Sorry!

I didn’t mean to be gone this long! Had several posts planned, because I have quite a few new patterns to show you, but somehow that didn’t happen… But I’m back now, after a much too long struggle with a math course. Took the final exam again just this Friday, and I have a good feeling about the result. I don’t expect a brilliant grade, but I do expect to pass. What this means is that I can finally start my degree in biology! 🙂

Other good news: I’ve finally found a Blogger app for my phone that works the way I want it to. This means that I can write blog posts whenever I feel like it, and publish them whenever I’m online. This way I don’t have to spend the evening by the computer, when I can crochet instead 😀 It also allows me to upload pictures directly from my phone, which is very practical. I don’t really use my camera for pattern photos anymore because the flash tends to ruin the colors, which my phone camera doesn’t. Huge plus 🙂

Summary of 2010…

Let’s see… What happened, and what did I do last year? I’ll start with the crafting and patterns I’ve made. There are quite a lot… I’ve made six sets of Cute Little Dudes!

Forest Dwellers vol. 1

Forest Dwellers vol. 2

Forest Dwellers vol. 3

Happy Pets vol. 1

Christmas Dudes vol. 1

Christmas Dudes vol. 2

Then there are the Great Big Bugs, which – as someone correctly pointed out in a comment last night – aren’t really bugs at all! True bugs belong to another order of insects than the ones I’ve made; Bumblebee, Ladybug, Dragonfly, Dung Beetle and Fly:

And then there are two arachnids; Spider and Scorpion:

I’ve also made a few free crochet patterns, plus I’ve participated in a number of fun amigurumi CALs during the year 🙂 I’ve learned a new craft: tatting. I’ve become totally hooked and have even made a new blog for it! I’ve even got a new tattoo to celebrate two very important things in my life – crafting and Bollan:

During the spring term I decided to quit the university for a while, partly because I  didn’t feel like keep trying to get an expensive education that had no real job opportunities for me, and partly because I realized that I’d lost my motivation and wasn’t really good at it anymore. So I only took two exams of the four I’d originally signed up for, and I didn’t bother to sign up for any more for the fall semester.

This summer I had a taste of work life, and I found out (again) that I’m not made for working in social occupations. The cleaning job I had for four weeks suit me just fine 🙂 I then decided to start studying again, but something completely different – biology! I honestly think that it’s something I’ll be happy & comfortable working with later. I just have to get through a few mandatory math courses first (eek!)…

As for my personal life, well, I guess it has been as usual. Since I dropped the university I haven’t had the study support that I normally get, and my boyfriend hasn’t had a steady income either, so the lack of money has been quite straining. Hopefully that changes when I start studying again! Don’t know if everyone supports my choice though, I feel like my boyfriend still wants me to finish my bachelor in linguistics, and he doesn’t really believe that I’ll get through the biology either. He says I quit on everything that doesn’t go my way right away. Blah I’m not the most optimistic person, but his attitude sure doesn’t help.

Anything else? Can’t remember, so probably nothing important 😛

I’m still here

Just thought I’d post a little something to let you all know that I’m still alive 🙂 I just finished taking notes from a really long chapter about eukaryotic cells, and I thought I’d take a small break before I start doing the exercises. *sigh* I read through the chapter last week, but for some reason I didn’t take notes. Don’t ask why… Next week I plan to start on the math. I haven’t done it sooner because I need to borrow a fancy calculator from a friend who won’t arrive in town before Sunday Hope I have time to do it all. I figure that if I don’t spend more than two weeks on each chapter, I’ll get through the whole book by the end of November. Fingers crossed 🙂

Though I really need to focus on my studying this fall, I hope I’ll be able to get some crafting done as well (I have to do something, or I’ll probably go insane). I’m almost done with a new Great Big Bug – a firefly – and I have another one started. Plus I’d like to make another firefly as a mate to the first one. I have only four legs left to make! I’ll do my best to finish it by this week 🙂 For the body I’ve used glow-in-the-dark yarn (yellow Bernat) for the first time! I ordered it from here, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to people ouside of US or Canada, the shipping cost was insane compared to the price of the yarn I tried ordering another brand (white Nightlights) from another site, but they had problems with overseas shipping, so I didn’t really have a choice. Of course I could have waited until they had their issues fixed, but you know me :p Anyway, here’s a sneak peek at the firefly:

She’s quite large, and the back end really does glow! I’m pretty pleased with this one 🙂

Oh, another thing… I’ve managed to get tangled up in a craft project with a deadline of  August 31st, so that naturally has priority right now. Not sure how much I can talk about it yet, so if you feel like I haven’t posted much craftyness lately it’s not because I haven’t done anything 🙂 I promise I’ll tell you more about it when I know how it turns out!

And then there’s the tatting 🙂 I’m hooked! On the bus here I started a new project, and during the next two or three days I finished my first “big” item, a crocodile bookmark 🙂 Thought it would be cool to put in my biology book. The pattern is called “Alligator bookmark” from the book Animal Bookmarks – A Tatted Zoo by Dianna Stevens, but I think it looks more like a crocodile than an alligator. I like crocodiles better 🙂

Bookmarks are both practical and fun to make, and I think it’s becoming a new obsession 🙂 I’m not at all a fast tatter, so I can only make a few rings and chains every night, but I’ve just finished a thistle bookmark from this pattern. It doesn’t say how many colors to use, but I made mine in green and pink. Pictures will probably be up on Flickr and Facebook tonight or tomorrow 🙂

Weee-kend :)

Today was the final test in the indroduction course in Latin. I think it went well, but I’m not sure since it was a pretty easy or short test, so everything has to be 100 % right for a top grade.. The last few days I’ve done nothing but study (except for finishing up the Celtic squares during the Latin classes, but I haven’t photographed them yet, so I’ll post more later), so now I’m taking a well-deserved break to finish off some projects 🙂 Wee!

A while ago I bought a new crochet book, 50 Sensational Afghans and Throws, solely because of the afghan pattern that’s featured on the cover. 

It’s a beautiful afghan, but the pattern is unfortunately somewhat of a challenge. Not because  the pattern is particularly difficult, but it’s poorly written at times, and with a few mistakes. I fortunately found someone on Ravelry who has made this afghan before, so I’ve had help and support through my first square 🙂 My first try came out a little small, and I made so many mistakes I didn’t want to use it (and I didn’t want to unravel it), so a started a new one, using green instead of blue:

I decided not to make all 12 squares needed for the afghan, but only 4 to make a pillow. So far the first square is almost finished, and the other three are almost half done. But then I ran out of black yarn… Today I finally got around to go to the store for more, but they were out of black, too 😦 I guess the squares aren’t meant to be finished yet… There are just two rounds left with black on that first square, and I had hoped I’d see it finished this weekend

As you can see the corner motifs are a challenge for my patience:

But, since I’ve been out of black for quite a while, and I really love these squares, I have started a new set in new colors! It looks kind of Easter-y with the yellow and purple 🙂

A much needed break…

Just ten days until the final test in Latin, woohoo… I had my linguistics exam today, the one I failed before Christmas. I think I did allright this time, though I know I would have done better if I’d read more. But time flew past and motivation failed me, so all I could do was hope the questions would be more understandable than last time. Now it’s all done, and I treated myself to a new book (again, haha) of beaded animals 😀 My first beading book in English!

Lovable Beaded Creatures by Anja Freese. It’s a pretty book, though the animals are a little different than the ones I’m used to. This is the only book I have by this author. It has patterns both for beaded animals and woven bracelets, but the animal section is by far the biggest. I need to get myself a beading loom, there are many great patterns I want to try out 🙂 Hopefully I’ll get my missing beads in the mail tomorrow, so I can make a little critter from my new book before moving on to verb conjugation and noun declensions in Latin  :p

I have also started this month’s squares for the Ravelry Block-a-Month CAL. The pattern is called Celtic Granny. I skipped the 5th round and improvised the sc edge to make the square 4 inches instead of 6. Tonight I managed to make these three: