Christmas and finals and babies, oh my

Between first semester finals and the increase in baby announcements from friends and family, I've been completely swamped. Add to that the fact that I've hardly done any Christmas shopping and I'm a little stressed out right now.

I've been working on a few patterns and I know I promised an updated pattern for my Mermaid costume, but I haven't been able to get any pictures of it yet. It's all written up, just waiting on a baby model for some pictures.

My cousin and his fiancee just recently announced that they are expecting so I was super excited to start working on some new baby stuff (my favourite!).  They're letting the gender be a surprise so they asked for everything to be gender-neutral, and the theme they picked was owls and elephants (not sure how that's gonna work, but I shall deliver).

I decided to use some baby combo yarn I've been saving to make a baby blanket. It's pretty thin yarn and the pattern I'm using makes the rows quite short so it's definitely taken the longest time out of any baby blanket I've ever made.

The way it's working up makes it a pretty dense blanket but it's super soft. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm thinking about adding a sc border of yellow once it's done but we'll see.

Since they asked for owls, I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to test out my Hedwig pattern (although I changed the colours). I'm not sure what colour I want to make the blanket part yet (I'm thinking yellow, again, or maybe light green), but so far only the owl is done. I gave it brown wings to make it look more like the owls we have up here.

I've also been commissioned to make baby blankets and such for a few friends and some of my friends family so that will probably be taking up a lot of my Christmas break. Here's hoping that I get everything done on time.

Wish me luck on finals!

Dinosaurs? DINOSAURS!

I've been going dinosaur crazy over the last few months since the new Jurassic Park movie trailer came out! Now, dinosaurs have always been a pretty big obsession of mine (though not as nearly as obsessed with them as my older brother is; he actually works at a dinosaur museum). Ever since the trailer came out though, dinosaurs have been everywhere and I want to buy them all! It also is giving me a reason to wear my Jurassic Park dress again!

That's right. A Jurassic Park dress.

I made it a few years ago when the first movie got re-released in 3D. I refused to go see it in the theatre until I had finished sewing this dress.

I've never been more proud of anything in my life. 

Walmart was actually clearing out all their kids dinosaur bedroom stuff a few months ago and I literally had to buy it all (future children, I'm sorry if you hate dinosaurs because of me). I got a few extra of the dinosaur curtain panels though because they're a really nice blue with dinosaur outlines on them and I want to make another dress or shirt or skirt out of them. (I'll post a picture later)

I have a feeling dinosaurs are going to be very popular again and that might not have been the best idea on walmarts part.

I did use a pattern for the dress but I'm not completely sure which one. If I ever find out, I'll update this post with it.

Also, I got dinosaurs things (AWESOME DINOSAUR THINGS!!!) for Christmas this year, but I'll make a separate post about that when I get pictures of them. My boyfriend is so talented :)

Finally finishing up some projects!

Seeing as I'm trying to overcome crocheters-block right now, I've decided it's time I get out some of my projects that I started forever ago and actually finish them.

So far, I've been able to complete 2 baby blankets (I am ashamed to say that one of them was started in 2011 and didn't get finished until now) though I still have 2 full sized afghans that need to be finished. Luckily, they're both more than halfway finished so it shouldn't take me more than a month or two. I also need to finish my first full sized sweater that I ever started and a cable-knit hat that I've been putting off because I lost my place in the pattern and I don't know how to continue it.

I'm going to keep working on hats and such to sell at craft sales and online but I'm going to try and hold off starting anymore big projects.

For those of you waiting for new patterns: DO NOT FRET! I'm going to have a little more free time in the next couple weeks to write up some of my patterns and get pictures for the ones already written up.