Booh..

RSI sucks. Trust me. I'm itching to do something productive with my hands but I can't because the bf banned me from crocheting. I have homework to do, but my wrist gets in the way of that. Thursday, I decided to give my wrist the finger and do something anyway, which I am regretting immensely now, but I'll show a progress shot:


Colourful, isn't it? I do kind of like how the colours work out, as if they're bursting out of the centre.
Thanks to the lovely people of Ravelry I figured out that, if I want to make sure this thing fits my friend's head, I'd have to make a ribbed border instead of a simple single crochet border. So when my crochet-ban is lifted, I'll get this puppy done and out of here.

Oh, and since this hasn't even taken me a whole skein to do so far (and I took a used skein first so I could keep the ones with a label for me), I had to solve the issue of 'what ever am I going to do with those other 7 skeins!?!': I'll make a stashbag out of it. It's perfect for a bag that should be big enough to fit most of my yarn and I won't have to worry about having to keep yarn that I'll never use ever again for a project, ever.

Oh, and on a positive note: My boss started the annual sale a few weeks ago, which means we have to check the boxes for interesting stuff nearly every day because 'sale' in his case means 'oh, that new book is damaged? Is it bad? No? 40% off then!' So look what I got, because it arrived slightly damaged and dirty, and it was too expensive to send back to England anyway:



<3

With employee discount, so 52% off in total, meaning I payed only 14 euro's where I'd normally pay 30! And I got rid of most of the smudges on the back by simply using an eraser. Gotta love cheap pretty books!

The pains of acrylic yarn

I'm making a beret for a friend. She gave me a huge bag full of yarn, and asked for a beret in one of the colourways in return. And because she rocks for giving me such a stash, of course, I oblige!

The thing is, though.. She chose a very brightly coloured acrylic yarn.
It's in the image to the right, the middle skein in the bottom row. And even though I am going to finish it for her, and hope for the best, I am seriously considering just buying a new colour alltogether and make a hat for her out of yarn that is, well, suited for use on one's head..

Plus, there's still 7 skeins left of the stuff. What ever am I going to do with such a mountain of yarn that's just scratchy and unpleasant?

I haven't figured it out yet. I'll keep you (you, meaning, reader, you) posted.

For when it's cowled outside! (hurhur, get it?)

So ever since I saw a pattern for a cowl on Ravelry I simply had to make it (I had had had to!) since, I reasoned, I was in need of something to keep me warm in the bookshop that wouldn't get in the way when I was working, specifically when I was giftwrapping things and wrapping the ends in along with the book. Trust me, it gets really annoying after the fifth time. But I digress.
So here it is!


Pay no attention to the monkey modelling the cowl, please. And yes, she in fact does have a chin in real life, but it was camerashy.

As you can see, it has three buttons on the front to fasten it on one side, and a single button on the inside of the other end to keep that end up. In other words: it can go as loose or tight as you want. I gave it a bit of texture by adding something slightly resembling cables, but I think I'll have to recheck how to work cables in a crochet piece because they went diagonally instead of just straight from one side to the other. Oh well.

It's really cozy, nice and warm, and my coworker/crochet guru complimented me on how well it was made. So wooh!

A girl went to the market today..

And bought herself some new yarn!
I only went for one skein, but ended up buying 3. What can I say? I'm a yarnaholic... But see those colours? I'm in love with the one on the right, but the blue/brown mix is also just gorgeous. And the light one just ended up in my hand as if it was supposed to be mine from the beginning. I swear, officer, I don't know how it got there!

One of these skeins (at first I was sure it was going to be the blue/brown one, now I'm more in favour of the multicoloured one) is going to be a cowl. I've already got 4 black shiney buttons I want to use. The others? No clue yet. They'll be turned into cute projects soon enough... Now all I need is a good 3.5 mm needle, because I don't have that. Which means more crochet-shopping! Woo!

Oh so toasty

I, like many people I know, tend to get cold fingers when I'm at the computer for long stretches of time. One of my first actual crochet projects was a pair of fingerless mitts that were supposed to keep my fingers warm, but they never did their job properly. After reworking the last rows of stitches at least 4 times I gave up on them and tried some other projects, like the hat I posted earlier, and a pair of mittens in the same yarn. That gave me an idea: I could just work mittens like that and leave the fingertips off! Brilliant, if I say so myself.

Here's the result, aptly named 'toasty mitts' because they're in a firey colourway. See? See?

I even managed to make notes while making them, so I might even try my hand at writing an actual pattern for them, although I'm still not happy with the stiffness of the project. Oh well. For now, they'll do just fine.

So much for new year's resolutions...

I tried, I really did, to find out where to buy fondant. I tried. I found recipes, I found tips and tricks, I even found where to buy ready-made fondant in America. But GODDAMMIT, why don't our supermarkets just sell that stuff?! I mean, I never thought I would say it but I'm kind of jealous of those Americans that can just buy fondant and other cake-decoration supplies from their supermarkets. Jealous. Rawr.
Anyway, that's not stopping me from making cupcakes, they'll just have to go without the fondant snowmen and letters I was planning to make. I might have to ask my friend Merel if she knows where in Holland I can get readymade fondant. (To start off easy, you know.) She might even know how to make fondant myself without having to buy strange ingredients or a friggin kilo of powdered sugar.

In other news: I've been working on a new pair of fingerless gloves that I'm calling Toasty Mitts (because the yarn I'm using is a mix of red, yellow and orange, get it?) and I decided, after browsing Ravelry for hours on end, and after looking for an actual pattern for mittens on Ravelry for about half an hour (Can't help it, I am addicted to Ravelry!), to write my own pattern for them as I went along, to see how it turns out. So far, I'm liking them! But I've only almost finished one of the two, so when I'm done, I'll post the pattern.