Another month, another hobby. This month, I decided to try out needle felting. It is a craft where you felt wool by stabbing it repeatedly with a needle. Through adding more wool and using different colors, you can build up little figures and shapes. It only took one afternoon of stabbing to make this little unicorn. It is a nice “snack” sized hobby. A craft for when I want to complete a thing that same day.

As I have started working from home, I use candles to keep me at my desk and working. It is silly, but it works for me in some sort of weird Pomodoro type way. I refuse to leave a lit candle alone and I wait until the wax is melted evenly across before I blow it out. With my new scented candle life, I have encountered problems I have never had before.

Lots of things have happened since I last posted this May. The pandemic is still on. I have a job. And I have craft supplies exploded everywhere over the house. I have started to do diamond painting. It is like cross stitch but I am sticking little plastic drils onto a canvas. Sometimes I don’t want to be stabbed by a needle when crafting. The unicorn called to me. It demanded to be made.

I got into a good embroidery groove last week during an online conference, I was able to get a bunch of the light green leaves started and work on the outline. And then, I broke the needle. I had a backup, but it was difficult to rethread the needle while it was attached to the work. I haven’t broken a hand needle in ages. It was surprising when I heard the snap.

I don’t always crochet only in Zoom calls, I also watch bad movies and crochet! I am still zooming through projects. I started this shawl because my friend Amanda was asking which pattern to try first, a rectangular shawl or a triangular one. I prefer triangles because they are routinely less stitches to cast on. I hate casting on in both knitting and crochet. I am always afraid of having too many or too few stitches.

I had made little bundt shaped brownies earlier in the day and was craving ice cream. The problem was that it was late at night and all the stores close early. The solution… start up my ice cream maker I haven’t used in years. It took some time to find a recipe I could use. I have a dairy allergy and a nut allergy. I finally settled on a creamer based recipe as I still had oat milk creamer.

Thank you The Princess Bride and the Dread Pirate Roberts for that memorable and oh so applicable quote. Thanks to this pandemic, I decided to try my hand at sewing masks. I documented my process on Twitter, but feel free to enjoy this long form version as well. My soldering station has been switched to sewing. pic.twitter.com/hODEzsEGux — Jenn (@geekgalgroks) April 13, 2020 This was the first mask I have tried and I followed this Craft Passion pattern.

In this time of pandemic and stay at home orders, Zoom cocktail and social hours have become a thing. Which means I have things now on Tuesdays and Fridays and I am sure I could be doing things other days as well. But virtual cocktail hours mean I don’t leave my house, wear comfy clothes, and I can drink what I want. It is the BEST!!!! I have started to crochet during these, especially in the bigger calls.

I got the urge to clean up by the side of my bed. It really was a quest to find the lemon yellow yarn to make another bag. I ended up filling my new bag full of skeins and projects. I didn’t realize I had that much cotton yarn hanging out next to me. I am going to be making SOO MANY bags. I have been busy watching Disney movies and crocheting.