Two Cent and Yay or Nay Tuesday #2: Thanksgiving Edition

After my most recent post (and first!) in this series, the verdict is still out on what the title should be. Keep voting, spread the word.

Today's post of course has to be Thanksgiving themed. I am a firm believer in Thanksgiving. It's a little funny that every year it gets more and more difficult. What do I mean? I mean I saw all things Halloween AND Thanksgiving on 70% off clearance at Michaels a few days before Halloween. I was totally shocked. Then I started wracking my brain to see if there was anything I needed since it was apparent that this was my last chance, even with the holiday being a month away.

Here I am with my little blog to keep the Thanksgiving spirit alive! A couple years ago I saw a knitted version of this hat making the rounds on Pinterest. I remember being completely enamored with it as I was perfectly fit over a cute little baby noggin.

You can imagine my excitement when my friend posted this on my Facebook wall.

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A crocheted version of the turkey hat!

What are your two cents? Yay or nay? Pick one:

a) I would pay money for this. 
b) I would make this myself. 
c) I would take this if it was free! 
d) No. 

My thoughts:
Yay! I love it. I don't know that I would wear it around all day Thanksgiving. But I think it is a funny novelty hat and I can definitely see everyone taking turns with it for selfies. I especially like it for babies because babies look so cute in hats (why is that btw?). 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Turkey hats or not I hope you enjoy your holiday. 

Sneak Peak- Christmas Tree Skirt

I have been a little absent from the blog as of late because I have been working on a massive custom order. My sister asked if I could make a Christmas tree skirt and I ambitiously and naively said I could. I already had my eye on some projects, so she picked out a pattern she liked, and armed with coupons I made a trip for yarn.

This project is a very colorful one. It involved not one, two, or even three colors but 10 different colors of yarn! My face when I was able to find the center-pull string in every. single. skein.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you will never understand the struggle. It's better that way. Here is my set up.

This perfectly sized basket made the yarn very easy to work with. It was especially handy since I was changing colors so often.

I have worked with granny squares before (read about it on my personal blog here). But nothing of this magnitude. Each square was ten rounds, and I made 12 squares. Although if we are splitting hairs they are trapezoids. ;) I put together this fun Flipgrams so you can see the process as I added each round. I certainly wish they went this fast!

After finishing the granny trapezoids I still had the inner ring. Then joining, more joining, weaving in ends, and last of all, the border.



As the project continued I was amazed at how large it was becoming. My sister has a 6 foot tree. Not the tree from Rockefeller Plaza. Opps. At least she has options now. I figured it is a versatile project because you can drape it however you like to accommodate style and width.



Wheww! I can't believe it is finished and ON TIME. Now it can be admired before it is covered in presents. I am really proud of this huge accomplishment, and I can't wait for my sister to receive it. I will post more complete photos once I get it to her- this week!

Stanwood Yarn Winder

As previously mentioned, my birthday was this past weekend. I had an amazing day with the best people and mountains of presents from friends and family near and far.

One of my requests this year was just yarn. Yarn and more yarn. And everyone delivered! Including Ross who I still wonder why fans this flame.



Count up all the yarn! *hearts for eyes emoji*



One of the most clever presents I got was the famous Stanwood Yarn Winder. Okay okay okay, so maybe it isn't really famous outside of my nerdy fiber art world. But it lives up to the hype.

Yarn typically comes wound up in a few different forms: a skein, a hank, a ball, or the beloved cake.

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After a few projects you realize that skeins are kinda annoying. You can hope that you find the center pull thread so that things go smoothly and easily, but that doesn't always happen. Then you are stuck with unwinding and pulling for slack every several stitches. It sounds petty but just trust me on this one.

The solution comes in the form of a yarn winder! Manual or electric, big or small, expensive or inexpensive, the variety is out there. Of course I did my research and found exactly what I wanted with the Stanwood winder. Then I put in a request with my birthday fairies (mom and dad) and they made it happen.



I am so so so in love with this machine. It wraps your yarn into THE PERFECT "cake." Cakes are center pull so you are guaranteed ease and no tangles as you work on projects. Seriously.

The best part is that it is so fun and relaxing to wind up each cake. As soon as I came home from birthday adventures, I ran to assemble my new toy. I set it up in no time and got to work winding with some help from the family. Everyone took it for a spin and we all agreed that it was pretty fun.



And by-the-way thanks Stanwood yarn winder for single-handedly destroying my sleep until every single skein and ball and hank in my possession are wound into beautiful little cakes. Kidding... kinda.

Best birthday "cake" ever! Thanks everyone for the presents and well-wishes. It was a fantastic day.

Treat Yo' Self: Birthday Scarf

This all began with this scarf. The very first post on the blog! I have spent months going back and forth about whether or not I should sell it. Things in my Etsy shop (here) aren't moving very fast.



I figured maybe I should take my products to the streets to advertise! The streets of my white-collar entry level job that is. That helped me make the decision that I should definitely keep this beauty all to myself. Tomorrow is my birthday and every once in a while you have to "treat yo' self!"



Pretty much me exactly as I threw the scarf on. Pre-birthday, scarf advertising, selfie!

I am just as much in love with this scarf as I expected. It is fashionable and soft and warm. Perfect for the semi-chilly weather we have been having in Southern California. I got a bunch of compliments which made me feel very positive and excited to work on more scarves. 

Hello Beautiful

I recently got a custom order for quite a few scarves. Yes friends! Scarves make great gifts for friends, family, and co-workers. I bet that I can find a style and color for everyone. Scarves are just that versatile.

So with the news of new orders I of course had to head to the yarn store. Michaels was having a huge yarn sale where some of my favorite skeins were just over $2. It is great savings and you don't even need a coupon! Since you need multiple skeins for a single scarf I simply could not pass up this opportunity.

Me after a long day at work but looking at those delicious sale tags. Deep breaths.



When Ross sees all those sale tags.



As much as he wanted to bail, he kindly just went to get a larger shopping basket. I love that guy so much.

I always think that sales like these are perfect for projects that require multiple skeins, as opposed to one here or there that you could use a weekly coupon for.

Now I can just look forward to sales around Black Friday!

What Black Friday sales are you excited for- craft related or not? 

Yay or Nay Tuesday/ Take it or Leave It Tuesday/ Two Cents Tuesday #1: Barbie Potty

I love doing "segments" on the blog not because I am particularly prompt, but because I am a sucker for alliteration and rhymes and it gives me something to work on for the week.

Two Cents Tuesday had a fierce battle with Yay or Nay Tuesday and Take It or Leave it Tuesday. I'm still trying to think of which one I like best. Which do you think has a better ring to it? Help me name my segment!

Either way, the point of the segment is to share a pattern or idea and you the reader let me know what you think about it! Is the idea a "yay!" or a "nay!?", would you "take it" or "leave it", what are you "two cents" on the matter?

Without further ado I present the inaugural post.

Barbie Potty! 

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Take a look, maybe even explore other photos in the link, and tell me what you think:

a) I would pay money for this. 
b) I would make this myself. 
c) I would take this if it was free! 
d) No. 

My thoughts:

At first glance I realized that (no matter how hard I laugh during Adventure Time) I am not an 8 year-old boy. The hilarity of using the restroom escapes me at this point in my life. I don't quite remember ever having my dolls use the restroom. So I don't think I would make it, just because of the time involved in the project vs. usage. Maybe there is some future GI doc or Urologist that thoroughly enjoys playing potty with their dolls. *shrugs*

But from one creative lady to a much more creative lady- MAJOR props for designing such a pattern! I was checking out the pattern and it is really thought out. I am continually amazed by people who's brains can work like that. Especially on something as mundane as a potty.

I also love her attention to detail even if it is a little taboo. Like the little tiny toilet paper roll and buttons on the top for flushing mechanisms (guess that is a thing in Australia- wait that sounds like we don't flush in America...).

What do you guys think? I might just tally up your votes and see what the consensus is.

Basketweave Scarf & Hoarding Lessons Learned

As a yarnaholic, life can just be so tough sometimes.

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See? Just so, incredibly, dramatic! Because when you hoard opportunistically buy yarn you don't have the foresight to know which yarns will totally and completely enrapture you. But, I can almost always guarantee it will be a yarn that will, after said enrapture, be discontinued and impossible to find. So thanks a lot, Red Heart Yarns for discontinuing their Fiesta line in Buff. Although the yarn fibers themselves are nothing super soft or spectacular, the colorway is awesome. Like a tweed, but better. It worked nicely for this Basketweave infinity scarf.

The first tutorials I tried didn't work out quite right because the side chains were too long so it didn't lay nice and flat and straight. That was easily fixed by decreasing the chain, as learned in this tutorial from the New Stitch A Day website. 

The texture makes it a perfect every day, unisex scarf. I can't wait to use this new stitch for other projects! Also, if you find Red Heart Fiesta in Buff for sale, please buy all the skeins. 

What Makes you Whole

I am a firm believer in the wholeness "creating" gives to the soul. I use the word "create" and it's variations a lot.

Because
I.
DO.
NOT.
CARE
                       what that means to you. :) Maybe it's crocheting, cooking, painting, woodworking, web                        designing, excel sheeting, structure designing! Creating something that wasn't there                              before makes you whole. I feel it gives you purpose and pride.

Unfortunately I am going to guess most of us aren't working at a dream job. My landlord still isn't accepting scarves and amigurumi as legal tender. Bummer. 

But some days I sit at my desk and I have no other desire than to go home (change into pajamas, eat pizza) and pick up some yarn and get to work. My non-full-time-job work. Fun work- that is invigorating and exciting. No matter how frustrated I get with patterns it is still fun. 

So here's to Thursday. One day closer to a whole weekend of creative possibilities.