Playing Artsy Catch Up

I have been wanting to write this post since WEDNESDAY!!! But I was attacked by a mixture of fatigue, holiday crafting, new design creating, and seeing something totally awesome in the sky Wednesday night.  So I suppose I'll just hop right into the list of recent happenings :) Here we go!

[1] I've knocked out the butterfly & bow clips! I feel so accomplished ^.^  I used this pattern for the butterflies, so they were really easy to whip up using some thrifted yellow and white yarn.  Here they are:

The bows were a bit more challenging.  Not because the pattern was hard, but because I couldn't find a pattern I liked.  I have literally been on the hunt for the perfect bow pattern for E...V...E...R... but for some reason I didn't like any of the ones I was finding.  My a-ha moment was in the midst of making one of the butterflies.  I saw that when just the two large wing lobes were done it made a cute bow shape. ^.^  So I used that idea and came up with these:

I love them!  I wrote out the pattern for memory sake and I want to create 2 more sized (med & large). I'm about to have bows on everything!!! lol

[2] The next thing I've been playing around with is based on the Babette Crochet blanket. (They're awesome! Click here to see the flickr group.)

If you remember way back at the beginning of the year, I was working on a queen sized granny square blanket for my bestsisterfriend's wedding (finished post here & finished photo here), and since then I've wanted one of my own.  Soo, up popped the idea to create a babette style blanket. ^.^ This whole idea materialized while I was having a cruddy day at work.  (Creativity to the rescue, right.) I was doing my best to look busy while I planned the layout of my blanket.  Here's the plan so far:

The colors in the graph are NOT the colors I'm going to use in the actual blanket.

It'll have 6 large (2 ft), 12 medium (1 ft), and 48 small (6 in) squares.  I haven't decided on the color scheme yet, but I can't wait to get it underway.  Well... that is after I take a well deserved break from crochet after the holidays.  Do you have any color combo suggestions for me?

[3] The last crafty bit that I've been working with is to design a crochet tartan afghan.

I saw the technique in the book 'Crochet Master Class' and thought it was a great idea, promptly logging it away on the Artsy-To-Do List.  Now for some reason, yesterday it jumped back into my conscious with a vengeance like "MAKE ME WOMAN!!!" So I did a bit of googling to find out how to design my own tartan pattern & found this site that has a free tartan design application.  (Cue Caleisha making tartans for the next hour and a half ^.^)

While I was playing around with the idea, I realized that it would be a great way to give Lamar's parents a thoughtful holiday gift.  The plan would be to design a tartan using the favorite colors of each family member and then create a small afghan for them.  I love it!!! So I'm just waiting for Lamar to give me the family colors... (come on Lamaaaar)

So today I took some scrap yarn and worked on a practice square.

First, make the foundation mesh in your chosen stripe pattern.

Then, crochet chains that are wide enough to go across the piece also following the stripe pattern.

Last, weave the chains perpendicularly through the mesh following your same stripe pattern.

And Ta-Da! Basic tartan making.  Something to keep in mind is that whatever the order you create your mesh stripes in, do the same rhythm with your chains.

Repeat your stripe pattern a couple times to really make the tartan/plaid pattern stand out.  My example is only one stripe repeat.

[4] Now the LAST awesome thing that I wanted to tell you is (drumroll) I saw Jupiter on Wednesday night!  Yes, the planet!!! Evidently, Jupiter's orbit allowed it to be seen by the naked eye next to the moon.  It was super bright and really exciting for me being a lover of starry skies.  I didn't know what it was until the next night when I noticed the 'bright star' was gone.  So I googled, figuring it must have been a planet or something.  I still get excited when I think about it ^.^ I saw JuPiTeR! ::falls out::  That is all.

So yeah, my last few days in a nutshell.  This was long, I know & if you made it to the end I applaud and hug you over the interwebs >>hug<< I hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend... and if it must be full, let it be full of things you love :)

~Peace