Market Research

Free Pattern: Bat Sensory Toy

Thanksgiving in Canada happens in October, and since I was going to be spending it with family, including an adorable little boy, I figured I would whip up a quick sensory toy for him! This will be available for a limited time for free to all of you! Just my way of saying thank you to everyone who reads my blog!

Thanksgiving is a very important holiday for me because it always meant family, which is why 5 years ago J and I actually got married on Thanksgiving Sunday. In a lame sort of way it helps to remind us to always be thankful for each other and it means that every year I get to gather with family on my anniversary and celebrate our family, including the adorable new cousin who I made this little bat for!

This sensory toy is small enough that a 6-12 month old can handle it without being bogged down, and it includes both crinkle wings and a jinglebell body. It whips up stupidly fast, so there's no excuse to not make one for someone's first Halloween in your life this year!

***Pattern will be available for sale shortly***

Hope everyone who took advantage of the free pattern enjoys their bats!

Crocheting for my Craftroom

New house equals new craftroom!!!! Which of course equals me getting to be a bit selfish and doing some crocheting for me! The new house couldn't have come at a better time. I miscarried a few weeks before our closing date, and moving helped a ton with keeping me distracted. I have a few commissions for people I need to get working on, but I've been having a really hard-time wanting to crochet for other people's children right now, knowing mine wasn't meant to be... hence the selfish crocheting.

So far I've finished a huge rug (need ends sewn in before I can post pictures), a chair cover (need to finish the 2nd one), some slippers (pictures and pattern will be posted soon)...

Simple giant granny circle using Vanna's Choice Mustard and Raspberry

And now I'm starting a lapghan! For the lapghan I'm using the same pattern I used for my cousin's new baby blanket last year, but this time each square will be a solid colour. I actually didn't even clue in that it was the same pattern, until I had finished my first square! All I know is it's my favourite motif ever, it's lacy, but not too much, the circle in the center is unique and it's not too girly. All in all, it's pretty perfect, especially for what I'm envisioning this time! I'm using 7 colours from Waverly (Fresh Petals and Rosy Pink), Vanna's Choice (Raspberry and Mustard) and Vanna's Baby (Cheery Cherry, Duckie and Goldfish). And I'm assembling it differently, just connecting the corners and the center of the side, I don't want this blanket to be heavy or solid, just some thing to keep me warm and inspired.

Hopefully in the end, it'll look something like this!

I'll post a photo of the actual squares once I get a few done.

Blog silence...

It's been a bit silent on here recently... Post-conventions I needed some time to just regroup and J and I had a ton happening in our live that took priority over me blogging.

I have some big exciting news though! We bought a house!!! It's a great 3 bedroom bungalow with a finished basement, which includes a workshop for J and a craftroom for me! EEE! and a backyard!!! and best of all, noone living underneath us partying until 5am!

I'll be back with real posts soon! And hopefully a few free patterns!

My New Cardigan!

I've always wanted to make clothing for myself. Due to my size though, I've always been discouraged by the fact that most patterns call for 5+ balls of yarn (I'm cheap) and also I'm impatient! There's a reason I mainly crochet tiny dolls and hats! But I was determined this past weekend to make something for me. I started out with the popular Chevron Lace Cardigan, then realized I didn't really like lace that much, or the zigzag bottom edge and that I was making it too big... so I frogged that one, and found the Brown Sugar Shrug pattern! This is more of a tutorial than a pattern. Kristi very clearly lays out what measurements you need, and how to create the garment so it'll fit you perfectly! It's also highly modifiable, which was a big plus for me, I wanted something that would hit a bit below my waist, with elbow length sleeves. This one is plain light grey, though I've drawn up a bunch of other colour variations that I'll hopefully be whipping up!

In case anyone is interested, here's the pattern I wrote up for my cardigan!

My Raglan Cardigan

Size: XXL or 18/20
Yarn: Red Heart Soft Touch (2 balls)
Hook: 6.5mm
Gauge: --- forgot to check, will update

Yoke & Body
ch 95
1: sc in 2nd ch, sc to end (94) turn
2: (dc 15, [dc, ch, dc]) x 2, dc 30, ([dc, ch, dc], dc 15) x 2 (98sts + 4ch) turn
3-11: dc in each dc, [dc, ch, dc] in each ch-sp* (should have 170sts + 4ch the end of r. 11) turn
12: dc 25, dc in ch-sp, sk 35 dc, fdc 10, dc in ch-sp, dc 50, dc in ch-sp, sk 35 dc, fdc 10, dc in ch-sp, dc 25 (124) turn
13-27: dc* (124) turn
28: sc around entire cardigan
finish off

Sleeve
Join yarn to a stitch from r. 12
1: dc 49, turn
2-6: dc* (49), turn
7: dc2tog, dc* (48), turn
8-9: dc*, turn
10: dc2tog, dc* (47), turn
11-12: dc*, turn
13: dc2tog, dc* (46), turn
14: sc*
finish off

Pinkie Pie Pieces...

Finishing up a Pinkie Pie My Little Pony to ship off to a customer tomorrow. I hope he loves her!

Muddy River Murder

This weekend was the Muddy River Murder, a 3 day roller derby tournament in Moncton and it was awesome! There were 11 teams from 6 leagues (Muddy River Rollers, Red Rock n Rollers, Roller Derby Quebec, Maine Roller Derby, Capital City Rollers, Halifax Roller Derby) there and it was so much fun to see them all playing each other!

It started off with a game Friday night, where Moncton won! I love watching the Lumbersmacks play. On Saturday games were played from 9am until 6pm, when there was a co-ed scrimmage. Co-ed derby was really great and different, it was so much fun to see these girls getting to really check people and see the guys flying around the track! The coach from one of the Quebec teams El Tannant was AMAZING! His ability to dodge the blockers was great to watch, he somehow managed to jump around a bunch of them at one point, it defied logic. I also had a table on Saturday, selling some leftover stock from previous sales, it went very well, and I'm hopeful some commissions will come from it :) Sunday was actually really nice because we just got to watch, we set up (like always) on the edge of the suicide seating* and spent the day watching the 2nd round of the tournament. Moncton won 2nd, and my Fredericton girls took home 4th! So proud!

It was a fun weekend, however the weather did put a bit of a damper on the whole thing... IT WAS HOT. Friday and Saturday the arena we were in didn't even have the fans on. It was horrible. I felt so sick Saturday from the stale heat. Sunday, they had the fans on, but not the AC, so it was slightly more bearable... but the best thing ever happens on Sunday... IT RAINED! It was glorious!

I know people have a lot of misconceptions about Canada, especially the Maritimes/Atlantic provinces but here in Moncton, we get extreme heat, extreme humid heat. Friday it hit 33C (91 F) or 41C (105 F) with humidity! And it's the humidity that is the problem, it's like being in a sauna, everything is sticky and damp!

The weather this past week has put a huge damper on my crocheting efforts... I was commissioned to make a Pinkie Pie last weekend, that was suppose to mail out today, I unfortunately had to email him over the weekend and tell him it would take another day or two because trying to crocheting in this humidity is impossible! Thankfully he's awesome and understanding!

*Suicide seating is an area a few meters away from the derby track and is called that because sometimes someone gets pushed so far off the track that spectators get hit... I think it's only happened once to us

Animaritime 2013 Wrap-Up

I really liked how I did my wrap-up last year for Animaritime so I figured I would follow the same style this year as well! This was my 3rd convention, my 2nd time at Animaritime and my 1st time doing the whole weekend. IT WAS AWESOME! I could never have imagined the love and compliments I received, or that I would sell out of most of my dolls within the first day! WOW!

Friday - Day 1 table set up

My favourite part of Animaritime was: the reactions from people! It just makes me feel so awesome to see people jumping in spot and smiling when they look at something I made. I was also extremely happy that J was there with me and was able to see what both of our hard work and frustration during prep-time was totally worth it!

My least favourite part of Animaritime was: the set up this year... Due to the large number of events being held, the convention spanned the convention center and the hotel across the street, which made it feel like we weren't getting the same number of people through the vendor/artist room on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday - Day 2 table set up
Hey look it's me crocheting!

What surprised me the most about Animaritime was: that a lot of the hats, mitts etc that I brought more as table filler (as I didn't have a ton of time to create stock) sold really well! They weren't big sellers the 1st day, but on the 2nd and 3rd as my table became less cluttered, people seemed to really love them and often commented that they hadn't noticed them on Friday or Saturday.

What I learned from Animaritime was: I need to start my stock now for next year... like right now! As J kept pointing out if I had had 2 or 3 of some dolls, they would have sold...

Sunday - Day 3 table set up

The next step for me is: I'm going to be a the Muddy River Murder this Saturday, then, it's looking through my stock and perfecting the items I want to have for next year! Sadly this year Hal-Con isn't in the plans for me, but hopefully next year!

As J and I lived in Fredericton for 2 years while I finished up my university, we decided to turn this weekend into a small vacation as well! After the Con was over, Monday was Canada Day!

Canada Day was wonderful! We had breakfast at Crêpe Suzette

Their version of eggs benedict was delicious!

Then we pretty much set up downtown and watched people, hung out, listened to music and I even found some time to do some crocheting (you can't be surprised).

Aww we're cute!

Sadly the night ended on a bit of a downer... the fireworks, which I remember being great years ago, were a bit of a flop... they usually shoot them off of two barges in the river, but I think the 2nd barge malfunctioned...

There's a whole lemon in my lemonade!

And Tuesday, the rain that had plagued us Friday and Saturday, started again... but we braved it to hit a few stores before heading home. I was really excited to hit up their LYS (local yarn store) but unfortunately their clerk was too busy on the phone with a friend to acknowledge us, plus there was a large dog in the store. As I advertise my work as being done in a pet-free home, it felt disingenuous to purchase yarn from a shop where animals are present. We left, with only a glare from the clerk for talking to each other while she was on the phone...

Happy Crazy Life

Alright! So I have 20 items to create/finish by next Friday... in my defense 4 of those are keychains (which don't take a ton of time) and another 11 are started or nearly complete... so it's not that bad... I totally know I'm just lying to myself, but whatever helps me get through my day...

I've actually been pushing pretty hard this week, I crochet on and off from 6:45am to 9:30am and then from 7:30pm to 10/11pm... I feel like I should have more done with that schedule, but my wrist has been a bit iffy for the past month or two, so I'm not working a full-speed and I'm really easily distracted, which also slows me down... But I'll keep up that schedule tonight and tomorrow, have my whole weekend to crochet and then Monday to Thursday of next week keep pushing,  and honestly I should be able to finish this stuff! I'm determined!

I'm seriously battling a crazy schedule for the next 2.5 weeks though... Once I finish prepping, next Friday I'm driving to Fredericton (2ish hours), Artists Alley at Animaritimes is open 8-12 hours a day for 3 days, then hanging out in Fredericton for another day, then driving back home, and all the while prepping for another potential table on July 5-7! eek! Also since one of my main items is going to be "custom made for you hats" for that table I'm hopefully going to be crocheting to fill up orders for the weeks following that one too! And then I'm going to take a nap.

But all that really matters is that I LOVE TO CROCHET! and I love to see people smile and get excited when the look at something and when they just can't stop themselves for picking it up and touching a doll, or putting on a pair of mitts or a hat. My favourite is when they are with someone who just doesn't get it, and they can't even explain it seems why it's so totally cool. It's a great feeling, and that's totally why I put myself through this stress because I love that. I love that I've found a way to make people happy, and to make some money off of my own creativity. Even though it does sometimes, like right now, get overwhelming, I wouldn't trade it. I'm also so grateful I have an awesome husband who is willing to put up with my obsession and even more than put up with it, to invest money in me, push me to try new conventions or items, and will even help me at my tables. And I can't believe in 30 days it'll be 8 years we've been together! And before I go off the sappy deep end I'm going to go have supper...

10 days until Animaritimes

In less than 2 weeks J and I are off to Fredericton for Animaritimes! I'm really excited and totally terrified - I KNOW I'll forget something vitally important... I've made numerous lists to try and combat this but I'm pretty sure even that will prove futile...

I've been crocheting pretty much non-stop for days, and I still have way more than I'll be able to complete planned, so it's going to be a busy few days! It's also looking like I may have another opportunity to set up a table the weekend after Animaritimes (more details to come) which isn't really helping my anxiety over what I need to do. I'm always so paranoid I just don't have enough, and truth be told, I probably wont, but I'm only one person and I really need to learn to stop beating myself up over this, and try to plan better next year!

I've been working hard on My Little Pony's this past weekend, I have 3 nearly completed and I'm hoping to have the other 3 done as well (but I expect I'll only have time to finish 1 or 2 more).

Rarity - Fluttershy - Rainbow Dash

Arg...

I don't know what happened... I just don't know... It was all going so well... I was so productive, ahead of schedule, it was awesome... and then I had a bad week and now I'm freaking out again! Plan for next year, is to start crocheting as soon as Animaritimes finishes... get a good stock going and then I wont be stuck in this spot... but that doesn't really help me now does it?! Nope it doesn't! Hopefully this weekend, I'll be able to buckle down and get working! Only two more weekends to go...

Tiny 11th Doctor

It's not exactly like I haven't been up to anything either... I work full time, so I have limited crochet time to begin with, plus last weekend we decided to hit up the pretty Hopewell Rocks...

Hey look it's me! Under the giant gravity
defying rock... eek

And then this weekend we drove to Saint John to watch the Atlantic Canada Roller Derby Championships and I am so happy we did! Moncton (Muddy River Rollers) won!!! and New Brunswick teams took the top 3 spots! It was a really fun day, though I must say our win, by only 1 point, was a bit of a nail bitter, J was pretty much freaking out. I'm still working on finding a balance between my life/marriage, work and crocheting. I hope I'm getting better, trying to get out and do things, but time will tell!

Fighting my Procrastination

It's hard for me to believe that ECCE was only 10 days ago! I've always been known for being a procrastinator which is why I am shocked at how much progress I've made on my Animaritimes To Crochet list! I was determined that this event (Animaritimes) would be different, and I wouldn't end up scrambling and frantically crocheting at the last minute. Which is why last Saturday, shortly after ECCE finished up, I made my To Crochet list and promised myself that if I wanted to add something to the list, something else had to come off!

My list had 38 items on it, and I currently have 19 crocheted and 30 days to go!!! The 19 aren't done yet, I still need to sew arms on etc, but everything is crocheted! All in all, I probably have 15-30 minutes left on each doll/hairclip. I'll buckle down some evening when I don't feel like crocheting and finishing them up, I really hate assembly!

I've been primarily focusing on items I had success with at ECCE for the past week, I've restocked my  video game, superheroes and Star Wars dolls, and now I'm finally starting work on new stuff!! Currently I'm working on Rarity from My Little Pony!

Part of the reason I'm so determined to be organized this time, is that this is the first Con I'm going to be traveling for (even though it's only 2 hours away). I want to be confident that I've brought everything I could possibly need and can relax on the drive up without panicking that I should finish this or that etc.

East Coast Comic Expo 2013 Wrap-Up

I really liked how I did my wrap-up last year for Animaritimes so I figured I would follow the same style for East Coast Comic Expo as well! This past Saturday was the First Annual East Coast Comic Expo and it was a GREAT event! There were a ton of people there, from all ages and walks of life, and it seemed very well organized!

My Table! My layout is starting to look really professional!

My favourite part of ECCE was: seeing lots of people I know and getting a ton of great compliments! Also my little Iron Man found a new home with Advance Iron and hungout at their table for most of the day!!!

See! Right there in the bottom left hand corner!

There were also some amazing costumes! Sorry to everyone who put a ton of work into their costumes, but I think the best was a little 2-3 month old baby dressed up like Super Man... HE WAS ADORABLE!

My least favourite part of ECCE was: my table location... I was in the back corner, with my back to the rest of the room, once the kids activities taking place in my area ended around noon, it really died down back there... Also the cold! It was freezing in there and it took me hours after leaving to get my feet warm again.

What surprised me the most about ECCE was: the amount of people! I really didn't expect that many people to be coming out for this event as it was the first time ECCE was being held, but there were lines and crazy crowds! It was a very fun atmosphere!

What I learnt at ECCE was: I need more dolls! I was disappointed in myself for not having the time/capability to make more and as I nearly sold out within the first few hours (which was AWESOME) I felt like I was letting down the people who came by later, by not having more for them.

The next step for me is: Animaritimes! Instead of relaxing on Saturday night I finalized my list of dolls for Animaritimes, which is REALLY ambitious, but I already have 12 items started, so I'm hoping I can keep momentum up and finish up my planned list! Current to do list has 38 items... 6 new hairclips, and 32 dolls...

Wish me luck! Also anyone looking for commissions, I will be accepting those after July 3rd!

5 days to ECCE

It's getting close now and while I wont lie and say I'm totally pleased with the amount of items I have made, I think I have some really cute creations! Due to some difficulty through the winter/fall I have less amigurumi (dolls) than I would like, but alas not much I can do about it at this point! I have about 10 more items I need to finish up this week, and I have washing labels to sew onto hats and scarves (I splurged and ordered some custom labels - and by splurged I mean, it was like 5¢ a label), and J and I have tags and business cards to print up! I'm very happy that I have all day Friday to prep at home, and can set up Friday evening!

East Coast Comic Expo is this Saturday (May 18th) 10am-6pm at Beaver Curling Club Moncton, $10 per adult.

Here's a few more items I'll have available at ECCE

My little Iron Man! I'm pretty pleased with him!

My little Hulk... I need to do some redesigning on his chest
but I'm loving that I can shape his fair into a fauxhawk!

And finally the Caped Crusader... oops he doesn't have a
cape... it's 1990s Batman!

I really need to get myself organized sooner for the next event... I'm a life-long procrastinator and I hate it... Animaritimes is in 45 days!

Panic Time...

PANIC TIME!!!

15 days until East Coast Comic Expo in Moncton!!!

Need to get crocheting! Actually I have a nice little bunch of stuff, but I definitely need to buckledown over the next few weeks... then like 40 days after that I'm off to Animaritimes!

Star Wars Amigurumi!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working hard a big commission...

It was a A HUGE set of Star Wars dolls that J's friend requested!!!

2 Stormtroopers, 2 Ewoks, Yoda, Chewbacca, R2D2 and Darth Vader!
patterns from LucyRavenscar

All the dolls turned out AWESOME! I loved them so much, and am working away on more for the upcoming Cons!


The most complicated one by far was Chewbacca! The actually crocheting wasn't really tricky, it was the brushing of him with the slicker brush that was tricky.

the original arm                                       the brushed arm
It's amazing how different the yarn looks and how soft it gets from brushing

Here are some closer up images of all the Star Wars figures, they all stand on their own, they are about 3.5-5.5" tall depending on the figure. Being me, sorry J, I did make some minor changes to them, the biggest change was on the bottom, I made it flatter so it stood better. These are awesome patterns though, and I would recommend them to anyone!

Loved Chewbacca, but my poor fingers, which
I massacred with the slicker brush did not! His
bag is removable and he's so soft!

The stormtroopers turned out awesome!
They were crazy easy to make, aside from his
mouth, all the other details were crocheted
while making the doll, which I appreciate!

It's REALLY hard to take a photo of Darth!
His black-on-blackness... also I chose to
crochet a cape for him, instead of using felt

R2D2 was a surprisingly easy pattern, he stands
really well, and the only real complication came
from sewing on details... for someone who has
cross-stitched and sewed for years, I have a hard
time doing these types of details

My little Wicket! I was so sad to sell this guy!

Just a random cute Ewok

Favourite thing about this Yoda is that his
robe/coat is removable!! I've also made the
other version of Yoda, but don't have the
photo at the moment

And my 2013 phones problems continued... I was never fully happy with my replacement phone, I got myself to place I was okay with it, and then problems started, my touch screen and power button wouldn't work randomly, then my battery started fluctuating from 50% to 3%... which the final straw! Thankfully I had a 30 day warranty, so I went in Saturday morning, explained the problem and left with yet another phone! This one was actually a Glide like my 1st phone (that I loved) and so far it's working awesome! Fingers crossed this is the end of my phone issues...

Friday Movie Re-Cap

After lots of personal debate last week as to what to watch on Friday while crocheting... I settle on a motley group of movies, some of which I've seen before and some that were new to me. I watched Hot Fuzz, X-Men: First Class, Clue and Breach! It was a crazy crocheting day!

Hot Fuzz -- I'm so sad I waited this long to watch this movie! I love a cop drama, and this spoof was awesome! I'll probably be re-watching it this weekend.

X-Men: First Class -- Big fan of the X-Men and this one is pretty good. I'm also not going to lie, it got way better when I realized Jennifer Lawrence was Mystique!

Clue -- This is possibly one of my top 10 favourite movies... I re-watched it Saturday, and I've seen it so many times... Tim Curry is one of my favourite actors, and this is just such a cheesy awesome movie. The tv show Psych recently did a spoof of this movie and was able to include two actors from the movie in it, love Psych, but Clue is way better!

Breach -- Sadly this was my least favourite of the movies... it's not that it was particularly bad, it was good  for what it was, but it was slow, and after like 5 hours of crocheting this definitely didn't energize me.

Here's a quick shot of what I created over the weekend... I'm currently taking a quick break from Con. creations to make some baby presents and work on a huge commission... I'll be back to making Con creations probably Saturday.

2 versions of Yoda, Ewok and 2 Bob-Ombs

I actually discovered on Sunday that I had blisters on some of my fingers from all the crocheting I did Thursday, Friday and Saturday...thankfully after not doing much on Sunday and Monday, they seem to have gone away to the point where I can crochet again! So tonight the crocheting begins again!

My Fridays

For the past few years I've had Friday/Saturday off as my weekend, whereas J has Saturday/Sunday off, so I've always relished my day to myself on Friday! I watch random movies and tv shows and crochet! This past Friday I watched like 8 hours of Daria... does anyone but me still remember that MTV cartoon? Anyway, this Friday is my 2nd last Friday off; until the end of Summer I'll be working Monday-Friday like most normal people.

I was trying to decide what to watch during my last 2 Fridays and decided to hit up IMDb for their top rated flicks! I've seen 35 movies out of  IMDb Top 100 list, which isn't too bad! And none of the other ones listed were of ANY interest to me...

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
4. Pulp Fiction (1994
6. 12 Angry Men (1957)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
10. Fight Club (1999)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
18. Forrest Gump (1994)
19. The Matrix (1999)
22. Se7en (1995)
23. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
25. Casablanca (1942)
26. The Usual Suspects (1995)  
28. Rear Window (1954)
29. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
30. Psycho (1960)
33. American History X (1998)
34. Memento (2000)
37. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
43. Django Unchained (2012)
45. Citizen Kane (1941)
47. The Shining (1980)
49. The Pianist (2002)
51. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
55. American Beauty (1999)
56. Taxi Driver (1976)
63. Gladiator (2000)
65. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
75. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
77. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
78. The Lion King (1994)
81. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
87. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
88. Some Like It Hot (1959)
91. Amadeus (1984)

I'm also happy to report I've only seen 2 of the bottom 100 rated movies!
50. Son of the Mask (2005
83. The Smokers (2000) <-- own and love this movie!

So now I'm back where I started... unsure as to what to watch... I'll probably end up having yet another Murder, She Wrote marathon (I've loved that show since I was a kid, which is pretty impressive, since it started airing 2 years before I was born and stopped airing when I was 10)

Chugging along....

Check out my clean craftroom!!!

It started out looking like this! I should probably be embarrassed... but I'm not, it's not dirty, just messy!

 

I'm messy when I'm creative! And look at the cute things I've been making recently!!!!

Egg and Bacon keychains!

Cake slices keychains! Red Velvet and Key Lime!

Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies game
Stands about 5-6" tall, pea is removable

HtbaFB #3

"How to be a Fat Bitch" - Week 3

Discussion
Do you have some fatshion tips to share? Please do!

I am not fashionable... I definitely have my own style/uniform that I rarely deviate from, which I think does a lot to flatter my body shape/size. I'm nearly always in leggings, a skirt and tank or a dress, with a cardigan. My only real fatshion tip is to wear clothes that fit you!!! I don't care what size you are, if you are wearing clothes too big or small, it's not going to look as good as if you're wearing clothing that fits. Sometimes that means going up or down a size in a top or pants, but what matters most if how it looks, not the number or sequence of letters on the tag.


Assignment
Challenge yourself to wear something that you might have felt wary about in the past. Break up your routine with something different and you might open yourself up to some radical new styles! 

Totally failed at this! I like my little uniform and at the moment I just can't seem to break out of that... though I have been wearing pants a lot more lately, which after a year of maybe wearing them once a week or ever other week, it's a pretty big move for me.

3 Random Thoughts

1. I'm still waiting for my phone parts to come in... I could probably do some photography with my phone as it is, but I foresee myself getting crazy stressed or upset if it crashes mid-photoshoot, so I'm just going to wait for sanity sake.

2. Last week I received my ball-chain keychains! All 200 of them! So this week I'm declaring keychain week! After spending the weekend working on perfecting one pattern, I need something somewhat mindless and quick and my keychains definitely qualify! All will be about 1-2" and adorable! Photos will obviously come once my phone is working properly again... *sigh*

3. I've decided to wean myself off of my daily migraine medication... I've been on these meds for almost a year now, and I'm still experiences horrible side-effects (way worse than the doctor warned me about) and it's just not worth it. I love not having migraines, but the tradeoff of being exhausted all the time, needing to sleep 9-10 hours a night, gaining 30 lbs, having my menstrual cycle all thrown off, being very depressed and going another year without getting pregnant, is just too much. So hopefully within 3 weeks I'll be off this medication and I'll see how that goes for a bit. Worse comes to worse, I can go back on it, but I just feel like I've missed a year of my life.

Random Update...

Sadly popsicle scarf pattern is going to be delayed a bit... my phone (which is my primary camera) crapped out on me... J and I are hoping to fix it as soon as we get parts, it looks like the power/screen lock button is stuck so the phone screen keeps timing out then turning back on instantly, and if you touch the power button it crashes and restarts itself. Essentially the only way I can currently turn the phone off is to take out the battery, which is why my phone is now hanging out in my pocket sans battery!

It's kind of funny actually until January 2012 I was dead-set against ever getting a cellphone. I really didn't see the need in one. I'm not an outgoing person, I'm a homebody if I'm not working or with J, so it just seemed annoying. Then a friend was in a car accident... and I started to get scared of being stuck somewhere without a way of communicating with anyone... he and I also wanted to try to take YarrHooked! out there more, and we realized I needed a phone to do that. I needed a way to take photos at a whim, and to blog and post and try to get myself out there more. I'm not going to lie, I'm now ADDICTED and totally bummed that I can't use my phone right now! I actually have pretty much stopped using my laptop at home, because it's just easier for me to use my phone. I can write out patterns on my phone, keep notes about sizing, yarns I need, projects that need to be completed, take photos etc. Thankfully I'm relatively paranoid, so my photos are all saved on my SD card, and most of my lists and patterns etc are done on Google Drive so when we formatted the phone, hoping the problem was software not hardware, I didn't lose anything.

I finished up another new cool scarf last night, it's adorably nerdy and will appeal to men as well. I'm going to have a few of those ready for Con. season and I can't wait to get that pattern posted online too! EEE! Is the vagueness driving you insane?

To Do List Fail...

Full disclosure... posting my to do list didn't help at all!

1. clean craftroom - finished it Friday at 2:20pm!
2. finish mint chocolate popsicle scarf - finished it Thursday at 11pm!
3. finish the 3 sets of mitts I started last week and make 2 more pairs - didn't even touch this one
4. crochet and photograph samples for popsicle scarf pattern - good intentions aside, this one didn't happen either
5. complete my HtbaFB #3/5 post - was not looking good enough to photograph on Friday, Saturday or Sunday... so that didn't happen yet
6. bake some bread or biscuits - finished on Friday at 1:45pm. 

I did however make a hat for a friend's soon to be born baby and am about 70% of a scarf I started so... it's not all horrible...

My To Do List

I'm trying something new. I'm hoping that if you all (which implies I have vast numbers of followers, which I don't...) see the insane to do lists I create for myself every weekend, maybe I'll be motivated to actually accomplish some/all of it!

This is what I'm hoping to accomplish this weekend:

1. clean craftroom (it exploded again... I'll try to remember to take before and after photos... it's really in a sad state) - Fri 2:20pm Done!
2. finish mint chocolate popsicle scarf (it's about 50% completed now, so that's doable) - Thurs 11pm Done!
3. finish the 3 sets of mitts I started last week and make 2 more pairs (this is probably a bit ambitious to be honest, but we'll see...)
4. crochet and photograph samples for popsicle scarf pattern (should be doable, pattern will be posted sometime next week, if I can accomplish this)
5. complete my HtbaFB #3/5 post (#4 sadly wont be happening for a while... I'm putting a ridiculous amount of work into it... even though I'm not sure what I'm really suppose to be doing lol)
6. bake some bread or biscuits (I really miss bread products, I haven't been able to eat any/much for a week now due to my ability to bit food, but I'm healing really well and biscuits are calling my name!) - Fri 1:45pm Done!

So.. yeah! Let's see what happens!

1 year older...

Last week did not go the way I wanted it to! Somethings went better, somethings went worse...

On Tuesday I had a molar pulled, (tooth of doom will not be missed) which was apparently a very complicated procedure, but I thankfully had little to no side-effects from it. Barely swelled, no bruising, and thanks to my buddy T3, no pain! However the T3 caused me to spend Wednesday and Thursday sleeping most of the day, so my vast list of crocheting goals was left mostly undone!

 The big deal was that my recovery went well enough that I WAS ABLE TO EAT BIRTHDAY CAKE on Saturday! I turned 27, and I was kind of bummed earlier that week that I wasn't going to get cake, but since my recovery was going fine, I decided to bake myself a bday cake! (Yes, I bake my own cake. I have for the past 3 or 4 years, I love to bake, and this is one of the few excuses I have to bake a cake). I decided cinnamon rolls would be my inspiration for cake this year.. I started with vanilla cake batter, I set a bit of the batter aside to mix in some melted butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar, then I spiraled the cinnamon batter on top of the vanilla batter, and baked it! I finished the cake off with tangy cream cheese frosting! It was awesome!

I forgot to take a picture with the icing on it... but it was pretty
and more importantly it was tasty!

But I was able to get some cute new mitts created, and I've designed a new fashion scarf which I'm in love with. I'm excitedly waiting for my keychains to come in so I can start crocheting those up!

Love this neapolitan popsicle fashion scarf!

Cons confirmed!

It's a bit late posting this but I'm happy to report that people in Moncton and Fredericton will be getting a chance to buy some YarrHooked! items this spring/summer!!! I will be at the East Coast Comic Expo on May 18th in Moncton at the Beaver Curling Club and at Animaritimes from June 28th-30th in Fredericton at the Fredericton Convention Center! There's going to be a ton of items at both, ranging from hats, scarves and mitts to dolls to hairclips and keychains/bag charms. I'm even hoping to get two new zombie creations done before the show!

I've been testing out new patterns this past week for con items and some have worked, some haven't at all. It's always a bittersweet thing when only half the items you test work, for instance I'm stoked that my 1" tall cake slices look adorable, but the disappointment that my crochet balloon animal bunny is an amorphous blob. It kind of takes the fun out of the successes when patterns fail, but I'm trying to focus on the positive!


I'm also working away on my new HtbaFB homework for the past two lessons (which I'm combining into one post)... I'm very stoked on the project, though I'm not sure if I'm really doing what's intended.

I'm also gearing up for a 4.5 days weekend, and I think I need to create a new to do list (that I'll NEVER be able to complete) to keep myself on track during my time off. I'm not positive I'll really be up to crocheting much on Wednesday, as I'm getting a molar pulled tomorrow afternoon (I've never had a tooth pulled and I have no idea how my body is going to react) but hopefully Thursday and Friday will be productive!

Pattern: Roller Derby Hats (Jammer & Pivot)

I am a huge roller derby fan! I don't play, I just watch! I'm way too scared of hurting myself! I believe at this point my husband an I have only missed 1 home bout, and I am very proud of my local Lumbersmacks because they are off to Nationals next week! So in their honour here is an awesome new pattern from me!

I've been trying for a year to perfect this pattern, the Jammer (hat with the star) was easy, but the Pivot hat was the complicated one! I didn't like the look of just sewing a stripe onto the hat, I wanted a one piece version and after lots of trial and error I did it!!! *dances like an idiot*

The pattern is available on Ravelry for $4

If you would like to order a hat from me, please email me :)

Con Crocheting Season begins!

So it has begun! I'm working on items for Comic Con (May 18th) and I'll know by March 6th if I'm also doing Animaritimes or not! So far this week I've tested out a few new patterns, which I'm really thrilled with!

Child version of Twinkie Chan's Carrot Scarf!

 

Dragon Mittens from NeedleNoodles

Grrr!

I really love the shape of these fingerless gloves, especially the thumb covering, and that it's crocheted in one piece. I think I might use them as the base for some more designs.

Where is 2013 going?

 I had plans of posting a new pattern for sale today or tomorrow, but I'm starting to suspect that isn't going to happen... I still have one sample to finish crocheting up, and then photos need to be taken and cropped, then my pattern needs to be finalized... so it's looking more like next weekend now. Darn headache wiped me out all week...

Within the next few weeks, I'll be finding out if I'm doing two Cons this spring/summer or not... I really want to be involved in Moncton's first ever ComicExpo, and as I'm coincidentally on vacation during Animaritimes, with no plans, I'm going to try to grab a table there as well! The people there were really great to me last summer! I have lots of plans for these Cons so I'm really eager to find out the table situation!!!!!

In other crocheting news, I CUT MY HAIR! A LOT!

see all my hair on the floor!

 I went from this...

There was a reason I was rocking ponytails...
this was not a good look!

 To this!

the back is really short,
but I didn't think to photograph that...

 

 

 

Yes, the lighting is way better on the bottom photo, but I think I look like 10lbs thinner and more mature!

I'll try to update with something crochet related this weekend... Tomorrow is my crochet day so hopefully I'll be productive and crochet something pretty! or tough! I like crocheting tough things!

Free Pattern: Zigzag Cowl

I have become obsessed with cowls recently. I was looking around online for a cute zigzag (chevron) version, but all the ones I could find, were cowls made bottom to top, which gave them zigzag edges, which wasn't exactly what I was envisioning. I wanted a straight edged cowl with a sideways zigzag, so I decided to design my own! The cowl is worked flat, then the first and last rows are joined.

I decided to primarily use a single colour (pale gray) with a contrasting zigzag stripe (dusty purple) every 8 rows to emphasize the zigzaggedness (and yes I'm making up terms now) However you can obviously choose your own colour pattern, change colours every row, every other row, every 4th row, every 6th row, every 8th... whatever! It's all good! I know I'll be making different version of this soon!

I'm providing two versions, an easy and an advanced, of this pattern. I would personally advise anyone, who is comfortable with double crochet, to try the advanced version. The "advanced" techniques are pretty sparse throughout the pattern, and there are tons of tutorial online for them (including on this very blog), but I wanted to make sure that there was a version of this pattern that anyone (who can crochet) can make!

The easy version uses ch 2 or 3 at the beginning of every row (it's your choice as to which you use, I prefer a loose ch 2 usually, as it's easy to work into and keeps my edges tight, but ch 3 is technically the standard for starting a row of dc), and at the end of your last row, you need to sew the last and first rows together.

The advanced version uses chainless dc at the beginning of each row (besides the 1st row) and the cowl is formed into it's loop during the last row of crocheting by joining as you go, making it a seamless pattern.

Free Pattern: Zigzag Cowl

Yarn: thick worsted/aran weight yarn (I used Vanna’s Choice; MC silver grey, CC dusty purple)
Hook: 6mm
Finished Size: 27" x 7 3/4" (approx.)

Special Stitches:
dc3tog: yo, insert hook in next st, pull up loop, yo, pull through 2 loops on hook* repeat 3 times, 4 loops on hook, yo, pull through all loops on hook
3dc: work 3 dc in same st
2dc: work 2 dc in same st
Cdc (chainless dc): see my tutorial on chainless dc
Join as you go: see my tutorial on join as you go

Advanced Pattern
with MC ch 32
1: dc in 4th ch from hook, dc 2, *dc3tog, dc 3, 3dc, dc 3* repeat three times, dc3tog, dc 4 (29)
2: Cdc, dc in same st, dc 2, *dc3tog, dc 3, 3dc, dc 3* repeat three times, dc3tog, dc 2, 2dc (29)
3-7: repeat row 2, change to CC at the end of the 7th row
8: repeat row 2, change to MC
9-47: repeat row 2, changing colours as per the pattern (7 rows in MC, 1 row in CC)
48: complete this row using the seamless join as you go method while still following the pattern established in row 2
finish off, sew in any loose ends

Easy Pattern
with MC ch 32
1: dc in 4th ch from hook, dc 2, *dc3tog, dc 3, 3dc, dc 3* repeat three times, dc3tog, dc 4 (29)
2: ch 2 or 3 (counts as 1st st), dc in same st, dc 2, *dc3tog, dc 3, 3dc, dc 3* repeat three times, dc3tog, dc 2, 2dc (29)
3-7: repeat row 2, change to CC at the end of the 7th row
8: repeat row 2, change to MC
9-48: repeat row 2, changing colours as per the pattern (7 rows in MC, 1 row in CC)
finish off, leaving a long tail, line up your first and last row and whip stitch them together
sew in any loose ends