"Women are from Venus, Men are from Soup"

Oh Gilmore Girls, How I love thee

         Does that have anything to do with crocheting? I bet you're thinking that right NOW. Answer: Absolutely nothing. I wanted a catchy title. Made you read it. HA HA HA. I’m a blogging, mad evil genius who fails to update their mad evil genius thoughts. Consider yourselves updated dear readers.


I am not quite as mad nor as genius as this guy. Anyone else afraid of clowns?

         Lately, I’ve been tired (by lately, I mean like totally last month). I mean really tired. Like that Carebear, but less cute.

 Way less cute.

           Why have I been tired? Christmas. Christmas may be the time of the year where normal people go out and shop and rack up a large amount of debt… And your right, I am not a normal gift giver. I crochet. I know, shocking. I don’t crocheting everyone a present (that might be considered cheap. Also that would be a lot of work. I’m not a Christmas elf despite popular belief.

 For one thing I might have the height but I lack the pointy ears. Wait a second... his ears aren't pointy!

        I crochet presents for a few lucky (or unlucky) handful. This year it was some kiddos. Okay, and my grandma.

 Grams likes handmade things best. Or does she? Hmm. Ignore how cute I was as a kid. Just sayin’.

And a few friends. The point? I was so tired from all the hubbub of Christmas… I actually slept under a good amount of yarn. No seriously, I did. No joke. Sadly. Yup. 4 skeins of yarn, my thing of crochet hooks, scissors (which probably was not smart but I received no damage from sharp pointy objects), and my triangle panda bag.



(bought from: Schrodinger who is AWESOME. Favorite bag. EVAR. Shameless plug for Schrodinger. You're welcome.)

 It was a full bed. Only a few skeins fell off… and I haven’t found my scissors… I think it’s because I misplaced them. I loose everything. Always. Ask my fiancé. (He could probably tell you many things… like how I refer to him as Fiancé or how I will somehow miss place my crochet hook every time and we have to tear up my workspace to locate it. I assure you that those are all lies…. Even if he looks really honest when he says it). I didn’t have a picture of so said bed arrangement… and so I reinacted it for you! That is DEDICATION dear readers.



 (Note: those are not my scissors. I mean they are… but they aren’t the ones I use when crocheting).



Note: Fiancé would probably also inform you the yarn skeins involved four different shades of green. They were not brown, black, white, or orange. Way to be a party pooper Fiancé. Way to be a party pooper.

  So what did I crochet? Many things. Did I take pictures? No. Why? Because I’m a terrible mad evil genius blogger from Venus. Luckily, I steal pictures from friends.



 See? Stolen. HI EMMA!

         I crocheted that. Isn’t it amazing? I mean the hat. Not the baby. Favorite baby ever. She has competition. I would show so said competition but the picture is a professionally done one and I don’t want to go to blog jail. You’ll have to just take my word for it.

 I don’t look good in orange. The end.

So a couple of hats, a few animals = probably $20 plus a good 20 hours (give or take). Seeing everyone smile at a really silly looking hat on my favorite four month old? PRICELESS. And for everything else money can’t buy, another stolen photo. Eat your heart out Mastercard.


It's a good thing Emma's mommy and I are good friends. I really, really don't look good in orange.
TRUST ME.

 Tune in next time for: Baby Mobiles! And ... pie?

Mmmm pie...

Want a spiffy reindeer hat pattern? I bought it from the lovely and talented Skiptomyloop. Beautiful.

Well at least I'm not a Norman Bates...

Seriously, anyone else creeped out by him?

It started with an obsession of scarves and that well known statement of something you should do or would like to do but would never in a million years actually follow through with... In my case, the statement was always “Hey, mom! We should learn how to knit or crochet…” followed by a “So we could make scarves?” which was always agreed upon. Never would I have actually even bother to learn how to crochet or knit, because I am not usually a follower of things I said I would do (unless it has to do with eating pie).

Oh pie... where are you when I need you?

It ended with a mysteriously shaped object under the Christmas tree my junior year of high school. What was it you ask? It was a skein of yarn, followed by a “I taught myself to crochet!” book. You know, the generic one. In case anyone was EVER excited about learning something new… And my mom was SO proud of the present she picked out. “You always said you wanted to learn!” Yikes mom, I didn’t want to be an old lady…

Note: An old Lady. Knitting.  Do you know where your grandma is?

But I was kind of excited. And I was determined to learn! I thought I would have a scarf out in a month… and what turned into a month… turned into a year… and then into another. And that skein is still in my closet, looking quite depressed and worn. It was so frustrating! My scarf would start out awesome… and then all of the sudden it looked like part of it shrunk. No one said a hobby would be easy.


Once I graduated from high school, I actually created my first decent scarf. Of course I don’t wear it because it’s very bulky and I made it way to wide. But I finished one darn it! And then I finished two and then three and then I worked on a granny square. And I made a bag. And then a blanket. And then another. And suddenly the thing I cursed at became the thing I wanted to do. All the time. I think I even did it in my sleep honestly.


And then I got brave. I accidentally came across Amigurumi… which is this amazing trend in Japan for those of you who aren’t in the “in” of things (oh goodness! I am so clever!). They are little crochet or knit toys. You can make anything.

Who wouldn't want a cupcake bear? Anyone?

Seriously. And I really wanted to. Then one book became a countless number of books, and one pattern suddenly pulled a rabbit and multiplied to the point where if my computer ever died I would be devastated (I should probably back up those files, huh?).

Why yes, I did pull the baby bunny card...

And then suddenly, I realized that for someone who struggled enough to take it out on some poor sad looking yarn skein, I could really crochet anything I wanted to.


Of course, not all projects succeeded. The first animal I crocheted got a reaction of “Is that a Koala?” which I would sadly shake my head at and mumble “It’s supposed to be a lamb…” Ooops! But with lots of practice (And I mean a lot of failed projects) I began to stop pulling crochet fails.

Koala... Lamb... Can you tell the difference?

But I had to create one simple rule… It had to be cute. And it had to be no where near an “old lady” pattern. You know, doilies… ugly sweaters that always find the way under the Christmas tree… things a dog wouldn’t even want to be seen in.

I'm sorry if these are your sweaters. They are lovely.

And so the bane of my existence became my favorite pass time. I crochet everywhere. On the bus. On campus. While watching a TV. Some days, I admit, I even have to talk myself out of bringing a project when going to class or out to eat with friends or…. Well I guess that just turns into an obsession, huh? But hey, I hear crocheting is good for the heart so I’m not complaining. And I’m not Norman Bates, so this is a plus. Though I think my fiancé on the occasion wants to take me to some Crochet Withdraw Support Group (CWSGA? I think it would be something like AA only not as stressful because we would all be crocheting….). Oh well, my name is Mandy and I have a crocheting addiction… I've been crocheting for six years now... why do they make yarn so fun?

It's because they want me to look like the crazy yarn lady, isn't it?

PS.... I take no credit for the pictures