Three months later, my hubby has a hat!

Way, way back when (October of 2010), my lucky husband celebrated our first anniversary by going yarn shopping at an upscale shop.  Okay, so that's not all we did, but it would be pretty awesome if he was enthusiastic about me buying yarn.

I picked up just a couple things:



I let him pick out a yarn he liked for me to make him a hat, and of course I can't walk away with nothing for me :)  So I bought some pretty purpley-pink chunky yarn and a pattern booklet that claimed you could make an entire hat from just one ball of the stuff.

My yarn was called Schulana Grand, and when it says it's chunky, it really means it!  It's also not cheap, either.  Check out that wonderful $22.50 price tag.  But it was my anniversary, so I figured it was okay.



Hubby, on the other hand, picked out some grey Plymouth Yarn Encore Tweed:



Fast-forward about three months, and I finally got around to knitting our winter hats.  Hubby has been freezing his head off since December, but with all the last-minute Christmas projects and custom orders, I never got around to it :(.  Luckily, he didn't take much offense to it.  He only reminded me about it every waking moment.

I'm happy to say they're done and wonderful!  I wish I'd have made his hat longer, but what can you do?  I even added an extra 1/2" to the darn thing.  Oh, well.

Here's my finished hat!  The yarn so was so thick, and it was only a 2-stitch cable, that I didn't even need a cable needle.  I was able to just wrap the stitch around my thumb before knitting it off.  Pretty easy.  But I have to admit all those cables started driving me nuts!





Click here for project details over on Ravelry.

And here's Hubby's:





Click here for project details over on Ravelry!

I'm spending most of my week studying a crap-ton for my classes and some studying for an exam at work.  I basically have no life for the next three days.  But before I go to bed each night, I've been taking an hour to work on some new commissions I've brought in, one of which is a knitted brimmed hat for my hairdresser!  I bought canvas for the brim two weekends ago, so I'm excited and kind of nervous to experiment.  If anyone has any tips for making a brim, feel free to share :)

Long time no blog - here's a necklace and a headband!

Well hello!  It's been awhile.  As you can probably guess, my classes are back in full-swing.  Nothing like coming off a busy holiday month into a busy schoolwork session.  The joys!

Anyway, I'm here to show off a couple projects I've been working on, but definitely not all of them.  I still have a Traveling Scarf to finish, not to mention I made Hubby a hat out of some yarn I let him pick out during our anniversary trip to the Poconos.  That was back in October, and I only got to making it two weeks ago.  "The shoemaker's children have no shoes" kinda thing.

Anyway, here's a necklace I crocheted a friend of mine for Christmas:







We finally did our exchange this past weekend, so I can post photos at long last!  Yeesh.  I think I want to make one of these for myself.  I kind of fell in love with the colors :)

Also, another friend of mine and I are doing an exchange: I'm making her a headband and she's making me one of her necklaces (which are super pretty and way different than mine).  Here's the prototype of the headband I made her:



I apologize for the awful photo, but it was late at night and I wanted to send her a photo to make sure it's what she wanted!  I made the button hole a wee bit big, which I didn't realize until I had already attached the button, so I may frog everything to get back to that point and fix it.  It just bothers me way too much, haha, but I think overall it looks really cute!  So you can all look forward to a pattern of this soon.

And please, can someone actually hold me accountable for writing out this pattern?  So many times I say I'll write the pattern and just never get around to it.  Feel free to kick me in the behind or send me nastygrams via email or in the comments.

More to come soon!  I hope you're all enjoying the new year.  I'll leave you with this quote we should all start using on our craft projects:

"This ______ is handmade.  If you throw it away, those same hands will make a doll in your likeness and stick pins in its butt."

Crocheted Jewelry - The Perfect Christmas Gifts

Well hello again!  If you've been following my blog, you'll know that my handcrafted gifts this year were crocheted jewelry.  Jewelry is completely beyond me and something I had never really attempted before (with the exception of those kits you get as a kid).  But the fact these necklaces could be crocheted intrigued me, so I was happy to get started.

Before I show you the pictures, the pattern I followed (for supplies and techniques) can be located here.  The pattern calls for metallic thread, but I decided to try it with wire.  It produced a similar but different result, and I really love how they turned out.  If you're interested in working with wire, I recommend a 28 gauge.  I say this because I accidentally picked up a 26 gauge wire in the gold and it was like trying to crochet a paper clip - not recommended!  The 28 gauge worked for me, so there you have it :)

Okay, this will be a super long entry due to the pictures, fo brace yourselves!

First, the necklace I made for Nannie, who wanted a brown necklace with a gold chain:







Then there was Oma, who wanted a red necklace with a gold chain:







Cassy wanted a black and white necklace - I had ordered those huge white beads online, not knowing how big they would be, and hadn't planned on using them.  Then at the last minute, I decided to see what they'd look like, and I loved it!







Then we have Patti who wanted a purple necklace with a silver chain:







And Aunt Cathy wanted blue and silver:







Next, there was my mother-in-law's necklace (which came as a surprise, so I totally guessed at some color combinations):







And last but not least, my mom's!  Who never told me what colors she wanted, so I also just guessed at something.  She wore it to church on Christmas Eve, so I guess she liked it :)







That's it!  I'll eventually be selling this style of necklace in my shop, but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing first.  I'm still inexperienced.  But that was that - hope you like them!

Have a Happy New Year, everyone! Enjoy some champagne and wonderful night with friends or family (or both).

All I want for Christmas is a crap ton of patterns

Behold, my knit and crochet pattern Christmas haul:



Some of these I received as gifts, and some I bought for myself with some Christmas money on Amazon.  Looks like I'll be keeping myself busy this year.  Or just look at the patterns a bunch, contemplate making them, decide I have no time, and put them on my bookshelf, haha.  We'll see!

Here are the pattern books shown, starting with the front row and working L-R:

Row 1: (wow, this is reading like a knitting pattern already!)

1. 2011 Knitting Pattern A Day Desk Calendar
2. 2011 Crochet Pattern A Day Desk Calendar (from mom and dad!)

Row 2:

1. Cowl Girls: The Neck's Big Thing to Knit
2. Hattitude: Knits for Every Mood
3. 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet: A Collection of Beautiful Blooms for Embellishing Garments, Accessories, and More (from mom and dad!)
4. Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!

Row 3:

1. The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic & Original Patterns
2. 400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch Patterns
3. Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics (from hubby!)
4. Vampire Knits: Projects to Keep You Knitting from Twilight to Dawn

My goal is to go through each of these, try a pattern, and write a review.  We'll see how far I get since classes are starting again next week.  But I did start skimming through them last night and there's not a one I think is a dud pattern book (don't you hate when you buy or get a pattern book and there isn't at least one fun thing to make?).  I love almost all of these projects, so I just need to finish up some other commissions before I get started.

Something tells me that any free space I had on my pattern bookshelf won't exist anymore when I go to put these away :)

Have Yourself a Merry Knitted Christmas

How was everyone's Christmas?  We had a great one on our end :)  Except that yesterday with my family was cut short due to a supposed snow storm that never arrived.  I think we got about 2" total and the roads are just slush today.  My parents had planned a big breakfast of homemade waffles for us and some time to play all our new Wii games, but we unfortunately left at 6AM to avoid the "snow storm".  Silly weathermen!

Anyway, I know you all are wondering (I'm sure it's been keeping you up at night) how my bolero turned out!  I posted a teaser photo on Christmas Eve just to celebrate the fact it was done, but here are some details:





And here's me and hubby at my parents' on Christmas Eve:


I finished it on the 23rd at our friends' house, where we had a Secret Santa gift exchange and some nummy holiday food.  I think I've gained about 25lbs! I was also attacked by all the babies at one point, which I loved and I'm pretty sure it set my biological clock into a ragingly fast tick.  Oops!

More to come this week since I've finished a couple other orders, plus I received my traveling scarf in the mail!  Just need to put it together.  And I can finally post all the jewelry I made for everyone - I had to keep it all a secret before :)  WOOHOO!  Only 4 days left until 2011... and so much to do.

I'm enjoying my last day off of my 4-day Christmas weekend by crocheting and playing Donkey Kong, courtesy of hubby.  Hopefully all of you were able to take some time and relax over the holiday, as well.  I know how hard it is to be working full-time, trying to start a business part-time, trying to do well in school, and still keep everyone happy - so it's been nice to sort of kick back and reintroduce myself to my husband and family for the first time in awhile, haha.