Collection

I gathered my amigurumi today and realized that I don't have as many as I thought! With how many I've crocheted in the last 15 months I figured I'd have an overflowing pile, but I gave so many as gifts and sold a few that I now have only a modest collection.

Still I'm proud of what I have to show for the time I've spent on my crochet.

On the plus side I get to add a "his and hers" night fury to my pile of plushies. The grey one is mine and named "Cinder" after a weird Harry Potter meets How To Train Your Dragon dream I had a few months ago. In the dream I (a witch at Hogwarts, occasionally taking on Hermione's role) discovered an "albino" night fury. Harry, of course, adopted Toothless.

Geez, even my dreams are super nerdy.

Actually, beyond super nerdy. Last night I had a Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games mash up dream. It was pretty much Harry fighting for his life in a magic style Hunger Games. My perspective kept changing too, so sometimes I was just another competitor setting traps and watching out for myself, sometimes I was a game designer watching Harry's progress (this was all set up by Voldemort of course. Does that mean I was a Death Eater? Hmm). Then for about half the dream I WAS Harry.

I think I need to see a shrink.

Ahem, ANYway I'll be posting some more on Toothless soon. You know, like how to make your own and such.

Huzzah!

Plant Hanger

I made this as a birthday present for a friend. It was super simple. Just crochet inside a key chain ring 8 or 6 stitches, then from each stitch crochet out a long chain. Super long if you want a two or three tiered plant hanger, but I went simple here so it was only about two and a half feet long.

Pick a length about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way down the entire length and tie two of each of the chains in a knot (so if you started with 8 you now have 4). Take one piece dangling from the knot and tie it to another one dangling from a different knot about two-three inches down. Just keep doing that until you have four series of knots. Finally take all your chains and tie them together in one big knot to act as the base which will then support your plant.


Something like this if my words made no sense.

                                        (RING)
                                        (abcdef)
                                         abcdef                       
                                     a   bc  de   f                     
                                  a     bc    de      f                
                               a       bc      de          f   - pull over to a          
                        (af)        (bc)     (de)                                 
                        a  f          b  c       d e                               
                      a      f       b     c    d     e                              
                    a          f   b         c d         e - pullover to a                             
                  (ae)        (fb)        (cd)                                       
                a     e        f    b        c    d                                   
             a          e     f       b    c        d                                  
           a              e  f          b c          d - pull over to a                              
          (ad)          (ef)         (bc)                                              
             ad            ef         bc                                               
                 ad        ef       bc                                                  
                     ad    ef     bc                               
                         (adefbc)

              Let the ends dangle free!

Slip a plastic bottle/pot in first to make sure it holds and then go ahead and finish it up!





In other news I have FINISHED my Toothless! Now I just have to put the tutorial together with all the pictures and stuff  in a way that makes sense. Damn. Well, at least I'm trying.

Also I have almost finished writing my blog book! I have one more chapter to write and I'm done! I've also tentatively decided on a title: A Bird in a Tree

This working title was taken from a reveal in chapter 10. If you want to give it all a read check out MostlyNerdyCrochet.blogspot.com

Thank you!!

After posting yesterday I have received such wonderful comments from everyone! I would like to take a moment to say thanks and respond.

Thank you Kate for the idea of a quick project, I have already put this into action and I have to admit, it is awesome seeing a project completed in just an hour or two.

Lena I never even realized that was supposed to be a wine rack! I'll have to keep my eyes open now that I know I won't have to buy a specialty towel rack. And yes, Pinterest is both ruining and improving my life. So many projects...so little time.

Natalia thank you for letting me know I'm not the only one that suffers with lack of inspiration when it comes to projects for myself! It's just way more fun to imagine my friends and family receiving stuff I made especially for them.

Winkieflash I am definitely going to have to look into that tutorial. I've been in a funk in more than my crafts and I'm ready to move on! I also like changing gears, I will have to do that.

Anyway my readers rock.

I also get to accept a blogging award today! Lisa of teaandcraft.blogspot.com has generously awarded me the Versatile Blogger award!

The "rules" are:

• Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy
• Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it
• Next, select 5 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
• Nominate those 5 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself

Lisa thank you for thinking of me! I may not feel very award worthy right this second, but I am so happy to be given such a boost! I'm all smiles!

Lisa's blog can be found here: http://teaandcraft.blogspot.com.au/ and I would highly suggest checking out her response to the last rule, her cake decorating story is so cute!

The blogs that I would like to award are:

 Root and Blossom http://www.rootandblossom.com/ Not only is Lena a very old friend of mine but she has incredible eye! Now that she's expecting I've even had a dream where she was super pregnant and way too awesome.

Nerd Jerk http://nerdjerk.blogspot.com/ Hilarious and inspiring. Her amigurumi are what got me started!

It's Geek to Me http://lottloft.blogspot.com/ I love her. She's my imaginary internet friend. Don't ask how that works...it just does. Anyway, amazing work.

Happy Home Baking http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/ careful, this place will make you drool. I'm also really fond of the Asian inspired sweets. (Yes yes, I realize this blog isn't "crafty" like the others, but baking is SO an art. Plus I can award whomever I wish. Hehehe.)

Finally a new blog that I stumbled across http://craftdisasters.blogspot.com/ which so far has great patterns and fun projects.


As for the final "rule" eek. Seven things?

1. My husband is in the Air Force. We are currently stationed in Los Angeles.

2. My husband deploys in two months. Possible reason for funk? Probably.

3. I've recently become addicted to yoga, though class today kicked my butt.

4. When I make cakes for other people I purposely make extra icing so I can eat it straight out of the bowl when I'm done.

5. I'm a hoarder my nurture (thanks mom) and an organizer, not-quite-minimalist by nature. It makes me cry inside. A lot.

6. I enjoy calligraphy...but I kind of suck at it. I'm trying to get better.

7. Uh... (10 minutes later) ...I drink extremely sour lemonade?  I skip sweetener entirely.




Alright now that the fun blog awards are done with I promised yesterday that I would post pictures of the shirt I attacked with a bleach pen. It was hard to find the right pressure so that I didn't squeeze out too much. You can tell where I did though since it bled out a tad.

In the awkward event that you can't tell what everything is there's the Cheshire Cat, a key, a heart, spade, diamond, and clover. Taadaa!

At least it's something!

Happy April Fools!

Hopefully none of you have had to suffer terrible jokes from your friends and/or significant other. We have a very strict non-April Fools day pact. For me it was because I was never at my sister's level and she always found a way to frustrate me more than anything with her pranks. One year I finally put Vaseline on the inside door nob to her bedroom and tied the outer nob to this ancient million pound table. I woke up to a caged half asleep and extremely angry lion who would now have to rush to get ready for school. Yeah, I was like 8 and my first real prank had been too early in the morning to be appreciated. She claims to this day that she doesn't even remember it. Ah the impact I had.

No idea why my husband doesn't like them. We both enjoy tricks and messing with each other on every other day of the year....but not today.

In my long absence from my crafting blog I've been working a bit more on Mostly Nerdy Narrative posting reviews for movies and some random rantings. I've been under the weather and going insane because for a week straight the only thing I could convince myself to do was lay down on the couch and watch TV (Stargate Atlantis to be exact). I'm feeling better, but I'm still not normal yet.

On to the minimal crafting I've accomplished!

Last week I copied a pinterest idea and used a bleach pen on a shirt to draw a design. Smelly work, but super fun. The shirt is in the washing machine right now but I'll get some pictures up later.

Again another pinterest idea (which are starting to take over my life) is a fun little towel holder.

Pretty huh? Of course this isn't one of the DIY projects that's on there, more of a cool thing to buy and put in your bathroom, but who has the money for that! Instead I starting f*#&ing around with some old hangers. Originally I thought maybe it could work on some of my yarn, but I discovered the perfect use for it instead!

This is now my new "rustic" and slightly shabby cloth napkin holder! It may not be quite as pretty or sturdy as the one designed to be sold, but whatever. I like it, and that's all that's important, right?

Alright well enough of my attempted crafts for now. I've completed Toothless's head (it only took me three months ugh), but I've found that if I'm making something for myself it's just not as fun. The wire thing was fun because I never work with wire (I know you can't tell can you! pfffft) that and if I didn't like it I wasn't going to feel bad about scrapping it. I've just been in a little bit of a crafting funk. I'm sure it happens to all of us. Right? RIGHT?

 I do have a crochet project that I'll post next weekend. It's a birthday present, otherwise I would have posted it today. I hope my friend likes it!

Hugs to all of you!

St. Patrick's Day!

Ah, hello my distant friend. How long it has been since my typing has graced your "new post" screen? Too long. Too long.

I've done very little lately in the crafting world. Instead I've been slowly cleaning out my place and preparing for the move. Less than three months now!

To keep myself sane I've been going to yoga. Every single yoga class that my gym offers actually (which is only 5). I've been researching on where to go and earn my own certification so I may someday teach yoga. Aaaah yoga. I know there's all kinds of scandals lately, but my yoga practice is very personal and soothing, so I don't care what else is going on because in those moments I'm centered on myself and my body. It's wonderful!

Right, so long story short I needed a carrier for my yoga mat. I was using the mats at the gym, but they are too short! Instead I've whipped up a quick and simple yoga mat strap. My only problem? I needed bigger buttons!

Here's the pattern:

(Depending on the length of your yoga mat you may want to make each piece longer or shorter)

Ch 70
Turn. dc down the length
ch 3 turn, triple crochet down the length
ch 2 turn, dc down the length
 ...
ch 1 turn. sc 6 - repeat until barely long enough to wrap around your tightly rolled mat
ch 1 turn, sc 2, ch 2, sc 2
ch 1 turn, sc 6
ch 1 turn, sc 2, ch 2, sc 2
ch 1 turn, sc 6
ch 1 turn, sc 2, ch 2, sc 2
ch 1 turn, sc 6
tie off
...

Move to other end and repeat between the ellipses making sure both straps are the same length.
Sew on two medium to large buttons (mine are too small and almost slip out of the hole) one on each end at about the middle of the 3rd triple crochet. The slots in the strap should overlap and the button should line up! Taadaa!

Wasn't that just SOOOOO hard?