Tiny Turtle

Now that my swap partner has probably opened her Magic Yarn Ball, I can show you what I made for the center.

My partner collects turtles. She also loves all things Disney. She's even running the Disney half marathon next month! So, I made her this:



Uh huh. That's a little turtle with a Mickey Mouse Club hat. :)

Magic Yarn Ball Swap

I participated in my first swap on Ravelry this month. For those not in the know: a "magic yarn ball" is basically a ball of yarn you wrap around little gifts so as the recipient unwraps the yarn, they find all these goodies inside.

In my rush to get mine out to my partner, I totally forgot to take pictures. I'm really hoping she posts some, as I was kind of excited about it.

I came home to a priority mail box and was very excited to see it was my Magic Yarn Ball! I was too excited to find my camera, so I took a picture of the unwrapped ball with my crappy phone camera:



Once I got through unwinding it, this was my loot:




Inside was:

origami paper

really lovely chopsticks

a cute pen

a really nice crochet hook with a floral casing. (LOVE using it)

a small origami crane figurine

a small tea pot figurine

two Millstone coffees (yummy flavors)

a little "luck ladybug" on a rock

a cute little crocheted bag

Forte sea salt caramels covered in dark chocolate (SO YUM)

Crystal Palace dp knitting needles size 2.5

The yarn was Fly Designs Lace Wing Sock yarn in Seattle (a very nice teal & purple combo). It's beautiful and I can't wait to start on some socks! There was also a skien of Sugar n' Cream Twists in green & cream. I plan to make some dishcloths for my new apartment. :)

I'm really excited about my goods. I think I will be participating in the October swap.

Have you participated in a swap with a stranger? How did it go?

A Rainbow of Happy

Sometimes it's the smallest little thing that brings the most joy. This came across my blog feed today and it just made me smile.

A**hat

I've never understood this insult. Asshat? What does it even mean?

Still, this thread on Ravelry has me cracking up. Again, the determination... the exchange of ideas... to make one woman's desire to make a true asshat come true. :)

Yearning For Yarn

I'm teaching an Introduction to Crochet class at LA Harbor College in a few weeks. The guy who runs the extension program happens to be a friend and invited me to teach after seeing some of my completed projects on Facebook. He was the one who decided the project for the class- a media cozy, basically. It's a good, simple item that we can get a good start on in the 3 hour class, so I agreed.

So here's the issue: I like to do everything in the round. Finishing is the bane of my crafty existence (please see 90% done works-in-progress to your right. boooooooo). Unfortunately, I think that's not the best way to teach beginners. They really need to learn about turning chains. So looks like I'm gonna have to churn out a cozy with lots of finishing.

So the upside is that gave me a reason to go a little nuts while buying materials. I get to give my students a fun bundle of hooks, yarn, darning needles, stitch markers... and maybe something else? Honestly- I'm already right at the limit of the budgeted materials fee, but may decide to go slightly over anyway. I'm really not in the class for the money anyway. I'm just excited to share the crochet love with new people. I like the idea that they might use the same hook or pull out a couple stitch markers one day years from now and remember how they started learning.

Spread the love!

Divinity in Hat Form

I'm so ADD when it comes to projects. I'm allllllmost finished with the Cool Mama blanket. Good thing, too, since mama went into labor yesterday. No baby yet but I gotta get this gift in the mail pronto.

So... I'm house-sitting and normally I'd bring a good selection of stash yarn with me since I'll be here a few days. However, this time I decided to be "responsible" and bring only what I needed to finish the Cool Mama plus the black wool I bought to make an Army-appropriate scarf for the soldier. (Totally still crying about the knit one that's been shelved. *whimper*)

Do I stick to the plan, though? Nooooooo..... I come across a pattern for the "Divine Hat" and decide I neeeeeed to make it nooooooooow. Why? It's like 100 degrees here. There's no way I need this. But the pattern is so gorgeous and oh! look! I happen to still have the remnant I was using to make the afghan squares in my car. So, with Cool Mama just waiting for a few more shells to complete her border, I bust out some linen colored acrylic and start working on a hat I don't need!



It's lovely though. Just to spite me the yarn decided to run out right when I was almost done. The pattern said I needed less than 3 oz of worsted weight yarn. So I figured my about-half-a-skien would be enough. It probably would be for someone with a normal-sized head. My head, however, is ginormous. HUGE. Plus I have big thick curly hair so that adds like 2 inches to the diameter. Boo. So now this is a WIP* when it was supposed to be a FO*.

Back to Mama... hope to finish her up, do some "blocking"/"killing" to fix a gauge issue and tell you all about her. Oh and get her in the mail along with Hot Mama. So nice to be getting things done.

Soldier Squares

I was invited to join a group on Ravelry called the We Care Stitchers. Kae, the moderator, is collecting knit and crochet squares to make into afghans for soldiers recovering at Fort Carson. Carson just happens to me MY soldier's base, so of course I agreed to help out.

My soldier deployed a couple weeks ago and I spent the day making one dozen 5 by 5 inch squares using some of my HUGE stash of Vanna's Choice. I did a simple double crochet all the way through.. but stitched them in the back loop only, so that created a little bit of a ribbing effect.



I was able to bang them out in about 20 minutes each, so I'm sure I'll be making more soon. Just need to finish up some of those WIPs over there. :)