Long Time, No See!

*Blows dust off blog*

I can't believe I have become such a blogging slacker that it has been nearly a YEAR since I have updated! Today I am home sick from work after a terrible dental emergency/SURPRISE you have a sore throat weekend, so blogging seems like the logical activity for the living room couch bound person.

You'd think I would have a long list of things that I've made, but sadly I don't. At least not in picture form. Lately it seems like I have been churning out baby gift after baby gift, with no time to spare for picture taking before it's wrapped up and out the door. This mainly includes a countless number of Hailey blankets, my go-to pattern for a quick and simple baby blanket. I'll tell you a little secret about my go-to blanket; every time I go down to the United States shopping, I always make sure I bring back however many Pound of Love balls of yarn I can buy (with a coupon of course!) You can buy them for around $5 depending on coupon, they make about one and a half "Haileys." This way even the most casual acquaintance of mine can receive something handmade, and my wallet isn't decimated in the process!

Of course, there are certain people I like to spoil too. I find a "Hailey" is a perfect addition to my other favourite craft, diaper cakes.

Draping the blanket around a diaper cake really gives it that something extra special I think.

Now off I go, back to finishing off the "Hailey" I am making for a cashier at work.

Yes, Another Baby Blanket

What can I say, I'm a sucker for all things baby. This is a pattern I've been itching to try for a long time and finally the opportunity came knocking when a friend asked if I'd make one for her to give as a gift for a baby boy on the way.

This was my first foray into granny squares and I'm actually surprised because it wasn't as completely tedious as I was expecting. I did block all the squares before I attached them together which took a long time, but in the end that extra time was well worth it I think and I'm very pleased with the results. Perhaps this is the motivator I need to dig out the Snowflake Throw I've had the yarn for sitting under my desk for um, 2 years now?

Busy, busy.

Well it's been a busy few months for me. My last WIP is finished and long gone, as are two exactly like it, just different colours. There was such a fast turnaround in making them and giving them away that I don't think I even took pictures of them when I finished. Strangely though, I have a lot more yarn leftover than I did the first time I made them, which I can't quite figure out. Of course that just means I need to get my thinking cap out and figure out something else interesting to do with that yarn instead.

Regardless of how much yarn was or was not left over, they ended up being a lovely and much appreciated surprise for the mommies and daddies to be that received them and I consider it a bonus that this project used up some yarn that I had no idea what to use it for.

Another little project I whipped up quickly was a crocheted saw that I also didn't bother to take pictures of, which is sad seeing as how I made up the entire pattern all by myself! It took a few tries, but I finally came up with a winning pattern that did its job beautifully. To understand why exactly I needed a crocheted saw beyond using it as a toy for A, you have to understand my feeling about gift cards. I understand that for most people, they're the easiest/best/most appreciated gift option and I fully agree. However, wrapping gift cards is just so BORING. It's like, here's a card with a hunk of plastic inside that has magic money on it, Happy Birthday!

Boring. Boring, boring, boring. If I can't come up with an idea on my own of an actual gift a person would like, I have to at least present it creatively. You see, it was M's brother's birthday. He just recently bought a house and word on the street was that he wanted some tools, specifically a bunch of fancy saws. The last thing I am going to do is to go out and purchase a man tools, personally I think that would be like sending a man to choose my makeup. Not going to happen.

With some consultation from M's parents, we decided that a Sears gift card would be the way to go because Craftsman is apparently *the* brand of tools to have I'm told. Given my feelings on gift cards and what the gift card was meant to go towards, I believe you now understand the saw. Basically I ended up making two little saws and stitching them together, creating the perfect little pocket to hide the Sears gift card inside. In fact, it hid it so well, the birthday boy didn't even realize there was a gift card inside it, and he knows my tricks.

I have also been bad and bought more yarn, but that's another post for another day! Cheers!

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.

It's Been Awhile

Hello again readers!

I've been a bad, bad blogger for the past month. I somehow managed to come down with bronchitis back in April and it decided to stick around for nearly the entire month. Needless to say, not much of anything vaguely productive got done during April.

Despite being sick, I did manage to crochet a fair amount of stuff while laying on the couch all day, every day, so I have a lot of posting catch up to do. Are you ready?

3....

2....

1.... here we go!

3 out of 4 wabbits agree that these carrots are cute! These are a part of my new year-long WIP for A, though he'll get these before Christmas because he's still too little for his Godmama to shower him with chocolate for Easter and anyone that knows me knows that I can't just not give a gift.

If you want to make some carrots for a little one you know, the pattern can be found here for free.

Crochet Borders

While we're on the topic of crochet books, I may as well show off one of my birthday presents from back in March too. The wonderful M. who likes to spoil me endlessly picked up this book for me:

Around the Corner Crochet Borders

It has 150 different styles of crochet borders that you can put on your blankets. A few of them even incorporate some bead work. They range from simple to elaborate and any of them are perfect for dressing up a simple basic blanket. Prior to reading this book I always thought I was being fancy adding a scalloped edge to my blankets, but clearly I am wrong! I sense that if I were to do any of these borders there would be lots of frustration and ripping out, but judging from the pictures the end product is totally worth it.

Bottom line? I'm not going to create a new WIP just to do something from this book anytime soon, but this book definitely gives a lot of options and I'm glad to have it on my bookcase.

New Layout

I finally got off my butt and made myself a header and changed the layout of my blog a bit, which is surprising because I spent probably 3 hours retouching photos of my most recent vacation today. Apparently my photoshop threshold is higher than I thought it was.

The header does feature a portion of my stash from the last time I pulled it out in August. I think back then I had around 50 pounds of yarn, all of which get crammed under my desk somehow (I still have no idea how I do it, but it works out).

Someday I'd like my stash to fit inside that pink tote. I don't think I'll see that day soon.