Uggh

Uggh.

I ran out of yarn last night while working on the afghan. Mid row!!

Uggh.

I'm hating this pattern. It's sorta ugly. I don't want to work on it...

Uggh.

The pattern (which I'm not sure I'm doing correctly, by the way, since my blanket doesn't have the nice peaks on the star points) is soooo boring that it is mind numbing.

Uggh.

I just wish I could be done with it, but it's too small right now (~26" across) to be a full afghan.

Uggh.

So now I have to go back to the silly yarn store that has the silliest hours so I can only go on weekends... Just to get one more skien.

Oh well. At least until then I get to work on something different...

Stash use

Hi. My name is Jeanne. and I'm a... pack rat.

Yup. I am. Not a bad one. But I am when it comes to yarn. I have a lot of yarn. I just can't throw it away if there's a chance I may want to use it at some point. Waste not, want not and all that. And I buy yarn far too often! FAR too often. So I'm always on the lookout for projects I can make with yarn I already have. This pattern did just that.

So this hat wins on many fronts.

The pink you may remember is from N's Christmas vest/sweater and the grey yarn (if you can believe it) is left over yarn that I still have from a pair of mittens I made in HS for this guy I had a crush on. (See. That's how serious my stash is. It's huge. Full of half skeins I've had sitting around for as much as 10 years! And sadly, the mittens wasn't the start of a beautiful relationship. Sigh...)

Both yarns were a perfect fit for what the project needed. And perfect length. So perfect that after weaving in the ends, I only have 18 inches of pink yarn left. How almost exactly perfect is that? (I still have a bunch of the grey, but that is neither here nor there...)

And you know, this hat may just make me partially rethink pink. I'd wear this hat. But really, I think that amount of pink is still the most I can handle.

Afghan, again

So... I thought I could follow a crochet pattern. Does this look like a huge sea green doily to anyone else? That's what it looks like to me.

It's supposed to be the start of a baby afghan for some friends of mine whose first baby is due a month from tomorrow. (I know... not a lot of time to throw this one together...)

So, I chose a pattern.
After my latest crochet success, I was fairly confident that I could follow a pattern. Maybe over confident? But hey. Maybe I can. I mean, maybe this is what it's supposed to look like. ? Only, I don't see those huge holes on any of the other projects on Ravelry... It makes me a little worried.

Anyways, this is my latest big project... Wish me luck.

I'm going to need it!

Chunky Scarf

I love it when things come together. When things just fall into place like it was meant to happen. See, I've been meaning to make a Mustard Scarf (pattern name. I don't want a yellow scarf...) for a while, but I haven't. I had the right yarn, reclaimed from a project I didn't like, and I knew I'd like the finished product. I just didn't make it. Why?

I didn't have a button for it.

Well, that changed mid last week. Looking down at the buttons I got in the mail I automatically knew what one of the was going to be used for. This! And although it's not really scarf season I started knitting it that very night.

I didn't choose out the exact button until the scarf was done. I originally thought I'd use the white flower button, but this one just worked better, I think.

And I was right. I like the finished product a lot. I think it'll look pretty good under a nice/dressy winter jacket. ... you know, if/when I ever one of those again... In the meantime I'll just have to see if I can pull it off in the office. & Wear it on days at work when the AC makes it feel like I'm in the arctic. That's, um, everyday. So it's already packed to go into work with me today.

Move aside old scarves. There's a new one in town.

I can crochet

Looking back at recent posts, I noticed that I haven't blogged about many crafts recently. That is all about to change. I have been crafting. Crafting like mad actually. Just I've either been a) more excited about other blog posts or b) waiting until the right time to post about big things.

It still isn't the right time for the big craft... but I have a lot of little ones to write about, and for whatever reason, this is the first one.

A crochet hat.

When I was in University, my SIL taught me the basics of how to crochet. She's never been much of a knitter, but you give her a crochet hook, and she goes at it! So I know the stitches: single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet. Sure I can theoretically crochet, and have. Just like with knitting patterns, being able to crochet, and being able to read a crochet pattern and follow it correctly are two very different thing. Drastically different. Last time I tried, I failed horribly.

This time I had more luck!

The pattern was actually really easy to follow! I was so happy about that. I did have to modify it a little bit since the original pattern is a kid's size. I added an extra increase row and then just kept measuring it in relation to my head until I thought it was long enough.

I wasn't planning on putting the white band on it, but I think it looks okay. I actually ran out of the blue, and had to frog it back so that all of the bands with the single crochet were white. But it turned out pretty nicely I think.

And best of all, now I sort of think I know how to follow a basic crochet pattern. Score.

And as a plus, I have another hat in my ever growing stash of Christmas gifts. Everything else has an intended recipient already, but I have no worries that I'll find just the right person to give this one to.

Eventually.

Bag & Buttons

Have you ever had a bad day?
Okay. That was a stupid question… everyone at some point or another has had a bad day.
Have you ever had a bad day that suddenly isn’t as bad because one person does something really incredibly nice and totally unexpected?
That was yesterday for me. I was pretty annoyed with work and things in general. I had a really frustrating meeting and was heading back to my desk frowning and in an undeniably horrible mood, thinking the rest of the day was going to be just as bad. Then – BAM. I’m smiling from ear to ear. Why?
Remember how I love mail and all things homemade? Well, sitting at my desk was a lovely package I hadn’t even been anticipating! How awesome is that? They say good things come in small packages, and man were they right. There was a card, some buttons and this super incredibly cute purse made by a talented girl!

Now instead of thinking about annoying coworkers I was thinking about just how nice some people can be. And marveling over the cute purse.

And trying to figure out what projects would best suit each button!

Like, just look at the moose buttons. So cute! I’m really tempted to use them in a cardigan for X. I just need to find a cardigan pattern that will work with them. But maybe they’d be better for something else. I have to scheme…
& really, the buttons were just the icing on the cake. I’d actually been looking the previous day at buying a random set of buttons on etsy. It was serendipitous! And I’m still smiling. And loving the new purse. I brought it to work today, and with the inside pockets, it’s perfect.
Thank you.

In the mail!

Yesterday was a good day! Great day! LOOK what I got in the mail!

Come on. Who doesn't love mail? Everyone should love mail. *I* love mail. I love sending mail. I love receiving mail. Any kind of mail. Pretty much if 'mail' is in the word, I love it. Email. Airmail. Snail mail. Black mail. Wait... No... I don't love blackmail. Black mail is bad. But the rest of them are pretty fun.

I love getting things delivered by USPS. My heart leaps a little when I see an envelope covered in stickers. It always has. I even get excited when something I've ordered from Amazon arrives! Even if it's glassware, it's 10 times cooler just because it got delivered. You know, this makes me sound a little lame, but I don't care. I love mail.
Soooo when my jam arrived from the jam exchange I was freaking excited. It's jam. It's homemade. AND it came in the mail. It is automatically fabulous.

So I ripped open the package right away!

And to my delight I got 4 jars of jam from the talented owner of this blog! That's right. 4!

Cranberry, pear-vanilla, apple-cinnamon and sweet potato butter. Sweet potato butter!!? How awesome is that? I just had to run and try it. It is just as tasty as you would imagine! I just had to try the pear-vanilla and it was reeeallllly good!

Thanks so much! I love it!
And thanks to Steph for hosting the exchange. All around good awesome time!