yarn – Faith Love n Joy

My First Set

Posted on January 3, 2026December 24, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

If you know anything about me and my love for crochet, you know the C2C (corner-to-corner) stitch is my favorite. Up until now, I’ve made one scarf and several blankets using this stitch—and honestly, I’m always looking for an excuse to use it again.

One of my goals for 2026 is to focus on smaller, more manageable projects, especially wearable items. I decided to get a jump on that goal by creating my very first scarf set.

This set is made with Lion Brand Heartland Tweed yarn in Mount Rainier, using a 5 mm crochet hook. The gloves and scarf are both done in the C2C stitch. There’s no pattern for those—I completely freehanded them. The hat is a simple double-crochet repeat made using a pattern by Kylee Keller.

I absolutely love how this set turned out. It feels cozy, wearable, and like the beginning of a whole new chapter of projects. 🧶✨

© 2025 VikkiLynnStitches. All Rights Reserved.

Crochet

Finished!

Posted on December 27, 2025December 24, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

My favorite thing to crochet is blankets. There’s nothing quite like snuggling under something I’ve made with my own two hands—soft, warm, and full of love. I also love giving blankets as gifts. There’s something special about wrapping someone else in comfort you created stitch by stitch.

Blankets take forever to make, especially since I work a full-time job and juggle a full-time life. Still, there’s always a deep sense of pride when I put in that very last stitch and officially declare a project done.

This blanket is one I started early in the summer. It was set aside more than once in favor of other projects (hello, WIPs). When I picked it back up, my goal was simply to finish something. From there, it evolved into a yarn-stash project—I have a TON of this yarn and wanted to put it to good use. Then it became a Christmas gift, which added the extra challenge of finishing it within a specific time frame.

The C2C (corner-to-corner) stitch is by far my favorite. It’s very beginner-friendly and works up quickly. I think this is my 10th or 11th blanket using this stitch, and I have absolutely no plans to stop making them.

Caron yarn is also a favorite of mine. It’s soft and squishy, washes well, and truly stands up to the test of time.

So here it is—the finished product, made with Caron One Pound yarn in white, using a 5mm crochet hook.

Crochet

Creative Catch Up

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Against my better judgment, I started a 2025 Temperature blanket. I decided to do monthly granny squares instead of daily. Each month is one huge granny square and at the end of the year, I will join them all together to create one blanket. I have to say, I’m not as vested in this project as I hoped to be. I started it because “everyone was doing it” and I wanted to be counted among them. However, I made two major mistakes and have lost passion for it.

The first mistake is my color scheme. I loved the colors scheme I choose (color chart #3 found here on Kylee’s website) but I foolishly inverted them from their original order. So my warmer months are actually much darker colors than the cooler months. I also decided to use the average daily temperature instead of a high or low temperature. This has resulted in much fewer color changes so it’s not nearly as colorful as I hoped. I’m still going to finish it but it’s not a project I have any passion for.

These are the winter colors for my 2025 Temperature Blanket

I also bought a pattern from Mel’s Homemade Craft called The 9 Square Granny Throw. Using Lion Brand yarn and the colors suggested in the pattern, this blanket worked up and was completed in a very short amount of time. As in under two weeks! That’s a first for me but I love how thick and squishy it is and I love the colors!

After that, I knew I needed to pick a WIP and complete it. Last year, after falling in love with Caron’s Simply Soft yarn, I bought a bunch in blues and silvers and began creating a rectangular granny square blanket. This was one big square instead of several small ones joined. My older daughter’s boyfriend has a mother who is very thoughtful. Each year, she helps him pick our cards and gifts for me for my birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day. Shelby wanted to honor that with something homemade and after I found out her favorite color is blue, I designed this blanket.

Then it got put on the top shelf in favor of other projects. So once my 9 Square Granny was complete, I pulled this out and decided to get moving. I played with the colors going in and out instead of repeating and completed it with a simple single crochet border once around. Shelby shipped it and the feedback has been very lovely!

Since then, I’ve made a handful of dishcloths for Emilie at her request. I have a TON of cotton yarn that needs to get used up. I love making small projects like dishcloths and the like but for some reason, working with cotton yarn is not my favorite. It makes my hands tired. I also started a simple double crochet throw with this beautiful Red Heart Bitty Stripes yarn in Mermaid.

Still wanting to document the temperatures for 2025, I bought an embroidery pattern of a tree. Each leaf represents one day of the year. It’s a much smaller project and one I can catch up on easily. I also already had a whole bunch of thread gifted to me two Christmases ago that haven’t been touched so now I’m able to use some of that for this project.

In addition, I did a yarn re-organization which you can read about here.

So, I have been creating and it’s been so great! I have a ton of ideas including a yarn/fabric book for Sophia and tummy time blanket for her (and those who will come after her).

Happy creating!

Crochet

The Great Yarn Reorganization of 2025

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

I’ve never bought yarn without a purpose in mind. My creative flow is get an idea (or buy a pattern), buy the yarn and complete the project. Every skein had a purpose.

Then Joann Fabrics announced it was closing its doors.

Like so many, I was devastated. If I’m being honest, I didn’t go into the stores that often. When we lived up in Grayslake, my girls and I would go to the location in the area. But since moving to Orland Park, I only went into the store here once and it was so dirty, I left really upset. But I did shop a lot online! Boxes upon boxes, each for a specific purpose, were delivered.

It was my daughter, a baker and creative person herself, who told me she’d visited the store by her home and the deals were unreal. Still, I decided not to as I had patterns waiting to be worked up and didn’t think I could house anymore.

I was wrong. She convinced me to go and “just buy the yarn. Buy all the yarn.” So I did. I filled two shopping carts and collectively came home with more than 10 bags full of yarn. No patterns. No Pinterest ideas. No Instagram ideas. Just me, my own creativity and my pocketbook (which did sputter on each trip).

All this yarn was so beautiful! So many ideas! But I needed a place to put them all. I already had laundry baskets, two bins under my bed and 4 bins in the storage room full of yarn. I also had all this.

Add the Joann hauls and you get something close to this….(and that wasn’t even all of it)

So, I spoke with others who live with me about this situation and came up with a solution. We have a loft. While it’s furnished, there was a whole wall that was empty. We filled that empty space first with shelves I bought from Walmart. They’re the Furinno Turn-N-Tube shelves. I love these shelves. They’re a quality product at a decent price and they were perfect for what we needed.

So first we filled the space with shelves. Then we filled the shelves with yarn. All my yarn and all in one space. I couldn’t be more happy with the end result! And having it all organized helps my creativity even more. I can see all my colors at the same time, choose what I want for what project and plan, plan, plan for the rest. I also loved how cozy it made our loft.

The moral to the story is when in doubt, just buy the yarn!

Moments and Musings

Three Months Later…

Posted on July 17, 2024October 28, 2024 by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Hello all! I’m back from a bit of a break. Three months, to be exact. I didn’t plan it and I certainly haven’t been idle. These months have been a bit crazy.

So first, I moved into a new home. It takes time to settle into a new space. From unpacking to repacking stuff you thought you needed but now realize you can live without to decorating, it’s all very joyful, very tiring and very time consuming. There are new routines to discover and build. I moved to a completely new area so I’m learning my way around the town. I am adjusting to a new work from home space. My dog also needed some TLC as he sniffed and smelled his way around his new digs. I’m living with family members I haven’t lived with for years and years and while we get along, living with them is definitely different from visiting with them. We moved closer to my dad and stepmom so that was also an adjustment. I’m even adjusting to new weather patterns as weather here on the south side tends to be a bit more dramatic than what I’ve been used to. Isn’t that something?

Then the cicadas came. Boy, did they ever. My neighborhood was swarmed with them. They covered our trees, flew in our faces and were so very loud. I’m not a huge bug fan so this was not fun for me at all. Each morning, I rose early to get Percy out on his first long walk of the day while they were still clicking away in their sleep. Once they woke up, it was a quick run out, praying for Percy to be quick about his business before heading into the garage to shake myself down, not wanting to invite any of these things into my new home. I managed but my poor sister didn’t fare as well. After doing some gardening, she brought one into the house, clinging precariously to her jeans. Thankfully, my older sister was able to quickly show it the door. In steamy hot temperatures, I covered myself head to toe each time to walk Percy and even then, I still had to pull a few off of me. I hate bugs! I hate cicadas!

Shelby’s hours changed and since I’m her ride to and from work, my sleep hours changed as well. She went from working 8pm to 630am to 5am to 130pm. I get up at 4am now during the week which I’m not a fan of. But I am a fan of Shelby (😊) so I endure. It’s actually been good for our bank accounts as before, we were running through Stan’s Donuts, Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks on the way home when she got off at 630am. We no longer do that as many places are still closed at 430am when we’re leaving. So yay for more money. We only have about 6 different ways to make and enjoy coffee here in our new home so why we still feel we need to buy coffee out is beyond me. Yet, I do it as often as I can.

Coffee and yarn are two pleasure purchases for me. I can never have enough of either.

Shelby and I found a new church – yes, even that changed for us. I love meeting new people and then I don’t like meeting new people. I always feel like I wear everything that’s wrong with me on the outside, like a paper tag clipped to clothing. And it all points to them deciding I’m not worth knowing. Ah…the fear of rejection. Someday, this too shall be conquered within my soul, and I’ll be the beaming ray of sunshine I long to be without any hesitation or hindrance. So far, the only way I know to overcome this is to dive into the deep end, put myself out there and just be me.

I’ve also been crocheting a lot. I haven’t touched an embroidery needle since we moved. I’ve bought patterns but there’s been no actual execution. Crochet, planning crochet, buying yarn, and looking up new patterns has been a huge focus for me at the moment.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, I treated myself to a Nintendo Switch Lite. I bought the game Animal Crossing; New Horizons. What a time suck!! But so much fun!!! I struggle with enjoying things like this because I always feel I SHOULD be productive, even in my down time. I tend to be pretty hard on myself so giving myself permission to do something fun like this has been…well…nice. I’m enjoying it.

So, what’s next? Getting back to Friday Fives, because they’re conversational and I like a good quiz. Posts showing more crochet projects and what I’m working on. I went on a small trip recently that was really fun and informative. And some personal news to share as soon as I’m able.

Until then, have faith in God that everything’s going to be ok, give yourself some love because you deserve it and find joy in imperfect things (and people).