Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the folks out there that play a "Mommy" role in someone's life.

Since my son had plans with his father of this weekend he wasn't able to spend Mother's Day with me for the first time in 13 years. (sad) Instead of celebrating it on Sunday without him we started Friday night when we had all the kids with us.

I don't know how he did it, but Amazing Adam, being as amazing as ever, was able to find time in his running errands, playing school bus and chaperoning a field trip to the Children's Hands on Museum to get prizes for me.

When I arrived home, there were flowers waiting for me on the table, which my initial thrill was damped by darling Aurora walking in behind me and claiming that it smelled like pee in the house. (gee thanks!)

Pretty aren't they? I love the daisies and Adam's favorite is purple carnations!

Close up of the card... yes it does say "With Deepest Sympathy"!

Then as things settled down and people found some calm Amazing Adam called the children forward and each handed them a gift. The first one was from Aurora:

Love it! 

And a view of the poem on the reverse side:

So sweet!

I adore the fact that her teacher let her make two crafts as she still had one for her "Mommy." I brought this project to my desk at work to display proudly.

The the other prizes started revealing themselves from behind backs, under shirts and out of pockets!

A Hot Wheels '71 Plymouth Road Runner - black with flames
A Hot Wheels '66 Chevy Nova - blue and black
A Michael's Gift Card (of yarn) from Riley's pocket

Blind Box LEGO Mini Fig from Amazing Adam's pocket

So overall, it was quite a thrilling evening of prizes. Riley went off with his dad early Saturday morning with the warning that if he fails to call his Mother on Mother's Day he will be on a certain shit-list for the next 364 days. 

On Saturday, we had a great evening at the local speedway for car racing. Lots of crashes and fires under speeding vehicles. Amazing Adam's co-worker races there, he even took a break after his races to come visit us. You'd think Sponge Bob just came and sat with us from the way Jacob kept wanting his attention!

All the while on both Saturday and Sunday I was trying to get my project done for my Mother. She just got an RV so I wanted to make something to make it a bit homier, so I came up with the idea to make coasters with a holder for her. 

I found a pattern for Daisy Coasters by Whiskers and Wool and the inspiration started. I knew that I still had scraps of Lily Sugar & Cream cotton yarn at home, so I thought I'd start and see where it took me.

Finding that I still had rainbow colors, here is what my coasters ended up like:

Love them, odd tweak in the blue one, but oh well...

Then I thought that they'd be in the RV, rolling around flying everywhere as they went driving all over hell an' gone, so I wanted to make something to hold them in. This is what I came up with:

An adorable rainbow bowl to put them in! I free handed the base starting with red then every two rows changed colors, narrowing towards the top so they didn't need a fastener to keep them in the bowl. Just cram the stack in there and they stay!

I love this! Thinking of making more...

She loved them! I also made her a small white trinket bowl so that on their adventures if she found a rock or a shell, she'd have somewhere to start placing them, a collection of memories!

After we got home from delivering this to my mom, I finally received a Facebook message from Riley: "Do I still have to call?"

Boy, lemme tell you, I unleashed the caps lock on him, "YES!"

So I got the call from my little boy. I was happy.

Finished off the very last few minutes of the night, realizing that Amazing Adam had given me one of the best Mother's Day weekends I can ever remember. I had time to crochet and watch numerous episodes of Supernatural, I had prizes, I attended an event (more to his benefit than mine, but had a great time), and best of all, I have an amazing family.

None of us are really "morning people," we all have a tenancy to be quite cantankerous, quite a few of us want our way one way or another, but when push comes to shove, there is almost always one moment everyday that I can think of that is nothing but pure chaotic perfection. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or would like to see patterns for anything I've posted, previous or current. 

Co-worker Collaboration

Two weeks ago I took pity on one of my employees; she has just learned to crochet within the last year and had been trying to complete two travel blankets for two of her daughters... before June 1st! After weeks and weeks of watching her stress about this and the decorations for them, I - in a not so obvious way - offered my services. Later that day I found myself hauling home a lot of purple yarn. Two weekends later I returned with this:

My part is finished for this one!

Just a simple hdc blanket using 2 1lb skein of lilac yarn, simple scallop stitch along the edge. If you'd like the pattern (meaning I'd have to pull it out of my brain), please leave me a comment.

These two blankets were really a collaboration as another employee offered to create the skull and crossbones for the decorations, as the intent was to mimic the Monster High logo. Here's the finished purple blanket:

Adorable right?

 Considering that the pattern for the skulls and crossbones came from someone else, I don't have the pattern; although she's getting the idea that she may write it up and post it somewhere. I'll let you know if she does.

The second blanket was created by the first employee; I offered my services to create some leaves and flowers inspired by Attic24's Triple Layer Flower Pattern.

She wanted bright happy colors, pretty, huh?

Here's the finished blanket:

Adorable!

Also a simple hdc blanket pattern, finished off with fluffy/chunky yarn. Now that these blankets are finished, she's a much happier person to work with, except now she is on the same timeline for hats! I'm telling ya, she's on her own for that one!

TONIGHT, I'll start on Mother's Day project; which I hope won't take too long because then I have to start a pretty time consuming project for little Jacob's 6th birthday later this month!

Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey and Absolute Squee!!!

If any one knows me lately, I have become a neuvo-Whovian. I will not state that I know everything there is about the Doctor and all his 11 versions, I do however have a solid geek hold on the newer episodes and have fallen in love. I love the whole Doctor/Rose interactions, died a little on the inside as he left her standing alone on the beach. Wept as Doctor 10 said his good-byes. And have quite fallen for the TARDIS:

A box, that has unlimited storage space (yes, I have imagined a TARDIS craft room) and can take you any where in any time, with anyone that so chooses to be your companion! Brilliant!

I have had a vision of a coffee cozy with the TARDIS from Doctor Who floating around my brain for ages now, and this weekend I finally succeeded!

Inspiration came from this TARDIS Valentine's Day Card posted at The Zen of Making.

Awesome, right?

So as this idea was terrorizing me every time I picked up the hook, I started by picking up paper and colored pencil (sorry, no scanned images of it yet). I jotted down on graph paper my inspiration and a rough sketch of what I wanted the cozy to look like.

Here is the almost completed cozy:

Still so happy with it!

Now that i'm looking at the two images of the TARDIS, I see the areas I should have included, however, now, it is completely original and may end up with more modifications as I continue working with this piece.
Please no comments on the shoddy cross stitching, I've never really done it before, so I did my best.

Now for the finished project:

Adorable right?

The bottom ruffles were inspired by all the TARDIS gowns that have been flowing through the interwebs lately. I used Red Heart Shimmer for the blue top and bottom borders. Basic embroidery thread for the hearts and TARDIS, although I had shimmery colors for the light and the windows. I ended up double cross stitching the hearts and mildly wish I had done so on the TARDIS. Either way, I love it.

More photos!

Left Side

Center

Right Side

This is one project I am completely taken with. Now I have to decide if it will be a free pattern or if I should charge for it. I'm leaning towards a free pattern - this time with pictures.

I'd love to hear your comments and/or suggestions about this project or others...



PS. I'm entering this post for the All Free Crochet Spring Stitch & Share Event that I saw mentioned on Stitch and Unwind.

The reason I chose this pattern for Spring is because all the new Doctor Who episodes started with the start of the season! Let me tell you they really bring the family together! Even our little ones, Jacob and Aurora love watching the Doctor with me, Amazing Adam and Riley, generally asking to stay up later or to watch it later on an cable video feature.

Monday, again, already????

Let's say that Monday is the werewolf & I'm the unsuspecting lady... 

VOGUEknitting Live, Seattle is here!

I'm heading up to Bellevue this weekend for the VOGUE Knitting Live event at the Maydenbauer Center. Should be interesting because I can't ever remember being to Bellevue at any other time, so I'm really, really hoping Mom gets over her cold/allergies so Dad will lift her quarantine and let her out of the house!

The tickets came in the mail this week so not only will Mom and Dad go with, I'm dragging Riley too, whether he likes it or not (he can help look for zombies & help carry stuff).

It was Spring Break for all the kids this week; all of them spent time with their Other Parents and are back home now; Amazing Adam is off work today and plans on teaching them good ol' Dungeons & Dragons! I'm surrounded by gamer geeks and couldn't be more proud.


CURRENT PROJECTS:

In Mind:

• TARDIS Cross Stitch Coffee Cozy - this one is driving me crazy! Can't figure out how to cross stitch on a single crochet when the holes between the stitches won't line up the right way to get correct stitches.
• Bunny Slippers for me - I can't afford Unicorn Slippers from ThinkGeek so I want to crochet a pair of bunny (or maybe unicorn) slippers for myself. Definitely not on paper yet, but a back burner project.

On Paper/In Photos:

• I want to recreate the cozies I made for Cafe Cesura's coffee cozy event - and write the patterns down this time; in hopes to be able to post them here.

I've also got some ideas/patterns for a birthday present for little Jacob in May. 

Even with this all on my mind, all hooking comes to a full stop for Saturday. YAY!

Orange-Mocha Frappuccino!

I couldn't resist posting this! Too funny! I love me some Doctors!

VOGUEknitting LIVE! - Seattle

I know, I know... You're thinking,"knitting, I thought this was all about crochet!" Well, it is. However I ran across an opportunity to participate in the Vogue Knitting Live Seattle event - with my crochet!

At Cafe Cesura in Bellevue on April 6th, Vogue Knitting is hosting an event where they invited all yarn crafters in the area to create coffee cozies to donate to be given away.

Boy, oh, boy! At first I didn't think I was going to participate as the information was posted with a local yarn crafting group message board and the group wasn't really interested in participating. Then this last week I found out that I could participate as an individual! All I had to do was crochet as many coffee cozies as I could and have them on their way to New York by TODAY!

Meep! Luckily, this coincided with a point where my "brain candy" wasn't exactly working right and I deemed it necessary to have some mental rejuvenation days this week. I played hooky on Monday and Tuesday this week and I crocheted my butt off for 4 days all together and here are a few pictures to show what I was able to come up with:

Cherry Cupcake Cozy

Death Star Cozy

Mickey Mouse Ribbon Cozy

Cherry Blossoms in the Snow Cozy

... and a few others that I don't have the pictures or the credits ready to post. I had so much fun working on these. Luckily, I still have enough ideas running around my brain so with the left over supplies that I wasn't able to use, I should be able to recreate some of these for any one interested in them.

Also, I should be able to wing enough replicas that I'm hoping to post some new patterns. (I know I keep promising this but I will totally get my act together and deliver... as soon as possible!) 

Let me know what you think in the comments, I would love to see which one is your favorite.

Hopefully, I'll be able to attend some of the events at VogueKnitting Live this next month (April 5-7) and I'll report back on what happens if I do.

So, there you go... this was my Secret Squirrel Mission that I'd been working on. Super cool, right?

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been working as much as I can lately, I swear! I've finished a cowl pattern, innovated my own gift pattern (cute story & a pic to follow), a gift for a co-worker (now Mom wants one with a matching bracelet), finished some arm warmers from a magazine pattern and now started a second pair for an employee, and started and finished a scarf for Amazing Adam's co-worker.

I have pictures of most of what I've been working on lately, but I promise I'll get the rest of them as soon as I can.

I have settled 2 magazine subscriptions for crochet patterns - but for the life of me I cannot exactly remember which ones! Guess it will be a surprise when I get them in the mail. I was fortunate enough to run across a sale on Google Magazines in the Google Play store and found a ton of Crochet Today back issues for only $0.99! Believe you me, I got as many as they had to offer! Some great ideas and really cute patterns, found things that I'd love to make for everyone in some way. I've already made 2 that were in those back issues - again, more info to follow. I think Crochet Today this is one of the subscriptions I have ordered.

I've also been looking for better crochet hooks. I've seen a set that I like but they're around $90.00 for a 10 hook set and a case; a bit steep if you ask me. I've also seen some ergonomic hooks that are all wonky and crooked. I'd rather try these out first to see if they'd fell better than the regular aluminum ones. One criteria I found that I'm looking for is length.

I tried the rosewood hooks from Michael's that I received as a Christmas gift this last year and fell in love with how long they were. I find that the ends of the hooks tend to dig into my palm a bit and can be uncomfortable. Not to mention, the rosewood hooks made me feel as if I was using a magic wand for all these awesome creations (Geek Note: Fleur Delacour from the Harry Potter Series had a rosewood wand which made it all that much more fun). Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that they are no where near as durable as the aluminum hooks as the head popped off of the H Hook.

I'd be happy to hear your opinions on hooks and what you guys are using, feedback is always great. Actually it would be great to hear from any of you, what you think, any questions you may have... drop me a line!

Until next time then...

Meep! Where'd the Time Go?

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted hasn’t’ it?

Well the time has not been wasted believe me! For a while I was working on a straggling Christmas present and a baby shower gift – both of which couldn’t be posted until they were given to the recipients and I didn’t’ want to take any chances!

I found a pattern for a Owl Granny Square Pattern on Repeat Crafter Me. I immediately thought of Amazing Adam's mother - she loves those birds and knew i had to make one for her.


Detailed picture of the Owl Granny Square

In the pattern it calls for buttons on the eyes, I didn't want to put hard plastic nubbins that close to the neck, might be uncomfortable, so I winged it on the eyes, but I think they still look adorable.


Completed Scarf with Owl Granny Squares

I had a lot of fun making these little squares. Granny Squares are quick and quite easy once you get the hang of them. Not to mention that they open up a whole world of variations even with the "normal" patterns for them. I love how these owls were combined with the square, really brilliant concept if you ask me.

I made a total of 6 owl granny squares and 6 normal granny squares. I attached them so that there were 3 owls on each side and the normal squares would be where it wrapped around the neck.
The next present I made was for Amazing Adam's cousin, I made a small baby blanket, inspired by the granny squares. I didn't embellish it, just a plain and simple blue and brown color scheme in a size that would fit into a diaper bag or that the baby could carry around with him once he's older. I loved it. Hopefully, she'll find a use for it.

Tag-a-long sized baby blanket

Over the last few months of rather disappointing “Winter” weather here in the Great Northwest, it has been cold, but no snow. It has even been cold in my office; often times my nose and hands are quite cold; I’ve been dressing to be comfortable at work with a minimum of 4 layers of sweaters, t-shirts and tank tops, but still finding that my fingers are cold. What do I need?


Scarf? Have one, exceptionally long and soft, but difficult to work at a desk with. (Lion Brand Homespun in Gothic) *sorry no picture*

A cowl? Ok, we can try that… Adorable! I’m hoping to post this pattern here in the near future. What else could I use so I can be warm... at work... inside?



Finished cowl

Fingerless gloves! Still currently in mid-creation with those, found inspiration from a pattern, winged it on the rest. Picture and possible pattern (hopefully) will follow.

Then I was on the search for a new inspiration something that would drive my hook on its own power! I found … squat. So I dusted off some UFOs (UnFinished Objects). Top hat with Viking horns for Amazing Adam –kind of a franken-project and unable to find an acceptable pattern for horns; therefore I’m now on my own for that project, got one horn started and came to a stall, haven’t lost all hope yet.

Then I remembered a while back I promised a Little Big Planet Sack Boy for one of my employees. Found a few patterns way back, found the yarn and partially completed sets of limbs – winged the patterns a bit.

All the bits and pieces to this little creature were so stinkin' small! I almost gave up a few times, but I got it done, and it's too cute. Successfully completed and delivered!

Now we’re into tax return season. Last year my reward was my beautiful tablet – I’m still in love with it even with all the issues I ended up having in November. I don’t need nor do I have the abundant resources I did last year for such an exuberant prize. I’m going to make a few purchases that will pay out through the year. I’m going to create a crochet gift prize. Maybe some hooks, maybe some yarns, but definitely paper copies of a few magazines. I’m still doing my research but I may be close to deciding exactly which ones I’m going to subscribe to.

In doing my research I have purchased a few magazines off the stands and in the process found some ADORABLE warmth keeping items that I’m dying to get to in addition to some brilliant ideas that I may be able to modify away from the stick figure models into something that a curvy female such as myself may be proud to wear. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Tonight is going to be an adventure for me. I joined a yarn crafting group through MeetUp.com a few months ago, and as I spend most of my "school nights" chasing 2-3 children until supper and bedtime, I wasn’t able to work any of their scheduled Tuesday evening events into my calendar - until tonight!

I’m super excited and can’t wait until work is done to get over there. I packed my yarn bag last night and am already to head straight over there after work. Hopefully, I’ll be able to update all of you when I get home as Amazing Adam won’t be done with work until much later than that.

Now for my final photo for this post. It's Amazing Adam proving he's still a big kid at heart, playing with Jacob and Aurora. I love it!

Riley was a witness behind my shoulder as I took this picture.

 I love this crazy family - chaos and love all rolled into one. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Happy New Year!

What a year it has been! Amazing Adam and I rang in the New Year as any couple without kids for the night would do... we slept! Amazing Adam was coming out from under a hangover from the night before when he met up with his coworkers for some holiday festivities. That may be the last time he goes out with the guys unsupervised! Not really - it was kind of nice being the only one home for a few hours.

We had a great Christmas - celebrated 12/28-29 for our family because of parenting plans. I finished my final crochet project in the wee hours of our Christmas morning. Luckily enough, the kids - all of them - slept in until about 8:30am.


This year, I tried to get as many projects done as presents for the entire family as I could. I was able to finish this bag for my mom (in white), a cousin (in mustard yellow), and my sister (in jewel tones). This pattern can be found here as a free Ravelry download.

This bag worked up quite quickly after I learned the stitch clusters necessary to get the flower motif on the bottom. Now, it's not so bad to do - there's a lot less unraveling!







Riley has been playing a lot of Magic: The Gathering lately and has discovered the Penny Cards at our local comic book/geekery store; which has resulted in not only his collection of cards increasing exponentially but Amazing Adam's collection as well. So for Christmas this year, I found a Dragon's Egg bag pattern as a free Ravelry download, here.

I even successfully lied to Riley as I crocheted the bag right in front of him. Told him it was for someone at work.




At more than one time this past year, darling little Aurora became increasingly annoying by sitting in the van or walking around the apartment and meowing rather than using her words, therefore she got a kitty hooded scarf, pattern was found here.

This picture does nothing to the color pink she was litterally covered in - she looks like a pink highlighter vomited all over her! I can't seem to get away from this color pink, but she doesn't seem to mind!

She owns a shirt stating that her favorite color is rainbow, so I'll have to start working with those in mind too. This was a fun pattern to make, it should definately keep her warm.





Jacob is our race car and super hero fan. So he got a Lightning McQueen hat. I did find a pattern for it here but since I was working with a serious deadline, I made the decision to work with hat patterns I have worked in the past.

Due to the differece in yarn weights, I ended up combining two of them... yes, I probably do have issues, but it worked out great. I used this pattern for the body and this pattern to work the ear flaps. No, everything did not come out perfect, but with a bunch of stitch markers and quiet time to count stitches I think it turned out great.

The front "eye" part of the hat was pretty easy, placing the eyes not so much, it's hard to see what it is going to look like with the ends in the way, then sewing it on, I had to unstitch a couple times because it was crooked.

Then I had an idea for a lightning bolt in the back, like "CAA-CHING" thing that he does, right? Have you ever tried to crochet a lightning bolt??? Well there is a serious lack of patterns for them on the interwebs out there! My attempts ended up looking like malformed yellow carrot noses!


So, I picked up a hook and some yarn and thought, what's the worst thing I could do? A single chain and put his numbers on there... well that turned into how can I make the yarn bend? A few tries later I ended up with two squirrley pieces of yarn that successfully made the "95" on the back of his hat!

It felt like a glorious breakthrough! I know they're crooked, but dangit, I don't care (too much anyway) even if I didn't write down the pattern. *sigh*

Jacob also got some Iron Man fingerless gloves. I had made some a few years ago of the most simple pattern and they've since been lost or misplaced. I saw the pattern for these and thought they were perfect for this little boy! I had a difficult time with these, the pattern I found here was confusing to read and not the best print out in black-and-white printing. The last straw was when everyone was up, we were supposed to be leaving for my parent's house to open Santa presents and I realized that the thumbs were both on the same side! I had to figure out how to make them match & get those blaster thingies on the same sides! I turned one inside out. I didn't have enough time to make another one, let alone WANT to make another one! No one's noticed and I don't really care. The most important thing was that he loved them.

 

Then on the night of the 29th, we celebrated my birthday:

 

I did get some great goodies for crochet... I received 3 rosewood crochet hooks, sizes G, H & I. I was using the G hook on a scarf for my mother-in-law and the hook snapped off! Sadness!! So, now I'm down to just the H & I. I loved using them, they're nice and long and very light weight. (GEEK TRIVIA: Fleur Delacour used a rosewood wand.) I also received like 5 pom-pom makers. Those will be so much easier than trying to figure out how to make different sizes and what I should make them with.

 

Overall, we all had a really nice Christmas and New Year.

 

Kids go back to school tomorrow, we'll have the same ol' full house tomorrow night - I've kind of missed it.

 

What would I like to see for this new year? I'd love to move, move into some where that we're not always under each other's feet, but not too far away from each other. I'd love to build up more stock for another craft fair or two. Another garage sale in the summer? More sales of crocheting things? Who knows... all that truly matters is the important things: health, happiness and love, and in the aspect of achieving those things, I'm truly thankful.

 

May you find your happiness, keep your healthfullness and feel loved in the New Year.

 

And because I can... a picture of my Mom's dog Chewie