Out of Yarn...So It's Time to "Practice"

I have some new yarn ordered, but until it gets here, I don't have enough to make a "real project." I thought I did, so I tried a "real project," but I ran out of yarn right before I got to the end, and it didn't look very good anyway. So here are some things I've been working on! 

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This is treble crochet, but it doesn't look very good. I need to figure out how to get it to lay flat and not curl. Diane Harmon, crochet master, says this could be a tension issue. 

This is the "project" I was trying. My daughter kept asking "what is it?" on the above picture, and I kept saying "it's practice!" She suggested I make a headband/ear warmer, and I thought I probably had enough yarn to do that, but as it turns out, I didn't. Again, it probably shouldn't be curling like that. It's supposed to be a straight line. 

Then I decided I would start working on some of the fancier stitches! 

This would be great if I were trying to make one of those Victorian collar things, but again, this is supposed to be in a straight line, so I'm not sure where it all went wrong here, but I'll try again another time.

I actually think this is pretty good/close to what it's "supposed" to look like, even though you can't really see my sample all that well. It's definitely something I need to practice more on, but I felt at least moderately successful working on this.

 I am pretty pleased with these double crochet and half double crochet samples. They are laying flat (as they should), but these are stitches I have worked on before. Just trying to "perfect" them now. They don't really come naturally to me yet. When I see them in a pattern, I do have to think back about how to do them, or even sometimes go look at instructions for it.

I can't wait until my new yarn arrives! It's a new kind of scrubby yarn. I hope I like it and I hope it works well, because I don't have enough yarn to finish all the hotpads I had planned on, so some of you are getting scrubbies. No one is getting a headband/ear warmer, though! :)

Have you had to make any modifications on your project due to supply limitations?