New Year, New Purpose.

This blog has had few posts to it and many intended purposes. My first post was about a cardmaking challenge I participated in and then it became a crochet blog to attach to my Ravelry account. I am now re-integrating the cardmaking bit, so this blog is now a challenge blog and a crochet blog!

I got a great new book for Christmas called Crobots from Wendy. It's patterns for 20 Amigurumi robots! They use felt and stitching and small items of hardware to embellish the little robots.

I chose one to begin with, because it called for pink yarn and I had enough left over from a hat I had made the previous day for my little girl. So I started making it and with a few little changes to make up for notions I didn't have, Crobot 1.0 was born!!!

She's missing her control panel on her head at the moment, but I have gone to the market today and bought some felt in a rainbow of colours so I can now make the required items. :)

I didn't have any white felt at the time so I made the eyes with white and changed the yarn to black for the outer round, but I may now cut eye bits from the white felt I now have so that I can assemble the eyes properly. They look a bit strange at the moment!

I will be using this blog a bit more now, putting actual photos in it this time so that it's useful to people outside Ravelry. Ravelry members can see my entire body of crochet work. I will try to upload some of my 'retro-goods' and write a little about each one. For now, ta-ta!

Scarf Search!

I'm not a coat person, but occasionally I could use a scarf just to cover up my neck when the wind blows. Now that I crochet, I have no excuse not to make my own, so I'm trawling Ravelry today looking for patterns. I've found quite a few (they're in my queue now) but I've just got pretty jazzed about one of them.

It's the Tulip scarf (check my queue). I have this patons 100% cotton DK in sage green and ivory that I'd love to use. It's nice and neutral and I can alternate the colors to make the flowers appear. It'll be great!

Up until I found that one, scarves seemed all much of a muchness if you know what I mean- you got the twisty kind, the complex lacy kind, the kind made up of a string of motifs... but this one looks excellent.

I'll have a go anyway and see where it gets me. :)

Amigurumi Crazy!

Yes, I think I have a problem. I've made many Amigurumi (crochet animals) and sent them off to other people... sometimes by request, sometimes totally unsolicited. I've been enjoying it, but I'm running low on fiberfill and I can't go get more! What ever will I do????

The Finish Line is in sight...

Oh dear...

I am looking at my dodecahedron, which is stuffed but missing a point. I have to just bite the bullet and get on with it really... It's not likely to go wrong now, is it? I'm adept enough at decreasing that I could make it work no matter what happens... so why am I not finishing it??? It won't take long and I'll finally be able to put a photo up on Ravelry!

I guess life happens and gets in the way of the good stuff like crochet.

Stalled a little...

Hello Ravelers and anyone else reading...

I seem to have stalled a bit on the crochet front lately. I don't know if it's just because I'm not plopped in front of the TV with my yarn quite so much, or something else... but I haven't worked on my dodecahedron in over a week! Probably closer to two weeks. And I haven't picked anything else up either!

It's such a lovely day. I think I'll bring my 'hedron to the park today and work on a few of my last remaining points. I love the idea of it, but the colours are not inspiring me. I chose to make it out of my bits and bobs and I'm tired of looking at them when I know I have some beautiful jewel brights in my stash just waiting to be stitched up into pretty birdies, penguins, and who knows what else!!!

I must stand strong. I must press on. Then I must buy another skein of blue chunky to make a bunny for Jake... *Then* I can move on to the birds!

I should be enjoying my projects though, not wishing them away. When I do finally settle in with my hook in hand, I do love it, but the thought of "getting through" something so I can start a new things creeps in.

Butt Rot!

Owww....

I made a sun hat in one sitting. I couldn't help it. I just couldn't stop!

I'm surprised I came out of it virtually unscathed. I had an eye-strain headache in the morning but the expected joint stiffness in my hands never materialised! Incredible.

More Butt Rot to come though. I guess I haven't learned my lesson. I'm making one of those pointy dodecahedron ball things and I never want to stop once I start. Oh dear....

My stash expedition went well, but I did forget the felt. No worries yet because I haven't started on the birds, but I did get some beautiful yarn for them. They're going to be fantastic... if I ever remember to get the felt!

Am I really still up???

I knew I shouldn't have looked. Now I want to make a sun hat for my daughter. I keep browsing in the patterns section at Ravelry and my queue is getting longer and longer!!!

I'm also wondering all the while if I can get away with using DK instead of Worsted for these patterns... I think I just need to suck it up and give it a go. I've got my stash down to a very respectable size but I have little its and bits I'd like to get rid of. I guess this is my version of thinking aloud. Forgive me.

Shopping tomorrow- right. I need....

orange felt for birdie noses
8mm noses for birdie eyes (might need another shop for that)
pretty colours of yarn for birdies, penguins, cupcakes. Definitely yellow, some jewel tones...
smallest possible crochet hook I can find
5.0mm hook, since the mystery hook turned out to be 5.5

Right. It's after midnight. Bed.

Hello, Ravelry!!!

I finally found another use for this, one of my many blogs. I have connected this to my profile on Ravelry, a website for knitters and crocheters. It's a great site. It's sort-of like a Facebook or MySpace for your yarn-related hobby. You can organise your projects, in-progress and finished, you can have a queue of projects you want to do, list your yarn stash, keep track of hooks and needles, books, magazines and patterns. There's even a great way to search for patterns. Many of them are free! I'm so glad I finally, after a year and 3 months of crocheting, joined this site.

I have spent time lovingly photographing and uploading my projects and my stash, and choosing from the amazing range of projects on offer. I didn't need another reason to be any more fired up about crochet, but I've got one anyway. This is fantastic!

But most of the people who will see this are already on Ravelry. Hi, everyone! :) Have I got this right now? Not sure- it's been a while since I've dealt with RSS feeds...

I'm going to my old standby, Walthamstow market tomorrow to find some more DK in brighter colours than I already have, so I can make the amigurumi birds I have downloaded. The stall that's there on Thursdays has 100g balls of robin DK for a pound. I suppose that's as good as it gets, right? Bring it on!