crochet

I am probably going to be appalled by the time I finish writing this post. I have been trying to finish projects this summer -- the Poncho Verde, the pink purse, the Glamour Top -- and indeed I actually did finish those projects. (Well, the Glamour Top is technically finished. It doesn't fit me anymore because I lost a lot of boobage in my recent weight loss, which is good for me and bad for wearing the Glamour Top.)

Having been frustrated by the Glamour Top (I seem to have lost significant boobage since starting the project), I am now spending time on other projects. This weekend, I finished a small summer handbag made from recovered cotton yarn.

I've been working full-time and then some since my last post, but the great thing about the full-time job is it comes with an hour lunch break. It only takes me about 15 minutes to heat up and eat my frozen lunch, so that gives me 45 minutes to crochet (or, occasionally, return calls from web design and IT clients).

This has been especially great since I tore out the beginnings of a poncho I'd started last December (I got some yarn for Christmas, and immediately started far more projects than I really needed to) and re-did it, this time with proper sizing. What I have now dubbed the Poncho Verde has turned into something I will actually wear once this stupid heat wave is done with.

First, I made the two main pieces of the poncho. It's two rectangles 12" x 24", with an overall pattern of st1, sk2, in alternating rows of sc and dc. It makes a bunch of small squares (I may do this in stripes someday).

One thing I'm really terrible at is finishing projects. Well, that's not entirely true. If I have an actual deadline (i.e., baby shower) or if someone is paying me, it's far easier to finish things. But if it's just stuff I'm doing for myself... eh. So projects drag on for years sometimes. Thus, even though I bought a shitton of yarn on sale (and got a bunch more plus an A.C. Moore gift card for my birthday last month), I have declared a moratorium on starting new projects until I've managed to finish the ones cluttering up my closet. My one and only closet, which also contains my clothes, winter blankets, old stuffed animals, and financial documents. Yeah.

This is the first project I've finished since the moratorium, an afghan crochet "fabric" with cross-stitched James T. Kirk! I got the cross-stitch pattern from black lupin at deviant art (look for the link to her second group of stitchies, too). The result (which still needs to be blocked into squareness and not-curly-ness):

This is something that's been taking up a lot of my time -- not necessarily active crocheting time, but certainly thinking/processing/designing time -- since I got this yarn for Christmas. Once I figured out each step, it didn't take long to complete it, but it'll probably be another month before it's ready to wear in public.

First, a gratuitous shot of my boobs:

And now, front and back shots:

I've spent several weeks (on and off) and a lot of trips back to Michael's to get more yarn in order to make... a crochet tank top! It is made of cotton yarn (Sugar & Cream) in violet and violet/blue/yellow/cream variegated. It took something like 8 or 9 balls.