Its the weekend!

I have a lot of homework to do, but I also have a lot of hats to do! I'm going to the yarnery today! WOOT!

I AM going to finish Gracen's hat this weekend. There is no other option. It WILL get done and I WILL post a pic of him in it! I can't procrastinate on it anymore. Like I said, I switched to doing dc, so it should go faster now. For some reason this wool is really fine and takes forever to build up. Its really the first time I've really worked with 100% wool before. Shocking, I know.

As I wrote in another post, I'd love to become a yarn snob, but I haven't quite realized that dream. I would love to buy hand dyed yarn, but I just can't bring myself to spend $30 a skein just yet. I also haven't found a colorway that I'm in love with, so it has been easy to turn them down. If you have a colorway to recommend I'd love to see it!

I have the bad habit of talking myself out of buying things, even if I really need them. I was telling my mom that I was going to make some pasta from scratch and she literally reached through the phone and shook me and said "JUST BUY SOME SPAGHETTI!!" I made the pasta anyway because I'm a nerd like that, but she's right. Sometimes you just have to go for it and stop nickel and diming yourself all the time.

Maybe if I find some hand dyed I love, I will get it for my birthday in January!

Why I haven't been crocheting

I think I will tell you about what I'm studying, to explain why it is that I haven't been blogging or crocheting!

I'm currently working on my thesis at the University of Kansas. I'm getting ready to run a study where I will record a speaker in an anechoic chamber (a chamber that doesn't echo) speaking a passage in English, a passage in Korean, and a list of target words in English. A photo of an anechoic chamber is above, but ours doesn't have the foam inside, because it isn't necessary. The building was built around it and it is basically suspended in midair. Its almost like a big walk in freezer, but not cold. Anyway, you can make pure high quality recordings. Its amazing.

I will then combine the word list over the English "background noise" and the Korean "background noise". My participants will listen to either one of these mashups and will try to remember the 9 words in order. At the end of the trial, the listeners will write down as many words as possible. Then I will analyze their data to see if Korean is more or less distracting than the English background (English will be the native language of all listeners). My pilot study suggests that English is, in fact, more distracting!

So I'm at the stage of finding a speaker, developing a word list and getting approval from the human subjects committee. These stages are all almost complete. Then I will run my participants and hopefully get writing next spring!

I am teaching Language and the Mind discussion sections as well, which keeps me quite busy. This is probably the most boring blog I've ever written (that's what you're thinking :))

I have actually been working on my son's hat a bit more. I've switched from single crocheting it to double to make it go faster! I do have to get cracking on the hats for my MIL so I can have them ready for her by Thanksgiving.

I also want to make some sort of basket for my son's toys. The current set up we have looks junky. I'm thinking about using my t-shirt yarn that I've been getting ready to make (oh face it its going to be a long while before its done).

Ok I HAVE to do better!

I'm going to start updating again, I swear! I'm working on a wool hat for my son. I've been making about an item a week for other people and will be making something like 12 hats for family this year and for some reason I can do them quickly. My son's hat--not so much. I can't figure out why it takes me so darn long to make things for myself.

It must be the sense of urgency. When I was an undergrad, I always had at least 2 jobs and took overload. I NEED the pressure in order to get things done. Now as a graduate student, I get things done because I have a toddler and a limited time to study. So I get things done during my office hours, and while I'm on campus in the mornings. I really need to get better about blogging and about crocheting for myself and my family. I need to make it a priority! That is my goal!!

Anyway, I have made a bazillion of the brown ribbed newsboys, they've been selling like hotcakes:




I gave my 6 month old neice, Kyla, this cherry blossom beanie I made last summer (my son modeling it :) :



My mom purchased (despite my protests) this hat for a coworkers baby:


So basically, I've been giving away my back stock of things and I now have room to make new things! Hold me to that!

Meet Arcturus Alligator!

I decided an alligator would be the best start for a sock puppet and he turned out better than I had hoped! Gracen loves him. He has a stuffed tail and beaded eyes and his two front teeth. I named him Arcturus after Regulus Arcturus Black (my lame Harry Potter reference :)). I call him Art for short.


I'm hoping Art will help my sales pick up this month! Its so hard to do this etsy thing. You really have to stay on top of listing your items and promoting yourself. I am facebooking and twittering and it only helps a bit. I welcome any advice on this matter. I'm unsure of what else I should do

Boo. Old projects?

So I got no suggestions on what hand puppet to make out of my green yarn! WTH? Its ok, I know you're all busy (all 7 of you followers ;)) I'm really busy too, that's why my postings have been scarce! I will post an old project for you to look at, but I'm going to tell you what I have been up to first.

I have been submitting alchemy requests lately because I want to do more custom work! Its exciting, but at the same time, it is really annoying that nobody has picked me yet :( Its ok. I'll get over it. I know my work is good, I'm just a little misunderstood at the moment! Yeah that's a good excuse :)

Anywho feast your eyes on this!


I know the photo isn't beary good, but thse are two hats I made for two brothers. So cute right? I need to make more of them and list them because I think making your kids look like animals is a popular thing to do right now.

Puppeteer?

So I was thinking about making a line of hand puppets. My son loves it when we make his stuffed animals talk. I have some forest green yarn I need to get rid of. Any suggestions? I fixed the comment feature FINALLY. It was something wonky with the layout I had picked, hence the boring one up now. I need to find a new one that will be conducive to allowing comments! Seriously though, I would love ideas on what you would like to see made into a hand puppet. As I always say, if you can imagine it, I can crochet it! I have yet to be stumped, unless you're my husband who requests that I make the entire cast of his video games amigurumi style. I *could* do it, I just won't. He plays a lot of games.

Holy Smokes!

So, I was out of town for a lonnng time! I haven't crocheted much. I sold three of the dinosaurs so that is basically what I have been up to! I made this adorable dragon as a variation of the t-rex!

I love his tongue. I've been pretty distracted lately because something big is about to happen. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is opening Tuesday night! We got tickets at a nice theatre for midnight! I have been to all of the movies (except one) at midnight along with midnight book releases. Call me crazy, but dangit I just can't help it. Its such a great series. I would love to make a Molly Weasley sweater someday, like the one from Chamber of Secrets:

Isn't it great? Whoever made it is a genious. You kno it has to be handmade, where would you buy something like that? Its kind of depressing to know that the Harry Potter excitement is coming to an end soon. I hope that my children will have something to be SOOO excited about. Anywho, I'm in the process of making a tote bag for my nephew, because he has suddenly become quite interested in matchbox cars and hotwheels and we all ran with it and bought him a whole bunch of them for his 2nd birthday. He needs a bag methinks.