Weekend Project - Periodic Table: Hydrogen Coasters

I wanted to crochet element coasters the past few days now. So here's my first attempt, at Hydrogen:

Alternatively, you could flip it upside down and it becomes a Scrabble tile. My lovely husband, being a Scrabble fanatic pointed out the point number is wrong though.

I'll be tweaking the design to fit other elements

Cutest Baby Blanket

I crocheted this really cute blanket from "A Year of Baby Afghans, Book 4"

I love the animals on the border and I used the softest Berroco Comfort Yarn.

Amigurumi Pipetman

Oh the trusty pipetman! No researcher can live without it. I've wanted to try this for awhile, to crochet a pipetman. Here's the one I use every day:

Source

And here's what I came up with last night:

My P20 and P200 pipets have a small yellow circle on top:

It's fun to play with at least!

For Babies

How cute are these booties from Sylver Designs on Etsy:

Love the designs! I made these using the 3 month old size and they fit the 3 month old baby perfectly. The hardest part was finding cute buttons to go with them. I wanted to find buttons that weren't too difficult to put on, so the bamboo looking ones worked great. Perfect for the winter months and even cuter on the baby!

More Molecules and an Attempt to Tablescape

In two more weeks, I will be sitting at a table and selling my molecules at a craft fair. It really feels like this is coming up so fast! I'm excited, scared and nervous all at the same time.

I figured I needed a centerpiece, or several centerpieces, to make the table pretty and eye-catching (as if molecules staring at you are not very eye-catching). So, by popular demand, the #1 most requested molecule is Caffeine, made from chocolate/coffee colors, which I thought would seem appropriate:



So I had a very hard time thinking of how to display my very flat molecules, since they are quite difficult to stand up. I searched and scoured the internet and it finally came to me....Banana Hanger.

Off I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond with my trusty 20% off coupon (which happens to be expired, because the internet coupons expire, even when the mailed ones don't, fyi) in search for the perfect molecule display:



$9.99 - a great price for a molecule display!

I also had to finish some extra craft fair shopping at Ikea, because I saw these kitchen cabinet shelves that are perfect for a craft table:



I also found a nice rack to use as a vertical display that can hang off of my pavillion:



Looks nice to hang some water and methane molecules!

And after installing all the shelves, we played with a tablescape:



Still lots of work to do, but I like the look!

My Greatest Crochet Accomplishment Ever

My beautiful afghan throw (pardon the cruddy photography skills and blanket placement):



I made this from a book that I bought a really long time ago but never really tried to put it together. Every individual square is supposed to have a different pattern although somehow I repeated one by accident, but you can't really tell. Since purple is my favorite color I picked it out first and then chose some nice accent colors. I really liked how it came out and it has a permanent resting place on my couch. I also absolutely love a warm comfortable throw and probably own over a dozen of them for my tiny 2-bedroom condo. So it was definitely nice to be able to make one of my own.

It took me about a month to complete with tons and tons of yarn. I used a more expensive yarn, the Bernat Satin collection so I'm not so sure it's very cost effective, but definitely makes you feel accomplished, which is what I needed after a stressful time in my life. Crochet is really a great kind of therapy!

I'm taking a little break from the blog to go spend time in New York with my family, I'll be back next Wednesday, hopefully with some cute amigurumi!

I'm a Bit Distracted..

I saw a cute Market Bag from my Lion Brand Yarn newsletter and I had to make it. So off to the yarn store I went. My store of choice is Loopy Yarns over on Polk and Dearborn. They have the best selection of super nice yarn (the kind that Michaels and Joann don't sell) and they're soo friendly. They also have a ton of space for their knitting and crochet classes and I would highly recommend taking a class over there. And even though I buy about 7 skeins of yarn, they will always wind it up for me!

A day later my bag is complete:




I only used a crochet hook one size smaller than suggested and it didn't seem to be long enough just following the pattern so i extended it by several rows. I initially was going to go with one color but when I got to the store and the two colors of yarn were hanging next to each other, I had to use both. There's a small strip of green on the handle just because I had a tiny bit of extra green yarn and didn't think it would be of any use for another project. I'll be off to New York on Friday and can't wait to use it as a travelling companion!