(Note: Ignore the holiday tablecloth in the background) =)

On my birthday, I was gifted this wonderfully luxurious yarn. If you haven’t tried Artfibers Kyoto yarn, you’re missing out. It’s heavenly to work with (a yarn review here). With it, I made a birthday gift for a friend:

Pattern: Hat made loosely based on Janelle’s Rolled Brim Hat; flowers unknown (sorry, I just forgot); scarf from Happy Hooker’s One Skein Scarf
Yarn: Artfibers Kyoto, in pink
Hook: J hook
Notes:

Pattern
Crochet feels alot more “freeform” than knitting does; that’s the only explanation why as a crochet beginner, I’m able to fudge around with patterns and easily make it my own. I took the pattern above and substituted a scalloped edging for the rolled brim. And I added on cute little flowers (I learned early on that making flowers is easiest with crochet rather than knitting). The scarf, an easy no brainer pattern, great for beginners.

Yarn
Love love LOVE it. It’s lovely on the eyes as well as the fingers. It’s incredibly soft, and it has a beautiful sheen to it. I will be purchasing this yarn in the future, guaranteed (but in a different shade).

I hate to admit it, but I am a resolution kinda gal. The thing is, I don’t have to wait til New Year’s to want to start over, but sometimes it takes an excuse like New Years to kick my butt in gear. One of the more immediate items on the to-do list is to clean this baby up:

Â

It’s hard to be creative when your place of creativity is trashed. It’s hard to find anything in my piles of projects (I guarantee you that I have +10 WIPs somewhere in all those bags). My knitting is MIA in there, I can’t find my crochet projects, and my jewelry stuff is everywhere, and my sewing is buried under everything. Very uninspiring. So I will be cleaning that up in hopes that I can reclaim my creativity and hopefully grasp control of this area. Wish me luck. =P

***

On a brighter note, I made some handbag purchases that momentarily distracted me from my craft room frustrations. This portion of my post is an homage to my friend Jen’s Thursday Purse Days. Not only do I love my new purchases, I got a deal on them too, which I’m sure would make Jen proud.

1. Red Handbag

Â

This handbag was on sale and I paid only $25! It was the last one on the shelf. What’s so great about this was not only the color and the structure of it, it has a coordinating CLUTCH that fits right in - if you need to downsize, it’s so convenient! How awesome is that?

2. Chococat Handbag

It’s Chococat, hellooo! $13 at a Sanrio outlet store. Enough said. =)