So I had this super-geeky idea.

So I had been looking around on Craftster, and I came across someone knitting a scarf to look like the first scene of the first level of Super Mario Brothers. It was super awesome. (I have an idea myself that I came up with with a knitty friend to do a scarf/hat/armwarmer set with a bunch of characters from the original Nintendo games. ) At any rate, I saw the scarf a couple of days ago, and I had been in the car today with my husband at the wheel, and I'm thinking of all the characters I need to have the man find for me for my winter set. And it suddenly hits me. Wouldn't it be totally fantastic to knit or crochet (I think crochet would be easier) a blanket in the pattern of the map of the Zelda world? It's already a rectangle, so that works nicely. If anyone decides to do it, please let me know. I'd love to see how it turns out.

The "Candace" purse

This purse was commissioned by a friend of mine. He wanted it for his aunt's birthday. I used Trendsetter Yarns Sunshine in red and black (I don't recall the color numbers). It's actually very pretty yarn, but it was a pain to work with. Very slippery, easily frayed. It turns out a beautiful project if you can handle using it. Here's the full view.



Here's a closeup of the embroidered name.



The woven handle.

The lower edge, where I had to crochet a bit to go over the sewn lower edge.


Where I had to hand sew in the zipper. (Boy, was that a pain in my butt.)

Candi's cotton-candy purse.

One of the girl's I work with wanted me to make her a purse. It had to be pink, and she wanted circular bamboo handles. So, this is what I came up with. It's knitted stockinette in the round from the bottom up, bound off, then crocheted with sc for 1 or 2 rows, then the fishnet stitch for 3 rows, then another couple rows of sc. The handles are simply sewn on with a whip stitch. I used Lion Brand Fun Fur and doubled it up with Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn. It worked up really fast and easy.

The baby girl layette set.

So I had crocheted a baby girl layette set to have on hand in case anyone i knew got pregnant and had a girl. Then my sister got pregnant. She's having a girl. So now she has the layette. Yay, I'm going to be an aunt. And it's a super cute layette. See for yourself.


I used Bernat Baby Coordinates in the lavender color, and the Fairytale Set pattern from the Red Heart Soft Baby pattern book Soft and Sweet. It took a little bit to work up, but it was pretty easy to work.

A purse for Toi.

Ah, yes. I should have thought earlier to put up a blog about the purse I had made for Toi. Lovely little thing. Well, not quite so little, it's actually more of a tote purse. I made it with Bernat Boa yarn in the purple, and doubled it up with Red Heart Super Saver yarn in black, because the boa yarn is just so damn thin, I like to double it up so it knits up quicker. I knitted the shell on a circular needle, and then crocheted the straps. The lining is black fabric-covered plastic canvas. The bottom is the doubled up black fabric, accordion-folded and sewn into the lining. The shell was sewn to the lining using the boa yarn. I was so pleased with how it turned out. And Toi loved it. Hooray.

A few favorite sites.

And because I need to let my poor wrist rest for a second, I figured I would make a short post with a list of a few of my favorite sites for patterns. It's only fair, since I frequently use them to get patterns that I share them with everyone.

This site has a bazillion knitting patterns, with about 35 or so categories. It's fantastic. I love it.
http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/index.php

This is the sister site for crochet patterns, and it has probably better than 50 categories. Also fantastic, I love it, too.
http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory.php

Those are the 2 big ones, as they have links to tons of different patterns. I'll post various patterns (or the links) as i come across good ones.

First blog

Yay! I have a new place to put all of my crafty thoughts and what-not. I am currently working on a baby sweater for a pregnant co-worker. It's a little mock-rib sweater and hat set, and is very adorable, but honestly, it's a pain in the ass. I dislike ribbing, if only because switching back and forth between knit and purl makes it take forever to get done. My next project is going to be a pink fuzzy purse with circular handles for another of my girls. (By "my girls", I'm referring to one of the women that I work with. There's a lot of them.) She liked the bamboo handles that I have on my burgundy and peach purse, but I think that a nice metal handle might look a lot nicer with the yarn that I'm going to be using. After that, I have a nice little purse for yet another one of my girls, but this one done in nylon cord. I want it to be ok if it gets soaking wet, but waterproof is not in anyway going to happen. That one will be smaller, and much quicker, but I think I'll crochet it instead of knitting it. I need a good color, though. Eh, I'll figure it out. Well, that baby sweater isn't knitting itself, so, thanks for reading, and I'll be back later with pictures and/or patterns.