I’m really excited to share this news with you guys! You can help vote a dress into production that has an all-over print based on my crochet goodies!

18 weeks ago (thanks, Instagram!) I posted this photo of some crocheted fruits and veggies I made for a mysterious collaboration. Now you get to see what these are for!

Betabrand, a San Francisco-based company, collaborates with its customers on a designer, model, and investor level, creating a community and a brand all at the same time. Have you heard of the dress pant yoga pants and the dress pant sweatpants? That’s Betabrand. They asked if I wanted to collaborate on something fun, and I said, of course! They felt that something fruit and veggie themed would appeal to both of our customers, and then they whipped up these dress designs!

There’s a 2-step process for making designs come to life at Betabrand. 1) The design needs to get enough votes to go to sample-making and crowd-funding. 2) The design needs to get funded to get produced. I am currently in Phase 1, so if you could hop on over to Betabrand and vote, that would be super duper awesome! Also, if you have feedback, like “I like the one on the right, but in black,” or, “I like the top part of the white one but the bottom part of the black one,” please do leave that feedback at the Betabrand website, since we’re interested in what everyone thinks!

I started writing this pattern at 7:30pm and I’m still not done at 5:20am. It’s a small pattern, based on some projects I’ve made in the past, and when it’s finished, and when you eventually work it up one day, it will probably only take you 30 minutes to complete. I have taken this thing apart and started over at least 5 times, trying slightly different stitches, putting the increases in slightly different places, just little tweaks and toggles in the attempt to make the pattern as easy and logical (and cute!) for you as I can.

This book is taking waaay longer than I ever expected. I’ve been feeling a bit disappointed in myself for not being able to write this as quickly as promised and predicted, but I’m always happy when I have these little victories, where crocheting and re-crocheting a tiny thing for hours and hours finally feels like it’s working just right.

Have you guys seen the video tutorial for making Legos out of Jello? My dad posted it on my Facebook page a little while ago and was like, “You should make this!” So I thought it would be a fun experiment and also a cool Father’s Day gift.

The guy on YouTube cast his own Lego mold, and I wasn’t about to get that crazy, so I bought this mold and this mold from Amazon (affiliate links). I think you can use whatever ice cube tray or candy mold you want, as long as it’s silicone, so that the Jello pops right out. Also the King of Random video called for corn syrup, which I failed to get at the store, but he said it was to add smoothness, so I figured… if my Legos were a tiny bit less SMOOTH, life would still go on. I also looked at this tutorial for research. What seemed to be the Jello Lego ideal was to get your Legos super CLEAR and not cloudy, so I became a little obsessed with Jello clarity and was a bit hard on myself, so it’s good to have someone else in the kitchen to slap you in the face and tell you to get over yourself.

I’d read that you’re supposed to overfill the molds a little bit due to shrinkage, but I didn’t experience that much shrinkage. Here’s what I put in the mold: I mixed 3 oz. of flavored Jello with 1/4 cold water. Then I slowly mixed in 1 packet of Knox gelatin. The gelatin tends to clump and stay clumpy even on the stove, so a slow mix seemed to be the ticket. Then I heated the mixture on the stove for a few minutes on low heat until everything looked dissolved (to be frank, everything already looked dissolved anyway, but I put it on the stove because it seemed like I was supposed to). Then I poured the mixture into a glass. You wait a few minutes so that all the foam and cloudy bits rise to the top and you can spoon it off like a pudding skin. This is all part of that Jello clarity thing, if Jello clarity is important to you. Then you can go ahead and pour it into the molds. I had squeezy bottles to get the Jello into the mold, but as it turned out, pouring it out of a cup worked perfectly fine.  Then you just let the molds set for 5-6 hours, on the counter, not even refrigerated or anything, while you eat Chinese delivery and watch the Bachelorette.

As you can see, I don’t have the clearest Jello Legos, and some of my Lego nubs didn’t fill all the way. Also, my Legos didn’t actually stack, because you have to get a Lego base plate and spray it and slap it on the top of your mold while it sets, and my mold wasn’t even actually Legos anyway…they were bigger, maybe more like Duplos? BUUUUUUUTTTT they were still super cool, and they still had a dericious Jello-y flavor. I think I ended up getting all my ingredient proportions wrong, but, whatever, I will mark this experiment as a success!

My super cute friend Chrissa Sparkles is celebrating her birthday today! And as part of her bday week celebration, she is hosting a Yummy You giveaway! Enter to win a 14-character Sanrio cupcake scarf at her website ! Today is the last day to enter! Also checkout the video she posted to her YouTube channel showcasing some Yummy You! goodies!  Happy Birthday, Chrissa!!!! <3

1. Sometimes I feel like I have to sneak you guys a peek at what I’m working on for the book, because otherwise it seems like I’m not doing anything at all…! 😛 Apparently, I like to sneak in at least one felted/fulled crochet project in my books, and this time it’s gonna be a taco! I haven’t felted anything in a long time, because when I moved a few years ago, I got a front-loading washing machine, and I’d heard that those could be more difficult to felt things in (and doing it in the sink takes FOREVER and is ARDUOUS). Recently, I read this post on Knit Like a Pirate about felting IN THE DRYER. IN. THE. DRYER. I know to most people, this news is like HUNH?, but to me, this news is LIFE CHANGING. I will definitely start felting projects again!!!! It takes a bit longer (like over an hour in the dryer) than when I felted in my top-loader, but, it beats felting in the sink by a long shot.

2. I am actually NOT vending any longer at Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco in July. I received an email that the fair had a misunderstanding with the venue about how many vendors they could have, and I got the boot. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this (a little bit of WHAT?! and a little bit of stress-relief), but I am going to use the items I’d planned for Renegade to re-open my Etsy shop after I finish writing my book. PLUS, I get to go to the fair and relax and enjoy myself and take my time, so I definitely actually look forward to that, and I might still see you there!

3. I’m hosting a guest this weekend: the super cute and talented desert elf princess Iggy Starpup! I’m so excited!! I’m super exhausted but also excited!!! All I know so far is rice krispie treats, nachos, and photobooths. That’s all pretty awesome in and of itself. Have a great weekend!!!! Don’t forget to check out my current giveaway!