The Ultimate Drought-Proof Plant

Months ago, a good friend spotted some crochet succulent plants in a fair booth and requested that I write her a pattern for something similar. Her requests were: realistic and cute, but leaning more toward realistic, and 6-8'' (not miniature). I eventually came up with this little cactus:

Living in southern California with our ongoing drought, it's nice to have pretty landscaping and houseplants that don't require a lot of water. Well, this one doesn't require water at all. (In fact, watering it would probably be a bad idea.

The pattern is very simple, but the fun part was picking out a container and planting material to complement it. I picked up this glass dish and gravel and Joann's, along with some floral foam and wire to secure the cactus in the dish. I sent my friend a picture and she likes it, now all that's left is to write up the pattern! Typing and editing a pattern is the boring part, but I suppose I have to do it or there's no point in writing a pattern to share.

What's your favorite plant to grow in your home or garden?

-Assunta

Vogue Knitting Live

Last weekend I drove up to Pasadena with a friend to attend Vogue Knitting Live! If you don't know what that is, it's a big fiber arts show with lots of wonderful things. One of our other friends was working there as a rep for Little Dandelion. They make big yarn and huge needles!

Here are some of the things I got:

 White Lies Designs was having 4 for the price of 3 sale on patterns. I had trouble narrowing my choices down to only 4, but these are the ones I chose.

I couldn't resist this alpaca wool by A Simpler Time Alpacas & Mill. I love how soft alpaca is, and it is my favorite shade of blue!

The book pictured below is Crocheted Abode A La Mode by Twinkie Chan. It was a prize for winning an amigurumi scavenger hunt. When my friend and I learned that there were little crocheted doughnuts hiding in some of the booths, we wasted no time hunting down two of them and winning the books. We even met the author and got her to sign them!

The pattern I'm most excited about from this book is the giant doughnut ottoman. I actually ran into it on Pinterest the other day and was seriously considering buying the book before I happened to win it. What good luck!

The last thing I got was this Bubblegum Blues yarn from Oink Pigments. I love how the colors look just like bubblegum, and I plan to use it to make the White Lies pattern at the bottom right of the image above. I think it looks like something a mermaid would wear!

Here it is, all wound up and ready to go.

The hardest thing about Monday was not being able to knit and spin all day because I had to go back to work. I hope all of you did something fun last weekend!

-Assunta

Mermaid Tail Baby Booties!

It's been a few weeks since I blogged! I have been taking a creative writing class for fun but it has been keeping me busy. The past couple of weekends have been packed as well, with work sending me to a lighting convention in San Diego, and my mom coming to visit me for my birthday. It was wonderful to see her, and we did lots of crocheting together, in addition to visiting all of my favorite places around Orange County! 

These little booties are my latest crochet project. They are made with the crocodile stitch. I like to think of it more as mermaid scales or flower petals, depending on the color of yarn. My niece turned one year old last week, so I sent these to her as part of her birthday gift. 

Some of my friends have expressed an interest in an adult version. They do look pretty comfy!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful May with lots of flowers (unless you are allergic)!

-Assunta