fishie’s aquarium

So I had subtly mentioned in an earlier post, I have been making octopus themed items for a swap. My partner has officially received, and I am officially posting.

I had a hard time not keeping these to myself.

First Crochet Project Ever: Octopus Beanie. I used the Boy Beanie Pattern from the Happy Hooker for the main body of the hat, and did the octopus embellishment free-hand with no idea of what I was doing. Came out pretty well, eh?

Second Beading Project Ever: Octopus Earrings

A little of trial and error was needed to figure out the tentacles, but I figured them out pretty well. I only needed two of the bigger beads for this project, but I could only buy the beads in sets of 14. So I figure I’ll make 6 more pairs of these and try and sell them. Hrm?

First Stenciling Project Ever: Octopus Shirt

Wheeeee!

This was a pain in the ass to get started, but it ended up not that bad! The stencil is in four pieces, with two layers, and was cut into a giant piece of tagboard. I mixed some fabric medium into normal acrylic paint, and HOPEFULLY it will hold. I still have the stencil, so I’m going to make another one for myself :3 Stenciling is cool and all, but the tagboard only seems like it will take so much more paint before it dies. Next stop: silk screening

I got a lot of knitting done on my California Trip, bought a lot of yarn, etc. But as I said, later.

Up until recently, I’ve been very adamant on ONE yarn project at a time, ONE fabric project at a time, ONE misc. project at a time. I know that if I start having two of any of them, I’ll go down a slippery slope and end up with a million. They reproduce.

I swear.

I haven’t touched the hot pink coat from hell since last post. I’ve done very little work on the watermelon shirt. I’m almost done with a hat I crocheted, but not quite. So what did I do? I went out, bought a bunch of velvet spun and a size K crochet hook and started making a cat bed.

Reading has moved its way back up to being an everyday activity, and I’ve been cooking and eating real food instead of just instant noodles lately. Plus I bought the Sims. So there hasn’t been a whole lot of free time for me to knit. See, I can make excuses.

I’ve got a swap deadline at the end of this week, coinciding with when I leave for a little trip to California. There are a few SECRET PROJECTS I can’t post until I ship, but they are all octopus themed and I’m more than just a little proud of them.

VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: I have officially started to crochet. It’s not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and appears to be much easier to pick up than knitting was for me. This could be because I already knew how things worked from my experience knitting, and was able to expand this somehow, blah blah blah. What I want to say is, no matter how much I crochet, no matter that I’m working on my second crochet project with no pattern: I AM A KNITTER. I am a knitter who crochets. But I AM A KNITTER, not a crocheter. thnx