FO: ready for winter! hat!

Last year, I took some leftover balls of grey and blue acrylic yarn that felt quite cozy, and started a hat. I finished it, but never wore it outside the house. I know the facepalm-gigglesnort-picture might tell you differently, but I just wasn't happy with it. The fit wasn't all that, it felt loose and only barely covered my ears if I pulled at it. There was no edging to speak of because I started at the top and increased until I thought it'd be big enough, and by the end of the hat, I just didn't feel like starting over to make a proper band. In fact, I just did a round of slip stitches to be done with it...

So this week, I pulled it back out, dug up the same yarn from my stash, and added a band.

There. Much better. It's slightly slouchy now, though not too slouchy because those things never look right on my head, it covers my ears (and can cover them completely if I pull it down more, because there's room enough at the top to do that now!), and I like the look of it much better than before!

And just in time too, because the weather finally woke up and realised that, oh crap! it's almost February, and a bit of wintery weather was really long overdue. Yesterday, we had snow! Today, we woke up to temperatures well below zero degrees! And lots of bright and cheerful sunshine, so the snow is already gone from all the places that are sheltered from the cold wind. Oh well. I believe we've still got a few days of frosty weather ahead of us, so now I'm prepared!

This & That: the 'what the hell...?' edition

What the hell is this?! Well, I've been on a water kick lately, but the taste of water (especially the tap water where I live) is kind of... meh. And yes, that is the most accurate description I could think of. The odd contraption in the picture? An empty juice bottle, one lemon cut up in bits, and 1 liter of water. I go through 2 of these a day, easily! Yay for healthy habits!

And what the hell is that?! Well, I've also been on a crochet kick! I'm working on a Secret Project for someone that I'm pretty sure doesn't read this anyway, but to err on the side of caution, I'll just call it the Secret Project. It's worked up in Shachenmeyer Nomotta Bravo, a wonderful acrylic yarn that I used to make the Great A'Tuin back in 2010. I had a whole ball left because apparently, I suck at calculating the amount needed to crochet 1 turtle. However, I might need to go out and get more! I'm running out and I still need to crochet 2 legs, a nose, a tail and some horns! (that's all the hints you're getting from me, by the way.) After that, it needs dressing up, which I've decided to do in felt.
Which brings me to the next dilemma. Details on felt: paint on, or embroider? Would paint hold well enough? Embroidering all the details on would take forever (trust me, there's a lot of details), but the result would be more sturdy. It's an issue I haven't decided on yet.

And as a bonus, here's why trying to set up a photo booth on the dining table next to the bird cage for a bit of close-up photography proves to be impossible in my house these days.

That's an empty roll of paper towels. And one unbelievably active bird trying to rip the whole thing to shreds while screaming with its mouth full of paper. It's unbelievably hilarious and distracting at the same time.

Early bird

Catches the gorgeous sunrise. It was cold the past two nights! Finally! After a seriously disappointing winter, we finally got a glimpse of what everybody has been missing. Even the people that dislike winters. (seriously, what the hell, people-that-dislike-winters. What is wrong with you? How can you dislike winters?!)

And, something I learned when I had a paper route, if the night has been really cold and clear, the sunrises are even more spectacular than usual. Because I'm getting up earlier now that I'm a freelancer, I catch a lot more gorgeous sunrises than I did before. Just yet another perk of the job.

Blogs I'm enjoying right now

You probably know, judging by the long, long list of blogs in the sidebar, that I really enjoy reading blogs as well as writing them. I thought I'd give you guys a peek into what I've been reading lately!

LoveElycia



I'm absolutely smitten with this blog and this lovely lady! And that's partially because of her awesome, awesome hair. The other part of the reason is the fact that she writes great little posts about a number of topics and takes adorable pictures and videos. It's a cheerful, lovely blog!


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One Sheepish Girl



Another lovely blogging lady! Another blog that is all about gorgeous pictures, posts about what inspires her, and posts dedicated to blogging for confidence, an ongoing project about boosting self-esteem through her blog posts. And of course, the This & That posts that have inspired me to start my own series of This & That posts.

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A Playful Day



A Playful Day is a blog that I love for a completely different reason than the above: I love A Playful Day for her podcast! I am a big fan of podcasts, but I'm a difficult audience that wants to be able to do things while listening without missing a lot of your podcast. There are few podcasts that allow this, but the A Playful Day podcast hits that nail right on the head: it's lovely knitting talk, filled with nice anecdotes and reviews and recommendations of patterns that make me want to knit.. well, anything! Give it a listen. And, of course, read the blog too!

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Untangling Knots



Untangling Knots is written by yet another lovely lady with gorgeous hair. (I think that a generous part of this list may have spawned from some serious hair-envy.) Not only does Andi write great posts about her knitting projects and her forays into crochet, she has written several mini-series about the technical side of knitting, such as stretchy bind-offs and button holes. For someone who is not as apt a knitter as she would like to be, this mini-series taught me a lot!

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Goodknits



And last but not least, Goodknits! This young mom with 2 adorable kids talks life, knitting and crochet, other crafts and photography, and once again it is a gorgeous blog to look at.

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And that's my list for today! What blogs have you been enjoying lately? Let me know!

This & That: creative ways

This week, I've found myself longing for my hobbies. To take my mind of things. I usually cope with stressful situations in creative ways: I bake, or crawl away in the corner of our couch and crochet. Starting a business on your own when you've only ever worked, let's face it, low-level jobs, is quite scary sometimes. I've found myself in the baking aisle more often while doing groceries. So today I caved and baked cookies during my lunch break. By hand. There's something quite therapeutic about furiously pounding butter and sugar into one glossy, glorious mess with a big wooden spoon.

But apart from that, I've also decided to start working on something quite special for a friend. Can't say much, all I can say is 'yes, that is WoW-related', and 'yes, that does indeed look a lot like a cow'. It's a new project, though, and it's quite special, and I'm quite thrilled to have something like this to go to and relax with when I'm done working. And it gave me a reason to go yarn-shopping soon, yay!

Today.. I shall feel pretentious.

And give this photograph a name. And it shall be.. 'After the Storm'.


Because it was taken after a storm, see. It all makes sense in the end.

This & That: A new year's resolution

I'm starting a new tradition on this blog, following the example of a blog which I very much enjoy reading: One Sheepish Girl. Her This & That posts are perfect for when you want to post something on your blog, but don't know how to work it into an entire blogpost!

This: This week I shall mainly be wrestling with being a fulltime freelancer, tackling issues such as 'how will I plan my time?' and 'can I spend money on stuff for my own company already?'.

That: I think, or rather, I like to believe, that it is slowly cooling down a bit to a temperature that's more common for January, and therefore I shall be enjoying the snuggly warmth of the shawlette, which is slowly stretching out a bit (mainly thanks to me tugging at the ends a lot) and now remains safely inside my coat instead of crawling out when I'm not looking.