful crochet hooks I’ve ever seen. I immediately wanted an Odyssey Turquoise hook or three and a ceramic yarn bowl in white and turquoise. Unfortunately, I couldn’t justify spending $66 on a single crochet hook and another $20 on a yarn bowl. But I have been covetous from that day, and have occasionally browsed the selection of high-end, beautiful, and very expensive hooks since then.

The ad I ran across today was for a Furls Quarantine Kit. For only $28 and ‘free quarantine shipping’ (yes that is a direct quote from the site), you get one of their beautiful Streamline Swirl hooks in a choice of 5 colors and various sizes, a skein of Whims Merino yarn in your choice of 5 colors and 2 weights (DK or Worsted), and 4 patterns each meant to be made with 1 skein of the yarn. I was smitten. I was struck with desire. I wanted it so much!

I showed the site and kit to my husband, hoping he’d tell me I have enough yarn, enough hooks, plenty of patterns and too many works in progress (WIPs). A single negative or even neutral response would have convinced me to drop it. Instead he smiled and said “what else are you going to do while we’re stuck inside? You might as well get it and have another project to work on! Plus, it’s not like yarn goes bad.” My lovely, enabling, husband. I love him so. So supportive of my ridiculous spending. I then shared my find with my crafty friend (Jenn at craft.jenn.dev), hoping she’d talk me out of it. Instead, she bought her own! So I had to, right? (I know, any excuse to spend money on things I want!)

I’m now the soon-to-be proud owner of a Furls Cherry Streamline Swirl crochet hook in a 5.0 mm size, a skein of Whims Merino in the colorway Charcoal, and a pattern for a beautiful project bag that can be made with my skein of yarn and new hook. I was initially going to get the hook in Café, a beautiful neutral brown and cream swirl pattern. But the red was so ostentatious! So bold and beautiful! So shiny and bright! So appealing! Again, I couldn’t resist. Story of my life!

Furls Cherry Streamline Swirl crochet hook

Now I have to wait patiently for my indulgence to arrive.

If you want to get your own Furls Quarantine Deal, you can get it on their website here.

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