The 'stache

I finally completed the mustache, beard, hat thing for my friend! And yes I was finishing it when I was driving to his house (I swear I wasn't crocheting and driving at the same time!)  Anyway I am super proud of the mustache because it turned out so amazing for a pattern I just made up!  So straight to the pictures which is the best part of this entry!

And the completed piece (plus a few loose threads)

The only thing I would do a little differently is the beard. I made the face hole a little long so really it hangs past your chin (bad etiquette and a little disturbing).  Also the hat part was a little tight but that's very easy to fix.  I guess I could have made the beard a little fuller to balance out the awesomeness of the top but whatever I like it!

The Invasion of Catan!

YAY!  I put together my main island for my Settlers of Catan Afghan today!  It's about 2 feet across due to the J-hook I'm using.  Also I decided to deviate from the pattern a little bit.  Instead of sewing them together with an invisible mattress stitch or something of that kind I went for the blatantly obvious joining method.  I sandwiched 2 blocks together and then just single crocheted around an edge until the entire island was put together.  It was incredibly easy and non stressful... usually I have a billion blocks sitting around for ages waiting to be put together.  Not this time!  I'm too excited AND I want to get it done by Christmas so there's no stopping me... except I have to stop when my brother's around since it is a SECRET PRESENT!The reason why I hose to add the tan single crochet sashing is because if you look at the Settlers of Catan tiles they each have a little tan border as if a little dirt road circled the pasture, forest, quarry, etc.  So I made my own little dirt road too!  The real question is do I like the front (which shows the single crochet) or the back (which is sleeker and easier to play on) more?  I'm not sure.  But since I like them both so much that means I need to embroider the little sheep on both sides of the afghan so it is truly reversible.  They better be worth the added effort!

Top of the Island with tan Single Crochet visible on top... and the close-up!

As I said before I also like the back and am considering making the back the front... just a little extra embroidery and it would look pretty good too!  It's already significantly less bumpy but the tan "road" surface isn't as pronounced... its more like a railroad or something idk.  Anyhow here's a look at the back and its close up too! (below)

Arts and Crafts Time!

A few weeks ago I went to the Great Lakes Medieval Renn Faire and of curse I had to get dressed up.  Unfortunately it was HOT so I didn't feel like wearing my full length medieval dress which is also fairly heavy and gets muddy.  This meant I had to get inventive... What Would I Wear?  I found my new blue party dress and my sister's fairy wings.  Things were looking pretty good!  For footwear I needed something sparkly so what's easier than spray painting a pair of old white flats silver?  Not much unless you don't have silver spray paint that is!  I have to say that after all of my old HS art projects I'm not bad at spray painting odd things.  Now I just need a spray can of Crystal Clear and time to spray on a waterproof coating.  Unfortunately the spray paint does wear off in the mud and the rain but usually only the bottom of the sides of the shoe but that's what another coating of spray paint is for!

Since you have to get all sides of the shoe you have to stick your hand inside to hold it... and of course it also happens to be a lot of fun to walk around with a silver hand!

I swore I already posted a picture of my fun cocktail dress but apparently not. So here it is!  Just imagine it with massive full size wings and the silver shoes... PRESTO!  That's my fairy costume!

One Picture Says it All

So I was so Excited after doing the detail work on this block that I had to snap a picture and post it as soon as I was done!

The sheep was more of a challenge that it looked but I have some really nice fuzzy white yarn that I just finished washing, drying, and balling which made great wool.  At first the plan was to simply embroider a cloud shape then stick some legs and a head on it.  Then the plan progressed to French Knots which would have given great texture but proved to be too small for this project (they did make a great tail and eye though!)  After that I needed some inspiration and my mother pulled out her old book, Crewel Embroidery by Erica Wilson so we could look at different types of stitches!  The Bullion Knots worked fantastically giving the woolly sheep an appearance of fuzzy tangles!    Last minute, I added a fuzzy River just for kicks, with some scrap yarn.

Yarn: Washing, Spinning, Plying, and Balling

Today I decided to go through my stash of yarn to see what I was going to bring to school, when I stumbled across a bunch of wool that my Aunt had found at a yard sale for me!  This means I get to try washing yarn and then balling it.  Hence the internet is proving very helpful so I don't accidentally felt the wool (crosses fingers and hopes).  I have unwound a few balls of yarn and wound them into loose circles around the back of my kitchen chair.  Then I loosely tied the layers together with scraps of acrylic yarn.  Now they're all prepped to sit in some lukewarm (NOT HOT for wool) water with some mild detergent and then rinsed by sitting in some lukewarm water without the detergent.  I plan to hang them outside to dry on a rack.  I also have some interesting non wool yarns picked up at the garage sale.  Hopefully I can wash them with the natural colored wool without bleeding the colors together.

Unfortunately there is this really beautiful wool (that sounds contradictory, but it's not!) that is falling apart.  It appears like it hasn't been spun very well and it's single ply.  So I started looking around on the internet for an answer to respin or ply the yarn together.  It looks like I'll need a drop spindle of some sort to spin the yarn but I found this really amazing article how to make your own out of a dowel rod and a few old CDs!  (I have about 50 sitting in my room waiting to be donated to the Green Team lady who reuses them for crafts) It looks really cool and easy (to make the spindle at least... spinning itself looks like it will require a lot of patience and practice!)  Hopefully I can spin the beautiful brown wool into a usable yarn that won't fall apart in my hands.  Or I could just make a mess and have some fun, which is more likely for my first foray into spinning and plying yarn!

But if I ever get any good at spinning yarn I want to try spinning newspaper!

Summer Afghan Number 2!

So after I finished making my sister's Christmas present, the Wind Chime Afghan, I decided to make my brother one too! SUPER SECRET MODE IS ENGAGED!  I'm not sure if I want to make it big enough for a double or single bed, home or school afghan is really the question.  ANYWAY it's going to be a Settler's of Catan Afghan!  I'm super excited!  For those of you who don't know Settler's of Catan is a kick ass board game.  My siblings and I play it with practically all of the different variations and expansion packs so it gets complicated and fun fast! 

So back to the Afghan idea:  I made a few practice hexagons to start out with which looked more like starved orphan stars than healthy hexes in the prime of their life.  The reason for these initial complications of course have nothing to do with me :P  Alright I'll admit that I started reading a British Pattern Like an American Pattern and then confusion escalated from there.  But I got it all sorted out when I found this website which foresaw my problems.  So now my hexagon have a decent pulse and are recovering quite nicely.  I finished 8 healthy hexes in two days and they are going really fast!  I think I'm going to make one central island that looks pretty standard (18 hexagons and one desert)  Then to make it bigger I'll put in some islands with gold mines, attacking barbarians and what not.  I initially wanted to make it a fully functional board game spread.  In which case I'd put a nice square border around it and make 4 Velcro pockets (one at each corner) so that I can crochet towns, cities, roads, ships, and more for each player and then you can actually play the game on your bed!.  The only bad part about making a Catan board game is that once you sew the pieces together you can never change the set-up of the board game, although with enough islands and the like  I suppose you can always section off fields of play for a different game.  So I picked up a couple of pounds of Caron yarn 2 dark blue (ocean), 1 brick red (clay), 1 blue Grey (ore), 1 yellow (wheat), 1 dark green (forest), 1 light green (sheep pasture), and 1 tan (desert).  That's a lot of yarn but I trust Caron to give me a nice feeling afghan.  Plus when you buy in pounds of yarn you really don't have to worry about dye lots!  YAY!  And I'm basically using Amber's blog pattern, with my own minute variations and translations.  However after doing one hexagon with my I-hook I promptly forgot which hook I was using and picked up my J-hook for the next one, and the one after that, etc.  Needless to say by the time I recognized my mistake I was ready to pretend that the I-hook hexagon was specially made for a.... pillow?  Whatever.  It's good to be crocheting an afghan again!  Hopefully it will be ready for Christmas!

Who Needs What?

Okay everyone!  This is a little checklist to make sure we get everything we'll need and we end up matching to the best of our abilities!  MAKE A COMMENT IN THE COMMENTS FIELD ON THIS BLOG DO NOT SIMPLY CHECK THE BOXES (they will reload unchecked)!!! Simply copy and paste the lists into the comments and tell me yes (I have this item) or no (I will need to buy this item) When I have responses, I will update the check-marked lists accordingly This is important so DO IT please!

Respond by LEAVING A COMMENT:
YES (I have it) or NO (I need to buy it)

Per Person Requirements
Brown Camisole or Tank Top (Shopping Expedition for when we get back to school)
2 Small Battery LED lights with a 40% off coupon cute 1.25" LEDs are 12lights/$6
a length of elastic that will fit around your waist and hips
16 plastic ball pit balls
Wisk. For a more authentic look: beater or paint roller frame
Plunger aka plastic margarita glass with removable stem
Black Boots, Black/Gold Flats, or shoes that can be spray painted
2 Translucent M&M Cups with lids from Retifer or plastic shot glasses
I know my Hip and Waist Measurements in Inches
Gives Emma Permission to Buy unchecked items if she finds them cheaply
Enough for Everybody
Less than 12-16 yds. Gold Fabric picked out at JoAnn's
Chocolate Crepe Backed Satin picked out at JoAnn's
Brown Headband fabric 1yd at JoAnn's with coupon
Interfacing
NEW IDEA: Skirt Pattern Sizes 8, 10, 12, 14
OLD IDEA: Skirt Pattern C but not This Pattern which has the same Simplicity Number!
              Pattern Sizes 6, 8, 10, 12
              Pattern Sizes 14, 16, 18, 20
Tan and Brown Thread (1 spool)
Pins, Needles, Sewing Scissors, etc.
X-acto knife (2)
Gold/Bronze Spray Paint
Crystal Clear Spray Paint
Black Spray Paint in case plunger, shoes, or accessories aren't black
Time to make all of this stuff: Priceless
More things I can't think of (Lots)

This list is also a bit of a DO NOT FORGET TO BRING TO COLLEGE reminder as well.  :)