The life of a square

I finished a pillow that was a gift for my Aunt Sally! I will always associate rust orange with Sally. If you see the posting from January, you can see the kind of square that I used for the pillow. I made eight of them and then sewed them together. I made a green fabric pillow just smaller than the crocheted one and stuffed it. Then I placed the green one inside the orange and blue one and fastened the edge. She liked it.

Cupcakes Are So In Right Now

Cupcakes, the confident offspring of cake, are popping up everywhere these days. Decadent little things, I thought they deserved an homage in the form of yarn, so I made a few for my little three month old friend who will enjoy pretending to eat them when she gets a little older.

The Softer Side of Taxidermy

Wow! This is some amazing crochet art! http://www.shaunarichardson.com
My friend Ashlie pointed this out to me. If you click on the "studio" tab you can see some of her finished animals, including this lifesize lioness. I am impressed not only by the crocheting but by the vision of this artist. The song "Killing Me Softly" pops into my head. . .

Lil Mama's Hat

I was watching America's Best Dance Crew when I saw this wicked hat that Lil Mama was wearing. It's a mohawk hat. It's very inspiring. Cool crochet, represent. Y'all, this hat brings it.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

With the holidays and all, I haven't written lately, so I thought I would post some stuff that I've been crafting recently. Remember "Walkmans?" Well, I joined the technological world of music and recieved an Ipod Nano for Christmas to replace my Walkman. Of course, I immediately thought "I need to make a case for this little thing!" Was I more excited about the prospect of making a case or getting an Ipod? I'm not sure. I dashed off a little purple cover, and I am sure I will make more considering the size of the player.

I found this chunky yarn and I couldn't help but make a pink and white scarf out of it. It reminds me of candy.

I also made a casual bag which is felted, wool and silk. I love felting because you have to wait for it. I put it in the washing machine and it is out of my hands. It turned out softer than I thought it would.

I crocheted this speckled hat in a way that makes it look knitted but is not. Tricky eh? I can only knit in a very primative way. Why do that when I can crochet?

Of course I always have five or six hundred projects going at the same time. One is the squares. You can see them here in different phases. A pillow is the goal; we will see. . . I will post it when I am done.

There you go. I have yet to figure out how to work out and craft at the same time, but I am sure there will be a way in the future. Look at what happened with music!

Pour Some Sugar On Me

I had read that instead of starch, you can use sugar and water to stiffen things like crocheted snowflakes. The sugar water is better becuase it doesn't yellow over time. so, I tried it in two different applications and it worked! The process was super sticky but it was easy. I just melted the sugar in a pot of water on the stove and then dunked the snowflakes in. I squeezed them out and then blocked them on a piece of cardboard with pins, and waited for them to dry. It took about three days for the small one to really dry which was longer than I thought. The big one took four or five days. The big one was the experiment- instead of cotton I used wool and the snowflake was much bigger. In general, I think cotton will always work better but it's nice to know that wool works too. Now that I write that I realize the nerdieness factor here is at about an nine, but no one can deny the cuteness of crocheted snowflakes.