Tonks Wiggie

The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming up soon, and I wanted to dress as one of my favorite characters - Tonks. I decided no one would recognize me if I didn't have pink hair. My hair is naturally dark and thus requires bleaching before dye would hold, and I didn't want to dye it pink. I looked at wigs online but in the end decided that the best thing to do was to use the Wiggies Work Wonders pattern to make my own wig. I think it turned out quite well! Here's a picture:

The Dangers of Michael's; Gift Projects

I moved recently, and soon after I moved a Michael's opened up less than a mile away from my house. It's a dangerous place, but it is also magical. When I went into the yarn section, I found myself imagining all sorts of different projects. I've never seen so much yarn together outside of a specialty store. It was beautiful. I couldn't wait to get started on my next crochet project. Now I need to actually get the yarn for the projects I'm planning.

My next few projects are all holiday gifts. They include the Crochet Me Jazzy Java Jacket, these ripple socks, and these legwarmers. I'm not sure what else I want to make, though I know there are a few people I'd like to give crocheted gifts to that I haven't found exactly what I want to make for them yet.

My poor hook case that I made just can't stand up to the kind of use my crocheting involves, so I think I'd like to get a nice storebought one for Christmas. I need to put that on my list.

Stay tuned for updates on those gift projects as they happen!

Sherrie's Hat

I finished Sherrie's hat a long time ago but am only just getting a picture of it up now.


I used Lion Brand Homespun in Baroque, and this pattern. It was fun to make, and I love the yarn. The crown is a bit short, so next time I use the pattern I think I'll add a few rows to it.

She's a mite twitchy.

Hi there! The life of me crocheting has been slow lately, as I've been occupied with other things and not feeling up to spending money on supplies (I'm living on savings right now). I did make this vest as part of my River costume for a preview screening of Serenity. I used this pattern and Peaches & Cream Ecru yarn. I was going for the look of this costume from the Firefly episodes "Jaynestown" and "Objects in Space."










I've also finished Sherrie's hat, but I'm holding off on pictures of it until I can get a ribbon in it.

Next up, I think stripey socks for Alana.

Crochet A-go-go

I haven't posted in a long time, but I have been crocheting . If you look over to the right you'll see that since I last posted I've completed a bath pouf, soap savers, and a vest. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the bath pouf or the soap savers before giving them to their intended recipients. The vest was for myself, though, so I'll have pictures of that up, eventually. There's not much to say in the world of my crochet right now, but I did want to update, so there you are.

My First Afghan

I have a headache right now, so my writing will not be its most coherent. I have worked somewhere between 35 and 50 hours on this afghan. It was made with Mainstays Dark Sage yarn and a pattern that came with it, called Diamond Trellis. It is a gift for my boyfriend's birthday. I sure hope he likes it. If not, I may cry. Because - 35 to 50 hours!

Unfortunately, I am me, so I am not satisfied with it. I thought I would be, but it turns out one end is much wider than the other. I folded it and it seemed all right, so I'm not going to worry about it. After all, he certainly couldn't crochet any better. It will just be one of those things that nags me. As I was on the last set of rows when I realized this difference, I thought it would be stupid to go frogging it. Far too much work. Better to have one that's not perfect than to work that hard and have nothing at all, especially since the boyf's birthday is tomorrow.

So, here you are:



And there you have it. My First Afghan.

Oops!

Today I went to the local yarn store. I had never been there before. It was truly a thing of beauty. The walls were lined with yarn, and I was in awe. My intention had been to run in, find some cotton yarn, buy it, and bolt, but of course that didn't happen. Instead I wandered about, admiring everything and whimpering internally that I just couldn't bring myself to spend $13 on a skein of yarn. I was there to buy yarn for the rose bath pouf from this month's issue of Crochet Me, which I intend to give my mother for mother's day, but like a fool I got thread instead of yarn. It looked like yarn when it was all in a twist, and I was feeling too stuffy in my head and too eager to get lunch and get back to work to pay close attention to it once it was wound.

It turns out I bought some lovely, 100% mercerized cotton crochet thread. I bought it in salmon and rust colors. This is good and bad. The good that comes of this is now I have some lively thread to use for the sachets I want to make for my aunt's wedding, instead of the white I thought I would pick up. The bad is, now I still need to go pick up yarn for my mom's bath pouf. I will pick up some Peaches 'N' Cream at Wal-Mart tomorrow evening when I take my brother out to dinner, as he wants Taco Bell and Taco Bell is in the same shopping center as Wal-Mart. I also need to get a steel hook or two then, as well.

Maybe I should start tracking how much of my income goes towards crochet products. I'm a bit afraid of the answer.

Crochet Hook Case

I really wanted a place to keep my hooks because I am in the very bad habit of losing them, so I decided to crochet one. (Isn't that fabulously meta?) After many initial mishaps, I finally settled on this pattern, with mixed results.

On the good side, this crochet hook case has much more room to store non-hook items such as scissors, measuring tape, and needles than the other patterns I considered did. On the bad side, it is softer and thus looks slightly sloppier. I really like the way I closed it with ribbons. I think the edge of the ribbons hanging off the bottom is very cute. I don't like how sloppy it looks, but I obviously liked it enough that I didn't destroy it and start over, which is an achievement for me (perfectionism is a disease).

I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn, though I don't know the name of this color. I call it variegated rainbow. I used an H hook, just as the pattern requires. The ribbon is Offray 1/8" 100% polyester.

The hardest part was definitely sewing in the pocket. The pattern calls for 12 inches of yarn to sew in the flap, but I recommend using more. I don't think I'll be using this pattern again, simply because assembling the various pieces was frustrating as there were no diagrams. The more I look at it, the more I like it, though, and that's a good thing. I am thinking about adding a star to the center of the top flap as well.