This Yarn Post Sponsored by: Knit Picks & Cooperative Press

"Hey, Jess, did you know there's a package on the front step?"

Oh baby! Check *this* out!

A package from Knit Picks address to yours truly. 

Knit Picks is the company that is graciously providing the yarn for that project of mine (read about it here, then do a happy dance for me). Thanks, Knit Picks! It's an honor!

Here... it... is! I've never opened a box of yarn before. It's such an exciting experience: worthy of documentation, some happy-dance breaks and much "Yahoo!"-ing as I kissed my sweet one-year-old's cheeks in celebration. He loved it too.

Yarn Love.

Here they are in their snug little basket.

I love this part of the skein the best. The swirly parts. Surely there's a name for it, but you probably have to work in the yarn manufacturing industry to be privy to something so obscure.

Here are my colors, side to side...

...and now vertical.

Dramatic Closing Photograph

And ending the photo essay with another epic shot. 

I'm not at liberty to discuss The Pattern with you all. Tough cookies: you'll just have to buy the book. ;) But I can tell you all about the yarn and have decided to document my creative process by showing how much yarn I have left. 

Here's some quick info on what exactly I have in my basket (for those who fell in love, as I have)

~10 Skeins of Knit Picks' "Dishie" 

8 in Azure... If you check out their website you'll discover that... "Azure is a heraldic blue color that will remind you of a cloudless sky. Its blue color and light purple undertones shine when combined with other neutrals and other luscious blues."  Cloudless sky, much like the gorgeous sky right now. And if you ask *me*, you'll discover that Azure is one of my favorite colors. 

and 2 in Tranquil... "Tranquil is a calming blue green color. If you find the calming turquoise colors of the ocean soothing and enjoyable, then you will love having a sweater knitted out of Tranquil. It’s a beautiful color on its own or for color work."  Gorgeous, gorgeous color! I am in love with turquoise lately (just take a peek at my kitchen... or living room... or most of my shirts and a few of my dresses. Oh, and my glasses too... and very nearly my front door, but I resisted the urge because, really, I have to draw the line somewhere). 

"Dishie" is made of 100% cotton (= eco-friendly!) and is 190 yards/100 grams per skein. Machine Washable and Tumble Low Dry-able. 

So what did I miss. I'll recap...

It's gorgeous

It's affordable

It's eco-friendly

It's durable 

...and I can't wait to get to work!

Jessica's Monday: The Cliff Notes

Today I have:

Started a dinosaur hat

Frogged a dinosaur hat

Realized I have 14 hats I've committed to making

Decided to not have an elaborate blog post.

*

I should have made the above a haiku. That would have been sweet. 

But, I'm pressed for time! 

Little Bunny FooFoo (New!)

Little Bunny FooFoo, hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head.

Down came the Good Fairy, and she said,

"Little Bunny FooFoo, I don't want to see you, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head." So...

...she turned her into a field mouse, and bopped her on the head.

New Pattern available at PurpleChairCrochet --- Bunny FooFoo Pattern! Isn't she adorable?! And so fun, and quick to make!

Must Have Mustard (Fantastic Finds)

I saw some mustard colored yarn on Saturday and it was, well, a must. Impulsively, I purchased this mustard. Now I keep making it into an item, the frogging it all out, then making it into something else and frogging *that* out. I started on something else (Yes! I've got it! Maybe...?) and I ask Charming Husband's opinion (sadly, it was not what I wanted to hear, but I did ask, didn't I...) and frogged again.

I thought some Fantastic Finds would help with some inspiration...

Image courtesy of crochetconcepts

 So warm and autumnal!

Image courtesy of happynumbers

 Delicate home-decor

Image courtesy of lilyshih22

 Lovely and feminine

Image courtesy of softspoken

Fun and sophisticated

Image courtesy of tabachin

Sunburst happiness.

Thoughts on what my mustard yarn should become? I'm thinking a hat (can you have too many? That was rhetorical, the obvious answer is: No, you cannot), but I don't know. I just don't know.

Someone advise me! Leave it in the comments section.

Suddenly He's 3....

I just had a baby! Oh, um, 3 years ago (I've even had one since). How do they grow so quickly? Why do the grow so quickly?



So I made him a treasury with all of the *him* things... the brown sling I carried him in, the non-rainboots in his toddler year (now worn by little bro), the yellow kittens he loves, the tire swing you can't get him out of, the king crown he insists on wearing, the apple picking we do for his birthdays, the plastic cups he played with as a baby, A BUS-- he loved buses for a few months, his pooh-bear, his brown and white cozy blanket, the pumpkin onesie I always put him in as a baby, the crochet hat he wore his first winter, a reminder of his first room, and his little black converse (now also worn by little bro). It's A Boy. He's my boy. =)

Here he is, proud to be The King "(Long Live the King!" is a familiar chant in this house)

And here is his new blanket! When he unwrapped it Daddy asked him "Oooh, what is that" and he wisely replied, "Yarn." But when we unfolded it and held it up his face shone, he smiled wide and, jumping up and down with flailing arms exclaimed, "IT'S A STAR!!"

So, you could say he likes it. ;)

Cozied on the couch watching Kipper.

Notes about the blanket: He picked the colors himself ("My green" was what he wanted). He chose Red Heart's Eco-Ways acrylic (made from recycled plastic, my green loving boy is so green) and the colors were Asparagus, Lichen and..... the white was.... uhm. Uhm. Uuuuuuhm. (looks it up on the internet) Oyster!! Oh, let me add their link now I have it pulled up... done.

The *pattern* is gorgeous, isn't it? It's from The Hook Hound on that fabulous website known as Etsy. Here's the pattern link itself (well, where you can purchase it. Copyright's important): Granny Star. My thoughts on the pattern were this: It was fun! It was easy! It wasn't boring! And it ended up BeAuTiFuL! I was starting to mentally crochet it in a variety of colors (pale yellow star bursting out through the color spectrum to end in a dark red?? Anyone?! Yes! I'm so into this idea!) but then I remembered that I have a project on-the-hook (several, actually, but we're talking blankets for me). Sooo, maybe next autumn. Or, ya know, when I finish that Bed of Roses I'm working on. :)

Hope everyone has a lovely, autumn day, and I hope you have your own crochet blankie to snuggle up with.
*

Leviathan the.... Labrador? (Fantastic Finds)

Today I'm taking a bit of a poll.

I've run into a dilemma. I don't know whether I should make baby boy (age 15 months) Leviathan the Sea Monster (a creature fitting to his character) OR a Labrador (another creature equally fitting to his character) for Halloween. 

Here are some fantastic finds to help YOU help ME. (Thanks!)

Image courtesy of cottoncandycraftings

Image courtesy of DanasDarlingDesign

Image courtesy of FashionPatterns

Image courtesy of JustPaigeCreations

Image courtesy of lukeOWLlily

Image courtesy of MagicKnit

Image courtesy of marykaren

Image courtesy of maybematilda

Image courtesy of MonkeyShineDesigns2

Image courtesy of rcintron

Aren't those kids CUTE?! It's almost painful how adorable they are. Here's another blog post with cute kids in it.

The votes amongst my peoples are currently:
Leviathan: 9
Labrador: 5

I gotta admit, Leviathan was my first choice. Then I saw the puppy hats and made a noise like this, "Oooh, Puppy Wuppy!!"

In reality I'm probably going to make 2 dino hats and 2 puppy hats, one of each for each of my boys and they can wear them through the cold weather. :) The question is what to wear for the cutest effect on that first venture out as a Trick-or-Treater?

Vote in the "Comments" section below!

A Bed of Roses (WIP)

Today, I have no beautiful Etsy crochet to show you. Sorry. I promise I'll have something adorable tomorrow and it includes a poll which is always fun.

I just had to share something of my own making this time. And it's not a new pattern for my shop. This is something just for me. A Christmas gift to myself....

It is...a... 

BEAUtiful blanket!! Or, well, 2 squares of what will become a beautiful blanket!

I'm very, Very excited about the colors! All two of them, haha :) The yarn of choice is Naturally Caron's Claret (for the red) and Misty Taupe for the grey (it's more silver than Caron's website shows).

I think I'm going to need 7 or 8 skeins, if I did my math right. More on the numbers in a moment though.

This lovely afghan will be done in the join-as-you-go method. This was my first ever attempt and I'm kicking myself for not ever trying it before. Prior to this I'd been slip-stitching my sides together across (urg) and from this point on I'll never be doing that again!!

Doesn't that look wonderful? Initially I though the gaps would be a problem, until I realized that A) a granny square is covered in gaps B) the slip stitch holds it together snugly so it's only visible if you're playing tug-of-war with the thing and C) is an acceptable trade-off for the ease, joy and quickness of using the method.

So, the numbers...
I want my blanket to be 50"x50". Each square is 4.5" across (using a 5.5mm hook), so I'll need 11 rows down and across plus a simple not-yet-decided-on border. That's 121 squares. At half an hour per square (when my kids are awake that is about 60 hours of crochet time. Marvelous.

As for how much yarn I'll need, I'm pretty terrible at this calculation. I have my trusty Yarn Requirements pamphlet and (to spare you the arithmetic) the final number my calculator showed was 7, as in 7-skeins-of-yarn. I bought 5 : 3 taupe and 2 claret, so Oh Darn, I need to buy more yarn. An extra skein of each. Or maybe...2 just to be on the safe side? I do need to create a border... maybe 2 taupe and 1 claret...? I'm so terrible at this game.

I'll be sure to continue to show it coming along. My goal is to have it done by Christmas. A nice, repetitive,  gorgeous Work in Progress!!

(Will the pattern be available in my Etsy shop? Umm, perhaps. If The People demand it. To be determined...)