busy hands: cacti trio #2 & more!

My coworker friend really liked the cacti trio that I took and put in my office:

not your average crochet - office cacti

And she commissioned me to make her a trio for her office!  So here’s her trio:

not your average crochet - cacti trio 2

You can see that I made an exact same barrel cactus, but the other two are different:

not your average crochet - cactus

This cactus with purple flowers doesn’t have a pattern specifically, I just used the techniques from the barrel cactus pattern and added the little flowers.

not your average crochet - succulent

This little succulent does have a free pattern (click here), although I added more petals than the pattern says.

I think my coworker’s trio turned out super cute!  I do apologize for the photos being a bit blurry — they had to be taken late at night so that I could take them to work in the  morning.

I’ve also made a dragon egg dice bag for my husband, who plays a couple of games that require irregular die:

not your average crochet - dragon egg dice bag

As you can see it uses the crocodile stitch that is so popular right now for those mermaid tail blankets, and let me tell you, this stitch is a wool eater!  I just used cheap Red Heart that I had lying around for amigurumi figurines.  When you cinch the drawstring it begins to look like an actual egg, even like the ones from Game of Thrones:

not your average crochet - dragon egg dice bag

It’s a tad misshapen here because it’s laying on its side and isn’t cinched up all the way, but you get the idea.  I think it turned out pretty well!

I’m still working on a couple of things that I will share soon, as well; I’ve had busy hands!  Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

crochet cacti trio

My office in our new building is nice and big, but it’s got no windows and is very bare since we have to provide our own decor.  It needs something green, and since I can’t really grow real plants in there, I had to make my own!

IMG_3960not your average crochet - cacti

I’m really happy with all of them!  The agave took the longest and was hardest on my hands, but even so I can’t pick a favorite!

IMG_3960not your average crochet - cacti

I talked about the barrel cactus in my last post.  The agave & saguaro were also made with worsted yarn and a size E hook.  The free pattern for the agave can be found here and the free pattern for the saguaro can be found here.  I made some alterations though — with the agave plant I made 5 of the medium leaves, 3 of the small leaves, and then I made 3 even smaller leaves that aren’t included in the free pattern but follow the same easy premise.

not your average crochet - agave

I also made the saguaro a little taller so that I could bury a good bit of it under the rocks to stabilize it.

not your average crochet - saguaro cactus

These are just so cute, I’m so happy with them.  I might have to go back to the store and get a couple more pots and try a couple of other types of cacti!

Well that’s all for today, thanks for stopping by!

summer crochet

The Maeve shrug is still coming along — only about 4 more inches of the band to go and I can bind off.  Unfortunately for productivity the shrug is big, wool, & warm, so I wanted to start some smaller, quicker, cooler projects.

Say hello to my little barrel cactus!

not your average crochet - barrel cactus

Isn’t he cute?  The free crochet pattern is here (although I doubled the stitches per row and the number of rows), and the free crochet pattern for the pink flower I put on top is here.

not your average crochet - barrel cactus

I want to name him something adorable.  There’s also a mini agave plant and a mini saguaro cactus in the works; the trio will help decorate my sad window-less office and make it sorta-kinda seem like there are living things in there… sorta.

not your average crochet - barrel cactus

Speaking of decorating my office, I’ve also started a doily for my very large wooden desk!  The crochet pattern is called “Debbie” and it can be found for $3.99 USD here.

not your average crochet - Debbie doily

It’s worth noting that I’m using my new Clover Amour hooks and I swear I couldn’t get so much done at once if it wasn’t for those awesome handles.  However, I DID have to do the first bit 3 times before getting even close to gauge with different hooks; it calls for a steel 1.75 mm hook but I’m using a 2.75 mm hook instead.  I wonder if the author had a problem with their gauge (which is not very likely), if I have a problem with mine, or if the tapered hooks (instead of my usual inline) are making a difference.  I’ll have to remember to do gauge swatches when using these hooks in the future, just in case.  It’s a fun pattern so far anyhow, with interesting stitches but nothing too hard (at least not yet).

As far as other life stuff goes, I dyed my hair purple & got a side cut, which I love.  Work has been crazy busy but we just passed inspection for the renewal of our accreditation so I’m hoping things will get a bit easier, at least for a little bit.  I think we all need a break, because we’ve all got a bunch of other life junk going on too and we need to practice some self care.

Well, that’s all for today I suppose.  I’ll update with more cacti soon, hopefully, and progress on the doily and the Maeve!  Thanks so much for stopping by, see you soon!

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