Busy Crocheting…

Whoops, this month has gone by incredibly fast, hasn’t it?  I feel like the past two weeks were spent in total flurry of activity.  First, and thank you for your emails of concern <3, my son is just fine from his procedure.  I’m *so* relieved to have that over with, and I’m glad we can move forward now.  He is very healthy and happy, and it’s a burden off our backs (well, except for dealing with the insurance claims, but if that’s the least of it, I’ll take it!)

I had a few very important things to crochet that kept me busy from morning to night over the past two weeks as well.  First, there was this cute elephant mobile to make up for a friend’s baby shower.  She was inspired by a photo she found on line and forwarded it over to me, and it was up to me from there to figure it out.  I searched the internet and found a cute baby elephant pattern here.  Oh my gosh, what adorable little guys these are.  I whipped up five of them in pastels and then bought one of those wire rounds that are sold at craft stores.  From there, I wrapped the wire round with white yarn and then made some chains with tripled yarn to hold it all together to turn it into a mobile.  It was a huge hit at the baby shower and there was happiness all around.  As an aside, I have to mention that when I crochet, I usually put on a movie or a TV series to watch on my computer to keep time flowing.  I have to say that I watched the entire second season of Game of Thrones in the time it took me to make this.  I’m getting used to seeing my completed crochet work and having the show pop up into my memory.  Interesting how the brain “records” things like that!

Then, as soon as I completed the elephant mobile, I had two very impatient little boys waiting for their Halloween costumes.  Of course, they couldn’t just be superheroes or something easy like that.  Instead, they wanted a Rayman halloween costume and Globox one to match, from their much-loved Rayman game.  I scoured the internet and couldn’t find any costumes, so it was up to me to make them.  They were originally both supposed to be felt like I did for Globox, but the headband that the felt is attached to was uncomfortable, so for Rayman, I decided the easiest thing for me to do would be to just crochet up a hat and attach the needed parts to it (cue Game of Thrones, first half of season 3!).  This was totally done on-the-go with no pattern whatsoever except for me calling my son over multiple times per hour to get it to fit against his head just perfectly (and for him to come and critique the job I was doing thus far!).  He was very pleased with the result and I was surprised at how much better it turned out than I anticipated.  Globox’s costume was a little less fun, because my sewing skills are – well, let’s be kind and say very basic – but we do what we have to for our kids, right?  Anyway, they turned out to be thrilled with their costumes and that made it all worth it.

As I finished up their costumes on October 30th, I was then alerted to the fact that Chipotle was giving away $3 tacos on Halloween if you came in costumes.  Well, I suppose you can guess what that meant? (The things I’ll do for a taco, jeez!)  Of course, there was just enough time left for me to make a quick costume for myself.  Learning from the day before, I thought that whatever I made up would be crocheted, and that there would be no more sewing for the time being.  And so, having bought a bottle of bleach for my hair and ripping apart a long piece of brown fabric (for a shirt) and using a skirt as a dress, I made this cute little dragon pattern and made myself a Daenerys Targaryen costume.  I mean, since Game of Thrones was so fresh on the brain.  This dragon was a free download over at Ravelry, and I made it in a very panicked 24-hour period.  If only I had a little more time, I would have made a couple of more (including this incredibly awesome one here that I *will* someday make), but one did the trick enough that most people recognized who I was supposed to be (Mother of Dragons, if you’re unfamiliar with the show).  I put a rubber band around its body to keep it attached to my shoulder – and got my $3 taco.  All in all, it turned out to be a very time-consuming, but productive couple of weeks.

And then… after the festivities were finished, I was left with a very messy house to clean.  And that took up the rest of the week.  Now, I’m ready to start attacking the next items on my queue!  I do so love to crochet!

~ Mellie ★