Things on my hook

This month with the weather FINALLY improving, I have spent a TON less time sitting inside crocheting and things however, I have actually still been working on things. Mom's blanket is coming along slowly but surely, I refuse to let this one fall to the wayside again. I want to be able to cross it off my to-do list and consider it done.

I also have been working a bit on a doll for Lucy's first birthday {July 2} however, I know that summer will be nuts and I won't have a ton of time to crochet once summer starts, so I wanted to get a good head start on it. It is turning out to be a bit bigger than I anticipated because I am using a cotton yarn and the pattern was written for a very thin yarn. I actually think it will be a fun size when it is finished.

I made another sunhat for a dear friend of mine's daughter. Since finding the pattern I have been aching to make a billion of these hats, not only are they easy but they are so fun to make. I love working with cotton yarn. I LOVE this pattern. It is the Easy Sunhat for Him or Her by Mamachee - I love how easy this hat is to make, how cute it turns out and how incredibly versatile it is. The hat really does look cute for a tiny baby (Lucy has one), a toddler, and even all the way up to an adult hat. This hat in my opinion, depending on what colors you choose, works for both males and females, there aren't a ton of hats that I think work so well for both genders and all ages.

off to a set of sisters

I think so far this month I have made 13 of these sunhats all with different color combinations and sizes. I am ready for another project. Time to test my skills with something completely different. I do have my eyes on a dress or a sweater for Lucy that I found ravelry. I love ravelry, I love free patterns. I love that my yarn stash is 100% under control (for now at least). I do also have another giraffe being worked up, both legs are done and now I am onto the body and arms. The giraffe pattern is so simple, I never thought I would enjoy doing this type of work but for one reason or anther once I started to figure out how to do it - I fell in love. 

We leave for vacation this coming week and it is the great debate as to which yarn projects I pack. I thought about not packing any but I know for sure I will regret that decision. I think it will be mom's blanket squares that comes along because that doesn't require multiple yarns or patterns.

Are you making anything fun currently?

Lucy's Valentine's at Daycare

Every once in a while I get in this streak where I just need to get rid of some of my scrap yarn and I make it my mission to get rid of scrap yarn. When I get in these moods every project I do MUST include scrap yarn (unless I have a super important project come up - then I give myself some grace and buy what I need) and I only buy yarn I need that will allow me to use up yarn, traditionally this means I buy a lot of neutral colors in order to balance out the crazy colors I have stored up.

Back in the beginning of November, I decided I was at the point that I need to use up my scrap yarn pile and started looking at my bins (ugg yes, bins) of scrap yarn and the strange amounts I had left and was puzzled at what I could make with the yarn, because it really was great yarn just small amounts of great yarn, and I kept thinking that I could make a ton of hats if I had somewhere to take/give a ton of hats. I looked into the NICU where Lucy stayed for a  while, however they cannot take handcrafted items due to fear of germs coming in (which I suppose makes sense) and was thinking about where else are there lots of kids and my mind went to Lucy's daycare. {I did end up doing a NICU preemie hat challenge in the month of December and took them down to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis}

Then the idea was born - I would make some type of valentine card that said "Hats off to you Valentine" and attach it to a handmade hat for each kid. The idea was brilliant, I had 3 plus months to make roughly 16 hats. My goal: try lots of new patterns that I have been storing up in my ravelry library AND use up a ton of scrap yarn. BRILLIANT. My yarn stash is now MASSIVELY under control (Thankfully).

The Hats:
Ladybug by Repeat Crafter Me
Penguin by Repeat Crafter Me
Happy Hat 2 by Mamachee
Zebra by Repeat Crafter Me
Shark by Repeat Crafter Me
Snowman by Repeat Crafter Me
Brainwaves by Playin Hooky
Aviator by Repeat Crafter Me
Snow Queen by Repeat Crafter Me
Pop of Color by Mamachee
Mohawk Beanie by Boomer Beanies
Galilee Hat by Mamachee
Tiger by Repeat Crafter Me
Basic Stripes by Colie's Crochet
Emersyn Newsboy Hat by Frayed Knot

All of the hats are adapted from the above patterns, I didn't follow any of them exactly. The only hat I repeated was the Mohawk beanie, I made two of those for a set of brothers. I am actually fairly impressed I managed to get these done.

I know it won't be possible to make hats every year for the kids at daycare for Valentine's day, but it was super fun to come up with a project that allowed me to try a whole bunch of new projects without the stress of them being perfect. As you can tell by the list above I REALLY got into the Repeat Crafter Me patterns, they were fun and easy to follow, I liked how they turned out as a whole and I know I will tweak them a little next time I make them.

I also was thrilled to not be giving out candy for Valentine's day - while I am not anti-candy, it was nice to do something other than candy. I may make it my goal to do noncandy for Valentine's day for a few years, just as a different option.

Note to self: next time you decide to make 16 of anything - give yourself more than two months, particularly if Christmas and the New Year falls in that window as well as a work trip and a vacation.

In the end I LOVED this project.
Are you doing anything fun for Valentine's Day?

Crochet Project

I was presented a slightly challenging project, I was handed a grocery store bag with four partial skiens of yarn and some super small balls of yarn. It was this woman's grandma's yarn, she passed away several years ago and in a box of stuff that she inherited was this bag of yarn. The woman doesn't knit or crochet and figured that this yarn wasn't the best to learn on not to mention she claims no interest in what she called a "dying art" (which secretly broke my heart - I won't let the joy of crocheting die if it is up to me - this refreshed my commitment to teach others how to do it). So I had this bag of yarn, colors I wouldn't have necessarily combined together, all of similar weight, and an uncertain amount, less than a skein a piece for sure.
I set off on my challenge trying to figure out how I can maximize the yarn, how can I stretch it to make as big of a blanket as possible. I tried several different things, I started a granny square blanket and ripped that apart, I started making a square and part way through didn't feel right about it, I tried a couple of patterns I had never tried before, and then a friend passed along a pattern her mom had used for a blanket for son. I knew this was the solution to my problem. It was a striped (helpful when uncertain amounts exist and I didn't really know how much yarn I had and didn't want something that would be an unforgiving pattern when I ran out each color), it was mostly double crocheted and was a bit holey which eventually is where I weaved the yarn through to create this woven blanket. It took longer than I probably anticipated, but given the challenge of the yarn and the amounts, and the request to add as little yarn as I could to preserve "grandma's yarn" I think  I am happy with how it turned out. I only added some white yarn (there was some in the original bag - but not this much) - the rest is Grandma original. I was thrilled to be able to give this woman her grandma's yarn back in this small afghan.
Have you ever had a strange request along this line?
Have you ever worked with someone's yarn that was special?
              This made me nervous because I knew I couldn't replace the yarn.

pressure to be epic.

The title of this post is because for some reason once I haven't blogged in a while I feel some strange internal pressure that the next blog must be AWESOME, which really, I am not sure where this pressure comes from but it exists inside of me, so don't expect epicness in this post, rather it will be ramblings.

The last month has been NUTS to say the least, but wonderfully nuts! I just returned from the National Youth Gathering with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - I traveled with the Northeastern Minnesota synod (550 of us), 21 from the congregation I serve. The 11 day trip came with lots of challenges, fun, and ways in which God met us along the path. It was marvelous. At the beginning of the month I got to stand next to my best friend as she got married back in South Dakota. Wonderfullness abounds.

July's Yay God moments:
-Marc got a new job!
-Katie and Andy got married
-The Synod Journey -ELCA National Youth Gathering
-several trips out kayaking
-a fixed sump pump and sewage drain (the broke sump pump and sewage backing up into my basement was less than fun - but now that the problem is remedied it is nice to not have to worry about them)
-sleep - I was long over due for some good sleep
-planning season - now that some things have come to an end it is time to ramp up the planning for next school year and summer - never a dull moment in ministry
-my closet remodel (sounds lame but trust me the closet needed finishing) is done (just need to hang a set of shelves)
-my family and friends who have helped me keep my sanity during this all
-yarn - one can never have enough yarn while going on 26 hour bus trips (one way)


Dear Sarah,
    You now have broke your blogging silence feel free to go crazy and blog away - no pressure now, the lame post is over.
Love, me