P.S. I Made A Thing

Here's a little blue shawl I made recently, for three reasons: 

1. This yarn is my favorite color, and it's SO SOFT OMG
2. My office is cccccooollllddd
3. I've been working on a sweater for two months and needed to crochet something else for a while to clear my brain

There's no pattern, I just made it up as I went. (If you know crochet, it's made entirely of two stitches: HDC and Tr).     

I'm also working on a pair of slippers, but only because I wanted to know if I could figure it out on my own. I probably won't wear them, or post them here.  They're just an exercise in using up old yarn. 

   

What's Going On

NO  DISASSEMBLE

Remember the Ikea FORHOJA kitchen cart that I was using as a sideboard type thing before  I built the apothecary unit?

This is it, all disassembled. It's already been sanded down fully, and given a first coat of stain. Judging by how the staining is going, it may need 25 coats. We'll see.

What else am I doing right now?

• Crocheting a blue shawl
• Crocheting a multi-colored sweater
• Painting the legs of a little nightstand-table I have sitting around in my bedroom (finished)
• Sewing 5 cushion covers for a friend's couch
• Working on a painting I'm making for a friend for Giftmas

What's Next After That? 

• Refinishing my bedroom nightstand
• Refinishing an old wooden plant stand
• Crocheting a rug for my roommate, as soon as we find the right yarn
• Crocheting some slippers, maybe 
• Sewing a skirt or top for myself out of the leftover fabric from a dress I made recently 

What's New? 

I finally bought myself a new sander!  My old one was a work horse, but it was too big, heavy, and high-powered for me to wield safely anymore - it shook me and hurt me so much my hands and arms would be unusable for days after, every time I used it.  I got myself a little $23 Porter & Cable in-line palm sander, and it's GREAT!  Much more easily controlled, and it does as much work as my big one ever did - surprising, for such a little, lightweight thing.  Yay!  

More news on the FORHOJA as it develops.  Meanwhile, here's a crocheted scarf I just finished yesterday: 

ooh, ahh

Cowrie Shell Bracelet FTW

I won this ankle bracelet in the raffle at my annual women's festival, oh, about 10-11 years ago.  I wore it to death, literally - about four years ago the elastic had degraded to the point that it became crunchy, and finally snapped.   I had no idea how to fix it, and I kept meaning to try, but none of the ideas I could come up with seemed like they'd work the same way.   It went into a drawer of mementos, to be sighed over every so often, but never worn again.  

Until this past weekend, when, going through that drawer looking for something else, I came across it, and picked it up to sigh over it again...and realized that the shells had just been crocheted into the black elastic thread!  I couldn't crochet before, and I'd never figured it out before - but I can sure crochet now!  

This time it's not elasticized, it's just plain black cotton crochet thread, because that's what I have.  So rather than just snapping it on like I used to, now I can tie it - and I made the ties long enough to wear as an anklet, double-wrapped around my wrist, or even as a choker!  I'm SO HAPPY to have my beloved cowrie braclet back!  

So, in my life, I'd only ever crochet with round beads, and only once.  This was NOT the same.  This was a pain in the ass, but I'm not complaining.  You may have noticed, I have a few dozen hobbies, hehe.  I like it when something's new, or hard.  I enjoy the challenge.  

In case you were wondering, this is just a single chain, with a loop drawn up through one end of the shell and then picked up from above (the hard part was the tension, and poking the thread through the shell).  When I got to one end, I just made the tie double-length, folded it over, and picked up the last shell on the other side. 

* Note for people who'll get this:  did you notice that the shells are purple inside?  I was wearing it during The Grape Ape Incident of 2004.  

Small Stuff

Some small, non-housey stuff for you this week.  I've spent most of my week working on big SCA sewing projects; but I managed to squeeze in:

This bracelet, which is also a two-strand necklace (one beaded, one plain chain), that I have wrapped around my arm.

The jeans in the pic are another project:  Target clearance $6, and BRIGHT screaming purple.  I dyed them black and slashed them this week. :)

I'm almost done with this red crocheted sweater;  pics when finished.

I started a purple one, too.

And I finished this pink crocheted snood - for SCA purposes, yes, but I've come to love wearing these so much that I'm wearing them with my regular clothes, too.  They're soooo comfy and convenient, and soft.  :)





More soon!






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Another HAT

Because it's crochet season.  And also because Kress' mother got me a nifty crochet starter kit, which contained a really great couple of books about stitches and pattern notation, but also a whole slew of new hooks in different sizes (and colors! I love Boye hooks!), along with other little gizmos like stitch markers and counters!  So I've been crocheting!

It are a square.  Well, rectangle.  Basically it's like a bag for my head.  Floppy corners.  <3 a="a" and="and" at="at" can="can" hat="hat" href="http://www.ravelry.com/people/s1ren" more="more" my="my" nbsp="nbsp" of="of" other="other" ou="ou" see="see" this="this" yarnations="yarnations">my Ravelry profile
, if you're interested.

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And then suddenly, seemingly for no reason, she made a hat.

Oh, weird - I thought I posted this like a month ago.   Here, have a random-ass, outdated post:

I can has crochet.

that's me

me again.

 

And then I joined Ravelry.com!  Because YARN.  This happens every year around this time.  

Wanna see some more of my stuff?  Go here.   

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Derailment + Hat

Instead of working on the craft room, or the gardens, or anything, really, this weekend I was...asleep.  Due to the weather change (I think?) I had a migraine headache that lasted for two days, and only broke last night once the cold front finished coming in and the air pressure settled out a bit.

BLEH.

The good news - aside from the fact that I'm functional now, which is pretty freakin' awesome - it's 65º outside! Holy cow! Fall is here, yay!  *dances*

Also, I may be going camping this weekend.  I don't know for sure yet; but I'll likely be spending most of the week (after work) putting my camping gear in order and figuring out what to bring.  That and working in the yard, since the weather tells me that if I don't put down some grass seed RIGHT NOW I won't be able to fill in the spots in the front that I removed last week.

So.

In lieu of a project update, today I bring you:

HAT.

Which I guess sort of counts, since I made it, when I learned to crochet two years ago.  

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