Green once again

As I stated in my last post I'm going to go over the elephant snuggle pattern(s).

First up for review is the Granny Square. I got this pattern off of my Color-Bay blanket, pattern by Cat Mazza. I snagged this particular pattern out of the book Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Love the square pattern for this one. Not sure why I didn't think of this when I was looking for a good and simple granny square to make for this blanket, but I'm glad I finally thought of it.

I originally went looking for a pattern for two reasons; 1) there wasn't really a readable one attached to the pattern for the elephant or attached to another pattern similar to this one and 2) the pattern was translated into broken english or a general 'this is how it should look'. Although one was a solid attempt (the broken english one) and the other had pictures, I decided I need a crash course in granny squares and a pattern that was super simple to follow. And I found that in this square.

▪ Pattern Readability - 5 Yarn Balls. Although there isn't a skill rating on this pattern I would give it and A+ for being simple to read and understand.
 

▪ Ease of Pattern - 5 Yarn Balls. Again the ease of this pattern is great. I can whip out this three round square in an average of 20 minutes. This isn't complicated at all.
 

▪ Adjustments - 5 Yarn Balls. I only changed the chain (ch) 6 at the beginning to a Magic Ring (MR) the first round. I found that simpler.
 

▪ Final Product - 5 Yarn Balls. Simplistic and good looking Granny Square.
 

▪ Personal - 5 Yarn Balls. I will be using this square whenever I can.
 

▪Overall Score - A Perfect 5 Yarn Balls.

Next the Elephant Snuggle pattern. Saw this ages ago on Pinterest or somewhere and a dozen times since. Found a similar concept on Ravelry with a few more variations like a little girl, an owl, a sheep, and so forth. Loved this idea of a stuffed animal and blanket combination. So glad I got to make one and I want to do more. Saw a Doctor Who version on Etsy the other day and I about died.

▪ Pattern Readability - 4 Yarn Balls. Only because of the attached granny square pattern. Other wise I think the elephant itself was easy to read and follow.
 

▪ Ease of Pattern - 4 Yarn Balls. Again since the granny square pattern is attached it lowers the score. The Elephant is very simple to whip up though.
 

▪ Adjustments - 4 Yarn Balls. I feel like a broken record at this point, but other than changing the blanket pattern I have no adjustments.
 

▪ Final Product - 5 Yarn Balls. Its cute and cuddly.
 

▪ Personal - 5 Yarn Balls. I want to make a bunch. So want to find a way to make some geeky ones like with Yoshi and what not on them too. The possibilities are endless if you have an open mind.
 

▪Overall Score - 4.4 Yarn Balls

 Now that the reviews are over. . . .  Other than finishing that order, (and I'm happy to say that the woman this is going to had her baby. About a month early from what I understand, but it is a healthy baby boy named Homer. Thats about all I know on the subject) and starting on the TARDIS blanket after picking up all the yarn Wednesday, I finally got around to making a new watch band for myself. 

A while back the band I had had started to come apart and one of the little tabs to keep the extra band laying flat came off. Well I glued things back together and they seemed to hold up till the end of my trip back in June. A few days before I came back from Arizona the other little tab busted and the band was really just bagging to be replaced. So I stopped wearing my watch and decided instead of trying to find a band that would fit my watch face I would just get my craft on and make one out of macrame or something similar. This week I had a little relaxing time and decided I wanted my watch back Damn It! I pulled out a bunch of my hemp and beading rope ( I think thats what it was called), dusted off my friendship bracelet skills, and got down to it. I have to admit I needed some internet help to get started. It has been I while since I weaved like this, but once I did that I just blazed through it. I picked black and tan hemp pieces and the green beading rope. I like the simple, yet very me color combination. For the clasp on this I made a button hole and picked one of my favorite metal buttons out of my stash. I could never find the right project for this button and truth be told I didn't want to use it on anything I was going to sell or give away. And now I don't have to. I really like how this came out and it doubles as a super cute bracelet if it happens to turn on my wrist, which it does frequently. I don't mind though, its one of the reasons I picked a very cute and stylish button.  

This was a fun and simple project that I think I'll be happy with for some time to come. 

 Another thing I'm Super Duper happy about . . . . . . I got my hair dyed this week too. I'm green again and I couldn't be happier about it. Since April my hair had slowly faded to blond. Thankfully it was still plenty colored for Megs wedding and for a while after that. But in the last month it went to a pale green to almost completely gone. So I called up my girl Carson on Friday and we went and got it taken care of that day. Didn't expect to get it done that quickly when I talked to her, but we were both free so why not. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carson for doing my hair. I'm so much happier not to be blond. I don't really think it works for me, especially since my natural color was growing in (brown, my hair is actually brown). Plus I just love being green.


This week I'll be working on the start of Christmas orders. I've got the biggest project started and want to look into some of the others. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to post about next week.
Back to work on those granny squares.


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Happy Crafting!