I Made It Monday

I've been kind of slow on the crafting lately. Coming off of the holiday crafting high always leads me to a slow down in January and February. I've been feeling the yearning for some learning. I like knowing how to do things and I'm all about learning a new craft. There's about a half dozen crafts I would love to learn: spinning...okay spinning it the only one I can think of right now, but I swear there are more! I'm a bit bored with what I have right now and that makes it hard to want to sit down with a skein of yarn or a half dozen photographs and be creative. 

Plus, as I've mentioned before I haven't been all that...enthusiastic...with life right now. A lot is going on and often I find myself sitting with a project in my lap or on the table in front of me and no desire whatsoever to do any work on the project. I'll stare at the TV not seeing what I'm watching, worrying instead of working. It happens and I hate it when I catch myself zoning out. I end up putting the project aside and doing chores or more often than not, wasting time on Pinterest (I don't have an account and refuse to get one, but jeesh do I love scrolling through). Hopefully one of the biggest issues going on right now will soon be resolved and I'll get back into my normal routine.

I actually started working on today's project way back before Christmas but only finished it late last week. It should have taken a day or two tops. I worked on it for an hour, lost interest, went back a week later and couldn't remember what row I was on so I tore the whole thing out and restarted.

This happened a whole slew of times.

I got the pattern from one of my favorite crocheters, Ana Paula. Her book Amigurumi Toy Box features a quartet of cute sea creatures that make me squee. The jellyfish, though, is by far my favorite. 

"I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy."

I've hung him where I normally hang up our mistletoe and love watching Scott hit his head on it every single time he walks into the living room.

See how awesomely I am channeling J.J. Abrams? I think I've got a talent for lens flares.

I (un)Made It Monday

Remember that beautiful crochet project I was working on a while ago? The orangey sunset one?

 

The one where I knew, just absolutely knew that I would need more yarn to complete? Guess which one I can no longer work on because the store where I bought the yarn discontinued carrying it?

So very frustrating, my friends, to be in the middle of a project and not have enough yarn to finish it. Oh, I'm sure I could order it online somewhere...but that's not the point.

Because, I'm impulsive, see. And my level of spontaneity correlates directly with my level of frustration. So I end up with something like this before I even realize it.

Admittedly, it was kind of satisfying to pull the entire thing apart.

There is a new project in the works for this yarn, but as it is a gift, like many of my other projects at this time, and thus cannot yet be revealed.

On a side note, guess whose family is already getting sick of my impromptu bursts of Christmas music? And the stack of Christmas movies sitting by the DVD player? They just don't understand that when I'm in a gifty making mood, I need a gifty making environment to encourage my creativity!

I Made It Monday

For this week's project, I was inspired by Carly over at A Sewcial Life. One of the few crafty bloggers I follow, her crafts are very folk artsy and whimsical. Recently, she posted about a summer scarf she made with this fantastic fabric she bought in India. I love scarfs but as a winter necessity. I had never considered them to be summer accessory.

In any case, in an attempt to utilize my excessive stash of yarn, I decided to make a summer scarf out of a light weight 100% mercerized cotton. I choose an open weave/mesh pattern called "honeycomb." It was a relatively quick project and I probably spent about two hours on it over the course of a few days.