#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MYSTERY AUTHOR DK COUTANT ON GRANDMOTHERS, KNITTING, AND NEEDLEPOINT

Grandmother's Green Sweater

DK Coutant was a Cross-Cultural Psychologist at the University of Hawaii at Hilo studying people and their cultural differences. But after many happy years, she wanted a challenge and made the move out of academics to write mysteries and forecast geopolitical events. Evil Alice and the Borzoi is her first published work of fiction. Learn more about DK at her website. 

My protagonist, Cleo Cooper hasn’t discovered the joy of fiber crafts yet. She is more of an outdoorsy type. So today, I’m going to grab the spotlight and write about my love of fiber crafts.

 

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was a little girl. She was a dedicated knitter, and I still wear sweaters she made for me. But back then, I only knitted when I visited her, to bond with her. When she died while I was in graduate school, I put my knitting away for twenty years.  

Scarf

But once my career was established and our kids left for college, I picked knitting up again. I’d forgotten most of what my grandmother had taught me, but thanks to Google, I managed long rectangles of beautiful wool yarn, otherwise known as scarves. I lived in Hawaii at the time, so unfortunately, we didn’t have much use for wool scarves. After a couple for me and my husband, I sent them off to our kids. Only one of our  daughters lived in cold weather, and our family soon hit scarf-fatigue. But I found I was semi-addicted to the scarf-knitting. I would get restless watching TV and needed something to do with my hands while I relaxed in the evening. 

Luckily a couple of the girls got married. Yay! Husbands I could foist a scarf upon!

 

Then babies, more Yays! I could knit my rectangles and crochet them together along the sides and… Voila! Baby blankets. That was fun and kept me busy for months instead of weeks.

 

The first 3 grandchildren were boys, and wow, I quickly learned those adorable little urchins could be destructive!

As much as I loved my knitting, it seemed wasteful to use all that beautiful yarn for projects that were no longer useful to me or the people I loved. Fortunately, one day I visited a friend with a lovely needlepoint cushion. I asked her about it, and she said her grandmother had made it. That brought back memories of my grandmother. I didn’t think she would mind if I moved from knitting to a different fiber craft. A little more Google-sleuthing and I found wonderful kits with all the yarn and color-coded backing I’d need to complete a project. They were not cheap, but when I compared them to what I used to spend on my luxurious yarn, it wasn’t THAT much more expensive. 

Well, yes, actually it was.

 

For a week I dithered over whether to spend the money on a needlepoint project. Fortunately (for my crafting project), that same week, I had a mishap on a ski slope and (unfortunately for my ankle), broke a bone. It wasn’t a bad break, but I was told to stay off it for a few months. That night I bought two needlepoint projects. It was a great investment. With all that time on my hands and frustrated with not being able to walk, I slowly but surely put together a lovely needlepoint that could be turned into a pillow. 

 

Work in Progress

To my delight, needlepoint takes me MUCH longer than knitting, so the floral needle point kept me busy while my broken ankle healed and for almost a year after that. I found a lovely person who would turn it into a pillow for me (Contact me at my website if you want her name) So when I calculated the extra expense for needle point supplies and pillow- assembly- assistance, and divided it by the long, long, loooong time it keeps be busy, and contentedly occupied, it is a bargain.

 

So I now have a completed pillow to commemorate my broken ankle, and I am still working on the pillow I started at the beginning of Covid (so I guess on the third year now?)

These pillows may make an appearance in a future Cleo Cooper mystery, so keep your eyes out for it!

 

Evil Alice and the Borzoi

A Cleo Cooper Mystery, Book 1

 

Evil Alice and the Borzoi is a not-too-dark, but not-too-light mystery set in Hawaii. Cleo Cooper, a cross-cultural psychology professor, is living the dream on the Big Island of Hawaii. With ocean-dipping weekends, she enjoys her dog, her job, and her boyfriend Ben - until the day she’s on a research vessel and a dead body is caught in the dragline. The police determine it is murder and set their sights on a gentle former student, Kai. It doesn’t take much urging from Kai’s auntie for Cleo to investigate.  But Ben grows distant, and Cleo’s dog grows ill. A couple of accidental deaths later and someone makes an attempt on her life. What happened to Cleo’s life in paradise? Can she discover the true killer? Can she stop the killer before the killer stops her?

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--AUTHOR J.V. CAGGIANO ON HOW WRITING A MYSTERY AND KNITTING GO HAND-IN-HAND

J.V. Caggiano has a day job as a part time feral child tamer. She has also worked retail and so knows true fear. She hoards yarn and knowledge, which guided her career and education choices to a masters in library and Information Science, or as she insists on calling it, her book dragon degree. She resides in the frozen wilds of suburban Anchorage, Alaska with assorted pets and relatives and the North American strategic supply of notebooks. Her website is under construction. For now, you can find her on Instagram and Facebook.

 

I will be honest with you dear reader; I have an obsession. Okay two if you count murder. Okay, three if we count chocolate. But we’re not. We are talking about the softest and most tactile of obsessions, the one currently easily occupying fifty percent of my limited storage space, the other fifty being filled with golden age mysteries, forensic manuals and true crime case studies. (Unfortunately, I don’t have anywhere near that much chocolate.) Before I digress for the second time in one short paragraph, lets get to the point. I am talking about yarn.

 

Yes, an obsession if we’re entirely honest, probably an addiction. Are there currently three packing cases stuffed to bursting with yarn in my office? Yes. Is there a basket under my coffee table the size of a hay bale also full of yarn.? Also, yes. Do I know the owner of my favorite yarn shop by name? Yup. Am I proud of any of these admissions? Well yeah, kind of. Can I drop triple digits in this fantasy land without breaking a sweat ABSOLUTLY. If you are ever in Anchorage, AK, stop at Far North Yarns on the corner of 36^th and Old Seward. You’ll leave broke, but you are not going to feel bad about it. Say hi to Annie for me.

 

Yarn is magic, and knitting is witchcraft. You make strange gestures and there is definitely cursing involved, but in the end that one long string turns into a thing! A thing you can wear or wrap around you. As an aunt and now great aunt, I do a mean baby blanket. Its magic in other ways as well. 

 

I have solved a lot of problems when elbow deep in a sweater pattern. It might be the repetition, the rhythmic pattern, but I find nothing fills a plot hole as well or as quickly as a few hours knitting. I plan my best murders when knitting. Knit and purl patterns work best for story beats and pacing but colorwork is my go-to for a good puzzle. Two color stranded knitting is particularly good for a tricky plot. If truth be told, like other mystery writers before me, I have found very few plot problems that can’t be solved by throwing another body in the mix, but a good Fair Isle or Nordic pattern is a very close second.

 

Perhaps the two are irrevocable linked in my mind because I found writing and knitting at the same time. I had learned very basic knitting, the occasional scarf and one or two half-finished blankets. I only pursued it in earnest when I was hurt at work. I couldn’t move a much between the back injury and the pain meds. We didn’t yet have cable in our first apartment, and you can only watch Divorce Court so many times, even on pain meds. But I will admit, it is the perfect way to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on VHS. 

 

So I tried a hat pattern, finished a blanket, and then made four more hats. Then I got brave and tried a simple sweater pattern. Something about the process scratched the spot in my brain that was made itchy by inactivity. Of course, as a right-handed dyslexic taught how to knit by a left-handed neurotypical, I have been told that I knit upside down and backwards. B it works for me, and it looks the same when I’m done. So I don’t worry about it. I write much the same way, starting with the crime and working backwards and sometimes upside down until I figure out what is going on. And while it’s different from how other people write, it looks like a book when I’m done

 

I was also going through a lot of books, reading things new to me. Somewhere between Agatha Christie and No Stone Unturned, something inside my brain clicked. I wrote a few pages about a lovely woman who owned a tea shop with her wife and had built it into a community hub. And then a few pages later I killed her. 

 

At first, I didn’t know who had killed her despite having created her and her killer. Finding out what happened to my imaginary friend was the most fun I had had in a long time. Now with one published novel under my belt and plans for two series, I hope I have enough patterns to see it through.

 

At Witt’s End

Agatha Christie meets Arsenic and Old Lace. A classic Golden Age puzzle with a character driven plot.

 

Cerridwen Evan Jones has a very brief to do list: Finish and publish her novel. Avoid the head of the local historical society. Make sure Great Uncle Teddy is wearing pants.

 

But when her historic neighborhood is rocked by the discovery of a decades old murder, her list gets a little longer: Find out who broke into her house. Solve a murder. Find out why the hot new neighbor is telling people they are engaged. Stay alive.

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA - MYSTERY AUTHOR C.N. HILL SPINS A TALE WHILE SPINNING WOOL

C.N. Hill is a married mom of five living in Georgia where she get much of her inspiration for her stories. Although relatively new to mystery, she’s published science fiction romance and Regency romance under other pen names. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Although I am a writer first and foremost, I also spend my time as a fiber artist. I take fleece from sheep or alpaca, clean and card them, then spin them on my spinning wheel to make yarn. With the yarn, I knit or crochet sweaters, hats, blankets…you name it. The process is soothing and stimulating at the same time, and I find that if I am stuck in a story, a little fiber art does wonders to help me work it out. I can’t imagine writing without spinning or knitting, and there is always something on my wheel or on my needles. It makes sense, then, that I would incorporate these skills into my books somehow. 

 

In The River House, the hero (Rob’s) mother, Helen, is also a fiber artist. She shows Jenna around her workroom and Jenna becomes enamored with it as well. In the book, Helen has gone so far as to acquire her own flock of sheep! Although not a primary character, she is important to the series and makes an appearance in all the books so far. In future books, Jenna will learn knitting and may delve deeper into fiber as the series goes along.

 

The River House begins with a murder, decades old and a haunted cabin on the edge of a river in the deep South. Jenna is a born medium who has restricted her talents to occasional ghost-hunting trips with her friend Rob and his spirit-seeking troop. When Rob’s cousin suspects a ghost in her newly acquired cabin, Rob brings Jenna on to investigate. What they find takes them on a wild ride to uncover the secrets of the River House and bring a killer to justice before they strike again.

 

The River House

A Jenna Rayne Mystery, Book

 

A reluctant medium, 

a haunted cabin, 

and a hidden killer.

 

The spirit world has always called to Jenna, despite her attempts to escape. College, career, these were the things that she had worked for…until the day an old friend asks for help. 

 

Hidden in a stilted cabin on the river is a decades old murder with a ghost. Who it is and why it is there are secrets Jenna needs to uncover. With her friends Rob and Kerrie, Jenna begins to untangle the clues that will lead to a killer’s identity. But someone doesn’t want her talking to the spirits on the river, and accidents start to dog her heels. It soon becomes clear that the more she explores her talents, the more she endangers herself and those around her. Somehow they need to find the murderer before the murderer finds them. 

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA—M. E. BAKOS WRITES ABOUT CRAFTS, MURDER & OBSESSION

M. E. Bakos writes the Home Renovator Mysteries. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and a spoiled Morkie. If she isn’t plotting new mysteries, she’s planning home projects. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Once upon a time, I craved learning to crochet and the needle arts. With new project enthusiasm, my undertakings were lengthy afghans, which may or may not have been completed. Eventually, I put unfinished items aside, and donated the unused yarn, or gave to friends with nimbler fingers and whose crocheting or knitting looked awesome. Mine, not so much.

But there are times you yearn for small craft projects. The pandemic is one of those times. Earlier, I had discovered round and flat knitting looms, which made my stitches look more professional. I made scarves, caps, etc. but again, stashed the items away in closets or drawers. Now craving a simple soothing diversion from the stresses of life, I dug out the round looms. Thus, the cozy knitted cowl emerged. With our cold Minnesota climate and possessing few turtlenecks, it was a perfect solution to enhance crew sweaters and keep my neck warm. 

 

Even the craft-challenged, such as myself, can complete them. I casted on and used a single knit stitch. I followed directions courtesy of YouTube videos and knitted away. The cowls took a few hours as opposed to the large afghans attempted earlier. It became a sort of obsession.

 

Note: Not all were knitted on round looms. The burgundy cowl started out as a scarf on a flat loom and put aside. I stitched the ends together, and it became another cowl. 

 

Along with the simple knitting, I indulged two other obsessions, watching murder investigations, and home renovation shows. From rehabbing houses, to tiny dwellings, to staging homes for sale, I’m fascinated with what people accomplish with a ‘can do’ spirit. This is where Katelyn, my main character, enters. She does what I choose not to. But, like plans in real life, her projects have pitfalls, contractors don’t perform, mirrors break, and quirky characters abound. Add in a murder that the feisty home flipper is determined to solve, and buckle up for a fun ride.

In Lethal Flip, the third book in the Home Renovator Mysteries, Katelyn continues renovating houses and solves a murder to boot. Could her neighbor across from her easy breezy rehab really have killed his wife? While everyone is absent from Katelyn’s life, his soulful eyes and attentiveness mesmerize her as she rehabs the house. In a nod to current social conditions, loneliness and obsession can strike at any time. So, relax, read a cozy, laugh, and see how characters deal with their challenges.

 

To celebrate the release of her third cozy novel, the first two e-books in the series, Fatal Flip and Deadly Flip, are now on sale. 

 

Lethal Flip 

A Home Renovator Mystery, Book 3

 

Flipping houses can be LETHAL!

 

Katelyn takes on an easy breezy house renovation in Crocus Heights, Minnesota, in the third volume of The Home Renovator cozy mystery series. It’s a breath of fresh air after flipping a house in the crowded Hiptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. No drama or bad juju.

 

But wait, who killed the woman across the street from her newest rehab?

What else can a Home Rehab Specialist do, except play detective? 

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--A NEW PEN NAME AND A NEW KNITTING MYSTERY SERIES FROM AUTHOR MARY ELLEN HUGHES, AKA EMMIE CALDWELL

Emmie Caldwell is the pen name of Mary Ellen Hughes, national bestselling author of the Keepsake Cove Mysteries, the Pickled and Preserved Mysteries, the Craft Corner Mysteries, the Maggie Olenski Mysteries and now the Craft Fair Knitters Mysteries. Learn more her and her books at her website.  

How a Wicked Yarn Began and Grew

My protagonist of A Wicked Yarn, Lia Geiger, is an expert knitter, as is her long-standing group of friends, the Ninth Street Knitters, whose love of knitting joined them together. Having run out of people to knit for, Lia began running a booth for the group at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair to sell their knits but soon got into more than she bargained for.

 

I created Lia and all the characters in A Wicked Yarn, to tell a mystery story. But I made Lia an excellent knitter as one way for me to also create beautiful knits, but with much more ease and speed, not to mention skill.

 

I learned to knit as a child from my mother, as I’d guess many knitters have. My first attempt at about six, I think, was a scarf, and I do remember it growing wider and wider as it grew longer, which was not my intention. I kept no pictures of that.

 

I got a little better over the years, and when my husband and I were dating and we took up downhill skiing, I decided to knit him a ski sweater. My lack of experience led me choose a beautiful pattern but one that called for a double yarn of worsted and mohair. It took me a while (a subsequent engagement and wedding soaked up a lot of free time – no surprise!) but once I finished, I was delighted to see that it actually fit! Unfortunately, it was quite warm. Quite warm. Perhaps if we were living in Alaska, it might have gotten more use. But Maryland winters led my husband to beg off  wearing it except for a few ice skating sessions, and even then, since the skating rinks were indoors, he suffered.

The sweater has been in a drawer  more than not, since then, and though I did knit a few things for my children over the years, writing gradually took over my creative time.

 

Enter A Wicked Yarn. It’s always important for authors to know what they’re writing about, so when Lia got a commission for an alpaca sweater, I wanted to know all about alpaca yarn. The best way for me was to visit an alpaca farm, one where they bred alpacas, sheared their fleece, and turned it into yarn, all on the premises.

 

What a delight! Alpacas are absolutely wonderful animals – friendly, curious, and fuzzy. At the Painted Sky Alpaca farm in Maryland, they were well cared for and loved. After I spent time with many of the alpacas, the owners walked me through the process of washing and spinning alpaca fleece into yarn, some of which was then dyed, and some left in their natural colors.

 

After my time at Painted Sky, I wrote an alpaca farm into the plot of A Wicked Yarn, because why not? If I enjoyed my visit so much, I think my readers will too!

 

Of course, since it’s a mystery, I also slipped in a murder or two, and plenty of danger. But rest assured, no alpacas are harmed. My knitter? Well, it’d be telling too much to share what happens to her. But the mystery does get knotty, and Lia’s investigation grows a bit tangled for a while. But it all knits up in the end, knitters, craft fairs, alpacas, and all. A Wicked Yarn is, after all, a cozy mystery, perhaps as warm and cozy as an alpaca sweater, which was my goal. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

 

A Wicked Yarn:

A Craft Fair Knitters Mystery, Book 1

 

Mother's Day should be a cinch for the good folks of the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, and knitting enthusiast Lia Geiger has a good feeling about this year's yield. But things quickly get knotty when Lia's daughter announces she's quit her job and Lia finds herself tangled up in the murder of her best friend's ex-husband. While Belinda's alibi quickly gets her off the hook, nasty rumors spread throughout Crandalsburg that shroud the entire fair in suspicion.

 

Could the vendors be responsible for the murder of a man hell-bent on unraveling the fair just days before his death? Lia and her crafty group of Ninth Street Knitters must put down their needles to gather clues and save the crafting community they've grown to love

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--THE JOY OF KNITTING WITH MYSTERY AUTHOR KAT JORGENSEN

Kat's current work-in-progress

Kat Jorgensen is both a mystery author and a knitter. Her handsome black cats, Sam and Milo, amuse her and keep her company. Learn more about Kat and her books at her website. 

My Knitting Life

When I was five years old, I’d love to sit on the front porches in my neighborhood with the little white-haired German ladies as they would knit and talk on warm summer afternoons. I was fascinated by how they could take two pointy sticks and a ball of yarn and create beautiful things. 

One lady was making doll clothes. That caught my attention. I wanted to do what they were doing. They pooled their resources and gave me several pairs of needles and shared some of their precious yarn. And my love of the craft of knitting was born.

I was so thrilled with what I was learning, I wanted to show my family. We lived with my grandparents in a big house in the city. It was a time for young families to save their money for a home of their own, and this was a very common practice. At that time my grandparents’ house was full of relatives. But no one had any time to knit or do any sort of craft. My little German neighbors were my first group of knitting peeps. And I dearly loved them. I’d sit with them every chance I got. I listened and learned.

Fast forward many decades (more than I’d care to admit) and I am still knitting. I have taught many people during the ensuing years how to knit, and I consider it paying forward what those sweet ladies taught me in the summer heat all those years ago.

Over the years, I’ve made more items than I can count. Baby blankets, baby clothes, afghans, intricate lace shawls, sweaters, mitts, hats, socks, and on and on. The list is almost as endless as the list of recipients. 

It gives me pleasure to knit. I find it very relaxing. In the rhythm of the needles moving with the yarn, there is a peacefulness and tranquility that lets you escape from the cares and worries of the outside world. Now especially, that is quite a gift.

An afghan made by Kat's knitting friends from
around the world after she lost her husband.

Through knitting, I have made friends around the world. And have found knitters to be some of the kindest and most gentle people you will come across. When I lost my husband after a very brief illness in 2012, my local and online knitter friends surrounded me with love, support, and understanding. They, and the craft of knitting, got me through a very hard time in my life and I am immensely grateful to them and to knitting. 

Who knew all those years ago when that little child sat in awe of those elderly ladies and begged them to teach her how to knit, that it would play such a strong part in my life and lead to so many lasting friendships? Knitting has truly enriched my life.

Your Eight O’clock is Dead

A River City Mystery, Book 1

Becca Reynolds is having a bad day. Her grandfather’s lecture (#405: Eat a Healthy Diet or Die Not Trying) makes her late for her job at Daley & Palmer, the psychiatric group where she works as office manager – her title not theirs. But she knows her day has taken a really bad turn when she finds the firm’s eight o’clock patient dead with Dr. Daley’s letter opener opening the patient instead of the mail.

With the fledgling firm in danger of an early demise, Becca appoints herself the unofficial investigator since the police seem to be looking in all the wrong places.

The case takes Becca from the sordid depths of the Russian mafia to the upscale West End of Richmond, Virginia (known locally as River City), and even to her own back yard. In the course of the investigation, she finds herself in hot water, hot danger, and with dreams of hot men.

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--A HALLOWEEN CRAFTING COZY SALE

This is the time of year when one holiday bumps up against another, beginning with Halloween and ending with New Year’s Day. So here at Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers we’re embracing all these holidays by featuring various holiday-themed books from now through the end of the year. Today we kick things off with A Stitch To Die For, the fifth book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series by my very own author Lois Winston. And as a special Halloween treat, A Stitch To Die For is on sale throughout October for only .99 cents.

Those of you familiar with this blog know that Lois is the writer who takes pleasure in tormenting me by dropping dead bodies into my life on a fairly regular basis. So you can imagine how much worse it might get around Halloween. 

I’ve heard it said that authors are told to write what they know. Well, I have it on good authority that Lois had a few harrowing experiences during Halloweens of her youth. As a result, she’s not a huge fan of the holiday. So, of course, she’s transferred those feelings to yours truly. If you want to know what trouble she creates for me as the goblins and ghosts gear up to roam the streets, check out A Stitch To Die For. 

As with all the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Cozies, crafts are included. A Stitch To Die For includes knitting and crochet patterns for baby blankets.

A Stitch to Die For

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 5

Ever since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--MORE YARN-BOMBING

Apparently, the yarn-bombing craze is still going strong. I came across this yarn-bombed tree in Lambertville, NJ over Memorial Day weekend. I love the fact that the yarn-bomber used not only a variety of colors but also a variety of patterns.

#CRAFTING WITH ANASTASIA--ON THE LAM WITH A CRIMINAL CRAFTER

This doll is a double-offender--sewn and knitted!

Good grief! Don’t tell anyone, but I just learned I’m a crafting scofflaw! There are actually laws on the books in New Jersey that I unknowingly violated for years. Me! Goody Two Shoes! Right now I’m quaking in those shoes, terrified the law is going to catch up with me.

My crimes? Sewing dolls and their clothing and knitting without record keeping. Stop laughing! This is serious!

N.J.S. 34:6-131 states, “The manufacturing, altering, repairing or finishing in whole or in part of any dolls, dolls’ clothing in any tenement house is hereby prohibited.” 

I lived in an apartment in Newark for several years. I’m thinking that qualifies as a tenement of sorts. But even if it doesn’t and I’m off the hook for the dolls and doll clothing I made back then, I still have to contend with N.J.S. 34:6-130.1 According to that law, since 1940, anyone who knits at home in New Jersey “shall keep a daily record of work done, and all employers in said industry shall likewise keep and maintain a record of the daily work done…for a period of two years.”

I never kept any records of my knitting. Didn’t know I had to. I wonder what the statute of limitations is for these two crimes. I’d do a bit of research, but I’m afraid to call attention to myself. Maybe I need to go into hiding.

#DIY HOME DEC PROJECTS

Author Lois Winston, who writes about all of us in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, is back today with some more discoveries from her recent vacation in Canada.

A week ago last Monday I wrote about a blinged-out tiresculpture I came across in Montreal in front of the Musee des Beaux-Arts. This museum is actually five museums connected by underground tunnels. One of those museums features decorative arts and design. Today I’d like to share some unique yarn projects from that museum. If you’re a knitter or crocheter who also enjoys DIY home dec projects, these pieces will be right up your alley—or perhaps not. 😕

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I won’t begin to try to explain the chair and light fixture in the photos because, frankly, they left me speechless!

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--YARN HACKS

If you’re a serious knitter or crocheter, you probably know about yarn bowls. For those of you unfamiliar with yarn bowls, they're decorative bowls, usually made of wood or ceramic, specially designed to hold a ball of yarn and keep it from tangling as you knit or crochet. Yarn bowls are generally handcrafted works of art that can be quite expensive. You can check some out here. 

You don’t need to spend a fortune for a yarn bowl, though. You can make one yourself with a bowl and a banker’s clip. It isn’t beautiful, but it serves the purpose.

No banker’s clips on hand? Use a colander. Or a produce netting bag. Place your yarn in the colander or bag and thread the yarn through one of the holes.

A few months ago I shared photos of some of the teapots I’ve collected over the years. These are mostly only for display purposes, but there are a few I do brew tea in. I also use some of them occasionally as yarn bowls.

#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--KNIT GLITTER YARN SCARF

(Anastasia is in bed with a really bad cold. This craft project first appeared on the blog six years ago.)

Scarves have been a huge fashion accessory for several years now. Women (and many men) wear them year round, even in the heat of summer. However, this time of year we wear them not so much as a fashion statement but to keep our necks warm. It’s cold out there, people!

Because knitting has also seen a resurgence in popularity over the last few years, there are many fashion-inspired yarns on the market and not just in the swanky, expensive knitting shops. You can find them in any craft store and even some big box stores.

Scarves are an easy beginner project for the novice knitter. You don’t need to worry about exacting measurements or following complex instructions. You can make it as wide or narrow, as long or short as you want, and if you choose a bulky yarn and large knitting needles, you can whip up a simple scarf in an evening.

This scarf is made with glitter fringe yarn, but you can choose any bulky yarn that catches your eye. Adjust your width and length as desired and buy additional skeins if you want a wider or longer scarf.

Note: Some yarns contain dye lots. If there is a dye lot on the label, always buy skeins with the same dye lot number.

Glitter Fringe Scarf

Materials:

3 skeins 40 gram Glitter Fringe Yarn

#11 knitting needles

Cast on 15 stitches. Knit 4 rows.

Next row (wrong side): Knit 3, purl 9, knit 3.

Next row: Knit.

Repeat last two rows until scarf measures 48” in length, ending with a wrong side row.

Knit 4 rows.

Caste off.