PlanetJune Christmas CAL

There is a new CAL going on! Anyone who's been following my blog for a while knows how much I love CALs. Love to watch lots of people make the same things and see how everyone makes it different, plus it gives me extra motivation to make something that's not my own. A kick in the butt, you might say :) Now it's time to make Christmas stuff. Yay, my favorite holiday! 

June has been somewhat disappointed by all the people who's taken advantage of her CAL discounts and then never finished anything, so this time it will be a little different. She has several Christmas patterns, some of which are free, and we are free to choose which ones to make. One or all of them :) Then, after the CAL ends on Christmas Eve, the participants can win prizes! Gift certificates and/or free patterns, I think :) Read more about the rules HERE.

I plan to make a Christmas tree or two, as soon as I've finished a few holiday patterns of my own :)

Whew!

I had my long dreaded Biology exam yesterday, and it went surprisingly well :) I was nervous for about two minutes, then the rest was almost stress-free. I got a 5, which corresponds to a B, so I'm very pleased :D I do think that I've could have got an A if I hadn't been nervous and stuttered in the beginning. Words came out wrong and I forgot to mention some details. When they asked me about the details, I got everything right, even when they asked me things that are not in my book :) After the exam yesterday my boyfriend surprised me with a bottle of yummy red wine, and then he made taco wraps for dinner! I have the best bf :)

I've had so much fun reading Biology, I almost can't wait to start the next book in January! I hope I can get it before Christmas and start reading as soon as I've had my math exam at the end of November. I have given up getting a passing grade in math this year, because so far I don't understand anything in the book and I need more time to absorb everything. Three short months just aren't enough... Luckily I can give it another try in the spring semester, which is longer than the fall.

Today I thought I would relax and start writing a short article for the Norwegian Egyptology Society Bulletin, which is published twice a year. The first issue came out just days ago, when we had our second meeting since we officially became an organization. Right now we have only about 20 paying members, but the number is growing :) On Saturday we had a board meeting and on Sunday a few people had lectures about subjects related to Ancient Egypt. Because of all this I had no time for studies the whole weekend, and I had to work my bum off the following days to get through the biology book. I made it, but now I'm really tired. I've been at the library for several hours now, and I haven't written a word on the article yet. Oh, well... The next issue is not due for months yet, and I should probably try to concentrate on the math as much as possible. Kind of hard, though, with so much interesting stuff going on. In ten days the museum (with help from me and my boyfriend) is going to have an Egyptian Day, and there is going to be an 'authentic' Ancient Egyptian burial of a mummified hen! My bf and I are constructing a coffin for the creature, and we're making a replica of a mummy coffin that the museum has in its collection. Neat, huh? I hope the crowd will be pleased :)

I'm getting hungry and haven't packed lunch, so I think perhaps it's best to go home and eat something :)

Blah... and some yay :)

Suddenly got a annoying feeling... Suddenly I'm sad and very nervous, although I don't know why. I guess it could be a guilty concience for just ordering a few new tatting shuttles (I really can't help myself when I find brands that I don't already have!). Heh. And my biology exam is in just a week! I don't usually get nervous until the day before or something, but it's an oral exam, and that makes everything a lot worse. I can be very confident on a written exam if I'm a little unprepared, but on an oral exam I feel like dying no matter how hard I've studied. My mind goes blank and I stutter a lot. Utterly useless :( Good news is that my troublesome infection seems to be gone, and I feel a lot better now :) I've lost about three weeks of study time because of the troublesome infection, but I think I've managed to catch up most of the work the last few days... Exhausted!

Or I could just be hungry :p Will go home and have dinner in a few minutes, and hopefully things will improve :) Tonight we get visitors for a Warhammer RPG session, which means lots of crochet time for me, hehe. Perhaps my second Great Big Firefly will finally get his wings today? :)

Excuses, excuses...

Just thought I'd post a little something about why I've been gone so long.. There are two main reasons. One is that I've become completely hooked on tatting since this summer, so I started a tatting blog to have a place to show off the things I make and buy (there has been some serious shuttle shopping this fall!) because there is just so much of it, and I didn't want to clutter up this blog completely :) This place is mainly for crochet, hedgehogs (of course!), some random craftiness and bits of my life.

(Warning: Long story ahead! Skip to the last paragraph if you're not interested...)

The other reason is that I've been sick for a while. I think I mentioned in the Pumpkin post that I had some wrist pains a few weeks ago, so I stopped crocheting and tatting for a few days as soon as the pumpkins were done, and the pain went away. A few days later my right breast started feeling really warm and sore, and then I found some lumps, so I immediately went to the doctor to check it out. I figured it was an infection of some sort, and I really thought it would be easy enough to get a prescription of antibiotics and be done with it. But nooo... The doctor examined me for about four seconds and told me I had something called Fibrocystic breast disease/disorder (or something), which was fairly common and harmless. And there was nothing to be done about it other than wait until it went away. I was sceptical at first, but then another doctor came and took a blood test to check for infections and the test came back negative, so I finally believed the doctor. He gave me a referral to get a mammogram and/or an ultrasound to confirm what he suspected, and then I went home, happy that it was nothing serious.

Curious me went home and looked up the condition online and read all about it. Pain was normal... So when the pain started getting worse, I didn't think much of it - I was going to get it looked at soon anyway. Or so I thought... The clinic that received my referral managed to lose it in a pile of papers or something, so I didn't get an appointment until two weeks later. By then my breast was swollen and red (the redness appeared the last two or three days before), and there was no way I was going to let them squish it in the mammogram machine of horror! The doctor took one look at it and said I didn't need to :) He did the ultrasound and said it was an infection that needed immediate treatment, and he made an appointment for me at the hospital the next morning.

I don't want to get too graphic with the rest of the story - let's just say it includes getting stabbed with a VERY large needle (twice!), and then a scalpel when the needles didn't work... The first treatment only made things worse, despite me chewing antibiotics like candy, and the second treatment just wasn't enough. Now I've been to the hospital five times in the past week, and finally it seems to be healing up nicely. Got a week left of Penicillin and going back for a check-up next Thursday, and that's it :) Crossing fingers...

Whew! Long rant. Hope I didn't make you queasy... Now onto something more pleasant: I've done some yarn shopping today! Feeling that much better :) Got more yarn to make some new Great Big Bugs. Progress is slow with the one I'm currently working on - I've lost count of how many times I unraveled it - so perhaps it is best to do something else in between. After my wrist started acting up I've been taking it slow with the crocheting - only doing a few rounds a day - so if you get bored with the silence in this place and want to see what I've been up to you could always check out my tatting place :)

Pumpkins!

Here are two pumpkins I've made over the last few days. The small one is for PlanetJune's Fall CAL, and the big one is for Itsy Bitsy Spider's Pumpkin Patch CAL. 

I almost couldn't finish them because of wrist pain, but I only had the stems left, and I decided to do them anyway. Carefully, and only one stem a day :) I think the pain (beginning tendonitis) is because I've mostly been tatting for a long time now, and the sudden and intense crocheting was suddenly very straining on my wrists...

PlanetJune's pumpkin is crocheted with a lovely soft acrylic yarn (Idena Twins, now unfortunately discontinued) and crochet hook 4.5mm. The pattern was easy to follow and the pumpkin could easily be made in a few hours :) I had plans for making a couple of the Pocket Amis as well (the witch and ghost), but because of my wrists I think I'll be satisfied with just the pumpkin. I would really love to make more of those and line them up in the window for Halloween :) We'll see how it goes... The big pumpkin was crocheted with the same bulky wool yarn I use for my Great Big Bugs, also with a 4.5mm hook:

This pumpkin could easily be mistaken for an ordinary pumpkin, albeit a very pale one... Let me tell you that he is not :)

This is Archie. He is a very special little albino pumpkin who needs glasses because his eyesight is a little poor. He feels like all the other pumpkins are looking at him and teasing him for his glasses. Not cool! If anything, glasses make you smarter, and your nose doesn't look so naked :) Archie is a really sweet little guy who's going to be an ophthalmologist when he grows up. He has one really good friend, and they stick together like - well - pumpkins! 

Have a good weekend, and don't make fun of people (or pumpkins) with glasses! :) (In case you are wondering - yes, I was inspired by this post..)

CALs and give-aways and stuff

First of all, I really need to thank Greenpixey for the lovely prize I won from her give-away in July. Thank you! What I won was a little heart shaped tin of mint candy to give to my boyfriend :) 

Also in the package was a surprise that I decided was just for me :p A yummy bar of milk chocolate! It was gone within minutes, hihi :)

The package arrived several weeks ago, but I waited to post about it since the mints were going to be a surprise, and I'm not sure whether my bf reads my blog or not. And then, of course, I forgot... I remembered to post about it now because my boyfriend came home from the library the other day and gave me the empty tin to keep little treasures in :)

I'm currently participating in another give-away that (hopefully) has not ended yet. At Artikaur's blog you can enter to win a ball of pretty blue crochet/tatting thread:

I think the give-away will end in a few hours (some time after midnight in my time). Hope I win - my thread stash is not big enough yet! Perhaps it never will be...? :p

So, the CALs... Well, I never got any further on my alpaca for PlanetJune's summer CAL :( I feel really bad that I got the pattern cheaper than I normally would, and then I never had time to make it... The CAL has now ended, and you can see all the finished alpacas and violets HERE.

Finally, there's a new CAL that's just about to start - a halloween themed fall CAL at Itsy Bitsy Spider (who also hosted the Great Owl CAL earlier). This time we're making pumpkins :) 

We are to decorate the pumpkins however we want, and at the end there will be a contest with a prize. Whoever makes the coolest pumpkin wins! I have to concrete ideas for my pumpkin yet, but I'll come up with something as I crochet along :)

Happiness is a new tatting shuttle - or seven :)

My mother has been visiting us since Sunday. Today we went shopping together - among other things for more yarn for a new Great Big Bug :) Just because we had time we stopped by another little yarn store to look at fancy yarns. I have no money right now and had no plans of buying anything, but when I suddenly came across tatting shuttles, I just had to get them! There were even two kinds, and I naturally had to get both :)

The shuttle on the right is a pretty blue Milward with a crochet hook on the front and a removable bobbin. It came with an extra bobbin, but I'm not sure if you can buy more bobbins separately like you can with many other brands. The post sticking out the back is originally for putting the bobbin on when winding thread on it, but - as with many other Aero copies - the bobbins don't fit on there... So it's pretty useless and only in the way when tatting. I think I'll try to "neuter" it, i.e. cutting off the post and filing the end smooth. Maybe I'll even decorate the shuttle with decoupage, I've seen people do it and it looks really cool :)

The one on the left is a very plain purple shuttle by Prym. It's just about 2 inches long, fairly narrow and very thin. And you can actually take it apart, something I don't really see the point in, except maybe to remove thread easily when you're done using it. It tends to make the two sides slide apart, though, and the tips aren't very tight anymore. Plus it is difficult to wind because you have nowhere to hold :/ I've seen somewhere that these are recommended for beginners, but I don't know why. Perhaps they are good for practicing adding new threads to your work, because the post is so short you can only load it with a little thread at a time...

If I were to recommend any shuttles to a beginner, it would have to be the Clovers, of which I got five in the mail yesterday :)

You can get them both with and without points. They are pretty small, just a little more than two inches long. They definitely hold more thread than the Prym :) The only "problem" with the Clovers is that those points are seriously pointy! I've almost drawn blood more than once since yesterday :p However, the points are great for joins and or unpicking stitches.

 

Other shuttles for beginners would in my opinion be the Sew Mates. 

They are just like the Clovers, only bigger and therefore holds more thread. They also come both with and without points. Here is a picture comparing the two brands:

I've sort of become used to the size of the Sew Mates, but they are still a little big for my hands. Plus the tips are a little uneven (cheaper plastic, perhaps), which makes them unsuitable for picking out mistakes as it tends to frizzle the thread. However, it makes them better for joins. You could easily fix them by filing them with a nail file or something :)

Now I'm waiting for a few more shuttles and a couple of books in the mail, so fingers crossed that the mailman (mailwoman in this case) brings me goodies tomorrow :)

I'm still here

Just thought I'd post a little something to let you all know that I'm still alive :) I just finished taking notes from a really long chapter about eukaryotic cells, and I thought I'd take a small break before I start doing the exercises. *sigh* I read through the chapter last week, but for some reason I didn't take notes. Don't ask why... Next week I plan to start on the math. I haven't done it sooner because I need to borrow a fancy calculator from a friend who won't arrive in town before Sunday :/ Hope I have time to do it all. I figure that if I don't spend more than two weeks on each chapter, I'll get through the whole book by the end of November. Fingers crossed :)

Though I really need to focus on my studying this fall, I hope I'll be able to get some crafting done as well (I have to do something, or I'll probably go insane). I'm almost done with a new Great Big Bug - a firefly - and I have another one started. Plus I'd like to make another firefly as a mate to the first one. I have only four legs left to make! I'll do my best to finish it by this week :) For the body I've used glow-in-the-dark yarn (yellow Bernat) for the first time! I ordered it from here, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to people ouside of US or Canada, the shipping cost was insane compared to the price of the yarn :/ I tried ordering another brand (white Nightlights) from another site, but they had problems with overseas shipping, so I didn't really have a choice. Of course I could have waited until they had their issues fixed, but you know me :p Anyway, here's a sneak peek at the firefly:

She's quite large, and the back end really does glow! I'm pretty pleased with this one :)

Oh, another thing... I've managed to get tangled up in a craft project with a deadline of  August 31st, so that naturally has priority right now. Not sure how much I can talk about it yet, so if you feel like I haven't posted much craftyness lately it's not because I haven't done anything :) I promise I'll tell you more about it when I know how it turns out!

And then there's the tatting :) I'm hooked! On the bus here I started a new project, and during the next two or three days I finished my first "big" item, a crocodile bookmark :) Thought it would be cool to put in my biology book. The pattern is called "Alligator bookmark" from the book Animal Bookmarks - A Tatted Zoo by Dianna Stevens, but I think it looks more like a crocodile than an alligator. I like crocodiles better :)

Bookmarks are both practical and fun to make, and I think it's becoming a new obsession :) I'm not at all a fast tatter, so I can only make a few rings and chains every night, but I've just finished a thistle bookmark from this pattern. It doesn't say how many colors to use, but I made mine in green and pink. Pictures will probably be up on Flickr and Facebook tonight or tomorrow :)