Black & blue

I have made another felted granny square pillow cover:

This is just one big square with an extra edge. Before felting it measured 50x50cm, now it's 40x40cm. Before felting:

The best part of this project was that I crocheted over ALL the ends as I went :) Look, no ends to weave in!

Along with the pillow cover I felted these two dice bags with similar colors:

Just two more bags to go, and all eight are done! Woohoo :D

April squares & other squares

Today is April 1st, but as far as I know I haven't been fooled yet :p The patterns for this month's squares is posted on Ravelry, the 6'' pattern is Friend Family Square. It looks a little complicated, I hope I can shrink the square down to 4 inches...

A while ago I found a picture of an afghan (but I can't remember where) that I liked, and the pattern seemed simple enough for me to make something similar, and I made up these squares:

If you are interested I have written a pattern/tutorial for these squares, you can find it HERE. I made nine squares and crocheted them together by slip stitching from the back, and crocheting in the back loops only, which I think makes a neat finishing. Then I added three rounds of edge around the whole thing and felted it in the washing machine. 

Along with the pillow cover I also felted these granny square bags, which have been finished for months, just waiting to be felted. The pattern for the bags is HERE.

The past month or so I have been working on the biggest project I've ever started, but it's already almost half-finished :) I wanted to make a granny square blanket that looks like a tetris screenshot, but now that it's half-done it's already the size of a regular blanket, so I guess it will turn into a bedspread instead. It's huge!

I used an extra large hook (10mm) because I planned on felting the blanket, but I've realized that it will be too big to put in our washing machine... I have to make two halves and felt them separately and stitch them together afterwards, and then I can only hope it will never have to be washed again :p

Weee-kend :)

Today was the final test in the indroduction course in Latin. I think it went well, but I'm not sure since it was a pretty easy or short test, so everything has to be 100 % right for a top grade.. The last few days I've done nothing but study (except for finishing up the Celtic squares during the Latin classes, but I haven't photographed them yet, so I'll post more later), so now I'm taking a well-deserved break to finish off some projects :) Wee!

A while ago I bought a new crochet book, 50 Sensational Afghans and Throws, solely because of the afghan pattern that's featured on the cover. 

It's a beautiful afghan, but the pattern is unfortunately somewhat of a challenge. Not because  the pattern is particularly difficult, but it's poorly written at times, and with a few mistakes. I fortunately found someone on Ravelry who has made this afghan before, so I've had help and support through my first square :) My first try came out a little small, and I made so many mistakes I didn't want to use it (and I didn't want to unravel it), so a started a new one, using green instead of blue:

I decided not to make all 12 squares needed for the afghan, but only 4 to make a pillow. So far the first square is almost finished, and the other three are almost half done. But then I ran out of black yarn... Today I finally got around to go to the store for more, but they were out of black, too :( I guess the squares aren't meant to be finished yet... There are just two rounds left with black on that first square, and I had hoped I'd see it finished this weekend :/

As you can see the corner motifs are a challenge for my patience:

But, since I've been out of black for quite a while, and I really love these squares, I have started a new set in new colors! It looks kind of Easter-y with the yellow and purple :)

A much needed break...

Just ten days until the final test in Latin, woohoo... I had my linguistics exam today, the one I failed before Christmas. I think I did allright this time, though I know I would have done better if I'd read more. But time flew past and motivation failed me, so all I could do was hope the questions would be more understandable than last time. Now it's all done, and I treated myself to a new book (again, haha) of beaded animals :D My first beading book in English!

Lovable Beaded Creatures by Anja Freese. It's a pretty book, though the animals are a little different than the ones I'm used to. This is the only book I have by this author. It has patterns both for beaded animals and woven bracelets, but the animal section is by far the biggest. I need to get myself a beading loom, there are many great patterns I want to try out :) Hopefully I'll get my missing beads in the mail tomorrow, so I can make a little critter from my new book before moving on to verb conjugation and noun declensions in Latin  :p

I have also started this month's squares for the Ravelry Block-a-Month CAL. The pattern is called Celtic Granny. I skipped the 5th round and improvised the sc edge to make the square 4 inches instead of 6. Tonight I managed to make these three:

Squares again

Okay, so I finally decided to switch the colors around on the squares, and here is the result. I'm quite pleased that I did it, I'd hate to do it in a few months when I have made loads of new squares. Anyway, here are some granny squares of my own design for the blanket, with the color scheme complete:

And a photo without flash, in case that shows the colors better:

Well, now I'm taking a break from the squares to work on the groundhog, hope to have him finished this weekend. After all, Groundhog Day isn't that far away :)

Eyes & granny squares

Got my latest order of safety eyes in the mail today, albino eyes in two sizes, and a color called 'blue pearl'. Not sure why, they are more silvery gray than blue, but with a pretty pearly shimmer. Now I'm ready to make albino groundhogs and husky dogs :)

About my granny square blanket project, I have finally decided to invert the colors and make two squares of each pattern with the same two colors. This is what I've got so far, three different patterns in four different color combinations:

I have (unfortunately?) found a new color combination of light blue and moss/pale green. That way I will get a total of ten squares of each pattern, and that makes at least 120 squares by the end of the year :) The only thing I'm unsure about is whether I should change the colors of the new combination with one of the old (if that made any sense). These two, perhaps?

I just fear that the new combo will make a distinctly paler square that stands out from the rest, so if I use the light blue with the green, and the moss green with the blue.  My boyfriend has approved of the pale square, and he usually helps me with the colors, but I'm not sure about this one... What do you think?

Don't know whether or not to use flash, the colors are messed up either way, so here's another picture of the same squares without flash... So, do you think I should switch the colors on these two?

Flu & crochet...

In spite of my great plans of finishing projects I have done very little since my last post. I've been sick since I had the swineflu vaccine on Wednesday. Although I feel better now my shoulder is still pretty sore from the shot, and I have no energy to do much crafting. I have found that when I'm sick amigurumi takes too much concentrating and is harder on my hands than "regular" crochet, so I've mostly been making granny squares. The purple wrist warmers are finished, though, and the purple granny square bag was felted along with them. All the other bags are crocheted, just need to be felted :)

I hate what the flash does to the colors, but there's very little light in our apartment and daylight is pretty hard to come by these days, so without it the pictures would just be a big blur :/

The groundhog has grown a little (the front legs are made but not yet attached), but I've fallen a bit behind on the secret crochet-along, which is now almost over. I have only managed to do the first four parts (head, hat, legs & body):

Not very happy with the girl's backside, it's butt-ugly (pun intended), so I was kind of hoping for a dress that would cover up her "cellulites", but she's going to have a snowflake dress, so I guess I'll only have to show her from the front when she's finished :p Instead of working more on the amis I've started the Block-a-month cal on Ravelry, and these are the squares I've made so far:

The bottom squares are the 6 inch Little Dahlia square pattern for January. They aren't anywhere near 6 inches, though, more like 4. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, I use the hook size (5mm) and yarn weight that the pattern recommends, but they just come out too small. The top squares are made from this pattern from last year's crochet-along (March), and even though the pattern suggested the same yarn weight and hook as the first, they actually would be bigger, so I had to make some changes to get them the same size. *sigh* I don't get it... Anyway, as long as I can stick to the same size I guess I'll be okay :) And again, the flash messes with the colors. That yellow-looking color is actually green...

Ten thousand projects!

Well, it certainly feels like it sometimes... In addition to the two (possibly three) crochet-alongs, I have several other projects going, all of which I hope to finish before school starts for real next week.

I've actually been working these color pencil holders since since Christmas, from a pattern by Amber Jolly (bought on Etsy, A. Jolly Shop). The red one is crocheted with double strands of yarn and a 4mm hook. What's strange is that I started the red one first, but only the blue is finished... The blue pencil is crocheted with thinner yarn and 3.75mm hook, and is perfect for crochet hooks :) I made a few changes in the pattern and stiffened the pencil with a cardboard roll (the ones in the middle of toilet paper or kitchen paper towels).

The next project I need to finish are these knitted wristwarmers for my mother. She used to have a similar pair, but she lost them, so now I'm making her new ones for her birthday. They only need to be felted, but I plan to make an owlet keychain in matching colors, so the present isn't ready to send just yet.

I crocheted this little bag to keep my RPG dice in, but it's too small for me, since it only holds one standard set of 7. The pattern is added to my other blog :) Please contact me if you find any errors, I had some trouble making this up (I'm not used to joining rounds of single crochet), even though I believe the pattern should be correct.

Finally I've been exploring the world of granny squares again :) I wanted to make a bigger bag for my dice, and I came up with a pattern, which is now also posted on my pattern blog, along with a tutorial for a basic granny square. The bags are really simple, if you know how to make granny squares you can do this without a pattern, but I have written it down anyway :) A lady on Ravelry commented on these bags and said she'd use them as soap bags, which of course gave me a new idea... Maybe, if I find the time and the money later this semester, I'll give soap-making a try. I mean, if I could make my own soap and sell them in these bags... They would be great as gifts, too :)

After the first two granny square bags I decided to make some in pure wool for felting. The colors are inspired by the Warhammer roleplaying game, where there are eight different schools of magic with corresponding colors (life/green, death/purple, shadow/gray, amber/brown, sky/blue, fire/orange, alchemy/gold, light/white). That means eight bags, five of which are now made (the blue is not on the picture). I have only felted one of them, though, I want to wash them separately in case the colors bleed. I will probably add photos as the bags are finished :)

Hooked on grannies again

Haven't really done mush crocheting since Christmas, but I'm currently in a period of granny crocheting. Squares, I mean. I started a granny square blanket last summer, but after about 20 squares I got tired and packed it away. I brought a few squares with me on holiday to continue the blanket, but yesterday I realized that the new squares I've made are a lot bigger than the original ones :( I have used the same yarn, but I must have used the wrong hook. I was so sure I'd used a 3.5mm hook for the first squares, but apparently I didn't...

But, since I refuse to unravel stuff I just have to make the new squares into something else. I've been thinking of a pillow to match the blanket that propably never will be finished :p

I've alway been a winter person, but I think my subconcious is looking forward to summer... Anyway, I've made these sunshine granny squares, though I don't know what to do with them yet. Just felt like making something festive for a change :)

More presents (family, look away!)

The orange scarf is finally finished! It took a while, but I got there in the end :) Unfortunately it felted a lot more than I expected, but I have stretched it a little and I hope it's not too short. I fear it will look more like a bow-tie than a scarf... My boyfriend has tried it on, but I'm not sure how his sister wears her scarves, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I have two new projects, both are crocheted and felted coaster sets. Granny squares for my in-laws, hopefully the coasters will shrink a lot, because I think they're too big. It's supposed to be a set of six , but I fear I will run out of gray yarn... Maybe I'll make the other three with opposite colors so I won't have to buy a new ball of yarn. I'm all out of money, so shopping is out of the question.

For my oldest cousin and her boyfriend I plan to make coasters from the spiral shell I posted about earlier, four or six coasters in different shades of brown and white. So far I have made two, I hope come out ok after felting.

On the whole I feel like I've been good at using what I have this year, I haven't bought too much yarn or other craft stuff to make presents or calendar projects. If I can keep it up maybe I can save up some money to go to Egypt and celebrate Christmas next year :)