Fiber Monday

 

In Which There Is Progress:

I've been working hard on everything and I'm happy to say that I had a great time at the Knitting Circle on Saturday. I managed over 500 stitches just while walking (I only did so when there was a straight area with no fellow pedestrians, driveways, or road crossings), and I ended up with 2400 stiches or so on each the gusset and pocket!

Top Right: finished front panel (80 rows x 50 stitches + 1 3/4 round single
Center Diagonal: gusset in-progress (over 2250 stitches of 15sc rows)
Bottom Left: back/flaps in-progress (over 2250 stitches of 50sc rows)

I'm not done, but it's seeming like I'll actually finish, at this rate. I'm also working on a top, but that is in very very early stages and just looks like a tangle of red. I am very excited to be making so much progress, and oh boy am I even more excited to *finish* these projects!

I've started patterning another pouch, too, but that'll be the last thing I make for the Ren-Faire, I think. I'm just about stitched-out lol.

I am also a bit excited to talk about my week tomorrow, but that's not entirely crochet-related, so we'll talk about that then.

For now, I'm going to keep working hard, and hopefully I'll have some finished stuff to show you on the 28th!

That'll do it for me.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did More Work On My Pouch!

Well, I've got 1400 stitches in on both the back & gusset for that pouch now, and I cannot wait to be done. Single crochet is tedious if you have attention issues, like I do, and my silly buns decided to build a whole project of just single crochet. The same rows, over and over, stitch after stitch... it wears on me.

Which is why I'm only up to 1400 stitches per piece instead of a heftier 2100.

On the back, I have 28 rows, but on the gusset, 1400 stiches translates to 93 rows plus 5 stitches. This means I have officially finished one side of the gusset (81 rows) and started on the bottom (54 stitches wide).

My goal for rows on the back is... steep. The front is 80 rows, so I'll need to do that, plus however many rows it takes for the gusset, plus however many the closure flap needs in front (probably 15-25 rows). This means it could be anywhere from 110-120 rows. Of which I've done 28. So probably only about 23.3% finished.

The gusset, on the other hand, will probably take anywhere about... 216 rows? Total? Maybe? Which means that with 93 rows completed, we're at about 43.1%.

So the gusset is going almost twice as quickly as the back panel!

Yeah, this is taking a lot of math, and my English/Arts brain isn't very happy about it lol.

So here, I've photographed both the gusset (a tall, skinny rectangle), and the panel (a much shorter, wider rectangle) on my laptop keyboard. Both pieces are a measly 900 stitches at this point...

Unfortunately, this image got flipped, so the top piece is the gusset
 and the bottom is the panel...

The second picture I took today was the correct orientation, and I took

1400 stitches each, the gusset (left) is now almost as long as my keyboard
and the panel (right) is just taller than my track pad!

I'm still spinning, still stitching other things, still working on a pattern for sewing pocket linings for both this pouch and another (potentially a purple pouch!!!). I'm keeping plenty busy, fiberwise.

That'll about do it for me today. Hopefully I'll have anywhere from 2100 to 3500 stitches done in each one next week. We'll see lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Continue The Pouch

I may only have 500 stitches done on each of the back and sides of the pouch, but! That means something very different for the separate pieces.

On the left is the back of the pouch, on the right is the side gusset

I'm trying to make both pieces at once, since I get so easily distracted. And of course, this is my last month to finish it! And also I still don't know what to do about dye. Yeesh.

Oh and I got distracted by learning how to use a drop spindle. My silk thread is... very lumpy, but for a first try, it's not so bad, if I say so myself. I need to get some wool and see how well I can spin that, since apparently silk is way harder. Wool, then cotton, then linen, then silk again.

Also I still need to figure out my niddy noddy situation.

But that is for After The Ren Faire, I think. Before the Ren Faire I need to figure out dye, a dyepot, a day to do the dying (it'd be preferable to have some non-deluge-related weather for that), and also...

I kinda promised Z I'd make him a pouch for his new notebook for the Ren Faire.

That at least shouldn't be too difficult. I'm going to measure out the space for that using my white Sakura Gelly Roll pen and a pair of black pants that died a noble death (read - wore out at the thighs so badly there's nothing left to patch but wispy threads). If I sew it up correctly, it could be used as-is and all I'd need to do is make a decent strap for it, but if I don't get the seams to perfect, it'll get covered in a quick single crochet outer pouch in ex-sweater lavender.

Speaking of the dearly departed lavender sweater, if anyone who knows me has any sweaters they've ruined or just don't want anymore, I'll happily take them and tear them down to turn into new outfits because I love the act of creative destruction way more than is probably healthy and YouTube is beginning to cotton on to that fact (seriously I've been recommended no less than 5 different Sweater Teardown videos in the last 24 hours)...

Anywho, yes, that picture way up there is of two pieces, each containing 500 single crochet stitches. The short but wide piece is 50 stitches wide, the tall but skinny piece is 15 stitches wide.

My goal is to finish at least the gusset by next week, which if I keep going with a pattern of "One row on the back/flap, then 50 stitches on the gusset", it shouldn't be too hard.

We'll see lol.

Especially if I keep on getting distracted with silk spinning, pocket construction, and the slow progress of a dragon I may give up on (I don't think I'll get it done in time).

I think that'll about cover things for me for today. My attention span is shot to heck and I am ready to go to bed :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I... Didn't do much today...

So I promise, I made progress since last week on my pouch! It's just.... not a ton.

The front panel is now finished, at least.

I even did a border around it to round the bottom corners and even things up.

Sure, it's upside down, but it's done!

The panel itself is 50 stitches across by 80 rows, plus three sides bordered in single crochet with 3sc in each corner and one stitch per stitch or row. This means that the gusset, which will be 10 stitches across, will need to be about... 212 rows? Thereabouts? And the back & flap section will need to be about... 115/120 rows? Plus a button hole? I'll know more later, when I've finished all three parts. Then I'll make some sort of strapping system (probably starting with a pair of 5 stitch wide loops to put belts/straps through)

After all three panels (front, back, gusset) and the loops are finished, I'll stain them brown somehow and then sew on the leaf detail on the flap and sew all three panels & loops together. Hopefully it works.

If it doesn't, I'll make a shoulder strap and it'll be a purse.

One way or another, this will be finished by the end of the coming month. It has to be lol.

There are other projects I'm working on, but they're secondary.

I think that'll do it for tonight!

I hope you're all working on creative things and they're all going well!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

In Which Slow Progress Is Still Progress

I am typing this from a room that is only now coming down from about 90℉(32,2℃). It was so hot today. Ironically, the day I hung out at a lake with my family was quite comfy, but today was hot and unpleasant. At least it's not as humid today as it was last week. We didn't use the AC.

Understandably, most of my progress was made at the lake, not at home.

As you can see, it's getting bigger!

Again, this is eventually going to be a pocket that will be dyed more earthy-tones. I've also made several test squares - 10sc x 10 rows - which I'll experiment with using various dye matter. Maybe the winner will be iron, maybe it will be coffee, possibly tea.

Maybe I'll just dip dye each panel of the pocket into tea, then coffee, then iron? Who knows.

All I know is that I want it brown, but I don't have any brown thread.

I have brown yarn, so if I cannot get the pouch to look right, I'll just use that.

But uh...

It's worsted-weight acrylic.

It's uh.

It's gonna be toasty as heck if I do that, and September might not be the month for a hot pocket.

That is an intentional joke.

But seriously, the acrylic is 100% final resort. Too sweaty.

My next closest idea is some wool sock yarn, and that, too, would be overwarm.

I hope this project works out, especially since I'd like to make a couple more of them...

As for tonight, it's finally down to about 78℉(25,5℃) in my room and I desperately want to lay down and vent the body heat I've accrued throughout the day lol.

Go Enjoy Something

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I've Felt Like I was Forgetting Something All Night Tonight...

...

...

....................

Spoilers: I was forgetting I should write the blog.

I've just been sitting in my muggy room, working on the pouch some more, convinced I'd forgotten to do something today. Then I saw that it was about 10pm and glanced at my phone.

Oh right.

It's Monday.

I do my crochet blog on Mondays.

The Fiber Monday Crochet Blog.

That's what I was supposed to be doing!

So here I am, sharing my minor progress on what will be a long, janky rectangle eventually but is currently just a smol rectangle.

It's not the neatest stitching, but it could definitely be worse!

What I haven't brought up yet, though, is where I did a significant portion (about 5 rows) of this project.

I joined my first knitting/crochet circle! I think it meets about 1/month on Saturdays. There were only 3 of us there this week, but I had fun meeting the other two ladies and both were wearing absolutely lovely hand-knit garments - one had a precious oatmeal heather cropped sweater with embroidered flowers and the other had an elegant multitoned pink sleeveless top. I might get up the courage to wear the (way too big) top I made myself last year the next time I go.

I've never really done the whole fiber circle thing before, so it was a cool experience. Hopefully next time, the weather won't be so crummy. I was pouring sweat when I arrived, despite there being no sun. It was also really soggy on the way back, but thankfully it didn't rain lol.

Anyway, that'll do it for me this week. I think I'll have more to show you from my projects next Monday!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Progress Is Being Made...
Slowly

It never fails to shock me how long a rectangle can take to come together in crochet. I've got more added to the pouches since last time we chatted, but most of my time has been taken up by making a stab or six at a dragon companion.

At first I wanted to make this fellow, and I still love him a lot, but he's rather... big. And I have very limited supplies. Instead, I'm going to try to make this little beastie. My first problem is this: I only had 1 shade of purple worsted weight yarn, and it was very dark. I wanted that for my dragon's body, but some variation would be very nice, so I went hunting in the yarn piles for another purple.

A sample of my basic purple, partly worked into a soon-to-be frogged star blanket

Now, I could not find a second shade of purple. I only have the one dark color, and I needed some sort of contrast.

I found no acceptable yarn in ball, cake, or tangle form.

What I did find, however, was a lovely handmade sweater from my mother's mother with a disastrous pick in the front, a size or two too small for me, and in a shade of purple that, while lovely, makes me look unwell when I wear it.

So I found one of the knots inside the seams and picked it free.

And now I've frogged the entire right front panel of the sweater and caked that panel into a usable ball!

As you may be able to guess, there's a lot of sweater left to frog

I will be balling the yarn from this sweater and also from a nice red fair isle sweater she gave me that has a moth hole and a few missing buttons. Both are acrylic, so I will be able to reuse the yarn for plenty of different projects. For now, the purple sweater is becoming a dragon's tummy.

Working from a video is not particularly easy, especially since I'm bad at going back & forth, keeping up with instruction, etc. Also, Chrome likes to make YouTube forget where I was in the video so I have been writing down what round I'm on.

I don't have progress pics of the worsted version of this dragon yet, but when I do, you'll all see them!

For now, I've got some old episodes of America's Most Wanted and a cup of chamomile tea to keep me company as I dismantle more of this poor old sweater.

I hope you guys are having a good time working on all of your projects, and I hope you

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Am Working Along

Last week I talked about how I was going to do another leaf, then work on the body of the pouch, and I'm absolutely doing that.

It's gonna take a bit.

See, I've upgraded to a 1.9mm hook, and the white thread I have is a little heavier than the red, which you'd think would mean it'd be a lot faster, right?

But I'm using 100% single crochet in each row of the pouch body.

I used a lot of double crochet on the leaves, and chain spaces, which work up faster and longer.

So the bodies will take a while. And the sides will take a while too.

I have options, of course!

I could switch to a 2.25mm hook! I could find another thread or yarn to use for the body! I could give up and start over (which I won't)!

Lots of options.

You know what I can't do?

Rush it.

It's just a rectangle. It's about as uncomplicated as a project gets.

But it's tiny, and I'm struggling against insomnia, and I am very easily distracted by trying to figure out how to get high enough to reach the monuments in Tears of the Kingdom.

Also I keep trying to find my book so I can read.

It's not lost - I'm looking right at it.

I just forget why I'm getting up every time I go to grab it, ending up sketching or crocheting or gaming instead of reading.

I'll grab the book tomorrow.

For now, I'll get back to crocheting - it's barely over an inch long at this point, even 15 rows in.

A strip of white crocheted tread laying on my laptop.
We're 50 stitches across, approximately 15 rows long.
It's about as wide as my hand.

I know I can bang these pouches out before September. I hope I can actually finish them, dye them, add their hardware (they need straps!) and test them before the Ren-Faire, though.

And of course, my brain keeps pinging me with other, much worse ideas lol.

For now, I hope you guys can all

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which A Breakthrough Has Been Made!

I have been agonizing for the last few weeks over what I should do about having some sort of skirt or side-guards for my Ren-Faire costume. I've tried using motifs from an umbrella design, artfully connected filet crochet, straight up lace panels, building an entire skirt from scratch, etc.

But this week I cracked the code!

Leaves.

I just want a bunch of leaves.

Well, not just a bunch of leaves, I'm not PricklyAlpaca...

I want to make thigh pouches with leaf flaps.

Why this specific combo? Well, I'm going to be wearing a very dark green tunic with some dark red embroidery, and I'll be wearing this tunic (which doesn't quite cover my back pasture as it were) with a pair of tan jeggings I've had for years.

Jeggings, especially for rotund persons such as myself, do not generally have functional pockets. I will be wandering about with friends in September and will need at least one hand free to grip my partner's hand like an excited toddler holding a juice box. The other hand will likely be occupied with any purchases and/or water. Thus I need a place to store my valuables - phone, wallet, keys, etc (I'll need my keys because they have a bottle opener on them, and if we find any fun sodas anywhere, I'd like to be prepared).

But I also want a 2nd pouch for rocks and/or other fun things I find.

So I'll need 2 leaves + 2 pouches. The pouches will be a little narrower than each leaf, but longer, and each will be probably an inch or two deep. Since the pouches themselves will (presumably) be simple rectangular shapes, I'm not going to look for a pattern for them. Also finding a pattern that would match the leaf pattern would be a pain, so yeah. Homebrew, baby.

Now, what I needed for this week was an actual leaf pattern, so I set out looking for one. I found it here, from Sylwia SzB on Ravelry and Robootkomania. I used the leftover red thread from the interminable and on-hiatus mushroom bag I was working on last year (yikes has it been that long?!), a Boye size 7 steel hook (maybe 1.75mm?! I legitimately do not know), and a lot of elbow grease and worked up my first of two leaves:

And yes, it is fairly small, all things considered.
That's a laptop keyboard, so do with that what you will.

The color is a much darker red in person, but it is what it is, when it comes to photography. There's a reason I don't call myself a photographer.

Regardless, the leaf is about the size of my tiny hand (I'm told I have very stubby hands), which means that I'd be able to shove my hand in any pouch that it flops over to shut. I'll probably add a loop to the tip of the leaf to act as a button hole.

As for the pouch itself, I'm thinking I'll use the excessive amount of white thread I have. It's easy to find and relatively affordable by comparison to the colored threads. I'd love to find a way to dye the thread dark brown, so I might look at what I have available to do a natural, non-toxic dye bath. If worst comes to it, I'll just have ridiculous white pouches. Next worst: see which watercolors will stain the thread without leaching.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to having these pouches done... because after the actual pouches themselves, I'm gonna have to figure out how to get them to stay on me. I'm reasonably sure I can figure it out before September.

Even though it's already almost July some-freaking-how.

When I finish the leaf pouches, I'll get someone to take pics of me wearing them.

Hopefully those'll get posted before the trip lol!

As for tonight, I've got a second leaf to whip up and some pouches to plan. Do I want them to be three piece patterns or five? (front+back+flap all in one with two sides or front, back+flap, two sides, and a bottom?) We'll see.

I hope everyone else's crochet plans are going well!

And I hope you all...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I did make progress
In Spite of Video Games...

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago I was working on a waistband for a skirt I'm planning to make. This has... not gone as quickly as I'd hoped. I haven't even made it 25% of the way on the waistband itself.

It's still pretty big, though!

Yup. That's the reason it's been so hard to make big progress.

I'll be real with you, most of my time has been spent excitedly trying to fight hinoxes (waaaay easier than BOTW) and Lynels (harder, but that's 99% because of my stupid drift problems), escorting Koroks (it's very amusing to me to just... drag them around, no devices, no flying, no torture, just carrying them with Ultrahand). I have been, in short, slacking off where crochet is concerned. I'm also having Project Scatter.

Project Scatter is what happens when my brain goes "yeah, this is a project you need to finish... but what if you did like 6 other things at once?"

Needless to say, my brain is a bit sparky this week, and I've been struggling to focus.

Hopefully next week, I'll have at least half the band finished and some idea of what I want the actual skirt itself to look like. Because yeah. I have no idea what this thing will look like.

It won't even be white... eventually. I think.

I don't know what color it should be, though...

And boy do I have a lot of work to do.

Regardless, I'll do my best, and hopefully it'll get done before I head to the Ren Faire in September.

For now, I hope you're all doing alright and making headway on your own projects.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Finished A Whole Project In A Week!

Today I finished working on a pouch I started last week! Do you remember the green yarn I was winding? It's 100% wool, very green, and looks great as a pouch with a bit left over!

It's 25 stitches across by 30 rows on either side

I kind of free-handed the whole thing, to be honest

And I'm really happy with how the loops turned out!

This pouch is designed to be hung from a belt and is big enough to fit a cellphone, a wallet, or even a small paperback book. It wouldn't be too hard to add a strap - just attach said strap to the belt loops, or sew it to the sides!

Would there be any interest in a written pattern for this? I did a few interesting things with front post single crochet, one loop only single crochet, etc.

The button is from an enormous jar of buttons given to me by a friend, and I'm thrilled to be able to use these buttons at last!

This took a while to crochet, but I think I could probably make these for sale (especially if I made them a little smaller or out of a less itchy yarn). If anyone's got any suggestions for what it would be worth, I would love the ideas. If I used a local wool that I trust (from Nash Island Yarns), a skein is about $28, and the heaviest weight my local shop carries is light worsted/DK, where this was a worsted weight. It could be... pricy to recreate unless I took a bus to the mall-wart and bought a $3 skein of their acrylic. That would lose a lot of its character, though.

And yes, that is a new link in the sidebar for commissions - I'm opening art commissions (among other things)! Feel free to take a peak and reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which We Are Finally Done With The Blue Shawl!!!

You read that right, folks, in a nearly three hour marathon of work, I have finally completed the blue shawl!!!

It's probably hard to tell in this shot, but it nearly spans
my twin mattress in every direction!

A more refined shot of it crossed over itself

This thing is at least as wide as my armspan and does indeed reach down to my tailbone.  I finished the top by making a 3dc, ch2, 3dc shell in the 3rd chain of every chain space of the final actual row. That was the longest part of the final jog to the finish.

There's probably a couple yards of thread left - not enough to make anything bigger than an ornament or something like that. I'm very very pleased with this result, and once it's finally blocked and the ends are sewn in, it'll make a fun addition to my shawls.

If I had been sensible, I would not have made a mesh shawl with such a small gauge of fiber and such a tiny hook, but no one could ever, ever accuse me of being sensible lol.

The final count of time spent on this shawl was twenty hours, one minute, and around twenty nine seconds. That's a timer of 20:01:29!

Here's where I tell you how much this would cost if I charged minimum wage for this very shawl: $276.35

It's a nice shawl, to be sure, but I'd probably never find a buyer for such a simple garment at that rate. This is why crochet you find in department stores makes me cringe. Since crochet is to complex to automate, that means a human being had to make that $25 handbag, and they had to do it by hand, and they probably got paid pennies to do so.

It makes it very hard to sell handmade items when mega corporations are wage-slaving the craft so they can pump consumers for profit.

How do crafters price things? I honestly have no idea how much the shawl would be worth.

Regardless, I'm really glad to be done with this project, and I can't wait to start on the next pattern.

I did have one more thing to discuss before going the hickety heck to bed, and that is this: I have finally found someone who actually understands those vintage patterns I'm so in love with.

The YouTube channel is called Just Vintage Crochet, and the lady who runs it is an absolute delight. She has a calm, clear voice, she explains things clearly, and sometimes, she randomly crochets things up from vintage patterns without knowing what she's making until she's done. If you've ever wanted to learn how to read properly vintage patterns, absolutely check her out! I maaaaay be trying out a pattern or three from the channel eventually.

As for me, I'm going to rest up. Tomorrow I'll be back to blather. How are all of your own projects going, folks?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Continue To Work on The Blue Shawl.

I have reached the point where, despite working for nearly 2.5 hours this week on the shawl, there's not a huge difference in what it looks like this week. I'll have to go hunting for one of my many and sundry rulers/measuring tapes in order to measure it out, but currently it's pretty darn wide but not very deep. I don't think it'll ever reach all the way down my back, which is too bad but not unexpected. These are the hazards of using up leftover yarn lol.

As for the total time spent on this shawl, we're at just over 17 hours now. And it doesn't quite reach my waist from my shoulders. *sigh* I should've known that something made of thread and a small hook would be an eternal slog, but boy, this one's kicking my butt.

I've started three side projects - one is blue, another is multicolored/brown, the last is white. That is all I shall say about them beyond this: I doubt at least one of them will be finished because my attention wavers like a timid twelve year old giving a monologue during a play they didn't want to perform in but was handed the lead role because no one else could do it.

I also have a few other projects I'll probably be starting, including something that will require.... cabbage. Of the fabric variety. Basically, I'm gonna look for scrap fabric around town (I'll see if anyone's left anything viable in the local fabric store's cabbage bin) and start teaching myself how to sew patchwork. Specifically French Seamed Patchwork.

Because I'm insane.

And also because it just seems fun! And cheaper than buying yardage...

Anywho, there's no picture of the shawl this week because it's only a couple of rows longer and I don't have a good background for it right now (I usually use my bed and my sheets are about the same color as the shawl lol).

I think I'll put my yarns away for the night now and start thinking about tomorrow's blog :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Work Has Been Done!

Okay, I have been doing a lot of work on the shawl this week, even though it may not really look like it. Just bear in mind that this picture is of the shawl folded into 1/3 of its width and it's nearly as long as a twin mattress is wide.

Micron Pen for Scale

This whole shawl has now taken nearly 15 hours total work to make it. Bearing in mind that I have also had to detangle massive yarn barfs, am working with an inky-dinky hook and thread, and keep one eye on various videos, this isn't so bad :P

Speaking of said videos, this week's timing was about 2.5 hours of videos watched. I am hoping that the way I've been working (play a video and perform a task as it plays) continues to work out for this week's art.

I'll be a little behind tomorrow, though, because I'll be running some errands in the morning. You may ask yourself if you'll notice the difference.

Probably not, let's be real.

I'm the one who'll notice the difference because I'll be the one who can't sit down to crochet or write or draw in the morning lol.

Anywho, that'll do it from me - I've got to get some writing in before I conk out tonight!

I will keep crocheting the Blue Shawl until it's done, and then I'll start showing you some of my Experiments!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Did Some Work!

I think I mentioned on Thursday that last week's Crochet Blog didn't happen due to A Lot Of Reasons, one of which being that I had a gift to make someone!

So here is the gift!

"Sir Batwington" aka "Chonky"

Yes, that is a chubby lil battyboo. Yes, I made him for one of the niblings, who named him Chonky. Because he is Chonky. Heccin Chonky.

Chonky here is made from Red Heart Super Saver yarns, safety eyes, and polyfill. I got the pattern from Sweet Softies and he came together like a dream. If you've got a bat-lover in your life, this pattern's a fantastic option! I'll probably check out other amigurumi on that site in the future.

I have other requests for critters, so I'll get to work on those soon enough, but for now, I'm still working on that Blue Shawl. I only worked on it for 52 minutes this week, but that still brings our total time on this one shawl up to over nine hours!

Future projects may include: a few more Goblin Bags (scrap yarn bags that'll hold random goodies plucked from random places), a couple of water bottle holders from the cotton yarns I've accumulated, possibly another cardigan, possible a shoulder dragon. We'll see.

If I do make the shoulder dragon, I'm going to use it for, of all things, making a cloth pattern so I can sew up an alternate version of it. The cloth dragon will be filled with sand. This is for a character I'd like to work on for either the RennFaire I'm attending in September or possibly future Halloween usage.

Any suggestions for cool looking free dragon crochet patterns would be deeply appreciated. I cannot wait to start working on him.

Anyway, that'll be all from me for now. I know it's late. The day got away from me lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Have Progress!

It was my mom's birthday last week, so I made her a present, which took about 3.5 hours to make and came from this pattern.

It's about as tall as my hand is long and took almost 3.5 hours to make!

As for the blue shawl? I have hit the second shade of blue! I spent about an hour and 20 minutes this week on it, bringing my total time up to about 8.25 hours. It's... not very long, but it's quite wide. Maybe it'll be good for summer - that's what it's designed for after all!

It looks much longer than it is in this image

It Also looks longer than it is wide in this image, but...
It's pretty wide, bro

If anyone has any of this shawl-in-a-cake yarn they want to get rid of, I'll happily give it a home. Can you imagine these kinds of yarns made into lightweight hex cardigans?! Or a lightweight scarf?! This blue has a much better hand than the green stuff I used, because it doesn't unwind while you crochet with it.

I am given to understand the Lion Brand version of this yarn is discontinued (boo), but I really enjoyed it, so if I have an opportunity to grab more, I'm gonna have to take it. As for other lace weight yarns, you better believe I'm keeping an eye out. I also need to get on figuring out my drop spindle and gold mawata...

As pleased as I am with my progress (and I really am!), I need to start considering what the top of this shawl should look like. Should I leave it straight across? Should I do a row of shells somehow? And if I do the shells, should I figure out how much lace that takes? Ah, conundrums.

Well, I'm just going to have to keep working on the shawl in order to find out.

Also, I really want to make another hex cardigan or two - maybe even one with cuffed sleeves that reach my wrist?

And I still want to make a vest dangit...

Seems to me like I've got plenty of ideas to sustain me this year.

How are all of your projects doing?

That'll about do it for me - I'm getting distracted by my cold toes and need to go throw on new socks.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

Y'All Ready For Some Shawl?

Because yeah, I worked on the shawl for a whole... hour and 26 minutes this week, bringing my efforts up to a total of 6 hours 53 minutes or so.

And it's not even halfway done.

So if I was to charge an hourly rate at my state's minimum wage ($13.80/hr), I'd have to charge over $95 for this thing just based on labor!

And this, kids, is why there's no such thing as a "fair price" for handicrafts and artwork.

But enough about that, you'll want to see the shawl!

Yup, that's my knee in the shot at the bottom left
and my laptop in the top right.

I've got quite a bit of work left to do on this shawl, and while it's one of the easiest shawls you can make, it's also incredibly slow going with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight cotton.

It's really pretty though.

I kind of wish I had another cake of the green lace from this brand so I could make another shawl in a more springy color... maybe add some cute little pink & white sakura blossoms onto it as décor...

But nay, I shall finish this sucker!

And then I shall make another project!

Who knows what that shall be. We'll find out.

Anywho, I'm gonna go brush my teeth and put a hot pack on my neck for reasons I'll explain tomorrow (they're very silly reasons). I hope all your projects are going well!

That'll do it for me tonight.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which This Is Kind of A Catchup Blog

I'm going to be honest - I didn't draw at all this past week. Sorry. Mostly I have simply been busy and haven't made time like I thought I would. Probably after next week I'll have a better grasp on my art! I do, however, have a series of updates and one quick sketch to put out there for this week!

So, Monday.

I did do a bunch of crochet - in fact, since last week I've worked on that new shawl for almost 2 hours and 10 minutes! That means it's been a total of 5 hours, 8 minutes, and 45 seconds with a 2.75mm hook and lace weight yarn!

Yes, it's very meshy.
Also, yes, I've worn a small patch into the touchpad of my laptop.
That's life.

Now, as for Tuesday blathering, I went on some adventures with my guy and our friends on Valentines to have something of a Palentines Day filled with sushi, burgers, and fun. It was a fantastic trip, I ended up with a massive dark chocolate Kit-Kat, and we got to hang out with cute dogs.

All in all, it's been a fantastic week!

Also, the writing is going pretty good on my manuscript! I had a day where I did no writing (yesterday), but I made up for it last night. In total, I've written 1176 words since last week! And I've got a good idea of where the story is headed, too.

As for art...

I've been bitten by brainworms about a Weird Western idea I had way back in the day regarding a man who was made to look like a demon and had to wander around the desert trying to clear his own name.

Like a lot of story ideas I've had, it's grown up a lot since then, and now I think Devon "The Devil" Deepenham has a deeper well than I'd imagined.

Maybe I won't be as cruel to him as I've been to some of my other characters lately.

That seems unlikely, since the poor man is basically a Frankensteinian monstrosity who escaped an unscrupulous circus sideshow in the twilight of the Civil War...

Anyhow, here's a quick sketch I mocked up of his profile in about 10 minutes:

"The Devil"; pencil sketch; 2023 [ANIMAL]

Oh boy am I not happy with that. I need a lot more practice with profiles before I can get him right. His face is all scrunched up.

Then again, I only gave myself 10 minutes to crank that poor boy out.

I've got work to do with him, especially since I'd really love to figure out a simplified version of him to draw consistently.

He's such a delightfully visual idea.

Next week's looking to be a lot like this week, so I apologize for that, but hey, I'll keep trying to do art no matter what. I can't guarantee it'll be *good* art, though.

Anywho, that'll about do it for me tonight. I have writing to do, sleep to catch up on, and some cranberry/elderberry juice to sip like a fine wine (if you haven't tried it, try it, it's incredible). And if you want a say in next week's art, go ahead and shoot me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like - Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Geometric, Location, Word!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC