i made this but don't tell

'cause it was supposed to be a secret... but i love it so much i can't keep it a secret! it's a magnolia scarflette hat and scarflette made for a secret swap ;)

hammy & the turtles

so i made a bunch of turtles for the shop the swap 5 on craftster! i thought they'd sell fast, but only two so far, the green ones, have been "sold" (really, they've been swapped). there is no love for funky colored turtles! oh well, i hope they go to good homes :)

i also made a little hamster, Hammy (original, huh?), only two inches tall, holding a pea ... he's super cute and went super fast! he's already on his way to his new hamster home :)

additionally, i made a star afghan for my friend leslie's son, logan, but i forgot to take a picture of it! DOH! i totally dropped the ball on that one... i hope she has time to send me an action shot! (hint hint) i know i swore i'd never make one again, but someone had the great idea to make it with super thick yarn and i totally jumped on that bandwagon. it came out pretty nice, too!

Two Turtles

i made two turtles in the last couple of weeks; i've been trying to make more but mia's been a handful and it's kinda hard to crochet with a sling on :-/ the blue one was for a swap ;) and the pink one was going to be for the shop the swap swap, but it was so cute and it was in her colors, so i decided to give it to mia. it isn't really to play with since its eyes are just glued on, but it makes a cute decoration and will be great for the shelves in her room :) i love these little guys and will be making at least three more for my shop the swap! also, i'll probably be making some octopi for that swap :) woo hoo for amigurumi!

i made a happy poo! and a baby cable baby hat

i love saying i made a happy poo. it is for my friend beth who is having a really poo type of semester... and since we always use the term poo, well, then this seemed really appropriate :) i got the pattern at puchitomato. my poo-colored yarn is red heart soft yarn and the color is called "toast." (a friend said if she ever got toast that color she would immediately revolt in terror).

the second is yet another hat i made for the baby. truly very gratifying, making teeny tiny hats that are done in a flash! to make it cuter, i stuck a huge pink & toast (poo-brown) pom on the top. as you can see, i've been very apt to use the poo-brown toast colored yarn. i don't know, i think it's growing on me! (ew. ew. ew.) this hat is of my own design, using baby cables in a certain pattern which didn't exactly come out like i had thought (i was hoping it would look like some cables were higher than others, but the cables just look the same). while i was knitting it, someone commented: "babies and poo! what else could possibly go better?" nice.

baby superstar: the starghan

ok now that i've weaved in the ends of the starghan, i'm posting it! first things first: i HATE knitting/crocheting blankets. when i finished this baby i decided that it would be the last one i ever made (although i might talk myself into another one later on, i doubt it). it drove me insane!!! double crochet all the way around. and it sucked up yarn like a hoover! for this one i used FOUR SKEINS of yarn. i don't think i've ever used anything like four 200 yard skeins on a project. it definitely is not yarn-light. what's more, it's not evident in the pictures, but i ran out of the brown toward the very end and had to substitute a random brown from my closet (it matches well enough but not super well). i ended up with 23 rounds if that's any help (i was trying to make it to 25 but then gave up on it as i was out of yarn, out of steam, and was sick of working on it). any how the first shot is the blanky itself (green, white, and brown like the baby room), the second one was with a model (a sweet monkey i got from a swap). and the third was an ugly shot with a water bottle, for showing scale.

i'm happy to report that my wrists are starting to feel better. it's actually weirdly unpredictable, as one morning i'll wake up without the ability to pick up a pencil, and the next morning only one wrist will hurt and one won't, then sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's really bad. weird! i've been also fighting the tylenol but i might do it if it gets too bad. we'll see how it goes.

oh yes and one more thing: my crafty goal now that i'm on spring break is to learn how to make a sock monkey! i have the stuff, i just never got around to it. and it's not a wrist-intensive thing, so hopefully it'll all work out!

garden scarf

after a small hiatus in the needlework fields, i've risked carpal tunnel in order to finish up the happy hooker's garden scarf i had started before all this neuritis (that's what the doctor says is wrong with my wrist). i only have one coat left that fits me, my ruby colored maternity pea coat, and i decided to make a scarf to go with it so this is what i made for it, since i'm kinda crochet-crazy lately. i think the flowers are a bit floppy, though, and i'm considering blocking/starching them a bit since i used all natural fibers for this one.

since this scarfy delight, however, i've decided i want to jump on the entrelac bandwagon, and my next task will be knitty's danica. oh the entrelac goodness that awaits!!! i hope this doesn't mean they'll have to cut off my wrist!

the first day of school

is always kind of a mixed day for me. while i'm glad to be leaving the house for a higher purpose than just mailing stuff, i miss my days being for myself. today is my first class of the spring semester, and being pregnant and stuff, it should be interesting how things go.

on the productive side, i've been kind of a baby knits nut lately. this little pair of mary janes are my latest baby knit (ok, baby crochet). unfortunately, due to the pregnancy and such, my wrist is giving out to carpal tunnel (at least it hurts like crazy) so i'm probably going to slow down the knitting and crocheting a lot, which is a bummer as i just got this booklet called baby bootie boutique. i got the little mary jane pattern from there :) anyhow, enjoy, 'cause this will be the last of it!

prolific? or just inspired?

so after the disappointment with my flore hat, i decided to make a hat that the baby could wear right away after she's born. i have this funny daydream where people are looking for her through the nursery's glass and she's wearing a funny little hat that makes her easily identifiable. so i made her a little fruit hat with the leftover yarn from the flore hat. it's really teeny tiny! it fits a little head from 13 inches to 16 inches so basically a very newborn baby.

i've also made a couple of other things lately. the second item is a 4 inch turtle i made for the one tiny thing swap, where you put a lot of effort into one little thing for your partner. my partner, peihan (who has a cool etsy store), likes toys but can't crochet so i made her this tiny turtle. it's super cute and since turtles are my favorite too, i'm gonna make myself one too.

last but not least, marco has been harassing me for months to make his friend tim a hat which i refused to make as i prefer to good-humoredly jingle the idea of a hat in front of tim. but finally i said ok, and i made him a crochet boy beanie from the happy hooker :) it came out pretty good :)

a belly and a blankie (oh and a hat)

good lord, i'm a beach ball. i am indeed carrying a lot in the front instead of all over, just like the old wives' tale. people tell me it's pretty hard to tell i'm pregnant from the back. oh well, you see for yourself (my belly at 18 weeks):


also, i've made my little girl a stroller blankie and matching hat, crotcheted from a pattern from the Happy Hooker. i love it as i think it will match the stroller we've picked out! :) and it has a little hole in the front for the seatbelt to go through. i finished it during the america's next top model mega-marathon :) yay i knew watching ANTM would work to my advantage for something! here's the blankie & hat: