Just saying hey!

I haven't done much on any of my projects. But I did want to say hi and post some links for Something on a Stick Day, so here I am!

Knitting:
-A Bomb Pop pattern from DIY Life. Could be done in many different flavors, but this one may be the most recognizable! (For anyone wondering what a Bomb Pop is, just think patriotic popsicle)
-A teeny tiny popsicle on Ravelry from Gulnoza Akhmedova

Crochet:
-A Ravelry popsicle pattern from Amber Fry


Although it is only spring, it's still a good time to start thinking about staying cool! As I said, nothing much happening on the crafting front lately. However, I should be fixing that soon...... Hopefully....

What is with this month?

For a while, March zoomed by. And now that I have something to look forward to in early April, oh no. No way would the world be nice enough to keep sucking March away. It's now dragging! A lot! But I have my yarn to keep me company, so life's good!

Hmm, tree skirt first today? I've done some more. Maybe, three rows more? No, just two. (OK, I can work with two....)

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(Up until this point, it will be HDC all the way, with a few increases thrown in here and there. 21 will be SC to set up for the shells, which will be Row 21.)

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I could maybe buckle down and finish this before the end of March as planned, (before the extra was added on) but you wouldn't hear from me, and neither would the rest of the world. As appealing as that is..... I have things that must be done. Lots of 'em. I probably ought to end this post soon. So I can crochet. But I have some shocking news:

I worked on the baby blanket. 

(cue thunder, lightning, and all sorts of cool stuff.)

No pictures today. There is no visual change to either project, plus I want to go crochet now! Have a nice afternoon/evening!

Be creative today!

Today is Make Your Own Holiday Day, so I thought it would be a good day to link to some DIY tutorials.

Knitting:
-A woven wool rug from diy Network. This is pretty simple, but very neat! It would make a good stashbusting project, too.

Sewing:
-This is for sewers, but you need some power tools too! Here is a tutorial, also from diy Network, on how to make a flip top counter for your sewing machine. Ugh, I can't explain it, just go look!
-A cool button bracelet from diy Network (again. I kind of looked around on this site for way too long........)

Miscellaneous:
-It's one of those stepping-stone things from, you guessed it, diy Network.

I did some serious work on the tree skirt this weekend. I got four rows done on Saturday, and three yesterday, bringing me to 7 total rows on the new chart. 

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(Up until this point, it will be HDC all the way, with a few increases thrown in here and there. 21 will be SC to set up for the shells, which will be Row 21.)

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I got it to lay flat again! However, the edge isn't cooperating as well as I'd like, so I'm going to have to start increasing a little bit more.

I also finished something:

Yep! The felt doll is all done, after a disastrous attempt at the face. It was so awful, I had to cut off the hair and reattach it to the other side of the head to cover it up. Then I very carefully redrew the face, and while it wasn't as good as my practice (oh the irony), it looks fine, I guess. Here's what the hair looks like now:

And a closeup:

This picture took me way too long to get right. I was trying to show how the threads attached it to the head make it look like the hair is done in some kind of intricate braid or something. I think it's pretty cool, but apparently, my camera disagrees!

A little closer to her face, and I'm done! I'm happy to get this one of the list, because it shouldn't have taken as long as it did. I just have a (well justified) fear of drawing faces!

Be careful!

Today is Near Miss Day, marking the day (3/23/12) an asteroid came very close (within 500,000 miles) of hitting the Earth. This made me think of the day the dinosaurs weren't so lucky, so today's Bizarre Holiday links will be all about dinosaurs.

Knit:
-Dinosaur Hand Puppet from Knitting from the Heart. (You have to go to the sidebar and click on the link.)
-A seamless dinosaur from At Knit's End

Crochet:
-An adorable baby dinosaur pattern from My Skills Guide
-A really neat baby triceratops from somewhere. Yep, it's from somewhere. So helpful.

Sewing:
-It's a dinosaur, but I have no idea where it's from.

It's a mustache on a string! It doesn't work very well, so I may wear it as a necklace! Either way, I'm calling this one done.

It's the tree skirt! I have absolutely no idea what happened to that picture, but at least it's a new one, right? As I mentioned earlier this week, there was a..... misunderstanding about the size my mother wanted, so I did some measuring and I now have a final row count. (I didn't do the math, because my increases will be based off of how ruffly it looks.) 

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(Up until this point, it will be HDC all the way, with a few increases thrown in here and there. 21 will be SC to set up from the shells, which will be Row 21.)

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I have done Row 1, and I'm almost done with Row 2, so I'm going to finish! I can feel it! Oh, and I wanted to mention that yesterday I managed to get it to lie completely flat. I was super excited, so I did a couple of increases in Rows 1 and 2.

Have a nice day!

SUFOs

Still UnFinished Objects! Which would be everything from Tuesday. I know, not so good. But I did get some done on the tree skirt and the little felt doll. Which is good! Right now, the tree skirt stands about here:

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Wow! I broke my record! Only four rows left today! And here:

(Yep, same picture from Tues. Three rows doesn't make that much of a difference.)

I realized that I didn't post about the baby blanket in my UFO post. That's because it's in time out, so I forgot about it. There has been no progress, so it really wasn't that big of a loss.

The doll now has finished hair:

She just needs a face.

The mustache remains the same, mostly because I'm trying to decide if I should put it on a stick, or an elastic band (hands-free). Have a nice day!

UFOs! And a spider. It was scary!

This time, I mean that both ways. Today I will be linking in honor off Extraterrestrial (I spelled that right on the first try!) Abduction Day. Then, I will do a UFOs update. (I haven't finished anything recently... at least that I posted about.)

Oh! And I'll tell you about the spider. It was scary!

Crochet:
-First, an amigurumi alien from Crochetville
-An Alien Amigurumi pattern from Free Patterns by H
-Finally, a three-eyed alien from yarnyokel

Knit:
-An alien headband from Bernat
-Super cuddly alien pillows from Red Heart
-A stuffed alien from treeknits


So now, for the UFOs.

This is the doll, which now has better fitting clothes and the start of some hair. It's a big improvement from this! The dress just got a new side seam on one side, and the hair is Take 2 1/2. The first time, I tried to do it with yarn, which came very close to working, but I messed up right at the end and I tore it all off in frustration. Then, I took an old pair of tights and I'm using the foot to frame the face. The 1/2 part comes from the part where I had to rip it off a little to cut out the heel and get rid of some bulk. I'm going to keep chugging along on this one, because it's going pretty well!

Ooh, look! It's the Secret Project! It's hiding in a little felt pouch, because it's still a secret! I haven't done much on this one lately, but I'm not going to give up.. yet! (give it a few more inches... that's when it'll get really unpleasant!)

It's the tree skirt, dropping in to say hello! How nice! What isn't nice is that my mother gave me the wrong measurements to base this one off. I had a lot more than 24 rows to do. Speaking of which:

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I did about four or five rows between last night and this afternoon, which just caught me up to my usual level of behindness (five rows for one day). Luckily, it's still ruffly, and I won't be increasing for a while, so that will help. I might get another row in today. Maybe. So, I'm erasing the end-of-March goal, based on the fact I have a ton more left than I thought.

The odds of me finishing this are minimal. I have nothing to do it, and needle-felting really isn't my thing. I will probably use the leftover stuff as thrums, which I saw in this pattern from Knitty.

This little pouch? Well, let's just say I had completely forgotten about it! It's holding my t-shirt quilt pieces, which I posted about here, all the way at the bottom. I don't know what's going to happen to this, but it's taking up so little space, it won't be disturbing me for a while.

OK, now for one little doo-dad, then the spider.

Mustache! Which may or may not become a mustache-on-a-stick. I haven't decided.

Spider time! So last night, I was just hanging out, eating some really awesome taco soup, when I decided I wanted to toast a tortilla to eat with it. I went to take it out, when the little mini pan fell onto the counter. A spider came with it! I screamed. Loudly. I have no idea where it came from (I'm hoping not near any food) and it just popped out of nowhere! It fell on the floor, so I tried to capture it with a little pot until I could get someone braver than me to smush it. No such luck. It took me three tries to get the pot on the spider, and then I realized that the handle made it so the pot did not sit flat on the floor! The spider was able to crawl out from under it, so I tried to capture it with a cup, but it crawled away and I have no idea where it is! Which really makes me quite nervous. OK, see you guys tomorrow with   some cool crafts! Probably!

Happy Poultry Day!

As I'm a vegetarian, I will not be eating any poultry today, but I can enjoy the eggs we get from birds! Speaking of which:

-An egg cozy from Crochet n More -in the shape of a chicken! So cool!
-A vampire egg from Fun and Fang
-A Thanksgiving turkey from BitterSweet
-A duck or chicken on Crochetville

Luck o' the Irish

Since tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, I will post the patterns for that today.

Knitting:
-A St. Patrick's Day Necklace from About.com-I am totally going to make this! (I found these links on Tuesday!)
-A simple shamrock dishcloth from Knitting Knonsense. She has a lot of cute dishcloths, many of which I plan on making.
-A little shamrock from Natural Suburbia

Crochet:
-A leprechaun hat toilet paper cover from Maggie's Crochet
-The Shamrock Shawlette from Crochet Spot

Sewing:
-A really neat felt banner from Holiday Crafts and Creations
-From the same site, a felt bracelet

So now, some random talking. I have a really hard time concentrating sometimes. I have no idea why! When I'm doing the links, a lot of the time I will switch windows before I have made the hyperlink... and then I have no idea what I was trying to link to. Plus, when I'm working on the tree skirt, I have to count into the 30s, and eventually the 40s, and I get lost a lot, and I have to find the increase, (which makes me really happy I'm not doing this in a really dark color) and count from there again. OK, so speaking of the tree skirt, here's some information about it:

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I know, not happening.

Last night, I made a doll! Here it is:

Here it is, as of last night.

This is a little red dress I made, but it doesn't work like that. More about that later.

A circle skirt!

Censor bar!

Close up!

See? I changed it! But now two or three people could hop in there with her!

So, I need to add facial features, hair, and fix her wardrobe. Au revoir!

Beware the Ides of March

Today, many (many) years ago, Julius Caesar was stabbed by Marcus Brutus. If he had listened to the soothsayers, maybe he would have lived... Moral of the story: the Ides of March are dangerous! OK, not really, but whatever. In honor of Caesar, I have some Roman patterns:

Knitting:

-Roman Princess Scarf from Sleepy Garden

-A tutorial for Roman Stitch or Roman Rib

-An Amazon link to a Roman Shoulder Shawl. I'm not sure where the name comes from, but it's really pretty!

Sewing:

-A toga tutorial from Rabbit Originals? I think? Anyway, it isn't really sewing, but you do have to go to the fabric store (at least, most people will)


OK, so remember the purple nacho I posted about? Well, I decided he needed a mouth. I mean, this was just getting creepy:

So, meet the new and improved...... Purple Nacho! (v2.0)

 See? So much less creepy!

And, of course, the real colors:

I think I can call this one done for real now. Yay!

OK, tree skirt news. I did a row yesterday. Which is seriously pathetic, because I'm not even increasing right now. (confused? Go read about it here.)

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 Only one row! Well, four to go today... Again.

Have a nice day!

Happy Pi Day!

Today is 3.14, or Pi Day. Of course, 3.14 isn't the exact value of pi, but it's pretty close, so let's just go with it!

-First, we have a little pi plushie from Create!
-Next, the Pi Scarf, from 47's Knitting and Crochet Patterns, which uses the first 100 digits of pi to create its stripe pattern. So cute! So nerdy! So definitely something I want to make!
-Along the same line, the Berry Pe/Pi Beret from abigailscraftshowto.com which I partially put here because the name is so cool!
-And just for fun, a cute little cherry pie pattern from pieknits.

OK, so I have a small problem with my tree skirt. I thought I had worked out a good system for the increases, but as I finished Row 10, I realized it was not so! The edge is starting to ruffle! 

That is quite bad, so I did a little thinking. Ruffles are caused by having too many stitches, or by increasing too fast. In the middle, I had a few problems with ruffling, and I did a few rows without increases to straighten things out. It worked pretty well, until now, so I think I'll do a few rows even until it looks better, then switch back to my pattern as planned, but if I see signs of ruffles, I will do an even row or two. (That does, unfortunately, mean that I have to spread it all the way out after every row.) The other rows will stay the same, so here is my updated chart:

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Only four rows to do today, so I'm catching up!

This is what the tree skirt looked like at the end of Row 10! You can really see the ruffles in this picture, but other than that it looks pretty good! I will take a measurement when I finish Row 12, because it should have grown 4" by then, to 13 1/2".

This is the Pound of Yarn I'm using (the smaller one) and it is actually significantly smaller than a full one (don't ask why I have two) so I'm pretty happy. After all, yarn is like toilet paper. The smaller the roll (or skein), the faster it goes!

I made one other little thing yesterday:

It's a purple nacho! With arms! OK, it's weird. But it's really cute, so I'm just going to go with it! This is what the colors actually look like:

Have a nice Pi Day!

Jewelry and Earmuffs. Odd Combination

Today, we celebrate Jewel Day:

-Knitting Pattern Central's Jewelry section
-The beautiful Bijouterie earrings from Knitty
-The Knecklace, also from Knitty

And Earmuff Day:

-Awesome sheep earmuffs from Craft Passion; they say they're for kids, but they would be cute for anyone!
-The Muffy earmuffs from Knitty (I swear, they have everything!)
-And finally, adjustable earmuffs to crochet from Karen's Variety. They're kind of frilly, but still cute!

So last night, I worked for about 40 minutes on the tree skirt, which got to me to the end of row 7, and this morning, I did row 8. That's right:

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So, if I get five more rows done today (I'm funny, aren't I?) I will be back on schedule! As it is, I will get it done before the end of March still, but I like sticking to plans I make. I got bored of taking pictures that look the same everyday, so here it is crumpled in a ball on my floor:

Oh! I forgot to mention it, but I attached the Pound of Yarn! Gasp! I could weight lift with this thing!

Still no news on the baby blanket, and you can't see the secret project yet. It's still a secret.