November MMMM #4 (Final)

Well, here we are on the last MMMM post for November already. Mrs. Frankenstein is finally finished (about dang time)~

done!

Gosh, I did worse this month than last month. Only one finish, and it wasn't even that big! I think there are three different blacks in her hair as I was rummaging through my old kit remains. At least they were all mostly created equal which may be very lucky on my part!

finally together

Well, at least I got one done... @_@ Since I did the two of them, I'm "caught up" from missing last year's entirely. I'll try to squeeze in another Christmas finish to be caught up on that as well but it may not be a mini~ These MMMMs have been quite helpful for slow me but I will probably have to bow out of next month's as there are bigger things I need to be paying more attention to. I really need to get that baby "sampler" done before the poor child turns one eek!

Short entry this time! Am I ever going to be productive again~? :I

IHSW & November MMMM #3 & Giveaway Win!

Well hello again! This is a somewhat late IHSW update so I've combined it with MMMM.

creepy cute as made by Moonpie!

First, looky what came for me from the wilds of England! Aren't they cute? And so well made too! The ever creative Steph at Show and Tell made them for her All Hallow's Read giveaway. Heaven knows I have enough books but there are never enough bookmarks so this is delightful~ :D The little one is a pin too which is great as my Halloweeny pins are sorely lacking! Thank you, Steph~!

before!

after!

Would you believe I'm still not done with Mrs. Frankenstein? Of course you would! :b I can't stitch long with the black on black without my eyes going NOPE NO THANK YOU so as you can see, I have about half her hair attached. I guess I should look into a directly over my head lamp of some kind instead of turning everything on in the room and angling my work. So maybe IHSW was a bit of a bust.  Can you find the picked out thing that was bugging me so much? :D

For my next mini, I would love to work on this little thing. It's a brooch! I found the kit in a thrift store and, at the time, I thought it was just a tiny frame for an ornament. But no, a brooch. I was so thrilled with this (I put pins/brooches on my coat lapels a lot), I went back to the thrift store and bought the other kit haha. I'm not too fond of the pattern that came with it so if anyone knows of some oval-y cute 28 x 32-ish freebies, let me know. It doesn't have to be Christmas themed though I think I would like either holiday or seasonal.  I wonder if I could make a collection and switch them out! O_O

In the crocheting world, our class has finished. I managed to get enough little snowflakes made for all the ladies in class but completely underestimated how long they would take to dry after being starched! So they got bundled up in plastic wrap and baggies and apologies but the ladies were delighted. It seems I was the only one willing to venture into the world of thread crochet haha. And would you believe I forgot to take a picture of them all, ARGH. Instead, please admire this rather goofy picture of them being blocked (yes, I know my blocking needs work; I used what I had and what I had was not appropriate). I hope they turned out all right because I think the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water was like syrup! I think I would use less sugar next time.  But each one is different like snowflakes should be. :)

daffodowndilly

In our last class, I attempted to make a daffodil, from a free pattern I found on ravelry. It had some new stitches in it (crossed double and double treble) and I wanted to make sure I had assistance available when I got confused. But! Look! It turned out fairly well for a first attempt. I just made the flower but I'm not sure if I want to make the whole square. The cup sticks up quite a bit so it wouldn't make a very good potholder (which is a shame as my kitchen is daffodils) but maybe I can whip up a long simple swatch to make curtain tiebacks. That could be kinda cute maybe. I am not sure how much I like the round petals though; they just don't seem daffodowndilly.  I did find a project modification that looked spectacular though, so I may try that next.

braaaiiinnnsss...

No pictures of my scarf progress though it's just over two feet long now. Instead, have my blob of yarn.  I've been trying to organize my inheritance of yarny supplies and as you can see, some are a mess.  I haven't quite discerned if that is two or three skeins in that alien life form.

Until next time assuming I haven't been devoured by the zombie yarn~

November MMMM #2

I did hope to have the Mrs finished by this post -- and I did get close! All that is left is the black of her hair and I've been putting it off because stitching black on black always drives me (more) bonkers.

before

peek-a-boo...?

after!

Of course, after uploading those pictures I see a glaringly obvious mistake I'm going to have to pick out and ponder how on earth I made it in the first place.

But I do have a different sort of finish!! I will say this -- I scared my husband last night when I screamed at my crochet! I've always loved those crocheted snowflakes and last night I MADE ONE eeeeeeee. It's like a life goal has been accomplished! It looks a little odd because 1) it was my first one and picots are weird, 2) oooooooold crochet thread was discolored, 3) not yet starched. But! I MADE IT!!! *spazzes* I hope I can make a few more before the last class to give to the ladies a little thank-you-for-putting-up-with-me.

eeeeee

Anywhoodle! Last class we learned how to join colors and make granny squares. My granny square turned out surprisingly better than I thought it would've and they were also surprisingly easy once I figured out where I was supposed to be slip stitching. They're also super mindless to stitch. So very little counting and if you don't count, you still get it right because it's obvious how many are supposed to be in what section. At least to me it was.

it's almost square!

And I also worked a bit more on my scarf. The color pattern is a bit more obvious now. There will be another section of white ~4 inches wide and then miles of blue until I decide I need to start the end pattern. I'm not a very tall person but I like longer lengths so it will probably wind up somewhere between 60-65" long. I haven't decided if I want tassels on the end yet!

totally long enough now

Welp, that's all from me for the week! I'm excited for the weekend as they're calling for a little bit of snow! I hate being cold without snow, it just seems so mean. Plus it will give me an excuse to stay at home and be buried in my crafts. :b Productive fingers, GOOOOO!

REVIEW - 22-Piece Crochet Hooks w/Case

No stitchy stuff in this post; it's just a review of a set of hooks I ordered on Amazon that I thought may be of interest to at least someone. :) More experienced hookers are welcome to chime in.

Since I'm new to crocheting, I don't (didn't) have very many hooks. I found this set on Amazon for a whopping $5-6 which is much cheaper than one can find around here. It shipped free from China so it had a month-plus delivery date; no big deal as I'm patient, especially for cheap things. It arrived in roughly two and a half weeks. It has a purple zippered case to store all of the hooks in. The case isn't spectacular but it's handy and holy moly did it smell like stored plastic! A little time in the sun cleared that up. I cannot see it holding up well with heavy use; even after having it for a couple of weeks, the plastic holders are a little bent from taking out/replacing hooks.

They came oriented this way in the case and for some odd reason, this really bugged me. Maybe because the open zipper was at the top. So, I flipped them all around.

I must admit I do not know a lot about hook quality. The colored hooks are aluminum and seem to be comparable to the ones that can be found in local big box stores. I had a few Boye hooks before and they're the same weight and hook dimensions. They only list the size in millimeters on the hook (so no letters for USAers). I'm not particularly bothered by that because it seems that most patterns give both the letter and size anyway. If it becomes an issue, I can always print off a little chart to keep in the case with the hooks.

The little silver hooks are of a more questionable quality. I felt the sizes were somewhat random and I'm honestly not sure if I can trust those sizes. The 1.05mm size looks smaller than the 0.6mm size! A few of the sizes were off centered as well, making it difficult to read. The throats look somewhat rough. I attempted chaining with them and a random bit of crochet thread and they did not snag so looks may be deceiving! I'm guessing I'll get to the point where the size on the hook won't really matter and I'll just use what feels "right" at the time.

All of the hooks feel sturdy and I find them comfortable to hold.

The sizes listed
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.8mm/0.9mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.15mm/1.25mm/1.40mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.75mm/1.90mm/2.10mm

The sizes received
color 2.0mm/2.5mm/3.0mm/3.5mm/4.0mm/4.5mm/5.0mm/5.5mm/6.0mm/6.5mm;
silver 0.6mm/0.75mm/0.85mm/1.0mm/1.05mm/1.1mm/1.15mm/1.4mm/1.5mm/1.6mm/1.7mm/1.75mm

Would I recommend? Yes and no. If you have a bunch of hooks, this set probably won't bring you anything new. The questionable quality of the steel hooks would probably bother more experienced crocheters. I do, however, think it's a good set for a beginner (hi!) because it has the common "normal" sizes. I'm having fun just making stitches with the different hooks to see what happens. And that price just can't be beat!

November MMMM #1

Aloha~

I decided to go ahead with MMMM for November (this time hosted by Justine!) because it's fun getting these minis stitched up! Of course, that is if one has the time to sit down....

before

after

Such amazing progress, right? sigh It was a busy week again. Things should be winding down soon. I hope. My poor lazy bones need more lazy-ing than they have been getting lately!

But! Look! I finished a crochet thing! Remember this square?

my first square...

...is a potholder!

I made a second one and attached the two together and made a little loopy thing. It's a little wonky but for a first larger project, I guess it's okay. The first side I attached I think I may have gotten overzealous with the stitches lol. I think there are twice as many in that side than the others, oops. :D I love the colors in it but they don't really match my kitchen so I know a Very Wonderful Mom who will probably receive this for Christmas. She was saying she wanted a larger one anyway! And it is quite large; the lamp it's displayed on is about 1.5-2 feet tall. And if for some reason this Mom is reading my blog, shoo! Don't look at the picture you've already looked at!

a thing!

I also started a new project that will hopefully wind up being a scarf. It's a bit wide but I get cold easy so the larger the better, maybe...? I'm stitching it with Yarn Bee Soft Secret in navy and some mysterious white that I had in my stash. My goal is to make it match a pair of gloves I have... and I love matching things! Because I'm still a noob, using the Soft Secret instead of the regular worsted Red Heart is an adventure. It's so... slippery! And soft! I love to just fondle the skein ahaha.

And look what I found!! On my quest to obtain a rainbow of floss boxes, I stumbled upon this on eBay:

purple!

It was a little beat up but has the hinges instead of plastic flaps and came with that rather random assortment of floss. I'm not really sure what the two gold flosses are as they aren't numbered. Maybe some sort of Kreinik? So now I have blue, purple, pink and the ever-so-findable clear boxes. I can finally start winding the rest of my floss.

Well I can guarantee your stitchy fingers have been more productive than mine for the past week so uhhh here's to next week? :D