What if it’s rainy AND cold?

Why, then, Baby Boy will have to wear this sweater now, won’t he?

I think I might be growing a Hobbit baby...

 

This was my first attempt at making an actual piece of clothing rather than an accessory, and I was surprised at how easy it was!  The most difficult part was lining up the button holes (and that’s not rocket science, friends).

I’m *trying* not to be stressed about the sizing; I made the biggest size the pattern included, so hopefully by the time the weather turns it will fit my little hobbity son (who is currently practicing his roundhouse kicks on my bladder. Neat).  If it doesn’t fit, well, no worries – It only took me about a day and a half to work up, so I’ll just make another one!

I can't make a sweater without a tiny dragon on it, now can I?

 

So… I’m now off to create more dragony things for the boy (with my feet up and a big glass of water next to me, of course).  Hooray!

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Enviro-Kitty Got Me Thinking

Since Nina’s been so in to saving the planet lately (and also since our old laundry sorter was very anti-kitten), Husband and I recently upgraded our flimsy, mesh laundry hamper to a fancy woven one (which is decidedly more kitten-friendly).

No, this isn't Nina, but it is an example of why mesh bags are decidedly non-kitten friendly.

Poor Nina spent many an evening attacking our meshy laundry area, getting her tiny claws stuck, then crying pitifully until we came to rescue her.  I don’t have any pictures of it because frankly, it seemed mean to take a picture of a poor, scaredy, stuck little kitten instead of rescuing her.  Plus, the camera always seemed to be in the other room.  Humpf.

The problem now is, what do I do with this?

the bottom bit of mesh from the old hamper

I kept the three sorting bags – they’ll be good for sorting laundry on trips (and decidedly better than the pillow cases I currently use to organize trip laundry).  The plastic tubing, which was cracked and taped back together in several places anyway, we recycled, leaving just this bottom bit mesh to deal with.

So, I channeled my inner enviro-kitty and poured myself a glass of champagne.

yep! thats one of my happy bead wine glass charms!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Drinking champagne has absolutely nothing to do with being an enviro-kitty.  Kitties probably shouldn’t drink champagne, actually. Champagne is only for adult human enviro-kitties, kk?

So.  Here’s what I did:

1. I folded the meshy mesh in half.

2. I sewed up both sides with my trusty embroidery needle and some scrap yarn.

3. Then, because that’s how I roll, I pretended my stitches were a foundation chain, got out my trusty J hook, and double crocheted up both sides of the bag.

4. I added some handles, which because of the already existing loops in the mesh, I was able to string through the top of the bag, and ended up with this:

practical, but not very pretty...

5. And, since I had a bit of yarn left over, I added a groovy little flower.

And… VOILA!  I  now have a lightweight little bag to carry produce in!  Hooray for no more plastic produce bags!

Enviro-Kitty is proud of me, as evidenced by the fact that she’s sitting on my desk, watching me write this post and purring.  YAY!

Hooks on a Plane

Today marks the first full day of Chibication, which means that yesterday was a day full of airports (which I loathe) and airplanes (which I love).  I traveled through three different time zones, drained a pair of (rechargeable) AA batteries, and for some reason Zoltar’s backspace key is a little sticky today, but other than that I am now safe and sound here in Clovis, NM.  Chibication has officially begun!

Anyway, the thought of spending all those hours on a plane with nothing to crochet almost made me weep, so I thoroughly investigated the acceptable carry-on items and collected the following:

A few acrylic hooks (which I despise.  I actually snapped the pink one in half during a layover in Memphis, but I was afraid my steel hooks wouldn’t make it through security) and a plastic needle, which I thought would be better than no needle at all (it wasn’t).

TSA Approved Hookery

A teeny tiny scissors (note I did not say a pair of scissors. It’s one item people.  ONE scissors):

gnome scissors

And a nail file.  The TSA website said that I was allowed to have scissors with a blade less than four inches, but I like to have back-up plans, and a nice lady on the interwebs mentioned that she was able to saw through some yarn with said file when her scissors were confiscated (too bad she didn’t have a pair, eh?).  I took a picture of the nail file, but I didn’t want to be “that girl who posts pictures of nail files” on her blog (though I bet Thoreau would have approved).  You all know what a nail file looks like.

So, instead of looking at my usual suburban hell, I got to look at this:

somewhere between DC and NM

And this:

(I really wanted to try this while standing)

And snack on these:

...definitely following the 5 ingredient rule...

While I made this:

a chibi bag for a chibication!

I discovered during my last Chibication that a prop plane flight from ABQ to Clovis actually doubled my airfare cost, so this time I flew only as far as Lubbock, TX, where my Chibi came and picked me up!  Hooray!  Half as expensive airfare = twice as many Chibications!

I had some time to kill in the Lubbock Airport (oh, such a cute little airport!), so I set up camp in the *only* baggage claim room they had, spent some hard earned quarters on snacks, and made about a gazillion of these:

granny star ornaments.. so cute!

I was, if you can believe it, the *only* person in the room.  In an airport.  I still can’t quite believe it. })i({

a lonely little ball of yarn in a lonely little airport