Practice

I've decided that I want to learn how to embroider (my mom taught me when I was about eight but I only ever did half a flower, so I don't really count it) so I started messing around with some embroidery floss and scrap fabric. Unfortunately this piece of scrap was from a t-shirt...so the fabric was stretchy and frustrating. Oh well! Lesson learned!

For those of you who don't know this is a quote from Pam on True Blood, the pink on black is very appropriate for her character. The framed quote now sits on my desk.

Don't worry I have another amigurumi to post soon!

"Ello." "Did you just say 'hello'?"

Labyrinth anyone?

Originally I was going to try and go all out and embroider on his facial features, but he just looked weird, so I went with a little more "kawaii" style instead.

I really like two night projects like him. First night, crochet general body. Second, add on all extras and details. 

Mini disclaimer: I have not tested this pattern. I just wrote down what I did as I did it. I also write my patterns for those who know a bit about crochet in the first place. If you are a beginner feel free to email me at MostlyNerdyCrochet @ gmail.com with any questions. Honestly my brain isn't always on the same wavelength as everyone else, so if you are not a beginner and the pattern still sounds wonky feel free to pester me to make it better.

“Ello” Labyrinth Worm

Magic circle with 6 sc (in blue)

Increase to 12

Inc every 3^rd stitch for 2 rows

Sc 7=rows

1 hdc, 5 dc, 1 hdc, sl st around the rest of the row, repeat one more time

Switch  color to a pale yellow

1 hdc, 5 dc, 1 hdc, sl st around the rest of the row, repeat 3 times

Sc 12=rows

1 Inc on either side of the face (for cheeks) sc in between- Repeat for one more row

dec every 3^rd stitch for 1 row

Fill with polyfill before the opening gets too small!

Dec every other stitch for about 2 rows, then dec every stitch until closed

Hair – darker blue than the body for contrast

Slip stitch several strands of yarn at the top of the head and down the body. Separate the strands for a good fluff. (There will be 17 bits of fluff all together. Top of head and cheek fluff is longer than the rest).

I added some of the darker blue up his back and on the top of his head almost like embroidery (only with yarn).

Scarf - Use an orangey red thin yarn (or thick thread)

Ch approximately 15 inches, turn and DC down the length. Weave in the ends. Loosely tie around the neck (I wrapped mine twice).

Face: I used a dark orange (almost a light brown) embroidery thread for the eyes. Bits of black of course for the pupils/nose/mouth, nothing too fancy!

"Nah, I said 'ello' but that's close enough."

I Think it's a Shawl

I have completed my shawl...stole...wrap...scarf...thing. It's pretty whatever it is, though I do wish someone had called me out on spelling it "shall" last time...and on facebook. Oh well.

The wrap was made with six skeins of that recycled cotton blend yarn in "moss" which I guess is close enough. Not sure how many hours it took, I just popped on a movie and went to work every night. Plus a couple of glasses of wine really helps the time fly by. Hey, I'm on vacation remember? (Actually my stay home vacation has slowly been morphing back into work. I stopped in to the thrift store three times to take care of a few things, even though it's closed this month, and started going to the gym on Friday. I'm still sore.)

I still haven't decided why I really made it: gift? Keep? I just wanted to make something out of all that yarn. It's rare that I have so much of one color and type.

Little disclaimer on the pictures: no judging based on my pajamas! I couldn't manage to convince my husband to model the wrap for me, so you're stuck looking at my weekend attire. It's Sunday darn it and I'm not about to get all dressed just to show off one of my projects!

Alrighty, here the shawl is spread out on the couch so you can see the pattern. Oooh, Aaaah. I didn't measure it but I would put it close to being 5' long. It drapes nicely and is comfortable. The yarn isn't too scratchy so I have no problem wearing it as I write this. Overall I would call it a success, no major blunders (though I'm sure there's a missed/added stitch here and there) and no massive frustrations attached. The first few rows were slow as I learned the pattern so I wouldn't have to keep looking it up, but after that I just took off.

Here's the pattern diagram that I used. I just found it on a google image search so I'm not sure who to credit it to, but it sure worked!



        

So here I am looking thoroughly relaxed in my bright pink pajama bottoms and white tank. Notice how my arm subtly leaves the frame as I managed to avoid capturing the camera in the mirror with the rest of me. (I should really concentrate on getting better pictures). A big ol' thanks to my husband who of course was too busy on his computer to assist me. Actually I can't really blame him. Last time I got him to help (think back to the bikini) we were both laughing so hard that it took nearly 20 minutes to get a decent shot. It's just way too fun to make funny faces at him.

Anyway, taadaa!



A New Project

I guess I'm making a shall. I have a bunch of this recycled green yarn that is frustrating to make amigurumi with so I'm going a different route. The problem is I don't know how to make clothing, I already have a million scarves, and it's not enough for a blanket. Typically I don't have the patience for following a pattern, but then I stumbled across something wondrous.

Crochet pattern diagrams.
A visual interpretation? Yes please! OK, I'm not a complete idiot, I'd seen them before, but they didn't apply to my amigurumi so I ignored them. I make all my amigurumi free form so usually I just ignore patterns in general. However, for this project I wanted something pretty with a design. It's still painfully simple, but then again when you break down most projects they aren't as complicated as they seem.

I haven't decided if this is something I'll keep or give as a Christmas present. Either way I've been slacking for so long that I'm just happy to be hooking again.

WIP shots.

See it's 75% recycled cotton and I bought it at a thrift store. I'm that good. Well, OK  I work there and grab any yarn that's available because I don't want to pay full price, but that's good too!

More pictures to come as I work.

Home Sweet Home

I have finally returned from three weeks in Seattle for a family reunion. I would love to say that it was a great trip full of fun and interesting activities, but unless you count three trips to the ER as a "fun activity" then I'm going to go with my vacation kind of sucked.

Somehow I managed to develop a rather severe kidney infection without the most common symptoms. The first trip was to an urgent care clinic (which I count as one of the three visits) because I had terrible back pain and felt like I had a flu. The doctor attributed the back pain to the car accident we had been in the day before. Yes, some guy in Seattle decided to back into us and munch the passenger side of my brand new Audi, yet another reason my vacation was not all that brilliant. (And I do mean new, we bought it just a couple of months ago from the dealer to replace the Mazda 3 I used to drive that had been totaled by a trucker on the freeway. Figures.)

Long story short, I got worse and we ran to a full blown ER. This time they rushed me straight into a room and started hooking me up to all kinds of stuff. It's all a little blurry, but they sent me home and asked us to come back the next day.

So between slowly becoming more and more sick and then the slow process of recovery I spent the majority of my vacation in bed or on the couch not doing much of anything. My husband and I missed almost all the family reunion events (which I had planned and really wanted to do!) and ended up stressing about the car, how the medical insurance would work with the ER visits, and trying to get home. It was just one big mess!

Of course our trip was not entirely terrible! I was able to see my family and his, and I came home with all kinds of goodies from my mom and mother-in-law. I spent the night with my sister at Emandal - a Farm on a River where she works. We went swimming in the river and played with kittens. It was wonderful! I absolutely love my family, and I'm growing to love my in-laws more and more every time I see them. I wish we didn't live so far away!

OK, enough of my vacation rambles. Since I'm recovering (which will take about three weeks to get back to normal) I'm going to have a staycation and get some crochet done!

My mom gave me these beautiful skeins of yarn that she bought at a garage sale.

I used the pink and white to make a hat for my grandmother for Christmas. You can't really tell but the pink is a pretty clam shell stitch. The yarn was too fuzzy for that, but oh well.

OK I can't help it. Attack of the kittens!

 (Emandal takes in litters of kittens each season and adopts them out to the guests that stay on the farm. They have an extremely high adoption rate, and those who aren't taken become well cared for farm cats. I have a severe weakness for kitties and as you can see above I'm completely at their mercy. my sister suffers from a similar problem and below you can see she is mesmerized by their cuteness.)