A jellyfish, square and a bone to pick.

Thursday was Boyfriend and I's three year anniversary! To celebrate, he took me to a delicious restaurant in Old Town Fairfax, Bellissimo's Northern Italian cuisine. For pictures of the gastronomic feast, check out my 101 in 1001 blog HERE. But that's not what irritated me. When we were driving around looking for parking I spied a sign that said "Stitcher's Stash!" I thought it was a yarn store and got excited and dragged Boyfriend over. It turned out to be a needlepoint shop, full of cross stitch kits and gorgeous hand dyed embroidery threads. When we walked in, there were about 6 older women at a table chatting and crafting. Everything stopped when we walked in and they just stared at us. One of the eldest women, I believe she was the owner, watched me like a hawk as I walked around looking at kits and touching thread. You'd think we were dressed like bums or were loud and knocking over stuff. We were dressed up to go to dinner. She watched us walk around, and the air in there was incredibly tense and so thick you could cut it with a knife. Boyfriend was getting agitated, but I decided I was going to freak these people out more and went looking at the other section. When we left, the owner woman gave us a really weird look. I mean, seriously, what the crap? Is it because we look like we're 16? Is it because people in their early twenties don't cross stitch? Was there a giant LOOK AT US sign stamped on our foreheads? I have every right to be in there as those old fogies do. I've been cross stitching since I was a little girl, and I do embroider, thank you very much. In fact, Boyfriend knows how to cross stitch. (Apparently he cross stitched a bluebird when he was little. How cute!) It really pissed me off and made me feel really uncomfortable. I thought that we all shared these crafts in common and that we could all get along and drink tea and laugh over our projects. I had no idea there was an age separation over what craft I can do or cannot do. And now that I think about it, there's always a little bit of weirdness from the needlepointers when I go into my closest LYS, In Stitches Needlework. The knitting and crocheting ladies are always nice, if I ask them, but they never go out of their way to help. Granted, I'm usually in there with my mom. But is it really that strange to see a 21 year old in your store? I need to find a younger, hipper crowd.

Enough with my ranting, check out my new square:



This is Rainbow, the May 6 inch Ravelry square. I know it's not rainbow colored, but that's the name of it and I don't have yarns in all the colors of the rainbow. I like this, though, My camera doesn't pick up purple too well, forgive her, so it's not as blue as it looks.

And I finished testing the jellyfish pattern for EssHaych! I'm not sure what I'm going to name him, but I do know I need to find a hook so I can hang him up in my room. He came out HUGE. I don't know why. Details below the pictures





Jellyfish by Sarah Louise (EssHaych)
Yarn: Worsted weight purple and orange, both from myklia
Hook: my trusty H hook
Modifications: For the ruffle I had to do 4 treble crochets in one stitch, then one single crochet to give him a true ripply ruffle instead of a wave.
Would crochet do this again? Yes, but I'd use a small hook so he'd be more pocket size.