Merry Christmas etc. :)

In this house the holiday is practically over. People are going back to work tomorrow and I have biology to do. Looking forward to studying again :) Think I've forgotten to mention that I've actually been admitted into a college math & physics course this spring, which will give me the credits I need to apply for biology at the university :) So happy that I got in, I was so sure I wouldn't. Over 200 applicants and less than 80 available places. So from Monday the 10th I will be busy busy busy with math and stuff. Hope I'll do better than I did on my own this fall! Didn't even get past the first chapter in my math book :/

So did you get anything fancy for Christmas? I'm very pleased with my loot :) Mostly practical stuff like kitchen utensils and new trunks (our old ones are seriously falling apart and won't survive another trip), but I got two macrame bracelet kits + a gift certificate for the craft store. Can't wait to go shopping next week! I think there will be lots of new beads :D

From my mother I got a convertible cowl/hoodie thingy which I've used a lot these last days because it's freezing cold outside. It's really nice and warm around my neck (I never wear scarves because I feel they choke me) and I like it a lot. Problem is, though, that a few days before Christmas I just started crocheting one! Hmm... I just fell in love with the yarn and the colors and it's so cold around here I had to make something, but now I'm not sure what to do about it. I guess I can always use two of them :) Here's what I have so far, I think it's about half done:

Well, enough with the ranting. Hope you all are having/have had a nice weekend! Enjoy next weekend as well, and have a happy new year if I don't post any more this year :)

Potholders galore!

I've been very busy lately, because one day I suddenly decided to make something for everyone in my family for Christmas! Potholders seemed like a good idea and I had some cool yarn I wanted to try, so I started making loads of them... The first I made really big, because I only wanted to make one:

I didn't realize until it was half done that my choice of yarn was a bit off. The yarn does not take heat (no ironing) and needs to be hand washed. Great. So I got some ordinary cotton yarn and made a padding for the back. I think it'll work, I just need to inform the recipient... The pattern is found HERE.

I already had the yarn for a second potholder, so I decided to do the same with that one. The back is padded with darker brown yarn, as I couldn't find an exact match:

The pattern is the same as the first one, but I ran out of time and had to make it one round smaller. Don't think the recipient will mind, though :)

I found some other brand of fancy yarn I wanted to try, so I made two pairs of small potholders from this pattern. The yarn has something called 'milk fibers' in it (whatever that is), and can only be washed on 30 degrees C. Hmpf! So I made cotton backings for these potholders as well, beige for the gray/beige ones and black for the orange/purple ones:

Finally I used some of the leftover cotton and made up an apple wedge potholder for my grandmother:

It's very simple; just a circle with the last round done in apple skin color. The pits were crocheted separately and sewn on before I folded the thing in half and sewed along the green edge. Tada :)

I had to rush these because I had to get them shipped in the mail before December 16th. I made it (barely), so now I've been relaxing for a few days with a project for myself, which I'll blog about later :) I still have a few Christmas presents to finish, though, but they don't have to be wrapped until Christmas Eve! Heh :p

Christmas Dudes x 2!

I am so happy to have not one, but TWO new patterns to share with you! The past two weeks I've been working very hard on some Cute Little Dudes patterns for the holiday, and last night they were both finally done and listed both on Ravelry and on Etsy. Here are all the Dudes together:

Set one is Santa, Reindeer & Snowman; set two is Angel, Gingerbread man & Gnome. Most of these Dudes are a little different from the other sets I've made as I've never done humans/humanoids before. It was fun! More animals to come later, though :)

In terms of difficulty these Dudes are not more complicated than the rest, but some of them do have a lot of details. The angel's hair can be a bit tricky if you're not used to putting hair on dolls, but I've explained things as best I can and I hope it makes sense :)

I wanted to have the patterns up by December 1st (which is today already - yikes!), and I did! Very pleased with myself for that :) Now, however, I kind of have a little problem. I should be finishing up two new Bugs (really not that much left to do), but I seem to be stuck in Dude mood... It's been so long since last time that I want to make more right away! What to do, what to do...

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..)