Etsy!!!!!

The Etsy shop is open! More later, but the widget is on the side. Come on, buy my crap. :)

Progress and pride

Squee!!!!!! I've been plugging along on my little top, and it's coming together so well. I've even finished more than this picture shows, but you'll have to wait until I'm completely finished to see the whole thing. Be patient. :) I'm proud of myself for sticking out a project this lengthy, as usually I would have given up on it a long time ago, but I'm making myself keep going.
After I finish it, i'm going to start working on stuff for my etsy shop as well as for family and friends. since i'll be pulling three third shifts at work, I bet I can get ten to fifteen hats finished by the fourth of february. I'll link the shop once i've got a few things stocked.
I'm also proud that two people have either emailed me about or commented on the post for my Tam It All to Heck! pattern. Means other people are trying out something I designed. Gives me the happy pants. :) I'm also tickled that it's listed on Crochet Pattern Central in the hats section. Feels like validation. :)

Blast it all to heck.

I don't have quite enough of the Malabrigo to finish my hat. I wound up using a published pattern instead of my own as i knew I didn't have enough of it for that. And sadly, I only had a few rows left to do. I could cry.
Oh, well. Haytham's coming home tomorrow, and if I can find an online shop with anything close to white in stock, he can buy me some. Ha!

Malabrigo is love.

So, today I opened my mailbox to find the most awesome package from another member of the RAoK group on Ravelry. Two crochet hooks, an aluminum K (which is what I posted in my wishlist) and a beautiful blue acrylic glittery K, along with two balls of Malabrigo yarn. (It was leftover, but I've never seen this stuff in person, and WOW!) Color me happy. I'm even fighting the blessed wool reaction to make myself a hat with the yarn because it's so soft and pretty. Luckily, the reaction only seems to hit when I'm working with it. I can wear wool things fine (and I can hang with the sheep, so why the reaction when I work with the yarn is beyond me). YAY to the nth degree! I'll post a picture when I finish it. (And yeah, it's the hat pattern I mentioned last two posts.)

Eep!

I has an etsy shop!
Alabaster Alibi
I'm also hoping to be included in the next round of Ravelry designers allowed to sell patterns.


Which means that the new hat pattern i'm working on, yeah... It'll either be a pattern for sale on Ravelry, or only used for FOs to sell on etsy. I haven't decided yet. But hey, may as well use my mad hook skills to help pay the bills, right?

Damn.

I got my KnitFit yarn sample today. It's so soft and pretty, but thanks to the wool reaction I discovered, I can't do a thing with it. I could cry. So, I'm sending it off as part of the RAoK group on Ravelry, and hopefully it will find a happy home.
Dammit.

I'm at it again!

Watch out for a new hat pattern. :)

The evolution of a bat

So, as promised, pictures of the little guy I've named Buster.

He began life as an odd little purple ball with buttons for eyes...


Then the ball sprouted one wing...


And then another...


It wasn't long before he grew an ear...


Finally, a cute little bat-ball thing came to be!


Pattern is here.

Yippee!

Zoebat's bat is finished! I'll post pictures and a link to the pattern I used later tonight. For now, work calls.

Well, that was not so fun.

Apparently, while it's not an actual allergy, I have a reaction to wool yarn. I try to work with it, and my eyes start to itch and burn and my throat gets a weird tickly sensation. Six bucks shot to heck. I'm actually leery of even frogging the hat as I don't want to deal with the consequences. I guess Mom gets another skein of yarn to play with. Feh.
As for the hat, I think I'm going to wait until Haytham gets home on Tuesday and let him pick the yarn, either from my (always growing) stash or out of Wal-Mart.
I'm also making my first foray into the world of amigurumi. I found the cutest little bat pattern and I'm making it for a friend's daughter (the friend and I are both old-school goths from waaaaaayyyyyyyyyy back in the day...she moreso than I, and neither of us are very much into the scene anymore, but still). I've got a whole bunch more queued up and waiting to be made into gifts for others and decor for me. :) May as well, as I bought an entire bag of fiberfill this afternoon.

I must be crazy.

Even though I'm happily working on my new top, I felt the need to start making a hat for my husband and hopefully finishing said hat (and maybe said top) before he gets home next week. He should feel special. I'm making it out of my only wool (and also most expensive) yarn, my Jojobrand. He'd better love me for it. :D
So far, the top is working up well. I've fallen in love with Caron SimplySoft Eco (this is my first time using any Caron yarn), and I can't help stopping every five minutes just to pet it. I know, I'm weird.
I've also got a small (10 or 20 yards) sample of handdyed sock yarn from Knit Fit Knitting to wait on in the mail. They're from the foothills of my beloved state, but I haven't got a clue where. Still, it'll be buying local if I buy some of their yarn (and it's so pretty, it's hard to resist). Oddly enough, it's also kind of buying local with Caron, as they're a North Carolina company, too. (Other end of the state completely, but still.)
Dang. I'm all yarn-y tonight. And, I'm already planning on getting more Caron tomorrow from Wal-Mart... may end up sneaking over to the LYS, too, just to pet the stock. :D

Sweetie Pie out, Empire in

So, the Sweetie Pie cami was turning out to be too heavy, too big, and the piece was scalloping in a way I didn't like. Therefore, I frogged the whole darn thing. Ripped it completely apart. I plan on trying again later on with lighter yarn and a smaller hook.

Luckily, Lion Brand has a pattern for a simple tank-style top that I can easily modify into my own style. It's basically just a bunch of half double crochets, which is making for a nice solid band (to hide the essentials, if you catch my drift), and which can totally be replaced by other stitches in the bodice and straps. Sweetness. If you'd like to take a crack at the pattern, it's here, but you'll have to sign up to use the site. (It's free, relatively spamless, and tons of free patterns.)

On another sweet and crochet related note, I've gotten my mother back into the craft. But, she only knows how to make granny squares and ripple stitch stuff, so I've been teaching her what I know. She's attempting to make the Cream Lace Afghan in this month's Crochet! magazine, and so far she's doing really well with the concepts of shells and v-stitches. (It's kind of funny looking in camo yarn when you're looking at the cream one in the magazine, but hey, she likes the colors and it's her piece and it's looking really good. I like it myself. :) )

Yay!

So, I finished a pair of fingerless gloves that I was working on tonight.

Even with my beloved N hook, they still weren't quite big enough for me, and my mom was in love with them, so she's now the proud owner of these monsters.
I hope that the designer doesn't mind me linking the pattern, but here it is.
Little Miss Sassy Hands by Rebeca Montoya
I may try these again in a stretchier yarn for myself, but for now, I'm content to see that silly little grin on Mom's face (she loves it when I make stuff and give it to her).

Tam It All to Heck!

Well, it's here. :) My first design has been tested, and now I unleash the pattern o' doom onto the masses.


Tam It All to Heck!

N/9.00mm hook or size needed for gauge
Worsted weight yarn (designed with red heart) 1 skein

gauge- 3 rnds=3.5" across without stretching

Notes- In rounds 9, 11, and 13, treat each ch in the ch2 as a stitch (work a st in them just as you would the st next to them). Also, no
blocking should be necessary to get it to look right... it's a slouchy tam thing, after all. :D

Special stitch: tr2tog- YO, insert hook, YO, draw loop through, YO, draw through 2 loops on hk, YO, insert hook, YO, draw loop through,
YO, draw through 2 loops on hk, YO, draw through all 3 loops on hk (decrease made)

Ch 5, join with slst to form ring

Rnd 1.- Ch 3, 9 dc in ring, join with slst to top of Ch 3 (10 dc)
Rnd 2.- Ch 3, 1 dc in same st as joining, 2 dc in each dc around, join with slst to top of Ch 3 (20 dc)
Rnd 3. (work in bk lps only)- ch 3, 1 dc in same st as joining, 1 dc in next st, *2 dc in next st, 1 dc in next st. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of Ch3 (30 dc)
Rnd 4. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 3, 1 dc in same st as joining, 1 dc in next 2 st, *2 dc in next st, 1 dc in next 2 st. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of ch3 (40 dc)
Rnd 5. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 3, 1 dc in same st as joining, 1 dc in next 3 st, *2 dc in next st, 1 dc in next 3 st. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of ch3 (50 dc)
Rnd 6. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in same st as joining, 1 tr in next 4 dc, *2 tr in next dc, 1 tr in next 4 dc. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of ch4 (60 tr)
Rnd 7. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in same st as joining, 1 tr in next 5 st, *2 tr in next st, 1 tr in next 5 dc. Repeat from * around,
join with a slst to top of ch4 (70 tr)
Rnd 8. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in next st and in next 4 st, (ch 2, sk 2 st, 1 tr in next 5 st) 9 times, ch 2, join with a sl st
to top of ch 4. (50 tr, 10 ch2 sp)
Rnd 9. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in same st as joining, 1 tr in next 6 st, *2 tr in next st, 1 tr in next 6 st. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of ch 4 (80 tr)
Rnd 10. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in next st and in next 5 st, (ch 2, sk 2 st, 1 tr in next 6 st) 9 times, ch 2, join with a sl st
to top of ch 4. (60 tr, 10 ch2 sp)
Rnd 11. (work in bk lps only)- ch 4, 1 tr in same st as joining, 1 tr in next 7 st, *2 tr in next st, 1 tr in next 7 st. Repeat from * around,
join with slst to top of ch 4 (90 tr)
Rnd 12. (work in bk lps only)- Ch 4, 1 tr in next st and in next 6 st, (ch 2, sk 2 st, 1 tr in next 7 st) 9 times, ch 2, join with a sl st
to top of ch 4. (70 tr, 10 ch2 sp)
Rnd 13. - Ch 4, 1 tr in next st and in next 2 st, tr2tog, *1 tr in next 4 st, tr2 tog. Repeat from * around, join with a slst to top of
ch 4. (75 tr)
Rnd 14. - Ch 4, 1 tr in next st, tr2tog, (1 tr in next 2 st, tr2 tog) 18 times, tr in next 3 st, join with a slst to top of ch 4 (57 tr)
Rnds 15 + 16. - Ch 2, hdc in next st and each st around, join with a slst to top of ch 2 (57 hdc each round)
Fasten off, weave in ends.

Much much love to Michelle of Michelle's Stitchwitchery for testing this out for me. I hope she doesn't mind me using this picture, but her little girl just looks so adorable in the finished product. :)

Thanks again, doll. You rock.

If you have any problems or questions, feel free to email me
This is a free pattern, and feel free to make as many as you want for yourself, your friends and family, to sell in your Etsy shop, whatever. Just don't steal the credit for the pattern, okay? :)

A quick kitty toy

So, today we had Crack (our smallest cat, he's about five months old) inside, happily playing with my yarn. Silly kitty. The idea for a batty-ball came to me, so I whipped one up. It's really easy, quick, and I know a lot of crocheters have cats, so here's how I did it.


Materials: J hook
a scrap of worsted weight yarn, no more than two yards (I grabbed some Red Heart Super Saver)

Rnd 1.- Ch 3, 8 dc in the third ch from hk, join with a slst to form ring
Rnd 2.- Ch 3, dc in each dc around, join with a slst to top of ch 3
Rnd 3.- repeat Rnd 2

Finishing- Tunisian style finishing here, but it's not hard. Simply insert hook, yo, draw a loop through, and keep doing that into as many st as you can (I managed 6). After you get as many loops on the hook as you can, yo and draw through each loop on your hook. Fasten off, but do not cut off the tail. (That's what makes it dangly.) Enjoy!

Sweetie Pie top, take one

So, today I've started working on the Sweetie Pie Cami designed by Angela of Lavonne's Knot Just Knits, and I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew comfortably. Still, I've been looking for a crochet challenge and I think I may have found it.

I've also finished two squares now for the 2009 Block-A-Month Crochetalong over on Ravelry, and I'm pretty pleased with them both. They need blocking, and the first one is going to have to stretch a little bit to be 12", but I think I did all right.


Chris Simon's Mandala Square (pattern is here


Chris Simon's Esther Square (pattern is here.

Both of these were done in Red Heart Super Saver (the first is in Williamsburg Print multi, the second is Dark Orchid solid), and done with a J hook as I crochet much tighter than Ms. Simon. I like how they look, and intend to make them again in different colors to make my finished BAMCAL2009 afghan into a bedspread at the end.