Crocheting

So I taught myself how to crochet using You Tube a few months ago.  Sometimes I feel like I am doing it all wrong, but things turn out (for the most part!).  One thing I need to work on is making sure my gauge is correct! 

I did spend a lot of time making hats and then taking them out.  Hats are tricky!  But I think I'm getting better. 

Current works in progress:  one more hat and scarf, then possibly attempting mittens and a new blanket for our apartment!

I'll leave you with pictures of what I've done so far and links to where I found the patterns:

 To make the flowers I used this pattern.  I just didn't pull the magic circle tight to leave a hole big enough to fit a button through.

 

This hat was based on this pattern, but remember that gauge thing I talked about earlier...yeah, when you actually use the right size yarn the pattern works amazing, but my yarn was way small, meaning i made quite a few hats before getting one that fit :)

 I made this pattern up myself.  Not too hard though :)

These cute monster hats came from this cool blog, but I modified them a little bit (larger size and the teeth are crochet, not felt).

I'm also having a lot of trouble with sizing of hats.  Every source I find has different information for head circumference and hat length.  It's pretty frustrating.  Any tips?

Happy New Year!

So last year was a big year:

- Liz got her first out of college job at a school
- Mark moved to Lansing
- Mark graduated
- We got married!
- We traveled to Washington DC for the first time.
- We moved across the country.
- We got a dog.

We celebrated tonight with new friends at Cardigan.

We are looking forward to everything 2012 has in store for us!

Oh Baby!

It's a beautiful sunny day here in NH!  It was snowing this morning, but it was nice to actually see the snow fall instead of waking up to a few inches on the ground.

I have been crocheting like mad lately!  I love the feeling of finishing a project.  I can't wait until Christmas to give these awesome gifts out.

In other more exciting news...my BFF is having a baby TODAY!  I can't believe it!  So good luck to her (and her hubby too!).  I can't wait to meet their little man.

Christmas Time!

Wow, can you believe it's already December 5th!  Time sure is flying! We have been listening to lots of Bare Naked Ladies Christmas music lately.

We are officially decorated for Christmas.  Not hard when you have a total of 5 decorations though (tree not included).  Since we won't be here for Christmas, we decided to go with no tree this year, oh well there's always next year.

I have been crocheting a ton lately!  My first homemade Christmas gifts are finished, only a few more to go.  Plus Mark will finally be getting the scarf he has been asking for for years now :)  I'll post pictures once the gifts are given to their recipients.

Yesterday one of my friends came over for a crochet/movie party.  We watched The Holiday.  I forgot how cute that movie is.  Yesterday was definitely a good day :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are spending time in Michigan until Saturday night.  I am definitely enjoying being so close to the grocery store and to the mall!

Today we are spending time with both families eating and hanging out.  I am beyond stoked to get some green bean casserole!

I'm still deciding if I want to go out and shop tonight/tomorrow morning, but there isn't really anything I need...

Traveling!

We are officially on Thanksgiving break!  Yeah for a whole week away from school :)

Currently we are stopped in Erie, PA for the night to get some sleep before driving back to MI tomorrow!  We are so excited to see our family and friends again!

Crafts

Where have the past few weeks gone?  I can't believe it's already the middle of November!  These past few weeks have been really busy, but seem to finally be calming down.

I know I mentioned this last time, but I am totally obsessed with Pinterest.  I keep finding awesome recipes to try (that are super easy too!).  And lots and lots and lots and lots of craft ideas.

My super amazing best friend is having a baby next month!  So I decided I would attempt to make something for her new little guy.  I did three "practice" coasters, and then I decided to make a baby blanket.  Once the blanket was done I was feeling adventurous, so I made two pairs of mittens and a hat too.  I think they turned out awesome.  Here are some pictures:

I used single crochet for everything.  I used this tutorial for the mittens, though when I made the first pair they seemed a little small (but I didn't have any baby hands to test them on), so I made a second pair with an extra 5 stitches around.  I used this tutorial for the hat, but obviously mine was solid colored.  To make the "magic circle" to start the hat I used this website.

Closer view of the blanket.

Top view of the hat.

My "baby" to test the sizes on.

 

Charlie was enjoying the sun that day!