My cousin Cait is getting married in July, and i am her maid of honor! We talked about it a bit and we're both pretty clueless as this is our first times being involved in a wedding since the age of 4 or 5.
I have decided that if she wants, I will crochet her a nice shawl or wrap to wear in the evening when it starts getting a bit cooler out. (but it will be July when she gets married so it still might be 90 degrees out!) I need to find a good pattern. Nothing too heavy or old ladyish (read: intricate). I'm not dissing anyone here, it's just that she's 23 and it's a very simple wedding, and a simple dress, plus if it's a simple pattern I wont have to stress about it as much either. And you know, it still might be too warm for something heavy.
I found something that might work out here but i don't know if i want a shawl so much as a wrap. I guess i'm just thinking along the lines of a gigantic scarf, sort of like this:

I think this one calls for denim silk? I don't know but it's sort of weird. It might work in a fingering weight or lighter white alpaca or something... I've still got a few months to think about it and see if she would actually want a wrap to wear for her big day if it does get chilly. If anyone has any good ideas, please send them my way!!

As promised, here is the plastic fork hackle I was talking about.



Seriously now, is that not the most cheapest thing you have ever seen? And you can see that the tape isn't even duct tape- it's some off brand that was half the price. The forks too, now that I think about it. And even all that llama fiber sitting there was free. It works just fine for very small amounts of fiber, and I have to be really careful when pulling it off. It's working fine for my needs as I am not a voracious spinner yet and I've only washed a handful of that llama anyway to work with, so it's not like I need something heavy-duty to work with right now. And besides, those hand carders I ordered back in November should be here soon, right? Right??
Anyway, this would be a good cheap alternative if someone was just interested in mixing small amounts of fiber together.

It's attached to my coffee table which, in retrospect, is not a good place for it at all. I can't put my feet up anymore when I'm sitting on that side of the couch. And I like sitting at that end of the couch... haha oh well! Craftiness before comfort, eh?

And of course I didn't come up on this one all on my own, I saw this page: This Land! >> DIY Hackle V. 3.0
So much wonderful things they have going over there! Check it out!

Roving being dyed. What a lovely ghetto setup! Its pretty much all merino combed top, but that little green in the front is SOY! yes! happy soy! I found it languishing in a sale bin at the Little Red Schoolhouse (which was the first time I had been there in oh ten years...) It's soft and silky and happy! And, it smells like soybeans when wet. Go figure right?






And this, my friends, is some lovely baby llama that I got from a friend in a big lawn bag. I washed it and now am spinning it with a little bit of dyed by me pink merino.

And for next time, I'll show you my ghetto (are we seeing a trend?) hackle made of plastic forks. Also, the results of the roving in the first pic.

eh heh, heh heh... So I've been slacking. A lot. But I have good excuses, you see.
I moved. and then it was Christmas. and then it was new years. and then work and school started again.
That isn't to say i haven't made anything or done anything crafty, it just means that between no internet at the new house and not taking any pictures- teh blog suffers!


I've been making hats, as usual. I'm starting to follow patterns to get practice of new techniques.

Soley Granny Squares Hat: Can you believe this was actually the first time I had ever made a granny square? let me tell you it changed my life. I promptly made two hats with this pattern.

Divine Hat: This hat was so quick to make, however I felt that the pattern ended up on the extra large side. Either that or the pattern creator crochets a LOT tighter than i do. I'm going to try again with some different yarn with not as many starting stitches and we'll see how it turns out.

Cable Hat: Again this hat was pretty quick to work up, but it ended up on the large side again even with some homebrew decreases. I will definitley make this hat again as it it squishy and warm and that's something i love about it!

There are a few things I would love to do in the future, but for reasons such as time, money, experience, and materials, I don't feel like I can start on now. Not all of these have to do with crochet but they're sort of just general craft things to do.

• Knit a sweater. Now this one obviously I'll need to learn how to knit- even if it is just the stitches required for the specific sweater I'll be making. This sweater over on Craftster seems like the perfect candidate. Plus many people have given tips and tricks. Materials for this one would be easy, because I already have lots of yarn to choose from.
  
• Crochet a rag rug. This one will take time acquiring the materials. There is a tutorial here that lays it out really well. I've also been admiring the Flickr Pool of rag rugs. I already have an old fitted sheet lined up, but it will take a trip or two to the goodwill to find old sheets to make up the bulk of the rug. This will also take quite some time to finish up, depending on the size of rug I end up making.
  
• Crochet scrap blanket. Now this doesn't really have to be anything special, but it's the material part that's the hard part. I have a bag going that has leftover yarn in it, but there's not enough in there to really make anything big with. I have been pulling scraps out though to work into hats recently, so this might take some time to work back up.
• Sew a fancy dress. So this sort of comes from my family history. My mom made her own wedding dress and I'm pretty sure my grandma did too. I think that would be the coolest thing, to have made my own wedding dress. Although in reality it might not happen, sewing a dressy dress from scratch would be the same sort of thing. And I'd be able to find a reason to wear it at least once! This sort of goes along with the whole 'craft your wedding' but the only reason these come into mind is because it seems like everyone is getting married!
• Make a quilt. Now this is a big project. Takes lots of time, fabric, and work! I think i could do it someday though. maybe when i have a sewing machine that can actually handle it.

I'm pretty sure there's more craft related things that I'd love to do, but i can't think of any more big ones at the moment.

I made a little kitty a few weeks ago. my mom had just given me her old sewing machine and i was itching to do something with it, so i whipped out the black felt and sewed to my hearts desire. I sewed on his eyes after i had sewn most of the the main body together. I was getting really lazy and didn't want to hand sew anything i didn't have to. He's pretty lopsided but thats what makes it lovable right? The ironic thing- i found a teeny black kitten in my backyard the morning after i made this. It was a sign. Don't worry, the little stray kitten is now living with my roommates girlfriend, being well taken care of!


Felt kitteh



Real kitteh


And Bonus! Racheal with reall kitteh!

So, a few weeks ago I decided that I really needed to have a craft blog. I get caught up making so many things but never record them in any way- a blog would be perfect, separated from all that old day to day whine stuff on the ol' livejournal. I was checking to see if icemelon was taken, because it's pretty much my overall username now for a few years. Turns out it was taken! I was ready to chuck the whole blog thing out the window, I was so upset. Well... it was me... from 4 years ago. Just some teen angst posts of course. Those are gone now, but man. I had some serious forsight on that one ;)

So look forward to lots of posts about my crafty escapades! And there should be lots of pictures too, because hey. We all know people only look at blogs for the pics.

and to start, here's an oldie but a goodie.