Blue Sky Tag

I went hiking and found these on the trail. I tried to capture the flowers AND the sky. It was hard but I got it by getting really low. 

The Blue Sky Tag is a fun June event for bloggers, and I’ve been  tagged (nominated) to participate by Robin at Imperial Crochet. I love getting inspiration from other bloggers and Robin has a great blog.

My being tagged means I’m “it” and it’s my turn to answer some questions and nominate eleven of my favorite bloggers.

The Rules:

• Give 11 questions.

• Tag 11 people.

• Answer the 11 questions given to you.

• Don’t forget to thank the person who tagged you.

Questions Given To Me

1. Why did you choose the name of your blog?

Yolanda + Crochet = Yochet

2. Which of your own blog posts is your favorite?

This is a hard one. Let me take a look (I don’t remember half of what I written)…this is hard. I’ve narrowed it down to about 10 of them. I think I’m going to pick the one about my black thumb. Ironically, it has nothing to do with crochet. It’s the one titled ‘My Weed Garden’. I love it because it makes me laugh, reminds me of my mom, and I still use the plants as my backgrounds for my crochet pictures. I guess it does have to do a little with crochet after all. 🙂

3. Do you have a set schedule for blogging? morning, evening, daily, weekly?

Nope. I probably should though. I write when the muse strikes me. In the beginning, I had a tough time coming up with topics, but now, I feel them bubbling to the surface all the time. So if the muse strikes and I have time, I start writing.

4. Have you ever done any published writing outside of blogging?  Books? Articles?

I feel like I have but I can’t remember. Let me think…does poetry in a high school journal count?

5. What is the title of your most useful book?

This is another tough one. I’ve read a ton of books in my lifetime that have been very useful. (Time is ticking while I think). I guess I will narrow it down to the most useful in my crochet. I’m going to pick Crocheting for Dummies. I picked up a used copy when I was trying to learn how to read patterns. I already knew how to crochet but I found the book very useful in learning to read patterns.

6. What is the title of the last book you read for fun?

The Witch’s Catalyst – Book 1 The Risen Lands Duology by J. Cain McKrell. I discovered this one on a post from one of my favorite bloggers.

7. Who is your favorite celebrity?

I’m going to change that to ask which celebrity I’ve salivated the most over. That would be Tom Welling from Smallville but Jarod Padaleki from Supernatural was a close second. Henry Cavill from The Man of Steel was a close call too. Hmm, I’m starting to see a pattern here.

8. What is your favorite song?

I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor although can there really be just one favorite song?

9. Where would you love to go on your next vacation?

Hawaii! I want to go back so bad. I’ve been twice but the second time, my son was sick and it was hard to enjoy it.

10. Is there a skill you’d like to learn?

Probably gardening and landscaping because I’m so bad at it!

11. Cats or dogs?

Cats. I love cats. Although I have nothing against dogs. In fact, I had a dog for 14 years that I loved very much.

Questions to my nominees

1. What would your dream job be?

2. If money were no object, where would you like to live?

3. What is the goal of or for your blog?

4. Would you like to make money from a craft or hobby? If so, what is that craft or hobby?

5. What is your favorite thing about where you live?

6. What is the least favorite thing about where you live?

7. What’s the best place you’ve traveled to and why?

8. If you could hire someone to do something for you (money is no object), either ongoing or just once, what would it be?

9. What’s the one thing you can’t live without?

10. Messy or neat?

Tag! You’re it!

Half the people on the list are people who were already tagged by my nominator. I’m going to tag you again because I think you’re great but obviously you don’t have to keep doing the same thing or even at all.

1. Shells & Bobbles
2. Tanglewood Tapestry
3. Nature Inspired Mom
4. Crochet 539
5. Sanseilife
6. Rachelmankowitz
7. The Yarn Blabber
8. Stroke(d)
9. My OBT
10. creating time
11. Landscapestylist (I can’t read this one but I just love the pictures).

A day I spent in San Diego. I thought the blue sky in the background would be perfect for this post.

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Denial: Crochet Mermaid Crown for the Renaissance Faire

It’s Renaissance Faire time! We are going this Sunday and I want a mermaid crown. I’ve been seriously considering my outfit options. I usually sew (I use the term sew loosely) or crochet something new. I start off in denial about how much time I have to make something as I almost always wait till the last second to actually start. But this year, I think I just want to wear something I already own. You see? No one is in denial here. Considering I only have three days before we’re going, I think I’m making a pretty smart decision here.

I decided my mermaid outfit can once again appear at the fair. However, I never really liked the head-dressing I originally made for it. Sooooo, that means I need to make a new crown/headband/tiara thing to complement the outfit. I see all the head shaking already. It’s only three days! But I can do it! Seriously, I’m not in denial.

I moseyed on over to my friend, the internet, and did a little search on crochet mermaid crowns. I’ve been drooling over photos on Etsy for a bit. Mainly, I was looking for inspiration. I was hoping lightning would strike me with some amazing (easy) idea on how to make one. I wasn’t finding anything at first, but then, I found a really pretty one that I thought I could emulate.

This mermaid crown is gorgeous!

Freebie Friday – Tiny Crochet Doll

I’ve created all kinds of dolls over the years. I’ve even attempted a life-size doll (which is still missing legs). I’ve made small dolls too, but never a tiny doll. Well, I pulled out a ball of cotton thread that was lurking in a yarn drawer and thought it was about time to try it. I’ve been seeing these really cute miniature dolls created by other crocheters that have inspired me. I pulled out a C hook and went for it.

Freebie Friday -Unique Egg Apron

Ok, so not everyone needs an egg apron (admittedly I don’t either) but kudos for originality! I saw this on Pinterest and had to share. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve never seen anything like it. So maybe I don’t need it to collect eggs but an apron with pockets like that does open up other possible uses. I kept looking at it, loving it, and automatically trying to think up other uses for it. I couldn’t think of anything concrete but the possibilities of possibilities was infinite! Hmm…maybe I could adapt the pattern to have bigger pockets to hold yarn and other yarny supplies. That way,  I could walk while I crochet. I can’t even think straight to other possible uses but I know there ARE other uses. Surely, others will have ideas of their own. I have to go give this some more thought. All I know is that I love it!

 

 

Freebie Friday – Crochet Pendant

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was looking for items to put on my birthday wish list when I came across some jewelry for crocheters. I was impressed by what I found but immediately thought I could make it. It was a tiny crochet ball with a tiny hook going through it. Some were yarn balls and some were small amigurumi balls.

I didn’t have a tiny hook so I created one out of a pipe cleaner wrapped in thread yarn. I made a small amigurumi ball and when done, I put a silver chain through it and had my very own version. Meh, I don’t hate it, I even like it, but I’m not sure I love it. I think what I need to do is take up whittling so I can make my own tiny, wooden crochet hooks. You might think I’m kidding but I’ve already hit up Ebay and Amazon for whittling knives and books. Don’t worry, I didn’t buy anything…yet. I could sell my tiny hook creations! Maybe I could make fairy wands too! Ok, ok, I’m getting way ahead of myself. I’ll probably just end up with a bunch of cuts instead of a bunch of tiny hooks but it’s fun to think about. 😉

Crochet Caddy

For those who read my post on crochet/yarn hacks, you know I wanted to make a crochet caddy. The sad truth is that there are many, many things that I want to make that get forgotten or, due to lack of hours in a day, never get made. But this is a post about what did get made so, YAY!

I guess I really was pumped up about that post because, not one, but two crochet hook caddies was born and are already in use. There was the added desire to have something pretty to store my new Clover Armour crochet hooks I got for my birthday.

At this stage (below), this one was in two pieces, the outer bottom and the snug upper layer. There was no top and it looked pretty nice but I wanted to give the hooks more separation.

Almost done!

Progress on Life Size Doll

Progress on the creepy life-sized doll is slow going. The body is done but I haven’t really had a chance to work on anything else but I did get started on the hands and am hopeful I can get the arms done by the end of the month.

 

That’s a kindergartner hand. Pretty close.

Once the arms get done, I can give her a shirt and finally give her some hair. Once she gets hair, she won’t be quite so creepy. I threw a small work shirt on her so the kids could stop worrying about her state of nakedness. Although, I might let her keep the shirt. 🙂

The kids are super excited now. One of my second graders was in her last week with us before a move to another state and she used the ‘moving’ card on me.  I wasn’t letting any of them play with the doll. It was weird  to me she wanted to play with something that looked like a bowling pin  but how could I say no to my student when she looked at me all sad and telling me she won’t get to see it finished. I handed it to her and the kids all squealed with delight. Honestly, I didn’t understand how they could have so much excitement over a half finished doll that looked creepy to boot. Must be a kid thing.

Freebie Friday – Bavarian Crochet Square

So I gave my star stitch sweater away to one of my sisters. The other sister is still waiting for her granny square sweater so I am diligently back to plugging up holes. That leaves me with no sweater…again. I’m back to making a new sweater for myself. I’ve been visiting (more like moving in) Pinterest looking for inspiration, ideas, stitches, granny squares, anything I might like to make a new sweater. I saw a Bavarian granny square I found interesting. I tried following the pattern and in my hubris, I thought I had it down and kept going on my own. What I ended up with was huge and definitely not a square. I used a bigger hook size than the one called for in the pattern and a thicker yarn so it naturally came out big (but still bigger than I expected).

It was a little under a foot long from one end to the other! I thought it was pretty but not exactly right. More importantly, it wasn’t square.

Finished Star Stitch Sweater

I’m all done with my star stitch sweater. I finished it before my granny square sweater. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I’m very proud of it. Everyone loved it. I sort of loved it. I kept seeing my mistakes in it. One of my sisters loved it so much I let her have it. My other sister is still waiting on the granny square one but I’m thinking I’ll just start a new one for her. She might have more of a fighting chance of actually getting something within this lifetime. Besides, after spending so much time trying to plug up the holes on the granny sweater, I might not be able to let it go once I’m done (if it ever gets done, heh).

So back to the star stitch sweater.

Ugly Crochet Slippers

Yes, my new slippers are ugly. Yes, they are square, like the ones I made before. Maybe that’s what makes them ugly. Or, maybe, it’s all the hodgepodge yarn I used. Doesn’t matter, I like them. They are comfy and warm and fit my feet really well.

Speaking of my old crochet slippers,I’ve been wearing the heck out of them. They are way too big for my feet and I go slip sliding around in them. Yeah, those. But I love them anyway. However, I wanted to make another pair. A pair that would actually fit, you know, my feet.

So I rummaged through my stash looking for something warm and comfy and found this thick, chunky yarn in a variegated brownish color. I grabbed a matching Tunisian crochet hook (size L) that looked good for the yarn size and I was set.

This is what was left after the soles and tops were done.