The knitter/crocheter struggle

AKA the projects have gotten too big to be portable.

It's sad. My mom's shawl is officially too big to be carried around with me to school (I need that space for school stuff...) and I can't carry the scarf (too big as well) or the hat (too complicated/reliant on pattern). It's not necessarily a bad thing, though. That means I can work on writing stuff. Although the knitting was nice. I could still pay attention to class. With writing, not so much.

A few totally awesome WIPs

(And one FO that I never got a good picture of outside of my brother's graduation)

This is the Elder Tree Shawl that I'm making for my mom as a Christmas present. This will be the easier of the two, I think, but longer because of the lace. I'm in love with the design. 

This awesome Hyrule Warriors Scarf is for Nate, as a birthday/Christmas present. Haven't decided which one yet. He's a huge Legend of Zelda fan and he's super excited for the game's release. I'm less excited but still excited because Legend of Zelda! It's become a favorite thing of mine recently (OoT is still escaping my ability to play. though...)

This is the White Russian Skirt. I had some leftover green cotton yarn from a dress I made my mom and decided to try and make this. Unfortunately, the leftover was not enough to make a decent length skirt. Underneath this I'm wearing dance shorts, and obviously you can see the shorts still. I'm trying not to buy any more yarn until I use up what I already have- and that's a lot.

I wanted something to wear to my brother's high school graduation. I needed something that'd go with a red dress, and when I asked for opinions, I got navy blue as an answer most frequently. So, using red heart yarn, I made this. The yarn was super scratchy but it somehow softened up after a few months in my closest. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough. It was still a bit scratchy after trying to fix it a few times before the graduation. 

Craft update

So I FINALLY finished my dad's blanket. Probably two weeks ago. And he LOVED it. Which made me really happy because I busted my butt for that to look good.

I also finished the pretty daisy skirt! It looks so cute! 

I had no one to help me so it looks badly taken.  Sorry. :(

Future Project Ideas

So I've been thinking about what I want to do for future projects. I feel like if I can design my own knitwear I don't have to rely so heavily on patterns. Of course, to design, I need to study what came before. If any of these ever come to fruition, it's probably because I studied how I make things before hand. Also, you can probably tell what I've been in geeking over for a while.

Mass Effect Jacket

It'd have an N7 stripe on the appropriate arm and a paragon/renegade symbol on the back. I know something like this already exists on the Bioware website. However, it doesn't have the paragon or renegade symbol on it. What if I wanted to declare what my Shepard is? Or what I am? 

The Winter Soldier Jacket

I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier last week and I am a fan of it. I'm a huge fan of Bucky Barnes, though. And after I got out of the theater I was talking with a friend about the mechanical arm. That arm is ridiculous to construct for cosplay purposes. I was thinking about making a jacket similar to it, with the left sleeve looking like Bucky's arm.

Captain America Jacket

Okay, I like Captain America too. Not so much, but his ideals are nice. At least as they're portrayed in the movies. I haven't read the comics much. So I was thinking I maybe be able to eventually make a Captain America-inspired jacket, based off of the first movie's costume.

Black Widow Jacket + The Hulk Jacket

I also like Black Widow and the Hulk. Enough said. 

Divergent Factions

I am a huge fan of the Divergent books, and the movie made me want to create pieces for each of them that would look and feel like something that belongs in each faction. This should be an interesting challenge.

WIP Wednesday #1- Blankets and Hats, oh my!

Welcome to the first WIP Wednesday! I feel like a lot of them are going to feature the same things over and over, just in various stages of completion. But without further ado, here are my WIPs of the week!

1. Florida Gator blanket

So my dad graduated from University of Florida. He loves them even though their football team sucked this year. Last year, I got the idea to make him a blanket with Alfred on it. I made my mom a Donald Duck blanket, so he deserved a blanket with something he loved. Good idea, right?

WRONG.

I started this last... May? June? Ravelry tells me May 1st. It's not even half-way finished. I don't have the TIME. Luckily, I'll have time this summer. I'm excited for that. 

2. Hexagon Flower Blanket

This was inspired by a blanket I had as a kid. The construction is way different, though. However, it's a fun and mindless project. It's going to need some serious blocking when it's done, though, as seen in the flower above.

3. N7 Beanie

Aaahhhh... my favorite project. Because it's Mass Effect inspired. I love Mass Effect. The third game screwed me up badly but it was so much fun. I made two beanies inspired by the series already, so this is the third in that trilogy of hats! I'm currently working on the stripe. I'm thinking the red's going to end after this row because it's becoming a lot bigger than I intended it to be. Let's see how it turns out! I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.

The Family's Christmas Presents

A couple of months before Christmas, I sent a text to my family asking them, "What do you want for Christmas? Make it easy on my college kid wallet."

The youngest, Johnny, didn't want anything handmade. He asked for NHL 09 or NFL 12. He got NHL 09. Oh, my brother. I swear he's become an All-American teen.

But the rest of my family wanted handmade things, and that was definitely my realm.

The middle brother, Ricky, is a total game nerd. He loves video games, but his current passion is card games. He asked me initially to make a bag to hold an entire deck, but after trying to explain to me how big it was, he eventually gave me dimension and said, "Go crazy." I asked for any specifics, and he said it had to be blue and black, and a water drop should be on there somewhere. Here's the result:

I crocheted it back and forth and then surface stitched over the blue stitches so the water drop motif would look cleaner. The cord is a foundation chain with one row of slip stitching. 

My dad wanted a lap blanket to go with the huge blanket I made him last Christmas. The color scheme was totally different, though. While the huge blanket was brown, gray, and white (neutral colors), the lap blanket was green and brown. I decided a granny blanket would be nice and easy to make. I asked for dimensions, and he gave me 5'x3'- which ended up not being the finishing dimensions. It is still an acceptable size, though!

I didn't block it, so it doesn't lay flat. However, my dad doesn't care. Woo! I did a reverse single crochet edging. I really love the ropy look reverse single crochet gives!

My mother was simple. She's really easy to make things for because we're both craft-oriented, and whenever she sees something she likes, she asks me to make it, and whenever I see something I like, she makes it for me. I picked up a wristwarmer knitting book from a Japanese bookstore a while back, and my mom wanted me to make her sleeveless gloves in order to keep her hands warm. She pointed out the pattern, gave me colors, and off I went! She loved them and wore them all break. I wish I had gotten a picture of her wearing them. They fit her.

My hands are rather large...

There you have it! My crafty 2013 Christmas. I may not do it this year and get one large present my family can share instead. This year, I'm doing selfish knitting. I have a ton of WIPs to work on that are very interesting for me. Keep an eye out for those!

Update on Donald Duck Blanket

So my mom's birthday was yesterday, but I didn't finish her blanket in time. I'm still working on it, using surface crochet. It goes by kinda quickly but it ends up hurting my wrists after a while. However, it makes the blanket look really good.

Here's the other parents I made for my mom!

It comes from a Japanese amigurumi book with completely food. It's called Amiami Restaurant. It's definitely worth checking out. 

Progress!

I promise that Wednesday I will talk about my vegetarian diet. Promise. I may have a new (vegetarian!) recipe to share! Your waiting will not be in vain. I think Wednesday I'll talk about a cupcake pattern I tried out today, share the frosting I used for that (I had to adapt the one given to me), and possibly share a recipe using tofurky. I went to Trader Joe's and bought myself some to make spaghetti, you see. While I was at Trader Joe's, I had a bit of an epiphany. I don't miss meat. Not as much as I thought I would. I do, however, miss seafood. I wanted to pick up some salmon while at TJ, but I didn't because that fish would just sit in my freezer for a few weeks. Oh, well.

"But what's this progress you mention in your title?" you ask. I'm getting there! Just went on a bit of a tangent, that's all. My progress is actually related to my crochet/knit projects! Did you expect differently? I've got a few finished projects. One has been finished since the beginning of January, the others finished only recently. Here we are:

The Triumph Cable Scarf from Smariek Knits

I churned this one out in about nine days. I started on January 9th, finished January 14th. I honestly thought it would take longer because of the cables... But it didn't! This is a beautiful pattern for the scarf. It's a part of Smariek's series of cable scarves. I recommend checking out the rest of the series. The scarves are absolutely gorgeous.

Dog Blanket

One of the two blankets I made for my dogs. The blankets were stashbusting projects, in truth. It works, though! Acrylic yarn is best for my dogs, because Joey occasionally throws up while in his cage. It needs to be something that is easy to wash, yet look attractive at the same time. I have to figure out which blanket to give to which dog... The star blanket didn't turn out quite as large as I'd hoped and this blanket can work for either dog. We'll see!

Same as Seven by Caitlin ffrench

This took a little while to make because it was initially only worked on while I was riding the bus to volunteer work and during periods where it would be impossible for me to bring a larger project. Towards the end, I powered through this. I used Caron Simply Soft, and I'm extremely fond of the colors. It was very simple and enjoyable to make.

Penny Arcade Jacket by Vickie Howell

I need to get more yarn for this project, but I got all of this from three balls of Red Heart Simply Soft. My gauge isn't quite right, so I found, much to my shock, I'm making a size large using the size medium instructions. Note to self: If using the same hooks, work the pattern smaller to get the correct size. 

Seven and Zero by Caitlin ffrench

Another cute triangle scarf pattern by Caitlin ffrench! According to her, 'Same as Seven' is the same as 'Seven and Zero', minus the holes. I wanted to make this one because it looks a little more feminine, and I needed another stashbusting project. I'm a huge fan of the blue/white of this scarf. 

Donald Duck Blanket

This is my mom's birthday blanket! I alluded to this before, remember? Well, I'm almost done with the second 'oh boy'. I'm hoping this will be finished by my mom's birthday. You can see the slight differences in color at the top... this is because I thought all the light blue I had would be similar. Dye lots are extremely important. I don't particular;y care because it gives this blanket a little quirk. I ended up using the baggies to hold tiny balls of yarn because that got tangled, fast. I had a huge pile of yarn while trying to do the color work at first. I became frustrated and started using the baggies instead. It works like a charm. 

There is my progress for the week!

I'm back!

I went MIA for the past week because school is handing me this massive amounts of homework, which I'm responding to with an "I don't care!" That's not the best way to respond, children. Go study.

I finished up a paper for one class and have to work on a presentation for another, in addition to massive amounts of reading from a few other classes. Seventeen credit hours... I'm crazy. I know this. Add my volunteer work (approx. 5 hours a day, twice a week) and social obligations, and I've been swamped. However, I've almost caught up with my work! ...Maybe 'caught up' isn't the best term, because I was never behind to begin with. The more appropriate term would be 'almost finished.' Especially since I'm  knocking out big projects that have been stressing me out.

To deal with the stress and make myself happy again, I've been crocheting. What else would I be doing? Cooking? Yeah, that's not until next Tuesday. I get to make cookies for Nate and send him those, plus another little surprise, for Valentine's Day! No buying chocolate for me! Not until all the chocolate is on sale and I can buy boxes of it to enjoy. But I digress! I've been crocheting away on projects, and I've finished two! Both of them are the blankets for my dogs (mentioned here). I finished the striped blanket an hour ago. I don't have pictures of it as a result. I do have pictures of the star blanket, though.

Caution: staring at the yarn may hurt your eyes.

Now my problem is giving what blanket to which dog! They're both large enough for Chester and likely durable enough to be used in Joey's cage... I guess I'll find out when I go home in March!

I'm very excited to go home in March. It'll be a month away as of Friday. I'm so ready for school to be over. Every student is echoing my sentiments in one way or another.

Steadily crafting away

I've been way busy with homework recently, but in the midst of things, I've found time to start on some new projects. I think it's more interesting to work on several projects at once than to do one project and finish, then do another and finish, and so on. It keeps me entertained. Admittedly, I haven't been working on the projects much... It's just a stitch here or there, in between screen pages loading and copying down notes. But I've got four very nice projects going on. 

One is for myself, called the Penny Arcade jacket from Vickie Howell. I am in love with the stitches and I'm making it in a dark green color. It'll look great when it's finished! 

The second is a Donald Duck blanket for my mother. I adapted a sweater chart and turned it into a blanket. My mom will love it, I have no doubt. Her love for Donald Duck knows no bounds.

I am making the Chromium Star Blanket and the Striped Blanket for my two dogs, Chester and Joey. Chester's star blanket is being made from two yarns, a bulky brown and a bulky blue-brown-white striped. Joey's is dark blue with dark blue camo additions. It's for the dogs when they're chilling on the couch at home (or in Joey's case, in his cage). The last two are more stash busters than anything, but the colors work perfectly. My dogs get nothing but the best. 

In addition to all of those, I'm making a nice scarf. It's going to be a project I bring with me on the bus when I go do my volunteering. It's small enough for me to bring without bothering anyone and interesting enough to keep my attention. I got about six inches done on the bus today. It looks pretty. I really love the yarn I used for it. I've made another scarf like it in a light blue, and that came out gorgeous. 

That's my crafting update! Have a good weekend, dear readers.

Crochet food

I'm going to talk a bit about crochet food. I found an adorable little book called "Amiami Restaurant' by Mitsuki Hoshi about two years ago during a trip to California. My family makes a point to stop by the Marukai, and there's a bookstore right next to it. I always go in and look for Japanese crochet or knit books, because I like looking at the things they make. Well, I picked this one up and brought it back. I had the opportunity to use it for a school thing where I made crochet sushi. They are adorable!

Sushi isn't the only thing in this book, though. There's ramen, oden, hamburgers, and all sorts of yummy creations. I was once asked to make a hamburger steak for my mom's friend restaurant. It looks delicious! Makes me want to eat the actual thing.

If you haven't already, explore crochet food. Maybe a little one in your life (or gourmet friends!) would love to have one. There are plenty of free patterns out there for all sorts of food. Go make some (non-edible) food!

(You can find Amiami Restaurant here. I did a quick search, but there may be a cheaper option somewhere else. I do encourage you to do some searching!)

Happy birthday!

Today was Nate's birthday. It was a lovely day spent watching the Doctor Who Christmas episode, playing Majora's Mask, eating dinner with his family, and playing Apples to Apples with people who actually have a sense of humor similar to mine.  My family tends to be more realistic. He absolutely loves his gift, a Legend of Zelda scarf from this website. I found it on Ravelry in English. Go check it out!

Speaking of Ravelry, I've added four new projects to work on. They're all blankets because I am in a blanket making mood. Two of them are Portal blankets, one for me, one for Nate. The inspiration is this:

He gets the orange one and I get the blue one. It works out just fine. We both get the colors we want! 

The next blanket is for my mother on her birthday. She loves Donald Duck, so for her, I'm creating the Donald Duck blanket. I figured the catchphrase "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" worked much better with this image of Donald than "What's the big idea?" or the angry noises that my mom and I think look something like this: "#!?" And he looks happy! I'm sure she'll love this blanket.

The fourth blanket is for my dad. He loves his Florida Gators. He graduated from the University of Florida, so I figured why not make him a Gators blanket? I used a pixel logo I found on deviantart and made some serious changes to it to make the gator look more realistic. I grew up a Gators fan. That logo looking accurate is insanely important to me partially because of that reason.

A completed present!

I finished my dad's blanket on Sunday afternoon. Greatest accomplishment of the weekend. It is ultimately sized at 4'3" x approx. 7'. It's approximately 7 feet because I got just under seven feet, seven feet exactly, and just above seven feet the three times I measured it. I'm just going to average it and go with it's 7 feet. It's really warm and quite comfortable. It was such a blast to make. 

In order to get the whole blanket, I had to put this on the living room floor and run up to the second floor. I couldn't take a picture from the top of my bed to my bedroom floor. Nope. Second floor down to the living room floor. 

The top and bottom edging of the blanket. It's a reverse single crochet and chain 1, skipping every other dc. It has a nice, sophisticated look to it.

Edging on the left and right sides of the blanket. Done while crocheting, so there was no extra effort! It's great. I love the little loops.

I sat next to the TV to take this picture. It looks huge, doesn't it? I'm really proud of it. I think my dad will like it. 

Progress on Christmas Presents

I measured my dad's blanket yesterday and found out I have 16.5 inches left of the blanket. When I found out, I thought, "HALLELUJAH." I'm almost done with the fourth pattern repeat of Nate's scarf.

I'm starting to feel the crunch for making presents. I'm going to be working on it almost nonstop for the next week or so because I have no finals. I anticipate a few trips to the library to work on the scarf with a peaceful mind and plenty of episodes of Cake Boss to finish the blanket. I WILL get these presents done.

Then I get to start on a hat for my aunt. She was supposed to go through radiation treatment, but the hospital or something called and said she couldn't do it because of her oxygen levels or something. I'm still making her that hat. I want to cheer up my aunt. She's going through a hard time with her sickness and she's my favorite aunt (I feel like I'm not supposed to pick favorites among family, but she's the best). I'll be making her this hat in Caron's Simply Soft "Forest" colorway. I think I'll make a medium hat for a safe bet. She wanted to stand out in a crowd, but not too much. This hat will accomplish it for her. I showed my dad several patterns and colors (she's his sister, after all), and he went right for that hat in the forest color. I can't wait to start on it.

Christmas Party!

My RA decided to throw a holiday party today. It starts in about an hour, and I'm waiting for the friend I invited to get here. She texted me that she'd be here at 6. I've got to text her after this post. 

For the holiday party, there's going to be a white elephant game being played. It had to be between $5-$10. I'm anticipating getting a gag gift... My hopes aren't too high for a roomful of college students. I, however, can give handmade gifts, and a handmade gift it is!

I made the Brain Waves Beanie from Liz McQueen. It was quick and only took a day of doing absolutely nothing and watching Cake Boss to make this guy. I elongated the pattern because I like a little slouch. It's red, white, and black, the colors of my university. I wasn't thinking, "Hey, these colors are the university's colors!" At all. Seriously. But it worked out perfectly! 

I've got a little turret from the Portal series (anyone play that?) modelling my hat. His name is Mrs. Nesbitt, and he had a change of heart. No longer will he shoot whenever something moves. Mrs. Nesbitt models hats now! It's fashionable, didn't you know?

I don't hate you...

I ended up wrapping the hat in newspaper. I get free newspapers in the dorms, so I'm dubbing newspapers "college kid wrapping paper" because it's so inexpensive! 

Go make this beanie! It'll look super nice.

Christmas Presents

As usual, I'm making my family Christmas presents. I recently finish a pair of gloves for Ricky. I've only got my dad's blanket and Nate's scarf to go. Take a look at the things I've been making:

My dad's striped afghan pattern comes from a book called 1-2-3 Crochet. I've adapted it to be about 4 ft wide and 7 feet long. I don't know why my dad wants it that long... But it's very warm. I've always liked making blankets because once it gets to a certain length, it keeps me warm. 

Johnny's beanie. The green is darker in reality. It does not look that... washed out. This comes from a pattern called the Doctor Who Slouchy Beanie, but I can't find the website I got it off of. I found it through ravelry, but now it's not showing up. 

This comes from a book called Modern Top-Down Knitting by Kristina McGowan. The skirt does do a very obvious color change... But I think it looks nice in person because it gives this dress some character! I have yet to block it (as seen by the markers holding the ends together so it doesn't go all wavy). I hope it fits.

Ricky's water gloves from the Cigar pattern. He really only wants a pair of fingerless gloves, so I changed the last two fingers to make them fingerless. The water drop is off center. I'm fixing that when I write up how I did this. But Ricky isn't a perfectionist. His only request was that if one was off center, the other had to be, too. I could do that.

Finally, Nate's scarf from the Twilight Princess scarf pattern. I was going through ravelry and found this. His gasp of joy decided it. I would make him this scarf. And so now I am! I've just finished the third pattern repeat. Four more to go! This isn't a Christmas present. It's Nate's birthday present. He already got his Christmas present.

Handmade Christmas gifts are always the best. I love making them!

Completed Sakutaro and WIPs?

I finished the Sakutaro from a few months ago. Here we are!

There are several things that could be fixed, but I can't go back and fix it now. D: I haven't given it to Jen... She hasn't been on dA where I've posted it. 

My current WIP is a Ravenclaw scarf for my boyfriend.  This is it from forever ago. It's much longer now- almost finished!

He's a proud Ravenclaw like I am. I can't give it to him in time for the final movie- I'm an ocean away. Chilling in Hawaii, that's where I am~

I've got such a huge list of projects I have to work on. Most of them are thankfully tiny, but I've been given another project where I have to guess the pattern- a heartless from Kingdom hearts! :D I'm excited to get to work on this one.

Busy busy

Exams are next week, and I said I'd study, but I found out the exams I should be concentrating on the most
are the ones whose study guides I do not care to do. Namely, pre-calc. I've got a D (69.3%... So close to a C and the safe zone that it makes me cry). I know my dad will give me shit about it once he sees my grades... He expects me to be the perfect straight-A student, and I know I can get A's in everything but MATH. It just doesn't click. I'm not a very number oriented person. I'm sure I'll be fine with every other exam, but I'm worrying the most over precal. My semester grade will definitely be a C.... Two C's in my high school career.

I've definitely been knitting and crocheting more. I'm part of the Harry Potter club at my school, and I said I'd make them an owl, due to the lack of decent owlerys in the area. My current crochet project consists of making baby items for my aunt. :3 She's going to have a baby next month, and I'm going to have a nephew~ Even though she really isn't my aunt, I'm still calling her my aunt, her husband my uncle, and her baby my nephew. I WILL DO SO. XD

Magnetic Katamari

I found this pattern a while ago and wanted to make one for my locker so I could have color in it. My school is sixty years old! It's an old school! I'm making one in purple, light blue, and perhaps yellow or orange. I'm still deciding on the third color.

The pattern can be found here.

I'll post the results when it's complete!