And it goes round and round...

In December I started a sweater, the swirl. I entered it in a WIP challenge this April to try to finish it up, and I failed miserably :( This afternoon, before yoga class, I finally completed all four wedges, pinned it together and ran to the mirror to try it on.
Surprise, surprise, it is too small. I have to admit that I had my suspicions. Every time I picked it up to work on it, I thought to myselft, "Wow, this looks kinda small." But did that stop me? Of course not. I prefer "delusional thoughts from Fantasy Island." Oh well. Tonight I will be doing a little frogging, so I can add more rounds to the spiral. Then I can start the wedges again and hopefully be more realistic about my size as it compares to the size of the sweater.

Pretty in Pink Headband

A few weeks ago, I finally got tired of my hair falling in my eyes during yoga class every time I did a forward bend. I began to search wildly for a headband, but could not find one anywhere. Obviously, it was time for me to make myself a headband. I found this pattern online(Ravelry link), pulled out some coordinating embroidery floss and my tiny crochet hook and off I went. It took me a little longer than it should have, because my finger is still stiff from my surgery last summer, but it turned out great.
Modifications: I did one less repeat of the pattern and added scallops to the flat side. I also crocheted the straps directly to the pattern band, instead of making them separately and attaching. Color changes were made as each hank of floss ran out :)

The headband works really well for yoga class, and I think I might even wear it out and about sometimes. I think if I were to make the pattern again, I would do one repeat of the pattern, then turn around and do the second repeat on the flat side, so it would be more symmetrical.

Amigurumi Video

I found this on a blog recently, can't remember where, but I think it was one of the Blogs of Note. It's a video of an amigurumi bear crocheting itself. Enjoy.

Book Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Science Fiction

This book follows the adventures of Richard Mayhew. At the beginning of the book, he is a typical businessman, engaged to be married and living a pretty normal life. One evening, while walking to a restaurant, Richard helps a girl whom he finds bleeding on the sidewalk. He takes her back to his apartment, and suddenly his life changes. The girl disappears and so does every trace of his normal life. He finds himself in a new world that he never knew existed, a world underneath London, a world full of interesting and weird people and places.

I read this book for one of my online book groups (Stitch and Book). I had read American Gods previously and really enjoyed it. Neil Gaiman's prose is amazing, and his ability to describe scenes and characters is engrossing. One of my favorite images describes a fight that takes place at the floating market. Fighters are trying out to get a job as a bodyguard. In this fight, a female comes forward to challenge the current champion, who had just defeated a number of dangerous guys. The female turns out to be a really great fighter: "Richard was thunderstruck: it had been like watching Emma Peel, Bruce Lee, and a particularly vicious tornado, all rolled into one and sprinkled with a generous helping of a mongoose killing a king cobra. That was how she had moved. That was how she had fought."

However, I was disappointed with the characters in this book. I found the villains, Croup and Vandemar, to be too cliché. They reminded me at times of Pinky and the Brain, as one of them is very intelligent and always knows what the plan is, while the other is trying to keep up. At other times, they made me think of that group of bad guys who are altogether evil and will go out of their way to do something cruel or disgusting. Many of the other characters in the book were very static. At first I thought this was because this book is Neil Gaiman's first solo novel, but then I learned that this book is based on a tv series. The may explain the type and depth of the characters portrayed.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It was an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Baby Blanket

Hubby and I went for a walk downtown today. As we were walking along, he saw a blanket wrapped around a stop sign.
Hubby: Hey, do you think that post is cold?
Me: (looking where he is pointing) Hey, I knit that!
Hubby: What??
Me: That's the baby blanket I knit for our neighbors.
Turns out our neighbors had been walking downtown yesterday and lost the blanket. I returned it to them on my way home.

This is a reenactment, not the actual post we saw it on, because I didn't think of taking a picture until we had walked a little further.

It was actually a stroke of luck, because I had forgotten to take a picture of the blanket before I delivered it, so here it is.

Gigi's baby blanket

Knit in 100% cotton in alternating row of stockinette, revere stockinette and seed stitch.

First Polymer Clay Cane :(

I recently started playing with my Sculpey polymer clay. I thought it would be good strengthening exercise for my finger. Well, playing with it was not enough, so I had to try making something.

And so I made a really bad heart and surounded it with purple. I think I had Valentine's Day crafts on my mind or something.

I proceeded to roll it out into a long cane, and voila...I give you the misshapen heart cane.

Not sure what i will use it for yet, but I will use it for something. It's kind of a neat shape, even if it's not very heartlike anymore :)

Buddha Necklace (100th post)

I made this necklace about 2 months ago and just never got around to posting it until now. My hubby wanted a necklace and could never find the right one. He knew he wanted semi-precious gemstones, so I showed him all the gemstone beads I have, and he picked out his favorites. He chose cube-shaped lapis lazuli, jasper, labradorite, blue goldstone, 2 triangular garnet beads and a carnelian Buddha. I spaced the beads with gunpowder colored seed beads and strung them all on beading wire. I love how it turned out, and he wears it a lot.

Here is a closeup of the Buddha. You can see how sparkly the blue goldstone is. It's a manmade stone, but I love it so much.

Can you believe that after more than two years, I have finally made it to my 100th post. Now that is exciting :)