Pepperberry Crochet

Whoops. Giant bump.

Oops.
Originally uploaded by crochetsamurai

I'm currently working on an afghan design that is going to be a combination of a Christmas gift for my parents and my new pattern. Unfortunately, I managed to get 30 rows and a color change into a rather large afghan before I discovered that my edges were entirely screwed up, as evidenced by the giant bump here. It would look even worse, but I had been tugging at the red part to even it out. I should have known there was a problem when it wasn't "curling".

When you're working on a rectangular or square piece of crochet, hopefully, if your gauge is correct and you have the right number of stitches, the corner of the row you're working on will curl, just a little bit. At least, it does for me, and that's always how I know I've done it right. I don't know why ignored it this time, except for the fact that I was watching a terribly interesting PBS series, Status Anxiety.

It's back to the drawing board with the afghan, we received a ton of snow last night, so I'm stuck here. :)

Pink Tree is Complete!

Boy am I slow. But, it is finished! I spent the entire day at an adaptive equipment workshop making things, so I'm not exactly in the mood tonight to make more things. Today was fun, though. I made an adapted ball roller, so that two people can play catch without the ball rolling off the table, a sensory board, a paintbrush/musical instrument holder, and more. If only I could have power tools at work...

Custom Holiday Octopi

Custom order for the holidays.

More Trees

Happy post-Thanksgiving. Many things to do today...

Crazy Tree Ornament

I am happy. I walked into work today to discover that not only had the painters come and both washed and repainted my disgusting walls in my room (whoops, I had no idea they were white until I saw the new paint job...) but the cleaners polished the floor. The "covered in weird red goop that oozes up between the tiles" floor, also known as the "covered in pureed food because Swiffer pads are apparently too expensive and I'm too lazy to make a washable cover" floor. It's fantastic, I can actually see my tiles. I'm not even upset that the whole room was rearranged, because I kind of dig the new set up.

I also had a yarn buying triumph, attempting to locate (tubes? rolls? cones?) of Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton in gold. No, I do not order things on line, that would be easy. I found four tubes, plus the red yarn I was looking for, although that was at a separate shop.

Most of all, my inspiration seems to be back, at last. I finished yesterday's tree ornament and am pleased with it, I'm working on some pink and whatever-else-I-have-in-my-scrap-bin versions. I've also been decorating an army surplus bag with doilies. Now, if my camera would stop pretending that I take pictures in the pitch darkness, everything would be just peachy!

Ornaments

I'm getting going on the whole holiday thing a little bit early this year.

Most years, I'm not really a big fan of the holidays. It's always a pain, what with both families always scheduling Thanksgiving dinner at the same time, dealing with the dreaded Christmas Shopping (which I hate. If only more people appreciated handmade gifts...) and insanity and down staffing at work.

This year things seem a little calmer. One family has decided (finally) to set a price cap on gifts, we have a major charity project going on at work that will hopefully become the jumping off point for some year-round work, we're splitting the holidays, and I'm actually ahead on my ornament swap ornaments.

Last year I made hanging donut ornaments, which were, shall we say, a little bit out of the ordinary. This year I'm working on various trees, inspired by Atelier XT's incredible use of color. I'm still tinkering--this is an unfinished tree, not even stuffed. Maybe I'll try some in green.

Gingerbread Men

I want to start out by saying I realize that my photo quality has drastically declined recently. I am well aware, not that it was all that great to begin with. I'm hoping, with the new year, to make GOOD photography the hallmark of my business, rather than bad, as it has been.

These are some gingerbread men, or at least the ones that were ready to be photographed when I pulled out the camera. I have several more in various stages of assembly scattered about my kitchen cabinets. I decided this year to use dimensional paint for the frosting because, well, it actually looks like icing. However, this means that I have to "frost" the front of the gingerbread men, let it dry, then flip them over and do the back. Since my cats desperately would like to play with them, they're drying in the kitchen cabinets. Come to think of it, the cats desperately want to play with everything I touch. I should put up a photo of my elaborate Ziploc Bag System that I use to keep everything clean.

At any rate, I'm still working like a madwoman. Last year, I brought one giant tote full of items to sell, this year my goal is two. I'm hoping the business cards arrive this week so that I can start tagging everything, which would be nice, as opposed to waiting until the night before the show to do it, which is what I did last year. I really would like to be able to take the Saturday before the show off. Of course, I know that's not going to happen, but it's a nice thought.

Also, I am quite excited to see that Reprodepot is going to be there. I really, really need crazy fabric to make a new quilt out of, and I might actually have time to do that after the holidays! Well, that and take up casting random objects in resin.