I'm baaaackk!

I know I haven't posted in a long time, so my apologies. To make up for it, here are some projects I've been working on.
I just finished this scarf for my friend Natasha's birthday. She's a hippie, so I made it from Patons SWS, my favorite yarn. It's a wool-soy blend, and it's self-striping. I chose this color because she tends to wear a lot of earthtones. It's a stitch called Queen Anne's Lace (like the flower), and it's in most stitch directories.














I'm also working on a stole for my Aunt Robynn's 60th birthday. It is much longer now, but it took me a while to get the hang of because I've never attempted fillet crochet before. I think it's turning out alright, and it's pretty easy and goes fast. It's called the Irish Mist Stole, and it's in Doris Chan's book.

etsy hell

I've been slaving away for the past few days, trying to get my Etsy site up and running. So far, I've photographed all of our finished products, designed the site banner, and downloaded Photoshop (free trial version, boooyah). Then, I discovered that all of my photos are horrible!! It's so discouraging.

Our banner:

Here's a preview of some of the items that will soon be added to the Etsy site. Little C hasn't posted anything yet, so I'll add some of her items for her.

This li'l baby hat seems to be everyone's favorite, but I made it just because I wanted to get rid of some yarn scraps.

Cait made this one.

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I (not so secretly) lust after it and always try to steal it.

Look, a scarf! The bobbles remind me of those candy-dot things.

And another one of Caitlin's designs.

Friday hats

I decided to expand my crochet ability by trying two new techniques.

Here, I tried my hand graphing out a design. It's actually an avocado green with pink hearts, but my camera phone doesn't do it justice.


With this hat, I wanted to create a ribbed effect using front post single crochet. It needs blocked, but I think it turned out alright.

Here's the top of the hat:

*UPDATE* This is the real color of the hat:

X-mas, part deux

Contrary to popular belief, I make items other than hats. However, I am posting another hat today. This is the hat I made for my BFF Ashley for Christmas (pictured with Tara):


It was made with regular ol' white acrylic, because I wanted it to be machine washable. It's from the Hip Hats book, and I love this pattern so much that I made a hat for myself from the same pattern yesterday, but it's in mauve acrylic and has some button details. I'll post it later.

Some late Christmas shiz

Here's a crappy photo of the panda hat I made Adisyn (my future niece) for Christmas:


They put it on her at the airport, and Ryan said everyone was commenting on it. Here's an action shot, courtesy of my future bro-in law, Erik:

Holidaze

Matt says that our apartment has been like a sweatshop the past month, because as soon as I finish a project, I start up a new one. But unlike a sweatshop, I don't get five cents a day, and I do get bathroom breaks. I think it's a fair trade-off.

Here is one of the first gifts I finished, a hat for Stan. The hat came with a warning: Do not give to a homeless person. Last time I made Stan a gift (a scarf to match his moon-boots), he gave it to a homeless woman soon after he received it. He was being thoughtful, but I was mad.

Since it's hard to replicate that knitted fair-isle look in crochet, I used different stitches to give that effect. The body of the hat is based on a design from Afya Ibamu's book, and the earflaps are of my own design.

So far, I've made: six adult sized hats, two baby hats, one tween hat, four scarves, one pot holder, and one purse (still needs lined with fabric).

I need to make: two more hats, one potholder, one purse. YIKES.

Why, Debbie? WHYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

I waited for months for "Son of Stitch and Bitch" to come out.

I bought it on Thursday.

I returned it on Friday.

Though the tagline is "45 projects to knit and crochet for men," only FOUR of those projects are crochet. Why isn't there equal representation? Crocheters seem to always get the shaft when it comes to cool patterns. Knitters get funky sweaters and hats; crocheters get doilies and ponchos.