Kindle Death! - New Gift Project :D

So I am always looking for neat things to make for people, being a person of currently limited means financially but an abundance of craft supplies it works out nicely (the time element aside).  Just last night I remembered that one of my new besties had mentioned having a Kindle.  Knowing her appreciation for that which is handmade and similar love of skulls as I have I found this pattern on Ravelry and knew I MUST make it.

Melli's Kindle Death Cover
At first I just planned on finding a nice stitch pattern or design, functional but pretty, that would do nicely in the two shades of blue (one solid and the other variegated) that I had leftover from two orders from her previously.  After going through 15 or 20 (I really don't remember though) pages of patterns I at last came upon the one I chose.  I immediately recognized the chart as I had found it while searching for Fair Isle skull charts months upon months before.
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I started this post a while back figuring that I would be done with it in a fairly short time period.  Due to baby issues, starting a day job, and just needing a break from constant crafting it took a bit longer than I'd thought it would.  In the last hour I finally finished it and will be including a "How to Crochet" booklet with it and a handwritten note.  I'm eager to hear her reaction when she gets it too! :D
...sew many things, sew little thyme for ewe and eye...

Undetermined Entrelac - Part 1

So I started Project "Undetermined Entrelac" last night after scouring Ravelry's patterns and my personal queue for a ruana pattern.  I've done this before so knew I had a few saved but I opted to search again...which resulted in more favorited and queued patterns.  Of course all the ones I was "utterly in love with" were paid patterns (which is perfectly fine, I just don't have the money to spare for the pattern, much less yarn "just for" this piece).
Knowing that a ruana is not exactly rocket science (there is only minimal shaping done) I paused after searching and decided to try my hand at designing one by hand.  Just some ideas thrown out there but with it being basically "a long poncho with the front cut and a shaped neckline" it couldn't possibly be that hard, could it?
As frequently happens to me though, I didn't get just one idea to try out.  I got about ten or so.  After looking over my schematics and thinking to myself how utterly simple this seemed to be I knew that sewing it would be both quicker and easier.  Of course I'm not much of a seamstress so maybe not.  Trusty Google helped me out and directed me to a blogpost where a woman outlined how, in a very straightforward, clear, and text only manner.  I noted the important instructions in the form of a diagram and re-hashed some of my crochet & knit plans to include vital information (like the shaping of the neck) that I had previously forgotten to include or consider.
Returning to peruse again through the saved patterns I noted one that seemed made entirely up of squares.  Thinking it looked somewhat familiar I went back and looked at it again to find that it was from a crochet magazine I happen to enjoy.  I visited the pattern's site and pinned it for later remembrance but read through the description in hopes of having some reference for how it was done and *drumroll* "Tunisian entrelac"....
Now several months ago I had done a search for Tunisian entrelac for a completely different reason.  I saw a version of what I presume was knitted entrelac and said, "Well I'd love to do that if it was crochet..."  Most stitch patterns or techniques have place in both mediums and if not there is at least a way to mimic and "fake it".  So I found myself yet again staring at a webpage detailing the technique and opted to give it another go.
Sure I'll buy the pattern later, but right now I'm impatient, wanted to start this and if nothing else I had yarn just laying about.  So far I have only 1 picture (of the first round) the second exists but is happily trapped on my phone for the moment.  It doesn't look half bad, but it is a pain in the ass that I will not be able to finish it anytime soon given that I'm using scraps.

You can view the project here on Ravelry too.
...sew many things, sew little thyme for ewe and eye...

Mickey Mouse Blankie - Freebie!

In December I had a bunch of orders and coupled with the two custom orders before in November I was quite busy at the end of the year.  With one order I decided to include a nice "extra gift" because I got the idea for it and it was just too cute to not try.  A Mickey Mouse blankie for the plushie I was commissioned to make (so the bunny could be "like him").  I chose Mickey because he is the favorite of the little boy in question.
Lately I've gotten into a lot of Geek and pixel related art  (as becomes evident with my handmade Green Lantern symbol and Galaga "screenshot" hat template).  Working with pixellated images harkens back to those 16 and 32 bit games from "yore", yea that's right the good ole 80s with its comparitive to now bad graphics.  It's also much easier to graph something based on squares for crochet, knit, and cross stitch.
So I finished the blankie, with some minor edits to the color for simplication and to use what I had, and I'm pretty pleased about it.  The buyer is ecstatic and I'm confident her son will love it!

This is the original image I based my chart on.

The finished project turned into a blanket, it was 10.5" x 11" in single crochet.
...sew many things, sew little thyme for ewe and eye...