Crafty highlights of 2014

Instead of doing a Finished Object Friday today, I though I’d post my annual review of the year that passed 🙂

In January I knitted myself a hat, for the first time ever.

I think I liked it better like this, before felting, because it felted a little bit too much and became very thick and less floppy than I’d hoped But I couldn’t wear it like it was because it was too wide, so… Next time I think I’ll measure my head better first 😛

In February I was very excited to get my copies of the book that has two of my Bug patterns in it:

I finally finished the pattern for a new set of Cute Little Dudes, this time from Australia:

And then the Sochi Olympics came along, during which I finished a whole pile of things:

Crocheted unicorn (pattern by Stacey Trock), knitted Nessie (pattern by Hansi Singh), crocheted stegosaurus (by June Gilbank), Great Big Fly (my pattern), nalbinding hat and wristwarmers.

In March I made a tiny pink bunny, a really simple little project that’s made in one piece 🙂 During Easter I made three more of these colorful little guys:

In April I finished another crochet pattern, also a thing that had been in the works for ages. An Axolotl! I love these guys, and I really want to make more some day 🙂

During my Easter holiday, in addition to the horde of bunnies, I also completed two more knitted Hanisgurumi, the cuttlefish and starfish, which had both been in progress for years:

Then summer and work happened, and I didn’t knit or crochet much for a couple of months. I got some sewing done, though. First I made an oven mitt as a birthday present for my aunt:

And then I made a case for my newly restored Nintento DS Lite, with room for one GBA game:

When school started again in August I didn’t get anything finished for months. I started knitting on a giant pokemon that I still haven’t posted about other than a few photos on Instagram (that don’t really show much). Still working on that thing, and I’ll share it as a wip later, when it’s all stuffed and closed up. As it is now, it’s just too difficult to move around to get any good pictures of… You’ll just have to wait and see 😛

In October I finished this pretty Gracidea flower (also a Pokemon thing) that I gave to Bollan for Christmas:

She’s so pretty! I don’t have a pattern for it yet, but it’s on my list of things to do this year 🙂

I got my sewing machine out again and made a bag for the bokken (wooden sword) that I borrowed from the boyfriend for Aikido and Iaido practice:

And finally, some Christmas presents that I made:

An owl and a candle holder for my cousins, and a scarf for my aunt:

And that’s it. I felt like I didn’t do anything last year, probably because I only published three patterns, but I see now that I actually did quite a lot. Hopefully there will be more Bugs and Dudes and other patterns coming out this year 🙂

WiP Wednesday

So I’ve heard that this is a thing 🙂 I don’t think I’ll be posting every week, because I doubt I’ll have any new projects to show off, but maybe once a month? I might do the Finished Object Fridays as well, if i can only finish something… But they will probably have to be monthly as well, i don’t want to become stressed about blogging. That said, though, I’d really like to post more often than I’ve done lately.

So, the works in progress of this week are… more scarves! I’m obsessed 🙂

First up is a nalbinding cowl I started Christmas Day. I wanted to make a cowl to match my wristwarmers, and I was happy to find a ball of the same yarn in my stash at my mother’s house so I could begin right away 🙂 I messed it up a little, though. I decided to make a moebious thing, and when I twisted it to begin the second round I guess I started stitching in the wrong place. So when the second round was almost done, I realized that I’d have to ‘jump’ from the middle to the top row to be able to continue binding… I managed to solve it somehow, but I definitely won’t be giving this thing away 😛

Second project is a knitted scarf. The pattern is called Trillian and can be bought on Ravelry.

Yesterday was my birthday, and last week I got some money in advance from my mother, and I spent most of it on new knitting needles (I found fancy metal cubics that I’ve never seen before and I had to have them!) and some pretty yarn. To test my needles I started this scarf, but I fear I may have overestimated my knitting powers… Because even if I use needles a half-size bigger than in the pattern, the yarn is very thin, and it’s going to take forever to finish the scarf The picture was taken on Monday and shows about three days of knitting… So far it measures 27 cm, and if my calculations are correct (which they probably aren’t because I suck at math), I’ll have almost 200 stitches when I’ve knitted 27 more centimeters. And I guess the scarf needs to be a bit longer than that… Help

Short wrist warmers

And yet another WiP finished 🙂

Started these in January last year, shortly after I learned nalbinding. They were pretty much done, until I decided to knit an edge on the front. Got tired of knitting with black mohair (very hard to see and keep track of stitches, and nearly impossible to unravel) and put them aside for a while. And that while became a very long while 😛

Last night I did the two rounds that were left on one and knitted all of the other edge as well, and I stitched them up this morning. It didn’t take more than an hour in total. I picked up 29 sts for the edge, increased to 42 sts, knit about four rounds, did a round with holes, and then another six rounds. Folded the knitting inwards and stitched along the edge. So nice and comfy 🙂

The black stitches on the wrist edge were really supposed to be the other way around, facing outwards, as it were, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. So this is how it went. (Someone said YouTube tutorial? Oh well, next time 😛 )

Purple pixie hat

My first ever completed nalbinding project! 🙂

I made this hat for my mother for her birthday, which is next week. Hoping she doesn’t check my blog… She knows about it, though, because I asked her about a month ago if she wanted a new hat, and I had her measure her head. Hopefully she’s forgotten all about it by now 🙂

The tassel thingies are crocheted, and the swirly pattern is needle felted on (because I suck so hard at free hand embroidery). Sadly the needle feelting didn’t really stick as much as I thought it would – you can just peel it off if you want to – so I stitched over the pattern with a few strands of light purple embroidery floss. Hopefully it’ll hold 🙂 I planned to make a matching pair of wristwarmers, but I’ll have to see if I have time before she comes to visit next Wednesday. They won’t be a Ravellenic project, so I’ll try to do some other stuff first. Only one day left of the Games!

Bollan is the best hat model 😀

Crocheted needle case

The other day I went into a craft store just too see if they had nalbinding needles. I didn’t think so, but they did! Pretty cheap, too 😀 I bought a pack of three needles. They look really fancy, like wood, bone or horn, but I believe they’re plastic. That would explain the price. But I love them 🙂

Anyway, now that I have more needles I need something to store them in and keep them safe so they don’t break during travel or anything. So once again I crocheted one of the pencil-shaped pencil holders I’ve made two times before, only I made this one a lot smaller. Great for keeping my big sewing needles as well 🙂

Not used to working with worsted weight yarn anymore! I used a 3.5mm hook, and my hands and fingers were aching. But it was a quick project, so I didn’t suffer for long 😛