A blog about knitting, dyeing, sewing and baking
The other day I had the opportunity to browse through a Real Simple magazine. They usually have a chapter where they show you different uses of everyday items.
This is what they came up with regarding a toothpick:
Brilliant!
From now on you can expect my yarn packages to ship out 3o seconds sooner.
P.s. The turquoise fabric? I have to sew curtains for the girls’ change room at the school. I guess, you can address me with Head-Seamstress now, thank you very much…
Finally you can make your own! Click here for the instructions. I have not written a word-for-word pattern, but have given you the charts and the guidelines you need.
For more help check out the Sock Program.
Please let me know, if you have a problem or find a mistake.
I have made this blanket for my SIL who is expecting a boy any day now. When I bought the minky fabric for my friend’s baby I had enough fabric left over for another blanket.
I took my oldest daughter on a fabric shopping trip the other day and found this adorable Duck, Duck, Goose fabric at A Great Notion. I bought a panel who has all the squares printed on. I also bought a blue fabric with rows of small and large ducks and geese printed on. I made a bias binding out of striped fabric to bind the quilt. I did not use any batting and quilted only sparingly around the squares.
When I washed it the binding shrank and pulled the quilt in. I am a bit disappointed that this happened, but overall I think it is a cute blanket. I hope, the baby will like it, too!
This is what my husband bought at our local bakery, Fieldstone, (sadly no website) yesterday. Isn’t he cute?
I am amazed how he is made. He is well proportioned and looks even as if he has joints in the right places. And those spikes!
Sadly we proved later, that humans are much more dangerous to alligators than the other way round and ate him. He was delicious!
I enjoyed this fast knit lot. It is such a cute design! I have made this for my MIL, who is a big fan of hot water bottles. I really hope, that she will like it and that it will make her smile!
The kids and I made a large batch of these cookies yesterday to hand out today. The recipe is here. This time I did not add the baking powder.
The sugar is a coarse sugar found in a German Deli and is called “Hagelzucker”. We poured about 3 Tbsp of it in a small ziploc bag, added 2 drops of red food colour and shook the bag. Some of the sugar dyed red, some pink and some stayed white. Pretty!
Finally I managed to get decent pictures of my sock. I put it on yesterday for the photoshoot and did not take it off until I went to bed. It is so soft and slightly cushioned because of the two strands. I have washed it once by hand, but the white yarn should still bloom a bit more next time I wash it.
I am very pleased about the design, but I wish the muted yellow was a different, darker colour with more contrast to the white. When I started out, I was not sure how the transitional yarn would work out, but I wanted to try it out. I have never knitted a fair isle sock before and did not know, how much yarn I would need. In the end I needed a bit more than half a skein: 30g ( a bit over 1 oz) of the white and the transitional yarn. I thought I needed more.
As I have told you before, this design is based on the Snowflake Socks in the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. The flower design is my own. The heel is knit over half the stitches and I slipped every other stitch to make it a bit sturdier and to keep with the striped design of the sole. The toe is the one I usually do, described here.
For those of you who are interested in this design, I will clean up my chart a bit and post it here as soon as I can!
I thought about blogging, but was a bit uninspired. I did not feel well and decided to spare you the details… On Friday I was much better, which was quite lucky because I had offered my house for a special get-together that day.
The kids of 3 classes at our school need raven-wings for a performance later this year. We had hoped for quite a few helpers to meet in my house and fabricate 70 wings. (These are basically large triangles with hoods attached at the base). Well, it did not quite work out as planned. First of all not enough helpers could make it and then we had a hard time to get the 2 sergers to work. (Apparently I am not the only one who can’t communicate well with her serger. Although singing seemed to do the trick for a while.)
When I had serged 30 wings my machine made a spectacular noise, broke a needle and called it quits. I think, something is seriously broken. We still tried to make it work using the sewing machine, but gave up around 4:30 after a whole day of sewing. We were quite disappointed. But we also found out, that it is a lot of fun to sit on a large table and sew together. I suggested, that we should do this again and sew something for ourselves. Maybe we will walk the beach this summer in matching outfits…
On Sunday we went skiing for the first time this season. We had waited for the perfect weather and perfect it was! In a bit over an hours drive from here we arrived at a ski hill, where you can see the ocean while you ski. Having lived far away from the sea for the majority of my life I find this absolutely amazing.
For the drive I was well prepared. I had taken the Endless Wrap with me (3 skeins done, one more to go) where it warmed my feet. I just did not feel like knitting. What can I say? If this mood continues the birthday gift due in March is in serious danger… I guess, I should call my friend. She is very good at kicking my b*tt. I just have to ask her and she does not even charge me for it. It is great to have friends, isn’t it?
Kaleidoscope - Variegated
Water's Edge - Skinny Stripes
Lilac - Silk Yarn
Etsy Shop for SunnysideEllen
