Adventures in Crochet // Other Random Notes

It's 2 a.m. and I feel the random need to make a blog update. Possibly because it is 2 a.m. and my brain simply will not shut off.

For starters, I am going to shamelessly plug Zach's new blog: Let Me Tell You Why This is Bullshit.  He hasn't quite gotten started yet, but he is brainstorming.  It's been his new thing to say lately, and I really hope he starts posting soon!  I'm excited for him!  (And yes, I am a dork.)

On another note, I have been considering starting a separate blog to house my writings, but wouldn't you know it? I'm having a hard time developing a suiting name for it.  I'm open to suggestions.

School has let out for the semester and I am officially one year away from my degree.  I have no words for how weird that feels.  I mean, I don't feel like I should be a twenty-two year old college student starting on the last leg of my education.  Well, is that really an accurate statement, since I am going in to education?  UAH always tells about "lifelong learning" and the like.

That paragraph actually was intended to be about my latest hobby, but as soon as I started typing, my fingers decided to say their own thoughts.  Or my subconscious -- whichever.  In my last month of the semester, I decided that I was going to learn how to crochet.  Last year, I had decided that I wanted to learn.  I bought a kit from Walmart with hooks and an instruction book and some yarn, and Zach got me two books of stitches and projects for Christmas. 

Why I chose that specific book to buy was because it said that it included a special left-handed section.  When I looked to the left-handed section, pretty much all I saw was "If you are left-handed, try holding this book up to a mirror."  Let's think about this, writers of the book.  Crochet is a craft that generally uses both hands -- especially while learning.  Holding books up to a mirror, while effective for the photographs, is not effective for the print, unless it was printed in such a manner to where if held up to a mirror, was readable.  Does this make sense to anyone?  Because it didn't make sense to me.

Instead, I decided to turn to the place where you can learn to do or make pretty much anything... The internet.  This was infinitely more effective than holding that book up to a mirror.  I found more than one YouTube channel that was intended for lefties.  It was hardly any time before I was making flowers and stitches other than just a straight stitch.

While searching through tutorial videos, I stumbled across a "How to Crochet an Earwarmer/Headband."  I checked it out and thought, "Huh, that looks easy enough..."  Unfortunately, it hardly ever gets cold enough in Alabama to warrant such an accessory.  Then it hit me.  My best friend Ashlie was going to visit her family in Pennsylvania around Christmas.  While it wasn't much further north, I didn't know about their usual snowfall, but I knew Ashlie would love it regardless.  I picked up some blue baby yarn that I had gotten on sale for $1.50 and got to stitching.

After I finished it, it looked rather plain, except for the iridescent button that fastened it around the head.  I knew it needed something and that the video had suggested possibly a flower.  I looked through the channel for a flower and decided on a type of rose that looked amazingly easy.  Mine didn't look as good as the video.  It was almost hard to tell what it was, so I started looking through our miscellaneous button stash and found a pretty plastic pearl that I affixed to the middle of the flower.  It added just the amount of detail that it needed.  Unfortunately, I don't have a suitable picture of the finished project, but I'm going to start taking pictures of my projects, if nothing else but to see my growth.  (God, I am such a teacher.)

The next day, I took the finished project to Ashlie who promptly freaked out.  She thought it was amazing, but I had a feeling it was a bit of humoring her friend.  Despite it being probably fifty or sixty degrees outside, she wanted to wear it.  Another friend saw it and thought it was amazing and, embarrassingly, asked if I could make a panda hat for her.  She said she would pay me, buy the supplies, or anything else.  Little did she know that I had been searching for panda patterns for the past week. 

I thought it would be an adorable and easy project to make, and I knew Amanda would love it.  A nickname of hers is "Amanda Panda," her sorority is AOII whose mascot is a panda, and she just loves pandas.  This is the pattern that I decided on -- no this is not my finished project.  I decided to not use the fuzzy yarn because I thought it made it look a little more childish (and because the fuzzy stuff would have made it cost more to make).  I had almost finished the hat when I realized that there are more than double the amount of stitches on the hat body than there are supposed to be, so I am going to suck it up and unravel it to start over.  I hate doing that, but I wouldn't want to give her something that I know is as flawed as it is now.

I'm also working on a gray necktie for Zach.  He had asked a while back if I could make one and now I feel confident enough in my stitches that I can make a wearable one.  I had attempted one before the ear warmers and he told me "It was a good start for a first project."  I could tell he was trying to say nicely that he didn't like it.  I admit it was terrible -- especially compared to the one I am working on now.  The stitches were loose and varied and the edges reminded me of the curls on bacon.  The gray tie has tight, even stitches with very few visible gaps (that are supposed to be there!) and the edges are nice and straight.  Well, for yarn, that is.

I have decided that  I am a yarnoholic.  I made a trip to Walmart specifically for yarn and ended up spending $8 on three skeins of different colors.  I got the white baby yarn for Amanda's hat, the gray for Zach's tie, and a khaki color for a hat that I am planning on making for myself, though I am not a hat person.

With that, I believe I will retire to bed.  I feel a bit of a yawn coming on and I hope that will soon develop into a full-blown case of the sleepies.  I had a note about my WoW armor and something education related, but I will save them for a separate time because I feel that they would be a bit more image based or more reading.  I feel like I write too much as it is.  Thank you, blog, for being the outlet I need to be able to fall asleep.  Goodnight.