Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

Another crocheted Mirabel costume

I did mine from January-October 2022, and now Transatlantic Crochet has finished her own, which is also amazing. Looks like she did actual embroidery/applique on it in parts (I did not) and did a much bigger collar/collarwork on the blouse. 

Finally used some yarn from Stiches

66 inches of SUPER bulky yarn from Frost Yarns. Had no idea what to do with it for a year. Finally just made a lei.

THIS IS MAH HAUL

Here's the pictures of what I got at Stitches 2023.

Yes, that's something like....17 skeins, technically? (A bunch of minis on the end). I have been collecting (a) rainbow skeins, (b) pastel mix skeins, (c) purple/blue skeins, and (d) neon skeins, for possible future projects. I shopped like there may be no Stitches in the future, basically. I took a class in alterations, so hopefully I can someday come up with the dress pattern I want for these things.

Other things: shawl pin, knitting board, landscape pendant embroidery kit, Knitters Oracle. And a bunch of stickers.

And the socks on the right.

This is the sample NEWS sweater I made in class.

Oh, and I made the embroidered pendant. (I note that the kit seems to have slightly different color instructions than the picture, so one part of the mountain is light gray.)

Stitches West 2023, day two

Continued from here, also behind the spoiler cut:

Stitches West 2023, day one

Enormous amount of pictures below the spoiler cut.

Prism skirt is done

So I did this cardigan sweater kit in three weeks, and then had 3.5 balls of this Prism yarn left. I wanted to get rid of it, so I ended up making a matching skirt with what was left (which thankfully came out to a reasonable not-miniskirt length). I did this pattern by Transatlantic Crochet, except shorter and not with the colorwork. Weirdly enough, it took me longer to make this than the sweater by most of another week (started it after finishing the cardigan, finished yesterday), but I am kinda also doing some other things at the same time, I suppose. 

The drawstring and pocket linings are done in a different yarn (left over from the Isabela outfit, obviously) in case I ran out of the original and it was coming out too short (it did not). I actually put elastic in first, but then added the drawstring afterwards in case putting a phone or anything else in one of the pockets made it sag so much it fell off (I note I kind of loosely put in the elastic anyway). But these pockets are great! Actually hold up to having a phone in there!

So here's the skirt by itself:

And the entire outfit together. I would have loved to have worn this today, but the weather sucks, so...next month, I guess. 

I love a good sherbet outfit! 

Prism cardigan is done in only 3 weeks!

I got this Crocheted Prism Cardigan kit from Mary Maxim for Christmas this year.

I note that I'd never used/seen Prism yarn before. It turned out to be roving yarn, which is just one spun(?) thread of yarn instead of two or more pieces of yarn spun around each other. This means that it's soft to the touch, but may pull apart more easily (happily this didn't happen too much) and definitely sticks to itself a lot. Every time I had to pull out yarn because of a mistake, it literally took hours to rip it back out, which is not a thing you usually have take that long in crochet. 

It took me three weeks to make exactly and was quick to make. It took me about 3 days apiece to make each front and the back pieces. The sleeves ended up being more complicated because they decreased pretty quickly in the pattern and my arms are bigger around at the top than 38 inches (that's what I'd do for my twig wrists!). So I ended up doing it in 58 stitches for 8 inches down from the armpit and then started following the tapering down instructions. This worked well. 

It had some kind of twisted rib(?) stitch you were supposed to be doing on the fronts and back, but frankly, I said "screw this" and did it in double crochet because that was easier and I REALLY needed a mindless project to do because January sucks and I can't do anything very complicated these days that isn't "round and round" or "back and forth." My pile of amigurumi? Fuhgettaboutit. The temperature cross stitch? Haven't even been able to focus on tiny stitches.

And then ironically I had to count EVERY stitch on the arm rows because I kept having stitches magically disappear somehow. I didn't have the brain space for this either :P

(Seriously, this was the best of the selfies I got . I finished it last night, left a party at 1 a.m. and I don't think I ever lost consciousness, I'm tired, I could not fake a happy smile for the camera.)

That said, I'm pleased I got it done and it's nice and soft, albeit I don't think I'd get roving yarn again after this. I say this and yet I have 3.5 balls of yarn left out of a kit of 9 (and this is even after making the arms bigger), so now what do I do with that?! I may end up doing some kind of miniskirt or something, I dunno. 

The one gift I made for anyone this year

I had decided not to make anyone gifts this year. Some people I just found things for them that were store bought and fit them, one person already had something made from last year, and some people, frankly, are no longer giftworthy. (Sad but true. November/December has let me know some things about people and how much I am not important to them that made me sad.) Screw it, I said, I'll just make stuff for ME this year. 

However, I saw this pink ombre pocket scarf at a craft fair a few weeks ago, texted my mom a pic to see if she was interested, and she did not sound interested. "Cute" was the reaction, which is what she says when she's not into something. 

THEN THE NEXT DAY SHE WAS SUDDENLY INTERESTED. facepalm Too late now to buy it, and I apologize to the anonymous vendor for ripping it off.

So I ended up doing this for the last few weeks at the last minute. 

Just a hanging pocket scarf...which maybe she can use after her broken shoulder heals. 

Daily advent projects 7, 8, and 9

Continued from here. Still brutally behind. 

Rainbow pencil. I kind of did my own instructions (I didn't want to switch between 8 colors in crochet, so I did the middle separately and sewed it in), it came out a bit odd at the point. Oh well.

This is an axolotl. Yeah, I know, not exactly easy to tell there.

I'm pretty sure you can ID that these are French fries. 

Daily advent projects 4, 5, and 6

Continued from here:

Clock

Taco

Sloth