A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away

R2-D2 is one of the most loved characters in the Star Wars Universe.  Most people like to say their favs are Han Solo or Obi-Wan Kenobi while hating on Luke, Jar Jar Binks, and (young) Anakin but this crafter's favorite is the fiery and faithful little droid.  Now what's better than an R2-D2 hat?  (well maybe a Jayne Hat but I have one already).  This was the pattern I used from Ravelry with slight deviations, but I think I'll make up my own now that I have a basic idea of the what one could look like.  :)  All in all, this was an excellent craft and the friend I made it for was ecstatic to get it!  Now I just have to make her a Snow Wampa amigurumi with a removable arm.

This is my masterpiece:

The Last Project

The last project before the storm, aka before summer prematurely ends, is origami madness!  I made about 150+ origami creatures for a school project but then I thought why not have a little fun with it.  I already had the Star Trek Origami Book and my favorite ship is the Klingon Bird of Prey... so why not run with it?

Big Blue

From humble beginnings as a mere 12 inch square this afghan has grown into something Big and Blue in 155 days (that's about 5 months!) each colored blue Caron yarn is 15 rows in a granny square pattern.  It is approximately --- inches across although the corners are a little stretched out so it's actually a little bigger.  This afghan is almost too big for a king sized bed!!  I'd have to weigh it to make sure but I used about nine or ten POUNDS of yarn! My only regret is the visibility of the dye lots in the lightest blue yarn.  I wish I had put in a middle row of a darker color to break up the two different colored Azures.  So much for Caron yarns not having dye lots!  Regardless there is no way in hell that I am ever EVER going to rip out all those rows to fix it.  Clearly it was an artistic choice, like pairing off white with white.  I must have subtly wanted to pair the lighter Azure with the Cape Cod while the blue gray Azure meets the Ocean Blue and the Midnight Blue makes a great border to the entire afghan.  So it was all on purpose... clearly...   :D

This is an aerial view of a king sized bed, notice anything blue and afghan-ish about it?

Too big for business, the stretched out corner of this afghan can reach the ground when there isn't anyone under the covers! 

Old is New, Preserved for Posterity

This tissue box cover was the very fist project I did in my clothing and textiles class in early 2008.  I used the same yarn that I had left over from my afghan so that it would match my room decor nicely.

Something Old and Something Blue

While looking for old clothes to donate I ran across some of my old crafting projects.  Before sending them off to a nice home, I needed to document their awesomeness.

This is the second knitting project and scarf that I ever made.  It was an experiment transitioning between different needle types and yarns.  It's also my first crochet project since I edged it with a basic slip stitch.  However back then I was working on  zero knowledge of what crocheting was and I thought I was being inventive.  Least to say I had to rework the edge of the binding before I could donate it, although it does make a very good scarf!

Years later but still years ago, this project is a little clutch that I made to go to my first formal.  It almost matches my dark maroon dress, although it ultimately proved more practical to just bring a little black clutch than this furry contraption.  It was made on the smallest kniffty knitter hoop with dark purple Caron yarn and an evening color funfur.  The handle was a maroon ribbon that was quad braided into a nice clutch.  This was actually made over winter break in January 2010.

Snood Number Two!

Since I picked up more crochet thread when I was in Nevada, I decided to make another snood but this time in gold.  This pattern was incredibly easy and simplistic while still looking really good when all was said and done.  Also it's not as thick as my last snood so you can actually see the color of my hair.  It looks like I'll be wearing the gold snood with my purple Renaissance Dress and my silver snood with the blue one.  It took me about two or three days of intermittent crocheting and it turned out wonderful!  I used a 2-hook and Royale Metallic Cotton Crochet Thread Natural/Gold, size 10.

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!!