Successful Crochet Day

As promised, here’s my post about all the things I did on International Crochet Day

First thing I did (after showering and eating breakfast obviously) was finish another Christmas gift! This one for my brother. I used Lion Brand’s pattern last year but it turned out too big. This year I just kind of winged it and it’s perfect size this time around. I used Lion Brand’s principle but I’m still calling it Brother’s Beanie.

Then I moved onto my next project to finish, a baby hat. I had made the base part of the hat the night before and had to make the bow and attach it that morning. Turned out lovely if I say so myself. I used Charmed by Ewe’s Wrapped with Love Hat pattern. I couldn’t meet her gauge so I just came up with my own hdc basic beanie pattern. I would have made one at some point anyways so why not now? I did use her bow pattern which was simple and turned out adorable! This one is going to my cousin D and his wife S. I believe they’re the ones due in January and they’re definitely having a girl. I plan to make a third and final hat for them soon.

I decided to start on another baby hat next. This one for another cousin. C. He and his girlfriend are having their first baby next month and I totally forgot!! Thankfully I already have a Minnie Mouse hat on hand (haven’t shown you guys that yet because it was a test for Leah that I started during the dreaded month of July and never finished til weeks later). I plan on making them a hat but this one was commissioned by my Aunt M (my most loving and faithful customer) for her second granddaughter. Yep, they’re having a girl too. I won’t tell you what the hat will look like but I’ll post this little teaser here. I used Thu Nguyen’s pattern. It worked up rather nicely I think.

I then spent the rest of the day working on one project. Can you guess? ….. Eden’s granny square blanket. FINALLY I can say that ALL 20 squares are sewn together!! ::happy dance:: That thing was a pain in my butt (literally) and I am NOT looking forward to sewing all mine together. I might look into another way to join them all. I also then started on the border. I’m about 1.5 rounds into that. This page HERE shows all the blog posts with all different square patterns. You can also find it by searching for LW4132 on their website. There should be a giant pdf that has all the patterns put together. Oh yea, the border will be blue

And then today when I got the mail, I had a package. Cool I thought. Opened it up and it was the fabulous yarn I won thanks to The Philosopher’s Wife. The yarn is from Never Enough Thyme. The color is called Apple Picking and it is a 75% SW Merino 25% Nylon fingering yarn. I’ve never worked with Merino or a fingering weight yarn so I’m pretty excited. Something else to make for myself when I have enough time to. Because do you remember that awesome Yarn Baby yarn I won a while back? Still haven’t used it yet. Maybe after Christmas. Hopefully.

On The Hook:

• Test for CTbL
• Eden’s Blanket
• Christmas gifts (Mom first)
• Baby things

Yarn, WIPs, and Hooks oh My!

Last Friday night Luke and I went to see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. If you haven’t figured out by now we’re a little bit on the nerdy side, me more so than him. It was amazing you should go see it! Anyways, we went to Walmart afterwards (like always) and I saw this

 

I couldn’t believe my eyes!! Yarn NEVER goes on clearance at my Walmart! I snagged up a couple of skeins because I just couldn’t pass up the deals. I grabbed two skeins of Bernat Softee Chunky in Dad’s Scarf and Hot Pink (Luke kind of forced me on this one because I never make anything for myself and it would go well with that gray, cream, and soft pink cowl I’m planning to make). And one skein of Lion Brand Hometown USA in New York White. Plan to make this into some baby hats for the cousins.

And I’ve already used two of them to make a Christmas present for Pap!! First fully completed Christmas gift!! Woot Woot!! I used Bernat’s Softee Chunky in Dad’s Scarf and Black to make a hat. I know, not originally what I was going to make him. But I couldn’t pass up the gray, black, and green combo of Dad’s Scarf (he’s a big hunter). I decided on the hat because he’s got a giant head (I measured, 24 inch circumference!!) and has problems finding hats to fit. It’s just a plain styled dc beanie. Going off of Luke’s head it’s the perfect length but next time I see Pap I’m going to take another measurement to make fully certain it’s the right length before finishing off. That’s why I don’t have pictures yet. The top half is made using Dad’s Scarf and the last three rows are made using the Black. Why did I choose this you ask? Because I ran out of Dad’s Scarf half way through and there was only Black left in the carts when I went back to get more on Tuesday. Still looks pretty awesome. Maybe I’ll use the left over Black for more baby hats 🙂

Yesterday I finally finished the last square for Eden’s blanket!!

That thing in the middle is a ruler to give you something for scale. All of the orange squares are a normal Granny Square. Each blue one is a different stitch pattern. I think it looks pretty neat. Remember I’m making myself the same blanket but all in Sage green. I still need to do 9 of my Granny Squares. But for Eden’s all I have left is to attach them all and crochet a border. I’m not sure if I want to go granny style or leave it kind of plain like.

Getting the mail today I saw a package had arrived!

These bad boys were sitting in my mailbox just waiting for me to open them!! They can be found HERE. As most of the Amazon reviews said, yes the plastic cords do smell something foul. But I’m sure spending the day outside in the sun will help with that. I can’t wait to use them!! I’m hoping to use them for a Christmas present 🙂

Oh I started that test for CTbL last night. I’m only 6 rows in and it’s taken me a little while. I need to make some bobbins now before I can continue though. So I’m going to go get started on those!!

On the Hook:

• Bobbins and Test for CTbL
• Baby girl hats for D
• Giant pile for Christmas

The Craftys update and a package

Not much has been going on over here lately. I’m slowly getting votes on my Skyrim Helmet over at The Craftys. Please keep them coming!! Just make sure you log-in with either the Facebook or Twitter icons that are under the description. After that just click on the little silver heart. Thank you so much!

The Skyrim Helmet was my second original design. What was my first you ask? Good question. It was an amigurumi lizard. (For those of you who don’t know what amigurumi means, it’s Japanese for a crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) I know, totally different direction. A few years back, 4 actually, I wanted to make my boyfriend’s cousin a lizard for his birthday. I wasn’t happy with what I had found online and decided to make my own. I based my design off some pictures of lizards I had found on the web. I think he turned out awesome and the little man loved him!

Well I had been wanting to go back and take a second look at what I had crudely written down many years ago and when better than during The Craftys! Turns out I had written down the pattern pretty awesomely. I then took some photos and entered him into The Craftys as well. So if you don’t mind, please vote for him in the same manner! Thank you much!! As with the Skryim Helmet, I’ll get around to writing and posting this pattern as well.

Award shows aside, over the weekend I had gotten an Amazon package in the mail. I was pretty excited. I had ordered some foam heads!!! a Tunisian hook, and some yarn. Yarn was awesome, the hook as well (I’m eager to learn how to do Tunisian crochet). Sad thing is my heads weren’t awesome. Both the male and female heads are tiny, a circumference of only 20 inches! My head is 21 inches!! I’m not sure how I’ll use the male head when working on Luke’s hats because his head is 23 inches around!! The male’s nose is also smushed a tad. And the female’s base is broken so she doesn’t stand. Oy vey to the max. I’ll just have to learn to work with it I guess.

One of the yarns I got is Lion Brand’s Fun Fur in black. Thanks to Luke’s suggestion I’m going to work on a mullet hat. Yep, a hat that will look like the mullet hair style. Business in the front and party in the back baby! hahah The second yarn I got is Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream in Sage for one of my Pay-It-Forward projects. I started working on it over the weekend and hope to finish during the week. Can’t tell you what it’s going to be until I give it away. Just know that it’s going to be awesome and I’ll probably end up making one for myself.

But that’s all here. Please vote!! Thank you much!!

On the Hook:

• Pay-It-Forward (Lacie)
• Fin for Skyrim Helmet
• CAL Textured Blanket x2

New Yarn!!

So I have some GREAT news. Last week or so I won a contest Moogly was having for a free skein of yarn from Yarn Baby LLC. It just got here! I’m super excited because I was able to pick the color scheme as well. I picked Vintage Rose which is a cream, pink, and gray coloring. Ready to see some pictures?!

Look how pretty!

I know there’s a scarf hiding in there somewhere just begging to be made! Someday soon I will get to you beautiful yarn. Very soon….