Alphabet Challenge

In February, I will be attempting the alphabet challenge on both of my blogs. Basically, this means that I will be taking a picture each day to represent a different letter of the alphabet. February 1 will be "A is for...", February 2 will be "B is for..." and so on. Charlie from the Laughter Minute blog brought the challenge to my attention, and you can find more information here. You can also see his past attempt at this challenge. I will attempt the challenge on my Project 365 blog and I will attempt a crafty version on this blog. If you are interested in joining the challenge, you should visit the Laughter Minute blog and see what it's all about. I think it will be fun :)

Esther's Square

Here is the second square in my 2009 CAL afghan. I am really digging this color combination. It actually came out to the same size as the first square, which is excellent. This square was so easy. The pattern repeats were easy to memorize, and it went really quickly. It is called Esther's square.
Now I can't wait until February.

Mandala Square

Well, here is the first square of my 2009 Afghan CAL. It is crocheted with an H hook in Accord acrylic yarn. The final afghan will have four colors, including the two seen below. The square was supposed to be 12 inches, but came out a little small. I am going to see how the other squares turn out before I decide if I want to add extra rounds or not. Overall, I am really happy with how the square looks and I am excited to see the whole afghan come together over the course of the year. Tonight I will be starting the second January square.

Without further ado.....I give you the mandala square......

Pumpkin Purse

Wow! I have been away for longer than I wanted to be. My computer had a virus. We fought valiantly, and I think we beat it. Yay!!

Anyway, here is the purse that I have been working on recently. I have all of this orange-ish wool and green wool, and looking at the two of them sitting together in my stash made me think of pumpkins. I decided that I wanted to make a felted pumpkin purse. The only tricky part in my mind was making the different sections of the pumpkin actually plump out like they do on real pumpkins. I started and frogged at least three times before finding the magic solution. This purse was knit in sections: six to be exact. Each section incorporates short rows to create the necessary shaping. Then the six sections were joined together to form this:

Time to bring in the green. I decided to knit a green strip to go around the rim of the purse. It will hopefully simulate the green top of the pumkin while also helping the purse to maintain its plump shape which I love so much.Here are the two parts pinned together. I think it looks pretty awesome so far. When I have them sewn together, I want to add some leaves and vines. I was thinking about trying to make the handle look like a leafy vine also, but I have not quite figured out how to make that happen yet.
Oh well, time to put on the thinking hat (and maybe the frogging hat) again.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I rang in the new year playing Wii. It is very hard to take a picture of the tv, but here is my best attempt. That's Mario from Mariokart, bouncing around on some mushrooms :) I decided to make some New Year's Resolutions this year:
1. Keep my checkbook balanced.
2. Continue the diet and exercise regimen I started in the summer.
3. Knit myself a sweater.
4. Keep up with the block-a-month crochetalong that I joined on Ravelry.
5. Go to the local knitting group more often. They meet at a wine bar once a week; you just can't beat that :)
6. Do some charity knitting.
7. Practice some new knitting and crocheting techniques.
8. Make my crafts into a business, either throught Etsy, craft fairs, Saturday Market, or some combination.
9. Find a second income to fund my crafts until they become a more viable business.
10. Be happy with my life :)
11. Almost forgot: Project 365. I will take a picture every day and post it to my second blog.