Tentacles, Soot, Beach Glass, and Peas. And an owl.

Just a quick post-and-run today with some recent FOs for FO Friday.  (Despite my temptation to try to show you everything I finished since I last blogged regularly in May.)  First of all, I'd like you to meet Ms. Petula the Purple Octopus.  Made from my favourite ever tentacle construction pattern, I hadn't done one of these guys to-pattern-size since making my first one ever about two years ago.  I forgot how plush the tentacles feel in two strands of worsted weight worked with a big hook.  This is also the first time I'd ever attempted crocheted eyes and eyelids on a cephalopod, and I'm pretty pleased.  I've already got some skeins selected for the next one.  I think some of these guys will have to be craft fair fodder this year.  People like things with tentacles and personality-imbuing eyelids, right?

And here's the soot sprite, all sewn up and perched in a dustpan for authenticity.  I love it when I start a simple project and manage to keep it simple.  Even with the eye-creation and blogging breaks, this little guy took no time at all.  Most of the crocheted soot sprites I've seen around on the interwebs are done in eyelash yarn, but I used a fuzzy alpaca-acrylic blend for this and just...fluffed it up at the end.  Way less irritating.  (Also, I don't have any black eyelash yarn.)

In the way of non-anthropomorphic stuff, I made myself this necklace a couple weeks ago using a piece of my beach glass collection.  I think this is the first time I've ever done anything with said beach glass besides put it in a jar and admire it.  This was also my first attempt at this kind of wire-wrapping, and at incorporating beads into crochet---both were pretty much a success, which is all part of the payoff for my slowly, slowly learning to start small with new techniques.  More beads may be in my future.

I also (okay, fine, this is going back to June---last one for now, I promise) indulged my love of Happy Rainbows! by making a useless-but-fun peapod garland (with an adorable pattern by the always awesome Trish of genuine mudpie).  There was something really lovely about selecting skeins and working with the ROYGBIV spectrum like this, so my next useless rainbow project is already on the horizon.  I'm planning to start hookin' it for the Ravellenics mass cast-on later today, in fact.

I've never done the Ravel-thingie games before, and I'm not planning anything big, I don't think.  (Except the insane part of me that wants to start a ripple afghan, but I think I can avoid listening to that particular inner voice pretty easily, all I have to do is remember that I'd be working into a base chain of well over 100 stitches...)  I'm eager to get into the Olympics themselves, too.  Gymnastics! Diving! Watching people who are awesome at stuff do said stuff, while occasionally learning fun facts about various countries!

What Olympic (or Ravelympiclennic) events/projects are you guys excited about?

Ooh, and a late addition---since Paula has received him (and made the sweetest. ever. post about him over at her blog, Knit and Seek), I can also reveal my seeeecret progress object, Wendell!

Wendell is a wedding planner owl, made in Paula's wedding colours and armed with a helpful clipboard!  I haven't made an owl for ages, and I'd sort of forgotten how much I adore them.  (Well.  The parts that don't involve sewing the wings and beak in, anyway.)  Wendell was actually a team effort---my mom ended up sewing on his heart applique in exchange for my sorting through some of her receipts so she could check them off on her credit card bill.  Skills exchanges for the win!

Secrets and Sprites.

Have I made any progress on my WIPs from last week?  No, not really.  (Except for seeeecret progress that will be revealed when the results of said progress reach their new home!)

Did that stop me from starting a couple new projects?  Not at all!

The one up there is actually kind of a secret, too, although I couldn't resist some strategic button placement to reveal its silly anthropomorphic nature.

And my current reading is obviously present, too---this book (Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races) is an odd one.  I'm halfway through it and still not quite sure about it, in some way.  I think in part just because it wasn't what I was expecting. I knew it was about horses, but I wasn't counting on some of the horses being like...scary, carnivorous, vaguely magical horses who have to be tempered with iron and want to eat you.  I'm not sure how I feel about that!  I kind of overdosed on fantasy novels as a kid, so magical animals tend to make me back away slowly.  (The horses don't talk, though, so there's that at least.)  There's something compelling about this one, though, so I'm keeping on.  Malevolent magical horses aside, the characters and setting are interesting, the tension and scariness of the plot are effective, and it got inside my head enough that I think there were horses in my dream last night.

Back in the yarny WIP side of things, there's also this little guy, who will be an FO before the sun sets today!  He's going to be a Miyazaki soot sprite.

Imagine my glee when---as someone who cannot make symmetrical stuff. Ever.---google image search revealed to me that soot sprites' eyes are supposed to be a little wonky.  I made mine from Crayola Model Magic, which isn't the most durable material, but it doesn't require baking like polymer clay, which can be a very good quality.

Linking up, as usual, with  WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along.

Sneaking Back Into Blogland, Day Two.

Hi, lovely people of the crafty blogosphere. <3  I've been in kind of a weird, living-in-two-different-places situation lately, and as someone who's very much a hobbit---happy about creature comforts and clutter and Home and second breakfast---all the shuttling back and forth stresses me out and leaves me with no time and energy for blogging. (I'm around more on Ravelry, though, so please do add me to your friends over there if you like!  Same bat time, same bat channel username.) But I miss seeing and talking to you guys about your amazing projects so much, and I'm in one place for today, so I'm going to breathe in, breathe out, share some love. 

As for what's currently on my hooks---one project that's actually (I can't believe it) appropriate for the weather: a crazy-rainbow-crochet-thread bikini top.  This is the first time I've done pineapples, and oh my gosh, they're magic.  They just...decrease themselves.  I'm still not great at keeping my tension in thread, but this is turning out pretty well anyway, I think.  I'm not sure yet how I'm going to make the two separate pineapple-boob-cozies you see in the photo into a single entity yet, but I've promised myself a bike ride around the block (at dusk, mind you) wearing this when it's done.

I've also (much less appropriately for the too-hot-to-live weather we're having here) started a second pair of socks!  And I'm going to cheat just a little, and show off the first pair, since I'm still happy and proud about them even if right now I don't want them anywhere near my feet.

 I totally understand why people like making socks so much now.  Not only is it awesome to wear socks you've actually made (and with nice yarn! that feels all sweet and cushy on your foot!), but they're an amazingly portable project---one hook, small ball of yarn, and in my case, a nice easy pattern that you can memorize and just keep hookin' on without very much concentration needed. 

And the red skein in the photo? Represents seeeecret ideas, for someone who very well may be reading this entry! 

Re: books, I've been drawn to the portability of paperbacks recently.  This morning, I finished Naomi Shihab Nye's Habibi, which I've seen on library shelves for aeons but never checked out.  It was an interesting read, really lyrical in a way that made much more sense when I looked at the author's little biography blurb and saw that she's a poet.  I'm also slowly making my way through Hound of the Baskervilles, my first Sherlock Holmes book, and finding it completely delightful. 

Now for the good part, in which I go see what everyone at WIP Wednesday and Yarnalong is up to. :D

Cute Rocks.

"I had to admit, for a rock, it was pretty darn cute.  And frankly, I could use all the inspiration I could get."

-from Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Trying to maybe sneak back into blogging in the smallest and easiest way possible, with a random-page-quote from my current read for Teaser Tuesdays.

I've been steadily reading Frances O'Roark Dowell's books this spring/summer, and she's a wonderful writer.  This book is her first YA (rather than middle grade) novel, and it was a great read---funny and quirky and truthful, made me grin ear to ear a lot as I flipped the pages.

When I flipped to a random page and selected this quote, I was happy to remember that I happened to have a pretty darn cute rock sitting around on my bedside table.  I try not to load up my pockets too much with rocks and shells and stuff when I walk on the beach, but I couldn't resist this one.  It's like an illustration from an Earth Science textbook about...uh.  Whatever type of rock it is.  (I swear that I did pass Earth Science.)