Betrayal

Forgive Me Stash, For I Have Sinned.

Until this past weekend, it had been since early December since I purchased any new yarn. After taking photographs of my entire yarn stash, I'd vowed to myself that I wouldn't-couldn't-shouldn't indulge in any new yarn. I've vowed to decrease my stash before the end of the year!

But then a pretty little minx of a pattern strolled my way. Behold! Here is Hanna Jason's "Bettie's Lace Stockings", as photographed in the Spring 2009 Interweave Knits magazine:

Super sexy, right? Well, because I've fallen prey to the pleasures of sock knitting, I couldn't get these little Betties out of my mind. I want them. . . actually, I want to make them.

Before I knew it, I was at my LYS on a sunny Saturday afternoon and purchasing two skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Charcoal.

It's a toe-up sock, so it'll also be a new challenge . . . so long as my stash doesn't crush me out of spite. :)

Ah, dear stash: I love every bit, scrap, ball, WIP and skein of you! There's always room for, um, two more, right? ;)

My Brother is a Corporate Zombie!

If you are a fellow crocheter and haven't yet checked out Christen Hayden's Creepy Cute Crochet book of patterns, you are doing yourself one hell of a disservice. I've already made a handful of these little ones for friends and family. . . and get laughs and thanks every time.

Tomorrow, I'll give my brother Kevin my most recent creation. . . HIM as a corporate zombie:

(Sorry, Kevin: I HAD to overdo the red hair. That's what sisters are for, right?;)

Granted, the pattern calls for a pool of brain blood to drip from his mouth; however, I tend to think that I'm often surrounded by slews of subtle zombies--it's more likely that I'd sit next to a zombie on the train if he's not chewing hunks of someone's bloody brain like bubblegum.

I've been a "Needle Noodles" pattern fan for quite some time. My first attempt was one of her Etsy patterns:

This Samurai was for my dear friend Thomas Spanos. We dated very briefly while in college. During that time, he gave me two pictures of himself: one with a special message written in runes on the back and another of him dressed in self-designed and created Samurai armor made exclusively out of cardboard.

(NOTE: The photo on the left was taken by Thomas Spanos and can be found with all of Thomas' other incredible costume creations on his website.)

I've also made a grim reaper for my sister-in-law Sarah, in honor of her 30th birthday:

I made my ex-now-friend Bob a fez-festooned monkey for Christmas/winter holidays:

. . . and I also made my Uncle Dean (a classics and humanities college instructor with a passion for Greek and Roman history/mythology) a Trojan:

Next week, I need to make a Nosferatu for my hair designer (she asked for the little baldie!), so I'll try to share that one with you, too.

Overall, these are super-easy to make, and I've made nearly all of them in under five hours.

Happy birthday, Kev! Glad you haven't sold out all the way! :)