A FO for Friday

Meet Griswold. Gris for short. This is his life story.
First he was born, on the needles of course. DPNs.

He grew up, but still had some loose ends

But eventually, he matured into a bundle of wonderful awesomeness.

But the life he was living, wasn't enough for poor Griswold. He wanted more from the life he was living.  So he decided to stop messing around and get down to business. So he went to college and got himself enrolled in the wonderful world of criminal justice. But just when he was about to graduate and get his degree in criminal forensics, a new calling entered his life. He knew what he wanted to do and how he needed to achieve his goals. Griswold P. Pod wanted to be a private detective. This job could only be done with one thing. A mustache, naturally. So he grew one and achieved his dreams. The end.

Some week in review

Spring break is over and it's back to school. I spent most of my time just sitting on the couch doing nothing, but in between that time, I got some crafting into the way. Life of course, got in the ways of my endeavors in crafting and I only really tried two of the ideas from the book. Lets start with the plates.
Because I'm adventurous, I decided to do a bowl while my sister and mom both did plates.

The idea is to spray paint a lace pattern onto the glass plate or substitute then spray a contrasting color to make the pattern stand out.

First step is to spray adhesive the lace to the glass.

You're suppose to you the krylon brand adhesive, but we had a different brand...that apparently wasn't suppose to be used on glass. Oops.

It kinda took some of the paint with it when we tried to take off the lace.

mine

my sister

moms

you live you learn when it comes to mixing different brands of spray paints. Of course, mom's did turn out the best with little botching in one area.

sister's

Mine

mom's

overall, a great idea, but didn't really work. It wasn't just the glue's fault, the paint ran and bled together so the patter was really botched on mine. Also, we worked with the right clear top coat spray and still, the plates were sticky and smelled like heavy duty chemicals on the bottom. Fail.

I also got to work on my decoupaging of one of my dad's handcut table tops. I decided harry potter themed. So we got some old paperback books and went to town.

Idea

Finished with a layer of varnish.

I really lied this idea and loved how it turned out. Again, instead of using the book recomended polyurethane, we used a lacquer based varnish, giving it an amber glaze over top of the words and pictures. I really liked the effect.

Of course, I knitted. Finished the legwarmers! and I didn't like how they looked on me : /

So I gave them to my sister

footloose and fancy free!

Till next time!

What to Expect

I would like to be doing this again please.

You'd think the week before spring break would be the easiest of my life, being that there's no orchestra rehearsals to attend and my english class is cancelled for the week, but you'd be wrong. I've spent my three last afternoon either working on homework for my core frustration classes (sight-singing/theory) or working on re-writes of this research paper that I've come to affectionately loath. I've had no time this week for any kind of knitting...yet. But I'm sure another post will follow this sometime for I am almost finished with my lovely leg-warmers. I digress. On to the main point.
Due to spring break, all the dorms on campus are closing, joy. Despite this putting a serious dent in my little practice time I have with accompanist, I'm going home and I'm excited. I've made a plan with my mom and have decided this:

For the next week that I have off, we will be crafting one craft from the big ol' book of crafts that was purchased for me and I have yet to use. I'm so excited for this project because it's my dream to decoupage something. My father has been working on a table that he's designed himself. They're pretty spiffy and I'm dying to add something wonderful to them. So starting Monday or Tuesday afternoon, expect very awesomely vividly detailed posts about the project I've picked out the night before. I'll let you know if their even worth the effort, how mine turned out (I'm not the best crafter), how my mom's turned out (she is the best crafter) and so on.

So if crafting is the big thing that your into and you've always been debating on this book, then let the reading begin! Maybe it can help you figure out if it's really worth it, or not. I've heard mix reviews. As always, I'll also be knitting (I have a lot of free time in my future). Looking forward to the hodge-podge.

Redirecting

It's been a couple days (weeks) in regards to upkeep of this blog. I'm bound and determined to keep it though, even if I scarcely update it. I swear I'm still knitting, school just got in the way. You know that time of year when you can't find anyone anywhere but on the green, lazing about? It's officially hit Tallahassee. I love this weather. It's perfect. Not to hot, not to cold and makes for a wonderful feeling when you're cramming for a midterm you have in about a week. That's right, I said midterms. Being a college girl, I still have to worry about those. Being a music major adds more to that challenging plate. I have juries and masterclasses coming up. I've seen little of this good weather during the day time. All  I see is a piano and four white walls. Sometimes with mirrors on them! Gosh I hate performance anxiety. Let's do a quick week in review.
I finished that hat I made with the pretty pink yarn I bought from my LYS. I decided to give it to my sister when I went home about two weekends back. I think she loved it, I'm not sure. It didn't really decrease as evenly as I wanted it to, but that pattern I came up with looked pretty cool. I'll have to test it again and see what I can do to make the decrease look more evenly and have the hat itself sit more naturally.

                                                 Thanks Claire for taking those pictures!
What I've mainly been working on after the completion of that is my wonderfully boring and beautifully colored sweater. It's really nice to work on when I'm waiting for a class or something because it's so easy.

I love taking my pictures in a practice room. The lights are so fluorescent that my camera can't help but smile.

The last thing I've really been working on is this cute legging pattern I found over at the wonderful ravelry. I loved this pattern right when I saw it. I knew I wanted to do something with a little lace pattern and this reminds me of tiny windows into a little house! I bought some awesome cotton yarn from a place a little farther from my dorm than the other LYS. It's Cotton Fleece, 80% cotton, 20% merino. Here's what I have so far.

I love the little windows and the color is so spring! I love the light blue with rich green undertones. I'll post pictures when I finish the first one. 

The last thing I have to show off are some purchases I made when my parents came to town. We went over to the art commune where they were having a flea market in front of the giant vintage shop they have down there. To my luck and surprise, the first booth we stopped at had yarn for sale. 460 yards of hand-dyed sock yarn to be exact. for 10 bucks! I was so excited that I couldn't stop myself from the impulse buy.

The colors look like sherbet. I don't know what to do just yet, considering I'm kinda terrified of socks now a days. Maybe I'll try my hand at a lace project. I'm just not sure yet. My mom and I also stopped at the yarn shop that's down there, Really Knit Stuff. I wish I was staying longer into the summer because their sock classes go into may : (

We went to their bargin table and I scored three 50g balls of really cool yellow Linie yarn.

It's 44% cotton and 44% acrylic wound with a multicolored thread. I'm so excited. I think this it gonna be a hat. I'm gonna look for a cool lace pattern so I have a hat to wear in the summer. 

Anyways, that's all I have for now. I'm sure I'll have a lot of FOs in the next couple of days. I just have to get through this midterm week and it'll all be peachy-keen.

The Batman

I made this for my boyfriend for his birthday. I'm not super prolific in crocheting so I whipped up what I could. I really had lots of fun making it too!

 Isn't it a dream? I'm thinking of putting the pattern I created into PDF form and making the other characters as well. If anyone would like to see a pattern made for this little cutie, you should let me know. Leave a comment and consider it done.

Weekly WIPs

I've got lots that I'm working on I guess. I just need to get around to finishing stuff! I've been busy all week with orchestra and theory classes! I spent all day in a practice room on wednesday. But that's besides the point. Lets get on to what I've got going this week.

First off, the socks I started made from that pretty pretty rainbow yarn.

I finished the heel and I'm doing the instep. I feel like I'm terrible at this. I've learned that socks are really not my forte so far. It's so hard! I guess I'll keep chugging till I reach the gusset and finish the sock. Maybe I'll even make two. haha...

Next.

I made my cousin Ashley's baby Hailey some super dupper baby shoes.

The yarn color is called Antique Rose. It's all acrylic and super durable. They're really cute Mary Janes made from this pattern. All I gotta do is go back home and get some buttons for the little beauties. I hope Hailey loves them and they make for a comfy walking experience.

Last up is the pattern that I've started creating by myself. It's a pretty pink hat made of 100% wool. It's so soft and a really pretty design to accompany it. I dunno what to call it yet, it's kinda like an eyelet wave sort of deal.

I'm thinking about selling it, I've got a lot of hats in my storage. Here is the website for the yarn if you're interested. I highly recommend it. I've also started on the front of my sweater. I'm only a few more rows (a lot more rows) away from completion. It's just so bulky and hard to take around with me when I go out for the day (I knit in between classes)

That's all for my wips. I totally have something neat coming up in a few minutes (when I create the post) so stick with me.

As you can see

I attempted to create my first pattern this week! I have it available for free right under the tab labeled 'patterns' at the top of this blog. I hope to make more patterns as I am testing out one right as I type this. As soon as it's finished, I'll take pictures and let you know more details. If you try my bear hat pattern, let me know what you think!