This-n-That Kinda Week

I’ve had what felt like a completely discombobulated week.  No one had any camps to attend, but we still had little things to do each day…dental appointments, Moms Group meeting, never-ending errands to run.  And we fit in a fun thing each day, too, even if it was just making cookies.

But I’ve not settled on a topic for today’s post.  Thus, I’m showing you a couple of things I’ve done this week that turned out great, and a teacher gift I haven’t finished yet but I know you might need an idea NOW for the beginning of school.


This is the accomplishment I’m most proud of this week…I knitted a pair of socks for the first time…and they wound up the same size…and they fit me!  I’m just pretty amazed. And addicted.


This is the book I used to teach myself…I found it super easy to follow, with tons of photos and great explanations. I used the 5-needle method, by the way.  The hubs was impressed with my dexterity (which I’m sure was a sight to see as I started trying to figure this out).  I bought the book at Joann’s with a 40% off coupon, but you can find it at Amazon or a knitting supply site, as well.

The publishers of this book have no idea who I am or that I’m talking about their book…I just wanted to share it with y’all, in case you’d like to knit your own socks, too!  I used Paton’s Kroy Sock Yarn in Sweet Stripes, if you’re wondering, instead of the acrylic yarn they recommend practicing with…I didn’t want to spend any amount of time on socks I wouldn’t want to wear.  I’m a sock snob, it’s true.


Secondly, I reached way back in my memory and found these Bacon-Cantaloupe Wraps filed under “Summer Hike” from a year or two ago.  Originally from Rachel Ray, I just improvised as I remembered them and everyone loved them.  The hooligans even asked to have them again the next day, in lieu of eating somewhere in town while we were running errands.


This wrap is pretty self-explanatory…crisp bacon, really thin (1/4” or so) slices of cantaloupe, lettuce, and some basil-mayo on a Flatout wrap.  For the mayo, I just chopped up some fresh basil and stirred it into the store-bought mayo.  You could even call it basil aioli, if you add a little garlic and maybe some lemon juice.
The salty-sweet, fresh flavors meld together perfectly, though.  Try it, you’ll like it!

Then, I’ve been on Pinterest again.  Yep, and I found something I absolutely had to make.  Imagine that.



Cute, huh?  You can find them at Bee in Our Bonnet,if you’d like the particulars.  Again, these are not ones I made...they are her photos...credit where credit is due!

So next week all three hooligans have YMCA camp…all day, every day.  I promise to be a bit more coherent and organized in my blogging.  Well, maybe.  I may just have to dance around naked eating bonbons and celebrating being alone in my house all day!

Increasingly Cute

I’m sure you remember last winter when I learned to knit.  What?  You don’t commit my every movement to memory.  Well, I taught myself to knit last fall and made several scarves, bracelets, and even a felted clutch.  What all those have in common is that they are straight rows of knitting, the same number on each row.

This spring I decided I probably need to know how to (intentionally) increase or decrease stitches, and found a simple headscarf pattern to make for Princess Thundercloud.  She and I went to the local yarn store and she chose a rainbow wool yarn to use.  It’s Crystal Palace Yarns Mochi Plus, Color 551 if you’d like to get some. It’s a lovely, soft 80% Merino/20% Nylon yarn.


One craft lead to another, and after taking the supplies on not one but two vacations and STILL not starting it, I finally took the plunge last week.  I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room for about five hours while the oldest hooligans was undergoing tests, so I thought it would be a perfect block of time to get going.  And it was.

It took that day and a couple of hours on a couple of evenings to complete, mostly because I wasn’t sure what I was doing and kept undoing everything and starting over. It turned out really well, though, and now she wants them in many other solid colors (mostly pink and purple, of course).  I’m thinking a solid one with flowers embroidered on it would be super cute.  Or snowflakes for winter. Or hearts for Valentines Day. Oh, my, I best get to knitting.


Here’s how:

You’ll need sport-weight yarn and number 8 knitting needles.

Put a rubber band on one needle, to use as the one when you increase.

Tie a slipknot on the needle without a rubber band.

Row 1:  Knit into the front and back of the knot.

Row 2:  Knit across both stitches.

Row 3:  Knit into the front and back of those stitches. You have 4 stitches.

Row 4:  Knit across the stitches

Row 5: Knit the 1st stitch, then knit into the front and back of the 2nd stitch, knit into the front and back of the next stitch, then knit the last stitch. You have 6 stitches.

Row 6: Knit across the stitches.

Row 7:  Knit the 1st stitch, knit into the front and back of the next stitch, then knit across until only 2 stitches remain on the needle.  Knit into the front and back of the next stitch, then knit the last stitch.

Repeat rows 6 and 7 until you have about 64 stitches on your needles.  Your scarf should be about 8” long from the center to the tip of the triangle.  You can, of course, make whatever size you’d like.
Bind it off.  I sewed the points together then sewed a button on, just to make it cute.  You could also knit cords and sew them on as ties, or sew an short piece of elastic to connect the point. It’s up to you…you’re creative!



I promised Thundercloud I would include this photo with her Bunny on my blog, because “Bunny is sad she never gets to be in pictures or on your blog, Mama.”  Who can resist such cuteness?



Linking up at The Frugal Girls, Happy Go Lucky, and Petals to Picots

I Knitted, I Felted, I Organized

I have a cute little clutch to show you today that I made by felting a piece of knitting. I wanted something to keep my knitting odds and ends in…scissors, yarn needles, emergency candy. You know.

Being a fairly new knitter, this was a technique I’ve long admired. Imagine how happy I was when it turned out the way (and size) I planned!

To make it, I first knitted a piece about 11” wide by 14” long. I used Paton’s Classic Wool in a variegated shade and size 10 needles, 16 stiches=4” in stockinette stitch (knit on right side, purl on wrong side). I cast on 56 stitches, began with a knit row, then purl row, and so on until it was 14 inches long.

I washed it twice in hot water with a couple of towels.

I dried it in the dryer the first time, but just blocked it to straighten out the edges and let it air dry the second time.

I found myself pretty fascinated by how it changes through washing. So I took a bunch of photos.

After it’s completely dry, use the yarn and a yarn needle to blanket stitch the edges together and outline the flap. I started at the fold on the left side and stitched up the side, around the flap, and down the other side. Here's a great tutorial on how to blanket stitch, in case you’re like me and forget from one time to the next.

After it’s stitched, cut a slit for the button in the center of the flap and sew your button to the bag part. There you are, a pursemaker! How about that?

This was pretty quick and easy. It took a couple of evenings to knit, then time to felt (but not hands-on), and about half an hour to finish it. The final measurements are about 5" x 8".

I’m sure you have something that needs to be contained, so you should make one. It would be a super-cute crossbody bag, as well, if you put a cord on it, either an i-cord you knit or something from the fabric store. Or 550 cord, if you’re military. We always have that lying around!

Enjoy!

Wristwarmer…the New Legwarmer?

Yeah, probably not. But it does make a super cute bracelet, in addition to being warm!

In my burgeoning knitting abilities, I had not mastered the I Cord (also known as Idiot Cord), which is useful for drawstrings and such. While idly browsing on Esty one day, I ran across this very cool bracelet. Well, not this one, obviously, but a similar one.

While I thought it was a great gift idea and obviously very well made, with hand-dyed wool yarn, I couldn’t bring myself to pay the price asked for it. I decided I could…say it with me now…just make that myself.

It really was easy. I used directions from my favorite knitting book, Stitch and Bitch, and bada-bing-bada-boom-shazaam, there you have it. The I Cord was a bit tricky to figure out, but after a couple of tries, I was able to knit this in only one episode of Downton Abbey. Speaking of obsessions…

No, I’m staying on track today. I used sock yarn that was 70 percent wool and variegated, on number 2 double-ended needles. Or, for those of you who could care less about knitting, blah, blah, blah. I stopped when it was about 24 inches long, comfortably loose when wrapped thrice around my wrist. I left the end of the yarn about 12” long when I was done binding off, then used a yarn needle and that tail to attach the end of the cord back on itself, forming a button hole a little smaller than my button

Of course, I have about 473 buttons that I’ve picked up here and there for who knows what I was planning, but this little heart one had the right vintage feel, and it was a shank button, which I what I wanted.

I tucked this in with my niece’s birthday gift this week…the rest of the family probably thinks it’s too crunchy for them, but I think a high school kid will wear it. I wear mine all the time…my wrists are cold up here in the Wisconsin frozen tundra!

And, if you’re interested, here’s the link to the Etsy shop where I found it…The Sitting Tree. She has fabulous, fabulous stuff there!

Not to brag, but…

I can knit! Every year I make a New Year’s resolution that this will be the year I learn to knit. You’re probably thinking I’d be better off resolving to finally get in shape (other than the shape of a pear) but that’s never going to happen, so knitting it is.

Last month, the Joann Fabrics Christmas flyer featured the Martha Stewart loom and knitting contraption. Of course, that’s not the exact name. I hustled to Michaels and used a 50% off from Joann’s to buy it. Did you know Michael’s will honor Joann’s coupons, as long as it’s something they both carry? Well, they do. I couldn’t wait for a lazy Saturday to try it out.

Weekend before last, the stars aligned and I had nothing better to do. Until noon when I had to take the middle hooligan to a bowling party, but I was sure that would be sufficient for me to knit and entire sweater. It was, to say the least, impossibly frustrating. Perhaps craftier people than I could figure it out, or perhaps if you were already a knitter, it would have made sense. With that rationalization, I decided to use one of the THREE learn to knit kits I already had in my craft room and just learn the old-fashioned way.

It was amazingly easy. The book I used, Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller, is amazingly simple to follow. In 10 days, I’ve learned to knit and purl, as well as fix mistakes! I’ve made this chunky scarf for myself and I’m working on one for my middle kid. Because he asked first, if you must know. All 3 kids are completely fascinated with my knitting. I haven’t been working on this non-stop for 10 days, either…maybe an hour or two a day, while watching shows I’ve DVR’ed. That’s why I learned to fix mistakes, actually.

So if you have the yen, learn to knit…I don’t know how to crochet, so really started with no needle-working experience other than cross-stitch and needlepoint, which are nothing like knitting. I’m loving this new hobby…I can easily take my supplies wherever I want, and if I get started on it soon, I might have enough throw to keep me warm when the snow really flies here.

Oh, and I haven’t tried out Martha’s again…I’m having too much fun clicking my needles together and feeling like Madame DeFarge. (I hope my mom and 8th grade English teacher are reading this and are impressed with that literary reference.)