I crocheted all day yesterday. My hands were tired last night. So, I asked my husband if he wouldn't mind washing the dishes. He said, "Sure, no problem." But when I handed him a pastel version of my lacy dishcloth, he gave me a look that suggested I'd somehow insulted his masculinity.

Note to Self: Self, when asking your husband to wash the dishes, don't push your luck.

Dishcloths My Husband Might Have Liked Better:

Crocheted Dishcloths in Masculine Colors - Photo © Amy Solovay.

• Earthtone ombre dishcloth



• Camel and blue dishcloth

Next time, I'll be sure to give him one of those instead.

See more resources for washing the dishes.

Several days ago, I posted a yarn bargain alert letting you guys know about a deal I found on yarn. This post prompted a couple of interesting comments that I think are worth sharing.

Susan says:

I find oodles of yarn at second hand stores -- often bundled with someone's project -- usually a couple of inches long-I also find fine thread (20, 30, 50) that is in great condition. The harder the yarn/thread is to work with, the more likely it will get donated to a local thrift shop

Thread-lovers, take note! Perhaps you haven't thought of checking your local thrift store for threads and yarns. It's a bit hit or miss, but I've found some good yarn bargains at thrift stores too.

Morgen says:

Walmart closed all the local yarn shops and now is getting ready to stop carrying yarn. I don't shop there - haven't for many years because of this very behavior.

Hi Morgen, Thanks so much for the comment.

I can appreciate what you are saying. I never once in my life bought yarn from Walmart until I started designing crochet projects for About.com.

My own yarn stash mostly consists of vintage, luxury and handspun yarns. I would love to use them more often, but it poses problems. Most handspun yarns are made in small batches, and many are one-of-a-kind. If I were to use my handspun to create the projects for the free patterns I post, you guys would never be able to re-create the projects. (Or at least, not without some difficulty.)

Same with vintage yarns - some of them are really hard to find, and I don't think any of you would want to have to chase them down just to make a project.

Same with the luxury yarns I have in my stash. I have yarns collected from a lot of really fabulous places, and a lot of them I couldn't find again even if I wanted to buy more. So I know you wouldn't be able to find them, either.

So, when I design projects for you guys, I decided to do my yarn shopping at the places most people shop for supplies. Otherwise, I wouldn't be buying yarn at Walmart, either.

I am curious - where do you shop for yarn now? This question isn't just for Morgen - it's for all of you. I'd really like to do my best to design projects using supplies that all of you can find! Even those of you who do shop at Walmart - what will you do if they stop stocking it at your location?

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...