the end of october

Here she is, the bane of my existence, October.


And a close up shot:
As you can see, it was clearly the details that took me forever. From afar, October looks like a fairly straight-forward striped blanket. But up close, you can see the scalloped edging and the keyhole design. I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. Afterall, the recipient will, I'm sure, see it close up more often than far away. And hooray, I managed to finish before the little girl arrived.

Now I'm set with the pink (for now) and will shortly be moving on to August, the shooting star pattern. Then, on to my three newly-commissioned works. But I'm not sure what those will be yet.

In the meantime, I'm keeping my hook warm with work on the new Checked Blanket. I tried to start the Relaxed Cardi but that just isn't going to happen. Anyone know a quick and easy crochet slipper pattern I could use Homespun yarn for?

wip it good

I just want to prove to everyone that I really am working on stuff here, since it's been a long while since my last finished project.

First, I'd like everyone to meet October:


Not done yet, but so, so close.

Then, the creamsicle-colored Checked Blanket:



Only one strip, but it provided enough diversion to recharge me on October.

And then, not started, but on the chopping block, Relaxed Cardi #2:

oh yarn, where art thou?

Can I ask, why is it so hard to locate bold and bright colors in baby yarns? I finally found the two colors I need for the next blanket (this one is called August - it's a shooting star pattern) on the Lion Brand website, and now I can't seem to find someone who carries them. God forbid we wrap our babies in anything but pale blues and pinks, right? Grrr...

So here they are, Navy and Buttercup.

I only need one skein of the Buttercup Baby Soft, but three of the Navy. And yet... nothing. Perhaps, to Chel's point, I should join Ravelry. Maybe someone there can soothe my thumping, bumping brain (salud, Gonzo the Great) and help me find these elusive yarns. The pattern is so exciting, I can't wait to try something so wild for a baby blanket.

One strip to go, October, and I will finish you!

closer... closer...

The end of October is in sight. Just a matter of finshing the edging on two last strips and then sewing them to the main blanket. Then it's all done, and I can move on to more interesting pastures.

Don't get me wrong though, October is going to be so cute. I can't wait to see it all come together.
Since my mother is non-crafty, she did me the honor of buying two skeins of Lion's Brand Homespun in Prairie.

Unfortunately, she bought it because she wants me to make her a Relaxed Cardi (and yes, I still owe you all pictures of the green one I made). And apparently she thinks that any yarn, in any quantity, can be used for any project. Now I'm struggling to find a crochet hook which will turn this rather awkward yarn in to anything remotely wearable, and I'm going to have to go buy a few more skeins. Ugh. And I really want it to work out for her - I love making things that someone will actually USE.

I've also broken up the monotony of October with another Checked Blanket, this one in orange and pale yellow. Only one of the five strips done for that one, but it was nice to take a break from pink and white. :)

quick and sweet

My prior experience with baby/toddler afghans came from patterns in this booklet. You'll notice that the cover, in fact, TELLS you that the patterns are "Quick & Sweet."


Quick and sweet though they claim to be, each one still took me a month to finish. So suffice it to say, I put little stock in their claim. Much like when a booklet promises "contemporary and modern designs" and you see things you wouldn't be caught dead in. Much like how my subject line says "quick and sweet" when this post is clearly neither.

When shopping for the next booklet of patterns, I didn't worry whether they claimed ease, I just went for one that had more than seven patterns. Enter, A Year of Baby Afghans.

I've typed all of this to get to my point. Which is, I am STILL working on October. I'm not even halfway done. Which, by my count, means that the months of not only August and September will have passed by the time it's finished. October itself will have finished before October is finished.

In case you are curious, October is the blanket pictured in the upper corner of the cover above. Looks simple enough, doesn't it? And even easier, my version is just pink and white, not multi-colored. So why is it taking half my year to finish?!?

I'm especially stressed about this because a) since I know the baby's gender already, that means I had less then twenty weeks to start with to get this darn thing done and b) I just had to frog three rounds of my latest strip, without even knowing where, exactly, I went wrong. Which of course means I'm doomed to repeat it.

All of this prompted my dear, sweet husband to utter the following:

"I'm sorry, I'm confused. Isn't this supposed to be relaxing and fun?"

victory made sweeter by defeat

Here's something you never expected to see on a craft blog.

That's right, my beloved Spartans tackle UAB in our first game of the season. My whole family was at the game, it was lil' b's first Spartan experience and he did so well! But to make the weekend even more perfect, we got to catch the final six seconds of this game:

And then, AND THEN!! NFL kicks off TOMORROW! ACK! I am just beside myself with excitement. After this weekend, perhaps I will post my fantasy team. I don't know who will give a hoot besides myself, but I'm pretty pleased with my picks.

Fall: The perfect season for curling up on your couch with a glass of wine and a skein of warm yarn to yell obscenities at the television.

Speaking of yarn, I got depressingly little done on October this holiday. Hopefully I can really focus this week. As it is, I was just commissioned for another blanket (this one unisex, finally!) so I'm eager to get going on that as well.

And speaking of wine, we had such fun at the wine tasting party! Our two bottles were a huge hit! Our Cab Sauv came in second place, and our Merlot came in first.

The Cab (above) was a Broquel Cabernet Sauvignon from the Trapiche winery in Argentina. The Merlot (below) was actually a Semi Sweet Merlot from the Pelee Island Winery in Canada. For our snack I made Alfajores Rogel cookies, a cracker-like cookie with dulce de leche sandwiched in between. It was an Argentinian dessert, but it did not go well with the wines, it was far too sweet.

pink october

I bought a new baby blanket pattern book! Hooray hooray hooray! So I am crocheting up a blanket called October for my next big project. However, I have been working on it all week and haven't finished a strip yet (the completed blanket has nine of 'em). I tried to figure out the instructions for the turn while watching Borat last night, which was (and yes I realize it now) hopeless. I spent the whole length of the movie crocheting four single crochets and then distractedly ripping them back out again. No progress can be made that way!

And I know I owe you a picture of the Relaxed Cardi, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The power outtage last week left us with a power-surge-damaged refrigerator or outlet or something, so we've been picking up the pieces ever since.