I’m no slacker!

Yesterday I posted my game plan/to do list for the summer, craft-wise. I’ve already been busy!

Yesterday afternoon I got the covers & booties boxed up and shipped out to McKenzie. Just checked & they are already out for delivery! Huzzah! I love paying for ground & getting overnight delivery.

I do still need to check with Jessica about her interest in baby booties. I posted the yarn picture, expecting her to get back to me, but haven’t heard anything so I’ll follow up with her. It’s just a matter of actually remembering it when I’m on FB, instead of other random times when I can’t check with her.

My sewing project. Oh, my sewing project. :) Probably the most exciting thing right now. I’m now the proud owner of 12(!) pillow cases, enough for four bags. Like I said yesterday, I have a few changes in mind for the pattern, so I got two of the cases pinned up for the first bag. I’m making it have a flat bottom, which isn’t exactly hard in theory, but I haven’t gotten out the sewing machine yet, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping I can take some time this weekend from all our house stuff & get the first bag finished. I need to remember to print the instructions today so I know what I’m doing when it comes to cutting the third pillow case. I’m going to look at one more Target store this afternoon to see if they have any different patterns to choose from, but here’s what I’ve got so far.

No work yet on motifs or other new crochet patterns. In fact, I don’t think I’ve picked up a hook since I finished the last bootie Wednesday afternoon. I felt like a slacker riding in to work & after dinner the past couple days, but it is kind of nice to take a break.

I just hope this long weekend is a productive one. We do have a project at the house to finish up, but hopefully we can take some downtime to just enjoy the weather & play with Raven. I know Tuesday will come around too quickly.

Until next time…

TWT

Sunshiny summer days are finally here!

My new summer game plan

We’ll see how long I can stick to this. :)

First of all, I need to ship out the order to McKenzie. I finished up the last bootie last night & it wasn’t as bad as the first one. I still don’t know what my problem has been with them, but I seem to have gotten past it (famous last words, I’m sure).

Secondly, I need to find out if another friend wants to order more booties. And if I really want to take on the challenge. I’ll see what she has to say.

After that, let the fun begin!

I found this awesome pattern yesterday that I can’t wait to try out. I’ll be doing the grocery shopping on my own today (dangerous!) so I’ll see what I can find. If I can’t find anything, I’ll have a couple hours to kill tomorrow, so I can stop by Target (double-danger!). I really hope I can find some similar pillowcases because those are absolutely perfect for me. Nice & bright & fun. I can’t wait! It’s the perfect simple sewing project I’ve just been itching to do! I do have a couple changes in mind (of course), so hopefully I don’t make things too difficult for myself. Pictures to come when I get around to working on it. Hopefully soon! Maybe I’ll make some time for it this weekend amid all the house stuff if I can get my hands on some suitable pillow cases.

I’m going to work my way through the crochet motifs I found last week. I’m really enjoying learning new crochet stuff lately, and have plenty of small amounts of yarn to use up. Like I said before, I plan on making a “patchwork” blanket for Raven.

Between the motifs, I want to try out new patterns/ideas of items to donate to MCK. New hats, booties, other clothing, just whatever I find that I like.

Other than Raven’s blanket, I don’t think I’ll do any big projects/blankets this summer. I know I planned on making another baby blanket, but I think I’m going to put it off. I like the instant (or at least quicker) gratification that comes with completing smaller projects.

Overall, I think it’s a pretty good plan, hopefully I can get a fair amount accomplished this summer!

Until next time…

Complete & utter frustration (and a hard lesson learned)

I can’t even begin to explain how frustrated I’ve been this week. On Monday I had to travel for work, so I had about two hours in the car to work on my crochet stuff. I planned to finish up McKenzie’s booties, then maybe get started on a new cover or hat if I had time. I don’t even know how many times I got four or five rows in and had to pull it all back out, I lost count after about five. Over, and over, and over again my seam was getting off, or I was somehow adding stitches, or the center of the toe was WAY off – not even anything I could adjust to make work. Finally I got so sick of pulling everything apart, I just switched yarn to start fresh. I decided I should take a second to double-check I was using the correct hook size, and what do you know, it was one size up. So I switched to the correct size, and right away, things started going just right. I did have one point where I had to move a stitch from one side of the bootie to the other, just because I wanted things a little more centered, but other than that, I got it done in about half an hour, of course right before we got back from our trip. All that time wasted! I was happy to finally have accomplished something, but of course it’s not even the right color for what McKenzie wanted.

Tuesday night I tried to start again on the brown booties, and still had no luck. The toe kept getting further and further off center, even though I was following the pattern exactly. Finally, last night, instead of following the pattern exactly, I adjusted most of the rows to make sure the toe stayed centered and was finally able to get one done. After three days of working on the same little bootie, it was good to have it finished, but daunting to know I need to make another one. I did keep notes on the pattern of the changes I made, so hopefully I’ll be able to do it again.

What I really don’t understand is that I was able to make the very first one absolutely perfectly with no troubles at all. After that one I figured I’d be able to whip these little things out in no time & didn’t bat an eye when McKenzie said she wanted a pair, and another friend said she wanted a few pairs. Now I think I might just be happy to get the one pair done for McKenzie, and forget the rest! :)

Actually, I know I’ll keep trying to tackle these until I get it all sorted out & they come easy again. Or at least that’s my plan.

Until next time…

Fun, Bright Happiness

Lo-o-ove the bright happy colors on these ones (excluding the brown, obviously)! Even the brown is such a nice, warm color. I'm really happy with how these turned out, so I hope McKenzie is just as happy. She's the photographer I mentioned before that ordered a few of the covers, so we'll see what she thinks when I get them shipped out this week. Still need to work on a pair of booties for her, but I'll be in the car for work most of the day tomorrow, so I should be able to get those done without much problem (famous last words, I know!).

And what about those toggles? I love them! Of course Nick's comment - "but, the baby will hurt himself on it." :)

Until next time...

Crochet Motifs

I just found this listing of a bunch of a different crochet motifs that I'm excited to try out when I'm back in the mood for doing blankets. I'm thinking about making a bunch of different ones to try them out when I do Raven's blanket. It'll be a good place to use up all my scraps & try out new stitches, etc. We'll see how it goes!

Until next time...

Yarn Overload

Here's a better shot of the yarn I got this week. There are a few colors pulled out since they were already spoken for, but it give me a nice choice to play with!

Until next time...