Lessons with Safety Yarn

Robyn and Heidi came over for Super Girly Crafty Fun Time and both took on crochet for the first time.

First timers require the safety yarn of warnings and nooblets.

~~~

Heidi is making a safety muffin potholder mask...

Complete with convenient finger holes.

Next time I'm going to talk her into making her own Beard Beanie.

Silly Heidi

~~~

Robyn is perfecting the art of laying the yarn across the top and laughing.

Next stop - hat for Doug!

Robyn's socks of cuteness
Speed crochet!

~~~

I worked on my R2D2 hat while Pants dominated the laptop and kept an eye on us.

Looks of disapproval lead to knit-breading the cat.

Super Girly Crafty Fun Time

Chelsea and I sat around on my bed and had Super Girly Crafty Fun Time where she spontaneously made this cute bracelet after claiming that she 'used to know how to do this.'

Used to, my ass.

~~~

I spent my crafty time decorating one of my gnome hats. :)

Cupcake for Kyndal

I found this cupcake! pattern on Ana Paula's Amigurumi Patterns & Random Cuteness, which is an accurate blog name. I used leftover yarn to make a chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting and bead sprinkles.

I added a few bells to the stuffing to make it jingle.







Thank you as always to my models Kayla and Lily.

Gir Hat for Robyn's Birthsmas

Robyn ~ Doubled Gir'd

~~~

I found this original Gir Hat pattern on Mei Lynne Travis's Ravelry page.

I used standard Red Heart yarn in Apple Green, White, and Black. I used Red Heart Shimmer in Hot Pink for the tongue. The Shimmer yarn has a sparkly ribbon through the yarn that picks up the light, but you can't really see it in these pictures.

I first made the larger of the two hats, but I found it was a little too big and found it's home with my brother Tyler.

~~~

Robyn in her new hat.

Silly Gir.

Thank you as always to my model, Kayla.

Cat Hat for Kayla's Birthday

The Birthday Girl

I made this cat hat for Kayla's purple-themed, 12th birthday from this monkey hat pattern from Easy Makes Me Happy.

I used Red Heart Shimmer yarn in Purple and followed the teen/adult pattern with the exception that after row 20, I hdc 2 extra rows. I also attached I-chords on the ear flaps.

Present pile

~~~

We are going to decorate it with eyes and whiskers, so there are more pictures to come. I could only get this quick picture since festivities were in full swing.

Whale Tail Gnome Hat for Bri's Birthday

I found this Earflap Hat pattern on Lion Brand's website, so you won't be able to view it unless you are signed up to the Lion Brand site. The picture on the website doesn't make the hat look nearly as cute as it is. I skipped the loop thing they added at the top. I also refer to it as a gnome hat, since it comes to a cute point at the top.

I made this hat using Red Heart Country Blue worsted weight yarn.

I decorated with with white yarn and white buttons in a whale tale pattern, because Bri works as an educator at Sea World.

~~~

The birthday girl in her new hat. :)

Pet Birthdays

Panzer, my Cat Tales Rescue rescue, is 2 years old this July.

He's still quite a handful. He likes to harass the dogs. He loves to lick Brisbie. And Brisbie? She's not a fan. She growls to warn him off, but he still tries to sneak in and lick her. He seems to be partial to her ears.


People think he is sweet because he is fluffy and squishy, but there is a wild raccoon inside of him. It makes me think of the Black Keys lyric 'The look on the cake, it ain't always the taste. My ex-girl, she had such a beautiful face,' from the song Next Girl. If I could get him to wear a collar it would read 'Watch your fingers.'

~~~

Brisbie and Tatum's birthdays are in August.

They got old peanut butter jars of blissful happiness.

Tatum, a rescue from Nevada County Animal Shelter, is 9 this year. She survived a cancerous tumor on her paw last year and got quickly back to her status as FIRST! one to the ball.

Happiness is apparently a branch around your neck and a tennis ball in your mouth. Panzer followed her around keeping the world safe from the dangers of branch ends.



Brisbie, now 7, and her resident handler, Kayla. She gets Brisbie to perform acts I would never have guessed possible.

All eyes on the ball.

Blanket for my Dad

My dad is on the right. When I was little, I thought he was Tom Cruise. :)

~~~

I found this winter blanket pattern for my dad in Leisure Arts first edition of Afgans for All Season. I followed the pattern, but I pulled two lines of yarn at the same time to make the blanket thicker and heavier. I also increased the hook size to J.

I used standard, worsted weight Red Heart Yarn in maroon, cream, slate, and heather gray.

~~~

Me and my dad. :)