Some Crochet

I've been a busy little hooker around here.  (Words my mother never wanted to hear.)  Last week was Spirit Week for ESK and one of the challenges was to make a mascot.  I'm on the Fiber Flock team so I found a flamingo pattern and got to work!  I used the Floyd the Flamingo pattern and some yarn leftover from other projects (which is why he's such a dark pink/red violet color).  I absolutely fell in love with his rose wings!

He was a fun little project to make and I'm happy with my finished flamingo!

I also finished my Mable doily and got it blocked.  I actually stopped two rounds before what's supposed to be the end because I couldn't figure out how to get the next round to look right and line up with what I had.  I went back and double checked and my previous rounds were correct, so it wasn't a case of making up my own round again.  

I looked at the pattern, checked my crochet book, and even spent time watching YouTube videos of crochet trying to figure out what was going on.  Finally, I admitted defeat (or maybe I was just emotionally done at that point) and called it finished.  I'm super happy with how it looks after blocking and I bet you'd have never known that I skipped the last two rounds if I hadn't have told you.

This finished at 16 inches across after blocking.  I crocheted it on a 3.25mm hook with fingering weight yarn.  Obviously Newton approves of it, since he's trying to steal it for his own use.  

Both the doily and the flamingo are put away now where he can't get them.  I don't want him eating anything strange.  Again.

I Warned You This Might Happen

I finished my Sea Aggie Mom socks, and since the Third Quarter Craft-A-Long begins Thursday morning I decided not to start another pair of socks immediately.  Instead I went to the stash and dug out a partial skein of The Loopy Ewe's Solid Series in Robin's Egg Blue.  I grabbed a 3.25mm hook and started crocheting the Mable doily (free pattern).  This is more advanced crochet than I've ever done before, but it's still one stitch at a time, one round at a time, so when I get confused, I just go to YouTube.  Once I figure out what to do, I just crochet happily along until I find the next new stitch that I don't understand.  

I've got about seven or eight rounds left to go before I'm finished, and I am enjoying it.  Since I'm making it in fingering weight wool instead of cotton thread, I'm totally guessing on the hook size.  I don't know if I'm using one too big or too small.  I might make a second doily in a different hook size just to see which one I like best.  Do any of you know how tight or loose these things are supposed to be?  I really have no idea what I'm doing here!