Monday, May 30, 2011

Afghans, Afghans, and Online Scrapbooking

I feel like I've constantly crafting, which is probably because my king sized Granny square afghan is almost done, only 10 more rows aka 20-30hrs left!  With any luck I'll get that done over the summer so I don't have to constantly transport it back and forth between the apartment!

Then my brother's Settler's of Catan afghan is almost done.  I'm in the last stages of putting all of the 124 hexagon's together, which is exciting.  Unfortunately it looks a little narrow, possibly because I might have crocheted a couple of the ocean squares with an H-hook instead of a J-hook, but then again you can't really tell the difference between the blocks so maybe it was just the one tile that I already redid *crosses fingers and hopes*  In order to fix this narrow problem, I plan on squaring off the afghan (by making half hexagons and odd shaped triangles) and then double crocheting a thick border all the way around in Caron ocean blue and/or some of the resource colors ( I have plenty of that left over).  Who knows by the time I'm done with it, it might turn into a double bed sized afghan!  Also this afghan's one year anniversary is quickly approaching!  Although I doubt it will get done in that amount of time :/

Lastly I have found myself awake in the wee hours of the morning watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 6's musical episode is fantastic!) while scrapbooking.  Instead of the traditional glue and card stock book, I'm making the entire thing online at Shutterfly.  After uploading pictures, writing the text, designing the page, and all of the usual work made easy by electronics--they will print out the pages, bind them together it a book, and ship it to my door!  It's fast too.  I made a 20 page documentation of my trip to the south west in 3 days or less.  I never had to print or paste a thing.  Plus I can scan in things like tickets and the like to put into the book too!  My favorite thing to do is scan in the hotel's complimentary pad of paper (that I always collect) and then center the text box onto the pad of paper!  It looks like you're writing on the notebook diary-style but it's clearly written and you don't have to go through the trouble of using your best calligraphy pens or hand writing, spell checking, or worrying about wanting to change it later!  Very cute!  I've already started my second scrapbook the same week!  Plus they aren't that expensive (although it sucks because I already own the stuff to make it by hand--minus the printed pictures of course!)  On sale the 12" x 12" scrapbook with 20 pages costs $38.99, without the sale $50-60 and $1.20 per page after the initial 20 pages.  Plus with any order over $30 you can usually get shipping free!  It's a great deal and I can't wait to put in my first order!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Summer Snood

Several hours on a plane can make someone go snood crazy.  My snood is based on this pattern and it is pretty easy to work up.  Unfortunately it takes more than one skein of Royale Metallic Silver Crochet Thread, size 10 which I learned the hard way.  Luckily there was a Micheal's in Las Vegas.  It was hilarious when I gave them my zip code, let's just say they had never gotten it before!  Anyway I got the entire thing whipped up in less than three days of sporadic work except for the last row where you crochet in the elastic.  Frankly after a cockroach decided to run around my new project while trying to avoid capture and the eventual flush, I'm not exactly sure I want to put the finishing touches on it.  However it does look extremely cute!!  So maybe after hand washing it, I will put in the elastic.  :D

June 1, 2011 Update:
Here it is all pretty and finished!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Addiction 2.0

In two days I've made two choker necklaces!  Can anyone say addiction and too much time?

Byzantine Knot 16 inches: Started and Completed April 30th





Double Spiral Knot 18-19 inches: Started April 29th, Completed April 30th



Mobius Knot 15-19 inches: Started April 2 and Completed April 26