Never Again

Remind me to never select a project with an every-row-color-change again. 3 days I've been weaving ends. Threeeee days!

On the plus side though...I think it's going to look really nice once I'm finished.

Been busy!

I've been doing some crochet the past few months, though much of it was postponed due to us moving. I finished a bunch of scarves for Christmas, completed J's afghan(in Jan.), made a few scrunchies(and learned quickly just what kind of hair elastics are appropriate for that kind of thing), some washcloths, dishcloths, a plastic bag holder, and a bath tub toy hammock that I "invented" to assist with drying the toys out and collecting them so that they're not all over the tub all of the time. While my tub hammock worked great, the plastic hooks that I purchased are CRAP and all have pulled off from the tub. So I will be off to purchase better quality hooks to see if they work better. I'm thinking of also making a 2.0 version of the hammock in order to have one that is a bit larger.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to post pictures right now, but I do have pictures of everything I've made. So, once I'm able to, be prepared for TONS of pictures!

I still haven't finished the sweater that I'd started for Baby D last November..but there isn't much left to do. I lost ALL motivation after I realized it wasn't going to fit her. I'm just going to save it for a gift. WIP's that I have going right now are a hoodie for V, and a baby blanket that I'm making for my cousin who's due in June with her 2nd baby..a little boy. She's living in Arkansas as that's where her husband is stationed, and she'll be out here for a visit in a few weeks, so I have to hurry! I picked the Ocean waves pattern(I think I found it on the Lion Brand website), not thinking about the mass amounts of weaving that I would have to do with a color change in every row. Thankfully, it's a shell stitch pattern, so it's working up at a decent rate. It's actually the 2nd version, as I had to alter the pattern and go up a hook size from what the original pattern called for. I had probably 20 rows done when I decided that it was way too small, only to start completely over and remember that there is a decent sized border that goes around it. I'm not in love with the pattern, but am going to complete the afghan and see how I feel once it's done. I have a tendency to look at projects halfway through and start to loathe them before they're finished and I really need to stop that. However, provided I finish the afghan and am still unhappy, I have a completely different pattern that I'm in love with and will work it up as fast as I can. I may have to send it to her after she goes back home, as there's no way I'll get a 2nd afghan completed before she gets out here.

But yeah..that's what I've been doing. I'm itchin' to learn how to knit though, ESPECIALLY since I heard about the continental knitting style and how much easier it is to learn if you already crochet.
I subscribed to 2 crochet magazines recently and just got my first Lion Brand catalog. Talk about excitement. I don't feel as crazy though, not after watching Martha's yarn show the other day(I totally TiVo'd it) and seeing how crazy other people get over yarn, crocheting and knitting.

That's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll be able to share progress pics soon!

Christmas is over!

Well, I managed to get through the holiday without ripping ALL of my hair out, but I did realize that 5 weeks is not nearly enough time to make gifts for every person that I wanted to. However, I did complete a scarf each for 2 of my grandmothers and one of my aunts. 3 scarves were made for my mother because I wasn't satisfied with the 1st 2 finished products. I ended up giving her all 3 of them though, with notes telling her how each one came to be, and she ended up loving all 3 of them(and saved my notes), even going as far to wear one to our family gathering yesterday.
I finished 3 hat/scarf combo's for each of my boys, but didn't get enough time to make scarves for the girls. I have 2 matching hat(reversible)/mitten sets that I got earlier this year on clearance for $1 each..awesome, I know. I had planned on making scarves for both girls to go with their hat/mitten sets, but that's okay. I can still make them, they just didn't make it under the tree.
I also made a scarf for Big Daddy but I wasn't thrilled with how it came out. I used yarn from my stash and would've preferred to pick up some chunky black or grey yarn for his but didn't have the time or funds with how last minute I was on my decision to make it.

I, literally, finished the last 3 ladies scarves the 2 days before Christmas and even spent an hour yesterday morning putting the finishing touches on the final one. Everyone seemed to love what I gave them, and I even got 2 requests for additional scarves from my aunt and one of my cousins. My cousin has recently given us a TON of little girl clothes for my daughters, and she has just gorgeous outfits galore for her daughter. I'd been meaning to get a "thank you" of some kind to her, and had told her as much. When our Grandma opened the scarf that I made for her, my cousin said "That's what you can do! Make me one of those in black." I said "done" and decided that I'm also going to make one of those head scarves(kerchief) to go with it, as she's always wearing a bandana or scarf of some sort on her head. I thought it was pretty cool that she, of all people, would request something homemade from me, luxaholic that she is. So, I'll be off in the next week or two to get some nice yarn for that...I don't want to use the plain worsted stuff that I used for hubby's scarf because I just wasn't thrilled with it for what the project was. My oldest 2 boys liked their hats and scarves that were done with Red Heart worsted, but were complaining about the itch factor, so I'll be washing and drying them a few times this weekend to soften them up. I want to avoid that issue with my cousins scarf. I used the Caron Eco 4-ply for most of the other scarves that I made, and I loooooove that yarn. It's soft and the colors are gorgeous.

I have pictures of everything, of couse, but can not post pictures until our IE is fixed(this is being posted from my phone).

I will admit that I put pressure on myself to make all of those projects, and with 5 kids running circles around me, I really didn't give myself enough time to do it all. That's cool though...lesson learned.

Oh! I've been wanting to make some crochet and fabric dresses for the girls and have found a few patterns for exactly what I want to do...so keep your eyes peeled. I'm going to have to enlist my aunts sewing talent on that one seeing that I can't even get my machine to work, but making projects with her is fun, and she, Granny and I have decided that we're going to make gifts next year. Together. That will be fun.

Grrrrrrr...

This past week I decided to take a break from J's afghan(they take so bloody long, I start to get burnt out..this IS my 4th afghan since May..which is a lot for me considering the craftless break I took for HOW many years?). I have some adorable cardigan patterns and decided to work on one for Baby D for her first birthday coming up next week. I picked an adorable sweater/beanie set for my first ever clothing ensemble.

Yeah.

So, first off, it's taken me twice as long as I expected. I knew it would take me some time, but I didn't consider a few things before I started. Main issue? The pattern has "embelishments" consisting of chains(crochet chains) that are then looped and sewn to the sweater. Adorable as heck...but sewing the chains onto the sweater has proven to be veeeeery time consuming.

Today I finished assembling the sweater itself, and upon finishing the neck edging I started to grow worried that it wouldn't fit her. When she woke from her nap I tried it on her, and nearly cried to see it nearly strech beyond it's limits.

It's too small :(.

Now, I don't consider myself a moron usually...but I could just kick myself for not taking D's measurements before starting. She's wearing a size 12 mos. right now, so I went with size 18 month alterations in the pattern, assuming that it would be good enough.
It wasn't.

At first I tossed the sweater aside, angered by my own stupidity. Then I decided to measure D. The pattern said that the 18 month size would fit a baby with an 18" chest size, and that the completed cardigan chest measurement would be 23". D's chest size? 20" on the nose. MY completed cardigan chest measurement? Flippin' 18".

I have no idea where I went wrong, but I put SO much time and effort into that thing, it just broke my heart that it was all for not and I'll have nothing to show for it on her birthday.

After some pouting, I decided that I will finish it, because there's no point in letting all of that time and effort go to waste by not finishing it. I still have 3 chains to sew onto it but have decided to take a break from it for a day or two. Once it's finihed I will post pictures. I'm not sure yet if it's going to go on one of the girls' dolls or if I'm going to eventually make the hat to go with it and use as a gift.

At this point I'm chalking it up to a learning experience, and while it has some flaws and can't be used by any of us here in my house, I think I still did a decent job on it.

S's Afghan

It took me two very long months, but I finally finished the afghan I was working on for my son.

He chose the Understated Elegance pattern out of my LA book and wanted vereigated yarn in shades of blue. My mother in law found the following and sent it out, minus the extra FOUR skeins that I needed for the pattern, because she didn't think I needed that much. You know. Because NOT looking at the pattern at ALL apparently helps her to know exactly how to control my project. So, I was bummed about that, but didn't complain one bit to her, because she saved me a good $20 in yarn. The problem? Anyone that works with dyed yarn knows that if the dye lots are different, it could screw your whole project. So I had 10 skeins of the stuff she sent and then had to go on a search here in CO for the same stuff, and just kept my fingers crossed that I found it and the shading wasn't off by too much.

I did find the same yarn, but even at the store I could tell a big difference in the shades of blue. Thankfully, I only needed a skein and a half to complete the actual body of the afghan, and as far as the border and fringe were concerned, I didn't care if the shading was off there, as it wasn't as noticable. If you look close enough, you can tell where I switched dye lots, but I think the average person isn't going to notice.

Here it is!

Sorry about the lighting on this one...my camera strap got in the way and I was in a hurry and didn't do enough retakes.

The body is divided into 7 sections, and each section has diamonds, made with the popcorn stitch.

Here are a couple of close ups of the diamond pattern and where each section is divided off. I really liked this pattern, although I think a solid color would show off the designs better/more.

Closer shot of the border and fringe.

I would love to do this pattern again someday. And next time I'll take pictures during the day...it was dark outside when I took these so they didn't turn out the best. Again, I was in a hurry as I'd spent SO long working on this thing, I just wanted my pictures and wanted S to get it away from me (ha!).

I'm now working on an afghan for J and it's driving me crazy because he decided that he wanted a black and orange afghan so we're going with the Halloween theme here. I tried getting him to change to a color other than orange but orange is his favorite right now(ironically enough he just decided a few months ago that red was not longer his favorite color-that would've looked soooo much better with the black and the pattern that we're doing). I know it's not a big deal. I just end up spending SO long working on these things, I have a sense of pride once I've finally completed something. And the orange and black just isn't vibing with me. But, I love my boy to pieces and even though I'm not fond of his color choices, I'm hooking him up with the afghan he's been asking for for months. It's kind of a fun pattern, hopefully I'll be able to share pictures of it soon!

It's been awhile!

It's been forever since I've posted on this blog, but don't go thinking that I haven't been busy!

Okay, so I have been busy and haven't gotten to be the Crafty McCrafterton that I'd like to be, but I have completed a few projects. Most of what I was working on since late August was an afghan for my older son. During that time, I took many (maaaaaany) days off from crocheting altogether and other days I took time away from his afghan for other projects.

Now, keep in mind that I'm new to dishcloths and stuffed animals, but I think I'm starting to get my footing. This post will show all of the little odds and ends I've made, minus one dishcloth that I haven't taken a picture of yet. I really don't like it much though, so I may just never share it with the world.

Okay!

First up is Mr. Penis Nose Elephant.
This here was my first ever "stuffed animal". I had gotten a pattern book for a couple of cute baby afghans and toddler sweaters, and in it was a pattern for this guy. I have a ton of that variegated yarn that he's made out of(thanks to my Mother in law) and needed to use it on something And get practice...so this is what I ended up with.

His arms and legs were a bit disproportionate and if I were to make another one I'd do the ears differently(they reminded me of Mickey Mouse and they come unrolled easily).

And here is why we call him Mr. Penis Nose Elephant

I followed the pattern exactly, but apparently screwed something up somewhere. I KNOW his nose isn't supposed to be that long.

He took a good 6 hours to complete. I sure do hope I get faster at this stuff eventually. I made this in early September. I think.

Next is my lopsided eye ball fish. J begged me to make this fish for him, and at the time I was very limited on my yarn stockpile(You don't even want to see it now.. it's ridiculous. Many thanks to my Mother in Law, my mom, my aunt and my grandmother, because they have hooked me up!). So! The fish was made out of that same hideous variegated yarn and I decided to make his fins yellow. In the future, if I were to use a variegated yarn for this same pattern, I wouldn't make the fins a different color. I don't think. I think the fish would look better with a solid color, but he was a pain in the butt to make and took me 3 days to complete. And he needed more stuffing...he's kind of saggy. But not too bad for someone that never made anything like that before. Still not keen on this particular pattern, but it was great practice.

Next up is the butterfly! Or as V calls it "Fuff-eye". He turned out a LOT better than penis nose and lop-eyed fish up there.

I had to take this pic before he was finished. Remind you of a certain Mr. Hankey(South Park fans out there)?

The next two are two reeeaally bad wash/dishcloths. I used the wrong kind of yarn(I told you before that I'm yarn stupid. I'm finally learning though!) for them though.

This was meant to be a baby washcloth. Instead, T and V wad it up in the tub and lob it at each other's faces. Good times, Yo.

This was supposed to be a dishcloth, but again, I used the wrong yarn. Now I've been using it as a lumpy hot pad ;).


All in all...I've been getting some practice in. I feel like most of the things I make(aside from 2 of my afghans) look cheaply homemade and...well...they look like crap to me. Everything I've made I sit back when I'm done and figure out what I should have done differently for it to look better. It would be great if I had more time to work on this stuff...I have several patterns I've picked out to make gifts for people, but I don't know who would actually appreciate a homemade scarf from me. I worry that I'd spend all this time making something and then the recipient may not like it one bit. So I've been holding off on actually making gifts for people yet. Maybe next year after I've had another years' practice? Possibly.

I'll post all of S's afghan pictures in another post.

YUM-MO!

Ignore my mini-Rachel Ray incarnation.

I just found this fabulous lady on Etsy and her gorgeous(FANTABULOUS) yarn that she is selling. Check her out. Aren't some of those colors good enough to eat? I wish I had an extra $60 right now to buy some from her. She has some called "tomato green bean salad" that I would get right now if I had the fundage.

Hopefully she'll keep it on there for awhile(they're made to order, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed). I have no clue what I'd make with it(couldn't afford to do another afghan with it at $12 a skein) but I would find something. Does that make me a true, completely obsessed crocheter now? The fact that I look at yarn these days and dream about what I would make with it? I'm thinking the Tomatoe Green Bean Salad would make a fab hat and scarf combo.

Etsy is a bad, bad place for me. I could get into so much trouble there.

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I'm currently working on S's afghan that I promised. I'm about 1/5 of the way finished, which is pretty good timing considering how long the last two took for me to complete. If I keep on it, I'm hoping to be done by the end of this week, or early next week.

I also started working on a hat for V. Found the pattern here , though I'm using a smaller gauge as I have yet to stock my crochet needle supply. No, really. I have a whopping FOUR crochet hooks right now. E, G, H and I. I used to have a million of them in my giant craft bucket, but when I pulled it down from it's shelf in the garage-there was a crafting hiatus for several years with me working and raising kids- none, not even one hook was in there to be found. I don't know where they all went, but it was mildly upsetting for me. At least they're relatively cheap. All of the projects/patterns(minus the hat) that I've worked on recently have called for either an E, G or H, so it's not the end of the world.

I suppose I could hint toward the mother-in-law, but don't want to be a mooch. Another reason I started the hat, was because I have some variegated yarn in the baby colors that she sent. Four skeins. FOUR. I don't love this yarn, so I have to find something to do with it. I figured that practicing hats/caps/beanies was the best way to go with it.

I suppose we'll see how it turns out. Wish me luck.