Look, grandma! A square!

I have finally dared to try my hand at granny square making. Following this amazing tutorial.
Turns out, crocheting granny squares can be quite addictive. I made four. And then I didn't know what to do with them, so I joined them together using slip stitch. And still didn't know what to do, so I added a border. And now I have this crochet granny square and no idea what to use it for. It'll be a potholder, I guess.

I also did some amigurumi-ing. If you can call it that. I bought this nice little book of patterns, called Amigurumi. The designs in it seem simple enough for a beginner and they're pretty much all small toys that can be done in a couple of hours.

I made Sidney Snail. A learning experience, you might call it.

I learned that I need to practice my color changes, my sewing of body parts and most of all, the invisible decrease. Dc2tog creates stupid looking holes.

So I practiced the decrease, using this tutorial as my guide. Worked like a charm. See?

Actually, you don't see because the lower half of the head is not visible in the picture, but even if you could see where I decreased, you wouldn't be able to. If that makes any sense.

Love the Frog head keychain (or charm, the pattern intends it to be a cell phone charm), not so sure about the snail and I'm super proud of my new granny square skill.

Amigurumis and granny squares are basically the only things that appeal to me in crochet. I see more squares in my future. Maybe even a blanket. I just need to learn how to join the squares in a prettier way.

My Firefly

I often wondered how designers name their patterns. What is the inspiration?
I'll tell you what's mine. TV. I like to knit while watching TV. This is why I really like stockinette stitch - it's boring, true, but I can knit it without paying attention to my knitting, and focusing on the TV screen instead.

I sometimes find myself thinking about my past projects in connection to whatever was on the TV while I was knitting them. Like, my Twsirl. I could probably call that one "The Wire Season 1 tank top".

This summer, I had a little Firefly re-watch. Amazing show. And during the time I watched, I was knitting a short sleeved cardi, the pattern of which I sort of (or, um, completely) based on this one. But since it's not really the Babydoll cardi, I had to think of a name for it. Firefly seemed like a logical choice, it is after all, shorter than 'that cardi I made while I was watching Firefly in the summer of 2010'.


It still needs something to button it up a bit. I'm thinking about a hook thingy, or something similar. Not really sure what. Maybe I'll just add some crochet ties.

Sorry about the glaring, blurry picture.

This was done top down, on 3 mm needles. The yarn is Mirabela, mercerized cotton.

Mooo

After spending two weeks in Zagreb, I'm finally back home. I was a good girl, I only bought six skeins of bright cotton while I was there, to use for amigurumi. Only six, that's not so bad, right? Right?!

Ahem, well, moving on. I did do some knitting, it's drying on my floor as I write this. Pictures are coming as soon as I get the cable that connects the camera to the computer back from my brother.
Meanwhile, here is something I did before leaving for my vacation. As soon as I saw this fabric in the store I had to buy it. I mean, it has cows on it!

I made a bag. And since the cows seem to be all about some sort of kitchen activity, I also made a potholder. Want to know how to spell 'disaster'? B-I-A-S T-A-P-E. That's how.
Freaking bias tape and my freaking bias tape binding skills. It went fine on the one side, but when it was time to sew on the other one - crap. I probably should have hand-stitched it all around with blind stitch, but that seemed like too much work.

So I got this. Still usable, just not all too pretty.

Also, pieces of thread poking around everywhere. But I love the cows.

I'm trying to decide what to knit/sew/embroider next, but to be honest, it's too hot to do anything. 9 AM and it already 34 C. Too hot!