Revisiting the Gabus!

I found the pattern for these little guys and immediately fell in love with them. I often describe them as little hacky sacks with eyes and antennae (though I have made one without antennae). I plan to make more in the near future and the ones in the store will be re priced properly. (Our original pricing strategy did not take actual yarn quantities, but estimated them.)

The yellow one was made for a friend, "Sunny" Gabu, so this is the only picture of him I have.

This is another picture of "Big Mama" pictured with the "Sunny" Gabu above. In real life this one is actually a hot pink but inside lighting and flash caused it to appear orange.

This last one was actually in progress, but he looked so cute hiding in this hat that I had to take a picture. To date, I do believe he and his brothers are still not finished yet (there are four).

Scrap Granny Afghan...Part 1

When a project gets frogged there is a small death associated with it. Somewhat sad, but invigorating at the same time. While a project may get frogged for any number of reasons; the pattern wasn't working out, yarn issues, or just plain frustration with the project itself it eventually leads to a rebirth in another project. So it is with this project. Originally you can see it here andhere as the "Scrap Granny Square". Becoming dissatisfied with the innate "square-ness" of the project that would never quite be undone without some modification I opted to make smaller squares that could as a whole be made into a rectangular or other shape.

Thus far it's a 4x4 of 4 round grannies (each granny is 5.5") leaving it to be 22" square. It's likely to become a full sized afghan, but what precise size I am unsure about. I will be maintaining a square shape trying out different typical afghan sizes starting with a receiving blanket and on up.

Derby's Crochet Hook Case

In honor of my other half and my return to the land of crafting I decided to try my hand again at making a crochet hook case. My initial case was made for yours truly and without regard to any directions, therefore it's not quite up to par. However, kudos to me, I actually paid attention this time and constructed it as directed. Needless to say it looks conceptually much better, although my fabric choice is odd so it is "full of character"! Perhaps now that I have made one more successfully some will pop up in the store....stay tuned!

A Bouquet for a Baby Hat

Being pregnant and having an idle mind had finally gotten to me enough that I opted to make something for baby. Having no idea of the gender, though seriously hoping for a girl, I opted to make something mostly "unisex" (although in retrospect this should never be put on a boy entirely too cutesy) and attempt a baby hat.

Having rifled through Ravelry's innumerable patterns and looking at both knitted and crocheted concoctions I settled on something simple for my pregnant brain that wouldn't tax my fingers or bore my mind with details while eagerly trying to finish my piece of work. And piece of work it turned out to be...

This is my first foray into using a pattern written with UK instruction and it definitely took a little thinking and reminding that when they said DC they meant SC. I am glad the pattern writer mentioned the use of UK abbreviations but I do honestly wish she had written out some of the instructions instead of assuming that someone knew how to increase a certain number evenly each row. I, for one, suck at math and the whole idea of counting stitches to find the number of my rows and rounds, much less stitches, is abhorrent but a necessary evil. However, the "math" involved in trying to figure out how to increase evenly without making horrible obvious gaps because I fudged a few, or several, stitches was not the most pleasurable part of the crocheting experience for me. While I understand that in art, and especially with crochet, math is an integral part of the process I still loathe it.

Perhaps the other horrid thing about this project, is the color choice...completely my fault, but it was for a baby - why not pink, blue, yellow, and white...Looking at the end result you see why it perhaps was not the best of choices and how it turned out much more girly than anticipated.

Lastly, and maybe worstly, (and yet I'm not surprised by this fact) is that it seems too big. While many children have "large" heads for their size - it's very common for a child to have to grow into their head - just looking at this and it seems....hugnormous.

O well, live and learn!

Sock this!

Woe to me who has entered the realms of begun, begun, and frogged. Our first sock project has met it's demise and we've tastefully decided that it will remain deceased and on our "To Do" list for sometime. Having never worked with DPed needles and using 2s at that (it is a sock after all) has become trying and just isn't working with our brain. SO in lieu of having an ultimate hissy fit and never trying a sock again we are frogging and putting away our project for another time and place.

For those who are curious we did have some pictures of the "somewhat" progress which show a wonderful color scheme emerging for our "One Day Soon" sock.