ripple throw progress report(s)

Blanket drive ripple: dunzo! It's been finished for more than a month now, but I was dealing with some meds side effects at about the time I finished it and could barely sit upright there for a while, so I only just now got some pictures taken.

I like this blanket a lot. Choosing each color spontaneously as I made it definitely made the process more interesting -- not that I at all mind repetitive tasks. I kind of thrive doing repetitive tasks. But something about juggling colors I had a lot of versus colors I was running low on and getting to make color choices every time I worked on it was fun. The loosey-goosey approach -- whilst still sticking to a "palette" -- was something I hadn't done since my very first ripple throw.

Because I finished this, I have since picked up another ripple WIP that I may or may not donate to that same blanket drive, depending on a) the progress I make with it, and b) how ugly it turns out.

I've been calling this the "ugly ripple." As in, I started making it intending for it to be ugly, using dingy colors. Browns, beiges, mustards. Note the swath of gray. I have sort of mentally updated to calling it the "spices ripple," because it puts me in the mind of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, basil leaves! It sort of reminds me of a certain soup I like to make with a Mexican flavor profile, which has a lot of vegetables in it. Makes me hungry just looking at it, to be honest...

We'll just see how this comes along in the coming weeks -- whether it stays ugly or becomes more of a cohesive vintage cabin vibe. I'd really prefer to use only yarn I already have to progress on this, but I will probably end up depleting myself of the required palette and buying more yarn anyway. Many of the yarns are Big Twist, a Jo-Ann brand, and I'm not sure about whether I can replace the precise colors. Hopefully that won't matter too much.

Another ripple WIP in my near future is making one in shades of purple for my bestie K! She asked for one and I need to confer with her about what sort of style to go for. Color block? Random? Some particular repeating pattern of stripes? It will be really fun to work on something for someone specific again.

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small projects: flowery mini amp handle

I don't believe I've ever posted about my mini amp here, except for the Christmas where it was on my wish list! (Wow, did I really get this thing in 2014??) As you can see, I ended up getting it, and I have had it since! For almost eleven years!

As I've mentioned before, I haven't used it much, although I like it. One reason is that dealing with the thick, lengthy, tangly, heavy black guitar cable is a pain, especially for such a little teensy amp. Another reason is that I had a different electric guitar for a long time -- this one -- and I didn't enjoy playing it to the same extent as I enjoy my current electric guitar. But I've been trying to use the amp more lately, since I want to become more accustomed to hearing myself play electric. I'm still getting used to being plugged in and on mic.

As though Karma is working her magic, one of my new guitar buddies has recently changed my game by giving me a little wireless system! It basically removes the need for that thick cord. Pop one dongle in the guitar and one dongle in the amp, and there you go! It transmits what you play wirelessly to the amp!

What a gift, I know!!! He said he got static interference with it and didn't like it, and if I wanted to use it, I could have it. It's actually perfect for me. I have limited space, and removing the guitar cable from the situation is a huge advantage for me. And it sounds really great on my teensy amp, imo. I recorded this little clip on my phone for the guy who gave me the wireless system so I could show him it worked, and so I could thank him for it:

As you can see, I was on the verge of watching Drawfee.

Also as you can see, the wireless dongle is there on the corner of it, where the jack is.

And also also as you can see, in this video, the little black handle that ought to be on the top of the amp is missing. Said handle recently broke into several pieces. I guess it was brittle from age? Again, "pleather" is the worst. But I soon decided, "I bet I can crochet myself a handle." And thus I arrive at the actual reason for this post.

I wanted to crochet around something that would provide the handle with some shape and resilience, and landed on a pipe cleaner. I bent the pipe cleaner in two so it would be doubled up, inserted each end into the metal tabs where the old handle had been attached, and crocheted around the whole biz. Worked perfectly.

And OF COURSE I put some matching icy blue-green flowers onto the handle!

It's actually very secure and sturdy-feeling, but not to the extent where it would be difficult for me to snip the handle right off again, if desired. The amp is very small and light -- I tend to plug it in rather than use batteries, so I'm not worried at all about toting it with this handle. I think it'd be fun to make a variety of handles, perhaps beaded or braided or embroidered ones. But for now I'm really pleased with its new flowery handle, and really pleased I have been using the amp more in general the last month.

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small projects: flowery charging cable covers

Just wanted to post the result of a little endeavor that's been in the pipes for a while: sewing little crochet flowers onto phone charging cables that I've crocheted to look sort of like leafy vines. I first did this in early 2024 and used that cable -- which was already on its way out -- until it finally died several months later. Then I missed it, because it was very easy to spot amongst other cables in my room, so I decided to crochet around another. ... And then another. ... And then another! So in total I have made four of these now. And I finally decided to add some flowers onto a couple of them.

(I've linked this before, but here's the pattern I used for the flowers!)

Above is just a regular little iPhone lightning cord with some flowers done in a couple of different shades of pink. It makes me sooo happy when I see it! I use it a lot in conjunction with a pastel green external battery that I carry around in my bag, and the whole look is basically too presh. Sometimes this flowery cord is spilling out of my bag and it just tickles me. It adds some whimsy and softness to something that's otherwise irritating and techy to be carrying around.

I have some six-foot long braided charging cords too, so I vined up a couple of them in different greens. To one I added some blue and white flowers:

It was fun to use a couple of different yellows for the center of the flowers.

I gotta say that it takes longer than you'd think to crochet all around a charging cable, especially because I don't want the cover to be too gappy. So I really pile a lot of stitches on there. I also do the leaves as I go. The six-foot ones take me several sessions of working my way along. Hours, I wanna say! But it's just really fun to take something from being a bit of an eyesore to something cute. It's also easier to tell what cord is what at my charging stations; it's easier to spot amongst other cords. I don't have to verify whether the cord I'm picking up is the right one with the right dongles; I know what I am reaching for.

I also crocheted a small handle for something using this method/aesthetic lately. Post upcoming!

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now i'm your daisy

Happy July. No sense in not mentioning it: I've started a new med (ya girl takes like a dozen pills every day) and it's made me feel real wonk in a startlingly wide variety of ways. So this post, while it does have a running theme, is not going to be my most coherent. Just a small collection of different Things Of Late. Whee!

As pictured above, I recently got some daisy knobs for my guitar! Y'all remember Karma, surely! Well, Pinterest totally got my ass. That's where I saw them. They were cheap enough to seem like a fun purchase, and it was definitely an impulse purchase on my part! I rarely actually plug in my guitar to my mini amp, so I don't use the knobs frequently. That's good, because I don't think these knobs are super functional. One of them doesn't seem to turn the dial it's supposedly gripping onto. However, these are just a little something that makes my guitar look and feel cheery and me-ish, so I really like them nevertheless. They make me happy whenever I pick up my guitar.

I've been making these crochet flowers the past couple of days. Another throwback to an older post: I crocheted around a phone charging cord to give it a vine-y appearance. It is just to cute-ify things, you know! A whimsical touch to an otherwise boring and ugly thing. I always thought, "It'd be even cuter with flowers." Since that post, the cord pictured has met its final end, so I've crocheted two more cords, and may well do even more, if I need things to do during knitting club. And I have decided to go ahead and experiment with sewing flowers onto the cord. I'm still in the flower creation stage right now. I'm using this pattern for these flowers. But I'd like to find a few more so I can get in some variation.

Just for fun: Olive in a drawstring dress printed with daisies! I'm gonna freakin' squee just looking at her!! I have yet to dress her in anything other than green. Maybe someday.

Also just because I think it's fun/cute: I got this pink and daisy-print heating pad last month. I'm super rough on heating pads. I use them all the time. And of course eventually they give up on me. I've gotten the same plain gray heating pad the last three times I've had to replace my heating pad, and this time I decided to switch it up. Maybe this one will last longer than a couple of years. Or maybe it won't. But I'll find out! It's very cushy and fuzzy, which I'm not used to. But I gotta say it goes better in my room than the plain gray one I keep replacing over and over.

To be honest this is not even the only daisy-ish stuff I could have added into this post. But like I said, I'm feeling pretty wonky right now, so getting pictures of things is a challenge for me. Just sitting here at my desk, I feel like keeling over and yartzing.

Hopefully these side effects will ease up soon.

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wip: blanket drive ripple

Something I've been working on in my knitting club for the last couple of months is this ripple throw. It's for a blanket drive at my mom's church. I'm using leftover random yarn from prior projects, such as these rainbow pillows and this rainbow ripple. I have so many pinks, peaches, blushes, et cetera! I'm also using some cool tones -- some baby blue, some periwinkle purple, some lavender. Nothing too bright and saturated and nothing primary. It's sort of got a pastel twilight vibe, if that makes sense! Like the sky when the sunset is more springy and blue-gray, rather than golden and orangey.

I'm using a lot of variegated yarns, too, as long as they fit with the tones I'm using. There's a variegated yarn that's got pinks and blues and tan in it, and when crocheted together it looks GREEN, so that's why it appears that there's green stripes in here. A couple of the yarns have spots of yellow in the variegation, too. Keeps it from being too boring and samey, I guess!

It's been a long time since I did a ripple with random stripes like this! In fact, the last one I did was my first ever ripple, in 2012. Ever since then, I've done more purposeful patterns or color blocks. Doing random stripes is really, really fun, though. Deciding what comes next, pairing together colors... a lot of it can depend on how much yarn I have left over in a certain color, et cetera.

Not gonna lie, I have gotten like six skeins of yarn for this, because blankets take up a lot more yarn than you would think. I am using up all my pinks and peaches: a feat I thought impossible. So it's not entirely scrap or leftover yarn. But a lot of it is!!

And watch me like this too much to be happy about donating it. -_-

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baby sister's baby blanket

Big news: my baby sister's expecting!!!

Well, it's old news around here. Big news! But my family's known since Christmas Eve, very very early on in her pregnancy, and we're only about a month out from the due date now. I haven't said anything because it ain't really my news, and I live in fear of stepping on toes or stealing thunder or something. But it's tremendously exciting because it's the first grandchild for my parents. And of course, my first little niece or nephew! (In this case, it happens to be a nephew!)

You know I went into baby blanket mode this spring, with the fave ol' ripple pattern!

The colors were inspired by my sister's pregnancy announcement -- there was a cute jungle animal print with blue, green, and orange.

This was my first time putting a border on a ripple blanket, and I really like how it turned out! I decided to only do the sides instead of a full border. I imagine next time I do a ripple I'll try out a full border, which means compensating for the ripple on either end. I'm sure I can do it, but... baby steps! Right, my quickly arriving nephew?

Anyway, the border's just treble crochet! I like the way they worked out because they look chonky but are decidedly not frilly or fussy.

Last summer I joined a knitting club (I don't think I've mentioned... it's just me, my mom, and some little old ladies at my mom's church) and I worked on this blanket during many a knitting club meeting. Another woman in the club also crocheted a blanket for my sister, or I might have made another one, myself. But I thought there might be such a thing as too many crochet blankets for an infant. I guess. Her blanket was pastel yellow, so at least they have super different vibes.

My sister's baby shower was today, so now I'm in the clear to post these pics without her seeing! (She follows this blog!)

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"Froggy, you weren't such a bad guy, either."

The other day I was possessed by the urge to crochet a froggy headband for my girls. This is not an original design or concept, really! Just my take on it! There are lots of cute frog-inspired helmets and stuff for Blythe out there.

I'm kinda tickled with the way it turned out! I used a yellow-green yarn (it looks greener IRL than in these particular pics, but it's definitely not lime green), plus some white and chunky black, all of which I already had on-hand, and had myself a nice little time figuring out how I wanted to do the eyes.

I considered using elastic along the back to make it particularly accommodating, but I've done this on other headbands and it's some extra labor, and if you don't get the dimensions of the elastic exactly right, then the headband can be too large or too small, and either slouch or be so tight it slides up and off the doll's head. I did a couple of ties made up of single crochet, and quite simply tying them around the doll's chin before moving them behind her hair works so great!

I also added these heart beads on to the end of the ties, just for a cute touch! (I should probably trim these long draggly bits, huh.)

Honestly, making this gave me so much serotonin. I've been pretty bummed the last couple of months, and this did me soooo much good. I love spending time with my girls, and dressing Mallow in this green drawstring dress I've had in my dolly wardrobe since 2010 inspired me even further, so I made something else too! Stay tuned!

PS: I don't know why this blog post isn't hidden under a "read more" tag like all the others! Froggy didn't want to hide, I guess!

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strawberry skirt + strawberry pixie hat

Here's my second attempt at making a gathered skirt! I used this cute strawberry fabric (which happened to match Phoebe Maybe's stock blouse pretty well) and Winny is deigning to model it for me, even though it's not really her strawberry jam.

This time, on a tip given to me by the wonderful Anne, I lightly ironed the gathers and found it a lot easier to deal with them afterwards! I feel like it turned out minorly better than the toadstool skirt. It looks a lot like a skirt a petticoat should go beneath, but I tried that out and don't love the look.

As you know, I've got strawberry appliques hanging around, so I decided to whip up a pixie hat and slap a strawberry on it.

I usually do pixie hats in single crochet, but I automatically started doing this one in HDC ribbing because I've been doing soooo much HDC ribbing lately -- many of the mitts I've made are ribbed HDC worked in the back loop -- and I kind of like the texture with this gnarled yarn.

Again, this look isn't Winny to a tee, but I think she looks really sweet in it nevertheless. And she was very kind to offer herself as a model.

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small projects: vine charging cable cover

First thing's first... Be honest... Am I posting... TOO MUCH? I just feel more in-tune with my hobby self than I have in quite some time and it's making me want to post whenever I make something.

Now! Yesterday I up and decided to do this project: crocheting around a lightning cable to make it look like a vine. I've seen this everywhere for at least a few years, and found many really gorgeous flowery examples on Etsy. I made a relatively plain one, as just crocheting the leaves was a new thing for me!

These leaves are not perfect, and I would not recommend the tutorial I used to make them. It didn't have the clearest instructions, so I feel like I ended up not following the directions -- but not on purpose! But crochet is pretty forgiving in that way, so I feel like whatever I did still worked to make leaf shapes. I will say that it was a really fun escalation of stitches to make the curved shape! Going all the way from a slip stitch to a treble and down again!

I also think the leaves would benefit from some blocking, as they are very curly, but I never freaking block crochet. I'll have to think about that.

Another thing to consider: Should I maybe add some flowers to this thing? I don't know how people add flowers to theirs but I'd assume they're crocheted separately and then sewn on... I'd have to find a flower pattern I like to do.

Anyway, this lightning cable was in the process of turning a charming yellow-green, and the plastic casing on the lightning side is cracked. If this was fraying in any way I wouldn't have crocheted around it, but the wire itself is intact.

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small projects: crochet strawberries and hearts

Still feeling really crochet-y, by some miracle! Been working up some small items, like this strawberry applique (which I made by following this video). Last year at this time I made these crochet strawberry bags... been really into the strawberry thing for a while now, I think! I want to turn these into mitts, either by granny square-ifying them or perhaps just having them be appliques.

I also made some more hearts. I still have about half of the ones I made several years ago (almost ten years, in fact). I even reminded myself how to do them via the same video tutorial. And used the same sheet of scrapbook paper for a background!

As you can imagine, the strawberries and hearts are made quite similarly, but the strawberry has a lot more steps. The heart is incredibly easy to memorize. Do it once and you'll not need the tutorial again! But I can't seem to memorize the strawberry part of the strawberry, haha. The stem and leaves, I don't need the tutorial for, but I keep having to refer back for the actual fruit part! Stitching on the seeds also makes a strawberry take longer than one of these little two-minute hearts.

This is really really pleasing to me right now, filling up a little bag with hearts and berries!

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craft market year 2

As I recently mentioned in a blog post or two, I've been hardcore focused on prepping for a craft fair! It happened this weekend!

This was my second year manning my own table. Which is a big deal for me! As an intensely shy person/introvert, this is a whole freaking undertaking for me in a social battery sense, let alone in the sense that I've been making enough items to even warrant having my own table in the first place. A ton of work! Executing my plans has taken up a lot of time and energy for me in the last couple of months.

I also invested a little chunk of money ($50! Nothing drastic) into my display, since I felt like last year's wasn't the most effective for me. Let me show you what I had going on this year...

I blocked out the background a little because I feel like it's hard to see, up against this highly textured 70s brick wall with photos hanging on it. I'm in the same spot as I was last year, so the background's the exact same!

Some other things are the same, too: some of my offerings, plus my little craft paper bunting! But I feel like the wire shelf added considerable height and the ability to display more, and that was an upgrade. I also bought a bracelet display stand so I could better display the bracelets I've been throwing together since October.

I didn't take many pictures at all, but I did take a quick video, and I captured some screenshots for it to show you what's on the table...

I had a lot of crochet on offer: rainbow pillows (also a couple of mini rainbow pillows), fingerless mitts, and earbands. I also had some other wearables: bear-eared barrettes and beaded jewelry. The rings are ones I've been making as a hobby and the bracelets are inspired by Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, but with Christmas lyrics instead of TS lyrics. Actually, I had a whole mess of Swiftie bracelets too.

All the jewelry was a dollar. I just feel like that's fun and accessible for people who didn't come to the market prepared to spend 15, 20, 30+ dollars on an artisan piece. And for kids/teens, of course. Also, I was just working with plastic and cheap glass beads! Nothing that would encourage me to charge any more than a single dollar!

I drew all my signage in Procreate on my iPad, printed it, and put them all in secondhand frames. Some of the frames are one I've had for like a decade, and painted. Others were one my mom had on hand.

BTW, yes, the misspelling of "barrettes" drives me nuts, but I had no idea it was even misspelled till way too late!!! "Barettes" looks more correct to me, even if it's not...

Last year I sold far more in the way of beaded rings than anything else. I foolishly expected that again, but this year, it was the reverse! I sold only a few rings and bracelets, but sold 4/5ths of my crochet mitts and earbands -- plus a couple of rainbow pillows.

Pictured above: the bracelet display, which rotates (!!! my bestie told me it has a nice ASMR sound) and my favorite pair of mitts. I didn't manage to get any better photos of these mitts with the bows on them, but I was thinking of the coquette fashion trend when making them, and they sold really quickly, both to the same gal. I only have this screencap from the quick video I took of my table, so the quality's not good. But I love the bows; I made them with a little french knitter!

I'm genuinely shocked at the way the mitts in particular flew off the shelf. I have been making them quite a lot over the past few weeks. But due to not selling much crochet last year, I expected the same this year. In fact, I said to my sister, "If I just sell one pair of mitts, I'll be happy!" But mitts were my first sale, my last sale, and people bought many more of them than any other item. One woman bought three pairs towards the end of the day. Another woman got on FaceTime with someone (a sister? mother? bestie?) and showed her all of my stuff. I heard the woman on the other end enthuse over the white and pale blue coquette mitts, with the bow. The woman bought the two similar pairs for herself and whoever to whom she was speaking. It was such a fun yet bewildering moment for me.

I mean, I think the mitts are cute, but I'm me. I have specific taste!

A fellow vendor at the fair bought a pair of flower-inspired mitts and they looked incredibly cute on her. She wore them the entire afternoon!!

I also saw a guy who had bought a rainbow pillow last year. He came up to my table, picked out some mitts for his wife, and said, "Last year I bought a rainbow pillow from you, and I love it!!" His enthusiasm struck me as so genuine -- rather than a nicety, know what I mean? -- that it makes me really happy just thinking about this interaction. It was so nice of him to say that!

Some awkward social moments aside (because, you know, Unfortunately, People) overall the market went super well for me. I didn't sell out of any particular item, but I came startlingly close with the mitts. Since I've been working adamantly on them, this is super rewarding.

Also, I made enough money outright to buy a Blythe and have some left over. So, fair warning, I absolutely bought a new Blythe!

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crochet pic dump part two/market prep

Haha, well! I have been crocheting so much that I've effed up my left wrist. I've done this before, and sensed in these past couple of weeks it would happen again unless I was careful. I have been trying to be careful... but I was still shocked Pikachu when yesterday my wrist seized up while playing the guitar. Who could have seen this coming??

Waaah. All I want to do is crochet, so. It's a bummer!!

If you read my last post, you might have seen that I learned how to do the tulip stitch. With that knowledge I made the above pictured little cream-colored fingerless mitts, with pale pink tulips and dark green "stems." I love these and have been wearing them everywhere. They already look super beat up because I've been wearing them on an almost daily basis.

I've been crocheting so much in large part because I'm prepping for a small craft market -- the same one I did last year. It's T-minus one week out! I have until the 15th to finish stuff up.

I honestly do not anticipate a ton of interest in my wares, but did my hyperfocus get activated nevertheless? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I'll have beaded jewelry again, in addition to crochet pillows and these mitts and earbands. No pics of the jewelry just yet, but I did get this wire shelf off Amazon on Black Friday and think it'll make a better display than the one I had last year.

I've just been piling stuff up here as I've made it. I'll only figure out how exactly I am going to arrange everything the night before or day of, I believe. But look at these cute blue mitts with the daisies appliqued on! I think they're super cute. I have a coral/gold/brown pair of tulip mitts finished, and a pair with purple tulips in the works currently. (I can only hope I'll finish them in time; it depends on my wrist.)

I also have some plain mitts with zero froof or frills, but most of the mitts have scalloped trim crocheted on, and some of them have crocheted bows at the wrist!

I feel like my eyes are bigger than my plate, so to speak. If my wrist was in good working condition I would be crocheting some appliques for both the earbands and the mitts, and I'd be making up some more miniature rainbow pillows. And besides that, I meant to make some clay ornaments and never got around to it!

There's always next year, and it's never too early to begin prep. Or so I've learned.

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crochet pic dump

Crochet post! Been very hook-y lately, partially because I'm prepping some stuff for a craft fair, and partially because I've been trying to finish WIPs. First, I have lately finished this pastel rainbow ripple I've been making for ~2 years. Half of it is colorful stripes separated by a single white row, and the other half is white stripes separated by a single colored row. I made it with a bunch of leftover yarn from my rainbow pillow madness (still ongoing, but not pictured here).

I'm pretty whatever on it at this point, but I definitely enjoyed making it. I always love to make a ripple.

I have made a few pairs of these granny square mitts, and pictured is my fave pair. I don't really make wearables too much! At least, not human-sized wearables. And I'm not sure how I feel about acrylic yarn for these. They're super duper warm but feel bulky. And doing small ribbing can hurt my wrists easily, so I have to take breaks and do no more than about half a mitt a day. But it's always fun to come up with color combinations. I think I'll try another mitt pattern.

Lots and lots of ear warmers!!! Far more than pictured, in all kinds of colors and yarns. I want to have these on my table at the upcoming craft fair I'm doing.

Crochet pumpkins. Made these with bulky yarn left over from ear warmers. I think they're super cute. I free-handed the stems with tweedy yarn, so they're each a little different and a little wonky. But, as one of the ladies from my knitting club said, that adds realism. I have no use for these except as random autumnal decor, so I've had to cut myself off from making 45 of them.

Finally, some panels made with the tulip stitch. I followed this video tutorial for them and made a couple of panels. Not for anything in particular, but just to learn the technique. I might stitch them together into a little pouch or something. These work up ridiculously quickly and I loved the crocheting process, but weaving in the ends (of which there were manyyyy) took a lot of time. Ain't that just the way...

Not pictured: several rainbow bobble pillows, a miniature rainbow rug crocheted for my little dolly dressup sets, a Blythe beanie with a pompom on top!

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crochet strawberry bags

Hello! Happy 2023. Thus far this year I've been crocheting a lot! Really in the mood for it. Mostly I've been crocheting on a ripple throw, but I spent yesterday making these strawberry bags and wanted to post about 'em!

Firstly, I followed this pattern to make all of these! And I made the pink one in worsted weight yarn for me to see if I could even follow the pattern in the first place. (I'm not great at this, as you might know!)

I used a pastel rose pink and a minty pastel green, plus some pearly white beads and a couple of chunkier beads in peachy colors. I really like the way the colors all look together! The bag's about the size of my fist and it'd be great for the following: D&D DICE!!!! And, I guess, lip balms and smaller things that tend to knock around in one's purse. But mostly it'd be a great dice bag!

As I was making the bag, I kept thinking I'd like to see how it looked if I used fingering weight/super fine yarn and a tiny crochet hook. Might it end up... dare I say... Blythe sized??

Heck yeah, heck yeah, heck yeah it did!

I made one in classic red and green with tiny white seed beads, and while looking up strawberries for reference, I saw the cute five-petaled flowers of the plant, and decided to put some of my beaded ring techniques to the test with some beads. Lord knows I have enough of 'em! So I used some pearly white and gold beads to create the flowers, and sewed them on to the "leaves." So cute!!! If I do say so myself!!!

I decided to take another go at the whole make. I tend to make lots of a thing, when I like it, and also it behooves me to practice following patterns and figuring out what techniques and looks I prefer.

I decided I wanted an alternate color scheme: wine red and gold. An antique~ spin on it in more sophisticated colors. I beaded this one with gold seed beads and used more off-white pearl beads and warmer gold beads for the flowers. I didn't think a plain strap very appealing on this one, so I wove in some brown yarn on the strap of this one. I like it a lot! It's not as instantly recognizable as a strawberry, but whatevs.

I think it makes for a cute slightly oversized Blythe bag (here it is on Klara, whompssssstt modesty I tried to preserve via Procreate, as she's currently naked). It makes me want to find a slightly smaller strawberry amigurumi pattern to follow, to see if I can kinda smash the two patterns together and create an even smaller strawberry bag. I'm sure many patterns are out there, but it's always kind of an act of particular gumption for me to even attempt to follow a new pattern.

Oh, and also, I lined the bigger one -- clumsily. Not sure how to line stuff. But I was just winging/experimenting, as I didn't have a pattern for lining.

In all, very pleased, I had a very good time making smol strawbrees. I do think I'll fiddle around with making even smaller strawberries and maybe finding other things to use for straps. Crocheted/knitted bag straps tend to stretch, and I don't know if I really want to line the straps too!

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L's ripple throw

 

For a while there, I was crocheting a ripple throw every year! When my mental health fell apart in 2016 (and continued to deteriorate till late 2019), it was one of the many, many activities that fell by the wayside for me. But I picked it back up during the pandemic and now I'm in the midst of another one.

I finished this ripple throw for my bestie L back in... April? But I procrastinated shipping it for 6+ months because I had no idea how much it'd cost and I kinda dreaded going to the UPS store with a big ol' blanket rolled up under my arm. But I finally got it shipped off to her! And before I sent it off, I took a few pics of it for posterity.

The color palette is this:

This matches a few colors L has in a rug in her living room, to my understanding! The rust color always turns out super red-looking in pictures, but it's brown-ish IRL.

I don't have any progress pics, per se, but I do have a few from when my cat saw me laying it out (to see its size/if I needed to make it longer) and he, of course, thought it was for him and took himself a little seat.

The satisfied look on his face kills me.

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