five days of ziggy hats - day three

The next Ziggy hat I made during my crocheting marathon last week resembles an ocean sky.  I totally didn't do that on purpose.  In fact, all I knew was that I wanted to use a bright purple.  So I put a bunch of skeins together and picked a combination that really stood out to me.

Here's the pretty result:







The turquoise and purple yarns are both Caron Simply Soft Brites, and the light teal is a random unknown ball of yarn I found wedged in the back of my cubby.

If you'd like to make your own hat, you can purchase the Ziggy pattern by clicking here.

See you tomorrow for Day Four!

five days of ziggy hats - day two

For the second day of Ziggy Hats Mania, I'm going to show you this fun Christmas hat that I made.  After Christmas.  So maybe next year, I'll get to wear it and enjoy it.




I got the yarn years ago in a Herrschners Holiday Yarn Pack that came with 10 balls of sparkly deliciousness.  It's a pretty good price for the amount and quality of yarn.  The particular pack used was the Victorian Christmas pack, and I just love the colors - but they have quite a selection, so make sure to check it out for your next holiday project!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Ziggy hat - which one will I choose? :P

If you'd like to make your own hat, you can purchase the Ziggy pattern by clicking here.

five days of ziggy hats - day one

Happy Monday/New Year, everyone!  Time to get back to some level of normalcy now that the holidays are over.  I'm not too excited about that, but at least I have this new crochet pattern to keep my entertained.

If you haven't already checked out the Ziggy Hat, make sure you do.  I bought it right before Christmas to reward myself for all the stress I put myself through knitting all my presents - and I wouldn't allow myself to make one until after Christmas was over.

So as you can see, I went a little nuts and made five over the past week, taking breaks in between to work on other things:



Since there are five, I'm going to feature one each day this week because I think they're all beautiful enough to get their own posts!

This first one is what I'm calling "French Country".  I love this color combination and thought the Ziggy Hat pattern lended itself well to it:





The designer, Liz McQueen, graciously allows sales of hats made from this pattern with proper attribution (details in the pattern itself), so I will probably be putting these in my shop sometime soon.

Make sure to check out the pattern and make your own!  It's not expensive and it's sized for adults, children, and babies.  How cute would a matching set of these be for the whole family?

new year 2012 knit & crochet resolutions

Image copyright Jennifer Renson.

Is it really this time of year again?  Time for everyone to pretend we'll be better people and lose a couple pounds in the new year?

Well, I'm going to stop pretending.  Yes, I'd love to work out more and improve myself as a human being, but I'm tired of making that same resolution every year (I really should just do it). 

Instead, I've set some crafty goals for myself to accomplish in 2012 that will continue feeding my addiction(s), but in more productive ways:

1. Continue shopping in my own stash: I've done so well with shopping in my own stash this year that I can sadly say it's dwindling.  My huge supply of pink yarn is slowly melting, which makes me a little teary-eyed.  But I'm also proud of myself for not going out into the world and just buying any yarn that I like.  I had a few buying jags this year, but overall controlled myself.  And when your hobby/business needs to happen on a budget, that's a good thing!



2. Buy more "fancy" yarns: Now, this might sound as if it totally contradicts #1 above, and... it totally does in many ways.  But most of the yarns I buy are for custom orders.  To keep costs down, I opt for yarns like Vanna's Choice, Caron Simply Soft, Red Heart Soft, Bernat Satin, and I absolutely love buying Stitch Nation if the color(s) I need are in stock.  But I'm talking about yarns like Debbie Bliss, Noro Silk Garden, Rowan anything, etc.  I don't often get to buy many of these yarns for myself, and I want to indulge.
   
   Because the price for such yarns is kinda "up there", I don't think adding more will make my stash explode.  I want to get more experienced with yarns and textures, and limiting myself to whatever my local chain craft stores carry that week isn't going to help me.  So that said...



3. Shop local:  There are at least two LYS that I want to visit, plus another near my parents' house.  I always harp on and on about supporting local businesses, and then I procrastinate and never get a chance to visit because I'm shopping at 9PM and the only thing open is Target.
   
   Well, procrastinate no more!  This year, I pledge to not only visit my LYS more, but visit it at least once.  I still haven't gone to Knitter's Edge, which is barely a couple miles from our house and opened more than two years ago.  I suck.



4. Learn to sew:  Okay, not technically knit or crochet related, but I mostly want to learn how to sew because I need linings in the bags I make.  I don't make bags often because I don't see a use for them without a nice lining, and I don't even know where to begin.  I found a really great tutorial and have it bookmarked, but my sewing machine is still in a box and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it.  Plus, quilting looks like another hobby I need to eat up more time in my life.
   
   Oh, and did I mention how my super thoughtful and supportive Hubby bought me a basic sewing book for Christmas?  When do I tell him he can't get mad at scraps I leave behind if he continued to indulge my craft obsessions? :P



5. Learn tatting: This one is a relatively new goal of mine because I got an awesome tatting tutorial book and supplies from my oma for Christmas.  I've wanted to learn tatting for awhile, but didn't really have the chance.  I also thought a lot of the tutorials I found were limited.  Luckily, I now have a great book with companion DVD, all the needles and shuttles I'll ever need (until the couch eats them), and a great pattern book for making snowflakes.  I think I know what everyone's getting for presents next Christmas :)

I could come up with even more crafty resolutions, but I'm trying to be realistic.  If everything works out, the next year of my MBA program will be my last... only five classes left until I'm overqualified for almost every job in America!  Basically, I need to work Craft Time around Homework.  Not fun, I know, but it'll be almost worth it in the end.

What are your Crafty New Year 2012 Resolutions?  I challenge you to come up with some and let me know :D  Have a safe and fantabulous New Year's weekend!

finally sharing some christmas crafts!

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally show off some of the gifts I made!  Here's a super cute pig hat I crocheted for my cousin using all kinds of pink baby yarns:







I didn't work from a pattern - just sort of improvised it.  If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably make the nose 3-dimensional, but I'm still kinda happy with it :)

Hope you all had a great weekend and are super excited to get back to the daily grind.  I know I am!  Just kidding.  I wish I'd have taken this whole week off from work to enjoy some of our new goodies, but alas.

I'll be back later this week and next to share some of the fun crafty things I got for Christmas (I'm gonna learn tatting and sewing!), plus I have some other projects to share.  In addition to getting fun things, we also got to spend a lot of time with our families and even squeezed in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," which was a really great movie.  If you're interested, I'd recommend reading the book first only because the movie moves quickly and doesn't explain a lot - some people in the audience were lost and the one lady behind us spent the whole movie explaining to someone else what was going on.  Kind of annoying!

Hurray for the holidays, though, and I wish that they didn't go by faster and faster every year!