Early 2009 Craftiness

I finished the runner for my little heart table that holds my coffee maker. I haven't put it on the table yet because I just don't seem to remember. I will put two pictures here, one is a closer view so it might be blurry. I am still searching for the best place to put my items to take pictures. As you can see in these pictures, when I use my brown plushy ottoman one corner seems to blur because of the color. Oh well, when I *do* put this on the table I will take a picture.

So then I decided to make a topper for my little fridge. Yes, the above was done with cotton. But I wanted something besides the biege so I pulled out my self-striping blue cotton yarn and started. I looked for a pattern I could modify to make the correct size and after two or three false starts, thought I had it. Well, I was wrong. Too small. So it turned into a really cute washcloth. Here's a picture of that:

Well I still wanted a topper for my fridge. I have a placemat on it but I wanted something I made myself. I don't really have places to put all the cute doilies I have made over the years or anything else, really, for home decorations. So I wanted just a touch of things here and there. I decided that the only way I was going to get the correct size was to crochet something that I could alter the pattern until it was the correct size. I wasn't having any luck with something knitted. So I found a pattern that was simple and got started. I began it yesterday afternoon, didn't work on it last night, and will be done in a total of about 4 hours between yesterday and today. I only had 2 rows to finish it so I decided to go ahead. It could have been a bit wider and longer but I didn't want it overflowing, just fitting on top. Here's what it looks like on my fridge:

I like the pattern so I am going to use half the original pattern (calls for 38 double crochets but for the fridge I did 58) and I will make myself a quick coaster. I think Max has dragged off the last two I made for the table by my chair in the livingroom. So I am going to crochet one (since it's faster and will be done in an hour) and then when I am done using it I will put it somewhere he can't reach with his gorgeous long snout. One day I will post a picture of him and David. I keep saying I need to do that.

And so I will make the coaster and while I am doing that I will try to plot out what I want to make next. I just purchased a book of interesting knit stitches so I may give that a try to make a new washcloth or two. Or finally make that beautiful cotton I purchased from Joann's online store (almost a mulberry) into one of my favorite patterns for myself. I need to start adding to the stash again and will probably run another dishcloth/washcloth swap at swap-bot in the near future. If I'm feeling ambitious today after I run errands, make cookies and do up a coaster I may just go ahead and start the swap now with a sign-up date about a month away. I haven't run a swap in a while and sometimes that's fun. Anyway, I have things I should be doing today so I am going to wrap up this post.

Anyone have a suggestion for an easy, quick project, preferably with cotton, let me know! I'm going to dig out my coffee cup cozy pattern from wherever it's hiding (or download it from the net again!) and maybe make a few of those. I think my brother could use one but he might consider that too "girly" to actually use. But those are always nice to have in the stash, too.

Knit, crochet, do anything crafty you love and enjoy! Smile at what you've accomplished! And most of all, remember, there are no mistakes in a handcrafted item, just personalization.

The Christmas Blankets

I made three blankets for Christmas (remember, Matt's was his birthday present). I made one for David, Dad and yes, even me. Here's a picture of the penguin one I made myself and the animal print one I made David.

And here's the picture of Dad with his blanket. He loves it. He uses it every day. I hope sometime to get back to work on the black afghan but for now this is exactly what he needs.