Seraphina, Take 2

So remember way back in December when I said I wanted to make another Seraphina shawl? Since I'm between swaps, I thought it'd be a good time to start.

I'm using Joanns's Rainbow Boucle and a K hook. I love the feel of this yarn and I love the way the color gradually stripes itself. It was a bit of a mother trying to start working with this yarn, but after a little frogging, I got the hang of it.



I haven't decided yet if I want to keep this one or give this to my other (non-dirty) grandmother for Christmas. Never too early to start, eh? She loves bright colors and this would be great for her. If I decide to give it to her, I'll definitely make myself one too, though maybe in a different color.

I need your opinion peeps. I really like this colorway, but anonymous hubby seems to think it looks like seaweed. He says I look like some sort of sea creature covered in seaweed! I've asked a few people I know their opinions and its a mixed bag. Some say it looks great and some say I could be in the next rendition of the little mermaid.

Also, March is National Crochet Month. Whodathunkit? In celebration, I'd like to pop my blog contest cherry!

I'm thinking something along the lines of a funny picture that people can try to come up with the funniest caption for. Knitters welcome too, of course. They can have a week to submit the captions and then I'd put up a poll on the side of the blog for a week, where people can vote. The funniest (by vote) will win a prize from me...probably a skein of yarn and some other small thing. What do you think? Would you participate?

All about hearts swap

My swap partner, Zarah received her swap, so I can show you what I made.

There's a filet heart shawl, heart scarf, fairy, candles, heart covered stuffed animal, heart tin, heart box, a heart cookie and a beating heart (you pull a string adn it vibrates...I found this uber amusing for some reason, ha!).

The heart scarf pattern is from Cocoa Cream's Craft Closet. I really like her blog!



Here's a closeup of the fairy I made. The pattern is from Kristie's Kids. I've mentioned it before, but its worth saying again, I love her patterns. My fairy doesn't look anything like hers, but I think she's cute none-the-less.



Here's the heart shawl I made. Its a bit hard to see the filet pattern, but its very pretty! If you click on the pic to make it larger, you'll be able to see the pattern better. I got the pattern from Sandi Marshall at crochet.about. This was very easy and very fast! I'd say it practically crocheted itself.

The only difficult part for me was following the small squares on the chart. My vision is pretty crap-tastic, so that was a challenge. I found that making a copy of the graph and crossing out each row I finished really helped.

*WARNING* FLAT BUTT AHEAD



I warned you!

Popcorn anyone?

Happy Sunday peeps! Its not quite 10am and its blissfully quiet in my house. Hubby and Pi are still fast asleep. I love mornings when I can have an hour or so to myself!

It snowed on Friday. While I was at work, hubby and Pi went into the backyard to play in the snow. Pi isn't much of a snow person, so she wasn't out long but hubby managed to catch this pic before she went in.

I think its hilarious!



I finished one of my hats for the February Charity Blitz. I first saw the pattern for the Divine Hat on Laurah's blog. As Laurah said, this pattern looks complicated but it very easy! It also works up in no time because of the large hook size. I used a half skein of leftover RHSS in burgandy.



I should have followed Laurah's advice and used a smaller hook. Normally, I crochet very tightly and go up a hook size, so I thought staying with the recommended hook would be ok.

When you get towards the end of the hat, you are supposed to do 4 rows of ribbing. After I'd done only the first row, I could tell the hat was looking a bit big. I tried it on and it fit perfectly, which says alot because of my oversized head. We've already established how large my head is, right? Anyhow, if I'd done any more ribbing, it would have sat over my eyes. Rather than frog the whole thing, I just left it with one row of ribbing.

This pattern is a keeper and is going into my pile of patterns that gets used often.



My poor abandoned Cathedral Window got pulled out of the closet yesterday! I managed to add another 5 rows, ending at the first popcorn row. The popcorn round is much easier than I thought it would be, but it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to finish. I'm not looking forward to the last popcirn row, which is at least double the size of this one.



I got bored with going round and round (and round!), so I started doing some of the large heptagons that get added in the next step.

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that you were right about Monopoly Laurah. Once hotels are built, the game flies! We played again on Friday and Saturday night. I won both games and hubby's reaction was "well, this is why you do the bills." LOL

Blog Review

Check it out! Andrea from Knits and Knots did a review on my blog.
review

Thanks Andrea!

Loot from Bezzie!

After a long day (Pi went with me to work...nuff said), I came home to a puffy!

It was the loot I ordered from Bezzie's etsy store. I love these yarn cutters! Bezzie normally sells them with knitting needles sticking out of them, but since I am of the hooking variety she cutom made these with just the ball of yarn.

I used to try and carry safety scissors with me, but I lose them alot. These will clip onto my keychain so the chance of losing them is pretty small. If I do lose the, let's hope the person who breaks into my apartment with my keys returns the cutter.



I also got those cool crochet magnets from Bezzie too. My fridge was the only part of my apartment not infected with crochet mania...that's changed, muhahaha!

Recently, it was Teacher's Appreciation Day at Pi's school. With the majority of my mind somewhere over the rainbow, I forgot until the night before. Pi's teacher is a nun, so I was at a loss of what to make QUICK!

I remember that she's an avid reader and decided to make a book cover, but I didn't like any of the patterns I found.



I winged this one with a stitch from the Crochet Stitch Bible and used the first two rows of Cocoa Cream's American Folk Art Heart Motif. This heart motif is easy and really pretty when finished.

I didn't write out a pattern for the book cover because, in all honesty, I think it can be done better. Next time, I'll use a lighter yarn and a smaller hook. This cover was a bit on the bulky side, but worked well enough.

What I did on my President's Day off...

My day off isn't quite over yet. Its only 1 o'clock. The exciting news is that my whole family is still in their pj's! I love days like this. I may suck it up and go out in a little bit though...its 60 degrees outside and I don't think I can pass up a walk in the park nearby.

The weekend wasn't anything special. We just did some laundry, went to Mass, and went out to dinner last night. We also have a very board-game oriented weekend. Hubby, Pi and I played Trouble a few times and then had a nearly 3 hour game of Monopoly, which we didn't actually finish. Does that game ever end?

My little sister and her boyfriend came over last night too and we played Taboo. Its the game where you have a word or phrase that your partner needs to guess, but there are a handful of clue words that you can't say because they're "taboo." It was alot of fun!

I managed to sneak in some crochet too. One of my co-workers asked if I could make a penguin for him. His girlfriend is obsessed with penguins and he thought she'd flip for a handmade one. I've been meaning to try a penguin, so I was happy to oblige.



The pattern is from the Lion Brand website. I like it alot, though I think he was cuter without the hat and scarf. Very Happy Feet.

I also worked on an 8" square for a comfortghan over at Crochetville. The Charity Blitz group is putting together the comfortghan for another Blitzer who has been diagnosed with cancer.



This pattern is over at Crocet Pattern Central under the 8" square section. I tried linking it, but blogger is acting up.

I also finished my second SSG item. I'm really excited about this one! Even hubby was impressed!

Time for me to venture outside. Peace out peeps.

Music and Roses in the Big Apple

Ahh, what a night Valentine's was. Usually hubby and I just exchange chocolate, a card, and some cheapie flowers. Last night we got to go on a real date! A real date!

First, here's a pic of the Empire State Building all decked out in pink and red. It was hard to get a decent pic, but it was so pretty in person.



Next up was the Matchbox Twenty concert. I had no idea how close we'd be sitting. Rosanna and her hubby gifted us the tickets, so I didn't want to be rude and ask where we were sitting. After we picked up the tickets at the call window, the usher pointed us to the FLOOR of MSG. Holy cow!!! No stadium seats for us! To make things even better, the next usher brought us to the THIRD ROW!

We were close enough to see people sweating...to have the musicians look right at us. Holy cow!!

Here's a pic of me before the concert started. See the drum set behind me? That's the stage! Where I was standing was where we were seated. You cannot get closer than that. Absolutely amazing.



The opening act was an up and coming band named Mute Math. They were pretty cool. They did a four song set and did an awesome drum show towards the end. (do you see how close we were? That pic was taken without a flash from my seat. Did I say holy cow yet?) The drummer gave away a drum stick to a woman in the same row as me who called herself "Rock Star" haha. Rock Star was at least 50 but jammed away!



Next up was Alanis Morisette. Her voice is amazingly strong and haunting in person.



Unfortunately for me, my camera battery died before Matchbox Twenty came on. I know I charged a set of batteries but I must have grabbed the wrong ones on the way out. No matter, pics or not, the concert was amazing! I had an incredibly good time and being so close to the stage just made the experience that much more special.

Hubby was sweet and bought me red roses and chocolate too!



He even got Pi a mixed bouqet. She was really excited because this was the first time someone bought flowers just for her. She's already got them in her own room.

It was the second best Valentine's Day I ever had. The first best was when hubby proposed to me. :)

I hope you all had a day full of chocolate, wine, and the warm and fuzzies.