Hooked Part 2

In my many Pinterest crochet pattern deep dives, I found some of the most adorable crocheted stuffed animal/toys that I've ever seen, and I of course couldn't resist. It started with this little tiny crochet turtle: 

It was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen in my life, and I made it a little snail friend; they adorned my backpack for the rest of freshman year. These little guys were just the tip of the ice burg, and I continued finding and obsessing over different little creatures, including a lil tiny whale: 

One particular night, I found the patterns for R2D2 and a BB-8 plushes, and I just had to make them for my boyfriend at the time. I have zero self control, so I drove myself to Walmart the same night, and proceeded to stay up until around 4am finishing the BB-8. I had a 9am class. Crochet is always worth it.

 

This cute little cat ended up being a birthday gift for one of my favorite coworkers:

 

And these little guys were gifts for our building's cleaning ladies:

 

I've also made several other plushes, including the red Angry Bird and the accompanying green pig for my nephew, which I somehow don't have pictures of 😭

Hooked Part 1

My grandma's favorite afghan pattern was the first I used to make blankets. While I was on Christmas break my first year of college, I decided I wanted to start doing projects bigger than scarves, so of course, I enlisted the professional (my grandma) for help. I wanted to make two blankets, one for each of my Resident Assistants, and she helped me choose color schemes and made sure that I bought enough yarn for each blanket. She gave me the pattern and walked me through how to start the blankets, switch colors, and add a border to the finished blanket, and I was off.

That January term, I was taking a class that offered extra credit for every episode of The X Files that we watched outside of class (J-term was weird okay). Being the only class I had for those three and a half weeks, I had plenty of free time to watch X Files, and, of course, crochet. I crocheted morning to night, somehow never getting tired of working on those blankets. Around two weeks later, I had completed the first blanket (minus the border, which I needed a refresher course from Grandma on).

I was hooked. (lol get it? hooked? no? okay bye)

Anyway, I started on the second blanket right away. It took a little longer because the spring semester started up about midway through, but it eventually took shape:

Each color change made me more obsessed with the craft; I loved seeing the colors together and seeing something that started out as balls of yarn become something else by my own hands. I was sending my grandma these pictures as updates on how I was doing, and I was obviously thrilled when they were finally complete: 

Shortly after finishing these two blankets, I found an incredible pattern on Pinterest (of course) and immediately knew I needed to make it for my mom's birthday. I made my friend go to the yarn store 40 minutes away with me the same day I found the pattern because I just couldn't wait. Here's me being problematic in the yarn store: 

I refused to use a cart. I don't know why. I dropped a skein about every ten seconds and Dustin followed behind me picking them up. Dustin is a good friend. (Thx Dusty)

The blanket consisted of thirty 9x9" squares of 10 different patterns that are later sewed together to create the finished blanket; it seemed so easily doable to my brain. The above picture was taken in March. The final product was gifted the following Christmas. Oops. It was much more taxing that I originally thought, but the finished product and my mom's reaction was worth it. 

First semester of sophomore year was the semester of me making WAY too many blankets. The first was for myself (a test blanket, or at least that's how I justified it). I use it almost every day, it's so warm and I'm so proud. 

The next was my grandma's Christmas gift:

And the next three were commissions requested by some friends and family (only two pictured):

I'm taking a bit of a break from the blanket making at the moment, mostly because I can't easily access a yarn store here in South Loop. But I'm definitely not done. 

Am I Obsessed?

My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was a little girl. At the time, it just seemed like something that old retired ladies do to pass the time, and I only let her teach me because she liked it and wanted to pass it on to me. All I ever managed to do back then was make a chain that could probably have stretched around my house two or three times, but never anything of the caliber she could do. I dropped the hobby almost as soon as she had taught me, making a few futile attempts to make hats and scarves through late elementary and middle school, but none were ever particularly successful or long lasting. High school had me busy with other things, and I had almost forgotten about the hobby entirely until the brutal winter of my freshman year of college.

Northern Indiana is a miserable place, especially in the winter months. When the temperature starts dropping in October and November, all you want to do is stay inside and drink hot chocolate, but if you have to go outside, you just need some nice, bulky scarves. Being a college student, I couldn't find any in the stores that were warm and toasty like I wanted, but also that I could afford on my sad I-still-like-to-eat budget. That's when I realized that I had the skills at my disposal to create the scarf that I desired with my own two hands! I drove to the local Walmart, bought a skein of grey yarn and a huge crochet hook, and started making it up as I went. I didn't find a pattern to follow, I just did what I'd been taught to do until the scarf was as huge and bulky as I'd wanted it to be. In the span of a 12 hour musical rehearsal, I had a nice, warm scarf that I wore at least every other day of Freshman year (and that I still love to this day).

Friends that had watched me create this scarf began asking for scarves of their own, and that's when the obsession stared. I now regularly frequent Pinterest, stalking through the "crochet pattern" tags looking for new and exciting projects to try out. The following blog posts will showcase some of my favorite projects that I have already made, as well as new projects I'm working on as they come up in the future!