A Contest for a New Pattern!

Some time within the last year or so, the hippies and granola-eating tree-huggers all got together and voted that we should ban all plastic shopping/grocery bags from retailers. This sucks in my opinion because, now we'll have to purchase plastic bags for our garbage bins instead of reusing the ones from our groceries. Not to mention, how am I supposed to make plarn now?!?

Anyway, I have been trying to make or buy reusable shopping bags. Here is the first attempt. The bottom sucks, but I LOVE the rest of this bag.

No Name Beach Bag & Mini Bag

If you visit my Facebook page, I'm having a contest as to what to name this bag set. Comment on the post I have pinned to the top of my page and if your name is selected, you will receive a free copy of the pattern BEFORE it is released (but as soon as I have it done & tested)!

The rainbow pattern in the main bag consists of 10 different colors, I still need to play more with color schemes, but this one isn't so bad.

The sun is the cover over a smaller cell phone sized clutch. The handle on it has a bobble stitch at the end which makes it wonderfully secure, but also quickly removable. I free handed the sun and cloud. So at this point there is a lot of back tracking, modifying and pattern writting to get to!

I'd love to hear what you think about this set! Let me know in the comments below!

Just Keep Swimming? Just Keep Swimming!

I must offer my most sincere apologies for my extended absence. It was never my intention to let posting lapse this long, but I’m sure I’m not the first blogger that this has happened to.

I have been quite busy with not only crocheting, but getting kids ready for school, keeping my head up at work, and finding time to keep my yarn moving on my hooks, all on top of increasing anxiety/depression issues. I don’t know what the deal is but sometimes it feels as if my golden chaos has barbs!

I have been spending a lot of time testing patterns for KT and the Squid and Cuddle Me Beanies (both can be found on Facebook). I love testing patterns, but as I've been testing, I find that keeping to the required timeline has become increasingly difficult. Therefore, I’m pledging to be more selective in the items/timelines I test. Testing patterns is a truly honorable thing to do and I find great joy in it, however living up to your end of the test is of utmost importance.

Other than that, I've finished a family of Seahawks football hats (pictures available on my Facebook page, hopefully), a few other hats as test patterns, including a skirt, and a few bags and owl cuddlies. I hope to post pictures in the near future.

Being that I’m backing off of testing patterns, I hope to dedicate more time to quality blog posts. Some ideas flowing through my brain are:

·         Posts detailing my personal opinion of very inspirational blogs or great access to patterns, some pay for and some for free

·         Posts of techniques that I find useful…

·         My experience with expanding my color acceptance… not everything has to be paired with black – I know shocking huh? J

·         Links to posts/patterns that I've used the in past and my personal opinions on their structure and finished product.

I’m in the process of becoming more organized (seriously, I have a pile of notebooks on my couch as I speak!) and am seriously trying to figure out this blogging thing!

I'd love to hear any comments or recommendations you have including your suggestions for links, designers to check out or ideas for blog posts!

1400 Page Views Today!!!

I know I've been on the quiet side lately, however I have not been far from the hook; but I wanted to mark today as a milestone - 1400 blog visitors! Unbelievable! Heck, I had always hoped but never could imagine that there would be that many views - and I appreciate every single one of those views.

I also have been realizing that I haven't followed up on a few promises. One of which is getting pictures for the cozy/coaster pattern; well I purchased new batteries for my camera and hope to take those within the near future.

In addition to working on my own projects I've also become a Pattern Tester! (yes, when I say that I hear it in a super hero announcer voice & it echoes). If you are someone that may not feel that experienced but would love to attempt new projects and have new networking contacts, I highly suggest it. I have made quite a few valuable connections through certain groups on Facebook. Just realize that as you're testing these patterns for other people, they're depending on you to be honest and up front with them. Don't just jerk them around for the free pattern, it's not worth it.

I'm also contemplating the idea of starting a series of blog posts on stores, creators, crafters that I follow or are in contact with or even just have a scope of work that I adore.

What do you think? Who should I express a profile on first - just as a note, I'm not planning on promoting these pages or stores, I just want you to see what they're doing as I have done many times and it always sends my brain spinning with ideas and creativity.

So let me know what you think in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you!

Hidden Projects!

I have been remiss in posting ALL my little projects that I have crafted between other projects. This is my attempt to rectify that.

I have attempted to enter links to either the inspiration for or the pattern for the projects I have done. If you find that I have missed something, please let me know in the comments area after this post.

Cherry Blossom Necklace - Crochet Today Magazine, July/August 2011

Pattern by Crafster, Sandy Meeks

I saw this pattern featured on the Crochet Today Magazine website and loved it! I made it for a co-worker's birthday and now, my Mom wants one with a matching bracelet!

Not only was this pattern adorable, but it was easily completed in just a few hours, mostly after work during the week. Very easy to follow instructions that also allow for your own customization of the pieces. I loved it.


Cat Butt - Inspired by Crazy Socks Crochet

The feared One-Eyed Unicorn!!!

After seeing this idea on the blog for Crazy Socks Crochet, I couldn't get it out of my mind! It was too hilarious! So, after a few trial runs and a bit of unraveling this is what I ended up with. I made 5. One for each of my co-workers/employees and one for myself. This is defiantly one I'll end up making again!


Easter Bunnies! - Pattern by The Green Dragon Fly
I wanted to make something special for each of the kids this last Easter. It was already postponed for about 2 weeks because all the kids were with their other parents for the holiday & we waited for our Family Weekend.

When I saw the pattern for these adorable bunnies I figured that not only would it be adorable, but it would also give me a chance to use the pom-pom makers I received for Christmas!

Riley's bunny was based on a Star Wars idea I had. Riley normally wears a lot of black, but the red represented the Dark Side and the blue the Jedi side. Here's a front and back of his bunny:

Little bunny nose!

Cute red pom-pom tail!

Aurora's bunny I nicknamed "Neapolitan" because the colors of the yarn reminded me of the strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream! Which lead to reminding myself of the "Ziggy Piggy" ice cream scene from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but that's another story!

Starting to show slight loving, it may get a twin !

Love how these colors worked together!

Then darling little Jacob, his bunny was "garbage truck" colors, greens and browns etc. I saw a quote somewhere along the interwebs this week that said "boy" was noise with dirt on it. That is totally Jacob. Here's the bunny he received:

 

Crooked ears, I stitched them on before he was stuffed.

Still loving the sunburst patterns on them.

Yes, these bunnies may get twins, mostly so they can have something from Amazing Adam and I at their other parent's houses. Just so they remember that we love them no matter where they may be. 

TEST PATTERN: Aviator Hat - Cuddle Me Beanies

This last weekend I took on my first TEST PATTERN!!! I volunteered my time to test the pattern to an Aviator Hat for Cuddle Me Beanies. I had about 48 hours to stitch up the pattern all the while looking for typos or anything that may help the potential customers follow the pattern easier. It was a lot of fun!

Jacob's birthday is this week and fortunately he has a large noggin, so I agreed to the Adult sizes and when I was done, I had both Amazing Adam and Jacob pose for pictures:

Instructed to give me his best "to infinity and beyond!" pose!

So excited to have his hat, he was practically VIBRATING!

I had a lot of fun with this pattern and found that I loved testing patterns! I just have to keep my eyes open on Facebook to see who else is wanting help!

There you go folks, my last few busy weeks in between other projects. I have finished Part 1 of Jacob's birthday presents, pictures and all, but I'm hoping to make another post of just those - after I finish Part 2... if only I knew what I was making next!

Please let me know what you think about these projects - I'm dying to hear any feedback you can give and thanks for reading!