Waffle Cowl and Christmas Presents

I just finished this waffle cowl using some yarn a friend gave me and some thrift store yarn. Originally I had the darker colour on it's own, but the cowl was way too small. I pulled it out and made this waffle cowl. Much better. I like the delicate little picot edging too .

The slight waffle pattern gives it some texture and I think adds some warmth. It's just sc flo worked in the round.

I've been making hats for some of the guys on my list for Christmas. Isn't this pattern great? It' the Best Guy Hat Ever and I think it's just a great all around hat. Simple, stretchy and nice. Easy to work in any yarn, feels great on. I made this one and handed it to my boyfriend to try on. He was very sad when I told him it wasn't for him.
I might make one for me once I'm done with the boys on my Christmas list.

This weekend I'll be at the Creativ Festival downtown. I've never been, so I'm looking forward to it. I'll be working, but that's ok. I'm not to spend any money there. Only look. Nothing at all.
(I'll do my best...)

Tiny Things and Big Things

So my boyfriend does a webcomic called I am ARG (http://iamarg.com/ totally NSFW!) and I'm a pretty big fan. I've already promised him a big plushie for Christmas- he wants to go to local cons next year and have him to put on the table.
Well, I've been reading MochiMochi Land (http://mochimochiland.com) and I don't think you can do that without some urge to make something teeny weeny and adorable, so I decided to make a tiny practice plush with some DMC.
Isn't mini-ARG cute? He looks so sad, but that's how he was requested! Big ARG will have more of a menacing look, but that's hard to pull off on a little guys who's only about 2 inches tall.

I finished some big projects too, like this pink fluffy alpaca sweater. I've had my eye on this alpaca in the clearance section at work for ages. It's soooo soft. I've been running a really tight budget, though, so I put one skein of bright turquoise in my shelf in the back to buy someday, sighed longingly at the other colours and went to pet them once in awhile. Then we had a 25% off clearance sale, and all was lost. I came home with 9 skeins of pink, the turquoise and some pink bamboo sock yarn I'd also fallen for.
This sweater was about 7.5 skeins of the pink. I think I'm gonna make legwarmers with the rest.
Not sure if I love the sweater- I'll have to wear it a few times to know. It's a bit shorter than what I wanted, but wiser heads have informed me that alpaca will grow. Here's hoping!
Now to wait until it's cold enough outside to wear this. It'll be a really cuddly skiing sweater.

Mini-ARG is not the only DMC project I've done. Since I started at work, I've been in love with all the incredible colours you can get it in. It's so inexpensive, too. So I started a few jewellery projects with some of the beads I have lying around and some DMC I got at work. Just simple pieces that I can throw on with anything to brighten up an outfit!

My aunt (ok, my Dad's cousin's wife, but close enough!) liked this one so much at Thanksgiving that I ended up making her one. She's a knitter and it's their cottage we all get invited up to for Thanksgiving- I can't say no to someone that nice!

This little pink necklace is a favorite of mine. It's simple and light and adds a nice pop of colour to plain fall outfits.
Did I mention that with the exception of the three coloured necklace, I'm doing these as one floss skein projects? I might publish a little pattern book of inexpensive simple jewellery. They're super quick, too, so they're make great presents. Even with beads the cost for each would be no more than a few dollars, and that's only dependent on which beads you choose.

Ps, here's a picture of my yarn corner as it stands right now in celebration of yesterday's I Love Yarn Day! I tidied it a little and found some yarn that I adore but had somehow forgotten about. But... I need to get through some of my long list of WIPs first!

The End of Summer

A funny thing happens when you get a new job and go from months of unemployed to suddenly working. When that happens during the summer when you never seem to have a weekend where you aren't running around doing something- camping, reunions, going swimming, heading up to cottages... well, something has to fall by the wayside. It certainly wasn't going to be my crocheting!

This basket I finished the week I spent up at my boyfriend's parents house. The yarn is nylon cord I got at a sports supply store for next to nothing. It was pretty good to work with, although since it was finer than called for I had to fudge with the sizing. The socks in the basket are sadly no further towards completion.

I've been working on other things- last week I finished two cowls and a shawl. One of the cowls is for the store as a sample. I designed it and will be teaching it as a learn to cable with crochet project. The other cowl is just one for me to keep! The shawl is another for me, but one I'll also be writing up the pattern for it to have at the store. I still need to spend an evening actually writing out those two patterns, but it shouldn't be that much work. They're pretty simple.

I've been on a mad sweater kick, too. I finished this one in just a week, and the next week I finished another and I'm getting there with two more. I've just been too busy to take pictures of anything.
This sweater turned out just about exactly how I'd hoped- snuggly and cozy with a fair bit of stretch and give to the fabric. I am in love with slip stitch right now. I got a lot of this yarn really cheap and am planning another two sweaters with it. The next will be with the blue I got- I'm going to try faux-fair isle and see what I can come up with.

No more stripes, though. Weaving in those ends was almost more than I could take!

Back From Vacation!

Before I left on vacation, I finished a few projects. These socks were a fun test. I did the ankle sideways so that the stockinette I crocheted would stretch the right way. It's quite nice, but I need to make it tighter. It was fairly thick yarn, so they worked up really fast.

Stitch and Pitch was the Wednesday before I left. It was great! The air was cooler than I expected, the Jays actually won and we had fun watching Ace the bluejay play with this fantastic knit sign some of the ladies made.
I won a doorprize, too. As soon as I saw the ticket I knew that it would turn out I won a knitting pattern book. I did, of course. It looks nice, but how useless. If only I could have won some yarn! Several of us won- some of my friends won a copy of one of the Yarn Harlot books, which still would have been better than what I won! I was glad to win and all, but... well, it does seem kind of a waste. Oh well, maybe I'll learn to knit big needle afghans (When I could just crochet them? Yeah... ok, no).

I also finished this tank. I started it on Wednesday at the Stitch n' Pitch, and I finished the next day at knit night. It was way too hot to wear it here- it still is- but I wore it once in nice cool California.

We went up to the mountains outside LA. My uncle has a cabin up there and it's just gorgeous. The air was cool and dry- after the heat here (it got up to 39- 49 with humidex one night. That's 125 with humidex in farenheit) it was an incredibly welcome change.
Andrew and I had a fantastic week. We played tennis, talked, went on hikes, did a Pirate Ship cruise around the lake and even did Zumba. My brother's girlfriend is an instructor and generously did two sessions with us during the week. It was fun! A lot of excercise- WOW do you move. We all got seriously sweaty.

Of course, I found the area yarn store. Mom was nice enough to drive me over one day and I got some yummies. Two skeins of Cool Crochet in chocolate and ebony- yum. I love that yarn and it's discontinued. I'll have extra of my pink, so I'm going to make a striped tank top. I'm excited for it!
The real treat I got myself was some Mirasol Miski. Ooooh, it's soft. It's baby llama, and the colour I got is a rich, soft, buttery and a bit peachy yellow. I fell in love. I considered getting something else, because I could have gotten a cardi's worth out of other yarns for the same price, but there was no way. I was in love and it was coming home with me.
I'm glad I did. It's so soft and it worked up so nicely and the finished hat is gonna be a favorite. I'm excited for fall already! I made it after dinner one night while we were all chatting. My family members commented on it and were impressed that I was just making up a pattern as I went. It was a pretty easy thing- just some cables for density and warmth. I added that little fp/bp rib at the bottom that can be turned up for a fisherman's cap style or down to cover my ears. I only had a tiny piece of yarn left at the end!

My cousin commented that they had all just been sitting around, and I had a hat to show for the evening. That's part of why I love crochet- I was just as active in the conversation as anyone and I still made something.

It was a great week. I love my family and we had so much fun together. We spent one day out on my uncle's powerboat with the cousins, and it was a blast. We did various activities with the whole family and I got to chat with everyone in the evenings, and even sing while my uncle played guitar one night. I have two uncles who play guitar quite well and they played for us a bit. Mom was practicing during the week- she's not bad but needed to build callouses.

Anyway, the whole week was just a blast. Andrew had a great time too, and we're both looking forward to next year. I'm so lucky to have such a great family!

Speaking of great- Andrew got me a Wii Fit Plus as an early birthday present! I spent an hour on it tonight and hope to do 5 hours a week on it. I have a goal to get in better shape and loose a pound or two. I don't really need to- but I'll look and feel better if I do.

I start my first shift tomorrow at the yarn and craft store... I am so excited!

Crocheting at the Cottage

A handy guide to crocheting at the cottage.

Crocheting on the dock is great! You can sit and chat while you work and soak up the rays. Remember, make sure your fiber can get wet!

And, uh, make sure your pattern can get wet too. That, or be smart enough to hold it in place, or you too may hear "Is that paper supposed to be floating in the lake?"

Those new anti-gravity chairs that are getting popular are great to crochet on! They put you at a perfect angle.

You also get a great view of your work with the lovely forest above.

And perhaps most importantly- the best thing to do around the campfire doesn't involve fiber at all- enjoy your marshmallows and I hope you guys are having a great summer!

On The Mend

Finally I'm just about back to normal. I'm on my last day of amoxicillin and my tooth-holes appear to be healing well.
While I've been getting better, I've been doing a lot of sitting around and crocheting, mostly while watching MASH. I'll admit, it's been kinda awesome that way. Anyway, the project I've been working on is the River Walk Wrap from the latest Interweave Crochet.


It's beautiful. I love the pattern and I'm really pleased with how it's working up- I'm more than halfway now. It is also an incredibly non portable project. As you can see I'm working from 3 cones of cobweb weight, which together make up almost laceweight. The two smaller cones are 100% silk that's basically sewing thread, but really gorgeous. The huge cone is cotton/acrylic, and it's very soft and nice to work with. I love Value Village- they were all about 1.99-2.99. Yummers.

I have other plans for this yarn, too. The cotton/acrylic blend is gonna get mixed with another cone I have of laceweight acrylic in light blue and I'm gonna make some socks out of it. Just to see how it feels, really- with this much yarn to play with, I definitely feel free to experiment.

Just for fun, here's the bigger version of my new ravatar. I decided my old one wasn't crochet themed enough. Inked with a sakura graphic marker and coloured with various art markers.

Toothaches Suck

So I have been less active crocheting in the last few weeks. Partly we went away for awhile- Andrew and I visited my parents for a few days, then went up to my extended family's cottage.
Partly, this week I have had a miserable toothache.
I was hoping it was just what I had last year- a cut from my wisdom tooth on my cheek that really hurt but healed and was fine. But the pain got worse and finally I realized last night that I had to see a dentist.
Today I went in and found out the gum is infected and it'll just keep happening. So now I'm on antibiotics for this, and to fix the problem I go in tomorrow and get two wisdom teeth out. I am so not looking forward to it- but hopefully the pain will go away. Oh boy, do I want the pain to go away.

I have been working away on some nice lacy projects, and I even got my crazy cobweb weight dress started, but I just don't have any energy to post or take pictures or do much of anything. I went out today to stitch night, but mostly because I love it so much and it is a great distraction.

I can't wait to be able to chew stuff again...