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.)

Farewell to Harry Potter

Just FYI, if you've at least seen the trailers there's no spoiler here.

Today my husband and I went to see the new Harry Potter. Oh the glory of a film done well. I cried, which is just how I am. I cried at the book... each time I read it. Seriously.

So there we are just minutes from the climax of the film, the moment we've been waiting to see for 10 years... and the film pauses and the fire alarm goes off.

I always imagined that pandemonium would break out when a fire alarm sounded in a crowded theater, instead we all just sat there hoping it would go away so we could finish watching. Every one looked at each other, gauged the reactions of those around us, and started laughing. I was probably laughing the hardest. The mere idea that the movie would stop at that VERY moment was just ridiculous! The suspense was too great, the moment so dark, and then the lights are suddenly on and we're expected to vacate the premises!

Of course we did get up and file out smoothly, no one was running or pushing, I think we were all going slow incase they just popped up and said "gotcha!"

About 15 minutes later they let us rush back in to take our seats. The only problem was that the still from the movie was left up on the screen. And here is what we stared at for about five minutes while everyone returned.

I'm sure you can imagine there were a few jokes...

"Harry, I never knew how you felt.."

"I've always secretly loved you Tom."

or

"Let's end this the way we began." followed by some smooching acted out by the girls in front of us.

The whole situation was terribly funny.

Of course after that they started the movie and we all forgot that we were making jokes. Every one watched in awe as the end finally came. I wish the film hadn't been interrupted, as it dulled the tone for the finale, but it was still incredible to see.

Now that it's all over I feel like my best friend moved away and I'll never see them again. For about 13 (might be closer to 14 now) years I've been following the Harry Potter universe, and when the books ended I told myself that it was OK because I still had the movies to look forward to, but now it's all over. It ended with flair and finesse and brilliance, but it ended none the less.

Crochet Toothless II

Alright so my goal before I leave for a family reunion was to finish all my commissioned projects. This crochet Toothless was the last on my list so tadaa! 

I don't have too much else to say so let's look at more pictures!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend! As for me I'm off to count down the hours until the next TrueBlood. The moment I can figure out how to crochet a life like Eric the rest of the world is going to be put on hold.

Happy 4th of July! So, is it October yet?

Happy 4th everyone! The crowds are a little too much for my husband and I so we decided to stay home today and do well...nothing! But tonight we're going to have a mini camp out in our living room. No electricity, just some candles, mini marshmallows, and toothpicks.

Anyway I have been in such a funny mood lately! I have been obsessed with everything pumpkin and Halloween. I've been eating pumpkin pancakes, ice cream, soup as well as day dreaming about a Halloween party. I am SO weird, but whatever.

To honor my pumpkin love I made a cute little amigurumi. Now if only my pumpkin plants would actually grow. I think I missed the green thumb in the family.

And so I will be eagerly awaiting the fall. Until then let's play in the summer sun!