I was originally inspired to make a crochet safety cone because of a pin version I bought from Nut and Bee. First off, if you don’t know Nut and Bee, check out their site. Someone near and dear to me took to the pin, placed it on a messenger bag with the idea that it would protect from everything bad out there. (Would have preferred an infinite number of them!) A soft, more 3-D version seemed in order!

One of the first times I sold the safety cones on Etsy, it was a lot of 6 that was requested. (Buy them here!) The reason? She was buying them for a friend’s cubicle. A week or so after I sent them out, the friend contacted me with a very positive response and the subject line “Safety Cones Everywhere!” She writes: “I work in construction management and I have done lots of envrionmental work, so safety cones hold a very special place in my heart (i.e. I don’t get hit by cars, and you always feel safer when they are around). Looking forward to brightening up my office with the cute little cones!” Um, that’s adorable! And the thought of the six of them in an office fills me with glee. Yes, glee. More pics here.

A week or so later, someone else bought cones! 5 of them this time around, and for multiple friends. This woman is moving away and wants them to “stay safe” after she does so. How cute! I love the stories that often accompany Etsy purchases. It really brings a personal aspect to virtual shopping.

Want the pattern? Click below!

You Will Need:

F hook
orange cotton yarn (I use Sugar ‘n Cream)
two black beads
black embroidery thread
stuffing

Square Bottom

Ch 7 and *sc across, ch 1 turn. (6sc)
Repeat from * 5 more times.
Ch 1 and sc down sides, making 3sc in each corner.
Join, snip.

Cone Top

Ch 2 and make 3sc.
Make 2sc in each. (6sc)
2sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, sc. (8sc)
2sc in the first sc; sc the rest. (9sc)
Sc for 1 round.
2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc. (11sc)
Sc for 1 round.
2sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc. (14sc)
Sc for 2 rounds.
2sc in the first sc; sc the rest. (15sc)
Sc for 1 round.
Join, snip, leaving a 10-inch tail.

Sew on two black bead for eyes, positioned about 2sc apart. Place the mouth about 1 round below the eyes. Stuff the cone and with the 10-inch tail, sew onto the base, making sure to center it. Ta da! Safety cone is ready to protect you.

Some old designs, first: my football beer cozies, baseball beer cozies, and rainbows are off to Youngblood Gallery & Boutique in Atlanta, Georgia. This will be my 2nd gallery experience, although this time around, they are not part of a show, but taking up residence in the boutique part of the venue. Exciting!

Some more old designs, but slightly modified: my clementines are going to the beautiful vintage baby site, The Baby Gardner. But, to make these more baby-friendly and baby-happy, they will have French Knotted yarn eyes (instead of beads) and little bells inside. Yep, they are adorable clementine rattles!

And now for some brand-spankin’ new designs! The saddest item I’ve ever seen on a restaurant menu is “sauteed baby octopus,” and even though I do eat fish, the image of a tiny octopus on a plate can only evoke melancholy in me. So, as a tribute to these cute little creatures, my very own baby (blue) octopus:

Finally, a little green frog that reminds me of a cactus-meets-alien-meets frog. Both the frog and the octopus are made from organic cotton, a super soft yarn, from Lion Brand that comes in really nice, muted colors.

Amidst a lot of writing, and I mean, A LOT of writing, sometimes I forget how much my Etsy shop factors into my day-to-day life, in terms of creativity and workload. Just when I feel like I have a handle on my 5+ jobs, someone goes and orders 5 crochet items, and suddenly, I am bogged down in yarn again. Kind of a nice thing to be bogged down in, however!

I am approaching a pretty big milestone: 500 sales! I am currently at 496, and to celebrate the future 500th, I am giving the lucky buyer free reign over my store. Okay, that’s not true! But the buyer of my 500th item can choose any other item for FREE, no matter how big or small. And if I get really ambitious, I may have a sale or promotion even after I get there.

I have written about pigs before, here and here, and probably mentioned my struggle with liking them, but also, um, eating them. With all the veg-heads in my life, a bombardment of information about the food industry, particularly the meat industry, and a general respect for nature and life, I go back and forth about my animal-eating ways. I’m also a barbecue-lover and sadly can’t quite quash my cravings for political reasons.

With that said though, I will entertain both opposing sides: I designed the above (vegetarian) crochet organic cotton pig for my Etsy Shop and I also wrote a guide for Guidespot on New York barbecue. I know, such a cruel juxtaposition, right?

Sometimes I am completely taken in by advertising, succumbing to impulse buys purely because I judge a book by its cover, so to speak. In this case, I gave into the adorable faces of ike & sam, a kettle and a piece of popcorn. I’m sure there are others out there like me who make a purchase such as this one, just to have those faces inside your house? Right?

I do love kettle corn, though, and I unknowingly bought the caramel cheddar. Unknowingly? Yeah, I was completely entranced by ike & sam that I never even looked at the flavor written at the bottom. Love at first sight I tell you. Anyway, this is some tasty stuff, and it’s made in Brooklyn! Woot woot! I am already considering designing some crochet versions of ike & sam and pitching them to the company. I see a partnership down the road. Yay ike & sam!

We’ve all experienced writer’s block, myself included, at one time or another. But, crocheter’s block? Well, I’m currently experiencing this creative affliction! Help! I do have tons of ideas about future designs and patterns, but nothing that stands out to me at the moment. Do YOU, dear readers, have ideas? Crochet items you’ve only dreamed of? A pig with wings? Rainbow-colored gumballs? A smiling light bulb? Let me know in the comments or by email: aliciakachmar@gmail.com

In other news, check out my vegan chocolate cake recipe on Instructables! I wrote about it here once upon a time, but decided to enter it in their cake contest. Vote for me?

I have a very small piece in Time Out magazine about my “gripe” with New York post offices. “The gripe” is a semi-new, submission-based feature that is your platform for complaining about anything in New York. I have a much larger piece I occasionally add to, on account of my frequent post office trips, but I condensed it to this 200-word version.

I am the Manhattan “creative and local writing maven” for a fun new website called Guidespot. Basically the site will be full of guides for anything and everything: lonely old man bars, a guy’s guide to a marriage proposal, Patriot Day in Massachusetts, etc. Check out my content, thus far, and of course, spread the word.

When my sister and I were little, we fought over the little black hook in the above picture. It’s for hanging dry-cleaning on one of those handles at the top of a window inside a car. Well, I don’t think I’d ever been to a dry-cleaners with my family, but for some reason we had it. Since there was only one little hook, each one of us would move it back and forth to our respective sides. We called it “The Olive,” because it is roughly the same size as one, shiny, and black. Why didn’t we call it an “S” I now wonder? (But really, is there an actual name for these?)

At some point, The Olive moved on from the car (perhaps when that Mazda was covered in duct tape and finally kicked the bucket?) and into the house. The new game was much more complex: hide The Olive anywhere in your room, and when the other finds it, it’s her turn to do the same thing. (Man, remember when you used to play like this???) Sometimes it took hours, sometimes months to find it, but back and forth the game went to the tune of “I’ve got The Olive! I’ve got The Olive!” Until one day, I hid it and my sister couldn’t find it, and eventually, even I forgot where it was.

…ten years later (seriously!), I *just* found it! It was in my room, meaning that I was the last to hide it, but I have little recollection of the hiding place. I was cleaning out my room and noticed some containers of Play-Doh on a book shelf (yay!). I opened one and touched the top of it: yikes stripes, getting a little dried out! I began the motion of tossing the blue one out, when for whatever reason I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if this one is soft on the bottom.” Alas! The Olive was stuck into the bottom of the Play-Doh! My heart leapt, but only because for a split-second I thought it was a worm of some sort! Then the little memento registered in my head, and I ran down the stairs screaming to tell my parents! (I only wish it had happened a few days before when my sister was home as well!)

My sister and I have yet to decide how to proceed next: I hid it and also found it, so whose turn is it next? Regardless, good memories!

On a happier note, I finally received my copy of Amigurumi Animals, after taking 3 months en route from Europe. There are 15 patterns for crochet creatures, but I am not included in that section. I am in the back of the book as part of the Amigurumi Gallery section, where a bunch of Etsy sellers and other crochet designers have some pictures of their work and a short blurb. It’s really exciting, and I can’t wait for the day when one of my patterns is in a book!

We walked through the park on a 55-degree day, past the zoo and the beautiful Audubon Center. The ice was not in perfect condition because of the warmish weather, but it was skate-able. We laced up our skates, Ian looking terrified, me feeling exhilarated. A little girl befriended me immediately, taking my hand and skating halfway around with me. Ian and I got snacks from the snack bar–nachos with “cheese” sauce and a hot pretzel–and then debated on going back out again. There were only 20 minutes left to skate! He shrugged; I said come on! So, we did!

Ian usually skated at least 6-8 feet behind me, because he’s more timid and a wee bit worse as a skater than I. ( I say “wee bit” because I am really not that good either!) I often looked back to see if he was doing okay, because the one time I didn’t in the beginning, he fell and was sad I didn’t come back for him. So, lo and behold, Ian falls and here begins one of those moments that seems to happen in slow motion. I go to turn around by skating in a half-circle before I start coming towards him, but my feet buckle, or I trip, or I’m not even really sure what happened! He said I had a little smile when I first made eye contact, but it quickly turned to terror when I knew I was falling. My feet went up and to the side. I fell first on my hip, and then the side of my head and face smacked against the ice, bouncing upwards, I see a flash of light, and I felt the worst head pain I’ve ever had.

I was in shock for a second, then cried, and the Wollman Rink skaters helped me off and into First Aid. Icing…head blaring…body aching…I see the little girl who befriended me, she asks if I’m ok, and I say “yeah” through my tears…ambulance…vitals…thank God I have insurance…ER…waiting…waiting…this hospital is crappy…waiting…panicking out of boredom…Ian goes home…panicking more…my phone dies…time ticking away…finally I see the doctor! Oh, have I mentioned that probably the worst ice skating movie EVER was on in the ER waiting area? The Cutting Edge 3. Priceless.

Worst-case scenario, I thought, “concussion.” He looked at the lump coming out from my temple and said, “We have to do a CAT scan, make sure there isn’t a fracture.” OHMYGOD. I’m pretty sure there isn’t, as I’m guessing I’d be in a lot more pain. My sister comes to keep me company, and I sit next to a man who has appendicitis and kidney problems as his girlfriend reads from the Bible. That was the most peaceful 5 minutes of the entire time. No fracture. I’m discharged!

Diagnosis? “Contusion of face, scalp, and neck except eyes.” Translation? The side of my face is a little jacked up and I have a headache. But, it sounds way worse than it looks. Luckily, my cheeks are always red, and if I tape my hair over half my face, you can’t even see it. (Kidding! Isn’t it funny how the ice broke me, but then applying ice lessens the pain and swelling?) And thus ends a sad story about a girl, who found a pair of skates and wanted to take her boyfriend to her most favorite rink, in her most favorite park, in the whole entire world, who subsequently was wronged by water in its solid state and by her deep concern for a boy named Ian.