Four Down, Seven To Go

Here's the afghan I completed this week (#2 for the primos, if you're keeping count):

If you think I'm counting incorrectly, there was a change (and a few additions). Afghan #1 went to the first primo; afghan #2 was kept by my mom for herself (her excuse was that it matched her bedroom perfectly); afghan #3 was for my sister; and this just-completed one is afghan #4 for the second primo. So although the original plan was to make seven afghans for the primos (cousins), somehow four more were added to the list (two for Mom, one each for my two sisters).

That makes the score: four down and seven to go. Sounds daunting, but on the upside, #5 is already started, and #6 is a repeat of #4 with a different color scheme (which went very quickly)!

These projects are all temporarily on hold while I complete a quick entry for the Etsy Texas Crafters February Design Challenge. Sneak peek -- I'm combining these two very different yarns:

Stay tuned for a pic of the finished project and a link to the Design Challenge!

ETC Design Challenge -- Summer Magic!

Etsy Texas Crafters is having their monthly Design Challenge right now! The theme is Summer Magic! So what magic does Summer hold for you?

I entered three items in the Design Challenge. My Neapolitan Stripe Scarf:

Market Bag in Marshmallow (a brand-new design!):

Partly Sunny Motif Scarf (another brand-new design!):

All of my entries are available for sale at The Lavender Lizard! And there are tons of other great entries! Please stop by the challenge page and vote for your favorite! (The link to the poll is at the bottom of the challenge page.)

Oh, and the top vote-getters will win prizes, one of which I'm donating -- their choice of my 3pack lip balm holders! So please help us decide the winners by voting and look for the August Design Challenge -- Elements! Thanks!

ETC Design Challenge -- Chinese New Year

This month's ETC Design Challenge was a real stumper for me. Chinese New Year? How will I translate that into a crochet design??? My head was swimming.

Luckily, Christine of pinuppixie, the Design Challenge Coordinator, sent along a link to inspire us.

Reading the info, I found out that the Lantern Festival parades often include huge dragons made of silk and bamboo. Well, that cleared my head -- I had just bought some silk and bamboo yarn and had not made anything with it yet. Perfect! Unfortunately there is no red in this brand of yarn (red is very symbolic for Chinese New Year.) So I got a couple of bright colors and decided to make a long scarf in a wave pattern to symbolize the color and movement of the dragons.

Here's my entry:

Also I quickly created a prize to donate to one of the top 4 winners -- it is a strand scarf with the same yarn and a little bamboo/cotton/acrylic for texture:

Come check out all of the entries and vote for your favorite. (The poll will close on January 27.)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Etsy Texas Crafters October Design Challenge

The theme for this month's ETC Design Challenge is War of the Worlds -- not an easy theme when your mode of expression is crochet, it turns out. Well, maybe that's why they call it a "challenge".

I had a tough time with this theme and pretty much had decided to skip it. Then I remembered my latest yarn store find -- glow-in-the-dark yarn in several colors! The first thing I did was make sure it really did glow in the dark, and it does!! It has a fiber that is blended with acrylic yarn that, when exposed to light for 5 minutes, will glow for 5 minutes. I wish I could photograph it, because it really is cool.

So with g-i-t-d yarn in hand, I set to work on crocheting aliens for the War of the Worlds theme. They evolved as I created the pattern (originally the top was the bottom, and the tentacles were antenna). They could sit either way, but I prefer the tentacle look.

Then the aliens needed a ship (I mean, the whole point of WOTW was aliens landing on Earth, right?). So I made a spaceship in grey and added g-i-t-d "landing lights". The spaceship turned out a little chubbier than I had planned, but the aliens are not picky.

To vote for my entry or any of the other cool designs :) please visit this entry in the ETC Team Blog. (The poll is listed on the top right side.) Thanks!

UPDATE: Apparently there have been issues with the ETC Team Blog, so please use this link to vote in the ETC Design Challenge.