Bring out the Boots! (and other ramblings)

Even though the days are still pleasantly warm, the chilly nights have me thinking of fall and fall crafting projects of all kinds.  My daughter, like most tweens, loves her boots.  Casual, dressy, patent leather....she wears them all.

Today I experimented with some new self-striping yarn called Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable.  I know, I know... Red Heart has such a bad reputation for being icky and scratchy.  Their new boutique line of yarns is anything but.  This stuff has fabulous colors and great stitch definition.  You'll probably be seeing it frequently in my projects.

Anyhow, here's how the boot toppers turned out.

Ribbing end up

Crochet shells end up

Here's what the yarn looks like in the skein. The colors are delicious!

This color is called Parrot.

I'm using the same yarn in an experimental design for a boyfriend cardigan.  Alternating the striping yarn with a solid gray makes an interesting effect.  It keeps my attention too, because you never know what the next row will look like.

I've also uncovered the sewing machine after a brief hiatus.  Just didn't have the time for a lot of sewing the past few months.

See, what happened is that a new store called Stitch opened downtown in the East Village - a fabric and yarn store (!!!) I stopped in last week to welcome the shop owners and see what they had for sale, and stumbled upon the Perfect accompaniment to a fabric I already had in my stash.  Add in a cute pattern (This is Simplicity 2396), and I just had to drop everything and whip out a crochet project bag - and it's REVERSIBLE!

This is the fabric I had in my stash.  

And this is what I found down-town, at the new Stitch.

And, since patterns were on sale, I couldn't resist the one for animal hats with the attached paw pockets (Simplicity 1795)  These only took about an hour each so I'm sure by winters end, we'll have a whole zoo.

Despicable Bathrobe

We've had some unexpected expenses lately, so I put myself on a self-imposed yarn diet.  It's not so bad though, forcing myself to use yarn from the stash.  There are only oh....14 sweaters worth of yarns in there.

I also am on a quest to either finish WIP's (works in progress) or rip them out and use the yarn for something else.  Ripping out is where this purple yarn came from.

In it's first life it was an afghan.  I bought it thinking the long stripes of color would be so pretty as an afghan, but it just wasn't working out.  The yarn is fickle.  It's boucle, so you can't see the stitches well at all, making it hard to do any sort of detailed pattern with it.  So the unfinished afghan was stuffed into the closet in a time out.

When the weather turned a bit cold, I starting dreaming of a longer-length coat/jacket/sweater thing.  Something that could be tossed over anything for those days when it's chilly, but I don't want a full coat.  This pattern is by Doris Chan and can be found in her book Everyday Crochet.  The original pattern has a shawl collar, one of those that flips back and rolls slightly.  I love the look of shawl collars but this yarn wouldn't have it.  I did a simple single crochet edging instead, and it really shows off the striping in the yarn nicely.

 My son wanted to know why I was crocheting a bathrobe.  For weeks I've held firm that this is NOT a bathrobe, it's a coat-jacket thingie.  But now that it's finished and I see myself modeling it there, I concede that it does, in fact, look very bathrobe-y.

Whatever.  I'm wearing it anyway.  I'll be that weird lady at the grocery store buying cat food in her "bathrobe."

In other news...

My kids have been obsessed with Despicable Me for months, more so since the sequel came out July.   All over the internet are pictures of the minion cupcakes.  I caved and bought the twinkies and the kids made these today.  My 10-year-old did the faces.  I think she did a great job.  Piping frosting isn't the easiest skill to learn.

If we try this again we will use black instead of brown coloring.  There needs to be more contrast between their features and the color of the twinkie.  They're delicious!

Never-Ending Afghan of Doom has been Conquered.

It all started on November 15, 2011.   An event with such happiness, such promise of beauty.  And then the day arrived when I couldn't bear to look at the thing any longer, so I put it in hibernation.

The 2012 summer Olympics arrived, and again the afghan emerged to the light of day.  I had a quest!  10 days to finish the thing and win a virtual gold medal.  Could I do it before closing ceremonies?

No.

The task was too big, too daunting.  I failed.  Hanging my head in shame,  I rolled the afghan up inside a quilt and stuffed it into the closet like an unappetizing burrito.

Until two weeks ago.  The kids went back to school and things started to feel a bit like fall.  From somewhere unknown a burst of optimism and energy emerged, and I dragged that thing from the closet depths like a crazed woman.  This time, I was determined to finish it.

And yesterday, I did.

If I ever, Ever, EVER start making noise about a motif-based afghan again, I need you all to come over here and start beating me with sticks.   No matter how beautiful the end product is, it's not a good idea to make 24 triangles, 35 squares, and 48 octagons all separately, sew them all together (honestly, this is the part that's truly dreadful), and then put on a border.

But it's done, and I did earn a medal after all, of sorts.  I'm giving myself a medal for Longest Project Ever, coming in at just under two years from start to finish. November 15, 2011 - September 3, 2013.  Whoa.