Knitting in public is fine, but crochet?! Oh my!!

We were talking about somehow knitting outside Uniquities and my mom said it would be an impromptu Knit In Public Day. Then I pointed out that we were knitting in public since we were sitting in the eating area of Wegmans. Then Tammy pointed out that she was crocheting in public. That lead to "Crocheting in public?! Oh my!!"

 

 

Here is a picture of the brim of the hat I am working on and my treat for the afternoon.

I have also volunteered to test out a shrug/bolero pattern.  The Free Pattern Testers forum on Ravelry can be dangerous.  I know I want to try too many of the patterns I see on there.

I have definitly heard of time management.

I have no time management skills or scheduling skills at all.  I really don't.  I will work on blog posts while the sun is out and then wonder why my pictures of other things are super dark later. 

 

 I did finish the play mat though!  I finished it last Sunday night.  I made-up the pattern, but it is quite easy.  If you know how to crochet a granny square, you will be able to make this.  My segments are two single crochets with a single chain between, and two segments with two chains between at the corners.

 

 This shows the color a lot better.  There is also a US nickel for scale, I couldn't find a penny.  Everyone was super impressed by the thing.  It did take seven skeins of yarn to make this.

I also finished the knitted portion of another Skywalker done, but it has been added to the to-be-blocked pile, so no nice pictures.  I made another because the first one, that was made to gauge, felt too small.  I like this new one a lot better.

Today I got to finally teach the crochet jar cozy class.  They are growing on me.  When I made the first sample (shown above) I didn't even like the idea enough to fully read the pattern.  It wasn't supposed to look like this.

 This is the pattern and how it was supposed to look.  This is the one I made during the class.  Though the funny thing is that my student liked the accidental "variation" I did before.  Though since they were so easy and since my student was so excited to make them, I am starting to like them more.

This is the small version.  The pattern came with two sizes with two stitch patterns.  The small one fit the super cute Dairy jars the look like vintage milk bottles.

This is my dedicated student.  She brought a variegated purple yarn to work with.  A lady after my own heart.

This is her large cover.  She started making it the way the pattern said and then wanted to make it the way I had done it on the first sample I had made.  Now I have visions of making this to go over jars and then put LED candles in them for my dining room table. 

Happy Easter, but don't get too close.

Bill has been super nice and shared his germs with me.  I felt myself going downhill last night and woke-up with a super sore throat today.  I'm hopped up on Vitamin C so I'm going to keep it simple this post.
We went over to my parents' house for an Easter lunch and Mary and I went wondering around in the woods I grew up playing in.  She found a few different plants she liked and wanted to take home.  Food was good and so was hanging out.

I have been working on something for someone at the Mon knit-night who had a baby.  I thought I was making a baby blanket, but it turns out I am making a play mat.  Silly yarn wanting to be something different than I thought of.
Another Skywalker shawl is in the works too.  I'm already at the edging.  I remember the pattern taking longer, but I seem to be flying through it.  Changes at the one wavy stitch have still been made, but I made different choices than last time.  Making this has made me want to design another shawl. 
Maybe I will get one of these patterns I keep making testing and out to the public...maybe.

As I was looking for the perfect border for the shawl I have in my head I found a few other things that are pretty awesome.
  This super awesome/adorable dragon is to die for.  I love it and want to snuggle it.
  The design page by Lucy Hague is just filled with such pretty things.
  This Grape Vine Shawl also caught my eye.  There is a link to the pattern right on the page.
  The bottom most picture on this blog post caught my eye.  I was hoping it would give some insight on how to use a straight edging and turn a corner with it.  From what I can tell there is no link to the pattern.  It is really fancy looking though.

I thought I had more to say....but I can't remember it now.  So here is another link to a Back to School Style Blazer Recon by ThreadBanger that I really want to try.

I'm not dead!

I have just been a busy little bee.  I have been to one baby shower, had a birthday, am going to be going to another birthday party, and have one more baby shower to get ready for.  Two down, two to go?

Here are all the goodies for the first baby shower.  I made the dress for the doll, two pairs of baby booties, and one turtle.  I also included a little fleece outfit, some bath things, and two Cat in the Hat books.

This is the view from the table my mom and I were sitting at.  They have recently remodeled the place and it looks super great.  The walls are over 30" thick, it is a bit old.

She had onesie decorating.  This is the one I did.  There were fabric markers and stencils.  It was so much fun and an awesome idea.

 

 While we were in the area we decided to go to a few places they don't have in our area.  As we were driving we spotted this.  While I didn't work for this location, I worked for this company a while ago.  I got fired at one point and put on the Do Not Rehire list, I then got rehired and worked for them until they went out of business.  This was over 6 years ago (or close to it).  How crazy is it that the sign is still up and we happen to drive past it?

I have not had much of a chance to work on charity things.  I have either one or two more things to make for the up coming baby shower, then I can go back to my usual gig.

Baby girl things.

These are for Juliet.  Though the booties were so fast I think I will make quite a few more pairs.

I did alter the pattern some.  Since I am not a big fan of doing a lot of finishing I decided to pick up stitches instead of casting on. I still had to sew a few stitches in the front, but I can handle that.  They are the Chaussons mignons and the website has both French and English instructions.

This pattern I had to wing.  The first time I made it I had put about three too many increases into the body.  I took it out and started mostly over again.  The skirt has two different versions of the butterfly stitch and both are modified.

Most of the time when you work that stitch you leave the floats and then gather them all together in an upward fashion on the last row of the pattern.  I marked my center stitch and laddered down to it so the floats that were caught were more centered.

I'm off to make a few more booties!  I have another idea on how I want to modify the pattern.

Soondubu Princess

That would be the name of the Korean drama I thought-up while eating dinner tonight.
  Premise: Two single people are eating at their favorite tofu stew place and happen to notice each other. They each feel like they are meant to be because they both eat their soup in the exact same unique way. Both are too shy to approach the other. She even eats all of her sides because she is trying to give him more time. When he finally gets the nerve to talk to her he sees that she has already paid and is getting her coat on. He can't finish and pay in time and she leaves. He then knows that he has to find her again.
  Once they do find each other (after lots of searching and feelings of hopelessness) they find out that they have nothing in common really. They then have to find out if their love of tofu stew is enough.

I totally want to watch this!! I have been watching Korean dramas like crazy lately. There are even some on Netflix. Coffee Prince has been the one I have been watching recently. You Are Beautiful is next on the list, then To the Beautiful You. I seem to have a thing for shows with girls pretending to be boys.

  I got the patriotic stocking cap done. I think it is interesting how some of the color change styles pull in or puff out some. I'm not sure why the part in the middle front has such a gap, but no amount of fussing with it seems to be fixing it. I'm still debating if I should put a pom-pom on the end or not.

  A doll dress is slowly becoming done. I had to take out most of the work because I increased too many times on the body. I also have a cool cowl idea based on Nerina Knitted Scarf that I saw on a Knitting Daily re-run.

Hats

  I'm back!  I disappeared for a bit because I was having to hustle to get my costume done for Katsucon.  Even though I didn't get to go to all the panels that I wanted to, I still had a blast.  I got to hang out with friends I usually only get to see at anime conventions.

  

I technically finished this hat before I really started working on my costume, but I didn't weave in ends and such until this morning.   Not as floppy as I wanted it.

  

  I do really like how the stripes came out though.  I feel like it is a cool effect how there is more yellow on each purl stripe as it goes up.

 

  This is what I worked on while I was there.  I started it before I left as a way to try and keep the stress down from all the stuff I put off for too long.

 

  The best part about this hat are the colors.  I had just picked out one I liked but then it seemed I was planning on something.  I'm not sure what sports team has these colors, but they are Deadpool colors.  I had pulled this out and one of my friends asked if I could help and reenforce some of the points on her Lady Deadpool dress.  It was a fun take on the character.

  There was a bit more downtime at this con than most so I actually got most of it done there.  I did the last four stripes last night.  The stitch pattern was based off of a slight variation on brioche fisherman's rib(the one I did you just knit back across the row, purl if in the round), only I forgot to purl every other stitch and I did a *k1b, k1* pattern across and then a purl row.  I was going to go back and change it, but I think I like it.

  While at the convention we had a mini blizzard and temperatures dropped.  They started to creep up again, but then this happened today.  It is hard to tell, but it is really coming down.  I'm glad I made my grocery store run earlier in the day when it was still sunny out.

  The patriotic stocking cap is super close to being done.  I have just one more section of white to go.  I would have had it finished already, but I didn't have enough white yarn with me.  Hopefully tonight I can motivate myself to get it done so I can use the needles for something else.