Crochet mood blanket: March recap!

Nothing like being 17 days behind ;)...oh well, better late than never!  I can't believe that more than 3 months of 2014 are over!  Where has the time gone?  I'm happy to say that I've been moving right along on my crochet mood blanket.  March ended with 5 rows finished--yay!  It is really fun to see all the colors come together and I just adore the way it looks in natural light.  I'm itching to see it all done.

The whole process has been ok so far.  Some days I just can't find a minute to make a square--but I catch up the next day.  Other days I find myself rushing to make a square before bed--those aren't my favorite days.  I think I need to find a happy medium for making the squares.  Maybe getting up earlier in the morning and making it then would be better.

For anyone one else participating in this CAL, what is your strategy?  Are you enjoying the process?

Also, if you want to see my day-to-day progress check out my Instagram: Jessicle322!

Crafting for preemies

This past weekend was the North Jersey Fiber Arts Festival held in Ridgewood, NJ.  This is a yearly event that is now in its fourth year and it brings together crafters of all different fiber arts.  There are knitters and crocheters, hand and wheel spinners, lace makers, sewers, quilters, etc. and it keeps growing every year!  I've visited the festival each year since it began and I must say that it is always a nice time.  

I think my favorite thing about the festival is that each year they have a different charity project that they ask festival goers to donate to, if they have the time.  I actually had not decided if I was going to have the time to make it to this years festival until maybe a week and a half ago.  I decided that I would definitely make the time to get to the festival because I really wanted to donate something to the charity.  

This year the charity they were collecting donations for was Care Wear.  Care Wear is an organization that collects items for preemies and newborns (and I think maybe even older children) and donates them to local hospitals.  They look for hats and blankets as well as kimonos, toys, burial gowns, and other handmade items.  So, to benefit Care Wear, the festival asked for donations of preemie hats and blankets.

Prior to a week and a half ago I had never made an item for a preemie.  Once I started making a few hats I was amazed at how TINY they were.  It totally touched my heart that a baby could be born so small and still be alive--and not just living, but fighting for his or her life!  I knew that I had to make as many items as I could in the weeks time before the festival.  I was able to knit and crochet 7 hats and 3 blankets by the deadline that I set for myself (Saturday morning).  I also had found something in my closet I had made a few years back that was going to be a blanket for myself...but that I fell out of love with...and it seemed the perfect size for a preemie blanket!  I donated that one too.

So in total I gave 11 items! 7 hats and 4 blankets.  I used up yarns from my stash that were really soft and of course washable.  I tried to make the items as pretty as I could.  Starting clockwise below you see a knit square blanket that is striped and made up of left over baby yarns, next is a pink flower blanket (that's what I made years ago and fell out of love with), then a pastel granny stitch blanket with a purple ruffle, and finally a knit square blanket with multicolors, green, and a heart.

I made two different sized pumpkin hats (itty bitty preemie and larger preemie), a teddy bear hat (the ears were just too cute), a pastel colored knit umbilical cord hat, two crocheted hats with little loops on top, and a simply blue and white beanie.  These hat patterns (minus my little embellishment of ears and top loops) are available on the Care Wear website in this lovely 70+ page book of guidelines, patterns, and stories.

I plan on making more items to donate to hospitals.  I really enjoyed doing this.  Each little hat or blanket I made, I stitched with love hoping that it would help a little baby get stronger, healthier, and be able to come home to their families.

FO: Bedroom pillows

This spring I decided to get a new quilt for my bed because I was tired of the other one that I had. I ended up finding *THE PERFECT* one at Kohl's.  Purple and gray with leaves and vines stitched along in.  I fell in absolute love with it!  However Kohl's did not have any shams to go with it, except for the European kind which I didn't want.  So I was left with a bit of a problem....how do I make my bed without shams?  I decided to buy the quilt anyway.  My friend Matt was with me when I found it and he liked it a lot too!  After purchasing it we went to 2 or 3 different stores to try and find shams to go along with it, but had no luck.  We took it home and put it on my bed.  After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I had pillows on my couch that would match the quilt and easily let me bring in other colors to match it!  However, I felt that these pillows (the two butterfly ones and the paisley one) didn't quite "finish off" my bed.  Soooooo I decided to crochet myself two more pillows to go along with them.  I decided that these pillows would tie in the green, blue and cream in the butterfly pillows with the green, blue, cream, and purple in the paisley pillow.  I used a pattern from a Sarah London book (it's really just a granny square) and use the remaining yarn from my "bring-it-on baby blanket."  I was actually surprised at how much yarn these pillows used up!  Not only did they take up 4+ skeins of Naturally Caron Country, but they also took one skein of Naturally Caron Spa and some Simply soft that I had that matched.  I'm really happy that I got to use up stash to make these...and I love the look of my bed!  Next up is to make a matching throw.....I've already the yarn from Knit Picks (Comfy Sport!!!)....mwah-ha-ha ::evil yarn lover laugh:: ;).

Christmas gifts part 1

Tomorrow is Christmas eve.  This year I set out to make most of my holiday gifts, unfortunately I've not been able to complete all of them yet....but I will get them done!  I'm setting a second goal of January 7th, which is technically the Christmas that I celebrate.

Anywho, since I've given out a few of my gifts, I no longer have to worry about posting about them and ruining the surprise! (And I'll freely post about my mom's gifts because she does not use the internet!)

First, I knit my friend Stephanie a "Honey Cowl" in Madelinetosk DK in "Fragrant."  It is a mixture of different pinks (her favorite color) and really came out nice!  I made the one skein version and you can wrap it around your neck twice--when you do this it is snug on your neck (which honestly I found to be very nice). [Steph really liked the cowl!]

For my bosses at my internship, knit them each a coffee cup/mug cozy and crocheted a coaster.  Each got really excited when I gave them their presents--that's always nice to experience :).

Finally, one of my mom's gifts is a set of two towels for the kitchen.  In 2009 I started making her two kitchen towels....she got them in 2010 as well and now again in 2011.  I learned a new technique of embroidering a chain stitch along the edge of the towel and then crocheting on to that.  It really saved time when making these.  (Yes, I made these today....Christmas eve eve!).

My mom is also getting the knit vest I made, which I posted about here.  I'll get some pictures of her in it once I give it to her.  I really hope she likes it....

Productive weekend!

So despite being sick for the entire weekend with a fever and a terrible cold, I was quite the busy little productive bee!  (Both in crafting AND in dissertation proposal writing).  I found it easier to write this weekend because I assigned myself 4 hour work blocks with a scheduled break after.  Soooo, by telling myself, "Jessica, you will work/write from 12-4 followed by a nice cup of tea and maybe 30 minutes of yarn time," it somehow struck a little fire in my brain and the writing just flowed from my fingers.  I'm happy that I'm getting stuff organized, planning out my ideas, and really articulating them on paper.  I'm not saying this draft is great or anything, but it's growing and that is the most important part!

During my writing breaks and evenings on the couch feeling congested, feverish, tired, and sort of miserable I was able to knit about 5 inches on a special Christmas gift, cast on for another Christmas gift, knit a towel for the kitchen, and cast on and knit a few inches of a bag for my yoga mat!


Here's the beginning of the bag for my yoga mat. It's more of a hat right now ;).

Annnnnd here is the kitchen towel...first without a button and then with a button and hanging from the fridge! YAY!

I kind of get ADD knitting/crocheting when I'm not feeling well.  Also, I like to break up the time of knitting/crocheting large presents with making smaller things (especially those that are pretty mindless....).


Oh, I almost forgot!  I'm also making another couch caddy for a friend...here is some of my progress :).  I'll have the pattern up and published as soon as I can!

Significant Stitchers

Today was the first meeting of the knitting/crochet group that my friend Michael and I started at work. It was amazing to see so many colleagues interested in the crafts I love so dearly. Everyone was helping each other learn skills. It definitely was the perfect lunch. I think everyone is looking forward to our next meeting in 2 weeks!