Yarnmaste.

Well here I am with the first post the makes the new title of the blog make sense.  As I mentioned here, I do a lot of non-house-improvement related stuff that I thought I might want to share someday, and so here I am, sharing such things.  As those of you reading may or may not know, a little over a year ago I acquired the fairly random skill of crocheting.  I attended a beginning crochet class with my mom as her Christmas present last year, and surprise surprise I actually ended up really enjoying it.  Ironically, my mom never quite got the hang of it and gave up shortly after the class ended.  Unlike me, who pushes through my failures, my mom tends to give up after a few dozen oops.

 

Anyways, recently, for my friend Kelly's birthday I tackled my largest crochet project to date (so far I've tackled hats, headbands, iPad covers, earrings, bracelets and flowers).  Kelly is in training to be a yoga teacher, and sadly was without a bag for her yoga mat. So I decided to up and make her one. 

 

 

Boom.

 

Kapow.

 

As you can see, I even managed to create a drawstring closure at the top, which I was surprised turned out as well as it did (it was actually ridiculously easy).

 

Here it is in action on my back (Piper photobomb alert).

 

I definitely did not create this pattern on my own, I used a pattern I found at Joyful Abode here.  I definitely am not skilled enough to make up my own patterns (yet?). But I did change up the colors and striping pattern on my own, so I put maybe 1% of my own creative juices into the project. Oh and bonus points to me that I was able to use all the yarn out of my already owned stash, so all this project cost me was some blood, sweat, tears, a few bajillion hours of my life and early-onset arthritis.

 

Oops Count: About 2.  See, I tend to be the Goldilocks of crocheting.  As with most of my projects, my first go around with this bag was too big.  So I unraveled and started over. Attempt #2 was too small. Finally, on attempt #3, it was juuuuuuust right. This is a pattern with me, I've learned to expect to have to start over any given crochet project at least once or twice. C'est la vie.

 

Lesson Learned: This is more a lesson the people in my life have had to learn. Basically, anytime a gift-giving occasion comes around, you can expect to receive something crocheted. Whether you like it or not. So you'd better start liking crocheted crap. :)