Baking and Crochet – part 1 of the Post-Christmas post

Now that finals and the Christmas rush are over it’s time to share what I’ve been working on. First, one of my co-workers asked me to make a couple scarves for her to give as presents. The pink scarf is a simple v-stitch.

I didn’t get a picture of the finished product of either of these scarves. So you’ll just have to take my word that they turned out pretty cute! For the blue scarf I followed this pattern I found on Ravelry. Simple, nice design – plus it worked up super quick with the chunky yarn.

In return for making the scarves my co-worker, who is known for her baking, made me peanut butter cookies with snickers in the middle. Can I just say, “Wow!!”

Aren’t they pretty?!?!

They tasted as amazing as they look.

I baked too. Actually with my lovely co-blogger.

My co-blogger made these amazing cheesecakes. I just supervised.

7-layer bars. They don’t look like much in the picture but I assure you they taste wonderful.

And last but not least…

Almond shortbread “snowballs”

I did get some Christmas presents done for my people. These were for a couple.

It was a pattern from Elk Studio. Great pattern and super easy to follow. I highly recommend checking them out.

I also just finished this hat for myself. You can find the pattern here.

This had to be made into a flower. It was the most complicated part of the whole hat!

My rim ended up with some ripple. Hmmm.

I think that’s all that I’ve been working on. Next post…pictures of our nerdy kitchen and cats stalking stuff.

Advertisements

Crochet, crochet, crochet

That’s it finals are finished!!! – at least for me.

Now it’s time to crochet! And watch movies and read books! So many things to make! I’ve got a half-done hat to finish and a couple scarves to complete for a coworker. I’m super excited for Christmas break if you can’t tell.

He’s killing me with his yarn fetish. It’s almost as bad as mine.

That looks like a … *Warning* Adult Content

I started this new crochet pattern. (I would link to it but I’m about to compare it to male anatomy and I don’t know if that’s what the designer had in mind!) So there I was crocheting away, making myself a new hat and not really paying attention to what was forming. This hat had some single front post rounds as to create ridges. I didn’t really like the ridges and was bemoaning them when my coworker/co-blogger exclaimed “It looks like a penis!”

Now in her defense I’ve been talking an awful lot about the male anatomy. Oh! Get your mind out of the gutter…not like that! I have Anatomy & Physiology class this semester. From now until December 15th it’s all penises and vaginas for me. How often does a person get to say that?! I’ve been studying at work therefore there’s been pictures like this sitting around.

I may also have been sharing some fun facts with her because let’s be honest – genitalia is funny.

I’m in luck when it comes to my co-blogger because she’s been through this class as well and shares my sense of humor. But apparently this is not universal. When chatting with my roommate’s girlfriend I casually mentioned that I had just learned that the most frequent way to “break” a penis is to roll over on it in the night. She made a funny face and walked away a few minutes later. Clearly this class is increasing my social awkwardness. (Side note: the second most common way is excessive masturbation.)

I have since frogged some of the pattern and am reworking it. But when my hat looked like this:

Well there was nothing to do but call it a dickhead.

Birthday Hats All Around

Sometimes I post something with this great idea of doing a two-part post.
I’ll write about a WIP or something that’s part of a bigger piece thinking I’ll write the follow up post later that week…or within a couple days….or sometime that same month. You know, close enough to the original post that readers remember it and are still interested. It’s a great idea.
Ideally the two part post builds suspense and generates interest.
But what happens when suspense builds too long?
It crumbles and dies.
(Maybe I’m flattering myself to think people are actually waiting in suspense to read my posts….
Maybe they (you?) are though.)

If you were reading sometime back in January you might remember the turtle granny squares I made as part of a birthday gift for one of my daughter’s friends.
Well, after much suspense which has since disintegrated, here is the hat that they became.

The hat & gloves were a big hit. The girl loved them and the mom oohed and aaahed over my craftiness and talent. Then we had a fun conversation about crocheting. Plus since they were made completely from my post-holiday yarn stash the gift was technically free too. It was an all round win!

My lovely daughter’s birthday was just a couple weeks after her friend’s so when I saw how cute the turtle hat came out I set to work on an owl version. She loves owls. Two years ago I made her this hat for her birthday.

She still loves it but it’s getting a little small.

I already had an owl granny square pattern from the owl baby blanket I gave my friend this past summer so the owl version of the turtle hat was pretty quick & easy.

This is made the same way as the turtle one but I finally figured out how to end a hat this shaped without getting the pointy end (which I call the nipple effect).

To make these squares into hats I started by joining the four squares in a circle. The I single crochet around the top edge to make it nice and even. The following rounds were half double crochet with a front post hdc at the corner of each square. At the very top of the hat I switched to single crocheting and went around until the hat was closed. The bottom edge is just a couple rows of half doubles or singles finished with a picot stitch.

Some complimentary granny square gloves and I had another great birthday gift.
I’m planning to do a separate post about granny square gloves and maybe even write a pattern. Don’t hold your breath though… I would hate to make you pass out.

A Link inspired hat….all in a days’ work

It’s 8pm and it feels late to me. That, my friends, is how you know you are very, very tired.
In the past twenty-somethingmorethanfour hours I’ve worked thirteen and slept three hours so it’s a well earned tiredness.
In that same time span I’ve also transformed yarn from a ball into a hat.
And here it is:

…my Link-esque hat.

I had a slightly verigated ball of unknown green yarn from the Salvation Army. My little guy happens to love “dark” green. So of course the green yarn was destined to become a green hat.

This is the pattern I sort of followed.
I didn’t really count my rows so mine has a longer tail. To finish I added a five stitch long ribbed band.
All in all it turned out to be a fun little hat.

Hats!! Sugar Cone Skully Hat from Gleeful Things

I recently got my hair cut. Short. There are some side effects from this. One, I have a cold neck! Two, my new hair looks great in a hat!! After my Christmas projects are done I want to do a hat-a-month club. I need to build my hat collection up! Maybe some scarves too. So if anyone out there has a favorite hat pattern let me know. I’d love to try it out.

Here’s one of my favorites:

I love this hat pattern. It is my favorite baggy hat (at least so far). The pattern is from Gleeful Things and it the Sugar Cone Skully Hat. This was the hat that I was working on while on vacation.

The pattern doesn’t use up much yarn so I started making another hat for a friend. But I ran out of pink cola yarn and finished the hat with brown. I actually really like how the bottom turned out! It’s not baggy but still is super cute.

I did one row of half double crochet then single crochet with back loops only.

I made this hat quite awhile ago. It’s also from Gleeful Things. It was also one of the very first baggy hats that actually worked out for me!

Posted from WordPress for Android

V-stitch Love – Baby Blanket

I love this super easy blanket! The basic pattern is from Lion’s Brand Yarn Little V-Stitch Blanket #70119A. I found it on Ravelry and used bmassey99’s border idea. The border is probably my favorite part of this blanket! If you have a Ravelry account here is the link to her pattern details. This blanket is going to a friend for her baby shower. I would definitely make another!

This is also the blanket I was working on when I was consistently running out of yarn which I mentioned earlier in the blog.

I just got back from a lovely girls’ weekend over on Lake Michigan. It was cold! So here I am on the drive hard at work on a hat. I also tried to teach my fellow back-seater how to crochet. Not an easy task in a moving vehicle!! We decided to put a hold on the lesson until we were back to stationary ground! I’ll post pics of the hat soon. It’s a pattern from Gleeful Things and probably one of my favorite hat patterns.

Posted from WordPress for Android