picturific!

today i went to the yarn store. i didn't buy anything (there) and i made this:

this is one of the squares for one of the wedding afghans i'm doing. it's the good cause afghan from one of the crochet today mags, but i don't want to get up right now and dig out which one. please note that this particular picture is pre-blocking, and yes, it is acrylic, and yes, it still blocks.

and i also worked on this:

the dreaded tension curse!!! i don't know how to fix it, and i really don't want to rip out umpteen rows. i plan on adding a large ruffle border. do you think that will hide it? how do i get through the rest of the blanket???

then i went shopping at ben franklin, but i didn't spend any money, because my honey got me a gift card for my birthday. i picked out these:

a cool tips cookbook and birch knitting needles. i'm slowly being drawn in by the dark side. though have you ever noticed that some crochet patterns tout "knit-look!" stitchery, but you never see knitting patterns bragging that they've achieved a "crochet-look!" ??

then i went home.

i baked.

yes, that's supposed to be orange frosting on brownies. it's the fifth graders last band practice tomorrow. if you're really observant you'll notice the little swatch i made to test my eucalan on the towel in the background.

then, while doing laundry, i worked on this:

tardis!!! which is part of this:

damn. i want to keep this one too. it still has to be washed with a load of whites. the great thing about doing bleach stencil on a black shirt?? you can touch it up with a black sharpie and no one is the wiser... heh heh. yeah, i hate spray adhesive.

i also attempted to tie-dye a green t-shirt, and that was an epic fail. i used a different kind of dye, and i was out of rubber bands, or at least i couldn't find any (not that i looked past the room i was in) so i used bits of yarn, and, yeah, it didn't work. then i couldn't get all the dye out so i said screw it and tossed it. it was a $2 goodwill shirt. however, that does mean that unless i get another one and give it another go (back to rubber bands and good ol' rit dye for me), i have to give up my brown-striped, crochet-embellished shirt. oh, and the cat got into the thread. i could only salvage half of it.

currently, the laundry is going, a&e pride and prejudice is playing, the fan is blowing (damn no air conditioning), and this is soaking:

i hope it works. it should... i don't know why it wouldn't. i would like to be able to wear it without wanting to scratch my arms off.

and, because i can, gratuitous kitty pic:

sometimes when she's being a real angel kitty she'll still curl up and sleep with me. aww.

damn. the soak timer and the laundry timer just went off. which one first??

finally! a crochet [related] project!

doily shirts!!

i can't remember if i saw this exact idea somewhere or if i put two and two together... on craftster they always have bleach stencils, and there was an article in crochet today about using old doilies and trim to revamp shirts... i think it's been done before, so don't quote me as an original (well, i really only have two readers anyway, so nothing to worry about there!)

this was my first go, and i like the way it turned out, though i think the bleaching is a little lopsided... my friend gave me this shirt as i was helping her move (i saved it from the goodwill stash)

try #2: a roxy t-shirt from the 50-80% off bins at our local resale store (its where i got all the shirts for my little experiment, except the previous one). i love this one; whaddaya know, you can bleach over colors! but it will soon be shipped off to colorado ; )


and this is my favorite. a triangle doily... the patterns came out so clear and i love the little random bleach splatters.

now, my problem is i'm so addicted to the different type of doily shapes and stitches that i want to start MAKING them! and b-e-a-you-tifull as they are, i can't seem to think off any practical applications for them (other than as bleach stencils).

by the by, to "set" the bleach i ran the shirts through the wash with a bunch of white/light kitchen towels the first time around, so none of the bleach would leak onto my clothing. worked great!

i ALSO made fabulous chocolate-chip zucchinni bread today. it's delicious, if i do say so myself. in fact, i'm going to go have some!