The Big Bang and a Blueberry

Apparently all I really needed to do to amp up my productivity and creativity was to quit working and get obsessed with craft swaps! :) Okay, maybe it's the time of year, or the fact that I'm not stressed out and exhausted all the time, or maybe I'm just enjoying it more, I don't know, but I've been doing a lot of knit and crochet projects lately. Not least of which is the awesome Big Bang Theory crocheted dolls for the awesome rubylynns, who you may remember I did a craft swap with earlier this year.

She found this awesome pattern for making all the characters of the show out of crochet (Amigurimi for those of you up with the lingo!) but she is not yet a crocheter, and yes, the patterns were a little bit complicated with the color changes and crocheting in the round, etc. So she asked if I could make them for a friend of hers who loves the show. Enter some experimenting and a lot of scrap cotton yarn, and you have.....

... totally awesome crocheted dolls of Leonard and Sheldon. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially considering that this was my first "real" Amigurimi project (I had made the bats for my halloween craft swap, but that was basically just a stuffed ball with stuff sewn on it.) I also had do do some adjustments to the pattern... I'm not sure what was up, but the pattern for Leonard's torso was totally weird, so that it looked like his body was twisted. Weird.

On to the Blueberry part of this post.

I found this GORGEOUS blue chunky yarn when I was in Sioux Falls, SD over Thanksgiving:

I've used the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick before, but I have NEVER seen this beautiful blue before, so I snatched up 3 skeins. It was a little bit expensive, but totally worth it for the results of the project I made with it.

I envisioned a gorgeous chunky mesh scarf kind of like the Vesta scarf from Paula Purls. I started with her pattern, but quickly diverted and changed the whole thing. Oh well, I feel like patterns are there to inspire more than to be followed, anyway! :)

Here is the scarf in progress. Aren't my knitting needles gorgeous. I found them on sale for $3 marked down from $20. Love the Rosewood!

Because the yarn is so bulky and the pattern so simple to repeat, this scarf knitted up really quickly. And because it only took 2 skeins for the scarf, I used the third skein to make a matching hat.

And here they are on:

I really need some models who are not ME. I hate trying to take good pictures of myself wearing my stuff. Meh.

If you like this hat and scarf set, check out my etsy site for this and many other lovely knitted concoctions! :) Nothing beats shameless self promotion!