Tangled Yarns

and the crocheting keeps sitting!  I haven't touched anything in ages.  The yoshi stuffies I was going to make my nieces for Easter never got finished after I got frustrated with the feet and put them down to take a break from it.  I think the only thing I attempted since then were some thread flowers that I was going to glue magnets on so they could be used as fridge magnets, to give to my mom for mother's day, but after making 3 of them I changed my mind and they still sit half completed.  I thought I could finish the yoshis as end of the school year presents instead, but it dawned on me that means I have to have them finished in the next week or so.  Hmm.  Well, we'll see.  Lots of other stuff that needs to be done around here.  So that's where things stand for now, nothing exciting and no new projects to show off.  Oh well, someday soon I shall carry on...I hope!

These took me WAY too long to finish due to sheer lack of motivation, because the pattern is soooo simple.  It's from Lion Brand Yarn.  I made both with the same colors but changed their order so the blankets are not exactly the same.

and a last minute idea...

And they are all finally in the mail! 

I had planned on finally making something that I wouldn't be giving away, but with Easter coming, I wanted to find something to make my nieces as part of their Easter goodies.  After discovering their uncle's old Nintendo 64 and some Mario Brothers games a few months ago, they are crazy about Yoshi!  As luck would have it, I found a pattern on Etsy.  So, up next, 2 Yoshi stuffies! I thought the pattern was a bit pricy, but it would save me a lot of time and probably frustration if I tried to make a pattern myself, so it's all good!  I bought the yarn, now I just have to get started.  But not tonight, it's late and I'm tired, so off to bed I go!

...you're using up some of your yarn stash to make something instead of buying more yarn, but you run out when you're almost finished, and have to go buy another ball anyway?  Ugh!

I guess the good thing was that it was yarn I bought a few months ago and was still able to find without any problem.  Phew!  This is part of the project I was talking about in my last post, and yes, it took me forever to finish it.  I just have to take a few pics and then pack things up to get in the mail.  Hooray!

Well, here we are in February already and I haven't picked up my hook very much in the last month.  I do have one project on the go that's almost finished...

After finishing a couple of gifts I was asked to make, I think I'll finally make something that will remain in my posession instead of being wrapped up and given away.  What, I'm not sure!  I have plenty of patterns to choose from, so who knows I'll decide on.  :)

Now that the holiday activities and travel are done, I finally have time to put up some pictures of the rest of the items I made for Christmas gifts.

This is a shawl I made for my mom.  I made it from bamboo yarn with a bit of silk in it, and it is super soft!!

The pattern is called Aphrodite Shawl and is available for free online.

I also made some stuffed animals for my nieces.  They each wanted a Snoopy...

A yellow lab puppy for Sophie...I bought the pattern on Etsy and unfortunately had problems making the legs.  I spent so much time frogging them and redoing them.  Then when I was down to the last leg I  discovered I made a mistake in the previous one and made it a few rows too short...by that point I was so frustrated and couldn't bear to redo it, so I just made the 2nd leg to match it.  It makes him more of a sitter than a stander, but I don't think Sophie really cares.  Phew.

Last but not least, Cheer Bear for Nicki, from a Care Bear pattern book I have...as with Grumpy Bear I made for her birthday, I cheated and made the tummy symbols, eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and hearts from felt and hot glued them on.  I also didn't finish the feet the way they are in the book, giving them the look of having toes, but I didn't understand the instructions so I left them plain on both bears.

I also made a get well gift for my brother-in-law Dustin.  There is a bit of a back story to this...a few years ago while visiting Dustin & Kristelle, we watched Willy Wonka (the Johnny Depp version) and found ourselves singing a catchy little tune from the movie. It has remained something of a running joke, and we still sing it.  While Dustin was recently in the hospital with some health problems, I pondered what I could send as a get well gift.  While browsing Etsy one night, I came across a pattern for the Mad Hatter, and figured I could alter it to make it a Willy Wonka doll.  What would make it perfect would be if I could find a little music box to put in it that would play the Willy Wonka song when you squeezed it.  Good luck finding that!  As it happened, while I was checking out a craft supply website, I came across recordable boxes.  BING!  Problem solved.  I ordered the box, and the 10 seconds it allowed me to record was just perfect to record the part of the song we always sing.  Then I made up the doll, put the box inside, and voila, he was done.  We ended up going to visit over the Christmas holidays, so I was able to deliver him personally.  I didn't pose him very well, but you get the idea!

I took along some yarn and my hooks thinking I might work on some other things while we visited, but I didn't touch any of them.  I don't have my next project planned yet, but I'm sure it won't be long til I'm back at it!