Fall Crafting...

You dig the color swirls, I know :)

Back when my husband and I picked up all of our Halloween/harvest decorations, we also picked up a crochet craft magazine since I like to make things and I was looking for ideas... and I've been having a good time with it. (The female missionaries who have stopped by the house are just amazed by it... well that and the fact that I make my own bread which isn't that common for living in Orange County).

I picked up the hobby in college. Once of the RA's in the student housing area would teach it while she manned the help desk once a week and I picked it up and was able to do simple things (like scarves, and a very simple solid blanket which too forever!) by the end of the semester. Fast forward a few years and after watching some awesome you- tube video "how to's" I made my first beanie.

A close up of the baby blanket I made for my sister in law

And  then with some instruction from my friend, I was able to follow my first pattern as I made a baby bobble blanket for my at the time "soon to be sister in law" last year when I heard she was expecting a baby.

It gave me something to do to burn off my nervous energy about meeting SCB's WHOLE FAMILY for the FIRST TIME...

The thing took forever to make but i was really proud of it when it was finished. It was the first time I used a pattern and I didn't make any mistakes on it and it just looked so pretty and put together that I was almost sad to see it go away, lol. But I hope Allen likes his baby blanket :)

My New Pillow!

So its fall now and I just get this itch to make things... and now, I'm proud to say I've made my first pillow!!! The back side is the same color blue as the the 2 front squares but i'm trying to decide if I want to embroider on any leaves in tan on the blue squares and them make a reverse pillow for the other side of the couch with a tan back and do blue embroidered leaves on the front side of the tan squares... Thoughts?

Normally most of my work ends up being gifts (I don't have my own blanket yet, but I've made 5 that have been gifts for other people over the years, each one better then the last) so I think the pillow set will be the first decorative thing I make and keep that's not a hat or a scarf, lol... but you never know... it could end up being an Christmas present by the time this season is over with... but for now I have some time to think about it since I have a few other projects lines up first.

I'll be making a baby Mobil for our expecting friends in Utah! I wanted to make sure that the Mobil in the magazine I saw was something that would work with their decorating ideas, etc, so I sent her a photo and asked if she would like her little girl to have it and she answered with an enthusiastic YES so last week we picked up all the supplies and I started on it! Its my second pattern project and i'm finding a little trouble with some aspects so I may have to tweak it and do some refinement on my end, but i'm excited to see how it turns out.

After the Mobil I might try and make a hooded baby afghan in soft pink yarn for her daughter as well. I'll have to follow another pattern to do it, but once you get the first few rows done its mostly repetitive and easy to follow along. Since her husband's family has not been too thrilled or supportive about their soon to be bundle of joy (an unexpected blessing you could say), they decided to stay with her parents and moved out of his folks house. Since she's not getting a lot of support and love, i'm trying to do my part since i'm so far away and have no real idea about anything babies.--- But i can learn to make cute things.

Speaking of cute, when my mom in law came to visit last weekend we got to sit down and look over some new patterns and designs and now i'm also going to try and make some little pandas for all my husbands brother's kids for Christmas since she's wants to encourage the girls to learn how to crochet themselves... so it looks like i'll be a crafting queen for awhile. Good thing the weather is getting cold enough to make me stay inside.