Gifting

I'm officially 6 months into my crocheting endeavor. It started in mid-November, during a period of extremely high stress. The higher my stress climbed, the more addicted I became. I couldn't go to bed sometimes until I'd done one row (justonerow!), no matter how late or how tired I was. Now that my life has changed rather dramatically, the craving has eased. Luckily, though, I think I love it enough that it'll stick.

I finished my friend's baby blanket just in time for her shower this May. This is the first crochet item I've made for someone else, which made errors even less acceptable than usual (I'm already pretty anal to begin with). Thus, about a week into it, I frogged the whole thing because I was certain I was doing something terrible to cause ragged edges. But then I started over and discovered that's how they were supposed to look. Oh well.

N is having a baby girl, but the nursery is cream with a "dusty teal." I originally wanted to match the blanket to the room, but gave up on trying to figure out what "dusty teal" was and just did gray. I think it turned out nice. And how 'bout these stitches, eh? Many thanks to Ms. Paulson for a lovely pattern.



I desperately want to learn to knit next. But also want to keep doing more crochet. I haven't really gotten into doing stuff in the round yet, or dipped my toe into the wild and wonderful world of amigurumi stuffies. And I have plans for holiday gifts that I'd like to get started on pronto. Time will tell. Right now, family's in town, and the sun is shining.

Oh, and this week's Stuff on Etsy I'd Like to Buy featured item is one of the lovely prints at Berkley Illustration. I'm thinking of getting this one for my dad for father's day (hopefully he hasn't found my new blog yet...)



I want to get one for myself too. Luckily, Lucy and her husband Ryan, the man behind the art, posted on their blog today that they are letting us vote on the next critter he does up in fancy duds. I'm really excited about this because I love so many of his prints but there wasn't one that stood out above all others - which was making the decision-making process really tough for me. So, fingers crossed, maybe Barack Obama-- er, I mean the polar bear, rather, will win. Ahem.