Projects, projects everywhere!

I’m back! And still insanely busy… In between the holidays, a very busy time at work, getting sick a couple times, and having my birthday, I’ve been working on loads of little projects that just didn’t seem to want to be made into a blog post. Thus, I’ve decided to try and put them all in one.

So here’s a quick overview of what I’ve been up to:

I made a bunch of stuff to sell with Tegendraads at Gamepitcon last January.

Finished work on the blanket I started back in October/November (still need to somehow attach the fleece that I bought for the back)

Made some cute felt owls with a kit I bought way back at the Kreadoe

Went to the Haakathon for the Dutch leprosy relief and made a couple ‘red cats’

Went to the opening of a new Crochet store by the girls behind Briljant Crochet (they seem to really be living the dream!)

Made some cards with a kit I got for my birthday.

And together with my friend Doretta, we taught two more people to crochet ^_^ I hope they enjoyed it and are still working on their skills.

Right now, I’m working on Vlad the vampire bat by Lalylala. Using this:

A ball of awesome ‘magic swing’ yarn from Briljant Crochet. It’s got a little sparkle mixed in it ❤ but I have to work it together with my normal yarn, which made for some hard work. Thankfully it's almost done now!

Magic swing in action, it’s a lot of fun to watch the balls of yarn taking shape.

After Vlad is finished, I’ve got a couple projects lined up already (african flower crocodile, a froggy coin purse, actually really finishing the blanket, maybe even start on another blanket with the Stylecraft CAL in April) I hope to be making more blog posts again in the future! I’ll probably elaborate a bit on the Haakathon in a later post ^_^

Plus, something totally not crochet or craft related, I got a new fish tank!

What have you guys been up to?
Cheers, Lydia

Back in business

With the hectic holidays behind me, I have finally been able to find some time to really sit down and crochet again. Although I love Christmas and enjoy spending time with my family, it was getting difficult to find some me-time. Especially with work being busier than ever.

But now, I can get back to working on some nice projects ^_^ So here’s a little project-update!

I finished working on my ‘mystery project’ after a lot of frustration with it. I kept running out of yarn ^_^” The pattern called for about one skein of the main colour, I ended up using three >_< And if that wasn’t bad enough, I could only get the yarn from this one stand at the market in the town where I work. Fortunately, they also have a webshop. Unfortunately, you have to indicate the shipping fee yourself. Figuring that one skein is 50grams and fits into an envelope, I picked a shipping fee for envelopes weighing less than 100grams. The first time that went by without problems, but the second time, the lady from the store emailed me saying that the shipping fee is far more than that and that she didn’t understand how I came at that price. So in the end, I had to transfer some more money in order to get my package. It all worked out fine in the end, but I don’t really like the way their webshop is set up. Guess I’ll have to shop at the market from now on!

I haven’t really finished the cowl I made. It still needs a button, but I haven’t been able to find the right one. Today, I was in a little fabric store at our local mall, which turned out to have quite the collection of buttons. Sadly, I hadn’t thought to bring the cowl with me, so I’ll have to return on friday to pick the right one.

Boyfriends’ scarf is on the shelf until I can get my hands on some more of the yarn I used for it. That will be somewhere next year ^_^”

In the meantime, I’m working on this pattern: Suzy Sheep from Stip&Haak (Dutch!) I’m just flying through the pattern, even though it’s made with fuzzy yarn. I love using Phildar Douce, it’s really soft and it hardly shows that it’s crochet. And even though you can’t see the stitches, as long as you keep count and mark your rounds, it’s really easy to work with! I fell in love with this yarn all over again because of this project.
Right now, all I have left to make are the legs and then it’s all done! I think I started working on it on December 26th and I haven’t had much time for it until this weekend. So expect a post with the end result soon-ish ^_^

Here’s another project I made with Phildar Douce ❤

Another project I finished up, was the winter owl decoration made of felt. It was fun to make something different than amigurumi, but my sewing skills aren’t to write home about. Still, I think he turned out very cute! And even though I have already gotten rid of all Christmas decoration in the house, I kept this one up because I like it so much 🙂

I get to enjoy one more quiet day and then it’s time for New Years! Everyone have a great night and be careful if you plan to light up some fireworks!

See you all next year.
Cheers, Lydia

Frustration…

Sometimes, nothing turns out the way you want it to. I wanted to give Boyfriend a scarf for Christmas, since he can’t seem to think of any presents. But I’ve run out of yarn and the lady I bought it from wasn’t at the market this week. To make matters worse it’s impossible to find online. Next time I’m able to go to the market is… 2014 -_- so yeah, no scarf for Boyfriend.

I’m also working on a Christmas gift for a friend. He didn’t ask for it, but when I saw the pattern, I just knew I had to make it for him. But now I’m stuck, because I ran out of the main colour, again. Now I have to wait for it to be delivered, but the last time I ordered, it took quite a while to get here. So fingers crossed that it will get to me in time. On the other hand, I probably won’t see this friend before New Years, so I’ve got a bit of time.

In order to vent my frustration a bit, I decided to make a scarf or cowl for myself. After starting several different patterns and frogging it all, I ended up with a nice cowl after all.

Now it just needs a nice big button to finish it up ^_^

The pattern for this cowl comes from All About Ami. It’s called the buttoned shell stitch cowl. I made it with the same yarn as the ribbed pom pom beanie I made a while ago, so it makes a set 🙂

Do you get frustrated easily? And how do you handle it?

Cheers, Lydia

Keeping warm

After seeing my warm winter hat, Boyfriend asked me if I wanted to make one for him as well. So I got the yarn for it and planned to make it in secret to give to him for Christmas.

Saturday we had our annual celebration of ‘Sinterklaas’ (basically a dutch Santa). Each year, we buy generic gifts and play a game together with Boyfriend’s family where you can get gifts, but also need to trade or give them away. You start with all the gifts still wrapped and end up unwrapping them during the game. Long story short: Boyfriend ended up with a hat…

So a change of plans was made and now I’m making a scarf. I hope to have it done by winter 2015, it’s so very big! It measures about 2.5 meters in length and it needs to be broad enough to keep his neck warm. This is how far I’ve gotten:

In the meantime, I’m also working on a slightly secret project to give to a friend and I finished working on a commission for another friend, but can’t post about it yet, since he needs it for a gift as well ^_^”

Working on the scarf is a bit boring, so I think I will work on some small projects in between. I plan to make some Christmas ornaments for work, those should be quick enough to make whenever I get really sick of going back and forth.

How do you handle slightly boring projects? Do you just stick to it to get it done faster, or do you switch every now and again to keep things interesting?

Cheers, Lydia

As a bonus, here's a picture of Japie next to our Christmas tree ^_^

I have made a huge mistake…

All the skeins I (believe I) will need for the African Flower Owl

Remember this giant stash of yarn I bought at the crafts fair a few weeks back? I really thought I would need that much yarn to make Maggie the African flower owl. As it turns out, I only need to make about 6 more flowers and I’m still on my first skeins. I’m using three colours: white, grey, and blue and it looks like I will need just one skein of each.

It also looks like it will become a bit smaller than it should be. But I won’t know for sure until I’ve put all the pieces together.

This will become the front, the white parts are the eyes

Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the yarn. Maybe I will make a matching afghan (the one I’ve been meaning to make since summer). On the other hand, if it really turns out smaller than expected, I might make another one with a bigger hook and a double thread.

What do you do when it turns out you have bought way too much yarn for a single project?

In other news: this blog has gotten over 10.000 views! I was hoping it would reach this number before my anniversary (the 4th of December) but I never thought it would go this quick! So now, I’m trying to think of a way to celebrate, but can’t quite decide what to do. A friend of mine suggested a give-away or something like a crochet-along, but I’m still not sure. So any suggestions are very welcome!

Cheers, Lydia

Crochet Dates, Crochet-Alongs and Hook-ins. The tale of a busy week

Well, to be honest, I kind of combined them all together ^_^”

Last wednesday, I visited my friend Jaqueline from EenMooiMomentje/Threading Along for a crochet date. We had planned the perfect date, since on wednesdays EchtStudio holds their weekly Hook-ins. It’s a pretty long drive for me, but because I could spend the afternoon at my friends house, it was definitely worth it.

We drank loads of tea, chatted and all the while worked on our most current projects. She’s knitting a hat, which I believe is pretty amazing, since I can’t knit. I started working on a smaller project than I thought it would be: a unicorn for the latest Ana Paula Rimoli Crochet-Along. I’m really starting to love CALs, especially when they’re based around one or two patterns. It’s so much fun to see what everyone comes up with to really make a pattern their own.

After dinner, we went over to EchtStudio for the Hook-in. Which was way more fun than last time! I have to admit, being back in my comfort zone with making amigurumi helped a lot. Last time, I was so annoyed by my own confusion about wanting to make a blanket, I just couldn’t seem to enjoy myself. Also, last time it was really, really busy, while this week, only two tables were taken (must have had something to do with that giant crafts fair that’s going on…)

I spent the evening working on the unicorn and just wandering around the shop. But like I said, my unicorn is turning out a bit smaller than expected, so it’s almost done already. Inevitably, I came to the point where I didn’t bring the yarn to make the manes and horn, so I had to stop working. Right on time as well, as the evening was drawing to a close. This is as far as I’ve come that day:

Tiny little unicorn

One last walk around the shop and I stumbled on something I’d been looking for for a while now: the first Zoomigurumi book, in English! It’s been impossible to get and even though I do still plan on joining the Design Contest where you can win both the books, I couldn’t resist inquiring what the price was. And since it was their last one, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse ^_^ Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable day for me.

I also came across two projects I really want to do in the future, if I ever find the pattern for them:

African Flower Hippo

African Flower Owl

I have to say, I think I love everything about them: their enormous size, their vibrant colours (you can’t really see on these pictures), their squishiness ^_____^

Tomorrow, I will visit the giant crafts fair I mentioned earlier: Kreadoe. It’s my first time there, so I’m pretty excited and have no idea what to expect! But I’m sure it will be loads of fun and a great way to get tons of inspiration for upcoming projects.

What are your plans for the weekend? And don’t forget, today is the first friday of the month, which means: BYATWF!

Cheers, Lydia

Friendship is Magic

Around the beginning of this blog, I’d worked on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from the series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Back then, I’d already mentioned that I might make the rest of the set, The Mane Four (which is not a typo) when I’d run out of projects. And this time has come. Well, I didn’t exactly run out, but I didn’t know what to work on next.

I’ve already got Rarity finished:

And Pinky Pie is well on her way:

I should be able to finish her up this weekend and then it’s just Applejack and Twilight Sparkle to work on. I’m going through them a bit quicker than the last time I worked on the ponies, but then again, being familiar with the pattern goes a long way. Also, I don’t have to make wings for them, so there are a few less parts to work on.

The basic pony pattern is from HookedOnAnime as before, but the manes I’m working out myself. I’ll post a quick how-to when I’ve finished all four, in case anyone is interested.

In other news

One of my friends -the lovely Jaqueline over at EenMooiMomentje– has been going through a pretty rough time. There are plenty of things that can cheer me up and at the top of that list is crafting with friends, drinking tea and eating sushi. So that is exactly what I invited her over for a few days ago. We had a great day, me working on my latest project and her knitting away at a warm hat for the coming winter. Our cat Wisky was especially interested in her knitting needles (something she’d never seen before in her life), while our other cat Japie thought of them more as something he desperately needed to murder as soon as possible. Despite all the distractions, Jaqueline still got a bit of work done.
The sushi was awesome as always. (I still believe I don’t get to eat it nearly enough)
After dinner she had to go home again, but we will definitely be meeting up more often (as long as both our work schedules allow it ^_^” )

Check out her blog sometime, it’s a great read about anything from knitting and crocheting to beauty products! (It is all in Dutch though, keep that in mind *cough*googletranslate*cough*)
Have a great weekend!

Cheers, Lydia