Crochet project du jour

I forgot my friend MSM's birthday (sixteen days ago! I am a cad!) and she's just moved into a new place. I'll see her on Saturday. I needed a wee giftie, STAT! As I prefer handmade to mass-produced, I turned to my trusty eMac and surfed the net for some quick knitting or crocheting projects.

My original idea was to whip up a mesh shopping bag in a fun color (lurking in my stash are crochet threads in Pumpkin, Parakeet & Burgundy). During my browsing, however, I got distracted by the blog Knitting For Boozehags and then found the best alt-knitting pattern collection I've ever seen. There, among the many delightfully distracting ideas, I found today's Holy Grail: the Toilet Paper Roll Cozy Crocheted to Look Like a Piece of Sushi. I wish that I had a digital camera to show-off my finished item, but the authoress' versions are priceless. It was instant gratification and Virtuous Refraining from Spending, too: the whole thing took me about three hours from stash yarn, plus time off for a nice big home-made dinner salad.

Then I found this year's birthday gift to myself: I'll have to make it, but it's a doozy. It resonates in a strange overlapping way with many of my interests.