Have A Zombilicious Birthday!

Our friend Sean (Sean of the Dead on Myspace for those of you who indulge) had a birthday yesterday, so a bunch of us gathered in Queens at an awesome little Irish pub to help him celebrate Sunday night (god, I love President's Day). In addition to the awesome Samhain sweatshirt that we got him, Brad and I collaborated on a birthday card...Sean is completely obsessed with Zombies (in case you didn't get that from the SOTD reference), so we took pains to make sure the card was zombie-appropriate.



Yeah, it's awesome. I'm pretty damned happy with that bad-boy. Happy Birthday Sean!

Jenn's Birthday Scarf!

I sent this scarf to my gorgeous friend Jennifer (the darling girl who designed my new awesome logo) for her birthday at the beginning of December. (I know, I know...I'm so bad at posting pictures in a timely fashion--if you were as busy as I am, you wouldn't bitch. Geez!) I was so happy with the way it came out, I almost made her something else and kept it for myself :-) I couldn't be that selfish though. I had a bit of yarn left when I finished the scarf--a beautiful, brilliant red 100% merino wool yarn in worsted weight--so I busted out a cute flower pin to go along with the scarf. I crocheted this using my very favorite Clover 4.5 mm hook, and it worked up so nice--the pictures really don't do it (or her for that matter heehee) justice. Check it out!




Some scarf details...



Here's the pattern:
Gauge: 4 stitches per inch
Work chainless foundation double crochet until it reaches around 4 feet (approx. 192 stitches).
Turn. Work another row of double crochet.
Turn. Work 1 dc skip one *repeat to end of row.
Turn. Work a row of double crochet (in every stitch).
Turn. Work 1 dc skip one *repeat to end of row.
Turn. Work row of double crochet.
Turn. Work another row of double crochet. Fasten off.
Work 2 rows of single crochet at either end.

If you're into the pretty tassle thing, use three strands per sc space. I wrap the yarn around a CD case to get them all the same length and then trim as necessary.

Vivian's scarf

My friend Vivian's birthday was a couple of days ago and I was determined to make her an awesome, useable, very cool homemade present. Of course I was going to crochet her something--like I would do anything else!

Well, I found a very cute pattern in my tried and true Stich n' Bitch: Happy Hooker book, and I altered it slightly to make it more frilly. I also added my very favorite little crochet flowers (not fleurchons, PR fans) with a splash of glitzy sequins in the center.

Hubby and I went to Viv's house last night to give her her presents, and I'm so glad she liked it! I have to admit, I almost wanted to keep it for myself!

Here are the results!



My fabulous friend with her new scarf!

New necklace and bracelet for my mom-in-law...

It's my mother-in-law's birthday this coming Saturday, and I wanted to do something really nice for her. My husband and I bought her this really nice black embroidered skirt with a red blouse from her favorite store, Chico's. While we were having the present gift wrapped, I was looking around the store at the various jewelery they had on display, thinking that a necklace might make a nice "something extra" to go with her new outfit. Alas, they lacked any red and black jewelery, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Brad and I headed over to Michael's not long after, where I picked out some awesome beads and got to work on making my mom-in-law a really pretty necklace...and this is what it looked like:





My favorite thing about the necklace is the large circle pendant in the center--it didn't actually come like that! I bought a large hematite circle and sterling silver wire and wrapped it around the bead, twisting in and bending it into the pattern you see there. The necklace was strung together with sterling silver pins, a needle-nose pliers, and of course, wire cutters. I am so pleased with how the set came out and I can't wait for my mom-in-law to open it on Saturday! Brad thinks we should let her open it without telling her that I made it to see what kind of a reaction she had--so I know if she really likes it or not. I don't want her to say she likes it just because I made it for her! But I love it and I really hope she does too!