Still plugging along...

I wish I were one of those bloggers who could pound out a blanket every 2 weeks.  Or that I had something fabulous to show you every single time I blog.  Unfortunately, I'm still working on this chevron blanket and it is slooowww goooooiiinng...

Even though this chevron pattern takes longer than some of the others that use double crochet, I really just love the fabric made from single crochet through the back loop.  It has such a nice drape, and yet it makes such a warm cozy blanket. Do you have a favorite ripple/chevron pattern?

This one is a gift for the parents of a friend who lost everything they had when their house burned down this summer.

Here it is again, draped over my legs while I work on it:

Every time I make one of these for someone else I want to steal it for myself.
The next one I make is going to be MINE!

Anyone else in the mood to ripple?  Join this Ripple Along on Flickr.

Sometimes I knit.

Not often, but sometimes, I knit.  I really love to knit, actually, but it takes sooooo loooonng to finish anything, which means that I hardly ever do finish anything knitted these days, which is why I just crochet most of the time.  I can crochet like the wind.

However, every now and then someone asks me to make them something, and inevitably that something is usually knitted.

This hat for example was made for my dad.  I made him a hat long ago for Christmas, I think it was?  And when I asked him what he wanted for Father's Day it turned out to be another hat just like the other one.  Really, a hat?  In the summer?  You want a hat?  Are you sure?  Yes.  He's sure he wants a hat, only he wants it to be burnt orange (UT colors) so he can wear it to the UT games.  And let me tell you, that was no easy task finding the exact right shade of burnt orange.  You can't just pick any old orange.  I had to take him to the yarn store and we spent quite a bit of time going over which orange is burnt orange and which is Tennessee orange and which is almost burnt orange but not quite.  (Apparently to show up to a UT game wearing Tennessee orange or not quite UT orange is a major faux pas. Who knew?)  But alas, Dad will have his hat.  (Quite a few weeks past Father's Day, but knitting takes me soooo loooonng!)

Here's the pattern I used for the hat, though instead of a rolled brim, I used a 1X1 ribbing for the brim. And the stripe sequence I chose was based on the Fibonacci sequence because it's one of those math geeky things that men think are cool.

And then once I start knitting, well, I have to make a few of these too:

Now these are dishcloths made of cheapety cheap cheap cotton yarn, and they are magic.  Magic I tell you!  Everyone loves these things, and thankfully they are extremely quick and easy to make.  I can turn these suckers out in a day or two.  Less if I didn't have a toddler to tend to.  They may not look like much, and usually when I give them to people as gifts they look at me kind of like,  "Oh... knitted dishcloths... well... thanks... I guess..."  But then they always come back to me and say, "HEY! Those things are AWESOME! I need, like 100 more of them!"  But really you only need, like, 3 of them because they are damn near impossible to destroy.  Unless you're my mother.  She always finds a way to tear them up, so I made the above for her.  But when Dad saw them, his eyes lit up!  "OH! You made us some more dishcloths! Oh I LOVE these things!"  Really?  Well, that's what I like to hear!

Anyone want the pattern?  Here it is!

(In case anyone is interested, when I make them I change row 3 so that the first knit 2 together is an SKP, only because I think it makes a more fetching dishcloth, but it's really not necessary for functionality.)

Still here!

Yeah, I've been kind of lazy with the blogging these last couple of weeks, but I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing. (Okay, well, not the whole time.)  For the past few days I've actually been working furiously trying to get my potholders in for this 2011 Potholder Swap.

I honestly wasn't sure I would be able to make it.  I kept going back and forth about which pattern to choose and then I spent a few days trying to decide about whether it was worth all the trouble it would take me, then once I'd decided it was worth the trouble I spent a bit more time trying to decide whether I could actually pull it off or not now that I'd waited until the absolute last possible moment to even start. Ha!

So here's my little lovelies...
(The colors are a bit off here, they're not quite so glaring in real life.)


And here's the back side...


So now I just have to hope and pray that they get there on time, and that the fact that the postage lady absolutely refused to put any more postage on my return envelope than the $3.26 that she says is the absolute limit for first class mail doesn't somehow disqualify me for this swap, because now that I've worked on these suckers until my fingers literally bled, I'm really excited about seeing what comes back to me.  Some of the pictures that have been sent in to the Flickr and Ravelry groups are so stunning that I'm just drooling to get my hands on some of them.

I'm also somewhat obsessed with making some more potholders.
Once my fingers heal and come unclawed from the furious crochet fest.

Here's a close up picture of my favorite one.
Notice the fancy-schmancy tags that my husband helped me make.
(Okay well he didn't so much "help me" make them as much as he just went ahead and did the whole thing.)



PS-
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my last post.  Ya'll are all so sweet!
I had to postpone that tapestry crochet project to get these potholders done, but I will reveal that one as soon as I can.

(To find out what yarns and patterns I used click on the picture which should take you to my flickr.)




  

Granny Square Reveal!

I can finally reveal the project I've been hinting at for the last few posts!

Tada! It's my first full sized granny square blanket ever! Isn't that crazy that I've been crocheting for so long and never made a granny square blanket?! That's like Crochet 101!
(Well, I made a baby blanket for a friend a few years ago, but I don't have any pictures of that one, and it was probably pretty funky looking because I don't think I had figured out how to join them very well, yet.  So like most crafters, I just pretend that the stuff that I did that sucked doesn't exist. If I can get away with it.)

Okay so, stats:
Yarn:  This was a true stash busting project using various acrylic yarns that I had in my stash.  Some that I have no idea at all where they came from or why I bought them.  (And yes I still have A TON more stash yarn left.)  The yarns that I know of are Lion Brand Wool Ease, Caron Simply Soft, and Red Heart Supersaver. The main color that all the squares were edged with is Caron One Pound.  I have previously pledged once before never EVER to buy Red Heart Supersaver again, so let me just renew that little vow here and now.  HATE it.  And unfortunately, I still have quite a bit more left in my stash.  Why did I buy it in the first place?

When I was making the ripple in the picture above I bought some Red Heart because, well, it was so cheap and the colors are so pretty, and even though I knew Red Heart is like the Vienna Sausages of yarn, I just figured that it wouldn't be all that bad.  Heh.  Well, it is. It's that bad.  It feels like cheap carpet, it wants to "catch" on the hook while you're working with it, it actually squeaks it's so plastic.  The only good thing about it is that it softens up and actually feels pretty nice after just one trip through the washer and dryer.  Also it will last forever.  I mean it does not die.  This blanket could be found somewhere, completely intact in an empty field after a nuclear blast had removed all life from the earth. But I digress...

Size:  Throw sized about 59" by 39".  I wanted it to be something that could be put comfortably on the couch  and not overpower everything, but be big enough to curl up under.  It ended up being perfect because I used up almost every single bit of the Caron One Pound.

Joining method:  Crocheted together on the back side using slip stitch.  Sorry, but didn't take any pics of the back side before sending it off to it's owner.

Blocking method:  Just washed it on gentle in cold water and dried it on medium.  I've found that is the best way to block acrylic. Below are some pics before blocking. 

Ian loved this blanket.  I had a hard time keeping him out of the pictures.  

I see many, many grannies in my future.  But more on that next post.

Halloween Banner and some new socks

I finally did some decorating for Halloween. Not finished yet, but I did manage to make a pretty cool banner.

It was easy, but time consuming and after doing this, I seem to have lost all motivation to do anything else.
I did have fun playing with paper and stencils and scissors and glue. Made me feel like a kid again. I spent a lot of time in the scrapbooking isles at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I never realized how much money those scrapbookers must spend! Oooh La La! That is one expensive hobby!

I also managed to finish another pair of crocheted socks.


Same pattern as the last pair of socks I did, but this time I did esc instead of sc for the cuff part. Still not sure whether I like it or not, but the Serenity Sock yarn I used was softer and prettier than the Red Heart and Sole.

Now I'm not sure what to do next, but I do have a lot of UFO's that I could attend to... Hmmm...

Halloween Tree!!

Halloween Tree!!, originally uploaded by Hell'sCook.

Yes, people, I'm already starting to think about Halloween. You see, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. Chalk it up to being the child of an intense health food nut who only allowed candy on holidays and birthdays and how could I help but choose Halloween as my favorite? I mean, it's an entire holiday almost totally dedicated to candy! It was the only time in the year where it was acceptable to stockpile as much candy as possible and hoard it or gorge on it at will!

But now that I'm older and I can't eat that much candy without suffering severely in one way or another, it has become more about just... acceptable spookiness. The pagan in me just loves the fact that it's a holiday entirely dedicated to celebrating the dark side of things. You don't have to celebrate the birth of any deities or give of yourself in any selfless way. You don't have to run around like crazy buying a crapload of gifts for family plus any friends that you think just might also buy you one. No one is expecting you to cook or bake large amounts of food and invite family and friends over for cheer and goodwill, nor do you have to endure anything resembling a midnight mass. In fact, one of the great things about Halloween is that you can turn off your porch light and ignore it almost completely if you so choose and no one will find it strange or rude or uncaring. OR you can go completely nuts and decorate and bake and dress up and throw a wild party and that will be just as equally accepted by all. I LOVE IT!

The past couple of years, despite my love for the holiday, I have pretty much ignored it. Last year I had a baby who was too young to fully appreciate it, plus I was too tired from taking care of him to do anything other than buy a bag of candy and throw it in a bowl for any trick-or-treaters who came along. The year before that I was pregnant with that baby and so nauseated that just the idea of candy or the smell of burning pumpkin made me want to hurl.

But NOW, oh now! I am ready or at least I intend to be ready. I'm going to make up for those lost years and then some. I'm going to make homemade Halloween decorations. I'm going to bake and maybe even decorate sugar cookies. I'm going to carve pumpkins. I'm going to take my wee one, who is finally getting really good at the walking thing, and costume him up and go trick-or-treating. Oh yes, I'm going to do it all! And I'm already thinking about it all right now so I won't run out of time or be overwhelmed.

I probably won't have a Halloween tree, but I like the "spirit" behind the idea.

(ps- notice the countdown widget at the bottom of the page)

Finally!

So here are some pictures of what's been keeping me busy these past few weeks...



I made a bunch of these for our Christmas tree since my theme this year was "unbreakable things," and I wasn't sure I would have enough ornaments to make it look fully festive enough. Plus I just think these are the coolest things ever.


I made this paper chain after seeing one for sale at Gardenridge. (It wasn't paper but a sturdier pliable plastic, but I still couldn't believe that anyone would actually pay for it. Plus the store one was only in red and white. Rip off!) I had forgotten completely about these, but I thought they would be perfect for our unbreakable tree. Yes, I used staples instead of glue. It went way faster and these are never sturdy enough to last more than one year, so I say do what you have time to do. Why get precious about it.






As if Christmas decorating wasn't enough to do I also volunteered to help a friend with her baby shower. (CRAZY!) But it was actually a lot of fun and I would have gone way crazier if I hadn't had so much Christmas stuff to do. I got the diaper wreath directions here. The middle picture is of these delightful little things called oreo balls. They are SO crazy delicious and SUPER SIMPLE to make. Just check out the recipe if you don't believe me. The last picture is of the baby booties I knitted for the shower gift. The pattern is Ruth's Perfect Baby Booties and it's also pretty easy and very quick. I was nervous about it the first time I knitted it because it was the first time I had ever done short rows, but it turns out short rows are pretty easy. And everyone loves these little things. AND they really are the only freakin' things that will stay on wiggly baby feet.


YAY! The finished tree!




This is what I did with all our very pretty, very dangerous or breakable ornaments.

SO I had a LOT of fun with the decorating, but I learned my lesson.
1. Never EVER volunteer to help with a baby shower that takes place anywhere near Christmas.
2. If you're going to make a lot of homemade decorations for Christmas, start decorating in late October instead of early December.
There was actually a lot of stuff that I found on line or saw somewhere else that I wanted to try, but I just ran out of time.

All in all, though, I had a lovely Christmas!

Meh...rry Christmas...

I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit, but try as I might all I can think of are the many things I need to get done by then. Mostly I have a baby shower to plan for December 20th. (What was I thinking?)

Maybe if I decorate my own house for Christmas it will get me in the mood. Here's the question, though. How do you decorate a house and a tree when you have a crawling 11 month old who likes to get into everything and very little money to spend on decor! No glass allowed. Glitter probably not a good idea either.

Hmmmm... Ojo de Dios anyone?

Also known as "God's eyes." Remember those? Surely everyone of us has made one at one point or another. At summer camp, or Girl Scouts or just in school as an easy, not too messy craft project?

Much to my surprise, I found that God's eyes were not invented by some crafty, clever Girl Scout den mother in the 70's, there is actually a history behind them. You can read all about it here if you want. But it's much more fun to just make one.

They're super easy to make. Here are instructions if you need them, but basically you're just wrapping yarn around some sticks.


This one here is made with twigs and embellished with bells and beads, if you want to get fancy. Some people get really fancy and really big, too!

I love finding things like this and trying to make it modern again. I think a tree trimmed with lots of God's eyes is going to be very retro cool (and hopefully toddler friendly, too.)

Speaking of retro cool...
LOVE IT!

I'll be sure and post my own pictures when I've made some of my own.