Tuesday, November 30, 2010

runnin' low on the dude ideas....

mans, it's so much fun to make stuff for girls. frilly, lacy, and fun.

and then there's the dudes. what do you crochet for a dude? besides a blanket, beanie, and/or a scarf?

on my quest to find dude gifts, i've come across several that i think are so awesome that i just had to share.

exhibit a: the poncho. or "mancho" as i like to call it....

doesn't he look so excited to be wearing his homemade gift? he's brooding and handsome. 
dapper, if you will. 





jeesh, this dude has got it all. long scarf (that doesn't look the least bit girly, if you ask me), chick on his arm.  he's livin' the dream is what he's doin'.



exhibit c:  the dude sweater.

i can't speak for anyone else,  but i know that when i receive homemade clothing, i LOVE it when it looks homemade.  just sayin'. 



exhibit d:  (these are my personal favorites) oxford slippers. 
you know what would be rad? if i crocheted a matching smoking jacket.  i'm kind of not kidding.  and then i'll give it wrapped up so pretty to a dude in my life and pretend like i'm serious:

"what? you don't like it? i worked really hard on that."


and just for fun.....

doesn't get much better than this folks. 

i kid, i kid.

i know that each of these projects took a lot of thought and effort. but the whole point of this is to make something that is not lame.

i want something awesome.  i want something snappy (if you know that movie reference, then you too are awesome). 

help me crochet nerds!


Friday, November 19, 2010

lightin' the night yo's!

before i tell you all about the 'light the night' project, just a small taste of what kinds of conversations happen between shannon and i when we get excited. like, super duper, crap in your pants, excited.

basically, it goes down something like this:

kami: (or shannon, depending on who found the cuteness): check this out!
shannon: oh my I LOVE THEM ALL!
kami: I know right? I gasped out loud. You could do a bunch of *insert rambling of incoherent ideas here*…..
shannon: holy CRAP! Now I gasped out loud! I think I'm going to faint.
kami: easy as pie.
shannon: Mother effing trucker, it's genius!
kami: I'm going to die.
shannon: like magic! Oh my gosh that would be so cute I can hardly stand it.
kami: I think my blood pressure just went up.

and so on and so forth. all the great ideas happen like this, and then it's like the creativity spews out. i say spew because sometimes we don't think before trying a project and it turns out to not be such a great idea. like my picture frame crochet cozy. i'm still not pleased with it. and we have yet to find a willing participant who will let us try out the testicle receptacle. although, if you're interested...please let us know....

back to spewing cuteness. i saw a post on somewhere (i sure can't remember) by a young lady who spelled out words with yarn on some baskets and then used them to organize stuff.

it. is. darling. it's so cute, and so easy. however, i'm too cheap to buy the good thick yarn so i had to come up with a different idea. and had to come up with a project in which i needed to write words out of yarn.... i can't believe i just said that.

this is where 'light the night' comes into play. my cute sister headed up the annual 'light the night' event in sugarhouse park this year. if you haven't checked it out, it's a super cool event.

i wanted to come up with a cool (homemade=cheap) gift for her to put in her office to commemorate the event, and to let her know that all her hard work didn't go unnoticed.

so i got to thinking. what does this event entail? walking....donating money....balloons....BALLOONS!

and then i had an epiphany. i wondered if anyone had ever crocheted a balloon. of course, i knew someone had to, and they did! i found this super easy pattern here and got to work.



now, isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen? i originally did a white, gold, and red balloon but the piece of wood that i picked up didn't accommodate all three. so red it was, because that's light the nights' main color. i decided i wanted the balloon's tail to spell out "light the night."

i wonder how many times i can say "light the night" int his post? someone count for me.

after several attempts, this is what i came up with. it's the first writing-words-in-yarn attempt for me, and from far away, it kind of looks like a pre-schooler wrote it, but if you look up close, you can see the cool texture (the "rope" is just a single crocheted chain) and of course, the adorable balloon. with a bow. everything looks cuter with a bow.

can you tell i'm in love with the balloon?

here's a close up in case you couldn't tell:

Thursday, November 4, 2010

This Post Is Brought To You By....

Camera phones! When nothing, but the best will do! (Except that it has to because your real camera's batteries died)

We now rejoin Shannon in the midst of her dilemma...
*wimper*...*sniff*....*panicked shifty eyes***

*whine*But I'm soooo close..... *wringing hands*

   *SOB* BOOOOOOHooooHooooHoooHooo

This is quite possibly the saddest day ever. No..more..cotton. This empty shell of ice-cream-cone-crave-inducing cardboard used to be this thing of beauty:
The Sugar 'n Cream 1 lb Cone. (in white though)

My latest obsession. Everything I make lately has a little SnC in it somewhere. And the cone teases you by making it feel like it will be there forever. Then, when you're 2/3 of the way through making the back of one helluva cute pillow, it's gone. Just like that! And here I thought it would be there for me through thick and thin. Through wonky washclothes and lovely textured flower pillows alike. Yet I find myself here, alone longing for its natural cotton absorbency to soak up my salty tears.

Lucky for me I have a little something goin' on the side. *wink wink* *elbow nudge* I got all of the supplies to start my coworker's American Flag afghan and I'm extra excited. I showed her the colors I picked out (duh, I know red white and blue. I'm talking about shades) and have her blessing, so I'm off! Maybe a little space from my SnC obssession will do me some good. I might have been getting a tad codependant.

Oh! Did I ever show you these adorable little guys?
Cute huh? I made these guys nearer to the beginning of October and they've been keeping me company at work. Those little faces just make my day. They're so cute, in fact, that I'm having trouble taking them home and packing them away. It feels so wrong. I do have plans to make a crazy adorable little gobbler so I might let these guys hang around until the new bird is in town. We shall see.....

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

what to make next....

on november 1st, i started to panic. on november 1st, i was left with exactly 55 days until christmas. so, i got out my trusty notebook and made a list of all the people that i'd like to make gifts for.

but then, i saw this again:



this is a cb2 pouf. that's code for darling.

and all of a sudden, i've forgotten about all the gifts i have to make and am trying to figure out how to make myself one of these. in my world, i can't be spendin' that kind of dough on things that one might consider to be frivolous. plus, do you know how much yarn $80 would buy? a lot. a lot of glorious, magnificent yarn.....

yarn for me to make more presents you see! so many projects, so little time. this one sadly may have to wait until after the holidays, along with my snuggie.

don't judge.