WIP Wednesday #12

I only have time for a quickie post today; underneath my current project is the work I should be focusing on, ie. my physics work. You've seen this pattern before, it's nothing exciting. In fact, in this picture you can see something else you've just seen and even a hint at my next completed project post too.

Again another Wave Stitch Blanket with a 4.25mm hook, but this one I really have no idea who it is going to because I have now run out of pregnant friends, very sad for me indeed! There are rumours that one of my mother's coworkers is pregnant, but I already have something else planned with more stash yarn for her that will suit her personality better than a ripple.

On that note, everyone out there better get busy tonight working on some more babies for me to spoil, regular size stuff is just not nearly as cute!

WIP Wednesday #11

Meet my new commission piece for a friend of mine in Ohio! (Who doesn't love crocheting when the yarn is free? See my first big commission piece here). Her sister in law is having a baby girl at the end of the summer, so naturally a blanket to keep her toasty warm for the winter is required. It is made with my arch nemesis yarn, which surprisingly isn't totally horrible if you aren't ripping out the entire thing several times over. I almost said no to this blanket when the Pipsqueak was mentioned, but so far I'm not regretting my choice to do this. Hopefully my friend's mom loves this yarn as much in blanket form as she did when she saw the balls of yarn in store!

By the way, I have to admit that I am lying in this post. That picture is from yesterday morning. As of today, it has doubled in length and then some and it is now over halfway done. Here's hoping that this is the only WIP Wednesday for this blanket and that I will be mailing it off home soon!

WIP Wednesday #10

As you can see, things have changed quite a bit since my last WIP post. I have about 10 rows or so left to go I figure, and then as soon as I sew in all the ends on both blankets this project can be marked done!

I am planning another 2 or 4 blankets with the same pattern and type of yarn most likely because I was bad and went on a little shopping spree when my favourite yarn was on sale for half off. Hopefully I can work my way through these quickly and hopefully soon there will be more babies to give them to!

One of these two will definitely be going to a high school friend who commented on my lovely work a few weeks ago, and the second may have a new possible owner any minute now if my coworker has gone to the hospital today. We will see!

WIP Wednesday #9

Wow it's been forever since I've done one of these posts! Since my last post of course many works in progress have crossed my lap, but I thought I'd show you what's sitting on it today. 

The pattern I'm using is Wave Stitch Blanket, except I am using Baby Coordinates yarn and a 4.25mm hook. As you can see the blanket looks a little funny right now, because it actually isn't one blanket, it's two. It turns out I had a little problem with the dye lot that I didn't notice until it was almost entirely too late. Baby Coordinates yarn so kindly tells you on the label that it there is no dye lot and you don't need to worry, except it turns out that was not true in this case. 

Turns out I had 6 balls total, 3 in one dye lot, 3 in another, and rather than having two mismatched blankets it would be better to pull out on third of the blanket and have a do over. Annoying, but necessary in this case. 

Once these two blankets are finished, one will be going to a high school friend and one will join the baby blanket stash so I can get ahead. I have a couple other colours of extra Baby Coordinates, so i have a feeling that I will be doing this pattern a few times.

WIP Wednesday #8

Today's project is my favourite baby blanket to make that I've found to date. It's a Hailey blanket, which used up all but about 2 feet of a 1lb ball of baby yarn the first time I made it. This is the third or fourth time I've done this blanket and won't be the last time for the next month or two.

The fact that it uses almost exactly a 1lb ball isn't the only reason it's great. My other favourite part of this blanket is that it works up super fast. I can knock one of these babies out in about a week, less if I don't add on the fancy edging. In fact, I hope to finish this blanket minus the edging this afternoon, and then I will start on another one. It seems everyone at the company I used to work for has been drinking the proverbial water and that everyone is pregnant there, so I've got two more to do after this one!

So many babies, so little time.

WIP Wednesday #7

I just got another ball of yarn for another WIP I have, so naturally that means I've completely set it aside and I'm working on something else at the moment.

Can you guess what it is? Here' one piece:

It looks kind of like a flower, but it's not. Here's the other part:

Fat Shae seems to be wondering if it's some sort of new cat toy. I suppose it looks a little bit like one of her mousies.

It is neither flower nor mousie though. It's tastier than that (or would be if it was actually real!)

Ta-da! A cute little strawberry. One of many strawberries to come, because you can't just have one strawberry that would be silly. If you want to make some strawberries yourself, you can find the pattern here. The only thing I did differently was use a size E/3.50mm hook.

The strawberries are a part of my larger WIP for the rest of the year. As I mentioned yesterday, A. got a play kitchen for his birthday. For Christmas I've decided he is getting a giant box full of play food and other kitchen accessories made just for him by his Godmama, so if you're not interested in hearing about that, start running now! It's a good thing his mom and dad just bought a new and bigger house because I've got a lot of things planned for him!

WIP Wednesday #6

So I've been doing pretty well with my goal to not buy new yarn and use up what I've bought already this year, but I'm not going to lie, I slipped up a bit in February when we were in Florida. We were in Joanns and I just could not resist this new Bernat Pipsqueak yarn. It got even worse when I realized they had free patterns using it.

I couldn't help it, it was just so soft and snuggly feeling I couldn't say no. And so I walked away with a ball of green and blue and the free star blanket pattern they had available in store. Upon bringing it home I found out that it is unfortunately a total nightmare to do anything with. Seriously, people complain all the time that Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn is a nightmare, but this stuff was far worse.

This means we unfortunately say goodbye to the cute little star blanket that needed lots of counting and required you to know where the stitches actually were. From there I tried a simple ripple blanket and again, a no go. After much ripping out, I decided that stripes and a simple double crochet was the winning pattern for this yarn because it is really that much of a pain.

But of course, where's the fun in just a blue and green striped blanket right? That would get boring and quite frankly I had my concerns about running out of yarn before the blanket got to a decent size. Enter my dear friend Nikki, who like me is a bit Joanns addicted, and who unlike me actually lives near Joanns. She was kind of enough to pick me up another ball and ship it to me up in dreary old no-Joanns Canada and save me the drive down to Buffalo for yet another ball of yarn.

So here's how it's going, after pulling it out I don't even know how many times now. For some reason I had a lot of trouble getting it to be a width I liked. No idea what I'm going to do with it when it's done, but I'm sure I'll find someone to love it.

WIP Wednesday #5

Sadly I've not found much time for crocheting (or blogging) in the last month. During February, the only things that I made have been some Swiffer Socks and washcloths, which I shipped off a few weeks ago and they're in their new homes being loved now.

Since the beginning of February I've gone on vacation to Florida, celebrated Valentine's Day, attended a wedding, went to my first Lady Gaga concert, landed a job interview, and stepped up to help with a memorial service. This is just what's happened so far too, there's lots more lined up to come for March. In addition to my own birthday coming up this Friday, A. is turning one, which is very upsetting because I am not prepared for him to grow up this quickly. Seriously, how can 9 months last so long and 12 months just fly by? There's also a special little girl in M's family that is also celebrating her first birthday the week after, and my mom's birthday is at the end of the month too. If this isn't enough, I'll be away for a week and a half in the middle of all these birthdays, and will likely come home with a nice case of jet lag too thanks to those pesky time zone changes.

Have I made enough excuses yet?

Despite all this time that's been quickly eaten up in my life, I managed to pull out some yarn and I'm actually getting somewhere with it. The best part? I'm using yarn I've had stashed away for probably about a year now, with absolutely no idea what to use it for!

And without further ado, I bring you the turtle buddy (please ignore my extremely wrinkly bed sheet):

I have to say though, thank God for my huge collection of Baby Clouds yarn. I've been so caught up in getting things ready for A's birthday that I forgot about the little miss who is also celebrating her first birthday, a big oopsie on my part. This yarn is fantastic (unless you try to use a tiny hook, in which case I'd describe it more as "migraine inducing" as it can be quite difficult to see where you need to stick the hook). However, if you've got yourself a nice little 10mm hook and a bit of spare time, within a few hours you can have yourself a soft and fluffy baby blanket ready to go, or in my case, a turtle buddy ready to go.

Though the turtle part is obviously done, the strange fan thing attached to her bum is not done. It will eventually become a blanket so the little miss can have a special nap time friend.

If you're looking to make a turtle buddy for someone special to you, the pattern can be found in this little book. If you don't feel like ordering it online, I purchased my copy at Zellers, though I'm sure it can be found at many a craft store too.

I've been considering making the little miss a sweater that matches her pal-to-be's shell too, but:

a) I've never crocheted clothes before,

b) I still quite often have issues making things that are flat,

c) the pattern says to use a 6.5mm hook which scares me with this yarn,

d) I don't have a lot of time to put into it.

I guess we shall see what happens once the turtle is completely finished!

WIP Wednesday #4

You saw this coming.

Yes, today I'm working on more Swiffer Socks and judging from the pile of yarn I still have I may be working on this next week too. I'm almost halfway through them, but I will be doing some dish cloths too in order to use up the extra bits of yarn. I had hoped to be a bit farther on these, but with birthday partying on the weekend not much got done.

WIP Wednesday #2

Unfortunately Christmas kind of messed with my ambitious (for me at least) WIP Wednesday plans. For most of November and December I switched from crocheting to sewing.

Have you ever seen fabric panels like these?

I went on a spending spree at Joann Fabrics at the end of the summer and again in September or October on these panels. After several hours of labour and love, they sew up into the cutest little story books, perfect for a special little boy's first Christmas. This Night Before Christmas panel by Mary Engelbreit is one of about five or six I made for little A., who coincidentally was 100% not interested in Christmas presents by the time I got to see him. Even though he's only 9 months old, he figured out it was a special day and decided naps were a waste of time, so he was getting pretty tired by the time his Godmama got there with presents.

On the bright side, his Nagypapa was pretty excited about the books once he figured out that they were a) books and b) I had made them from just a piece of fabric. I would say he spent a good half an hour looking them over and reading them several times.

While we're briefly talking Christmas, I may as well show you the special surprise that A. and I made for Mom and Dad, as well as Nagymama and Nagypapa, Nonno, Nonna, and both his Godmamas because we all just love him to bits. Plus I was not fighting with a 9 month old to do handprints and not reaping the benefits myself and well, I don't think I could get away with doing one for me and one for Mom and Dad and not everyone else.

Before you ask, why yes I am superwoman. I got a 9 month old to make half decent hand prints while he was awake, and with him eating minimal amounts of paint. Usually the snowman handprint ornaments are made with the child grasping the ball so the palm is on the bottom of the ornament and you just see the "snowmen," but overall I'm pleased with how this turned out. My only regret was not using white-white paint for the handprint and instead choosing a pearlized paint because I think that would have shown up better.

Of course the ornament came with a little poem too:

These are five little snowmen as anyone can see,

I made them with my handprint which is a part of me.

Every year I'm growing and I'll be grown someday,

But these five tiny snowmen will never melt away!

Upon opening it, Mom immediately thought I had broken into their house in the middle of the night and covered her baby boy in paint while she was asleep across the hall. Fortunately for me though Mom leaves little A. with his Nagymama fairly regularly while she goes to the gym, giving me an ample window of time to sneak in, handprint, and sneak out.

Needless to say it was quite the hit and I think it will be a very special ornament for the rest of their lives.

Hmm now why are we here again? Oh right. WIP Wednesday.

Here's what I've been working on lately:

This project has been on the back burner for a long time. I bought the yarn over a year ago on one of those days where Michaels had an extra 20% off your entire purchase and they actually put something on sale for a good enough price to make a trip worthwhile. I'll take $3.25 a ball over $8-$9 a ball any day.

When it's done it will be a Five and a Half Hour Afghan. Now you may ask, if it's supposed to take only five and a half hours, why haven't I finished it already? It's been pulled out at least two or three times entirely. In fact the first time I was nearly finished, but then decided it was too skinny and I didn't like it. I can't remember the other times I've pulled it all out but I definitely know I've done it more than once.

Other factors impeding completion are the fact that I've made this same blanket in 3 other colours for a birthday gift last February and two Christmas presents this year. It's quick and easy and makes a cute afghan so it's a perfect pattern to keep in your back pocket, though I think they lie when they say five and a half hour. I think it took me closer to about 12, but maybe I'm just slow.

Linking To:

Today's Creative Blog

Creation Corner

A Little Knick Knack

WIP Wednesday #1

Today I thought I'd show off one of my many projects on the go at the moment. This project I simply started because I had the yarn and the pattern. I couldn't resist a 1lb ball for $4, and I can't walk out of Michaels without using my coupon. I bought it back in about January or February this year, in hopes that I would be using it for my friend's baby someday, but it turns out I picked the wrong colour. From day one I said she was going to have a boy, but I still had a glimmer of hope that I'd be wrong and I could shower her with millions of pretty pink gifts. Next baby perhaps?

I'm not going to lie, I've been working on this project awhile and I don't imagine it will be finished for awhile either. Love pink, but the farther along I worked I started liking the pattern less and less, and I'm certainly not pulling it all out and starting from scratch and wasting the time I've put into it for $4 of yarn to set aside for another something someday.

Who will end up with this blanket? I have no idea. But someday someone I know will have a tiny cute baby girl and hopefully when that day rolls around, I'll have this blanket ready to be wrapped up.