Sweater and I are back!

After that nasty sinus infection stole about two weeks my life, I'm finally crocheting (and posting) again! I have a new smallish project, a padded sleeve for my beloved Kindle:

This is the pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/padded-kindle-sleeve
The colors are kinda dull in the picture, sorry...
I'm still thinking about embellishments, but I want it to keep a simple look, so... maybe nothing at all.


Also, I have made made some progress on my blue sweater! I crocheted one long sleeve, even though I new I didn't have enough yarn to make long sleeves. But the sleeves are crocheted from the bottom up because of the pattern. So I kinda had to make the whole thing to find out how to alter it. Finished it, put it together with safety pins and "put it on". And I was thrilled to see how well it fit! It would have been too long for me to wear that way anyway, but I decided to go with short short sleeves, I don't do 3/4 length on anything, I think it makes me look fat! So the yarn needle marks where I would have my new starting chain:

And then I spent an evening ripping the whole thing and turning it into neat new balls of yarn... Using those, I learned something: The yarn unwinds much better from a handmade ball than from the store bought skein! Makes my awesome yarn bowl much easier to use, too. Still, I think I'm just lazy enough not to wind my own balls... 

Oh, well, so I made the short sleeves and wet blocked (100% cotton) all the pieces on my super fancy blocking board, also known as our mattress for overnight guests...

This is my first blocking experience and I'm so excited to find out how it'll turn out! I was impressed with how much you can shape the wet fabric (and how tight my crocheting had become by the time I made the sleeves...) Can't wait to sew it together! I don't sew well, so I'm kind of nervous about that, too.


So far from my end of the world, visit Kristine's blog and check out what everyone else is up to:

WIP Wednesday

So, I'm a little late...
I have finished several small items this week like this awesome Hello Kitty hat for my daughter's upcoming third birthday:

I also made a hairband for myself

and a cute little cozy for my lip gloss

I have made little progress on the sweater, though. Almost finished the other front piece and I decided I'll make short sleeves. Unfortunately, that means I have to finish one after the instructions to find out how to modify the pattern...

And please visit all these cool craftsters: