Hobbies: Part I

With very little baking getting accomplished during my post-work hours, one might wonder just what in the world I've been up to.  Well for starters, Mr. Koala and I have been burning through our Netflix list to catch up on television series that recently piqued our interest: Fringe, The Mentalist, Heroes, and Lost.  (Honorable Mention goes to Criminal Minds, which we've been catching on A&E and Ion)  Yep, there's nothing better than cuddling up on the couch with my husband, a good show, and some freshly made popcorn topped with real butter and salt.  (I can't stomach most varieties of microwave popcorn, so my loving husband kindly prepares fresh popcorn for me ♥)

But lest you think we've been doing nothing but couch surfin', here's what else I've been working on:

Crochet Cheeseburger Coaster Set (get the pattern)

 Also in the background is a granny square blanket I made a few years back. It's surprisingly warm, considering how many holes there are in it.

Fibonacci Stripe Blanket - This is usually what I work on while watching all those tv shows.  It requires very little concentration and is very easy to methodically work on with my eyes glued to the screen :D  It's going to take me a while to finish, especially since I designed it to be 7+ feet long--enough to keep my 6' 3" husband bundled up.

Why Fibonacci Stripes?  Well I read somewhere some time ago that a stripe sequence with stripe widths corresponding to numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence are most pleasing to the eye.  Armed with this information, I plugged in the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4*, 5, and 8 into Biscuit & Jam's Random Stripe Generator to produce a pattern to work from. 

* Hold the train!!!  4 is NOT a Fiboacci number, you crazy woman!  Yes, I know.  But the Random Stripe Generator does not allow duplicate numbers.  I entered the number "4" in as a stand-in for the other "1" in the sequence, then made the correction typed out my pattern.

Here's a shot of something I started 3 years ago but never finished:

It's supposed to be a cable knit handbag.  As you can see, it is painstakingly complex and requires too much concentration to complete successfully while watching my favorite tv shows.  When it is done, it will easily be the most difficult looking knitting project I have worked on (the process itself isn't difficult, just meticulous).  I am determined to finish it by the end of the year though...


So that's a brief glimpse into some of my other hobbies when I'm away from the kitchen.  Not to start any debates here, but what's your preference: KNIT or CROCHET?