Sunday, January 30, 2011

Carrot scarves and cupcakes


As a way to save money, I've started using the library again. You know, that place that has books you can borrow? I remember having a hard time finding new or hard-to-find titles when I was younger and living in a much smaller town, so I was pleasantly surprised by the public libraries in Sacramento. The on-line search and hold service is frickin' awesome. My latest find:


Twinkie Chan (http://www.twinkiechan.com) makes some adorable crocheted scarves and other accessories. From the few I've made, the patterns are really simple too. After seeing the carrot scarf, I had to make it. But I only had half a skein of orange left, so I made a kiddie-version:
I am working on making the cupcakes (see scarf below), but they seem to turning out smaller than in the picture (too small of crochet hook?). So I've altered the pattern, and am thinking of making a cupcake-banner for the kitchen. The husband will have to deal with the girly-ness of it. Yes, it is pink and yellow. Maybe if I make him the bacon-and-eggs scarf he will be happy?

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Back to blogging!



Sorry for the long absence. The combination of starting a new job that I actually like (yay!), trying to get pregnant again (it worked!), and deciding to not continue my pursuit of a graduate degree made it a little difficult to find time to work on the ol' blog. Since it has been a long time, we'll start with some updates:
1. I am about 4 months pregnant, and things seem to be progressing "like normal." I'm even showing just a bit. My husband has been taking pictures of the growing belly, so I will try to post some of those soon. Right now, I just look like I have a wicked beer belly. It jiggles a little too. Just to warn you, many of these future posts will be pregnancy-related, and then baby-related. It was not my intention to write a "mommy blog," so I will try to include as much crafty-goodness as possible, as well as cooking and gardening and home-remodeling.
2. Last June I started my new job as an Environmental Scientist, a job I had spent about a year applying and trying to get an interview for. I hated my last job sooooo much, so the day I got "the phonecall" from my new employer was one of the greatest days. Ever. I don't think I stopped smiling all day. Especially coming right after that awful miscarraige and realizing that my last job was such a dead-end shit-hole. I had to make sure to keep the glee tamped down so that my co-workers wouldn't kill me during those last two weeks.

----
Okay, so down to crafting. Over the past several months, I was bitten by the craft-bug (hormone side-effect??), so I need to catch you all up with that. First, I started, and completed, my first knitted sweater. Not a sweater for myself, mind you, but a baby sweater (insert "aww" here). After blocking, it seems like it turned out okay. I am going to ignore all of the imperfections and badly-sewed seams for the time being. It is too big for a newborn, but my due date is mid-July, so it may be perfect for a 5-6 month old this coming-fall/winter. This baby-sweater pattern is from LionBrand.com, and I made it in Lion's Cotton-ease. If you want to know the exact pattern name, just send me a message or comment and I can find it for you.
I also attempted to free-form crochet some baby booties. However, I didn't have a baby around to size them on, so I don't know if they will actually fit a baby. They turned out pretty adorable-looking, though.