Posts Tagged ‘Big On Bloor’

Thanks, BOB!

Thanks to the washout that was Big On Bloor 2009, I’ve had a head start on Christmas crafting!

Remember this?
yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket

It’s bigger now:
bigger yellow rainbow round ripple baby blanket
(Colours are a lot closer to real life in the first picture.)

And it is officially the First Finished Christmas Gift of the Year. Let’s have a round of applause!

I also made this, which the always lovely Roopurt is modeling for us:
pink/purple/peach spiral skinny scarf

Here is a close up:
close-up of the skinny scarf

I used a single ball of yarn I found in my stash that was unlabeled. I’m pretty sure it’s Astra but they don’t seem to have this colour anymore (even though it looks like this colour is the featured picture… weird).

To make this kind of scarf, you make a base chain approximately as long as you want the scarf to be, then do 2dc in each chain on the first row, and 1dc in each dc for the following rows.

I wanted to see if the “no base chain” foundation row method would work for this… and it did! It’s a bit complicated to write out, so I’ll save a tutorial on this for another post. If you simply can’t wait for that, do a search for it on Youtube. It’s pretty neat!

Plan B

BOB didn’t go well (stupid rain) but that’s ok, because I had a backup plan!

These blankets are going to charity:
pink stripes Striking round ripple Peach Rainbow Round Ripple purple Fibonacci blanket (in progress)
(I should get a better picture of that purple one made at the show before I send it off…)

I’m going to make these three bigger and give them as Christmas gifts:
Pink Rainbow Round Ripple Yellow Rainbow Round Ripple 3way Tunisian

These are Christmas presents, and I’m keeping them as is:
Tetris pillows

And this one is MINE:
Settlers of Catan blanket

My current main project is a gift for someone who reads this blog, and I really don’t want to give the surprise away if I can help it, so pictures and updates will be made on Ravelry (where you need an account to see it). Don’t worry, once the Big Day has come and gone, I’ll post all of the gory details. ^_^

Now that BOB is over, I find myself with my own crafting time again, so I’m waffling around trying to decide what to do. I’ve joined a couple of swaps, I still need to make the June square in the CAL, and I’ve been itching to just make my way through my growing collection of motif books and make at least one of everything.

Of course, there’s still Christmas coming, and various birthdays left to think about. I’ve been hoping that Bernat Satin would go on sale for the last several months, but I haven’t seen it. If you do, could you please let me know? I’m planning on buying a LOT of it, not only because I’ll need it for some gifts, but also because it’s my go-to yarn for worsted weight acrylic and I’m starting to run low. It’s soft, works up well, and the colours are pretty nice.

Anticipated projects: at least one more Snowflake afghan, maybe the Hawaiian Flower afghan, more 3-way Tunisian, lots of hats and scarves, some geeky afghans, and of course, Dad’s Christmas present.

My work situation has changed and I suddenly find myself with a good chunk of crochet time. That time can only be spent working on a pattern I know really well, and that doesn’t have any tricky colour changes. The project I’ve been working on lately has recently become too large to do while I do my job, so I need a replacement project. For now, I’m prepping some scarves (doing the base chain and first row at home on several), and I’m thinking of doing some granny squares. Any thoughts on what else might work? Basically, anything I don’t have to look at too much, that can easily be done a couple of stitches at a time.

Finally, check out this Spiral Granny Square I made: click here.

RIP BOB

Well, BOB is over, and it was quite a ride. (Big on Bloor flickr pool)

Those of you who live in Toronto know what a beautiful day it was yesterday, what with the thunder storms and intermittent rain all day.

I arrived at the fair about 2 hours after they’d closed off the street, and an hour after they said we could come and set up only to find no tables and only two other vendors on my assigned block. It was spitting out a little, but not too bad.

We got the tent up before it really started raining again and the tables and chairs finally arrived.

There were supposed to be 26 vendors on my block; there were 7, including me. I was also at the very end of the fair, which is what I wanted, but turned out to be bad since most of the people attending never made it that far. I can’t say I blame them, I’d have bailed after only a block or two as well. The weather was just so terrible, and the vendors few and far between.

I only had about a dozen people actually come up to my table (of which I was quite proud. It was very colourful!)

BOB table

BOB table

Here’s what the fair looked like from where I was sitting:
BOB table

BOB table

Notice the lack of other vendors!

Still, I did get to meet a couple of fellow crocheters, which was great! And I did have a tent, which is more than I can say for some of the poor people around me. Umbrellas could only do so much in these conditions. The worst I got was a bit of spray. My inventory was fine, since it was all acrylic. It dried really fast.

It was a cold day, though. Luckily I make blankets:
BOB table - making a blanket to keep warm

If the weather had been better I think things would have gone a LOT differently, so it’s hard to decide if I want to try this again. If I do, I think I’m going to make fewer blankets, and more little things. The Tetris pieces attracted the most attention, but I do believe that the multiple colours of the blankets made people smile on such a dreary, grey day.

And since I didn’t sell anything, I’ve got quite the head start on Christmas. Always the optimist, I am! ^_-