Contest time! Get a free pass to Urbandub's First Decade

Remember the pictures I posted of Urbandub? Here's a chance for you to win a pass to the Urbandub's online concert. Here are the mechanics.

1. Post any of the Official Teaser videos or posters on your blog / social network.

2. Include a link to http://Pelicola.tv/AliveOutThere on your post.

3. Leave a comment on this blog post with the link to your post to validate your entry.

4. By May 3, I'll be raffling off AOT online concert passes to 4 lucky fans. Great way to spend the week with your rocker friends!

It's that easy! But if you can't wait 'til May 3, be one of the first to witness Urbandub's First Decade online concert starting April 23 for only 60 Pesos. Purchase a passkey by texting ALIVE60 URBANDUB to 2363 then log on to www.pelicola.tv/aliveoutthere to enjoy the concert! (International viewers can also purchase a passkey via Credit Card)

So just follow the instructions and I'd be posting the winners by then. :) I am excited to see the full concert soon and I hope you are going to watch it with me soon.

Thanks to Pelicola.tv, Globe Tattoo and especially to Urbandub for ten rocking years!

Crochet is Probably the Only Craft I'm Doing Now

Ok, now that I have discovered how addicting crochet is, I always have a ball of yarn or maybe two. In the office, I have a yarn stash ready to be brought out in the evenings that I am trying to relax. After a long day at the client's office, it always feels better to have dinner with my boyfriend and our dear friends. Afterwards, crochet is the next thing left to do to make me calm down a bit. Why? Even though there is counting involved as I loop the yarn through, I have something tangible in my hands that show me what my handiwork is accomplishing. Most of the time, whatever I work on is not tangible. Also, I don't really get involved in the development of the actual products, in a sense. In some ways I am a pattern-maker. But I am itching to be the one to implement the pattern. Crochet lets me do that. I don't have to feel as frustrated with crochet because it's relatively fast enough to do. I could finish a beanie in a couple of hours. :) The starting part is a bit tricky sometimes. Especially if it involves stitches I just learned. But it's so much worth it because a finished product could be given as a personal gift to friends.

I've made 3 variations of the Ethan cap already. The first one I gave to JM but because my crocheting skills were still very much 'raw' at that point, it was a bit too tight. I modified the pattern so that it could fit his head. A bit too snug but not so bad. The second one followed the pattern to the letter. And I used Red Heart acrylic yarn for it. I am glad that the particular variant of Red Heart I got for that was quite soft. So it's ok. That beanie is going to Carl as a late birthday gift. Evelyn liked the texture of the Ethan cap so I made it in some funky old rose yarn. :)

I didn't really have pictures of the first one. :( In any case, I thought of removing one row from Evelyn's hat as I think she doesn't have such a big head. This used practically only one 50g skein of yarn. If ever this becomes a hit, I might consider selling it. I'd either use Red Heart or the funky yarns I saw in Dreams. It's just that Red Heart is a cheaper brand and I could make more yarns from each skein. If ever, please let me know if you'd be interested in an Ethan cap for yourself. I'd be willing to sell you one. ;)

There are so many interesting patterns out there. I actually have several PDFs of patterns I want to make. But I don't have enough yarn or I don't understand the patterns that well yet. I want to learn more stitches actually. If you're also into crochet like PJ and Jonette, maybe we could share stories re: how we learn new stitches, and so on.

I want to share more crochet stories but I should be sleeping soon. I've got work after all.

My first crochet hat

It is attempt 1.5 because the first one failed due to the lack of available yarn. My fault for not buying enough ~_~ Anyway, I ended up making a different hat instead of the one in the pattern because I think I screwed up how a series of steps was supposed to be like.

the hat - a work in progress picture

top view of the hat (when worn)

top view of the hat (upclose)

side view of the hat

me wearing my own hat

So despite me screwing up with the instructions -- that or my stitches are that bad -- it turned out ok, as far as I am concerned as it's something I could wear anyway. :D My first project! Yay!

Learning to Crochet

Looks like knitting might take too much time and effort in finishing a scarf so I decided to try something small. A headband. But as I was looking for knitted headband patterns, I found the crochet ones prettier and simple looking. An evening with Jonette helped me learn the very basics of knitting. I even started making my own scarf. But considering how much time could be allocated to finish the project, it's not doable at this time. :( Anyway, so I saw a knitted headband with crocheted ends which you need to tie behind your head. Being a small project, a headband also seemed like a good thing to accomplish to learn basic crocheting. And so in a span of 24 hours and some browsing on the net, some watching of videos on tv, I now have two finished products. :) Both of them are headbands. XD

The first one was to basically practice the single crochet stitch and a bit of slip stitch.

It's a very basic headband. Just a lot of rows of the single crochet stitch, over and over and over and over again. I just measured the headband against my head to determine when to end it

The second headband I made is based on the pattern I saw on another craft blog. She calls it the simple crochet headband. I like the fact that it's basically just chains and single crochet stitches put together. Its's 3 layers which all meet together at the ends. :) It's all twisted when not worn though.

See how twisted the ends are?

This is what it looks like when worn. Sorry I couldn't take better pictures because I took it in front of the bathroom mirror only.

This crocheting bug is brought to you by Jonette who has taught me how to knit and who has shown me bigger crochet hooks which didn't intimidate me.