It has been too long since my last post.  I just browsed through my photos to get an idea of what to write and where to start.  I suppose most logically speaking I’ll start at Christmas since the gift giving involved my crochet work.

My nephew loved the Liugi/Goomba pillow.  He sleeps with it every night.  Apparently he tried to use it as a regular pillow but since it’s so big he ends up just sitting up when he tries to lay down.  I’m not sure how it’s all been figured out now, I’m just happy to know that he is enjoying it as much as I’d like.  He also liked the 1Up Mushroom very much.  I have a great video of his stunned face as he squeezed it the first time.  I’ll have to see about posting it after asking my SIL (sister-in-law) if that’s ok.  I have video of myself talking about the mushroom so at the very least that should make its way on here.  I visited sometime before Christmas and got some pictures of the Mario blanket, last year’s present, to show how it is faring.  It is well loved as they say.  My nephew sleeps with it every night as well.  If I were to make the Mario blanket again I would do it differently for sure.  For my niece I whipped up a crochet scarf using yarn she dyed before it made its way to me.  I crocheted alternating rows of single and double holding two strands at a time.  I initially wanted to just do double crochet all the way so it would go faster but I wanted to put a wee bit more effort and thought into it.  The yarn was a mess when I received it, ends everywhere!  I spent 2 days untangling it into many small balls of yarn.  I used a bunch of the balls of yarn for the scarf and love how the variegated colors moved about.  Photos!

Other creative endeavors recently include a set of 8 wine glass charms for my MIL (mother-in-law).  For the last 5 years we’ve always had to clarify which margarita glass was whose.  I finally sat down and figured out how to make some wine glass charms using small bracelet size memory wire.  They were fun and quick to make which made it nice to make a set of 8.  Originally I was considering a set of 4 or 6 maybe but that changed quickly.  It’s a fun way to highlight a pretty bead as a pendant for the ring and then embellish using seed beads.  I used a crimp bead to try and keep the beads from flying off the wire.  Some crimp beads stayed put while others still managed to slide around.  They shouldn’t go anywhere though, and if they do I’m more than glad to make or repair something.  We used them Christmas Day for dinner.  Another item made for my MIL is a necklace and earring set using Swarovski crystals and glass beads.  It was for my BIL’s wedding on January first.  This was nice to do as I hadn’t made any jewelry in a while.   Photos!  I’m including a photo of the ‘wrapping paper’ for my nephew’s pillow.  I took a black garbage bag and used a silver Sharpie to draw snowflakes all over it.  That was a blast in itself!

Back to yarn.  I’ve crocheted 2 Snuggles using a diagonal box stitch.  This stitch is my new favorite.  It looks great and works up quite quickly!  For January one of the Snuggle themes suggested in the Ravelry Snuggles Project group is scraps.  I had a great time using 19 different scrap balls of yarn for a diagonal box stitch Snuggle.  Another project was a crochet cloche (hat) to go with my new red winter coat.  I wanted to make a felted hat and found a great pattern on good old Ravelry called Beacon Street Cloche.  I used Patons Classic Wool from my stash.  After photographing me wearing the large hat I washed it twice in the washing machine with some jeans so it would felt up.  The hat turned out quite nicely and has gotten me quite a few compliments.  It is also fabulously warm, which is great right now in Connecticut.  Yarn photos!

As I just mentioned I am in Connecticut so now I’ll share some photos of our snow.  We had about 8 inches on January 7th (1st photo), then 18 more on January 12th (2nd photo, table was cleared before new snow came) and right now it’s rain on top of 2 more inches of snow.  Yesterday we knocked some 3 foot ice sickles off the front of our house and then I ended up playing with them in the front yard arranging them in the snow.  I took photos with my new Canon PowerShot, tripod and night time exposures using a flashlight.  Enjoy!

All the photos are thumbnails in this post so click them for the full effect!