Babydoll Dress

I received my trial issue of the Winter 2007 Interweave Crochet magazine a couple weeks ago, but I wasn't sure if I was going to fully subscribe. Of course, this was until I realized they put up the preview for the Spring issue earlier this week.

And there it was...

The pattern I had fallen in love with at first sight...

The babydoll dress!

And sleeve detailing...

Yay! I was so excited that I immediately paid for the subscription. Hehe. I checked the IC website earlier, and it said my mag will probably be mailed out on 4/17. But it comes out on newstands on 4/1! Sigh. I don't live near any places that carry IC. After taking a stroll around my neighborhood Von's last night, I discovered they carried two knitting magazines: Interweave Knits and Knit Simple. Can you imagine that? Two knitting magazines, but not one single crochet magazine! Oh, the injustice in this world!

I think I will go order the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece for this pattern to appease myself.

Weekend update

Over the weekend, I managed to get more progress done on my second Short 'N Sweet.

What I have so far...

Yesterday, my bf and I went to Barnes and Noble where I ended up drooling over this book. So beautiful! Makes me want to run out to Michael's and buy a bunch of knitting needles. I read reviews online about circular needles and I actually want to try them out. They sound like they are better on the wrists, especially for a longer piece of work. It's a good thing for my bank account that I don't live too near craft stores and LYSs. :-D Bf had to take me by the hand and literally drag me out of the bookstore.

Also, I have been lusting over this book for the past month. I am especially in love with that blue, crocheted cardigan. It looks just like a crocheted version of the Printed Silk Cardigan in the latest issue of Interweave Knits! Pictures of that here. Since I am nowhere advanced enough to knit the Printed Silk Cardigan, it would be nice if I could manage the crochet one. Must resist urge to buy! :-)

In other unrelated crochet news, bf and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Saturday. Pictures of gifts below!

My very first Fruits Basket wallscroll (or wallscroll of any kind for that matter)!




Fruits Basket manga all the way up to Volume 18 plus the Fan Book - Cat!

And a Yuki bobblehead figurine! I am a lucky girl indeed. :-D

I got into Ravelry!

Finally, I got into Ravelry today! Woohoo! I heard so many wonderful things about this online community of knitters and hookers that I just had to join. It took probably over a month for me to get my invitation. Apparently, it's National Crochet Month this month. No wonder I was a March baby! :-)

In other crochet news, I started working on a hat last night with my new Bernat Softee Chunky that I picked up on Sunday. If you look closely at my previous bookshelf picture, you can see it on the top shelf. (It was only $1.87 per ball at Wal-Mart.) Even though I haven't bought yarn at Wal-Mart in years, I couldn't pass it up since I could never find Softee Chunky at Michael's. For an acrylic yarn, it feels surprisingly soft. Also, it's really bulky. I am used to working with worsted weight yarns so the bulkiness felt a bit awkward to me initially.

Update at 10:10 pm: Finished the Ribbed Newsboy Hat. Since I didn't print out the last two rows of the pattern, (and the pattern has been pulled off the author's website), I changed the brim to make it wider and more tapered than the original. I found my inspiration in Hip Hats and Cool Caps by Afya Ibomu. Although I didn't find any hats in there that I was dying to make, she did have some really good brim instructions. Here are some pictures of my finished hat!

Sitting by itself. I took the picture before I shaped the brim. Brim looks much better now.

A side view of the hat.

Birthday weekend and yarn galore

Saturday was my birthday, and I must say, I had a really happy weekend all due to my wonderful bf. First, we headed down to downtown La Jolla where we got Belgian crepes from my favorite crepe restaurant. I haven't been there in 2 years! Back at UCSD, the lady who owns the restaurant would come every Tuesday to the UCSD Farmer's Market on Library Walk and I would always buy a lunch crepe with turkey and avocado, or a strawberry nutella crepe. Or a lemon crepe when I was feeling health-conscious and/or economical. It was every bit as delicious as I remembered.

Afterwards, we went to over to the La Jolla library to pick up a crochet book that I requested. The book doesn't look too impressive, but I always enjoy going to that branch. The furniture there is so awesome compared to other branches!

Then came the highlight of the day! Maybe even highlight of the month for me. Knitting in La Jolla! The magical LYS that I've been reading such good reviews about. It is a little shop located next to Hard Rock Cafe, but I couldn't believe how many beautiful, designer yarns were stacked inside. And not just yarns, but needles, hooks, books, buttons, and other notions. I was drooling and foaming at the mouth. Surprisingly, the prices weren't too bad. I mean, prices are always higher in LYS than online because they need to understandably make a profit. But, I discovered there were some yarns that weren't too much higher than they usually sell for online.

So happy was I that we spent 2 hours in the store. Yes, and they flew by. Bf was so good to put up with me and didn't even complain once. Later, he had to buy a Rubik's Revenge cube from Geppetto's down the street to cheer himself up from being cooped up for so long. Hehe.

After much consideration (I am rather slow at making decisions), I decided to purchase 5 skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic in a royal purple color for my next Short 'N Sweet. I couldn't decide between purple or light orange. Bf thought light orange would be good for spring, but I literally don't own any orange apparel. According to him, "orange is in for Spring". And sadly, after looking at the many clothing retailer ads in my email, I think he may be right! Oh well. Maybe I'll go back one day to get the orange. ;-) My best find in the store was the Tahki Stacy Charles Crochet 2nd Edition pattern booklet. I was lusting over that last week, and was about to purchase it online for $18, not including shipping. But I found it in the store for only $10! Score! So happy! And the owner told me that they didn't have the book until I spotted it wedged in between the crochet books in a corner. :-)

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and we had dinner at Spice & Rice. Another restaurant that I have not been to for 2 years. It was yummy. Then we finished the night by catching Definitely, Maybe on a whim and later, Ratatouille. All in all, a very full and happy birthday!

And now onto the pictures!

Beautiful Debbie Bliss alpaca silk in Aran weight that my bf gifted upon me, among other delightful birthday gifts. Not exactly sure what I will do with it. It comes out to about 210 yards. Perhaps a hat or scarf?

My lovely, Tahki Cotton Classic with the gorgeous Tahki Crochet pattern booklet!!!

And finally my long-awaited, new bookshelf! I was beginning to run out of room on my smaller bookshelf due to my rapidly growing collection of DVDs and toy figures. Picked this up from Wal-mart yesterday for a really good price and bf helped me put it together in an hour. I think I will save my top shelf for my WIPs and the crochet/knitting books that will surely fill it in the future!

Short 'N Sweet

I finished my Short 'N Sweet last night, weaved in all the ends, and steam-blocked it. I took some pictures but haven't had time to upload them yet. It looked really bulky when I tried it on unblocked, but has better drape after blocking. I can't decide if I should use Patons Grace or Elann.com's Sonata for my second Short 'N Sweet. Any suggestions for a really good yet affordable 100% mercerized cotton?

The pattern calls for Karabella Zodiac, but I haven't been able to find any in my LYS, so I subbed Patons Classic Merino wool (yes, yes my go-to yarn) in Aran. Not the best sub since it should be done in 100% mercerized cotton, but I don't want to go too overboard on my first major project.

For a while, I was stuck on joining the body since the instructions in the pattern weren't very clear. However, for you people out there who might encounter the same problem, I went to the official Stitch 'N Bitch web forum and also to the particular designer's website La Vonne's Knot Just Knits. She has some diagrams on how to do the right and left front shaping, plus reading the crochet charts can be more helpful than reading words. :-P

crochetgurl also knits!

I learned knitting at probably the same time that I learned crocheting. Although I can remember the three people who first introduced me to crocheting (and one was a man!), I truly can't recall who taught me how to knit. Is that crazy or what? After a while, I stopped knitting because I had no patience and craved projects that gave me instant gratification. But now that I am a little older and a little wiser, I really do want to get back into knitting and learning how to do things other than knit or purl. Especially after drooling over all those gorgeous knitted cardigans and sweaters out there. Sigh. So many beautiful projects, so little time...

Last week, I went to a LYS here called The Needleworks. It's right across the street from Mission Valley mall, but it's kinda tucked into a corner which is why I never noticed it before. Anyway, one of the ladies in there was really friendly and helped me pick out a new pair of knitting needles (Susan Bates in Quiksilver) and two balls of Plymouth Baby Alpaca so I could start working on a scarf pattern I saw in the store. The needles were actually really nice. I think one of the things that might have put me off from knitting was the fact that I was using 13 inch heavy, aluminum needles in making small scarves. They would hurt my wrists after only an hour of knitting. But I knitted for 6-7 hours straight last Saturday and suffered no pain at all. Yay. This might become my favorite LYS. But we'll see...tomorrow is my birthday and my bf is taking me to downtown La Jolla to check out Knitting in La Jolla. I am so excited and can't wait!

On President's Day, I had the day off and mistakenly went down there without calling first. Turns out they weren't open on Mondays! So sad! There I was peering through the glass window at all the beautiful yarns on the other side. Well, I resigned myself to the fact that I should have checked beforehand and headed off to another LYS in La Jolla. This one is called Helga's Yarn Boutique which was only a few streets over. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived at their door and realized that they had gone out of business!!! I was beginning to wonder if the yarn gods had a thing against me. And so I went home and decided to spend the rest of my day working on my scarf.

What I have so far...



And a picture of my first alpaca yarn! I had never touched alpaca before, but now I love it!

Hello

Hello, and welcome to my little corner of the web.

Recently, I've redisovered the joys of crocheting. Keep in mind I haven't crocheted much since I was 8. Oh sure, I've made a couple hats and scarves every now and then, but somehow crocheting gradually took a backburner to middle school, high school, SAT's, AP classes, and eventually college. But now that I'm out and working with plenty of free time to spare after I go home, I'm jumping right back in!

Last month, my best friend, Maryann, gave me Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker as a Christmas gift. I love love love this book! Unlike the books I remember 15 years ago, this one isn't loaded with doilies, granny squares, ponchos, afghans, shawls, baby clothes, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I really want to learn how to make actual clothes that I can wear! So excited!

My first project was the One Skein scarf. Here's a picture...