Monsoon Day Beanie

Summers in Phoenix are .... toasty.

It puts me in quite the conundrum because so many crochets items are thought of as traditionally Autumn and Winter. Any summer day I will challenge that! Starting with my Pokemon Squirtle project I completed recently.

Buuut, truly deep in my heart I long for cool breezes and crunchy leaves. Lucky for me- Arizona monsoon season is in full effect.Storms blow through so quickly. Barely enough time to, say, whip up a child's beanie! But that did stop me from trying today!

Hello you beautiful 70 degrees. Stay a while won't you?

For this child's beanie I used Whistle & Ivy's Puppy Love pattern. I love this little heart stitch! I wanted an ombre effect so I used pink, variegated, and white yarn.

As if kiddos in beanies isn't hip enough, I made an oversized pom pom for the top.

Thank you pom pom maker!

Boom!

This hat will be up for sale in my Etsy shop. Check it out! 

I was also thinking of doing a sort of "mommy & me" set and adding an adult sized hat. What do you think?

Aquatic Blossom Corf

What is a Crof?!?! 

= when you can't decide if it is a cowl or a scarf so you get the best of two worlds! 

Variegated yarn has always been a favorite to work with. It provides nice color without having to worry about changing colors. The color placement tends to be a happy accident!

But I have noticed that as I work with solid and variegated yarn, there are some patterns and stitches that work better for one than the other. So what do you think of this Aquatic Blossom pattern from Crochet Geek, worked up in Loops & Threads Charisma yarn in the color Mulberry Bush?

 

Whilst shopping at Michael's I saw this yarn knit up in a little sample piece. Then I promptly and madly dug through the yarn bins to find the last two skeins. That little sample piece is doing it's job!

I can't get over how beautiful and rich the colors are.



As I worked it up I noticed that all the purples always ended up in the same position. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but it has really grown on me.

As I was modeling it I quickly put together an outfit that would be great for a casual Friday, or running around town. I love the purple shoes for an accent.



Find it in my Etsy shop here.

Do you  like the length? Would you buy it?

Early Halloween

Remember Christmas in September? When Christmas comes early it's assumed to be a happy thing. When Halloween comes early, it's a scary thing.

A really
scary
terrifying
frightening

thing.



It looks like this:

Horrifying right?

I just dropped a bunch of cash on what I like to call "capital investment." For some time I've been toying with the idea of opening an Etsy shop. My Etsy evolution started like this:

1) Oh cool idea.

2) Wait, you can sell THAT for that?!

3) Other people telling me, "You could do that!"

4) To me telling me, "I could do that!"

To 5) never actually doing that. But I gave it really a lot of thought.

When I saw that Joann's had a huge yarn clearance, I gave it a little more thought. It would be a relatively small investment compared to what I had previously anticipated. And I thought it was time to take the final leap and make a commitment that would push me to start something.

Now I am sitting here in a living full of yarn wondering what I have done. It's this calmness between
"What have I done?" and "What's next?" I'm just staring at my crochet hooks. Hoping to have a Fantasia moment where I suddenly have 20 products to list.



Because right now I think it's just called hoarding.

In other news, Ross comes home from Utah on Saturday and I'm just so sure this is what he is going to say when he sees what I've done.

In the meantime, Ryan believes in me, and that is all I need.

Spice Market Scarf

I tend to covet yarn. This is more financially responsible than hoarding, but mentally much more debilitating. I have a price range for yarn. And you can guess that every skein that is coveted is out of said price range.

Until you happily find them in the clearance bin.

I had my eye on this yarn for months. The line is called Aurora Borealis and this color is Spice Market. I was so taken aback that it would be on clearance for any reason. And thus started the first scarf  as part of this entrepreneurial project. First and absolute favorite. I go back and forth as to whether or not I want to sell it. The yarn is just so beautiful! I feel the lighting never does it justice.



It's an easy V-stitch that worked up fairly quickly. And I finally got a reason to use that crummy plastic hook I bought in Grenada.



The finished product!



Looping it three times is a bit of a stretch, but I love how fashionable this scarf is.



My only regret was not buying more skeins when they were available. But now I can covet this scarf instead of a skein of yarn. I might be beginning to see how this process should work.