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.

What I Did This Weekend: Part III

Here's the last and least exciting project of the weekend:

Remember these? I had just enough yarn left over from the Swiffer Sock to do a dishcloth and I decided to make a couple extras and use up another ball of my stash. As you can see they're not perfectly square, but frankly I don't care that much because they'll still get the job done.

This coming weekend will unfortunately be the exact same as last weekend (aside from making more birthday cake). I've had a couple friends email me asking for some Swiffer Socks and one request for a Swiffer Duster. This means I broke the no more yarn rule again and went to Michaels to buy more yarn, BUT I managed to only buy what I needed for these projects and not fall victim to the irresistible $1 a ball price.

Have a great weekend everyone!

What I Did This Weekend: Part II

Any guesses about what these fluffy things are?

A cat toy? A piece of food that's sat in your fridge a bit too long? A lost sock escaped from the depths of under the bed? Nooooo.

It's a Swiffer Duster! Another item that means no more disgusting disposable sheets for me. I am so over opening the closet door where our cleaning supplies are and seeing these nasty disposables still being saved to use "just one more time" so we aren't just throwing out money.

These can be made with any little bits and pieces you have leftover too. There's an inner tube part that's made from a tiny bit of 100% cotton yarn, but the fluffy part of it is whatever you happen to have around that's bulky. This blue is leftover from one of my little spartan's hats.

And what makes them even better is that they trap more dust and icky things than the disposable ones do.

Mmmm look at all that delicious dust:

Did I mention it's "multi-purpose" too? Check out the Fat Shae petter 2.0:

If you want one of these for yourself, check out the pattern here.

WIP Wednesday #3

The past few days have been extra busy around here. And sadly I haven't been busy crocheting anything. And I technically no longer even have a WIP to show you, since I finished it this morning.

Right now my kitchen is completely destroyed. Seriously, if anyone plans on cooking anything in there, they can forget it because there is no counter space whatsoever, and I'm pretty sure everything in there is covered with a thin layer of buttercream icing now.

This is what happens any time that I make a cake. The whole clean up-as-you-go thing just doesn't work for me so I end up with a giant mess to clean up at a later time when I am not tired from the lack of sleep that also tends to occur when cake is on the agenda.

Today's mess is due to the fact that I'm striving for the World's Best Girlfriend 2011 award. You see, today is M's 24th birthday (and the start of the not quite two months where he can say he has a hot younger woman on his arm). Since I have an entire closet full of cake decorating supplies, you can bet he's not getting some lame grocery store cake.

Unfortunately I only have a quick picture I snapped before I ran out the door to surprise him at work:

Ignore my ugly writing. Like I said, running out the door to surprise him at work and trying very hard to be there for break time so I don't interrupt too much working. Can you tell what he does for a living?

Eco-Friendly Swiffer Sock

Check out what I made this weekend:

Any guesses what it is? I'll give you a hint.

Got it yet? If for some reason you haven't, it's a Swiffer Sock.

I hate the disposable refills. Someone around here always seems to want to keep these gross disgusting clothes covered in God only knows what because they think that they can get more use out of them, so clearly this was a necessary project. Though the pattern used worsted weight acrylic yarn, I used some 100% cotton yarn because I have lots of little balls of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Yarn (Lily Sugar'n Cream if you're American) and I'd rather use that up than steal from my stash of amigurumi yarn because that is one part of my stash I don't intend to "trash" at all.

As you can see, the completed project has a "duster" side that traps all the dusties in your house in its ruffles.

Isn't that awesomely handy? Much better than the disposables that last for approximately two swipes across the floor, then do little more than push dirt around the floor (in my opinion anyway). Bonus: if I end up in that situation, I just need to wash out the pad and I'm good to go again, though I plan to make a few extras for just this situation.

But do you know what makes it even better? It's reversible! Check it out:

After you finish up cleaning the floor all you need to do is soak the pad in some water with a bit of your floor cleaning product of choice, flip it around, and you're off to the races again. Once you're all done all you need to do is toss it in the laundry and wash. No more disposable cloths that don't even last for the entire kitchen floor for me, and a great project to use bits and pieces of whatever yarn you have leftover.

Valentines and Elmo

After much fighting, I FINALLY finished A's special Valentine's Day hat that I wrote about here.

Let me just say what a fight it was to actually make the silly thing. I've only had trouble with crocheting hats one time when I was making this Elmo hat:

The problem with this one is that I was making it for a near-3 year old that love love LOVES Elmo. Did I mention that this near-3 year old's head was unavailable to me for measuring, and that I was doing it as a surprise so I couldn't exactly ask Mom?

I believe I chose the child size for the hat for optimum long term use. Of course I didn't exactly follow the instructions for the hat, and used two strands of Vanna's Choice yarn rather than what was used by the person that made this pattern. This hat needed to stand up to Minnesota and North Dakota winters, so extra warmth was a must.

I'm so happy that the hat is working out and I'm actually keeping count of my rows and then I realize it: the hat will fit on my head. Ooops.

Long story short, I pulled out the entire thing, started from scratch with the toddler size, and it worked out. The hat fit, the near-3 year old loved it, everyone wins.

The Valentine's Day hat on the other hand, turned out to be a little monster in disguise. It looks all cute and adorable, but it really wasn't.

The first time I made it, it was too big and too open. The second time I made it, it was too small, but the openness of the hat was improved by working with two strands. The third time it was still too small. There was at least a fourth and a fifth time after that, but honestly I can't even keep track of all the problems I had.

After the sixth or seventh go at it, here's what I ended up with:

Cute right? The only problem is that it still ended up too big. I am quite confident this will be great for Valentine's Day 2012 or 2013, but for V-day 2011, not so much. But after starting over a half dozen times, I wasn't up for starting over just one more time.

I should also add that when I was making the heart I pulled everything out 2 or 3 times and that I spent more hours than I am willing to admit to myself untangling the two balls of yarn I was using. And I didn't just untangle once nooo, I had to untangle everything twice just because I love to make a mess and make work for myself (apparently).

At the end of the day though Mom will love it and think it's adorable and A. will wear it (someday) and be super cute.