completed crochet zig-zag hat prototypes

Here are the prototype hats I finished crocheting on Monday night!  The pictures are terrible, since they were obviously taken in the evening, but hopefully you get the idea :)







The blue and black hat is the first one I made, and I wasn't too happy with the way the top or bottom came out, so I made the second one with all the super fun colors :P  I really enjoy them and want to alter the pattern a couple ways to a) make it slouchy and b) add ear flaps.  I think these would look super cute as ski caps!

In other news, I keep getting sick, and this is not the time of year to get sick!  I had a stomach bug at the end of the last week, and I think I feel another one coming on.  I just can't win and all I want to do is sleep - but of course, you can't sleep during the last week leading up to Christmas!

my weekend project(s)

Happy Monday!  As happy as a Monday gets, anyway.  The closer it gets to Christmas, the more I dread the weeks flying by so quickly.  Totally the opposite of when we were kids, right?

Anyway, I thought I'd pop in and show you part of a new crochet hat pattern I'm working on:

It'll be a zig-zag hat, but the bottom part will be flat.  I haven't seen too many of these hats floating around, so hopefully everyone will be able to get some use out of it!

I actually started making a second one last night and already modified a few things in my pattern, so we'll see how long it takes until "total perfection" - but I'd love to get it up before Christmas.  It's going to be a paid pattern, probably somewhere in the $3-$4 range, and I might add some ear flaps.  We'll see where this whacky world takes me!

So here's a fun story that'll induce nightmares to all knitters... I finished the second in a pair of gloves yesterday, only to discover I must have dropped a couple stitches somewhere in the pinky.  Needless to say, as I was trying to fix it, the entire pinky became unraveled... then eventually the left side of the glove became unraveled... I started to get really frustrated and Hubby wanted to kill me.

Eventually I just wove a piece of yarn through one of the rows just above the thumb gusset and ripped everything back.  We're in good shape again, but now I'm behind.  I really thought I'd be able to get those done and shipped out by this morning.  Crap.  So you can see why I needed to crochet a few hats.  I needed to feel productive.

Have a super-dee-dooper fun week, everyone!

sneak peek: knitted christmas presents

Here's a sneak peek at the Christmas presents I've been knitting since Thanksgiving.  Some of you know what I've been up to, but can the rest of you guess what they are?




I have at least five more to go, so wish me luck!  It's been consuming my life the past few weeks and will continue to do so until Christmas Day.  Guess you all know what I'll be doing this weekend :)

I hope everyone has a great Friday!  And that your Christmas gift progress is coming along much better than mine, lol.

gift ideas for knitters and crocheters

Okay, crafters - it's officially "well into" the holiday season, which means one of two things:

1. You're going insane trying to find gifts for everyone on your list who already has everything (or knitting/crocheting furiously to customized gifts in the nick of time), or
2. You're fielding questions about what you (as a crafter) want for the holiday season.

And maybe you're even a little bit like me, where you're doing everything mentioned above and barely have time to breathe.  I've taken to bringing my knitting with me to work so I can get something accomplished during my lunch breaks.

I thought I'd make things a little easier on us all by compiling this short list of fun gifts for the crocheters and knitters in our lives.  Some are Christmas-themed, and some are not-so-Christmas-themed - but all of them are things I'd personally love to receive in my stocking this year:

Rockin' Around ... LadyDanio $10.00	Art Yarn, Red Hands... WoolWench $28.00	Keep Calm and finis... tillyflopdesig... $2.15	Christmas Ornament ... TwoGirlsLaughi... $8.00
Knit your own amigu... ButterflyLove1 $6.00	Pattern Wallet Knit... slippedstitchs... $35.00	Hand Knit Stamp - H... myrubberstamp $17.00	Needles, Crochets a... KnitterBag $32.99
Knitting or crochet... CaractacusPots $18.99	Knitting Kit Sheep ... ButtermilkCott... $10.00	Any Five Patterns Mamachee $22.00	Drop spindle kit, w... pamsfiber $22.00
Handmade Wood Croch... rparishwoodwor... $19.99	Droplets...removabl... ChatonDesigns $8.00	Thick and Thin Meri... thefinelime $17.50	Wreath, 14" Ch... whimsysworksho... $40.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

And who says you have to buy all these goodies for everyone else on your list?  After all that shopping, and those long nights spent pouring over your knitting needles or crochet hooks, I think we all deserve a little something :)

You could even just leave this screen open so your friends and family "accidentally" see these fun little gift ideas.  I mean... I'm not sneaky.

I hope you enjoy the photos!  It certainly put me in the holiday spirit.  Make sure to keep supporting your fellow independent artists :D

monday comes onces again...

Sadly, Monday has made yet another appearance in our lives and I wish I had more to show for it!  I've been working on Christmas gifts and finishing up the last of my custom etsy shop orders - and since almost all of those are knitted, it's going a bit slower than usual for me!  And I'm a quick knitter!

Anyway, I thought I'd show you some of the new hat designs I've been selling in my shop.  People have taken a lot of interest in them, so I'll be making more in the near future.  Two of these have already sold!







How is everyone else's Christmas knitting coming?  I'm on gift #4 of 16 total, haha.  I'm worried I won't make it, but now that the shop is closed to custom orders, I can just sit down and focus on getting these things done.  Maybe I'll come back with a sneak peek later in the week :)

Hope you all had a great weekend!  Hubby and I went to Christmas at Hershey Park.  And be surprised - I got a pink Santa hat to make the experience that much more festive:

Have a great Monday!