"The Granite Cape" by Stephanie Lau of All About Ami

In January, I discovered a link, from a crocheter that I tend to follow, that peeked my interest.
She's had quite a few patterns that I have wanted to try, but was too scared to begin because my crocheting skills aren't that great.
She had created what she called "The Granite Cape". The stitch pattern was a fairly simple repeat for a whole bunch of rows. You can click on the link above to check it out in more detail.

I used Lion Brand Yarn: Wool-Ease in Blue Mist. Approximately 10 skeins.

I figured crocheting a sweater would go a lot faster than knitting one (I've made a few caplets and shawls- but not a full length sweater), and while this one did take the better part of January and a couple of weeks into February, it did go by pretty quickly.

The actually Cape crochets up larger than the photo indicates. I don't have anyone around to take a picture of it on me, but I did take a picture of the drape while it is on the back of my desk chair:

The oversized style makes the sleeves come down past my elbows, and the bottom of the sweater comes down past my butt (that's without blocking it). I'm 5'7", so do with that what you will.

The link for "The Granite Cape" will lead you to the creators post where there are photos of her wearing her version. I highly encourage you to give it a try if you are slightly scared about making a sweater. Her instructions are pretty straight forward and easy to follow. You pretty much only need to know SC, and Chain stitches.

Now that I've made this sweater, I'm thinking about making her "Easy Chunky Crochet Sweater" as it's something similar to what my mom has been wanting me to make for her. It'll have to wait for a little bit as I've got other things on my to-do list that I need to complete first.

Stay tuned this week for more things that I have completed.

SHOES!!!!

I know, I'm all over the place! Knitting, crochet, drawing, painting...what is going on?

My sister-in-law had me hand draw Disney quotes on a pair of shoes for her at Christmas, so when she went to Disney World a few weeks ago she could wear them. She liked them so much she asked me to paint a pair of shoes for her for Daytona's Bike Week which is coming up.

She asked for a particular kind of sugar skull and some phoenix's that are apparently a "thing" with the Harley Davidson crowd.

The sugar skulls turned out fairly well...had a bit of trouble with the fabric paint I was using, but I think they look ok.

The phoenix's were a lot of fun to paint, I didn't have a clear idea of how they would turn out, but I'm fairly pleased with them.

Hopefully they won't get too scuffed during bike week...

I'm pretty proud of them.

Materials used: 1 pair 7.5 size Bob's in black canvas; Tulip matte fabric paint in White, Orange and Red; One small paint brush and several wooden toothpicks.

More posts to come this weekend, I've finished one of my WIPs!

Aquarius Hat

Good morning and happy President's day for all those living in the U.S.A. or Happy Valentine's Hang Over Day...you pick.

One good thing about working in the mortgage business full time, bank holidays are usually a good day for me to catch up on projects, blogging and house work- since banks are closed and loans typically aren't funded. No work day!

I saw an awesome, year long, knitting challenge online last month and decided to add it to my ever growing list of knitting projects to complete before Christmas.

The Toshstrology Collection can be found on Ravelry and each month the creator releases another pattern. For January, we had the Aquarius hat:

It knitted up really quick...working on it for an hour before work and an hour after work each day I managed to get it done in a week. The yarn used is from Madelinetosh (Yarn dyer out of Texas and quite possibly my favorite yarn to knit) . The color used is from the Tosh Vintage collection in colorway: Aquarius, which I purchased from Jimmy Beans Wool out of Nevada.

The next item for February is the Pisces Cowl...which quite honestly I'm not sure that I want to knit. It looks cute and all, but I have the Winter Dreams Shawl that I purchased right before I found out about the Toshstrology Collection, and would rather work on it for this month. I'm still going to print the pattern and mull it over in time for my yarn to get here (again, it will be Madelinetosh Vintage in colorway Pisces)...but I do have quite a lot of projects to get done this year, so we'll see.

Fingers crossed I get some drawing in soon...I feel out of practice at this point...but I'm getting really good at my needle art work :)