I’m finished with the wrap/shawl! The pattern is here if you want to check it out. It wasn’t too hard, it just took a lot of time because it calls for fingering weight yarn. So here’s the finished product:
Yay! I like it a lot. The yarn also did cool things as I was unraveling it, so I took a picture:
It’s like a flower! Ok, I know this post was short but I’m on a caffeine high and I want to go fingerpaint with my boyfriend and have childlike fun. See you later!
Honestly I didn’t really care for the way my recent sweater turned out. The more I look at it the more I think ‘eh, it’s OK, but do I actually want to wear it?’ It doesn’t really fit quite right and I’d have to adjust it often. So instead, I decided to make something else to take on my Christmas trip to England this year (and if I like it I might make my mom one, too). I’m about to start on this (pattern here).
I love it because the cute tassels add a little weight to keep it in place. I decided to make it in a more reddish color though (orange is not my thing), and my yarn just came in today! I got it from Knitpicks, and it’s the Palette Yarn fingering weight in Rose Hip and Raspberry Heather shades:
I’m really excited about this yarn because it’s the first time I’ve ever bought yarn online without knowing what the brand feels like, and it’s actually really soft for 100% wool! It was also really appealing because of its cheap price, and I’ll definitely be buying from Knitpicks again. I’m gonna get started on this project tonight, hopefully, while listening to the audiobook of the current Pern novel I’m on, Dragonseye. (It’s really good, as are all the other ones I’ve read, and I recommend them highly).
On another subject that I really want to share with you, my boyfriend is starting a garden on our back patio. He’s growing all kinds of peppers and tomatoes and herbs, and his goal is to make salsas and chowchows soon. In his shopping at the Home Depot for plant necessities, he bought me a plant and pot of my own (he’s so sweet):
Isn’t he cute? I named him Albert. He’s a succulent, which I think are gorgeous, and they’re pretty hard to kill which is perfect for me (I kill every plant I touch, even aloe plants). Hopefully Albert the Succulent will live — I think he’s so sweet!
So that’s all for today, thanks for stopping by!
I have a guilty pleasure — it’s the TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” If you’re not familiar with it, it’s like “America’s Next Top Model” only with drag queens. It’s so flamboyant and crazy and sometimes ridiculous, but I can’t help loving it. My favorite of the final three contestants is Sharon Needles because she’s so outrageously sweet and nice, but she has this goth/satanic look going for her when she dresses in drag (I can’t help but love the spooky look)! In tribute to Sharon, I made an amigurumi type doll of her:
Here is the picture I based the doll off of, so you can compare the two.
I also like her so much that a couple of weeks ago I purchased a limited-time-only autographed poster of her, and I framed it the other day:
And yes it says “Hail Satan,” that’s her funny slogan she uses. Don’t worry, I’m not Satanic. I just love my pretty goth drag queen!
I know this post was different than usual — I’ll get back to normal next time! I just had to share, even though I get excited about weird things sometimes. See you later!
I dream about the past a lot, like how it would be living in different eras. That’s one reason I love books, because they take me wherever and whenever I want to go. Sometimes it doesn’t take a book to trigger dreamy, nostalgic feelings, though. Sometimes it can be objects, smells, tastes, really anything. Well today my senses were arrested by a few objects and smells, and I went back in time to when my grandma was still alive, and my parents and I would visit her in Arkansas. (She had a house full of history and memories and lots of unusual country living kinds of things.)
Today I visited some antique stores in Pineville, NC, and I found a store that smelled kind of like my grandma’s house used to smell, so I was instantly reminded of her. Then I found something that I just had to purchase because it was an object that she used to have multiples of all over her house. It’s a glass electrical insulator:
If you don’t know what they are, they’re used to insulate electrical wires on the poles you see alongside of the road. This style of insulator is very old but they still use glass, I believe. My grandma had a few just sitting around her house, and I knew I had to get this for decoration. It’s heavy enough it could function as a doorstop, but I might stick it on a shelf so that I can admire it.
I also purchased an old Fiestaware dish at the same store. It reminds me of my mom, who collects the old Fiesta pieces. In fact, I think she has this exact dish:
There it is with my electrical insulator and two of my Gibson cookie jars. And did you know there’s a way to tell between old Fiesta and new? The old Fiestaware has a lowercase “fiesta” logo on the back/bottom, but the newer Fiesta has an uppercase “Fiesta” instead. The old pieces are collectible, so I’m very proud to have found my own first piece! My grand total for both items today was $18, so I was very excited.
So I make it a policy not to make a post without some kind of yarny thing. I just don’t think it would be good for business, so to speak, to have a blog about crochet but not be posting about it. I even try to make sure my posts about knitting also have some crochet stuff, because this is, after all, mainly a crochet site and I want to keep the interest of my dear readers. Therefore I have another nostalgic item to share with you, and this one’s crocheted! My boyfriend got this from his grandma, but we believe it was actually made by her sister. It’s still in great condition and we use it on the double bed or on the couch:
How totally retro! I love it so much. It’s huge and it’s very well done and it makes me so happy to look at and snuggle under!
I loved making these photos look even more retro-y by using Instagram on my boyfriend’s phone. I don’t have a smartphone but I love the different vintage effects you can put on pictures, so I’m overtaking my man’s phone and ditching my lousy point-and-shoot camera that forces me to laboriously edit every picture I take in Photoshop.
Sorry I was so chatty today. I really like thinking that people might enjoy reading about the little things that make me happy, so sometimes I just can’t keep from sharing with you! I could actually go on and on — I enjoy writing and sharing happy things with others — but I do realize that I have my whole life to blog, so I can take it slowly. With that, I’ll bid you a good evening! See you soon!
As a break for my fingers from the killer blanket in progress, I started the sweater that everyone suggested after my last post.
But so far I’ve just got this:
It’s the back panel and the front 2 panels sewn together. Now I’ve just got the sleeves and the collar/rest of the bodice. I’m regretting using the Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool simply because the tweedy look hides the pretty shells and little lacy panels.
It fits though (so far), so hopefully it will look really awesome when I’m done. We’ll see. If it doesn’t, I’ll make another sweater! It’s coming along so fast that I figure I’ll have enough time to do something else before Christmas…
Hi, I'm Hannah! Click on my face to learn more about me & this blog & all the awesome stuff that goes on here.
