Monday Morning Mish-Mash

I had forgotten how time consuming owning a puppy can be.  It's much like having a baby--they require constant attention and I have to watch him with an eagle eye.  We've had a few accidents and lost one cell phone charger to chewing, but other than that, I cannot be more in love with this little guy.  He makes my heart happy.

We took him on Saturday to get his first shots and his first worming treatment.  While we were waiting, I noticed that he was scared to death of all the yappy Chihuahua dogs, but he desperately wanted to make friends with all the huge dogs.  There was a gorgeous pure-bred pit bull and a GIGANTIC Mastiff who were very tolerant of tiny Cooper climbing all over them and chewing on their ears.

Needless to say, with all the extra attention and training Cooper requires, I haven't done much crocheting since he came home with us last week.  The only thing I've finished since then is a small blanket for him.  It's nothing fancy, just rows of dc and a border made up of five rows of hdc, using this neat pattern that looks like it's been knitted.  Cooper loves his blanky and it often travels with him between his basket at my bedside and his spot in the living room.

I have a tonne of half-finished projects that I work on for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time, when he gives me a chance, including Mother's Day gifts for my MIL (obviously this is going to be a big late), a birthday present for my mother whose birthday is in June, and two baby afghans that need to be finished by August. Hopefully the little stinker will give me a bit more time to finish!

A Moment of Zen

"You'll never do a whole lotunless you're brave enough to try."
-Dolly Parton 

Sorry for the complete lack of any crochet-related posts lately.  I have been working on things, however, and in fact, they are both wearables.  One is a little shrug-type thingie for Girl Child, and the other is a wee dress for my niece Cecil, who will be turning 2 in just about a week.  These are both works in progress, so I think I'll post photos tomorrow for W.I.P Wednesday.


Send Hannah to OM World Finals!

A condundrum...

I am in the process of planning an afghan.  I'm in the colour selection phase now and I'm finding it difficult...almost like picking a tattoo.  I'll be living with this afghan for the rest of my life, and quite possibly one of my children will want to live with it after they've moved out, too.  So, while the choice of patterns was pretty easy--I'm going with Lucy's Ripples--the choice of colours is way more difficult.

I have narrowed it down to one of three choices, using my favourite colour inspiration website, design seeds.  Here are the choices.  Perhaps you can leave me a comment and help me decide?  That'd be swell!

Choice #1 - Artichoke Hues

Choice #2 - Carnival Hues

Choice #3 - Vegetable Hues, without the orange

Monday Morning Mish-Mash

Hope you all had a fantabulous weekend.  I sure did--I got lots of crocheting done, made a special trip to the post office to get B's baby blanket and Melissa's bag in the post, and went to Michael's to pick up some yarn and drool over all the (expensive) natural fibres and gorgeous colours.  I have quite a few works in progress, but at least two of them will be done within the next two or three days, provided I can find the time to get them out of the way.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I decided to make gifts for the kids in my life.  As you might recall, Girl Child and her cousin Wally are receiving these fabulous little containers in which they can put their hair doo-dads, jewelry, Barbie doll shoes, whatever.  Well, I couldn't leave Boy Child, Wally's brother, Badger, or the newest cousin, Cecil, out, now could I?

So, I decided that I would make Boy Child and Badger amigurimi aliens.  I finished Badger's yesterday evening but haven't started on Boy Child's yet.  I discovered in piecing the alien together that my stitching (non-crochet stitching, that is...you know, with a needle and thread?) is really sub-par.  I suppose it's a good thing that I enjoy crocheting and not needlepoint or cross-stich.  I'm afraid I'd be horrible at it!

Badger's Alien, made with Sugar n' Cream 100% cotton yarn.

Cecil's Valentine's Day gift from her Auntie Fi is a teddy bear.  I have developed an addiction to making amigurumi.  They're so much easier than I ever thought they could be and at some point in the future, I'll be making myself a sea otter and a fox.

Cecil's bear's nose

And finally, I used up a bunch of left-over yarn bits to make some granny squares.  I have no idea what to do with them, since I only had enough yarn to make four of them.  Perhaps I'll get a big square of fabric to back a pillow and then use these as the front?

Maggie's Square

Blushing Grannie

Circle of Friends

Standard Fare Granny Square

In case any of you Eagle Eyes spotted the copious amounts of cat hair on my backdrop, this is the reason:

My studio is often invaded by one of the furry kids, in this case it's Fat Cat, our flame-point Siamese.

One Skein Crochet

My sister-in-law, A, who is responsible for my crocheting addiction, is having her second baby in August.  Since I'm obsessing over crocheting right now, and since I took such a long break from it the first time I started up, I thought I'd better get her shower gift out of the way now.

I think I've mentioned before that I have a bunch of mouths to feed, so I have to find cheap ways of indulging in my addiction.  After searching through Ravelry's extensive pattern data base, I found a cute hat and blanket that is made from one skein of yarn.  YAY!  Cheap and cute--my watch words!

This is a work in progress.  I've finished the hat and am half way through the blanket.  It's a neat pattern, pretty simple and easy--which is important to me, since I sometimes have a hard time following written patterns.  And since I love the colour combination, I'm using Red Heart's Super Saver yarn in Watercolour again. 

This is supposed to fit a 3 month old.  Hmmm...

Detail of blanket pattern