Coned Cotton Yarn - Photo © Amy Solovay.

I went yarn shopping at Walmart last week, and found a few colors of worsted weight cotton coned yarn on sale for only $3.50 each. I got 3 14 oz. cones of variegated yarn at that price. Not bad. I would have bought even more if they'd had it. (They didn't.)

I can't guarantee that your local Walmart will have coned yarns on sale, or that it will even have coned yarns at all. If you're planning on making a trip there anyway, it might be worth checking the yarn aisle to see if you can find any, although I wouldn't recommend making a special trip just for that. By now, it is possible that all the bargain yarns have found happy homes.

Have you found any good yarn bargains in your neighborhood recently? If so, please give us the scoop on what you found and where you found it!

Colorful Cotton Yarns - Photo © Amy Solovay.

Think back to your childhood for a moment. Did you ever play with paints, or finger paints? You probably remember that mixing red with yellow makes orange, and mixing blue and yellow equals green. You might think that information doesn't help you much when it comes to crochet, though - you can't mix yarns in the same way that you can mix paints.

Potholder - Photo © Amy Solovay.

What you can do instead is use yarns together in a way that fools the eye into seeing color blends. For example, in these colorful potholders, there are rows in which you use two different colors, and it gives the illusion that the colors have been mixed together.

There are all kinds of amazing effects you can achieve using this simple idea. We'll be exploring that idea more in depth in future projects, but these potholders are fantastic introduction to the concept if it is new to you.

• See more close-up photos of this potholder
• Find a whole bunch more free crocheted potholder patterns

• See more "Wordless Wednesday" posts from around About.com
• Or, see even more Wordless Weds. blog posts from all over the Internet

A reader named Sharon recently submitted a crochet tip that I wanted to point out.

Picture of Finished Product

I wish I had taken a picture of my finished projects over the years with who I gave it to.

--Guest Sharon

Me too, Sharon! I sooooo wish I had done that! In fact, I really wish I had taken pictures of all my projects, even the ones I kept. Some of them got destroyed by my cat. Some of them got stained, fuzzy, or otherwise thrashed due to frequent wear. I wish I had taken pics of how the projects looked when they were in pristine, brand new condition.

So here's another idea prompted by Sharon's fantastic tip. Why not start a crochet scrapbook?

Even if you don't want to dedicate a whole scrapbook to your crochet projects, you'll thank yourself later if you get in the habit of taking a photo of your completed crochet projects.

Thanks for the tip, Sharon!

Related Resources:

• See more crochet tips, or share your own tips with others
• Learn more about scrapbooking

Plus Other Free Skull Patterns and Ideas

Skulls and skeletons have been trendy recently. As a fashion trend, skulls seem to have come and gone periodically throughout the years. I was hoping that the trend would just go away after the hubbub from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies died down - but it hasn't.

This month, skulls are as trendy as ever. Part of it is because they appeal to people who favor the "goth" look. Part of it is no doubt due to the timing; October is always a popular month for skulls, skeletons and other scary stuff.

Skulls aren't really my thing, but if they were, I'd be loving Sandi Marshall's crocheted skulls. Her skull wristlets are great for Halloween, but they'd probably see year-round usage if you (or the recipient) would wear them to rock concerts, horror movies, etc. Sandi Marshall's other crocheted skull patterns are equally appealing.

Crochet Skull Patterns:

• Trendy skull wrist warmers
• Skull shape
• Skull square

More Free Skull Patterns and Ideas:

• Cross stitch skull and crossbones
• Cross stitch charts for Day of the Dead skulls
• Skull face painting video

You know that old cliche, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" How many words do you think a crochet video is worth? I'm thinking, it must be at least a trillion or so...

I love crochet because you can use it to make pretty, lacy things. I also love crochet because you can use it to create exquisite textural and colorful creations. Those tend to be the types of projects I like to create, although I do plenty of experimenting.

I have a confession to make. I hate Halloween. I do not enjoy scary things, creepy crawly things, blood, guts, gore, monsters, synthetic wigs, skeletons, skulls, or any of the stuff that goes along with them. Ick.

I think I am probably in the minority when it comes to hating Halloween...and that's OK. I have to wonder how many of you want Halloween patterns though. So please tell me how you feel about Halloween. Love it? Hate it? Do you crochet Halloween projects?

Halloween Patterns

For those of you who do want to crochet Halloween projects, check out these designs by Sandi Marshall:

• Crocheted spider


• Fantasy bat banner


• Black cat chart

If you've been crocheting for awhile, you've probably made your fair share of mistakes - and learned from them, too. I know I have. Those of you who are experienced crocheters have gathered many insights that could be helpful to beginners. Why not share them with others?

I've dedicated a new page to readers' best crochet tips. If you have a good tip to contribute, I invite you to surf on over there and post it. Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge with all of us.

If you're new to crochet, or in need of some tips, I invite you to bookmark that page and check it periodically to see new tips as they get posted. I hope you will find it helpful.

Apple Purse - Photo © Amy Solovay.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile now, you've seen the pattern for this beaded crochet apple before. Perhaps you were scratching your head wondering what exactly to do with the apple. Here is one possible idea; you can use it as an applique to decorate a pretty crocheted purse.

To make this purse exactly as shown, you would combines several techniques:

• Tunisian Crochet: The body of the bag is made using Tunisian simple stitch.


• Beaded Crochet: The apple applique incorporates beads, craft wire and crocheting.


• Cross Stitch: After attaching the beaded apple motif, you fill in the space inside the apple with cross stitching.

The purse can also be crocheted without the apple design. If you don't care for the apple, just omit it and make the bag a solid color instead.

Related Resources:

• Crocheted gifts for teachers
• Cross stitch basics
• Free Tunisian crochet patterns
• Crocheting with beads