Work for hire – Newborn baby hat – Bear

My mom has recently retired – read, left her job as a teacher and started working at a jewellery store.  This is awesome for me because I can buy myself awesome diamond studs for a ridiculously inexpensive price tag.  Oh yes.  It also became awesome for me because one of her co-workers had a friend having a baby.  She wanted a baby-bear-hat made.  Mom offered up my skills.  So for the first time ever, I made something that was not for me / anyone I know. 

How’d it turn out?  Well, it’s fine.  I had a few issues with the pattern.  1. the sizing is all wrong.  I ended up going to a K hook and doubling the yarn (ie. Crocheting with two strands) and am STILL shy on the width.  It’s close enough now, but really?  Come on.  2.  I just don’t really like it that much.  I guess this is the joy of working for a “client” you make what they want – rather than something you’d like to make. 

cute enough, but not really my style.

So, the outcome?  I sold something.  That’s interesting enough.  Would I do it again?  Sure… as long as it wasn’t too hard.  Will I love it?  No.

Delinquent Blogger

I have excuses.  Do you want my excuses?  Not really?  Well, you're getting them anyways coz it'll make me feel better.
1.  Work has been stupid busy and I have zero drive to accomplish anything when I get home.
2.  I am working on a sweater.  It's a really easy pattern (read: boring).  I no longer want to finish it.  Motivation ~= 0
3.  Sleep.  Yep, I have been actually getting a decent night's sleep lately.  This cuts into knitting time.

Okay, excuses are done.

What the heck have I done since I last blogged?  It's been a while.  HOLY!

Good thing my ravelry can be sorted by "most recently completed"

TA DA! SO, I finished a baby blanket that I've had on the go FOREVER!  So pleased!  And then I packed it up in a drawer, didn't take any pictures and called it done.  Woops.  I must admit, I still don't have a plan for this blanket.  I kind of figured it was for a baby boy.  A friend of mine is having a baby boy, but I already started another blanket for that one.

A picture!  With the border!

Repeat pattern.  I love it though!

I finally finished my rust tweed shrug - again, I did not take a picture, but I have been wearing it.  It's REALLY freaking warm.  Glad I got it done by the end of the winter (being that it's March winter has not yet left us, but it is tantalizingly close to spring... pfft... sweaters).

Best image I have.  I know, it's hard to see.

The L'infinita cowl I was working on gained completion (and photos!  Why have I not blogged this yet?) and then I wore it non-stop.  OMG  I love that thing.

GORGEOUS

I don't seem to ever wear it long.  But it is a lovely colour.

Of course, I did more stash-busting and made yet another baby sweater.  I might have to take all the things out of my drawer (you know, the non-existent baby stash for possible future?) and take a picture just to let you folks all know how out of hand this is getting.

Awww....

Okay, so that's everything I've finished recently... how about things I've started.

Starting with the sweater that is sucking my will to live.  "Look how cute it is!  oh and look how easy it is!  I'll just make it for my sister's birthday.  It'll be so fun and easy.  Awww..."  @$*&;%!  I think I have something ridiculous like 250 stitches on my needles at the moment and what I get to do to those 250+ stitches is seed stitch.  FML.  Seriously... why did I think this would be a good idea????  This sweater is WAY too boring.  It consists of stockinette stitch and seed stitch.  It is easy though.  But man, where did my motivation go?  Out the window?  With the fun?  Oh yeah, that's where it went.  I'm hoping when I finally get it off the needles that it will be super super cute and well worth the agony of a FREAKING BORING PROJECT.  **Note to self** you are no longer a beginner.  Stop attempting beginner patterns.  You hate them.
(I am a really really bad blogger and wrote this a couple weeks months ago.  I have since finished this god awful thing.  It's cute.  Sister seems to like it.  Feeling less rage.)

Somehow it looks better when folded in half

FINALLY FINISHED!

Then... remember that gorgeous yarn I bought at the "mayan apocalypse sale".  Ya know, she who dies with the biggest stash wins?  I think I'm about 3 balls into my lap-ghan that I'm making with it.  (I made the pattern a lot thinner).  I love working on this, therefore, it is getting my attention instead of the aforementioned sweater.  Sadly, this means I had to put a moratorium on this lap-ghan in order that I might actually get the sweater done for deadline #2 (deadline #1 came and went and I was not finished - deadline #2 is when Katy gets back from school - March 18th.  gah!)

Love the yarn.  Going to be quite the teeny blanket though.

Mmmkay... so now all I have to do is go take a whole ton of pictures and put them in this freaking post - otherwise... Most.  Boring.  Post.  Ever. (Took me waaaay too long to get pictures, but I did it!)

Stash-busting Baby Stuffs

It would seem that I'm quite behind on posting some things.  Like these adorable baby sweaters.  I found a couple really quick / easy crochet patterns and I was aiming to do some stash busting - so off I went.

These came together really quickly and the finished product is pretty darn nice if I do say so myself.

Moogly Sweater - is cute, but not terribly practical for winter.  I think if I were to do this again - they do say that a sleeveless version is nice too - so that's where I'd be headed with this one.  For me, this one came out a bit tight and a bit small.  I made the newborn size, so I'm hoping that it will fit a newborn?  (I don't know these things).

Looks like a watermelon!

Baby Bumpy Sweater - hey, look!  A sweater for a boy that actually looks like it's for a boy!  WOO!  Came together very easy, the bumps are the easiest way I've ever seen to make bobbles AND it's darn cute!  Only complaint on this one is that the back seam is not particularly nice.  I figured out how to make it look less blech about halfway through and at the moment I have no idea what it is.  I think I decided not to count the ch3 as part of the sts and then still did a dc in the same st (just have to be careful that you're not increasing every row when you do this!)

I did miss doing a collar as I ran out of yarn

Those bobbles look awesome.

So, please forgive me for being a couple months behind on posting these.  Apparently I finished them at the beginning of December.

More Slippers

I guess this slipper thing isn't going to stop any time soon.  It uses up so much of my stash so nicely.  There's also a charity drive for gifts for a seniors home going on at work at the moment and I'm thinking the slippers will go to that.

Anyhow, the ones for - I've decided - my mom (the insanity slippers with the cables and the fingering weight yarn) are coming along well.  I finally got one slipper all sewn up.  I just don't have that much motivation to work on them.  I'm sure I could finish them faster if there was a deadline or motivation - but for now - they're  ALMOST done!  WOO HOO!

you don't want me in your picture?

cute button!

cat-attack!

The "unsubstantial - holey slippers" well, those are the ones I'm making for the seniors home gifts.  I know that sounds really bad - but to be honest - I was so mad about the first pair that I used all my ends to snug up all the holes and now they look really good.  (still not terribly warm, but how warm does a house-slipper really need to be ?)  So, I started on a second pair, but I didn't want to have to snug up all the holes on pair number 2 - so my solution was to do the sc row around the slipper with the mc and work my scs through part of the 2nd st so that the holes would go away (and they did!) and then do a sl st round with the contrast colour.  I'm about halfway through slipper #2 of pair number 2 and they're looking STELLAR!  (woo!)

see how much LESS holey they are now?

finished!

And now for something completely different.

You know that shrug that I made for my sister for Christmas a couple years ago?  Well, it was too big (like she couldn't keep it on her shoulders too big).  It makes me sad that something I made is loved, but cannot be worn because it is so obviously the wrong size.  So we spent a few minutes pinning things up and figuring out how big it needs to be and then I frogged the whole darn thing.  Then I had to rewrite the pattern due to the size it required being was 30 sts less than the original!  (omg!) I've been determined to get through this so that her sweater comes back to her as soon as possible - so I've been knitting stockinette stitch on the train a lot (yes, I am *that* girl).  AND!  I finally finished!  I am so excited!  I just have to bind-off and then tuck ends and sew seams (I know, that is where everything gets stalled - but must. finish.)

Slippers

Okay - so who has a really great pattern for slippers?

What I'm looking for is something cute, relatively unconventional, easy-ish, and quick to make.  I'm not asking for much, right?

Anyhow, so after starting my god-forsaken slippers for my family for Christmas I decided that those were TOO much work - but cute!  So I moved on to these incredibly easy crochet slippers.  They're cute too, but I kind of hate them.  There's really not much to them and there are incredibly large holes in them.  So let's do a pros and cons list

Crochet Slippers
Pros:
Took me two days to make a pair of slippers
I got to use scrap yarn - used less than a ball of yarn for the pair
they're really actually quite cute

Cons:
BIG freaking holes in them.
Really rather insubstantial
They don't look like something I would give away as a gift.

Cute - yet holey!

Ballet Flat Slippers
Pros:
These are gorgeous (hopefully they will remain gorgeous when they are sewn up)
They are more substantial as they have a doubled sole
They do look like something I'd be willing to give as a gift

Cons:
Took a ball of sock yarn
Took about a month
There's 6000 ends to weave (well, more like 16... but still!)
Haven't finished them yet

Super pretty - yet so much work!

I'm not sure we have a clear winner.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that neither of these patterns win.  So, I beg my initial question again.  Who's got a really great pattern for slippers??  Please help me out!

Blankets are soft... and done. :)

So, while I was doing the 2012 Bernat Mystery Crochet along afghan - well more like before - I was working on a blanket for my sister.  Actually, what really happened was I ordered my yarn for the CAL and then got bored waiting for yarn and waiting for it to start, so I started another afghan.

It's a pattern I've been dying to try because it looked so pretty, but until now I've lacked confidence in my skills as a crocheter and thought it might be a little hard for me.  I love the colour combination that they put together in the pattern - the purple, blue and green - but when looking for yarn, I just couldn't find a green that went with my blue and purple, so I chose a grey instead.  I think it'll be more timeless with the grey anyways (or at least that's what I keep telling myself).

Pretty colours

I am having a lot of trouble getting the colour to come through in the pictures (I'm betting it's because it's spring, which means it's very very very grey here right now) but these are the best I've managed to pull off.  They're really very rich colours that go very well together, they just look kind of dull and grey in all my pictures.  :(

Nice big afghan!

Then!  My husband's cousin had a baby, so I started a blanket for him (the baby is a boy).  :)

I started a baby blanket with this pattern and ended up tearing it out because I hated it.  It was so boring!  The pattern does specifically say that it is meant for variegated yarn and I am using a solid colour.  So, I'm betting it was my fault.

dislike!

Then I found a baby blanket pattern that had cables in it.  That made me a touch wary, as I'm not a huge fan of cables, but I thought I'd try my hand at it anyways!  SO glad I did!  This turned out fantastic!  I was working on this a lot while in hotel rooms on our fantastic Utah road trip and there wasn't very much left to do by the time we got home - so WOO! I'm done!

VOILA!

All folded up and ready for baby Bryce!

The best laid schemes

Hey there!  We're back from our amazing Southern Utah road trip.  We put over 5500km on the truck, her odometer rolled over 100,000kms, we were gone for 11 days (we had 14 planned but came home a little early) and saw 4 National Monuments, 4 State Parks, 1 Tribal Park, and an annular solar eclipse.  Phew!  How on earth did we do that AND all that drving in 11 days?  No idea!  But we're home now.

I had expected to get a lot of knitting / crocheting done while we were gone, but no such luck.  My husband loaned me a book - oops.  Now I'm on book 3 of the series.  I can't stop.  BUT - I did finish the lovely spring cardigan (new yarn) that I made, didn't like, tore out, and redid.

I don't have a very good picture, but here is the one I do have for now.  I'll get a better one later.

Cute, right?

So, the cardigan didn't turn out quite how I had planned.  On the model in the picture from Mary Maxim, she doesn't have any ties on the cardigan and it doesn't make her look fat - probably because she is a stick - but it doesn't look like that on me.  I added a ribbon, which made it work quite well.  Without the ribbon, well, it looks just plain frumpy.  I just happened to have some pink ribbon on hand - it was supposed to go into a baby  blanket but then I made stupid mistakes and ended up cutting it all too short - and hey!  It's handy now! (thank god!)

More pictures!

Much better angle

Oh my @#$! That hurt!

Ever have one of those mornings?  Of course you have.  Everyone has.  Well, I was happily going about my business this morning when the alarms bells in my pain sensor went off and said "look at your finger, you idiot" and there was a pin sticking out of it.  So, I did what any normal person would do and I shook my hand thinking it would come out on its own (I haven't had my coffee yet.  I know, stupid) and that just hurt more, so I pulled the stick pin out of my finger and looked at it thought "gee, for something that made no mark and isn't even bleeding, that sure hurt" and continued about my business.  Now apparently I bled all over whatever square I was working on at the time (adds character, right?) as I looked down and my finger that was fine is now just a smudge of blood.  Awesome.  Time for coffee.

Anyhow, so the whole reason I am playing with stick pins, which is something I rarely do, for obvious reasons, is that our mystery CAL is over - sort of.  It's not over, but this past week's clue was the last of square making.  We still have blocking, sewing up, and adding a border.  I heard a rumour that this CAL was supposed to last 15 weeks and be done near the end of May (ish) and we're only just finished week 6.  Anyhow, my guess is that next week, we'll have to block our squares - so I started blocking last night - and it went great!  Thus, this morning, my motivation to keep the progress at a high level, resulting in the stick-pin-blood-smudged-squares.  :(

This morning's progress!

Last night's progress.

On a positive note, I can't see the blood on the squares, so I must have got it all over one of the red ones! hahahaha!

Right, so I am a delinquent blogger / CALer.  I seem to give you two clues at a time because I don't finish one before the weekend is over and then I work my butt off to make sure I have two for the next weekend.  

So, clue #5 - every "square" in this CAL is so interesting and different - and then there's this clue.  It took me forever to finish it because I just wasn't interested.  Introducing - GRANNY SQUARE OCTAGONS!  I must admit, it's a cool / super easy technique that was used to turn a granny square into an octagon, but I still find I have very little interest in it.  I'm assuming it'll look great in the finished product.

mmm... granny squares

And, clue #6 - This square is G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S!  I had so much fun making this piece -even if on Friday I was JUST getting my first finished one done.  I had a hard time with this clue because I'm a little fussy and I didn't like how the inside of the circle was done, so I altered that and then I had an issue with the join from round 6 to round 7, so I changed that too.  The Bernat CAL forums were a ton of help for the ideas for slight edits to the pattern.

worsted weight doily for the win!

In other random news, I have been a very very bad yarn addict this past month.  My bank account is going to be mad at me for it, but I am super excited for all this yarn to show up on my doorstep!  

First, Facebook told me there was a yarn store that was having a grab bag sale because the couple who own the store are getting married.  How exciting!  So, I checked out the grab bags and thought - yeah, for $22 I can get me some chocolate brown yarn in small quantities for "testing out" and see if I like it.  I got an email from Yarns of Italy a couple days ago to say that my yarn has shipped, so now I'm anxiously awaiting it to show up at my door.  

THEN, Mary Maxim, who has ridiculously expensive shipping, sent me an email to say that they were having a 3-day free shipping (when you order $70+ of merch online) sale.  I just happened to have a list of stuff I wanted from them and I was really contemplating buying it all as a prezzie to myself for a nice bonus this year.   So I pared my list down to the three things I wanted the most, picked some gorgeous colours, got myself just over $70 and sent in my order.  But they don't tell me when my product has shipped... and it takes forever to get to me for some reason.  I'm less anxiously awaiting the arrival of this yarn, but it'll be coming soon enough!  AND!  Everything I bought was for making myself cardigans.  I'm stoked.  :D

My stash is growing by the week.  ooops.

Up to date on the CAL - Clue #3 and Clue #4

Well, I've been quite ill this week, with no more energy than to get up, get dressed (sometimes) and crochet or read a book, so I got caught up with the Crochet Along.  Not that I was really all that behind.  I think I finished off clue #3 the Sunday before the clue #4 came out, so I'm still pulling off getting each clue done before the next one comes out, just not always before the weekend so that I have time to write about it.

Okay, clue #3 - more octagons!  This time in green (contrast C) and the red that is my MC.  Some people think the middle motif looks like a snowflake - I think it looks like a sun!

Anyhow, my blanket colours are great, but they really don't work without the contrast D colour.  I'm so glad that clue #4 was itty bitty popcorn stitch squares in contrast D... they're pretty fantastic and are currently stealing the show from the rest of the squares (ouch!).

omg.  These are sooo cute.  :)

On another note, I'm finding that my pink octagons with the flowers in the middle are much bigger than everything else.  This is because I was crocheting very loose.  I don't tend to do that, which is why I sized up my hook in the first place, so I should really pull them apart and redo them with the right (see also "the same") tension - like the rest of my squares... *sigh*  oh well.  :)  Everyone was so worried about their gauge that I got caught up in it.  I don't find it's really a big deal as long as you stick to the directions - AND you make a test swatch - which I did - and it was awesome.  So, I shouldn't have worried. 

Here's all my pieces to date!

Popcorn squares steal the show, right?

Clue #2!!

Okay, so I did finish my in-the-meantime-socks this time (and started a new pair) but the pictures are on my blackberry - it's dead - as are all the batteries in my house... you can imagine how detrimental this is to taking pictures of finished work.  Oh well, just gives me more to post about later.

So... clue #2 of the Mystery Crochet Along!

This one took MUCH longer than the last and I only finished our 6 "squares" (octagons this time) last night!  It took me a full 4 evenings (well, what time I had of those evenings) to finish these squares.  Last time it took me two evenings.  Bigger clue.  Good times!

My MC - Incense - oooOOOoooh

Contrast A - Bitter Rose

Anyhow, it would seem that my gauge is quite different between my MC (Incense) and my Contrast A (Bitter Rose).  I'm thinking this is because I wasn't really paying attention when I did the MC and thus, crocheted the same way I always do, whereas I was focusing on being loose for the Contrast A colour.  Woops.  Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to block these (actually, it's really really looking like that!)

These are all the squares finished to date (less a little red one)

Clue #1 Complete

Well, I didn't quite get finished my "in the mean time" socks yet, but they're awfully close.  Those will have to come later

So, instead I'll just post about the crochet along!

The first clue came out on Wednesday (awesome!) and I got 10 of the 12 squares done on Wednesday night and finished the last 2 last night.  The squares are more circular than square, but apparently this is ok and they will be more circular when everything is put together... sure... sounds good to me...

Score... love the colours so much.

My gauge swatch!  Had to size up the hook because I crochet tight.

First square!  (ahem - circle!)

The complete first clue!  Woo hoo!

So, this morning I went to Michael's to help pick up yarn for a friend's project.  She's decided to do the KAL, so I hope that will be awesome.  She picked such an amazing colour palette... :)  Hers is going to be Chocolate brown, navy blue, cream, goldenrod, and a really deep purple (with red tones to it!).
And of course, I can't sit by and watch when there is a yarn purchasing trip to be made (as evidenced by the recent stop at Gina Brown's that resulted in some beautiful merino sock yarn being purchased), so I picked up a purple, navy and light grey with which to make a blanket for my sister... but shhh!  don't tell her!

My cat thinks my CAL square is a toy... awwww!

Best. Ever. Baby. Blanket.

Seriously!

A friend of mine started this blanket for a co-worker of ours and I fell head over heels in love with the pattern.  I just had to make one for myself.  Mine is disobeying the pattern title though.  It's the "boy wrapper" pattern.  So, I made a peach / purple, etc. one... :)
ADORABLE!
YAY!

I folded it so it would fit onto my couch.   It looks better with my couch than with my floor.

LOVE!  Yay for bows and buttons.

Doesn't look so good against my floor...

Girly Baby Sweater?

I have been on a massive crochet binge lately.  I really really really need to stop.  For two reasons - 1. I'm running myself low on projects 2. I have no idea where any of these things I've been making lately are going to end up - aside from in a drawer of finished projects (it's small).

Anyhow, I was at Michael's and I found this lovely baby yarn that I liked and wanted to purchase, but I had no pattern, so I picked up their Loops and Thread Baby Patterns book while I was there (sorry for the lack of a link, I can't even find the pattern on raverly at the moment!).

Then I went nuts and made a baby sweater... it's sort of girly... sort of boy-y... so I decided that it was going to be a girl sweater... and added pink buttons... so there.

AND... the finished product.... drumroll please!

Isn't it adorable?

Close up and armless....

Buttons and detail!

SUCCESS!

Alright, with all the massive motivation of posting all the things I'm working on and not done... I finished a few of them!  Woo hoo!  Of course, they were the easy things to finish... but still!  Progress!

Most exciting news - Johnny's Camo Blanket is FINISHED!  C'est fini!  And just in time for him to come to town, so he can take his lovely new blanket home.  :)

Kind of huge, but good huge - aside from the phenomenal
amount of work.  I have no idea how to do a project small.

Looks nice with the bannister, doesn't it?

Easiest to finish - the Christmas Snowman hanging.  He's cute.  I'm going to need to figure out something a little better for hanging him, but he looks good for now.  I may just glue some popsicle sticks to the back of the "let it snow" sign. 

Adorable!  Now with his head on his shoulders!

Then, of course, I started more projects, but that's a story for another day!