Speech Bubbles and the Last 2 Weeks

Hi!  Yikes - sorry!  I really need to make an effort to post more.  I have had some really good reasons for being MIA, which I will share with you in photos.  New hat to come in the next week!  Thanks for stopping by!  Without further ado, here is what I have been doing since my last post...

11/12-ongoing - Working late with planning for next season and forecasting for next year:

11/18 - Running my third marathon: 

11/18 - And because training has occupied so much [valuable crochet] time, and 3 of us set PRs, here is another picture!

11/20 - Celebrating my 25th (har har) birthday:

 11/22 - Celebrating Thanksgiving: 

11/12-ongoing - Annoying my husband, sister, and Pinterest friends with my rediscovered love of Hottie Sutherland:

Hope everyone had a great holiday!  See you SOON!  

Double-Tail Crochet Santa Hat and Pattern

Hello!  Sorry I have been away.  I have been hanging out a lot with my sister while she is working here for the fall!  Plus, in case you didn't catch that dangling crane on the news, a hurricane hit the NYC recently.  So things have been a little crazy, but I did manage to do some crocheting.  

You may remember I was on a quest to make a cute Santa hat for our Jingle Bell jog.  It has taken a little longer than I expected, but here are the results of my first cute Santa hat attempt.  Check out the pictures below, and click here for the pattern.  It's copyright Teabeans, but you can use it!  

Thanks goes to Molly for choosing the colors & modeling the hat!

  

Dear readers, what do you think??

WIP Friday

So I downloaded the Blogger app to try to get some more posts going, but I am not really satisfied with it so far.  Still, here are some quick snaps of the Santa hat project I am working on!  OMG I cannot even handle how sexy I am in that picture. 

Regularly Scheduled Crochet Post

I haven't been back to the blog as soon as I thought I would be, which means that unfortunately I have not made any of the crochet ideas in a recent post.  I am a married chick now, though!  Sweet!  And six years ago today is the day I met my hubso! High five!

Anyways, a few crochet things.

First, I want to make at least two cute Santa hats for me and my sis to wear in the Jingle Bell jog we are doing in Dec.  If I have time, I will make our husbands some, but I find it unlikely they will want to wear them.  There are literally zero cute Santa hats on Google Images.  Officially, people only make really unattractive-looking Santa hats.  Maybe it's just not possible to make a cute Santa hat.  Like, the universe has a major problem with it.  I don't want to embarrass any poor people who are showing up in Google Images by posting their pics here, so I won't.  But their Santa hats are ugly.  So this adds some real excitement to my mission because I might be in a book of world records for making not one, but two, cute Santa hats for the first time ever in history.

Additionally, I still want to make the cute cinched hat I mentioned earlier.  And I thought of a really cute idea for a circle scarf that would be V-stitches in rounds (maybe like 16?) to make a long tube and then I would connect it at the end.  I think it would be easy and also really cute.

That's all, blog-nobbers!  Hope to be back on the radar very very very soon with some new projects!  How are you?  Anybody got any cute projects going on for fall??

Womb Mates

Well my wedding is 12 days away (OMG SHUT UP WHO CARES GET OVER IT)!  I am 99% done with crafting my paper decorations for it.  Then it's all about the honeymoon, baby!

Speaking of babies... check out these adorable name signs my friend Megan made for our pregnuts friend Monica!  I love that she hung them on banana hammocks stands.  But mostly I love that she hand painted, glued, and ribboned these!  I adore the pink/orange color combo (a fav of mine since Lauren Bogar wore a pink shirt with orange shorts during field hockey practice in HS).  Additionally, how cute are those names????  I can't wait to meet these little ladies!

Hope everyone had a great summer!  Next time, I am getting married in the spring.  I missed the whole summer!!!  But I got a killer fall lined up, and I will be making all of the projects I mentioned in the last post, thanks to all of you awesome readers!!!!!

Which Craft?

Hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.  Is there anyone home?

The weather has been comfortably numb comfortable and cooler lately, which always makes me feel the impending cozy crochet time of year: Fall!  Project Runway, beers, piles of yarn, shooing cats away.  And the best part is that I will officially be Mrs. Iron Martin this time around!

I have been busy as ever finalizing the crafty details of my wedding... programs, placecards, welcome bags, and table numbers.  I am hand-stamping everything, and I am really excited to share with you.  I am also planning on wearing the crochet bathing suit I made in Maui on my 'moon so I will snap a pic of that for you!

Anyways, thanks for dropping by, anybody.  Whacho think of these ideas?  If anyone comments me AT ALL, I will make the project they vote for (what a lame prize haha)!
- Synched up front on a cozy hat
- Chevron stitch hat for a boy
- Surfer friendship cuff bracelet

Love,
Mrs. Marty-to-be-in-39-days

A Picture Is Worth...

101 Reasons...

Whoa... it's been a while since I have been on blogger, and I was NOT prepared for the new blogging interface.  Sorry Teabeans readers for being MIA! 

I just wanted to pop on and say hi.  I have not been doing any crochet crafting because I have been busy with wedding planning, work, running, and general life enjoyment.  I am doing a bit of crafting/DIY for the wedding so I thought I might include some of those details.

Here is our Save-the-Date!  I had a designer I used to work with mimic some classic OC postcards, and then I had it printed at VistaPrint on a real postcard.  Nostalgic & campy, no?

101 Days to go til wedding day.  I can't wait!!!

11 Thingies

Me Brunching with Coffee (/doing my favorite thing in the universe)

I have never done one of these before, but I had instant answers to all of these questions so I thought it would be easy & fun to post.  You guys should do to, and comment me so I can see your posts!!!

1. If money, schooling or time was no obstacle, what career would you choose?
I would eassssily be a summer camp counsellor FOREVER.  Getting the positivity & energy of being around the kids.  Running around being healthy.  Suntans & pool time.  Games.  Being a role model.  EASILY.

2. What’s the one thing you look forward to every day?
COFFEEEEEEEEEE!!!  I like the thought of going to work, just to be sitting at my desk with a big coffee.

3. What is your number one, all-time, favorite blog?
Natalie Dee. Obviously.

4. Biggest online pet peeve?
Facebook.  Shut up about yourself! If you genuinely want to keep in touch with your friends, pick up the phone.

5. What is your all-time favorite book?
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

6. What would your “last meal” be?
Mac & Cheese & Beer.

7. Do you believe in love at first sight?
For sure. I lived it.

8. What would your ideal Sunday morning consist of?
A 7 mile run by the river, followed by a delicious & fabulous Soho brunch.

9. Why do you blog?
I like to share and re-look-at all of my projects in one spot.

10. If you had to choose one color to wear forever, what would you pick?
Dark teal, of course, I mean, have you read this blog ever haha.

11. What is your all-time favorite band?
Pearl Jam.

Here are the rules..

1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

Lists

Oh hi there.

So, my computer took a 4 ft fall that destroyed it's hard drive.  Thanksfully Apple replaced the hard drive for free with my warranty, but I lost...
- Pics (let's be honest, this was probably the best and only way to keep Marty from accidentally seeing me in my wedding dress)
- Songs (current hits like Weird Al's Another One Rides the Bus)
- Microsoft Office (!!!! boo)

We still don't have a new apartment.  Since we are splurging on rent, we are being super picky; but it's stressful and exhausting.  When we get our new place, I am doing the following:
- Making a beer sampler and ordering a giant pizza and watching my favorite Pearl Jam DVDs.
- Crocheting some hats.
- Getting a DVR and DVRing like a mazillion shows and having my giant cozy blanket shipped from Pittsburgh to me.

But on the bright side, this happened last Friday!!!

A Lil Hello

Haha here is a funny picture of Topher chomping on Mister's tail!

Well, we are moving out of the Crooked Nook soon... hopefully... eeek.  Time to be grown ups or something, whatever, who cares.  Anyways, I am a lil bit preoccupied with that/having a nervous breakdown/my ulcers are getting ulcers, so I have not been able to focus on blogging & crafting.  I have a few projs (that is cool slang for projects) in the pipeline of my brain:

- An awesome turquoise hat with a different colored brim that is synched in one spot.  Adorbs.
- A chevron-stitch beanie for Marty.
- A cute pinky baby hat.
- My wedding dress.  JKKJKJKJKJKKJKJK LOLOLOLOL... but for real though getting that sh...thing fit has been an... adventure...

Happy Monday!

www.nataliedee.com

Rag Chevron Throw

"Trust me, man, I been a lot of hats." -  Sincerely, Rag Chevron Throw

Haha did you ever see the movie My Idiot Brother?  The movie is whatever, but it was 100% worth it for one of the final scenes - watch here.

So with that as an intro.... after so many years of crocheting, I have amassed a bunch of leftover scraps of yarn (some still in half-hat form).  I have been meaning to use my random yarns to make an awesome rag blanket so they stop taking up space.  I have also been meaning to make a chevron stitch pillow.  Then one day I saw this Neat Ripple pattern on Ravelry, and decided it was perfect to make an awesome chevron stitch blanket for Marty.  Woot!

I really only looked at how she did the chevron stitch so I can't say that I truly followed the pattern.  See more details below for how I modified the pattern.

I used hook size K10/6.5MM.  I repeated colors, but not in consecutive rows.  I tied new yarn in at the end of a row.  I finished the raggedy edges by knotting over again, and then I trimmed each string to 3 inches.  At the end of each string itself, I tied a knot to avoid fraying.  I had a bunch of thick blue yarn I knew I would never use for anything else, so I tried to use that as a unifying color.  I was skeptical of using my sparkly holiday yarn, but I think it really looks awesome.  I also love the hot pink acrylic row.  So rad.

Marty loves his blanket!  The whole time I worked on it he kept saying how awesome it was, and he has even asked for a chevron stitch hat.  Yey! 

Starfish Slouch Beanie: Part Trois

So apparently my Starfish Slouch Beanie pattern is a "popular post" on my blog.   As a result, I decided to try to re-do the pattern to share on Ravelry.  Although the pattern works, it had some kinks, and I don't think the result is as polished as it could be.  See below for pics and revised pattern!

For this Starfish Slouch Beanie Pattern - click here!

If you are interested in seeing what this pattern looks like with added rows for added slouch - click here!

Snow Storm, Stay Warm

Since I love making wearable crochet, I always love to showcase my work on real people, who really wear it!  Here are pics of my lovely model sister in the Molly Spiral Floves and the matching Eternity and a Day Scarf.   

You too can be this adorable!  ShopTeabeans on Etsy!  hehe

Hope you are staying warm in some handmade crochet!

WHAT?!

OK... it has been a LONG week.  Not gonna front (do people still say that??).  Looong hours at work, half marathon training, volunteering, and trying to squeeze in wedding planning in any second of free time if possible.  Normally I try to make every second of my life productive, but tonight I was going to veg and drink a beer and tweet and watch Tabatha Takes Over (which WILL NOT PLAY ON ON-DEMAND I NEED A TIVO SO SAD).  Anywahsss, I logged on to Ravelry, and apparently my Criss Cross Hat pattern is getting a ton of hearts??  

I kinda hoped the floves would, and I was stoked to see they hit over 100 hearts today, but then I saw the hat got 89?!  And was on the homepage of the crochet patterns?!  Exsqueeze me, backing powder?

So getting back to my earlier point... I wasn't going to blog or anything, and then I saw that.  Thanks for reading everyone/anyone!  And thank you to Melanie for asking about the Criss Cross pattern!  I sure hope everyone who queued it can make it - I am nervous about the pattern's accuracy.

Happy Friday!!!!

Blog Love, Cat Love

Please allow me to deviate from my normal blog nob fare of craft crochet thingies to tell you about KittyKind (and also my cats).  So we adopted Mister a few years ago after we moved into the Crooked Nook.  Marty was working late nights, and I wanted a buddy around.  

Anyways, it was fine until Marty got normal hours, and then Mister started to seem to be more like purring furniture than a lively pet.  He doesn't care for playing so for the 3 hours at night we were home, he pretty much continued to lay around until bed time.  What a sad existence!  

Anyways, we were very blessed to have such a sweet cat.  Neither of us were cat people AT ALL, but in NYC it's hard to have a dog if you have a busy lifestyle and a small apartment.  Every single human who has met Mister has fallen in love with him.  He is not shy and will work his way onto anyone's lap for a purr session.  In fact, at KittyKind his listing said: "100% chance of...love showers."  KittyKind is a no-kill shelter. It's so hard to believe, but Mister was actually returned once because he was TOO snuggly. I am not even joking.

Sooo we were both very skeptical about adopting another cat.  We had a good thing going with Mister:  he is so sweet and completely non-destructive.  One night I was volunteering at KittyKind, and I mentioned fostering a kitten.  Five days later we had a munchkin.  Things were rocky for less than a month, with Mister hissing & sometimes attacking Topher.  Now, Topher is just as much a snuggler as Mister (slightly more shy), and Marty adopted him a month later:

The two boys (Mister & Topher!) play several times daily, which just makes my heart so happy!  Here is a video, but I am dying to get a good one of them romping around & chasing each other!!

Anyways, the moral of the story is:  if you live in NY, you should consider adopting from KittyKind!  And if you don't, you should consider adopting your cat and supporting no-kill shelters.  Here is Topher's success story on the KittyKind blog.

Criss Cross Crochet & Knit Pattern

Heyoo!  So an awesome blog-nob visitor emailed me asking about my Evenstar Criss-Cross hat.  I thought that was really cool that she was trying to make the hat, and I really wanted to help her with the pattern.  It's so hard to explain so I re-did the hat, and I have posted the pattern here.  Pics & notes below!

Unlike the original Evenstar pattern, this pattern incorporates knitting - my first attempt at this ever!  I think the effect came out great.  I have included ideas for if you want to finish the pattern in crochet.  I haven't knitted since my age was in the single digits so this was a bit of a challenge, but I got it on my second try.  If not, I would have nixed the knit and gone crochet all the way haha.  Here is a close up of the knit/crochet sections meeting:

Here is another side view.  Not psyched on how these pics came out this morning, but I think you get a good idea.  Maybe this weekend I will update the blog with some cuter pics of the hat!

PLEASE: if you attempt make this hat, let me know if you have any issues!  I will be happy to help explain or revise any errors in the pattern.  Also if there is a real name for the "quadruple chain" stitch, I would love to hear of it.

I get wherever I'm going, I get whatever I need

Hi!  Oh I hate when I have a few good projects going, but nothing finished to share.  I was out of town doing some wedding planning, and my mom brought some new yarn I had left over Christmas.  I decided to pause work on my blanket to try to redo this hat.  A reader emailed me asking for the pattern, and of course I have not written it down so I am doing that now.  Here is a sneak peak!

I am trying to incorporate knitting into the finished product so that should be interesting!  I had learned how to knit when I was a child, but I only recently have picked up needles again.  It is so frustrating to be new at a craft again.  I feel like when you lose a stitch knitting then you lose the whole project.  And casting off was definitely a challenge.  I was on the edge of my chair, sweating, hands-cramping.  Ha!

Hopefully pics & pattern in the next few days for the above hat.  Until then, enjoy this pic of me and my cat buddies reading up on casting off.  Check out the sweet thermal sweatpants and puffer slippers.  Chat soon!!

Hello & Welcome & Bienvenido & Willkommen

Ever since CrochetPatternCentral.com posted some of my patterns, traffic to TeaBeans has skyrocketed (by TeaBeans-standards haha!).  So, for all the newbie visitors from around the country, here is a snapshot of what you missed the last six years!  It was hard to choose, but these are my favs from each year (my options for 2012 were kind of limited...).

Clockwise from top right:  Owl Mosaic (2007), Blushing Flame Floves (2008), Running in Circles Necklace (2009), Favorite NYC Slouch Hat (2010), Indian Summer Swim Suit (2011), Eternity and a Day Scarf #2 (2012)

Anyways, right now I am working on an AWESOME blanket, which is saying a lot since I hate making blankets.  I am also working on refining and writing down the patterns for 2 older hats that several readers have emailed about.

Just wanted to give a heads up since I probably won't be able to post for a few days - off to the beach to meet with a mazillion wedding vendors!

Eternity and a Day Scarf: Part Deux

One time recently my sister mentioned that she liked my Eternity and a Day Scarf.   Hopefully she wasn't lying because I decided to make her one for Christmas to go with the floves she asked for.  Welllllllll.... this scarf takes forever to make.  I thought maybe the first time it was just because of the yarn I was using, but nope.  So it didn't make it on time for Christmas, but here it is now!  Molly, if you are reading this: the scarf is in the mail!

Pics & pattern below.

To download the full (FREE!) pattern - click here!

Smiling is My Favorite

Here is a picture of my cute sister modeling the gloves I designed & made for her for Christmas!  See the original post here.

Knit, Knee

Hiyo!  Happy New Leaf!

I hurt my knee pretty bad a few weeks ago so I haven't been able to train for my upcoming race.  I have a few pics and projects to post tomorrow; but since I won't be working out tonight, this is what I will be doing.

Anybody have any craft-related resolutions?