HUGE recap, HEAVY on pictures! Days 72-95, St. Baldrick's in the morning, and why I'm hat crazy!!!

Shaving my head to support research for a cure of childhood cancer = I should have done this sooner.

I'm shaving my hair = blue/purple!

This has been one busy winter.  We have stayed at my parents' house for two months, which was fantastic for many reasons, my favorite is because it's 5 minutes from work.  I brought all my crafting stuff with me with the intention of organizing it.

Spoiler alert:  Yep, that didn't happen.  Still, I had room to craft, and knowing I would have a shaved head in Central New York in March spurred my interest in hats.

I'm still working on the CAL crochet afghan from MooglyBlog.  I'm behind a few squares, but the CAL is beautifully spaced so I have LOTS of time to catch up.

So with all the ins and outs, ups and downs of this fricking absurd winter in Central New York, I somehow still was pliable enough to feel moved when my friend's 9 year old son signed up as a shavee for a St. Baldrick's event.  This little guy is special to me; I watched him being born.  He committed to raise $1,000 in just over 30 days, and had been growing his hair for months, so I felt compelled to join him.  As of this evening, I am about $35 short of my $1,000 goal, which isn't shabby at all.


Here are a few of the hats I've made.  The blue & grey one looks like a hammerhead shark. The fall color hat is made from a wool yarn I once felted a purse from, and I still have leftover yarn.

For the event in the morning, Rich just FaceTimed me from Jo-Ann Fabrics so we could be sure I had appropriate face paint for tomorrow.  I am shaving my head to honor Heather & Ashley as well as other people afflicted with cancer.  Tomorrow, I will wear Heather's name on my left cheek, and Ashley's name on my right.  And both of them, and many many more, in my heart.

Pictures of me sans hair and with new hats are pending.

Day 42: still crafting.

Not much to report other than lots more snow and low temps.

that's the view from my office window.  There is so much snow the banks at the next property over are about 10 feet tall.  I've seen more than one pond with kids ice skating on it, which is really cool.  Old school hockey is alive and well in Central New York.

I'm still working on the diagonal blanket.  Haven't done much with it tonight but I've knitted a few rows.  It's damn cold here.  12 degrees on my drive home tonight.  Cold enough this morning that my car needed a jump start.

I'm very happy that I've maintained my goal thus far of crafting something every day this year.  Even if it's only 10 minutes, I'm still making time in my day to create something tangible.  My Gram would be happy, which makes me happy.

Day 40: substitutions allowed.

Anyone who is following this blog knows that I'm participating in my 1st ever crochet along MooglyBlog afghan CAL.  The 1st two block patterns released were great.  The third....not so much.  Tamara, who owns the blog, released block #3 which is called Hugs & Kisses.  On the CAL blog, Tamara says she thinks there's a mistake in the pattern, and at least half the people who started this square thought the same thing.  I would NOT release something (esp. if it's not my own) if I thought there was a problem with the pattern.

In good faith, I did try to work up the pattern Friday evening, and after restarting it five times gave up.  I am pretty sure I can make it work, but as I didn't really like the pattern to begin with, decided to substitute it with a different one.

Pippin simply HAS to investigate anything I put on the floor and attempt to photograph.  This is the pattern source: Frostbloom 12" afghan square by designer Shan Sevcik.  I'm VERY pleased with how it turned out.  I started it yesterday and finished it today.

One concern however.......

blocks one, two, and three

No only are none the same size, block #1 doesn't come close to matching up with block #2.  *sigh*

We will see what the rest of the year holds in store.  The point of me starting this CAL is to use up what I've got already on hand for yarn.  Fingers crossed!

Update: Days 18 - 20; an undo and a redo, and better cat proofing through macrame

My 1st block for the afghan CAL

 

First: an update on the Crochet A-Long I'm working on.  We're still on the 1st block; block #2 won't come until this Thursday.  If you're interested in checking out the blog hosting the CAL the link is here: Crochet A-Long hosted by MooglyBlog

I kept going backwards with this block.  I must have re-worked round nine three times before I decided I would tear out and count previous rounds.  I made a mistake so far back I ended up starting the block all over again.  One of the downsides to being cocky is I haven't been counting stitches at the end of each round--even though the pattern does give this.  I'm on round 16, and there are only three rounds left.  I will finish this today, with a bit of breathing room before Thursday and the introduction of block #2.




My cat, Pippin.  He LOVES yarn!

Now, some of you may be wondering about what I may need to cat proof.  It turns out my lovely cat Pippin lives to chew on ear bud cords whenever he's given the opportunity.  I have problems with insomnia, so I have tried falling asleep with ambient noise and binaural beats programs via my iPod.  After I lost the second set of ear buds to chewing during the night, I decided I needed to take action, as I don't intend for ear buds to be single use only.



 

I've discovered that if I crochet around ear bud wires, this prevents Pippin from getting at them.  My first set was covered with chenille yarn, but the ear buds themselves weren't very comfortable to wear to sleep.  I did buy a new set (above) and decided in lieu of crocheting with yarn, I would macrame with c-lon cord.  It will be lighter, and the ear buds themselves are very comfortable for sleeping.

 

 

 

So, that's about it.  Saturday I re-worked the CAL square, yesterday & today I've been macrameing my ear buds.  When both are finished, I will post updated pictures.

 

Happy crafting!!

Day 15 through 17 recap: 1st ever CAL! (Crochet A Long) :D

Tamara with MooglyBlog has decided to host an afghan Crochet A-Long.  I appreciate the fact that she's giving the entire year to make the afghan.  Only one new square to crochet every two weeks.  This gives me the chance to participate in a group thingy and still have time to work on other projects.  It's a very realistic goal for me, and I get to use some of the yarn I bought for a blanket that I never used.

MooglyBlog Crochet A-Long

I started this yesterday, and have worked on it today at work (this explains the blotter & keyboard in the picture).  I've made it to round 10 and have unraveled round 10 twice.

Friday, Janaury 17: going the wrong direction!

I kept re-working round ten, and with my third try just now (at my desk at work, during lunch) it occurs to me that there must be a mistake somewhere.  Not the pattern, but what I've done in the previous rounds because the count isn't coming out right.

Sure enough, it looks like I screwed up WAYYYYY back in round five or six!  Oh well, I will unravel and rework it until it's right.

Did I mention I'm glad I have two weeks to make one square?!?

HUGE recap: days eleven through fourteen!!!

Prepare for LOTS of photos, because I've been busy!

Day eleven: traveled from Liverpool to Utica for Rich's official pinning ceremony.  He's received his promotion, so he's now a sergeant and a NCO.  The drive is just over an hour, and since Rich is driving, I have plenty of time to work on crafts.

Trek bracelets

Working on Trek bracelets

Before you question, NO, I was not driving while crocheting.  Rich had some down time at the armory, so I took the opportunity to work on some gifts.  These two bracelets crocheted with cotton yarn are in a pale turquoise color, my niece's favorite color.  She's almost 10, and on 1/11/14 the family celebrated her birthday since my parents are leaving for Florida before her actual birthday.  This is the Trek bracelet pattern link.

crochet cotton bracelet & earrings

Sergeant Walters!

I kept going with the crochet cotton, and after much hemming and hawing, came up with this set for her.  I was unsure about the size vs. the clasp, and reworked the bracelet more than once to come up with something that met my satisfaction.  I made matching earrings as well.  This is the crochet flower bracelet pattern.


After such a productive day, we went to my parents' house for the birthday celebration.  As it was also my oldest niece's mom's birthday celebration, I made her a matching bracelet also.  She didn't care for the huge clasp, so I made her one with the smaller heart clasp while the cake and ice cream was consumed.  My 10 year old niece has twin 6 year old sisters, who both at different times silently sidled up to me while I was crocheting the bracelet.  Neither would say anything, but I knew what they wanted.  30 minutes and a smaller crochet hook later, we ALL had matching bracelets (I kept the big clasp bracelet for myself).

bracelet power unite!

Day twelve: Sunday.  VERY tired this day.  Worked on the cowl for about 10 minutes.  Well, more like five.  I kept my commitment, and that's what matters.  No pictures, no need.

Day thirteen: Monday.  I am cat sitting for friends.  They have two cats, one of which is in remission from intestinal cancer.  I brought the cowl with me, and spent about 45 minutes at their house.  The cat in remission still needs medication twice a day, and both cats are on wet food only.  After giving meds, feeding both cats, scooping the litter box, I sat for long enough to remind both cats that humans still exist, and I finished the cowl.  This is the cowl pattern.
I didn't take a picture of it.  It's a bit big around, but that's because I added extra stitches, thinking I have a fat neck.  Turns out I really don't.

Also on day thirteen, discovered a realistic CAL, a Crochet ALong hosted by mooglyblog.com.  Tamara is taking the full year to construct this afghan, which for me is realistic since I have so much else going on.  MooglyBlogCAL link  I have a good amount of yarn on hand from when I had planned a blanket with 13 or so colors, so I see no problem working up this afghan.

Day Fourteen:  BLOGGING!  I found my yarn for the 1st afghan block.  I don't think I will get very far with the block, but blogging and planning is enough to satisfy me.  Happy crafting!

Day 7-10 recap: reclaiming yarn and cowling

    It's official; the shawl is no more.  The tangle on the right is what I spent day eight working on.  Unraveling the shawl was problematic.  I've managed to reclaim the 3rd skein of yarn and have used that to start a cowl, which turns out is essentially a really large sweater for an anaconda.  The pattern can be found here: Ravensprings cowl  I've worked on this since Wednesday evening.  I've made a lot of progress.  My goal is to have something long enough that I can pull it over my head when needed, in lieu of a hat or wrapping myself up in a scarf so I look like the Randy from the movie A Christmas Story.  That's about it, a somewhat dull few days of crocheting.  Still, I enjoy it and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.  If I don't like it.....well I'll simply unravel (again) and find a different pattern to try.

Day seven: earrings = mission accomplished!

Day seven!  Made earrings to match the bracelet I made yesterday.  Just for scale, the left picture shows the project against a ruler in millimeters.  Yep, it's that small.  I may need a magnifying glass and/or reading glasses to keep this up.  The bracelet was well received.  Looking at the earrings, the middle isn't the same.  Snap, I may make a 3rd earring to try to match one of the already made ones!

Day six: working on some new projects

Day six is a day of new projects.  The crochet thread I bought goes well with a bracelet pattern from PetalsToPicots: flower bracelet.  This one is for a co-worker who could use a bit of happiness in her life.

I'm going to make earrings to match.

This bracelet is for another co-worker.  This is for her daughter.  The picture is pretty crappy.  The yarn is a dark denim blue.  The pattern is from Felted Button:
Trek Bracelet pattern.Crocheted with cotton yarn, it has the flexibility to enlarge or shrink depending on the situation.  All together, it's been a productive evening, and I can say day six has been a success.  If I can keep from freezing on my way to work tomorrow, I have two items to give away which makes me smile.

Day 3: day 2 recap, and a day of regret

airborne snowflake!

 

quick knitted snowflake

 Day 2: 1/2/14.  I still have Christmas patterns on my mind, so I decided to try to whip up a knitted snowflake with a Red Heart yarn pattern.  It calls for regular yarn but all I could find in white was cotton.  It doesn't look as fluffy as I'd like, and I did it in 10 minutes so it's not perfect, but at least it took care of day 2.

As a bonus, I gave it to my coworker who LOVES snow and she liked it so much she hung it up at work.

Day 3: What a bummer.  I've been avoiding it for weeks now, but I have to admit that I don't have enough yarn to make a shawl big enough to be enjoyable.


Almost 3 skeins!

I'm quite sad.  I REALLY like this pattern: Kristen shawl, Fiberflux blog.  It's beautiful, and it's a simple pattern.  As I said yesterday, I've already purchased a 3rd skein of this yarn to try to finish it, and it's not going to be enough.  So, what to do, what to do?

Ah hell, I'm going to tear the whole thing out and make an infinity scarf: Gelato infinity scarf. This is also from the Fiber Flux blog.  It's a great blog, and I've made a few items from her site.

I think the pattern is at least very similar, if not the same.  I know I'll have enough yarn for this.  I did crochet a few stitches before I made up my mind today.  I'm bummed.  At least I have an idea of how this will look when it's worked up.

Now to figure out how to wind the yarn without a swift or a winder.  They're really expensive and I don't buy enough high end yarn to even come close to warrant purchasing either one.  So now I know what day 4 will have in store.....stay tuned!

Day one recap

Top: I must organize:
Bottom: eyelash scarf

So, 2014 begins.  Rich & I spent the last night of 2013 at home watching movies.  I chose Tombstone with Kurt Russell & Val Kilmer.  Rich chose Pathfinder with Karl Urban.  It was a nice quiet night at home.  We stayed up until well after midnight.

The Christmas tree didn't come down until 1/1/14.  After that process, I had room to reorganize the projects & yarn I want to keep at hand, because I find that I am much more productive when it's literally right next to me.  This picture is only a small sample of what I have for goods.



Malabrigo yarn in Rios

After making some sense out of chaos, I settled in & worked on two things.  I finished weaving in the ends of an eyelash scarf I had finished a month ago (duh), and when that was done, I worked on the crocheted shawl I'm making with Malabrigo washable wool.  My parents bought me two skeins while on vacation in New Orleans, but I quickly realized I needed at least one more so I placed a call to The Quarter Stitch in New Orleans and ordered one more.  It wasn't the exact same lot number as my original two, but the yarn is so heavily varigated that it looks fine.  Here's the pattern I'm using:

Kristen shawl pattern as seen on Fiberflux.blogspot.com

So, this is how I ended 1/1/14.  I'm one for one with my resolution!  Yay for consistent crafting!

inaugural post! 2014 will be the year I craft EVERY SINGLE DAY come hell, high water, or Hitler!

OK, so Hitler may be a bit drastic, but you get the point.


My cat has laser beam eyes

I spent much of 2013 knitting & crocheting & beading.  There were several reasons behind this. 

The most obvious is lack of finances.  I can spend my free time and less money crafting with raw materials than I can buy the finished product.

The second most obvious is that I'm vain.  Let's face it, I'm a great crocheter.  I'm a great knitter.  I'm an AWESOME beader.  I'm terrible with humility.

2013 has been a trying year for me.  I've tried a bunch of stuff, but not everything has stuck.  I've tried balancing work and home with iffy success.  I've tried new crochet & knit patterns with better success.  I've tried to maintain my sanity with a crazy home life (unsuccessful fertility treatments) and a crazier work life.

Through all the insanity, all the joy, all the madness, the one thing I kept coming back to with the expectation of some normalcy has been crafting.  The click of the needles is comforting.  The feel of the yarn between my fingers is better than the feel of the silky of a blankie woven between my fingers at bedtime. 

I have many reasons for appreciating the crafting arts.  One of my goals in 2014 is to share my love and where it comes from.  It's only 7:30 p.m.; I think I have time to work on my shawl.  Stay tuned; I will post every day!