Cool enough to crochet

I had a little crocheting block over the summer… it seems that doing this activity when the weather is consistently over 65 degrees just doesn’t feel right to me. I started a sweater for myself last June and almost finished it but we finally got our summer and having a sweater pile up in my lap started making me feel all stabby.

Now that it is cool out again the crochet bug has returned which has coincided with a gaggle of new babies! I decided to get accustom to this hobby again by cranking out a few hats before returning to my sweater.

I made this one for a friend of my mom’s who had a little boy a couple of weeks ago. This is the ear flap hat pattern that I was using a lot last year but I added the little ribbed fold to it.

 

My brother’s friend just became a daddy for the first time so I made another ear flap hat for his little guy.

My cousin and his wife had a sweet little baby boy over the summer and they named him Odyn. I found this pattern on Etsy and decided that baby HAD to have this hat, especially since he has proven to be quite the little warrior since his arrival. He was born with a very serious health problem and completely kicked its ass! I can’t wait to see a picture of him in this… I will be shipping it to them tomorrow.

The holidays are fast approaching (I was completely shocked when I realized that it is almost November the other day!) so I will be doing a lot more sewing and crocheting in preparation. I have been running two other blogs in addition to school, art, and being a mom & wife but I will do my best to keep up in here.

 

My very own hat!

I made this one for me! I made myself and ear-flap hat last winter and ignored my son and husband (and brothers) when they made fun of me for wearing it but when an old friend from high school told me that I looked “cute in a cancer patient sort of way” I had to admit that an ear-flap hat is not the best look for me. I found this pattern on Etsy last week and fell in love with it. It looks much better on me! It is so darned cute that I can help singing silly little songs to myself when I wear it. Since no one in this house is capable of taking a decent photo of me and my arms aren’t long enough to get a good view of the hat in a self taken photo, I had my kid model it for me. He has requested that I make him one as well.

 

Bite my shiny metal ass!

LOL! It took me a while to find a pattern for this hat but once I did the husband and son were almost pushing and shoving one-another to be first in line for a Bender hat. This was the first one and it has a few little flaws but now that I have made one the next should be better (of which my son is impatiently awaiting).

 

Don’t make the little, chubby, winged, archer in diapers cry!

I really should be doing my homework right now but I am feeling distracted. In truth, I am sure my frustration has a lot more to do with the fact that I am having trouble making Adobe Illustrator do what I want than with Valentine’s Day naysayers, but considering the fact that computer programs have proven they don’t give two shits about human rants time and again, I have decided to take all my frustrations out on my Cupid bashing friends.

In the last three days I have witnessed no fewer than 20 people bitterly impose their anti-Valentine rhetoric upon the social media using world at large and have grown very weary of it all. Of these snarky, black hearted, little tantrum throwers, only one person has been honest enough to  come out and say that they are not looking forward to the holiday because they don’t have a Valentine this year (and has therefore been removed from the “snarky, black hearted, little tantrum thrower” category).

If you are bitter and/or upset because you don’t have a special person in your world then by all means, shrug your affection craving shoulders at the world and ignore the festivities! Who wants to celebrate a holiday that mocks the single and brokenhearted when you are single and/or brokenhearted? The only issue I have with those who don’t want to acknowledge the one day a year we humans set aside specifically for love and romance is the fact that a lot of these people make an effort to crap on it for those who do choose to celebrate it.

Now, I have been with my husband for almost ten years and we have been married for nearly seven of those years… in all honesty, we really don’t do much for Valentine’s Day anymore. I am sure my husband will probably bring home some sort of sweet treat for the household to share but when you live together 365 days of the year, you tend to take romance when it pops up and not worry about it between romantic interludes. That being said, I still fully endorse the festivities! In fact, the only problem I have with Valentine’s Day is the fact that we often spend a lot of energy showering our loved ones with affection on this day when we should remember to let others know how we feel about them every day.

My biggest peeve with this streaming tirade of anti-Valentine sentiment is with those who insist on claiming that Valentine’s Day is a holiday made up by Hallmark and other greeting card companies… Although I will admit that the greeting card, candy, food service, and retail industries on the whole have all managed to solidify a pretty strong foothold in the marketing of and profit to be made from this lover’s holiday, Valentine’s Day’s historical trail has always been well documented. In fact, before making blanket and unfounded claims/statements that ultimately just color those making them bitter asses; I would think that one might utilize the abundance of reference available via the World Wide Web. In mere seconds you can access countless pages regarding the history of any and everything you have ever wanted to know about.

This being finals season for me, I really must get back to my homework and don’t have time to produce a reasonably though-out and properly edited manifesto regarding the history of Valentine’s Day, but I will provide a reliable link to a site where anyone who chooses can read one prepared by an actual historical researcher/writer. http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

I also feel I should point out that anyone who takes issue with the commercialization of the holiday can very easily fight the man by doing things such as creating homemade Valentines for their loved ones; cooking a nice homemade meal, performing a good and unasked for deed for another, or just being fucking nice! If you are going to boycott a holiday simply based on its commercialization then you can’t cherry pick holidays. It isn’t like Valentine’s Day is the only commercial holiday with historically significant roots. Santa beats Cupid in every aspect of commercial promotions (yes, even in greeting card sales). If you are going to go around wielding your ideals like a caged chimpanzee flings shit, then you had best be doing your homework and showing some consistency in the righteous belief system you so indignantly tout.  That is right… I don’t want to see any of you ant-Valentine’s Day people in the Kell’s beer garden come St. Patty’s Day, and I especially don’t want to see any of you attending Halloween parties.

I want to make the fact that I feel all people are free to think what they will perfect y clear. I could care less if you dance naked around a giant cinnamon Gummy Bear with Red Vines shoved up your butt every February 14^th (they really make giant Gummy Bears! Have you seen them? CREEPY!). If you don’t want to celebrate, then please don’t. But I put the rambling of the bitterly disheartened; all conspiracy theorists, and the plain old stupid right alongside the proselytizing and pontificating of any other of the sycophantic nut jobs who threaten the spirit of peace on earth and good will toward all by their very existence.  In other words, QUIT RAINING ON EVERYONE’S PARADE!!!!!

Believe what you believe and let those who prefer a light hearted good time and an excellent excuse to throw a bit more love into a love starved world celebrate their day. And if you are sad and lonely seeing the festivities but not feeling a part of them you can always buy yourself a card and make a trip to Fantasy Adult Video… nothing wrong with loving yourself.

 

Bailey’s Dress

My 10-year-old niece Bailey found this fabric on the clearance table at Joann’s and talked her grandma into buying it for her ell over a year ago. I took it because as soon as I saw it I automatically envisioned a specific dress and I knew it would look adorable on her.

It took me months to find the right pattern and then when I did it took me over a year to finish making the darned thing! I had quite a bit of trouble with the fabric unraveling as I was working with it but at long last, I have finished her dress! I will be shipping it to her this week! Priority!  I hope it is cute enough that it makes up for me being a lame Aunty!

 

Changing That New Year Baby’s Shitty Diaper

I know that people always say things like this, but seriously, what in the hell happened to 2010?!?!? The last thing I clearly remember is toiling away over my last math class in the August heat and then it was December and we were knocking on Christmas’s door!

Speaking of math classes, I am very thrilled to report that I not only passed all three of the algebra classes I had to take, each with an A, I was also able to maintain a 4.0 for my entire first year of school. Technically I am still in my first year of school as I have been attending at part-time since beginning. I started ¾ time this week at the beginning of my new term and although I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, I am sure that I will find a nice stride sooner than later. This brings me to my first goal for 2011; I want to keep my 4.0 for another solid year (if you guessed that I want to keep a 4.0 for the entirety of my schooling experience, you would be correct).

I did fairly well with my goals for last year. The biggest was to find balance in the relationships that I have with my family. I still let things bother me a bit more than I would like them to but on the whole, I have really managed to stop allowing the issues of my loved ones interfere with my world and sense of well-being. This will be something that I continue to work on… most likely until the day I die.

In continuance of my epic battle with the crazy that lives just below the surface, 2011 will be my year to focus more on my physical health. Although I really haven’t had much improvement in my condition regarding the damage that Ramsay Hunt Syndrome left me with, I have learned that I feel better overall when I am getting a decent amount of sleep (I seem to need about six hours these days) and am eating well.

This is in no way a resolution to lose weight but I plan on doing so as a result of the changes I am making. I participated in a “Biggest Loser Challenge” with some awesome girl friends, new and old, that ran from Oct. 1st – Jan. 1st and managed to lose 19 pounds. The process started out being about weight loss and winning the big pot of cashola, but I ended up realizing how much better my life is when I am doing things that are good for me. I will continue to do this with no real weight loss goal in mind for the year of 2011. I do have a sort of “check-in” point in mind. At around 150 pounds I will take stock of how I feel physically and how I feel about myself in my clothes and from there, if I think I need to lose more weight, I will. The whole point for me is to make it about healthy choices and not about weight loss, and to not saddle myself with unrealistic expectations.

My next goal for 2011 is going to be tricky. If I were a real-life super hero (as opposed to the smiting and sprees of righteous crime fighting and righting of wrongs that takes place in my imagination), my super power would be mind control. I would just make people do what is right all of the time (which pretty much sums up to what I think they should do because I am clearly always right). I will admit it; I am a complete control freak. This has been my defense mechanism for my entire life and I cannot realistically say that I will ever give it up because that is just who I am. However, I do want to work on feeling the need to control situations beyond my control. Free will has be a foe of mine for some time now and I have come to understand that if everyone really gave up their free will and let me conduct their lives for them, I would not only be taking on a lot of extra work, I would end up despising everyone that I know because by doing so I would effectively turn my friends and family into spineless, thoughtless, morons… I can’t stand spineless, thoughtless, morons! Why would I want to do that?!?!? So I will work on stepping back and letting go of my need for control when I can’t really have it.

Now that I have effectively heaped my plate for 2011 I should get at my homework! Happy belated New Year to you all! Here is to a year of healthy change, success, and good times!

 

And for my next crocheting feet…

I MADE SOCKS! I couldn’t begin to express my level of excitement about this accomplishment, but I will try. I decided that I wanted to start crocheting solely for the purposed of learning to make my own socks and sweaters.  I spent November and most of December making hat, after hat, after hat (I believe I made over 15 total). Everyone got hats for Christmas this year! I started with hats because they are easy but by the time the wrapping paper hit the burning barrel at my Grandma’s house, I was over it!

This is the point in a new venture that makes or breaks it for me, every time. I knew I was either going to figure out how to makes socks, or put down my crochet hooks and never pick them up again. I tore the first sock in this pair apart no fewer than three times and almost gave up. The problem with jumping straight to more advanced projects out the gate is that the majority of the patterns for such things are written assuming that you have done them before. This caused a great deal of confusion for me but I finally found a video on youtube and was able to watch someone turn a heel and then it was off to the races!

The finished pair of socks is far from perfect but they fit like a glove and they look like socks! I am so excited! I am working on a pair for my husband right now and then I will move on to knee-highs for myself! I got a divine red and black mottled looking yarn for the knee-high project and am having a hard time finishing my husband’s socks for the excitement about them.

Once I get the knee-highs finished I am moving on to a sweater. We had my youngest niece (the three-year-old, Nola) for a two night visit last weekend and she picked out a “gorgeous, fabulous” fuchsia yarn with sparkles and I will start with a tiny sweater for her.

I hope to be making bolero sweaters to match every cute party dress that I sew by the time summer rolls around. The sense of accomplishment and pride in being able to make things just how I want them gives me such a rush that I sometimes think I should start a new hobby a month! If only I had that much time!!!

 

Glitter Explosion

I made this dress back in November for my three-year-old niece. At the time I made it I actual figured out how many feet of tulle I gathered which seems to be a number that I have since blocked out (it was an insane amount)… I am not sure why I always think that sewing tiny little things will be much quicker and easier than sewing adult clothing but this never, ever proves to be true!

Sure, there is less to sew and it doesn’t take as long to do basic things, but when it comes to things like gathering what feels like miles of tulle and then convincing your sewing machine to sew over the top of the two inch thick pile of tulle, that is another story.

My fingers were actually raw when I finished gathering the four layers for the skirt of the dress and there was much swearing when sewing it as my Brother machine is rather touchy and my trusty old Singer, which I would normally get out for something like this, is badly in need of a tune-up. I am not even going to talk about putting the zipper in this thing other than to say that I seriously considered making the back have a Velcro closure.

Tulle and zipper aside, this was a fun and easy project and the biggest issue that I had with it was the effing glitter on the tulle! I didn’t even think about the fact that it might be prone to shed glitter when I chose it in the store. The fact that I left a trail of glitter from the cutting counter to my car was lost on me as well; I just assumed it was an initial shedding and that it couldn’t possibly lose more. I really don’t think the photos do the glitter involvement of this project any justice.

Within five minutes of making my first cut in the tulle it looked like an effing fairy exploded in my office! Once I got to the gathering process I was covered from head to toe; my dog was covered from snout to the tip of his tail… the glitter mess traveled and thoroughly coated every surface in the hallway and much to his disgust, it spread to my son’s room as well!

By the end of the project glitter could be found downstairs on our furniture and even on the kitchen counter! In fact, I made this dress two months ago and have vacuumed my office at least four times since and I still have glitter in the carpet! My brother and sister-in-law have considered taking a hit out on me because their house is now dusted with the same glitter coating and since my niece absolutely adores the dress, it pretty much continually rains glitter in their house.

Even though this was one of the more annoying projects I have done in a very long time, I must admit that it was totally worth it! Seeing my niece twirl around the house in her new dress was awesome and knowing how much she loves to wear it warms my heart. Then there is the added bonus of knowing that every time my brother pisses me of, he has a piece (or more) of pink glitter stuck to his person.

 

 

Crocheting Obsessed

Every once in a while I decide that I want to know how to do something new and I get completely obsessed with figuring it out and do nothing but that for days, sometimes weeks on end! I recently developed an interest in crocheting and got a lesson from my husband’s grandmother over Thanksgiving and from the last week in November trough December I have done nothing but crochet!

Despite some hilariously deformed hats in the beginning, I seem to be getting the hang of this new hobby and love it so much that I am starting a “stitch – n – bitch” group.

Here are a few of my better creations. These were all done from free patterns I found on-line and if I could remember the woman’s name I would give her props for making such an easy hat pattern!

Here are the first two hats that really turned out; I made the pink and orange one for my niece and the pretty blue one from my grandma.

I made several more for various family members that I gave out for Christmas including an Oregon Ducks hat for my sister-in-law. Our older nieces where here for a Christmas vacation visit and I let them pick out some yarn and made them hats… I am getting pretty good at these and it only takes about two hours to make one now.

My husband refuses to wear and earflap hat but really liked the idea of a sock monkey hat when we saw a kid wearing one at Powell’s Books so when we got home I found a free pattern on-line and whipped one up for him.

 

Thank you nice lady on Craig’s List!

So I was sitting in my office reading/watching my lectures for drawing class and came to the realization that I was not really going to get away with not having an easel. It isn’t that I didn’t want and easel, they are just very expensive. I have been pricing them for some time now and even on eBay, I haven’t found them for under $100, and the nice ones are usually closer to $200… I just figured that was a purchase that could wait or that I could perhaps request as a birthday or Christmas gift at some point.

Given the drawing exercises that we were doing for my latest assignment, I decided that I needed to have one now, and when I decide that I need something I will end up with it budgetary constraints be damned.   Obsessed with the idea of having an easel, I was no longer able to concentrate on my studies so I stared perusing the web in search of my most affordable options.

I usually don’t have much luck with Craig’s List… most of the time IF I manage to find what I want it is in poor condition or being sold by a complete A-hole who wants full price for the item. Anymore, I have come to think of the site as nothing more than a place for the hard-up and/or lonely to shop around for hookers, or for your more extreme fetishists to find individuals who are fucked up on the same level that they are. However, since I really, really “needed” an easel, I decided to give it a try.

The first listing that I found seemed almost too good to be true. It had pictures of what appeared to be a very gently used French style easel in excellent condition AND it was only listed for $35! I spoke to my husband to see if he would drive out to BFE N.E. Portland to pick it up for me if it was still available and after a few moments of pouting he gave me the go-ahead to call. I was a little nervous and expecting some sort of freak to answer the phone but was pleasantly surprised by the kind voice of an older woman who said she was given a new easel and just didn’t need two.

I sent my husband out to pick it up fully expecting to return with a complete and utter piece of shit. There are things that pictures don’t show… like missing or broken parts and whatnot, but when he got home and handed me the easel, it was perfect! I set it up right away and all of the parts are there and in perfect working order! It is a very nice easel! My friend Seth told me that someone probably rubbed their butt on it, but for $35, I think I can live with that possibility.