It finally happened. We’ve had an IKEA store in our area for a while now, but we just made it out there yesterday. It was impressive, but I have to confess, a bit underwhelming for me. The furniture is pretty far from what I prefer, very modern with clean lines, understated and simple. I live in an old house and I like the Craftsman styles, and I like furniture well-made out of solid wood. So I can appreciate the look, and the cost, but it doesn’t tempt me. Maybe that’s a good thing! I was tempted by two things, though. We got the cutest metal trash can for dog toys:
If you’ve been a reader for a while, you’re familiar with Grace’s tendency to chew on…everything. We had a plastic milk crate for toys for a while but she destroyed that. Recently we’ve been using a blue plastic Walmart bucket. It worked but wasn’t terribly attractive in the living room. So I’m delighted with this. I might have to take off the lid though. When it moves, it rattles and the noise scares Grace. I want them to be able to get toys out of it!
My other find was an awesome rolling cart. I’d seen other crafters post pictures of this and had coveted it, but honestly I’d forgotten about it until we came across it yesterday. It’s just as cute and functional as I thought it would be.
The girl ever so kindly offered to put it together for me. Thank goodness! I *could* have done it, but honestly…didn’t really want to. She had a bit of frustration with a screw that didn’t want to go in, but very soon I had a complete cart!
Didn’t take long for me to fill it up, either! These are all my current projects that were piled up on top of the radiator (and various other places, if I’m being honest) so I’m thrilled to have a central location for them. AND it’s cute!!
So, YAY, IKEA. Now I can say I’ve been there and don’t really need to go back.
The rest of the weekend was getting fresh purple hair, making more crochet slippers, and hanging out with the pups. One more slipper to make and then I’m DONE with that project.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend too. Bring on the Monday!
At the time, I thought I might make a pair for myself, plus I want to make a few new dishcloths and washcloths. Gotta buy the yarn when it’s cheap, right?
Then it was time to use the small hook (B, 2.25mm) to make the first round, and that was pretty hard to get used to. The holes weren’t quite big enough for the yarn, working around the rubber sole was awkward, and I did split the foam twice. But finally I got to switch to the bigger hook (G, 4.0mm) and away I went. I followed the pattern exactly. I kept going even when it looked suspiciously large, when meant that when I was done, I had this huge clog-type monstrosity. I frogged that without any photos. Second attempt included a decrease row and created this lovely…thing. 
It’s not a great photo, I know, but I think you can tell it’s still rather tall. Also, it was supposed to be a size 7, and I could get it on my size 9 1/2 foot without stretching the cotton too much. Frogged again. This time I went back and read some comments, and someone else’s slipper came out super-size, and the author mentioned that maybe her holes were farther apart and the yarn was stretching more. So that’s a big thing right there: my holes were exactly 1/4″ apart and that was too close together. Let that be a lesson to you.
Grace approved.
I can actually admit they’re kind of cute.
bonnyknits 