Hmm, it's been awhile since I posted. Life has consisted of, as usual, work and cooking and crocheting.

Easter dinner came together pretty well. The ham... uh, wound up WAY more tender than expected, which took Tom aback a bit. Leftovers were stunning though. Saffron also failed to impress our tastebuds, oddly. But in the days following, I found the flavors in the muffins got way, way better. The original yeast bread construction would be really, really good.

Work is busy, but mostly happily so. There's the usual bouts of drama with high school kids having no work ethic, but thanks to them being idiotic enough to post on Facebook during their work shift (not on break, but when they go to "get a drink" six times during the evening), the boss is cracking down. (Lord knows they don't listen to me and Ashley, though they should. More so with her than me, I'm getting better but am still not mean enough, I think.) APART from that... I have alllll kinds of print work lately. Banners, yes, but in the past week I've also done... notecards for local artist Ronnie Lafferty (whose new work I absolutely love), fairly boring wedding invitations, RSVP cards to go with them, two different business cards, shelf labels for the store, a flyer for our upcoming MS benefit... actually that was pretty much just Saturday and Monday lol.

Anyway, I need to keep this brief - I should make another batch of ham salad this morning, since Tom polished off the... second? third? batch yesterday. (This was my base recipe, but I've been tweaking amounts as I go, using the delicious Gulden's mustard, and throwing in tiny bits of celery. It is AMAZING. Like way more so than it should be. It's so addicting to eat.

Really posting because I have a small backlog of accomplishments to show off. :)

These are the handwarmers I made Mom - they were one of my many belated Christmas gifts this year. ^^;; Couldn't post with the rest because I hadn't given them to her yet - but they came out really, really cute. Wasn't quite the shade of blue trim I'd had in mind, but I was really happy with the result. They are SUPER cozy.



Belated Christmas gifts for Grandma and Grandpa: a market bag for Grandma, and throw blanket for Grandpa. I have made... five? of these bags so far, it's such a great pattern. Now that it's nicer out, I've been using mine again, and it's so wonderfully sturdy. Made one for Mom and Steve in all organic, undyed cottons too.


The blanket was NOT easy to pack up and send away, it is SO snuggly and warm and soft. Knit Picks' City Tweed yarn, which is merino and alpaca and donegal tweed. The alpaca keeps it from being as heavy as it otherwise would be. Not the colors I'd originally planned, since the dark gray was out of stock, but once I started on it, I was really really happy with the colors. And I'd wanted to make something really nice for Grandpa - he's usually so hard to think of gifts for, so I had no problem splurging a bit on the yarn for his gift.


SOCKS! I finally picked up the socks I started months ago, and plugged away until I finished them. Because I reallyreally wanted to wear them. They are incredibly warm and awesome looking. Unfortunately, I had no idea I was going to feel the stitches so much while walking... I didn't notice after awhile though, and I have a hunch a few washings might lessen it? Anyway, I am insanely proud of them - proudest of the stitches no-one sees though, the teeny-tiny things that make up the heel and sole.



I also dyed my hair red again. And finished an awesome little hat a few weeks ago - Tom refuses to like the hat, but I adore it, and I've had enough compliments from people who did not need to compliment it that I'm satisfied it really is cute. ;)


And then today, I finally finished the shawl I've been working on for about a week. I didn't think it was going to take quite so long (had thought I could wear it by the end of last week)... but, uh, making a big giant 48" circle means that each round goes slooower and slower. 800-some stitches in the final round. X_x;; (Which didn't actually take me long, no more than like two hours - hooray for being good enough at this now that I can speeeeed through single crochet stitches!) As you can see... I need to buy more blocking mats. Here's hoping pinning into a towel works well enough...


Really, though, for as awesomely lacy as it looks, it could have taken another week and I'd have been happy. This is exactly the kind of thing I learned crochet in order to make. :) My next few patterns are going to be lacier things as well, which has me very excited. For as complex as it looks, it's really just brilliant combinations of really simple stitches. And it's all so darn pretty. <3

Labels: cooking, crochet, life in general, photos, printshop, work