Owlishly

Goodbye January

Well, I was able to blog every day for one whole month.  Wow.  I've already started this year off better than last :)  Unfortunately tonight, I'm wiped out so I don't have much to say except thanks to everyone whose sent such nice comments my way this month, definitely warm fuzzies all around!

I swear tomorrow I'll have something better to say, I just feel like I'm getting sick and I need to get to be at a reasonable time.  Especially since tomorrow morning I'm going to have some repair men here to fix the heater, along with my parents to drop off my son whose spending the night with them, and then pick up a ton of old toys and clothes for a battered womens shelter they support.  Anyway, my husband is watching a movie and I'm getting too distracted to be of any use, so I'm going to go to bed before I'm distracted enough to be interested! G'night!

Paz, named for the peace I so desire

She's done too! 

I'm fairly happy with the way the pattern turned out, I've included 22 images that'll hopefully help explain what I say when I try to give instruction *wink* You know, I try to take the best pictures I can and I'm usually pretty pleased with them, but when I save the patterns as pdfs I end up doing it at the "good" level, instead of "better" or "best" just because the files would be humongous!  I wish there was a way that the picture quality was as good as they are in the original pattern, but I don't know how to do that without having files that would crash people's email boxes.

Anyway, I think I'm being a bit loopy 'cause I'm so stinkin' tired.  So off to bed for me!

Printed patterns available soon

Hi, just a quick pop in to let you know that my patterns will be available through The Wool Shack, an online store in Australia.  Emma is fantastically sweet, and has plans to not only offer the printed pattern, but to also create kits with everything you need to make the dolls included.  How neat is that!

Anyway, I thought I'd be done with the angel pattern tonight, but my little kiddos conspired against me, and I shouldn't have picked a movie where I needed subtitles to understand it when I'm trying to type the pattern up. It'll be done tomorrow night at the latest, since nap time and night time are the only times I'm able to work on it. Be back tomorrow!

scarf in progress

I think I've decided on the stitch sequence I'm going to use to make my scarf. 

I think I sound silly to be so excited over a scarf, but I've never made one for myself.  Every time I've started to make one, someone comments on it and I end up giving it to them.  And I've been cold lately.  All this rain is pretty nippy, and our heating decided it was tired and stopped working on Friday night.  I guess this has been rampant, so our heating and air guy can't make it out until Friday coming up.  So needless to say, the scarf is definitely something that I need to get done sooner rather than later. 

I think this stitch will work with the yarn I'm using, right now it's not that big, but the good thing is that I'm not having to look at the pattern.  I am finding that I do prefer using the stitch diagrams more than the written patterns, though since I'm using the Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs it includes both.

I'm excited to see how it turns out, in my head envisioning something super duper, but that doesn't always work out that way :)

Allow me to properly introduce you to Lana

Here she is, all primped and pretty for her pattern photo shoot.

Now if I could only get photoshop to stop freezing up on me, I could get her pictures sized and uploaded to etsy!  Otherwise, the pattern is completely done.  Now I just have to finish up the angel and the big head baby patterns. Maybe tomorrow night.  I've got to figure out this photoshop thing, and soon.

Moda Dea Silk'n Wool

I'd bought some Moda Dea Silk'n Wool blend yarn the last time I got a book with the intent of making a scarf/neck/head thingy for me since it's super soft.  I've frogged 4 times since starting this morning!  I like the feel of it, it's nice and springy, and the slubs add nice texture.  One downside, and I don't know if it's due to all the frogging going on, but the slubs of silk start to come out kind of easily. 

I think I need to stick with a basic stitch though since more intricate designs seem to get lost in the tweediness effect of the yarn.  The color I bought was sangria, and the wool is a great rich saturated color with the silk slubs being a sort of cotton candy color.  Here are also the yarn standards if you're interested.
      

I'll definitely post an image of the scarf/neck/head thingy when I've actually decided on what I'm going to do.

ETA- For some reason I'd had this set to post Sunday @ 11:59am as opposed to when it was actually written, Saturday 11:59pm.  Not super interesting to you, but annoying to me.

Add another book to the list

I went to Joann's tonight to look for purple yarn for my little octopus boy, and as usual, on the way to the back of the store to check out the yarn I check the books.  The books at my local Joann's aren't organized worth spit, and this drives me batty, but on an eye level shelf, beckoning me, practically jumping into my arms was Vintage Crochet!

I've been waiting for this book to show up there.  I wasn't going to buy it until I could get a super duper deal on it, and I caved in a moment of weakness. I was going to buy it full price since I'd used my January mailer coupons already on the borders & flowers books.  I got the yarn I needed and went to pay and was mentioning to the wonderful employee that was checking me out that I'd already used my coupons, but had been waiting for this one to show up.  She found another customer's mailer that wasn't going to be used and scanned the coupon for me- yay 40% off!  How fortuitous!

I've been pooped lately, and actually fell asleep while nursing my daughter to sleep, but since I had tons to do tonight, I'd forewarned my husband that if I did fall asleep I'd need him to wake me up.  He'd gone outside to workout while I got the kiddos to bed, and came back in to move our little guy out of our bed into his own, and I popped awake.  I'm assuming it's because for the past 4 years I've been waking regularly to soothe and feed a child that I don't sleep very soundly.  It's weird too, because I feel like I haven't slept at all, tonight even, but my husband said that I was snoring when he went in to move our little guy.

Anyway, I'm in the midst of typing the pattern out for the sheep and the angel, since it is late again, it's probably not going to be ready until tomorrow or Sunday. I also plan on taking a lot more pictures of the little lamb, I need better light than I have access to at 11:52 pm.  So, I'm off to finish up some pattern writing for tonight, and trying to get enough rest to be a functioning mama tomorrow.

One last thought, it is ridiculously easy to get sucked into the vortex that is Ravelry.  I love it, but I can look for something there in the forums and then look up and it's like 2 hours later. Man alive.

tidbits

I think I'm going to have the little lamb pattern available by Monday, I'm still tossing names around.  I was thinking maybe "Mary...was a little lamb", since one of my husband's grandmas is named Mary. Or names that start with L, like Liza- one of my closest friends in grad school, and who ended up having her two children within a couple of months of mine being born, and in opposite order. There were actually 2 Liza's who were friends in grad school, only the first one pronounced it like Lisa and flipped out on me thinking that I was trying to steal her boyfriend (I SO wasn't interested, of for that matter, would've ever done that to a friend if I was) so there went that friendship, and now that name has pluses and minuses.  Maybe Lana, which is Spanish for wool, which I think works a bit better, and it's sort of clever, which I get a kick out of.

I was thinking of an S name that belongs to a person who I absolutely adore and admire, and was actually my boss, the first and only time I ever worked full-time, she is the head of the Reference department at a private university in Los Angeles and is the absolute *best* boss ever.  At least she was to me.  I wanted to do an S, but to me this little doll looks more like a lamb than a sheep.

I got the sweetest compliment from a knitter that I'm thinking found my little lamb over in my Ravelry projects- she said that it'd get a lot of knitters crocheting.  Totally my agenda, just don't tell anyone!

I also wanted to comment on an earlier post, I think it was from last week when I was talking about converting my patterns to booklets.  I don't think I'll ever offer them myself that way, it's too much work for me if I were to do that.  I enjoy sending the .pdf's as attachments so much more than having to stuff & address envelopes.  The reason I was going through the process of converting my patterns to booklets is for yarn stores who are interested in selling the patterns through their stores.  Then if someone wanted to buy a paper pattern from a specific yarn store, they could either order it online from them, or get it from the store.  Also, one store is planning on making kits, so I'll definitely let you know when and where those are available. 

I'm anticipating having a bit less time to crochet too.  My husband is pretty fit, and let's just say that I'm not quite as fit as he is. Okay, I'm really not fit at all since having my babies, and since today is 6 months till our anniversary, I've decided to try to become more physically active.  Maybe by our anniversary I'll be in better shape, but I started up again tonight and I just know that my legs are going to buckle a lot tomorrow.  Dang it.  Well, on that cheery note, I'm off to bed.  G'night.

Little Lamb

Okay, so I've really got to go to bed since the kiddos and I have big plans for tomorrow, but I did want to share my latest.

She was started in November too, and now I've finally been able to finish her up.  Still working on a name, I've got 3 that I like for her, I've just got to narrow it down before finishing up her pattern.  I hope you like her!

Naming dolls

I've been stuck on figuring out names for my newest dolls.  I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with this, but I feel like all the good names have already been used up, and I have a couple that I'm saving for later designs so I can't use those yet.  I was thinking of naming the angel doll after my sweet little babe, but I like her name (obviously), and there are other dolls that I've made, or have set aside that I want to name after her too.  I may just have to have a Selah 1, Selah 2.... kind of like the Foreman boys.  I think I'm set on my sheep girl's name. I think.

I like assonance with the name I choose, and the animal/item that the doll is dressed up as.  The thing is, I'm running out of names fast.  There are so many names in my family to choose from too, since that's another place I draw my names from.  I just am out of one's that I like.  Or I'm indifferent about them, and I think they don't suit the doll.  There's also a spanish name thing going on too, and a biblical one. I even try to look for names with meanings that are similar to what I've made. I have lots to choose from, but also since there are so many people in my family & that I went to school with & worked with, some of those names leave a bad taste in my mouth, just because of the associations I have with people I knew that shared that name. 

I wonder how others choose names for their patterns?  From favorite books? Other languages?  I know some people name their patterns after famous people, but I'm really not a fan of that either; I'll just say that I need to keep my opinion to myself on that.   Do you name things mainly after people that are in your own lives?