Holiday Craft - Home Decor

A few quick ideas in case your home needs some holiday cheer
Miniature Felted Wreaths
Little Miss Pine Cones Go Skiing (more information here)

Winter Display Globes
Mini Stockings (perfect for an Advent Calendar)
Gum Drop Wreath (probably not the best for Hawaii)
Stockings (with link to free pattern from McCall's)(I just bought some fabric to make these, hopefully there will be pictures soon)
Paper Star
Paper Snowflakes and more

Crrraaackkkk!

Last night I decided to frog a WIP, after realizing it was too small for the intended recipient. One of my circulars fell on the floor, and I diligently picked it up and set it on the couch, thinking it would be safer there. As you can guess from this set up, I was wrong.



While winding the yarn I managed to plop my foot on top of the needle while it was on the couch, and it snapped. The most frustrating part is that, if I'd stepped on it while it was still on the marble floor, it probably wouldn't have broken because it wouldn't have bent at all. That's what I get for picking things up. ;)

It is (was?) a Knit Picks Harmony needle in size 2.25mm, and I know there have been a few problems with these breaking during use, but this was not normal use and not anything I'd expect any wood needle that small to withstand. People on Ravelry who've had them break during use have been able to get replacements from KP, but I'm not even going to ask because this was totally my fault. Plus, I'd been a bit frustrated that the needles were a little more grabby than I wanted, so I'm going to switch to metal.

I'm placing another order from Knit Pics for the metal needles, but in the mean time, these socks are on hold until the needles come in. With this delay I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish these in time for Christmas. However, in the mean time, I'm trying to finish up the rest of my Christmas knitting. Most of it is almost done, with just a but of finishing. No details yet, as I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise, but here is a picture of all the gifts in my knitting basket.



Oh, and the new Knitty is up. I haven't had time to look at all the patterns, but the cover shot is gorgeous.

Holiday Crafts - Ornaments and Such

Ornaments & Other Decorations to Hang
Tissue Paper Silhouettes Ornaments
Glittery Foil Icicles
Dove Ornament

Mini Tree Bunting
Cinnamon Bird Ornaments
(I think I'd be too afraid that, here in Hawaii, these would attract bugs, though ants do hate cinnamon)
Woven Wheat Ornaments
Christmas Pinatas
Candy Ornaments (not real candy, a perfect use for those scraps of fabric)
Retro Ornaments from Foam

Holiday Crafts - Trees

Despite the lack of blogging, there has been a lot of knitting going on. However, it has all been holiday related, and as the intended recipients may be reading this, the it will have to remain secret for a while longer. So, in the mean time, I thought I'd share a few holiday themed crafts I've found on my travels through the internet. I may even attempt some of these! I'm starting with some trees, check back to see more.

Trees
Stuffed Christmas Trees
Tinsel Trees
Tomorrow Land Trees
Fun Fur Kitschmas Tree
Felted Rosette Tree (and wreath)
Soft Trees
Holiday Print Out Tree
A Different Kind of Tree

Nom nom nom!

Do you ever have those things that seem to be following you? You know, the things that just keep popping up allover the place? For the last few weeks it has been Chicken and Waffles. First it was an episode of Throwdown, then there was some chatter on Ravelry, and then last night it showed up on Iron Chef America.

So, what's a girl to do...? If I still lived in L.A. the easy answer would be a trip to Roscoe's. But I don't, so alternatives were considered. Given my abundance of free time, I figured the best option was to make some myself. Other than buttermilk, we had all the necessary ingredients, and even a wedding-gift waffle maker that we'd never used. One of my sister in laws comes over every Monday for dinner and Heros, so I figured that would be as good a day as any.

I used Alton Brown's recipe for the chicken (though I only marinated it in the buttermilk for about 4 hours), and the waffles from this recipe.



Overall, the chicken was very good, especially considering I've never made it before. The waffle was decent when I took it out of the iron, but I was having some timing issues and it wasn't nearly as good by the time it made it to the table; I couldn't find the manual for the waffle iron, but I think next time I need to turn it up a bit. I probably should have also turned to AB for the waffle recipe, and then I could have even been able to use my new kitchen scale, and it calls for whole wheat flour so might have been able to delude myself into thinking it was somewhat healthy.


In other, much healthier food news, my latest food addiction is quinoa. I've tried a few recipes, but my favorite is a tabbouleh-esque salad.

The quinoacooks pretty quickly, and while it's cooking I chop some veggies. Usually it's either cucumbers or celery, tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, scallions.


Once the quinoa is cooked, it gets mixed with the veggies, along with some salt and pepper. I then like to let it cool a bit, and mix in some feta cheese.


(Sorry, this isn't the best picture)

I've been seriously eating this at least once a week for the past month or so. Easy, quick, yummy and healthy. Hard to go wrong with that combination.

I can haz funny?

see more puppies

Actually, my place has looked quite a bit like that with all the frogging that has been going on.

It's Soktober... Do you know where your DPNs are?

First Off, a bit of fall fun with these Felted Pumpkins. Overall a fun, quick knit. I knit them in the round avoid seaming and purling. The lighter yarn is some yarn I dyed a while back with Koolaide.



Now, on to Soktober. It all started well and I finished my Jaywalkers. The second one seems a bit tighter than the first, but hopefully it will loosen up with some time on the blockers. I really enjoyed the pattern, very easy to work on and remember and the results look great, especially given how easy the pattern is.



I used Regia Strato Color, and it wasn't exactly my favorite yarn. I liked the color, and it looks great knit up, but there were some random stripes of a maroon/burgundy color which just didn't really seem to fit in with the other colors. I think the yarn will produce a comfortable, long wearing sock. However, it really irritated my index finger as the yarn coming from the ball crossed over it; at one point the skin on that finger was peeling from the irritation. I don't think it was an allergy, but more that the yarn is a bit rough and just the constant rubbing was bothering the skin.



So, the Jaywalker's finished, I moved on to some Giftmas sock knitting. I have two lovely colors of Koigu KPPM destined for gifts, but I wasn't sure on the patterns. I finally decided on Monkey Socks for one of the colors. And that's where the problems started. I really hope I haven't caught kbrow's Koigu curse. First problem was that somehow, about half way through the cuff I must have switched directions. With normal 1x1 ribbing this would have been nearly unnoticeable, but with the twisted rib it was noticeable because the twist showed up only on the top or bottom half depending on if you were looking at the inside or the outside. Knowing full well that this is one of those things only knitters would notice, I almost let it go. But since I wasn't that far into the sock (and I'd also accidentally started knitting from the outside of the yarn), I figured I'd just restart.

So, I started again, still keeping with the bamboo size 1s (2.25 mm). I did the ribbing, and the first pattern repeat. About half way through the second repeat I was starting to get very frustrated with the blunt tips on the needles and how bendy they were. So I decided to switch to some of my Knit Picks Nickle Plated DPNs. Somehow, I then decided to use the 0s 2.0 mm). I don't really remember how I decided to go down a size, but I think it was because the metal 1s I had were actually 2.5 mm needles (silly Americans and their reluctance to use the metric system).

All I can really tell you is that it was a bad decision. I finished the rest of the leg, and got partway down the heel gusset before I decided to try them on. Now, these are destined for gifts, and the intended recipient has smaller sized feet that me, and much smaller ankles and calves, but they are just way too small, the calf part is extremely tight around my foot and there's no way they'd fit over the heel.

So, now it just sits there, taunting me. I know I need to rip it out and start again, but I just can't bring myself to do so. it is just so pretty, I'm loving the colorway and the pattern, but there's no way they are going to work. Yesterday was the first day in weeks that I haven't knit at all.