See this post about the whole fire thing lol https://www.reddit.com/crochet/s/oGPqWxcFsh
Full credit goes to DestinyMakes for the free tapestry pattern.
Not 100% happy with it, it's a bit wonky think the front panel is a row or 2 higher than back panel but I was rushing to get it done in time for a Mitski concert I was going to. The text is a lyric from her song Class of 2013.

So I got this Japanese colorwork knitting pattern book a while back and didn't really know what to do with it. Yes, I knit but I'm not anywhere near skilled enough for colorworking. So I decided to transpose this bag/purse pattern I saw into tapestry crochet, and that I can at least do. However, this is my first full size project with tapestry crochet and it's just so tedious and there are so many single stitches and 😭
Anyway, I'm a sixth of the way done. Also I didn't really know the appropriate conduct for sharing a pattern like this, so I just took a picture of a small portion of the pattern and a picture of the book title and author.
Also, yarn is caron simply soft (I think, it's been a while), and I'm using the yarn under sc in blo method.
(I feel like I write a whole essay every time I post something)

I’m working on a (tank top pattern)[https://www.hookedonhomemadehappiness.com/ombre-crochet-tank-top/], and realizing I may have heavily over-estimated how much yarn it would take. This is a little over a third of the front panel and I’m thinking it’s not going to get into the black of the yarn at the bottom like I was hoping.
Would you keep going to finish the panel and see what happens, or would you cut your losses and frog the whole thing to pick a new pattern?

Finished a while ago and still can’t decide what to do with her. Cover an umbrella? Frame in a hoop? What do y’all think?
Unfortunately, I can’t remember the hook size I used, but she turned out to be just a tad over 26” in diameter.
I purchased the pattern (chart) from Etsy, here’s the listing

The dinosaur craft is my own, though the pattern comes from Rose and Lily Crochet on YouTube so check it out if you want to make your own. I love crocheting, and I also quite like dinosaurs, so I thought I would make a Techno-inspired dinosaur (I made the crown into the yellow spikes).
Originally, I was going to do this with someone who I’m close to IRL, Kyber. Unfortunately, Kyber got a little worried that their tribute might come off as offensive, so I’m here to ask the question that their anxiety won’t let them. Kyber is an author, they’re writing books to try and raise money for their service dog, and they wanted to give Techno a character in their book’s/books’ mythology as a “Guardian of Victory”. The books being sold is what made them anxious. So, I’m asking for them.
Thank you for your time. Happy Birthday, Techno.

I'm making some cute dice bags for my new dnd group, and I'd like to find some alternatives to the accent stitches provided in the pattern. It just needs to be the height of a double crochet and only take one row. Unfortunately, this was a little too specific for google. The ones included in the pattern were regular dc, crossed dc, and bead stitch, Any others yall can think of?
https://preview.redd.it/g8ax7f89vv3d1.png?width=1204&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2c76bd42798d211e75ad9f4dbf57864358a84ac
https://preview.redd.it/f8s9bvkbvv3d1.png?width=982&format=png&auto=webp&s=24d8ffe968ebe5c7d052ec14bf3df1cc877f7171

made my first project with twisted fuzzy yarn. i think it turned out pretty cute! i wish the eyes had a bit more distinction but that's okay. be nice im just a beginner! 😅
yarns:
juicy couture luxe velour sparkle in plonk
bernat velvet twist in alluring peacock
pattern:
amigurumi_crochet_community on instagram

I used a free pattern by HayHay Crochet on YouTube and finished it in 3 days 😊 super proud of how it turned out!

I could hardly sleep I was so nervous to get started, waking as if I was going to the airport. It got very cold overnight, bringing us full circle to the cold wet nights at the start of our trip. Taking a little while to snuggle one last time in the tent, we got up and packed up our gear for one last big ride.
We started in full gear, minus our rain pants. My leggings are totally torn to shreds from riding in, the stitching never meant to accomodate my legs as they are now and the thousands of cycles of long distance riding. They held for the hour or so that I needed them. The first hour of our ride had some low rolling hills that served to keep us warm in the humid 6 degree weather, though the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds. As promised, our start before 6am proved to be windless, an absolute necessity for the route we were taking for the day.
On the coast to Wakkanai there was only one town of a size necessary to have a convenience store, teshio. After an hour we arrived to have our bathroom break and get ourselves prepped for the long stretch between here and Wakkanai, some 75km with no services or support. I was nervous as a breakdown would necessitate flagging a passing truck, there didn't seem to be any transit that ran through here. We picked this way because it was flat and flat means distance. I wanted to beat Bryce's personal best because... Well I suppose if you've ever done solo sports you'd understand. Just because. Felt like a feather in the cap of an otherwise exemplary trip. Why not finish things off with a bang?
North of teshio we got on the highway that would take us on the narrow strip of land that ran between the coastline and the vast swamps that dominate the landscape here. Most of the stripnwas part of the national park that was shared with the series of volcanic islands off the coast to our left. Rishiri towered over the ocean around, a true lonely mountain stabbed out of the ocean like a spear. All around, flatlands just couldn't compete for the eyes like the snow-streaked mountain island. We thought about maybe taking a ferry there from Wakkanai, but we've been to enough places for now.
As we turned north onto the sunset highway, we saw a long, straight line of wind turbines standing guard on the coast, silent. We were surprised at the quality of the road and the degree of infrastructure used to create it, some areas having dozens of kilometers of storm drainage embedded into the road. Why have advanced features when the only residents of the area are wind turbine and migratory birds? Further on, the 60 km stretch of deserted highway even had deployable windscreens, a very expensive and resource heavy means of ensuring the road remains navigable by tall vehicles during heavy winds. There are parallel ways to Wakkanai, and no towns are on this road, why make it so robust?
We cycled on and on, the scenery never changing aside from Rishiri slowly moving backwards in our view. Sometimes there were more wind turbines, sometimes none. Always on our left between us and the water was irregular lumpy hills, and to the right, gravel pit mines. We've seen these odd hills to the left before, looking like peaks in merengue topped with grasses. My best guess is that the highway was built to specification but the ditches to either side were left with less than specific instruction. Why smooth out the dirt if you weren't told to? So now there are endless rows of strange looking hills, all different shapes, looking like a collosal dirt bike track. I'm sure some people use them as such. The gravel pit mines to our right was a typical scene in the so called parks, 60km of land dug out to make concrete to fill the coastline. Maybe the highway was so nice just because endless trucks went back and forth to bring the vast quantities of extracted gravel from the area to other places. The gravel strip had its topsoil scraped off and pushed further to our right, obstructing any view of the land beyond. This we were corralled in a very regular column of sea, hills, ditch, road, gravel pits, hills. On and on, for hours.
We took turns leading, switching every 10km. We stopped for food and drinks and bathroom breaks, feeling like every stop was identival to the last. The sun rose higher and the clouds parted, leaving us with the slightly uncomfortable temperature differential of a cold windy front and a hot sweaty back. Difficult to dress for that, but biking shorts and a sweater seemed to do the trick.
All the while I was keeping my eye on the northern coastline. At some point, we would be able to see Sakhalin, and likely the only time I will see Russia. Until the regime changes and the society becomes more safe for people like me, view from afar is the best I can do. Still, the island is a hotbed of geopolitical historical drama and to see any region of Russia's almost mythical Far East is a treat that only I will boast in my circles.
Finally, some 80km in, the highway changes and we go up and over a small hill and begin rolling down an unmodified coastline towards cape noshappu. We passed through Bakkai, a fishing village that clings to existence like lichen on an arctic rock. Only a few buildings still look occupied, the rest rusting or dry-rotting husks slowly falling apart in the cold salty air. A weather-beaten man with leathery skin waved to us from piles of junk, I wonder what he was up to. A broad-leafed plant reminiscent of rhubarb dominates the landscape here, we surmised it must be invasive as it truly is growing in every crevice of the landscape.
More north and the odd block house planted on the flat land by the coast turns into several, as we enter the community of noshappu near the cape. We see an active school, the first we've seen in days. Everything south of here is shut down, not enough children to run schools. As we approach the cape, massive green installations come into view on the high hills overlooking the cape, great spheres and cylinders all painted in matte shades of green. Military. That explains the overly built highway, this huge installation of dozens of communication and radar facilities must be accessible no matter what weather is occuring. Just to deploy the windscreens installed on that much highway would take... Well it would take an army. Barracks to permanently host hundreds and hundreds of personnel were along the highway, all in the same green. How many more were up in the hills I have no idea.
We tried not to hit too many potholes as we rubbernecked at the giant green shapes on the hill and cracked jokes about keeping an eye on the "ruskies". Before long we were at cape noshappu and it was time for a break. We gazed long at Rishiri and here we caught our first glimpse of Sakhalin, the oft-fought over sliver of the north. A monument nearby told the story of the hundreds of thousands of Ainu who were forcibly removed and evacuated ahead of the red Army's advance in WW2. The island traded hands many times over hundreds of years, falling into the domination of China, Japan, and Russia at different times, but always were the indigenous people treated as an extractable commodity. No ruling nation deserves the place after how the locals were treated. A sad story all around.
Rolling the short distance into Wakkanai proper, we stopped for a light light at a ramen restaurant. We got the local shio ramen, which is a very light broth flavoured with salt (hence shio-salt). The noodles were tasty, and it was served with slices of what seemed to be roast beef. It wasn't very filling, but we didn't want to be full, we needed quick energy as we still had over 60km to go. We took a bit longer to stop at a Seicomart for some energy gels and sports drinks. Willing our bodies to keep going after riding for 100km before 11am, we pressed on.
Wakkanai is a very long city, most of it twenty times longer than it is wide, so it felt like we were riding through a good sized city as we took the main road to the east side of town. We were impressed though at the size of the place, all the usual trappings of a Japanese city, except far far removed from any other. The nearest city of comparable size is 250km away, a truly vast spread for a country where you can't seem to throw a rock and not hit a city if the land is flat. What anchors so many here? Maybe the train line, maybe fishing fleets?
We saw many structures for drying fish along the way, scaffolding for nothing besides the carcasses of innumerable brown fish drying in the cold sun. Windy, chilly, and relatively dry air makes for good drying I suppose. East of Wakkanai the road gently curved around to the north and we struggled a little bit against the relatively light wind from that direction that had picked up. After 12km we stopped at another Seicomart as my body was rebelling a bit and I wanted a bathroom break, a stretch and a chocolate bar to keep going. I scarfed an energy gel and told myself we were almost there, we only needed to go another 12km to the cape. The 30km back, well, that was future problem to figure out.
Gritting my teeth and pushing into the wind, we made good speed through the north facing section and began the looping coastline of the far north reaches of Japan. This being our fifth day in the saddle meant for sore backs, and sore butts. I expected to be a bit giddy at the sight of the last landscapes of our long ride and I was correct in my prediction. One more turn and the cape came into view, the modest triangular monument unmistakable after seeing one just like it three months ago.
I rolled into the parking lot at the cape, my body fizzing slightly. It's done! Finally, the long journey is over. We parked our bikes, took out photos, and had a seat on a nearby beach to have some more fuel. Bryce brought some fireworks that we lit off, making a small nuisance. Someone on a different beach was doing the same, and fireworks on the beach is perfectly legal here, so we enjoyed our little celebration. This was a hard journey, hard in a way I've not experienced because there was no sunk cost to it, we could stop at any time and no change would occur to my life circumstances. Why do this? I suppose it's proof that I can do what is necessary, that I can be resourceful.
I've spent the last five years of my life grappling with various levels of mental distress, ranging from somewhat impaired functionality to a loss of independence that shredded my confidence and led me to constantly make contingencies in case I would falter. The temporary but terrifying lapses in muscle control and the mental storm that accompanied it forced me to build my life with a monster always hiding in a shadow, the what-if preventing me from commiting to responsibilities I used to take in stride. I had to change my career, then change again. Instead of being the person with a five year trajectory, I lived hour to hour, any further plans totally contingent on the day's storm of unpredictable emotions, mood swings, and biochemical fluxes that tormented me.
This trip was a frivolous pipe dream that started as silly pillow-talk, but my unstable mind latched onto it as a buoy, a concrete goal depending on no outside system but my own ability to map out a plan from the delicate, touch and go person I was to the resourceful, able, person I am now. Maybe I would have gotten here anyways, but it was always easier to say "I need to focus on therapy so I can plan out the japan trip" or "Get back on the bike, it's a training day, no matter how depressed you feel. You don't want to suffer in Japan, right?". It feels a bit silly, writing that an international flight to another country would be my beacon to guide me out of a mental storm, that seems like an impossibly contrite and entitled thing. But I suppose everyone has something to latch onto and travelling somewhere to see a different world has been that thing I've dreamed of for a very long time.
That's not to say that I feel cured of my problems, that biking has been a panacea, far from it. I had meltdowns, I flipped out, I had to walk back things I said. Relationships always fray when you're in tight quarters and not having fun and my mental state did not stay lucid at all points. Bryce had to deal with the fragments of me that rule when I'm sufficiently roughed up, the younger and less formed parts of me that rise to the surface with their own goals and motivations. A fractured mind is forever a mosaic, whether or not one wants to acknowledge the gaps between the personalities that emerge from the traumatic process. But what the trip provided (and truly what the point of three months abroad was) was a time to quietly listen and soothe the fractures, to hear the discordant patterns that emerge during times of stress and spend hours, hours and hours on the bike, slowly rehearsing what those fragments needed to hear. I have enough strength to get there. People will help us if we crash. Our bikes will make it if we're careful. We've done all the maintenance we can. I am capable, I am strong, I have compassion for my fear and face it willingly. On and on and on. A chorus of anxious, frittering patterns, all fighting to be heard and satisfied. All I had on the empty highways was time and no ability to distract myself except looking and yelling nonsense at Bryce from time to time.
It took two months for my mind to quiet enough to finally get to the point that I had nothing left to analyze, nothing more to look at and figure out. All the odd shaped buildings, river embankments, mountains, whatever. Future plans, things I want in my life, things I don't want in my life, whatever. After that, when all the shuffled cards are finally in a deck, then I could play the quiet game of solitaire that is self directed mental therapy and make some progress. We'll see how much it amounts to, but my hope is that if I can maintain stability while sleeping in a tent and biking beyond my skill level for months on end, then when I have my bedroom back and can control my diet more effectively that I should find the bumps of life far less troublesome.
Besides, I just biked across an entire country, what better proof to throw at my more negative fractions when I have the doubts as to the next harebrained scheme I come up with?
After dusting ourselves off, we rode back to Wakkanai, the wind at our back and the last 30km fairly easy. We both felt a little less than lucid as we rolled into town, our muscles capable of more but our minds satisfied with the extension of our personal bests. I can remember a year ago when a third of this distance was a huge challenge to me, now to complete three times that and not feel totally destroyed was amazing. Bryce too, who previously had to rent a carbon fibre bike and ride a proscribed track to get near these distances, now easy exceeded it with room to spare. What an accomplishment of the body.
Our final tally was nearly 4000km and 35000m of elevation, four times the height of Mount Everest. My projections on distance and elevation were totally wrong and I'm happy they were, these are much more impressive sounding numbers.
We ate Nepalese food in a daze and hauled ourselves through a grocery store to get snacks and food for the train the next day. A big grin on both of our faces as we knew we didn't have to bike anymore, the quest completed. Good grief! What a lot of biking! We took our places on our hotel bed an snacked ourselves into oblivion, resolving to get up and pack before we got on the train.

After about 3-4 months of practice with crocheting for the first time since my grandma taught me the basics as a kid, I finally took on a more complex project. I started with some granny squares, but then became hooked on Amigurumi. After a few small simple youtube Amigurumi tutorials, I moved on to buying some more detailed patterns from Etsy. These were the two projects I had been looking forward to the most and was working my way up to, was excited with how they came out and just wanted to share.

After about 3-4 months of practice with crocheting for the first time since my grandma taught me the basics as a kid, I finally took on a more complex project. I started with some granny squares, but then became hooked on Amigurumi. After a few small simple youtube Amigurumi tutorials, I moved on to buying some more detailed patterns from Etsy. These were the two projects I had been looking forward to the most and was working my way up to, was excited with how they came out and just wanted to share.