Currently Obsessed With is a once-a-month (but sometimes more) feature where I talk about my favorite things and everything I’m up to.

One of my goals for this year was to do some new things with crochet, an d I really wanted to talk about it, especially since I’m back to crocheting up a storm.

I don’t have a lot of specific goals, but I do have some!

I really want to learn how to do the magic circle, and have a bunch of different tutorials bookmarked.  I really hope at least one of the makes sense!  By the way, I love that I’m crocheting at a time when finding tutorials is super-easy- and finding one that makes sense is also super-easy and super-awesome.  I even have an awesome pattern that I think would be great- this really cute easter bunny beanie!

Speaking of easter bunny beanies, I’ve been on a search for patterns for stuff I can wear for different holidays. Like a Leprechan beanie for St. Patrick’s Day (which I’m currently working on), and a turkey one for Thanksgiving, and the Easter bunny one, of course.  Plus Santa and Elf hats for Christmas, of course, though I’m sure there are tons of cute Christmas ones out there.  I haven’t really looked for anything Valentines Day or Halloween or Memorial Day/4th of July, but I figure for this year, I can crochet myself something red (I’ve started on a scarf) and maybe a red/pink/white hat made of super bulky yarn, and maybe a heart to go on the hat.

I really want to try new things with crochet, because my tendency is to stick with making the same few things.  Don’t get me wrong, I like making hats and scarves, but I also want to make other stuff too.  Like amigurumi and some more fingerless gloves and maybe I’ll even finish that blanket that I started almost a year ago and never really picked back up.

I also want to learn how to do some new stitches, because I’ve seen a bunch of them on pinterest, and they look so cool!  It’s always fun to try making something that’s a variation on a stitch I already know.  If anyone knows of any books focusing on crochet stitches or blogs/websites that have some tutorials on crochet stitches, I’m definitely open to suggestions!

There are so many awesome things that I can make, and this year seems like the perfect time to try some new things and not put it off because it looks hard and scary.  It’s definitely time to make some new things!

One thing I have been thinking about is starting a gift stash.  In the past, I’ve made things for gift exchanges at work, and it might be nice to have a few already made, instead of furiously trying to crochet something in a short amount of time.  It would definitely be a great way to use some of the yarn stash I’ve been wanting to use (which is mostly so I can buy some shiny, soft new yarn).  Since I have a lot of acrylic, worsted weight yarn, I’ve been thinking of making stuff to donate, so any places that take donations of handmade things would be appreciated!  It’s something I could probably figure out myself, but I don’t even know where to start with something like that.

Speaking of using yarn I already have…I also want to use the yarn I have as much as possible.  I love yarn and it’s fun to buy and look at it and touch, but it’s sort of starting to take over where I have it stored, plus I have yarn stashed in other (random) places, so I kind of need to not buy any more until I’ve actually used some of what I have.

It’s part of why I want to do amigurumi, since I have a ton of Red Heart yarn that would be perfect for it.  And also why I want to start a gift stash.  I definitely have a lot of project ideas, so I’ll definitely be working on the ones that go with yarn I already have.  I even have ideas for the random bits of yarn leftover from other projects!  It’s just enough that I’m not getting rid of it, but not quite enough to do anything with (literally), so I’m going to have to get creative with some of it, but I think I can manage to do something with it.

I’m definitely excited about trying out some new crochet things this year, especially after writing this post!