300 Strips of Paper!

It finally came! In my last post, I mentioned that I was waiting for Extra Stuff for Twirled Paper to arrive, and it did!
 

I admit, I already took out one a bunch of strips to work with.

I'm so excited to start rolling up my little paper spirals again.  School started, though, so I can't make them as quickly as I would like to, sadly.  Here are some close ups of the strips:

 

The Second Start of Quilling

Many years ago, my mom (I mean Santa, cough) gave me the book Twirled Paper by Jacqueline Lee for Christmas.  I thought it was pretty awesome, so I made these nifty creatures using the instructions in the book:

Don't ask me what kind of bird this is, because I don't know either.

Froggy!!!

Then, a couple of months ago, I came across a picture of a vase made out of paper spirals online, and I finally knew what I wanted to do with all those strips of paper I had left.
This is my progress so far:

That MASSIVE black one is going to be the base :)

I ran out of paper, though, so I made a few by myself, but it takes so much time to measure and cut all the strips that I quickly gave up on that.  I looked online, and sure enough, there's an extra kit to go with the book.  I ordered it yesterday and now I'm just waiting for it to get here so I can start quilling again!!

Friendly Friends!

One of my friends went to New York for New Year's, and he was nice enough to bring me back this magnet. I've always wanted to go to Time Square for New Year's, but part of me thinks it would just be too crowded and cold, especially since I'm a summer person!  

I just realized how not centered and out of focus this picture is!

It's really nice to get unexpected gifts, and I guess you could say it made me want to pay it forward...or something like that :)

Puffy Pompom Hat

Free Crochet Pattern

Gemjen is modeling the hat

Super bulky yarn is so fun to work with, and looks amazing as well.  For my hat, I used Lion Brand's Hometown USA super bulky Phoenix Azalea (A) and Minneapolis Purple (I think; I threw away the wrapper before I got the color) (B) I love these two yarns together because the phoenix azalea has hints of purple in it, making them match perfectly.  You can use any two colors you want, though :) 

The finished product!

Materials:  Super bulky yarn in 2 colors, N hook, tapestry needle, scissors

Note:  This pattern is worked in the round, but if you joined after each row, I'm pretty sure it would make the jump from (A) to (B) less prominent. 

With (A):
Round 1: 6sc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2hdc in each stitch around (12)
Round 3: 1hdc, 2hdc in one stitch around (18)
Round 4: 2hdc, 2hdc in one stitch around (24)
Round 5: 3hdc, 2hdc in one stitch around (30)
Round 6: 4hdc, 2hdc in one stitch around (36)
Round 7: hdc around (36)
Round 8: hdc around (36)
Round 9: hdc around (36)
Round 10: hdc around (36)
Round 11: hdc around (36)
Round 12: sc around (36)

Switch to (B):
Round 13: sc around (36)
Fasten off and weave in ends

Make a pompom using (A) and (B) (youtube has a bunch of tutorials for making them), and sew it onto the top of the hat.

A couple of artistically taken photos:

 

Please do not sell or distribute this pattern, but feel free to tell people you got it from here!