i've been gone awhile....

so, here's some stuff i've been working on since august:

wedding afghan #1:

 homemade macaroni and cheese recipe:

wedding afghan #2:

commissioned necklaces:

scarf recplica (crocheted): it's a christmas present for someone, but i'm not telling who!

homemade meatball and cabbage soup recipe:

coca-cola sleep shorts!

crochet owlets (that's a quarter for reference):

mi frist amigurumi! link from zelda (he got sent away in a craft swap and has a happy new home now):

another in a long line of christmas presents - a cutesy fuzzy hat for a friend's daughter:

i've got about a dozen projects in the works right now, and for today, i cleaned the kitchen so i could cook, put on a roast, started the laundry, and i'm in the process of cleaning our bedroom so the laundry clothes can migrate from the hallway, clearing up the hallway for the as-yet-unpacked boxes from the game room, so we can get the old couch out of there, so the boxes can go back in and hopefully be unpacked, so we can move the big green chair in so the new loveseat can come in from my parent's garage.

i'd rather be knitting.

plus side is we had some $ for furniture as a wedding present from my parents. my brother and his wife chose to get a leather sectional couch, but we waited until we saw a store going out of business and we got a new coffee table, 2 matching end tables, a couch, a loveseat, and a dresser and mirror for the same price. it was pretty awesome. the one end table and the mirror is in storage right now, but we managed to find room for the rest. we got rid of the old tables and gave the couch to a very deserving family we know. the old couch from the game room and dresser are on their way to being sold - we might even turn a profit on the little couch.

*sigh* commercial break over. back to work.

ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

last time we checked in with our domestic operative, she was frantically trying to get things done before the big day. so, how is she faring now?

well, ok... i guess. i'm down to 17 squares on the one wedding afghan, the other one is started, progress is being made on the baby 'ghan, and all wedding crafts were completed in time! some of the other stuff has hit the back burner for now, but once i'm done with all these stupid blankets i'll be ready to just finish something off nice and quick already.

the move is, um, interesting. going from a 2-story, 4-bedroom house with separate kitchen and living areas to a small, 2-bedroom condo has been an experience. a good one, though. we got rid of $500 worth of stuff (through garage sales and resale) and used that plus some of our wedding money to upgrade a lot of our kitchen and living area things. i've got a quilt in the works for our bed, so we really didn't blow any of our money on that stuff. we got all new dishes and cookware (yay!) and a bunch of small appliances, and we bought an endtable for our bed, new lamps, pillows, blankets, storage... and i couldn't find a shower curtain i liked so i'm making one. seriously. the only damask-green shower curtain i could find was $90 from some online boutique. i bought ivory and green damask from joann's for $15 and a strip of mottled gray for the bottom for $4. now i just have to sew them together.

well, that and put away a ton of stuff. our dining area is currently invaded by a ton of boxes. i wouldn't be surprised if more of them hit the resale store, or, if they won't take it, goodwill, or barring even that, the garbage. downsizing is good for us. really, it is. funny thing is we got most of our furniture in, but it still didn't quite feel like home until all the books were unpacked and i started hanging things on the walls and cooking dinner in our new kitchen. tonight we had morrocan chicken and couscous.

Heat a burner to medium heat... coat a medium frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil. place in two thawed chicken breasts, sprinkle liberally with morrocan spice mix and sparingly with cinnamon (cardamom would really be better). drizzle with a bit of soy sauce, and spoon in 4-5 canned apricot halves and a few tablespoons of juice. when the chicken is done, remove them and the apricots to a serving dish and turn the burner up to high to reduce the juices down to a nice thick glaze. serve with couscous!

then, we were thinking the couscous was such a nice mix between breading, rice, and pasta, that it would be really good to stuff meat with. so now i really want to try stuffed pork chops with couscous, garlic, lots of fresh basil, pine nuts and a bit of olive oil. mmmmmm.

i've been itching to can lately, but i have shoes to put away. sort of a non-sequitor, but completely true.

don't know how much longer...

...i can keep up this pace without going mad. all this crafting work (fun, but there are always parts of some projects that, well, aren't), plus the wedding in 10 days (10 days! eep!), then we move right after that... ohmigosh.

official square count for the august wedding afghan?

76

yeah, baby. it makes me want to start another project. yarn harlot calls it "startitis" and i got it baaaaad. i want to learn new knitting techniques, i want to start my hubby's mittens, heck, i even want to work on his vest. do i want to work on the dreaded-tension-cursed-baby-blanket? heck no.

here's my knitting progress:

i think it'll end up being a little scarflette when it's done. i'll put some metallic fringe on there to match the yarn and i'll start combing the thrift stores for a cute little shawl pin to keep it closed, seeing as i have no idea how to do buttonholes yet.

i finished the flower girl basket!

not bad for my first time flower arranging, though the picture is a little washed out. i started with a plain wicker basket, spray painted it silver, added all the ribbon, bows, and gems, added the little handkerchief, and stuck all the flowers into some styrofoam in the bottom. it helps when you've got high-quality silks to work with.

and the finale of my yarn deconstruction process! (okay, the penultimate part, i guess... there's one more skein drying)

ta-da! that's going to be about 775 yards of sport weight yarn. i'm thinking about doing this pullover on ravelry... of course, it is knitting, and my skills will have to take a major upswing on this one. i wonder if i can find a simple rollneck raglan sleeve pullover that would work with the yarn i've got... short sleeved, of course, with a band of ribbing at the bottom of the sleeve and the body...

i gotta stop posting so late at night. it robs me of my wit.

i'm a harlot, i know....

it's time. hi, my name is ScrapJam and i have an addiction to yarn. this is my stash. *ahem* er, um, sorta, some of my stash. the other bits not shown is all the afghan yarn.

in my defense, most of this stuff has a purpose. the pink stuff in the upper left? felted slippers for someone for christmas. the stuff in the upper middle? socks for me and my man and some mission falls cotton i couldn't fit in the tub. there's really too much to name... the clear boxes in the back is most of my wool/silk/linen/cashmere/merino/alpaca/bamboo yarns. in other words, the good stuff. there's some peruvian highland and some wool blend left out in the back right of the main portion, but for the most part what's out is acrlylic. the basket is for leftover or small balls of yarn, like the patons soy wool stripes on the top. the baby blue and chocolate brown in the front left are a shawl that has yet to be born. the other pale yarns are baby yarns for when i get to occassionally make a hat or some booties for a charity effort in town. all of this stuff had plans for it, once upon a time. i just bought the gray yarn in front today to make mittens for my hubby, but i'll be darned if i remember what some of the other stuff was for.

so, in other shameful news:

the afghan was driving me crazy. this is a crochet version of this knit vest, done in red heart "peruvian print" colorway. i originally had mittens planned for this yarn, back when i didn't know any better, so now the yarn gets sacrificed as test yarn. plus it's an outer garment, so i don't have to worry about it being all scratchy next to my skin.

remember the lotus cardigan from ravelry? i looked at the pattern and had real trouble figuring it out. so i dug through all my magazines, looking for the right shirt/sweater/cardi with the right yarn weight and yardage, and i found these two options:

(from crochet today)

(crochet fantasy; excuse the model, it was the mid-80's)

i actually think i'm leaning toward the peach colored one. i really like the boat neck, the flutter sleeves and the ribbed bottom. would it look good in purple? i have this knitpicks yarn in eggplant, and i know i definitely have enough. if i do the other sweater, i'll have to shorten the sleeves.

back to the afghan tomorrow, though i may reward myself by working on my vest in between squares. i've been soaking the red squares over and over to try and bleed out as much excess dye as possible. they've been through three 8-hour soaks and a machine wash, and i think that's about it for them. they're drying under a fan in the kitchen now. i've decided that instead of sewing in all 282 ends by myself, i'm going to have a sewing party in july.

 
and you know, it just occured to me, i've got space in the upper right corner of my yarn cabinet.

progress

38/120.... possibly 143 squares?

almost 3 full skeins out of 12 are done... sigh.

i finally finished a project...

... and now on to the next one

This is Ava's baby blanket, and I've been working on it on and off for about 5 months, though truth be told i've been working fairly hardcore for the last week or so to get it done in time to give it to her when we go on vacations.

Here's a basic pattern:
Hook size 5.5mm
Guage isn't important
Yarn is caron simply soft (4) and yarn bee italia (4), makes a lap blanket for an adult or roughly a large baby blanket

Tip: use a hook size .5mm larger for your starting chain!

Starting Chain: multiples of 42 + 15
Row 1: ch 3, dc in first st (counts as first 2 dc). 5 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 5 dc, 2 dc in each of next 2 st, 11 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 11 dc, 2dc in next st. Repeat across row, ending with a 5-dc ripple. Always start and end your ripple with a [2-dc] st; you'll have one [2-dc] st on each end, and in the middle you'll have 2 [2-dc]st in-between ripples.

Actually, that's about it. i did three rows of caron simply soft, (do not tie off), tied in the italia yarn and did a row (tie this one off), then went back to the beginning of the row, picked up the caron, slip-stitched through the top, and repeated the pattern across.

Fringe: 4 pieces of caron, 2 of italia. I just pulled 'em through and tied a square knot (i didn't want the normal fringe to come unraveled), picking up the yarn tail from the italia and incorporating into the knot.


and there's some lovely stitching

and all wrapped up for the baby!

i'm so excited to give it to her - i just hope it holds up (it should; i actually knotted everything when i changed yarns or ran out of a skein, so it really shouldn't come undone!) and i hope it gets good, hard use.

now if only i could make a career out of this kind of stuff...

a small motif

in response to last episode's cliffhangers, no, i didn't have to go to the hardware store. yes, i did get the paint out from under (most) of my nails, and no, the table doesn't look glittery anymore! later today i plan on embarking on step two - painting the metal!

to take a small break, i saw this post on craftster and thought it was the perfect little motif to do an afghan out of. now, pinkatari doesn't know where she got the pattern from, but it is possible that it is from a copyrighted source, so please do not use this pattern for any financial gain.

i think i'll name it, the, uh, 8-petal square? anyone have a better name??

in the following exhibits, i will post a pattern diagram [exhibit A], some tips [exhibit B], and a photo of the square done in two different yarns, a solid and a variegated [exhibit C]. at the current point i despise written patterns, so the pics and the chart will just have to do!

without further ado, (and with cosby stand-up playing in the backgroud :D ), here is:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Hook Size: 5.5mm

Yarn: Vanna's Choice or other worsted-weight yarn

Some tips: use one size bigger hook for your starting chain - it helps the loops be a little easier to see and work in. the original pattern called for double crochet all around, but for some reason my doubles are short, so it turned out like a short rectangle instead of a square. use whatever works for you to end up with a square; it shouldn't affect the border at all. when working treble crochets in the ch-2 spaces, you don't have to get into every stitch; just go ahead and insert your hook under the chain itself.

Exhibit C

photos!

if you have any tips for me on pattern writing, don't hesitate to comment. i'm not very good at writing patterns, but i want to be! hopefully someday i'll have some of my originals in a magazine or something, but only if i'm good at it!