Getting Crafty

Final Batch

by Lorri on July 23, 2010 · 4 comments

in Getting Crafty

Well, final batch for now.

This little cupcake really isn’t so little, but it’s tasty looking and really cute!

I used good ol’ Red Heart Super Saver white for the cake and Berrocco Plush for the frosting. The pattern is available here for free: Cupcake.  I made some changes to the original pattern, but my notes are downstairs and I’m too lazy to go get them.  If you’re interested, let me know in the comments and I’ll post them. (The cupcake is knit, not crochet.)

Next up is a strawberry ice cream cone!

Another free pattern from the same designer as the cupcake:  Ice Cream Cone. It’s important to note that there is no hook size listed, but I ended up using a G.  If you’re going to make this, I suggest getting the Starbucks sample cup that goes in the base first so you can check the size of the cone as you go.  I had to add more height to my cone to make it fit.   I don’t think I even wrote down what I did exactly, but if you need help, let me know and I’ll walk you through it.

And continuing with our theme of pink  food, here is a frosted donut.  Mmm…donut!

Another free pattern, of course:  Donut. It’s supposed to be a pincushion, but I left off the sprinkles/pins so it can be a toy instead.  Maybe I’ll make myself one for my sewing basket.

One more from the designer of the ice cream cone and cupcake, it’s a Bakewell Tart.

I’d never heard of a Bakewell Tart, but it was too cute not to make.  Here’s the pattern (scroll down past the kitties):  Crochet Bakewell Tart. And click over here to find out all about these little goodies:  Bakewell Tart.  No modifications on this one.  It did have to wait a while to be stuffed while I figured out what to use on the bottom to give it structure.  In the end I used a clean fast-food drink lid, cut down to size.  I also taped over the straw slit so it wouldn’t be an issue later.  Oh wait!  I didn’t use a button for the cherry (?) on top.  Instead I crocheted 4 single crochets in a loop and sewed it to the top before stuffing.

Ok, so that does it for now on my toy food.  Quick, easy and portable plus using cheap yarn makes them affordable and gives you a ton of left-over yarn for the inevitable requests that you make them for friends.   Personally, I love the instant gratification that comes from a finished product after only a couple hours of work.  As opposed to that sock that stares at me accusingly from its’ project bag.

The rest of my craft projects can be found under the category Getting Crafty.  That’ll give you the first part of each post.  To read the whole thing and see the pictures, just click the title of each post.

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More Tasty Treats

by Lorri on July 20, 2010 · 2 comments

in Getting Crafty

I just can’t seem to stop making these tasty treats!  Do you think it counts as my daily dose of fiber?

First up – a lopsided apple.  I don’t know why it’s lopsided, but Bip doesn’t seem to notice and he’s the one who asked me to make it.

And now, some cherry tomatoes on the vine -

These were requested by Pumpkin Girl who eats cherry tomatoes like chips.

Now for the far less healthy food. Like an ice cream sandwich -

Yum!! Ice cream sandwiches are like my most favorite things ever.  Too bad I’m lactose intolerant.

I’m also a fan of chocolate cake.

In real life, this is about the biggest, fattest, tastiest looking piece of cake you could wish for.

These projects came from the book Tasty Crochet.  Love this book!! Out of 33 patterns, I want to make 32 of them, which is pretty rare for any kind of pattern or craft book.  At least for me.  You just need basic crochet skills and there is a small glossary in the back if you’re like me and can’t remember how to double crochet from one project to the next.  The crochet instructions are clear, though a couple of times the assembly instructions made me scratch my head.  But if you look at the picture of the finished project, you can figure out what to do.

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Quick Crochet Projects

by Lorri on July 2, 2010 · 3 comments

in Getting Crafty

We finally got our a/c units put in last week.  What a difference!  We put a spot cooling a/c into each of the upstairs bedrooms and they each have their own remotes to control temperature and fan settings.   The bedrooms are now comfortable retreats while the rest of the house is easily cooled by ceiling fans and open windows.

I’m not doing much blogging lately because with the warmer weather and my growing belly, my feet start to swell if I sit too long without propping them up.  Nothing to worry about, just need to keep them up.  So I’ve actually gotten more fiber crafting done lately.  I dug through my patterns and cheap, acrylic yarn and made a bunch of little projects.

These little guys are kitchen scrubbies, made with the cheapest, scratchiest acrylic yarn I had.   Nothing wrong with inexpensive, acrylic – it can be wonderfully soft and easy to care for,  but normally I only use the extra-cheap stuff for kids crafts.  And when it comes to dish scrubbies, the cheaper and scratchier, the better.  These are really easy to make and they work great at scrubbing the dishes.  The pattern is free and can be found here: Spiral Scrubbies.

I also made these tasty treats -

Oreo Cookies!!! At first glance these actually look real and then you feel let down because they are just yarn.  Good thing there aren’t any real Oreo’s in the cupboard or the fake ones could incite a riot of Oreo bingeing.  But they are incredibly easy and fast to make, too.  I used whatever white acrylic yarn I had stashed away but I had to go out and buy the brown.  I went to Michaels because I kept seeing or hearing ads about their new, expanded yarn department.  Well, apparently by “new and expanded” they mean “greatly reduced, with many of their long-time brands, colors and yarn weights gone.”  Not impressed at all.  I did however, find the brown I needed, so all was not lost.  At least I no longer need to travel to a different state to get to my closest Michaels.

Anyway, back to the crochet cookies.  That pattern is also free and can be found here:  Crochet Oreo Cookies.

I’ve got other tasty treats that are mostly finished, but are waiting for the perfect plastic base and/or to be stuffed.  The fiberfill is w-a-y down in the basement, so hopefully I can make it down there soon.  I’ll post pictures when I finally do finish.

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Hiking

by Lorri on February 18, 2010 · 6 comments

in Getting Crafty

We’ve got lots of hiking trails here in the Rocky Mountains.  There are two located less than 5 minutes away from our house. But this post has absolutely nothing to do with them!

Nope, this is about the Irish Hiking Scarf and matching Irish Hiking Hat I made for Philip.

Remember the pink cabled beret I made last year?  Well, I’d never knit cables before, so I wanted something simple to learn and practice on.  So I started the Irish Hiking Scarf.  Once I figured out that cables are not nearly has difficult as they seem, I put the scarf away and made my hat.

I knit a bunch of other things after that, then finally returned to the scarf in October-ish.  I finished it quickly, then started a matching hat.  The hat also only took a couple of weeks, which amounts to maybe 6 hours of total knitting time.

But I was never able to get a picture of either of them because by the time Philip got home from work wearing them, it was dark.  But the other day he was home around lunch time and I made him model his knit wear.

Behold!

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The cool thing about the hat is that the cabled band is double thickness so it keeps your ears nice and toasty!

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The pattern for the scarf can be found here for free: Irish Hiking Scarf The matching hat pattern is also free and is found here:  Irish Hiking Hat

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Christmas Foyer

by Lorri on December 21, 2009 · 4 comments

in Getting Crafty, Home Sweet Home

This is for my friend Tami.  The first thing she said when she arrived at our house, after my family finished mugging hugging hers, was that our banister was going to look great for Christmas.

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The candy garland is from my childhood.

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This buffet table is about 90 years old and newly restored to its former glory.  The dining room is too small to fit the whole set, so this piece moved here.  Philip actually came up with the idea to put it here, and I like the weight it gives to the entry way.   Plus, it provides some nice display area.

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Right now it has our lighted Nativity.  I bought this so long ago that I can’t even remember when.  This is the first time we’ve had room to put it out.  Originally we had Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and animals all set up, too, with Baby Jesus safely tucked away until Christmas and the Wise Men waiting off to the side to begin their journey.  Then one of the children said that maybe we should put Mary and Joseph away, too.  And boom!  It hit me.  Boo has a statue of Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem.   We packed everyone away and put the statue out instead.  Now we are reminded of Mary and Joseph’s difficult journey all through the Advent season.

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I smile when I see this statue.  Mary’s patient, resigned face is so telling of her end of pregnancy state.  I have been pregnant for two Advents, both times just about ready to pop, too.  In fact, my girls were each born at 8 pm, one 3 days before Christmas and one 3 days after.  I am eternally grateful for the comfort of our car instead of having to sit on a donkey.

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So here’s today’s Design Delemma.  The staircase seems to need something (during the rest of the year, mostly).  Or does it?  It curves, so it’s tricky to hang anything up, but I suppose we could make it work.  My original thought was to put a round table in the space, but with the buffet table we’d just end up zig-zagging around.  So what say you?  Attempt to hang something on the curved wall?  Leave it as is? Here’s a different view, capturing the whole hallway.

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Rainbow Scarf

by Lorri on March 25, 2009 · 8 comments

in Getting Crafty

One month, almost to the day I cast on, I’ve finished my rainbow scarf! Entrelac is surprisingly easy, so it was a good mindless project for watching TV with.  I got it all finished and blocked and then it got just cold enough to be able to wear it at least once before packing it away for the season.

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Portrait of the Blogger in a Pink Hat

by Lorri on March 5, 2009 · 9 comments

in Getting Crafty

My most recently completed knitting project – a pink, cabled beret.  I’ve read that slouchy berets are all the rage out in California, and you know me – always on the cutting edge of fashion.


Here it is, flat on the table.

I’d never done cables before, but they were surprisingly easy.  I added an additional round to the pattern to accomodate my big head and thick hair, and also to allow the hat to come down and cover my ears.  The next time I wear it, I’ll probably be in Colorado.  Barring an early Spring snowstorm here, of course.  One can hope.

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Answers

by Lorri on February 27, 2009 · 4 comments

in Blogging Away, Getting Crafty

I love getting comments on my blog, but I find myself in a conundrum of how to handle them.  If someone asks a question, should I reply in the comments or through email or both?  All comments to my blog arrive to me through email and I’m supposed to be able to hit reply and it goes right to the commenter.  But I don’t think it’s working right.  I wrote out this nice lengthy reply to someone and right as I hit “send” I saw that it was going to my blog’s inbox. So I have no idea if my replies are even getting through.

So I’m going to answer some questions here.

Tami asked why she wasn’t able to make smilies appear in her comments anymore.  It’s because you need to leave a space between the sentence punctuation and the punctuation for the smiley.

Nancy wanted to know which colorway of Noro Silk Garden I’m using for my scarf.  It’s number 87, which is mostly jewel tones.  The scarf I’m making calls for 4 skeins.  By the way, the pattern I’m using is free.  I think it’s well written and is a good way to learn entrelac.  You can find it here:  Entrelac Scarf.

Janice was wondering if it’s all one skein of yarn.  Yes, it is! It’s handpainted varigated yarn.  I have seen other people’s entrelac projects where they used 2 different skeins to get a very specific set of color changes, but that’s a lot of work and I like the way the yarn does all that work for me.

JennG was wondering if I learned all these fun knitting techniques from books or from other people.  A little of both, but mostly I’m self taught.  I learn best from reading (what kind of learner does that make me?), so I can usually muddle along well enough to get by. Part of the fun of knitting, for me at least, is trying something new.  I’ve managed to infect several people in my neighborhood with the knitting bug and having all these new and quickly learning knitting friends has inspired me to try all the fun things I’ve seen others do.

Angoraknitter (a fellow Army wife who just moved to our area) mentioned that she can hardly wait until her yarn arrives (I’m assuming in her household goods).  Angora – can I call you Ang? – you don’t have to wait!  There’s a fun knitting store in Old Town Alexandria.  Head north on Hwy 1, after you pass the Beltway, turn right.  It doesn’t matter which street, but I turn at the gas station.  When you get to Washington, turn left.  When you pass the statue in the middle of an intersection, Knit Happens will be on your right.  I think the cross street is King.

She also asked me about my ottoman and chairs seen in my messy living room.  They are indeed from IKEA.  Both have removable, washable slip covers – a must in a house with children!  We put sliders under the ottoman feet so we could move it around the living room easily, but that was a mistake.  Pushing the ottoman around caused the knobs under the lid to break off, so the lid slides off when bumped into.  That was our fault, though, since it was designed to really stay in one place.  The chairs are comfy and have enough room under them to store a basket full of Wii paraphenalia under one and the WiiFit board under another.  I had to wash one of the slip covers during our last round of stomach virus and it washed up wonderfully.  No fading and the wrinkles disappeared once the slip cover was back in place.  I spot clean the ottoman at least weekly and it’s holding up well, too.

OK, I think I got all the recent questions.  Now I’m off to try to figure out how to get my emailed replies sent to the commenter.

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Cast On!

by Lorri on February 25, 2009 · 6 comments

in Getting Crafty

My friend Shanti and I are at it again.  Crafting, that is.  We’ve been crafting buddies since the very late 80′s.  This time we’re having a knit-along together.  Several people wanted to know what I’m making with my Noro Silk Garden – well it’s for the entrelac scarf that Shanti and I are each knitting.

I cast on yesterday -

I love the way that entrelac looks like it’s strips of knit fabric woven together, but in fact it is not.  It looks tremendously difficult, but again, it is not.  If you know how to increase, decrease and pick up stitches, you can knit entrelac.

As for the Silk Garden, well, what can I say?  I found it online on sale and I had a coupon code. I saved $3 a skein, which only makes me love it more.  It feels sort of scratchy in the skein, but when it gets knit up it seems to soften.  I’ve read that with a good soak before blocking it’ll soften even further.

Did I mention that entrelac is addicting?  I keep wanting to finish just one more block, then one more row, then oooo! a color change is coming up, gotta keep going to see which color it is!  I don’t think this scarf is going to take long to finish!

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Priorities

by Lorri on February 20, 2009 · 6 comments

in Family Life, Getting Crafty

Today when I got home from our homeschool group, I found this on the front step:

And I found this in my living room:

So what’s a knitter to do?  Well, since I didn’t make the mess, I’ll let the culprits clean it up themselves.  And since I did buy the yarn, I’m off to wind it and print out the pattern I’m using with it.

Priorities.  Gotta have ‘em.

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