About August

I know, I know... a whole month and no blog?!  Actually, I wrote up a whole blog about some bunting I made around the middle of the month, but it didn't save for some reason, and I was too frustrated with it afterwards to redo it.  You can see pictures of the bunting on my Ravelry project page. August was a very busy month for us here at home.  We live in British Columbia, and currently our teachers are on strike, so that means the kiddos are still at home, and we've been doing school lessons here in our house.  It is fun and rewarding, but of course, is also time consuming.  I think I'm going to pick a day of the week and make that my "I really should blog day."

So what's been hooking over here?  Oh, all sorts of this and that.  I've been working on some Christmas presents for my family.  I haven't photographed them yet.  Perhaps I'll have them ready for next week's blog.  A friend of mine asked me to make a minion hat for her little guy.  The end result was this guy over here to the left.  He was a pretty simple make, but was fun!  It was a nice change to hook up something with a loser gauge, as I've been doing a fair amount of amigurumi lately that calls for pretty tight tension. 

I had been working on designing a bag for my Mother in law to carry her Kobo (e-reader) and her tablet in the same bag.  I made this bag using King Cole Riot DK in the colour "Cool".  It's a beautiful wool/acrylic blend that I really love.  It does hook up very beautifully... but it is VERY unforgiving.  I found this out the hard way when I had the bag about half way done before I realized I had flip flopped the height and width on the bag, and it took my husband and I as a team nearly an hour to frog it.  I decided that since this was for electronic devices that I should really line the bag.  I'm not the best seamstress (especially since I don't have a sewing machine and I have to do it by hand), but it turned out pretty good!  I made the separate compartments by using a sheet of plastic canvas, putting quilt bating on either side, and then sewing the liner over that.  She really likes it and has gotten several compliments on it.

We have now gone to see Guardians of the Galaxy twice (once at the theater, and once at the Drive-in).  Our kids love it, and so do we.  My son's favourite character from the movie is Baby Groot.  He asked me to make him one, and I couldn't disapoint that little face.  So this is what his finished Baby Groot looks like.  He said that Baby Groot would be happier if he had some "skinny rainbows" on his pot, and so I found a way to make both him and Baby Groot happy.   He loves his Baby Groot!  I posted a picture of him on my Facebook, and my friends went nuts!  Nuts enough that five of them wanted a Baby Groot of their own.  And so I got to work on five more Baby Groots.  I haven't photographed their finished ones yet, but I do have a picture of all the Baby Groot heads while I was working on them.  They were a fun make, but a lot of sewing and cramped up, aching hands.  I think the cramping may be from too much hooking in general, but sometimes I have to actually push my fingers back into a normal position.

I discovered a new favourite yarn!  It's still pretty new, and hard to find in my area, but it is called Landscapes by Lion Brand.  I was only able to get one skein in the color Apple Orchard.  It's a 100% acrylic self-striping yarn with a beautiful shine and vibrant colors.  Since I only had the one skein, I decided to make a cowl scarf with it.  It turned out great and it is SUPER warm!  I usually wear a sweater nearly all of the time, but I had to take my sweater off when wearing the scarf.  I can't wait until the Joann's in Bellingham starts to carry this (I'm hoping they will, anyway) so I can get some more of it!  I also have one skein of the Boardwalk, Mountain Range, and Tropics colors.  They are also beautiful, but I might wait until I can have more of it to make something bigger than a scarf.  It is fabulously soft and silky, and it feels like a dream on your hook!

The last thing I'll share today is the little pouch I made for myself.  I wanted a little something that I could easily throw into a project bag and take with me on the go without fear of my hooks, needles, stitch markers and scissors falling out.  I have never worked with this type of clasp before, and I didn't use a pattern.  This is not my best work, and I was hesitant to even put it on my blog.  But now that I've had some experience with this sort of frame, I think with a little practice I could see some very cute little pouches or coin purses coming soon!  I love these colors with the fabric I chose for my liner!  It has a very Autumn-ish feel too it, and since out leaves are already starting to fall here, it couldn't bee more appropriate.  I really love the foxy fabric!  It's cute without being babyish.  The yarn is Bernat Mosaic (which, much to my heart's dismay, has been discontinued) in the color Medusa.  I'm considering making a cushion for my couch out of these.