Tuesday Tallies

To help me to complete some of the larger projects that I wish to complete this year, the ones that have many pieces that will need to be created and then assembled, I have decided to participate in Tuesday Tallies on Carole's blog Gingerbread Girl. I have seen so many great things from that blog and I think it's a perfect way to be held accountable (at least for a little while!). So here goes - my first ever Tuesday Tallies:

My first 7 "hexi-puffs" for the Beekeepers Quilt. I have been seeing these all over blogland and wanted to make one myself. I held out for awhile on purchasing the pattern, but alas I fell and just HAD to have it!! These little guys are fun to make although not very quick - I am a VERY slow knitter though. The pattern calls for US#4 needles and larger yarn than I am using. The designer's hexi-puffs came out to about 3 inches across. I am using superfine sock yarn and US#1 needles. My hexi-puffs measure a scant 2" across. I will need quite a few to make a lap quilt :o)
This is my favorite hexi-puff. I just like the colors. I decided to follow the pattern for the cast on - this was different for me - I guess it is what someone would use for toe-up socks, but it is really cool how it knits flat. I wanted to follow the cast off instructions as well, but I couldn't find my itty bitty crochet hook so I am closing these up with the kitchener stitch.
I pulled out the fish again - I have less than 80 to go to have enough for a blanket. Here are the seven for this week. Lost and Wandering has a picture on her website and the link for the pattern is here. This has been on my WIP list for a very long time. Hopefully this will be the year that it gets finished!
I also started something new that I have had on my list. It is made up entirely of little granny squares. I need 157 in this color and more in other colors. These are the first 7.
The picture above is what the squares will be used for. It is called Gingerbread Bear Afghan and it is from the Fall 2010 Crochet World magazine. I fell in love with this and purchased all the yarn and then let it languish with all my other UFO's - now I have a plan and hope to make some good progress on this one this year as well.

A double digit birthday

Our fourth child (third daughter) turned 10! How did a decade pass by in the twinkling of an eye?

She celebrated at one of those jumpy places with just a few of her favorite friends and lots of family. She does not like huge crowds of people (kind of like her mom!) and just wanted to have fun with those most important to her.
One of her favorite things to do is read. She wants to read all the time!! So....she asked for a "book cake". I struggled with this for a long time and was talking to the six year old at breakfast the day before the party and telling him that I was trying to figure out how to make it. He told me, "Mom, a book is just a rectangle with a line down the middle!" What a little genius!! :o) I used a regular cake pan, came up with a fun little start to a book, and made a bookmark out of fondant. The birthday girl LOVED it!! And it was totally easy thanks to the six year old.

No birthday party is complete without a sleepover! This is breakfast the next morning.

Mickey Mouse chocolate chip waffles - a must have!

All of the 10 year olds favorite breakfast food - what more could one ask for

I still can't believe she is 10!

Crayon Rolls

We have a few little cousins, nieces and nephews that we love to give gifts to. I found a tutorial for these cute crayon rolls and knew that they were going to be perfect! The tutorial shows a felt flower on the front, but I decided to change that as I had some very cute patches at home.

I made two of these exactly the same, one for my 3 year old nephew and the other for my 3 year old cousin. I love the monkey patch!!
This is the inside and I found ribbon that was perfect!! The ribbon is used to stabilize the top of the crayon pocket so that it doesn't stretch.

All ready to go!!

This one was for my 5 year old nephew. He loves all things dinosaur and green is his favorite color.

This is how it looks before it is rolled up.

Inside ribbon :o)

One for another 3 year old nephew. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of this one. This patch was slightly harder to stitch around than the others.
For my 10 year old niece. She is such a sweetie!! Her favorite colors are purple and pink and I thought this was just perfect for her!! Love the smiley face button!

The outside before it is folded.

For this one, we used gel pens instead of crayons. I think my niece will like these much better.

The ribbon that I used for this one.

Take a look at Tami's blog for more great crafting finishes by some very talented people!

Flounce Scarf

This is the start of a flounce scarf for the 16 year old. At first I really found this "yarn" to be extremely fiddly and did not enjoy it at all, but now it is growing on me. I love the outcome - it does really make a statement and after awhile you do get used to knitting with it.

I used this link from youtube to cast on and see how to actually knit. I found it very helpful.

The "yarn" really is fun to look at as it curls and ruffles up all on it's own :o)

Take a look at all the other WIPs in progress from Tami's blog - some of them are quite inspiring!

Fingerless Gloves

My first foray into knitting gloves, albeit fingerless ones was somewhat of a success. I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to knit more of these babies, but I do like them.

Four girls will be very happy this Christmas!

This ball of yarn only cost $1 and I have quite a bit left over.

These are the first ones that I knit. As usual with me, the first glove needed to be taken out a few times before I got the hang of it. Then after it was complete and I put it on, I realized that there were HUGE holes between the fingers. Bummer!! I put it aside and started the second one. That one went a bit better, no holes, but one of the fingers is slightly shorter than all the rest. I fixed the finger problem and went back to the first one and sewed the holes shut. They are fine now, but boy, the finishing took quite a bit of time!

These are sparkly and blue and I know my 16 year old will simply love them!

These are my favorites! I like the crazy colors and they are very soft. Can't wait to see if the recipient likes them as much as I do.

All stacked up!

Only a few more sewn items and I will be done with gifts!!!

Tunisian Crochet

This is for the FO Friday over at Tami's blog. I hope that this will keep me on track to finish up some items so that I can post over there. Some really, really talented people are taking part of this.

I tried my hand at some tunisian crochet and decided that I really liked the look of the stitch that is made. It is really cool how this actually works!!

I embarked on a scarf making mission. I thought both my sons would love to have a handmade scarf from mom. I quickly chained 21 and went along my merry way. WELL.....tunisian crochet all on it's own curls up really, really badly. I was so disenchanted, I didn't even take a picture. I googled and found that if you do a row of tunisian purl stitch at the beginning, that should take care of the curling problem. I tried that with 4 chains and it worked like magic. Can you guess the story is not quite done yet? I quickly pulled that out and chained 21 again and went along with just the one purl row. It curled again!! Pulled it out, chained, did 2 rows - no dice - lots of curling. At 4 rows of the purl stitch it pretty much held it's shape and I was pretty happy. Crocheted until it was long enough, did 4 more rows of purl stitch and was done, or so I thought. Now the ends just flipped over. HMMM...I decided to do two rows of single crochet around the entire thing. Magic happened - no curling and no flipping!!

Close up of the stitch detail. Just love the straight up and down stitches!

Started: First part of November

Finished: 12/8/2011

US9 Tunisian Crochet Hook

Yarn: Sensations It's a Wrap

Color: #3 Taupe

Lot: F1021

Chained 21 stitches to begin - 4 rows tunisian purl stitch-regular tunisian stitch for the rest-ended with 4 rows tunisian purl stitch-2 rows of single crochet around the entire scarf.

Dimensions: 66 3/4" X 6 1/2"

These are fingerless mitts. I thought the 11 year old boy would enjoy these.

Chained 26 to start-4 rows tunisian purl stitch-13 rows regular tunisian stitch-4 row tunisian purl stitch. I did not apply the single crochet around the mitts.

Dimensions: 7 1/4" X 6 1/4"

My hand modeling one of the mitts. They feel very comfortable. I hope my son likes them :o)

Scarf #2 for 6 year old son.

Same pattern used

Same hook used

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Paints

Color: 0009 Sticks & Stones

Lot: 55506

Dimensions: 44 1/4" X 6 1/4"

Stitch detail.

Younger son's mitts.

Dimensions: 6 1/2" X 5 3/4"

Now to finish up the mitts for the girls!!!

Soup Knitting

Not actually knitting soup, but it has just felt a lot like soup weather so I have been making oodles of soup. I have also been knitting up a storm and boy does it feel good!!

My oldest daughter is taking a photo class and was trying out some artsy ways to take pictures of my scarf. It sure looks a lot better than what I usually do :o)
This scarf is really pretty. I love the way the sequins catch the light when I'm wearing it, but they are a tad scratchy. I wear it all the time anyway!

Yarn: Bali #4 from the Great Adirondack Yarn Company

Color: Paprika

This was a multi strand yarn. There were three different strands all in the hank together. I carefully wound the ball from the hank and discovered that all the strands were not the same length. I tried to compensate for this and thought I had done a pretty good job until I got about 3/4 of the way through the ball of yarn. One of the strands, the thickest one, was significantly longer than the other two. As I was knitting, I kept "inching it down" the other two, but eventually it got so tangled up I couldn't go on. I wound up having to separate the strands at the end farthest away from my knitting and wind them up separately, unknotting as I went along. This was extremely time consuming. But, when all is said and done, it turned out fine. It's a little shorter than I prefer (note to self: one skein scarves could sometimes use an extra skein), but it looks fine.

Needles: US 15

Start: 11/21/11

Finished: 11/29/11

Cast on 10 stitches and knit every row

Finished measurement: 46" X 4"

This next photos is my new favorite soup. I found the recipe at the Yarn Harlot and it's called "Emergency Soup".
She used leeks, but I didn't have any so I put in my shredded zucchini and crookneck squash (2C) worth from the garden this summer. I also added a bit of broccoli - OOOOHH This is super yummy!!