Fingerless?

There is just no way, with my schedule, that something I post as "WIP" on Wednesday is going to be a finish on Friday. It just doesn't happen.

This gives you an idea of size

But a girl can dream, right?

Gratuitous pic of nail color and engagement ring. I'm testing out nail colors for the wedding. 

If progress happens, it'll be over the weekend, most likely. And I do plan on having a pair of something--fingerless mitts or full mittens-- on Monday.

Onto my question:
I am working on mittens. The pattern includes an awesome thumb-space. I really just want to stop and have a pair of fingerless mitts. Except I already have several pairs. And I legitimately need a pair of wool mittens.

(Another ring shot) This is a better representation of color

Should I persevere?

Linking with Tami, even though I'm not quite finished....

In Preparation

Saturday I have my final craft sale before Christmas. So, hopefully, peace at last. E and I also have our first meeting with the priest who is going to marry us. There are some things that I like preparing for, and my wedding is definitely an exciting thing to prepare for.

Preparation for the craft show will just continue up until I start selling, though, as I was not as prepared as I wanted to be. But I did finish new hats!

Here they are:


The totally finished ones



Still in progress-- 2 dinos, a duck/bird, and a flowered one



My favorite shade of Bernat Super Saver is this peacock color



This is what my bed looks like when I am trying to match colors

 Lots of colorful stuff going on right now! But you can tell that blue is my go-to color for hats, simply because blue can be both boy and girl. The light blue hat with the puffy flower is my sister's favorite-- she loves the dimension that the puffy flower gives to the hat (last minute Christmas gift for her?)

Linking up to Tami's FO Friday.

Holiday Stashdown Challenge Week 26

I am procrastinating. I'm waiting for an email back from my caterer of choice, and hoping and praying that she has the weekend of my wedding free so we can book her. Wedding stuff gets me in a tizzy, and my parents are trying to prevent me from overloading, but there are about 5 things that need to be done super far in advance: set the date, book the church, find a pastor, book the reception hall, find and book the caterer. So this is the last thing on my list until we need to start marriage prep. Then the list is divided into "What needs to be done before May?" and "What can be done after May?" I officially graduate from college in May, but will be student teaching from Jan to late Apr. So we have time over Christmas break to get some stuff done, and everything else will be done slowly, or will have to wait until school's done.

But ya'll didnt stop by to listen to my ramblings about wedding planning. I'm supposed to be Stashing Down!

I had a craft show on Saturday, and my stock was seriously depleted. And I have been working on mainly that sort of thing.

My rug for my aunt:

It hasn't moved in a while.

Right now, my goal is to finish projects for my nearest and dearest, which means I still have:
Hat for Bro #1
Scarf for Bro #2
Rug for Aunt #1
Fingerless gloves for Aunt #2
Scarf for Mom
Hat for Fiance

It seems like a long list, but my hats are half done, and the scarves are both simple patterns. I've also taken the afghan off the list, because it keeps getting pushed to the back. I want to finish it, but it will be last on the list.

Honestly, right now, I am attempting to finish a wrap for me, to wear to a formal event this weekend. It's a little silly, as the weather is FREEZING and I'll still have to wear a coat, but once inside, I want to have a cover.

Anyway. I keep saying that the "regularly scheduled" stuff will come back, and I really think it will, but it will be slow. I only have 4 and a half weeks left of the semester, and have several huge papers to write, so crafting will be less. I hope you still stop by, cuz you never know when I'll have a few free minutes!

FO: Yarn bowl

This is going to be a long story about my Yarn Bowl adventure. If you want to just skip to the end to look at the finished product, I won't be offended. I just like telling stories.

I am a coupon shopper. And I go to craft stores fairly frequently. A few weeks ago, our Micheal's store spit out 2 50% off coupons with our receipts. So naturally, when we planned on going shopping last Friday night, we wanted to use the coupons. I had been mulling the idea of a yarn bowl in my head for some time, even more so after Liz Corke shared about the one she made (I think it was all the way back in March). So with our coupons, I bought oven-bake polymer clay. Liz used Fimo, but I liked the colors that Micheal's had in the Sculpey clays (no, I am not being paid to endorse).

My 3 clays

I ended up splurging a bit and bought the Micheal's brand (CraftSmart) 1 lb clay in white, since I had no idea how much clay Liz used to make her bowl. With the 2 coupons (my mom bought one of the clays) I paid under $10 for all 3 clays. (I could go into a rant here about Micheal's odd coupon policy, because it drives me nuts, and they will only accept one coupon per order, even if you have more than one item...) Anyway. Polymer clay. I bought the CraftSmart because I figured that they are all polymer clays, and all bake at the same temperature, so why does brand matter, right?

Making "lace canes"

Of course, I got home and immediately got to work. I spent some time looking up how to properly use polymer clay, and found that it needs to be "conditioned"- basically, you need to spend some time working with the clay to make sure it is smooth, etc. I got a little creative, because I remember when we were younger, we had a book on how to make a variety of things with polymer clay, and I remember thinking that making beads was the coolest. So I made a lace cane with my blue and silver clays. I used about half of both the blue and the silver, and my hands were the weirdest color. Then I hacked into the big pound of clay. I started by cutting it in half, but that was too much for my small hands, so I broke it down even further. I experimented with several ways to shape the bowl, but I really wanted something to guide me. But, by that time, it was getting late, and I knew my boyfriend was coming over the next day, so I covered everything up and went to bed.

Saturday, the goal was to go to Goodwill and find something oven-safe to shape my yarn bowl around. (I got a little distracted, as you can read here.) I didn't get back to my yarn bowl until the evening, while we were watching the Emperor's New Groove (OMG, such a fun movie). Basically, once my bowl was shaped around my thrifted dish, I was able to add the lace cane in pieces for color. It isn't perfect, and I would probably try more contrasting colors if I ever did this project again.



Also a note, you probably are smart enough to cover your bowl with foil or something, but I forgot that step. After baking, it was kinda stuck. But I persevered, and managed to get it off the next day.

More Notes: Make the yarn "slot" more curved. I used the handle on my thrifted bowl as a guide, and it was not big enough. Also, make the bowl taller. I totally neglected this bit, and while the bowl mostly serves its purpose, it could probably be taller to better hold a ball of yarn.

Overall, it was a fairly successful experiment, and I have at least half the clay left (of all the colors) to try this again another time. I will probably get more adventurous in my color choices if I buy more clay. And I would definitely suggest using a coupon to buy a big block of neutral colored clay, especially if you want to use colors as accents, like I did.

Joining with Tami's Amis for FO Friday!

Our engagement date and initials

Yes, I am trying to show off my new piece of jewelry.

An Attempt at Holiday Stashdown.

I was a little busy this weekend, and haven't really made any progress on my Holiday Stashdown this week. But given the reason I was busy, I think I'll be excused. I'm engaged! My boyfriend proposed on Saturday, and I've been giddy ever since. 

We're planning on a wedding next summer. So no major planning yet, just focusing on finishing up this semester of school  before anything else. Which is good, because otherwise I would be simply focusing wedding plans. My parents are still a little weird, but Evan and I are taking it really slow, as to hopefully ease them into it.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled crafting posts hopefully by Friday, if not sooner!
(I promise, there are really yarny things in the works, but my camera and computer have a hard time being in the same place at the same time. I'll make up for it, I promise!!)