FAIL

I suck at blogging now-a-days, too busy working & mommying...oh life
Here's what I've been up to:
What I've learned from this soon to be yoshi afghan: color change, stranded knitting & the fact that this blanket is going to be smaller than I want it to be...so I need to add 3 more images and sew them together. Oh the things I do for my friend.
Knitting is pretty cool, nice to have in my list o' skills.
I haven't touched my mini sewing machine yet...it's just sitting there...waiting for some good thread & great attachments...I just need fabric.
I'm thinking first project will be bed textiles. I bought some "satin" pillow cases & a comforter. It's tearing at the seams after only 2 months. I cannot wait to get an awesome sewing machine with myriad attachments so I can make cool stuff, but I'm ok with the singer for now. I really really need shelves...I've stacked up old diaper boxes and made them into shelves for our closet and my yarn. It's worked out and lasted almost a year now, it's just ugly as &#%$. I'm also not buying anymore yarn until all my other stuff is gone + the frogged granny yoshi blanket [fgyb for short]. I'm going to unravel it, double strand it take the biggest crochet hook or pair of knitting needles I can find and afghan it up. It will probably look like I'm a seahawks fan, blech. If I had more green I'd make it a seattle sounders blanket. I like european football instead of the boring American football.

Oh and that mass of black & white is a bag in the making...also made from the fgyb.

This is my granny bag...i ran out of brown yarn so I deemed it "The odd hobo" I really like it. Made with cotton, it's unlined..I did weave in the ends after this photo. It's got pretty good space & feel sturdy. In a word, functional. I take it out with me sometimes.

New in my etsy...

I just finished & posted Jaxsen's Loafers. They are a sage green & coco bootie with coordinating buttons. They are available in my etsy for 0-6 months, if you need a different size, convo me!

On other news, I finished Will R. Aine he would like to meet you:


I was going to give him a monocle & a mustache but I'm not that great at embroidery. I just learned how to do a back stitch! haha.

I need to finish this swap but I'm just procrastinating away. It's a beautiful day here in the PNW & I might take my WIP bag with me and enjoy the sun.

Relaunch of my etsy shop...well kind of

I took off all 4 things I had in my etsy shop and put in it's place the Amigurumi pattern for wobbuffet v2.o:

and the poo I made the other day.
I have lots of other plans, like mobiles, baby room decor, toys, useless time. You know, things just to get me through the spring/summer until fall gets here then I can whip out the apparel to keep everyone snuggly warm :]

Visit my shop sometime, it's not much now, but quantity isn't quality!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hhoang

Amigurumi Poo

Here it is in all it's dookie-fied glory: poo.
I made it a paperweight, but I don't think it's heavy enough. Maybe less than half a pound? I needed to do some stash busting & I had this awesome brown plaited cotton yarn left over from making these button up booties awhile back. I'll be taking more pictures of it later for my etsy shop, btw do any of you people know how to turn patterns into PDF files & if it's free? I feel I should share my patterns.
Anywho, I decided to free form this because a lot of the poo patterns I found looked, well not like poop haha. No offense to those of you who made up the patterns, with out you I wouldn't have been able to figure out a different way to make it. I think I might personify the poos I decide to make in the future.

I feel it's been ages.

I'm still working on my ami's and CAL.
good progression so far. I am so excited. I was on craiglist, under the FREE section of course and came across free bags of polyfil, sewing patterns & some fabric..there was also and etc SO I'm hoping it will be some other sewing notions :] I'm picking it up tomorrow & it's only downtown, which is about 10 minutes away from my apartment.

Here's my update:
Just finished 1 small amigurumi for my swap partner on crafster.org, I'm not posting a picture of it since well, I don't want my swap partner to suddenly stumble onto my blog.

here is my post for saturday for the granny a day CAL I'm participating on that same site:

10 squares down, 20 more to go. I'll be making number 11 later today, since it is 3:33 in the morning, no I don't stay up on the computer & twiddle yarn I'm usually at work this late. So even though I have weekends off my sleep schedule is still weird.

Yesterday, I made a cozy for this Similac sample can that I use to hold my hooks, pens & other goodies. First time I used a gauge & it fits so perfectly. I call it the puffy can cozy.

Jaxson's Mirrored afghan

This is Jaxson's mirrored afghan. I got it off of the lionbrand.com site, it is a free pattern & I do not claim this as my own. The only thing I changed was the color sequence so that the middle stripe was double the width of the others & reversed the color sequence for the rest of the blanket. If I would have worked on it non-stop I believe I would have been done in a weekend. It was easy & quick. A lot of people down-rated it because it did not lie flat while being crocheted. I fixed that problem easily: A quick dip in some warm water squeezed, not wring, out the water and hang dried it overnight. Now it's as flat as Kansas.
I used redheart designer sport yarn for this project & a G hook.

WIP: dweebo

Dweebo is a little creature I LOVED crawing up.
He loves lollipops & some how always gets hurt. He's constantly wearing a bandaid. Poor thing.
He's got a best friend named Sqweebo who is an alien.

I believe Sqweebo is the smarter of the two.
You'll meet him soon.

I ran out of yarn.

I was in the middle of making a jellyfish, just stash busting. I got through 5 tentacles and bam, out of yarn. I was hoping I could make it around the jellyfish with all tentacles & finish off the bottom & close it off with black, but I couldn't. What a shame, I will finish it though.
I plan on making some things blue for my etsy shop.

So, other than that what are my first 5 crochet projects going to be, that I myself will be using?
I have atleast 30+ projects I want to complete by the end of the year, ambitious yeah?

No, I'm not starting them at the same time, one by one.

Here's one. It's from the lionbrand.com site

pattern #30438AD
I might use a different yarn so that it has more of a drape to it.

Pattern# 90238AD
I love the motifs, but the colors are too muted for my taste

Pattern# 90189AD
Not a fan of turtlenecks, so I believe I'll get rid of the turtle neck & make it an off the shoulder kind of sweater

Pattern #90136ad
I want to add lining to this & some applique or other embellishments.

I think I'll use this fabric:
If you don't know it's Joel Dewberry's woodgrain from his aviary line.
I am completely in love with it.

I now present a 99.9% finished wobbuffet.
The picture isn't too great, but I love the mosiac feature on my camera phone. 4 angles, 1 photo, no editing.
Now, should I make 4 of him & sell him on etsy?

Here's some info on him:
I didn't have any polyfill stuffing, so I used old plastic bags I have in my house. The only thing I use them for is to wrap poopy diapers, so I have more than enough. Good way to recycle eh?
He is about 4 inches tall.
I threw myself into embroidery so I have to practice on that. I used the chain stitch for his eyes & mouth. His tail isn't completely done, but I'm strapped for time today.

My first ami, my first stab at embroidery

I present a 95% finished Wobbuffet.

I couldn't find any patterns for him, so I free handed.
He turned out pretty well. I only had to unravel 2 rows only because I lost count.
Used a chain stitch for the embroidery, it's a little off but I'm sure I can go back & fix it.
What do you think?
I'm off to bed.

Busy busy busy....

I have created a list of things to crochet while I save up for sewing notions & study for my GED...No I am not an idiot, I just hated high school.

Anyway here are a few projects (by a few I mean atleast 30) that I have up my sleeves, I do how ever need to remember ONE AT A TIME!!! Hopefully these will keep me from smoking. Trying to quit by distraction.
Some are cardigans for women to infants, cowls, scarves & baby items.
I've got a WIP, it's a ripple blanket I'm making for my nephew who is due in June.
Of course sister wanted a plain baby blue...but I went for a Lagoon, coco & pistachio ripple blanket. I am having issues with it laying flat, but I think a gentle cycle through the wash & a flat dry will fix that.

Here's a photo:
I've gotten a lot further since this picture. I also made a few adjustments to the sequence of the striping.
At the center of the blanket I doubled the green & mirrored the stripes for the other half.
You can tell that it's curling at the beginning where the foundation chain is...Hopefully when I finish adding the border it will correct itself.

I also have another WIP...it's a granny square yoshi blanket...It's taking me forever since it has come out to be 800+ granny squares. I am very tired of it. I'll finish it one day. It was suppose to have been a Christmas present. Well Sylas has a poopy diaper so I bid you farewell :]