Tag: Crochet

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Creature Comforts – Day 27 & 28, Sick Days

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Yesterday afternoon (Day 27 of Creature Comforts), I started to feel a little less than stellar. By evening I had a pounding headache, aches and pains, and an upset stomach. I managed to do the bare minimum of work – crocheting together another strip of granny squares for the monstrous blanket of doom. 

Kittens and blanket

The kittens did their best to make me feel better.

 

I decided to sleep late – very late – this morning, and spend the rest of the day doing as little as possible. So I curled up on my beloved couch and did a little more work on the blanket. Then I decided that was too hard so I switched to drawing instead.

 

Sick Day Drawing

She looks better than I feel.

 
Really, this is more tracing and coloring than drawing at this point, and since I find those to be comforting activities, I’m including this drawing in Creature Comforts. I did the pencil work on this earlier in the week then transfered it over to Concepts on my iPad. I think I’m going to spend more time mindlessing coloring in tomorrow, since that’s about all I feel like doing. I’m still not 100% today, and I have a ton of volunteer work to do this weekend, so I’m taking another sick day to recover and I will get done whatever I get done. I’ll try to show the results tomorrow, if I’m feeling well enough. Good night for now.

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Creature Comforts – Day 26, Survival Mode

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Glorious Granny Squares!

Granny squares ready to be added to the blanket.

 
Ladies and gentlemen, I have officialy entered “survival mode.”

I know I’ve already mentioned that this is the time of the year that is hardest on me. I have 3 volunteer jobs in Girl Scouts – troop leader, troop cookie coordinator, and school representative. This is the time of year when all 3 of those jobs collide. This weekend we’ll be celebrating Scout Sunday at the church associated with our sponsoring school. As school representative for Girl Scouts, I’m one of the volunteers responsible for coordinating this event and the reception afterwards (as well as being one of the volunteers who helps set up the training sessions for girls who want to earn their religioius badges and emblems). I’ve already had 2 meetings this week for Girl Scout volunteers, for a total of 5 hours spent in meetings in the last two nights. Initial orders for Girl Scout cookies have to be submitted this week, so I’m working on that. Cookie booth site selection was this evening, so I’ve now got 6 cookie booths coming up between end of February and mid-March. And the school is having an open house the same day we’re doing Scout Sunday, so I have to man a table for Girl Scouts at that event, then get the school cafeteria ready for the Scout Sunday reception, then sit through Mass (yes, it’s “Drag Your Buddhist to Church” day again!), then help run the reception all on the same day.

And so naturally, today I broke out in hives and had a flare up of joint pain.

This is the time I hunker down and look at all the things I have to do, and I start to pick and choose my battles. I felt great yesterday, and I did ALL THE THINGS that I had on my to-do list. I felt lousy today and did only those things I absolutely had to do, to-do list be damned. The only crafting I got done today was to weave in the ends on some granny squares for the blanket. And that was it. There was no time or energy for anything else.

I hate days like this. But they are a fact of my life, especially at this time of year. Fortunately, I decided to be conservative in my booth selections, so we’re only doing one booth on any given day. But I still have two weekends in a row where we’re going to have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all tied up with Girl Scout stuff. Somehow, I will survive.

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Creature Comforts – Day 24, A Woman and her Couch

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Pillows and Blanket!

I am creating the coziest place on Earth!

 
This is my couch. I have had this couch since grad school, which was almost 25 years ago. We replaced the couch cushions on it last summer, but little else has changed until now. The pillows I had originally made for the couch all fell apart. The various afghans my mother made for me have all been stolen by my children. But the couch abides. It is my couch, and I love it.

Three years ago, I tore my right ACL and meniscus cartilidge, and as a result, I spent almost 6 months straight on my couch, first recovering from the injury, then the surgery, and then the physical therapy. I realized then that I never wanted to be parted from my couch, and that my couch deserved the best of everything I could ever give it. I’m just sorry it’s taken me so long to make my couch such nice pillows and a blanket. The blanket should be done by the end of the week. The Jake pillow was just finished today. Next month, I may add another pillow, a cat bolster, perhaps. I spend a lot of time on my couch, and so it deserves every luxury I can give it.

Yes, I love my couch. Of course, I also love my bed, and it’s late, so I think I’m going to go there now. Good night, couch!

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Creature Comforts – Day 18, More Granny Squares!

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Ugh. I know what you’re thinking. “Isn’t she done with this stupid blanket yet?!” Uh, no. And I apologize for yet another post about the granny square blanket of DOOOOOOM. But I am almost halfway done with this monstrosity. Take a look! 

Granny squares!

Three rows assembled and another in the works!

 

I did not get to work on the Jake pillow today because the Hubster decided to fumigate the house all day. Everything had to be moved and cleaned and sprayed and let dry and then put back and so the whole house was in an uproar all day. Fun times, I gotta say.

Anyhoo, good night for now! Hopefully I can get the Jake pillow done tomorrow. If not, then MORE GRANNY SQUARES!!!!!1!!!

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Creature Comforts – Day 16 & 17, Blanket and Jake

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Once again, I have to stuff two days into one post. January and February are brutally busy times for me, thanks to Girl Scout Cookie sales and Scout Sunday activities. I can get the daily challenge work done, but sometimes I get it done so late at night that I’m too tired to write up even a short blog post. So here are the efforts from today and yesterday!

First, an update on the giant, monstrous granny square blanket…

Granny squares!

Granny is looking good!

 
That’s two rows of granny squares stitched together. The hardest part of this project is weaving in all the ends. Each square has ends to be woven in, and then when I stitch individual squares together to make a strip, I have to weave in those ends as well. That’s a lot of work. However, I spent most of yesterday at a science fiction convention with the kids, and that actually gave me plenty of time to get these two rows all stitched up.

Now here’s today’s work…

Jake the Dog in progress!

I love Jake the Dog!

 
This is the second pillow I’m making for my couch. I love Adventure Time, and I especially love Jake, so I had to make a pillow of him, because you just KNOW he could be a pillow if he wanted to.

I’m going back to work on the granny square blanket. Hopefully I’ll have more of that and of the Jake pillow to show you tomorrow.

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Creature Comforts – Day 14, Granny Squares!

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I took a day off from sewing to do some more work on the granny square blanket. 

 

Granny Squares!

I’m slowly piecing this together!

 
In my mind, this blanket not only qualifies as a “comfort” item; it’s also a “creature.” Or rather, a “monster.”I started this blanket last year, when I 64 granny squares. That’s a lot of granny squares – 8 different colors, 8 blocks each. It took me forever to make them, and once they were all made, it was summer so I just put them aside for later.

Now I’m finally stitching them all together, and I’m discovering that no two squares are the same size. They all have the same number of stitches, but the size varies (sometimes a lot) between the squares.

What was I doing when I made these granny squares? Was I drinking heavily? Possibly. It was Girl Scout cookie season when I started this project. Maybe I accidentally used two different sized hooks to make this, or maybe my gauge wasn’t quite as consistent as I thought it was. Whatever the reason, I don’t care. I’m stitching this blanket together anyway. I know it will be lumpy and misshapen when I’m done, but it will also be comfy and cozy and that’s all I care about. I will do a better job on the next blanket. But for now, I just want to get this monstrosity finished.

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Creature Comforts – Day 08 & 09, Slouchy Hat of Doooooom!

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Slouchy Hat of Doooooom!

I obviously have a lot of purple yarn in my stash…

 
Sorry about not posting yesterday. Last night was the Girl Scout cookie rally, and I spent all day yesterday getting ready for it. I put together games and activities for three stations, which is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Fortunately, I had a new Creature Comforts project already in progress – this lovely hat! I had already started this earlier in the week, and I managed to squeeze in just one round of crochet yesterday in between Girl Scout activities. Then I got a lot of work done on it tonight. It’s almost done. I just need to finish up the ribbed band, and I’m hoping I can get that done tomorrow.

This purple yarn is the same yarn I used in the Krampus Cowl. I bought a pound’s worth of it a few years ago, and now I’m determined to use it all up. I bought TWO pounds of the same yarn in black, and I’m really going to have to work to use all that up. But I have a few ideas of what I could do with it.

This isn’t the prettiest yarn – it’s got a lot of lumps and small snags in it – but it is very sturdy and perfect for a big slouchy hat like this one. I’ll see if I decide to add any decoration to it. I’m thinking it needs a skull and cross bones appliqued on the back, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a pattern for that somewhere. Anyhoo, I’ve got a troop meeting tomorrow, so I’m going to bed now! Good night!

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Creature Comforts – Day 02, Zombie Kitty Cup Cozy in progress

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Zombie Kitty Cup Cozy!

Cup cozies make me purrrrr…

 
After making the Krampus amigurumi for one of my nephews, I still had some of green yarn left, just enough for a cup cozy. I have an Adventure Time cup cozy I made last year (it’s Jake the Dog), and everyone who sees it just loves it and wants to know where I bought it! When I tell folks I made it, they’re usually very surprised. I’m betting now they’ll be even more surprised when they see the finished version of this! 

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Krampus Challenge, Day 31, & Creature Comforts, Day 01 – Krampus Amigurumi Finished!

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Krampus Amigurumi!

“Baaaaaa! Humbug!”

 
I just finished this. Yesterday, I had the head completely assembled and the body attached. Today I finished off the legs, beard and tail and stitched those on. Five seconds later, my nephew ran off with him, shouting, “Kwampus! KWAAAAAMPUS!!” Apparently, he’s very happy with his new stuffie.

Which is perfect, because while yesterday was the last day of the Krampus Challenge, today is the first day of the Creature Comforts Challenge, and I can think of no better Creature Comfort than a monstrous stuffie to cuddle with at night and help keep the Thing Beneath the Bed at bay until morning.

 I’m going to spend the rest of today relaxing with family and watching y nephew run around with Krampus. It’s a good way to start the New Year.