How a Simple Hobby Turned into a Timesink

A flower made from ruffle yarn. I'm adding it to something in my shop soon.

Hello again!

I was looking at my works in progress and thought, "I could finish some of these or I could blog about it!"
Guess which one I decided to do?

As I look at this pile of work on my desk, I think to myself, "How did it come to this? This was supposed to be something simple." I move it to my stash and look at the various yarns I've collected since starting just a short year ago.

My grandma crochets and her mother crocheted; I still have some butterfly magnets made by my great-grandma. My mom still sews and I took up sewing for all of a month before deciding I wasn't any good at it and I hate it (tying in ends and sewing amigurumi is still my least favorite chore when crafting).  So even though it's in the family, I never got interested in crocheting until last year.

I blame the Doctor from Doctor Who.

I tend to fidget and even though I have a fidget toy on my desk, it wasn't doing it for me. I realized I wanted to make something. "Put something silly in the world that ain't been there before," said Shel Silverstein.

He was right. Last year, I saw a Tenth Doctor amigurumi and thought, "I have to make that!" Then I looked around at all the beautiful scarves in stores and thought, "I can make those, too."  So I started crocheting.

And I haven't looked back.

I still haven't made that Tenth Doctor and I still need to finish the Portal companion cube and the other projects below. I haven't made much money off of my craft yet.

But I have gained a rich skill and the ability to make something unique, that "ain't been there before."

I just need to finish it.

Here's what I'm working on currently:

My scarf!  I used the Harriet lace stitch from NewStitchaDay.  The yarn is special because it's made from a recycled sweater. I got it at an Etsy shop called ThoughfulRoseSupply . There haven't been many knots and it's so soft!

A sneak peek of something I'm putting in my shop soon. 

A ballet tutu coffee cozy. It has that seam going down the middle and a loose thread. When I tried to rip it out to redo it, I found the entire thing was stuck (so, yay durability?). I'm planning on making another one.

Fingerless gloves I made for a coworker. I just need to tie in the ends.
UPDATE: Done! 

How are your projects going? Is there anything you need to finish or redo? Let me know in the comments!

How a Conference turned into a Cat Toy

Hello again!

I wanted to share my latest project.  It all started with a conference.

A few weeks ago, I had an idea to make a cat bed that looks like a cheeseburger. My cats love yarn and plastic, and of course, all cats love cheezburgers (at least, that's what the internet told me, so it must be true). I wasn't really sure how to start and I had other projects to work on at the time, so I didn't give it much serious thought. A week or so later, I was sent to a conference for the preschool where I teach. Usually the content is great and I love learning new things for the classroom, but this session in particular was irrelevant and worse, dry as dirt. They say necessity is the mother of invention but I believe boredom has more to do with jumpstarting the creative process. My e-reader was at home and my phone was dead. So I doodled.

This is the initial sketch and planning. Originally, I was going to make an entire bed, then decided I'd better start small. The square is because I had the mad notion to make the cheese square. I had plenty of stash yarn, so the project was on!

Well, after I finished Christmas presents and a commission for a coworker. Then there was the Steam sale...anyway.

Once I started, it worked up surprisingly quickly.  The only hangup I had was with the bottom (still not satisfied with it; it has this weird ridge where I joined it).

Of course, Mirri couldn't resist trying to sample it before it was done:

Finally, I finished it!  My first ever cat toy toy cheeseburger!

Except

My cats can't stand it, which is odd because they love the red beanbag I made. That one wasn't even made for them; they appropriated it one day from my finished items, which I now keep tightly locked up.

Ajani was interested for a little while, until he realized he can't eat it. This is him batting at it, confused about why this thing is in his bowl.

I think the cats feel insulted because it's not actually food. It looks like food, but it certainly doesn't smell like it. Maybe I should try to give it to them from the table. Or keep them from it.  *sigh* And people wonder why my husband and I don't have children yet.

"Simple" snowman ornament

I suppose it's my own fault. I started making ornament covers for my coworkers from this pattern, but was having trouble getting motivated. My mind started wandering to what I could do with the leftover ornaments. 

"I know!" I thought. "I'll make an amigurumi snowman! I made my alien and penguin; how hard can it be?" How soon the mind forgets.  Usually I work from a pattern, but the amigurumi are exceptions. The construction itself seems simple on its own: wrap the ornament, make a nose, and make a hat.  The ornament wrapped nicely, but still took me a few tries to get the fit right.  It didn't help that the ornament is sparkly and sticks to the yarn. 1 hour already gone.  "That's ok," I thought, "I'll get the rest done during my lunch hour at work. Then I'll have plenty of time for other projects!"  It took 2 lunches just to get the hat right and the nose was made at home.  Finally, after what seemed like forever, I have something to be proud of.  

Here's the result:

Now to take some more pictures and put him in my shop!

How an ornament cover turned into a bracelet

So I found these great ornament covers online: http://www.free-crochet.com/detail.html?code=FC00488&cat_id=324  I already had some gold thread and thought, "That would make a great Christmas gift for my coworkers!" With pattern in hand, all I needed were 12 solid ornaments. Simple, right? How wrong I was.  I stopped at the local big box everything store only to find that they sold packs of mixed sparkly colors, ornaments with patterns, and even tempted me with cute penguin ornaments. But they didn't have mixed solids.  Undaunted,  I grabbed a box that looked promising. I could tell some of the ornaments would be unusable because of their shape but the rest were either blue or silver.   "Silver and gold look fine together," I argued to myself. "It's like the song." But when I got home, the thread washed out against the silver. The next day I trekked out to the not-so-local big box craft store.  There they were: shining, glittering, solid ornaments, 8 to a box.  They were also $10.  I'm cheap; I'm not spending $10 on ornaments.  Now it was time to change tactics. Ornaments were out of the question, but I still had all those silver ornaments at home. "Thread!" I thought.  "I'll get some thread to contrast with the silver and it will be awesome."  I picked out a nice forest green (Slytherin colors) and marched joyfully home.
It didn't work.
The color's great, the ornaments are beautiful, but the green just doesn't work with the silver.  So I'm using the thread to make a Victorian bracelet instead.
You win this time, ornaments. But I'll get you...someday.

Welcome

Hello all!  I've been posting some projects on Ravelry and thought it would be nice to share some stories of how I get my ideas and create my projects.  Later on I might add some videos, although there's already a wealth of great videos out there for pretty much everything.  If you have any suggestions, let me know.  

You can watch this space for special codes to use in my Etsy shop and know ahead of time what's going to be up.  Thanks for visiting!