Pepperberry Crochet

Atomic Doilies

Okay, I was supposed to be working on some new amigurumi designs. I have to say, the amigurumi is just not doing it for me lately. This is pretty normal for me in the summer, I suppose. I am in the process of developing a chili pepper pattern, but am having stem issues, so the chili pepper went on vacation for the weekend. Instead, I picked up some thread and my steel hooks and have been cracking myself up making these.

Granted, nuclear waste is a threat to us all, and it's really not that funny, but I get a kick out of seeing the nuclear trefoil as a doily. I have a much, much cooler doily that I'm working on at the moment that I think is far more amusing and goes much better with these.

Currently, they're pinned to a piece of felt. I'm going to be blocking and starching them a bit later. At that point, I should hopefully be able to get some better photos.

Beautiful Afghan

 I was paging through a bunch of projects on Ravelry and saw this incredible knitted afghan by Laura Aylor. I was really drawn to it because I thought it was crocheted with the Wave Stitch (my big fave) and it uses Noro Kureyon yarn (if I'm going to buy nice nice yarn, I buy Noro). I'm thinking of working up a crocheted version of this. All in oranges, of course. :)

Shell Swatches, Crochet Today

 After cursing at the camera for several minutes while trying to upload, I finally figured out that it wasn't plugged in, since I have a limited number of USB ports and had disconnected the camera cord. Awesome.

All I have for photos today is a swatch, from the project that I've been working on for the last couple of days. Shells are one of my obsessions, because you can use them so many different ways, make so many different kinds of them, and they always look pretty. I also really overuse the wave stitch.

I'm wrapping up the last bits of this project tonight. In fact, maybe I'll do it sooner, so that I can finally bring some of my other sketches to life. I've been really looking forward to some new stuffed creatures. You have probably been really looking forward to me doing something, rather than just talking about that.

ABC news did a piece on how crochet is becoming more popular. Crocheter Extraordinaire and Crochet Today editor Brett Bara is in it. Enjoy.

Lots of fun crafts at work today. We're continuing on the second shell wreath, which is loads of fun and will probably take until September to finish. We also hung a sheet of paper on the wall to make a giant flag using rollerbrushes, which was also fun. I need to make some new, larger, rollerbrushes.

Homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Yum!

Almost there!

Boo. I had to finally give in and charge my camera, so no photos today.

Thankfully, I’m just about finished with my work. I have to say, if there was a Bane of My Existence, it would certainly be baby booties. I have to work entirely on measurements for them, since I lack a baby or any friends with nearby babies that I could try them on. They also seem to defy the nature of crochet–circles that are flat become warped once sewn on, yarn that has stretch loses all elasticity when attached, fairies lose their wings, you get the drift.

I’m looking forward to being finished. I picked up a highly inspirational cookbook (bear with me) called The Metropolitan Cookbook. The illustrations are great! Incredibly inspiring! I am incredibly lazy and have not bothered to scan them. At any rate, they have inspired me to make a series of vegetable based amigurumi, something I haven’t really tackled yet. I can’t wait to get going, as soon as I can finish the godforsaken booties.

Diorama-rama.

I want to open by apologizing for this post being underlined. As you can see, I have yet to grasp the use of the Typepad Post Composer. Every time I think I've gotten there, it does something else to amaze me. This time it is underlining that I can't turn off. Thrilling. Exciting.

I spent yesterday working like a crazy person on my current design work. Since I'm a terrible slowpoke and procrastinator, I have a tendency to get my work in right on the deadline or a tiny bit late. In the interest of improving this, I decided to get this design work done right off the bat. I crocheted yesterday until my wrists hurt and I had a blister on my thumb. The upside is, I'm just about finished.

I cannot wait to be done with this project. Not that I don't enjoy doing this work, but I really want to get to work on some new amigurumi pieces and patterns, which means I need to wrap up the current designs.

The picture today is of a mini diorama I was working on. The thought was that I would put it inside a jar. I'm still planning on doing that, but the diorama (tree, mushrooms, bush, if you can't tell from the photo) is lacking something, so it's living on top of my printer until I can figure out exactly what it is I'd like to do with it. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to it. :)