As if pulled by an inexorable force (or maybe it was the large orange letters that spell out the name), I recently found myself in a Hobby Lobby:

For those who have never been to a Hobby Lobby, it is quite an experience. Part craft supply, part craft nirvana, Hobby Lobby has something for just about every kind of crafter, and I saw many interesting things as I made my way to the crochet and knitting gadget wall.

Among the goodies available for sale were these yarn daisies:

Last fall at SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival) in Fletcher, North Carolina, I purchased my first package of Clover yarn daisies. Once I got home and tried them out, I was in love and wanted more, but I had not seen any available for sale at my usual craft haunts, so when I saw these, I grabbed them.

The next item that caught my attention was this device from a line of crochet implements from Boye in conjunction with Drew Emborsky, aka The Crochet Dude:

In addition to this yarn cutter which I did buy, Boye and Emborsky have teamed up to provide The Crochet Dude Collection, a line of crochet tools and instructions. You can see the full line here.

The next gadget that caught my eye was this adorable hook from Clover:

The copy on the back of the package was so tempting I found myself unable to resist (“Easy to crochet!” “A woven finish”); I didn’t do any better after I spied this tool directly above the hook I had just put in my basket:

I had never seen a yarn winder before, and while I had no idea how to use it, I was hoping I could find more information about it. A quick search using Google brought me to this site which details “how to use the hardwood nostepinde: the unique center-pull ballwinder.”

While I do not have the exact yarn winder featured in these directions, it did give me an idea of how to use one.

The last irresistible items I found were these skeins of Hobby Lobby’s housebrand acrylic yarn, “I Love This Yarn.”

In my search for the absolutely most perfect color for cookies that resemble the Girl Scout Thin Mints and the sublime MoonPie®, I felt that “I Love This Yarn,” in coffee shade comes as close as anything I have seen. It is a much cooler brown than the Red Heart Super Saver shade of coffee and is a bit truer to the color of an actual Thin Mint:

I can hardly wait to try out my new gadgets and learn all of the ways they can enhance my crochet life.