Free Cowl Pattern and It's Cold Out There!

Winter storms in north Texas usually are ice storms. Occasionally, we get one this early, but usually it is January or February.  Well, we have one today.  It started with freezing rain yesterday afternoon and then changed to sleet.  Cars that are outside have about an inch of ice on them.  When we looked out the window this morning, we had a light dusting of snow on top of the ice, so it is all bright in the house, like it was snowy outside.  :)  We do have some huge icicles outside on the house, I took a picture of the UPS Guy with two of them, that went into the freezer for the grandkids.  :)  I remember loving to get an icicle off the house when I was a kid. Did you do that too?

I just wrote a new pattern for a quick cowl.  I have named it Last Minute Cowl.  It takes under 170 yards of worsted weight yarn, to knit it on size 10 US needles.  Here is a link to take you to Ravelry to download your free copy of the cowl. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/last-minute-cowl-3

I hope you enjoy knitting the cowl.



Birthdays! Minion Hat and Mittens

Last night we celebrated 2 family birthdays! The UPS Store guy has turned 60 and our grandson C, has turned 2!

For part of C's birthday, I had crocheted a Minion hat and then knitted minion mittens for him.
 

 For the hat, I used a pattern that I purchased on Ravelry. Here is a link to the pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/minion-hat-with-optional-earflaps-us-and-uk-terms

 For the mittens, I combined a couple of different knitting patterns to get the right size, so I cannot tell you a pattern to use. However......
-First, I cast on with the royal blue yarn to knit the cuff in a k1p1 ribbing.
-When the cuff was finished, I changed to the yellow and knit with it through the thumb gusset increases.
-After the gusset was finished, I changed to the black for a few rows to make the "headband."
-Then changed back to the yellow yarn to finish the top of the mitten and the thumb.
-To make the eye, I used a size F(US) hook and single crocheted the eye using the black, white and gray yarns. Securely sewed the eye to each mitten and embroidered a little mouth on each.

A hint on mouths.  :)  I always thought I had to do a perfect mouth. Just the right smile and the right curvature and the right placement.  So, I didn't think I was any good at faces.  THEN I discovered that I was all wrong!   Make the mouths crooked and a little off to the side on purpose.  Definitely make a smile, of some sort, and you are set! 

It doesn't matter if it is a minion smile or a regular doll, teddy bear smile. Just purposely put it off center and you will be just fine.

The Phillipines

Here at our home, our heat is on, the sun shown above today and the fall colors are starting to show up on the leaves outside. Today was windy, and cool, 46 degrees F at the moment and will get colder as the night comes upon us.  I love the cooler weather, helps it feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas when it is cooler outside.

In the Phillipines, though, portions of the islands are devastated by the typhoon Haiyan.  Winds about 195 mph and 230 mph gusts! Wow! I wonder how my house would do in a storm like that?

Our prayers and our thoughts should definitely be with these folks and with those trying to help. Samaritan's Purse was one of the first groups on the ground to assess the damage last Friday.  They are sending a 747 jet liner, full of supplies, over there this weekend. Here is a video of one home they found amoung the thousands.

Some cozy things!

I have been working on some fun and quick projects lately. One of them was a cowl, designed to look like pumpkins, with leaves.  I decided to use my handspun yarns for this, having spun some orange corriedale years ago, that came from my friend, Cary, at Serenity Farms.http://serenity-farms.blogspot.com/  She has beautiful Corriedale sheep and the fiber from them is extraordinary.

The cowl came out to be very warm, indeed.  :)  So, am not sure if I will be able to wear it come Thanksgiving.  Maybe I will turn the air conditioning back on and turn it down to 50 in the house, just so I can wear it.  :)  Wonder what the family will say to that.  LOL!!!! Bring your coats!

The next project that I worked on, was a pattern from my friend, Debbie, at My Mom's Work and has the pattern listed on Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starry-java-jacket-2
This was a very quick knit and fun project. 

The stitch pattern is fun to work and doesn't roll when finished!  Amazing.  I loved choosing my buttons and was able to use one that my mom had used on a red bathrobe that she made for me when I was a teenager! That button is in the center.

Then I wanted to embellish it and stitched on the button and little butterflies.

I also decided to add some puff paint to the back. That paint helps the cozy not to slip as much on the cup, making it more secure in my hands.  Those of you who know me well, know that I can drop and spill things.  :)  So, the precaution is well worth the effort. 



It's Our 40th!!

So, 40 years ago today, I married my high school sweetheart, the UPS Store guy.  :)

First I had to walk down the aisle, on my dad's arm, of a packed out church building. Who knew?! But, we had both grown up there, worked in the Sunday school as teenagers, my folks did too.

Here we are after we said, "I do."

Here I am, close up.

We looked at each other this morning and said, "We made it!" Been lots of ups and downs, but all is worth it, because we still have each other. We didn't do it on our own either, every step of the way, we had our faith and trust in God leading the way.

Flour Free Chocolate Cake

Several weeks ago, I found this recipe in a Joanne Fluke mystery novel.  I enjoy listening to them while I knit.  They are not the really scarie ones, that would keep me awake at night, but they are fun to listen to. This cake has no flour, or expensive substitutes in it. It truly was a good cake and I will make it again. :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Oven 375 F
1/2 c butter
8 oz chocolate chips (I used 1 1/3 cups)
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (or rum extract)
4 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Toppings
-sweetened whipped cream, shaved chocolate, berries or even ice cream.

8 inch spring form pan(I have one and used it, but next time, I am going to use my 9 inch square pan.)
Grease pan, if using spring form - grease it and line the bottom with wax papper.
-Melt chocolate.
-Beat 1/2 cup sugar with egg yolks, until lemon colored.
-Add small amount of yolk mixture to chocolate, while stirring.
-Pour chocolate into yolks, stir.
-Beat egg whites, with remaining sugar, until soft peaks form.
-Fold chocolate/egg mixture into bowl with egg whites until uniform.
-Bake at 375 F, for 35 minutes or until pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
For spring form pan:
-Cool 15 minutes, loosen spring form edge and turn onto serving platter. 
-Remove wax paper, when cake is cooled.
For regular pan: Leave cake in pan and serve from pan.
-Serve with any or all of the above toppings, or make your own topping.  :)



Projects and More Projects

The end of September! It is getting cooler in most areas of the country, and although that is sort of true for those of us who live in Texas, we wish it was even cooler. High in the upper 80's and low 90's is still not fall for me.  But, I am thankful that the 100's are gone. :)

Where have I been all summer???? Well, not writing on my blog that is for sure. I miss being out here writing and showing my projects and little snippets of my life. So, if I haven't been on the blog, then what have I been doing????

Creating!  :)

The off-white shawl, was made using my Ma Cherie pattern. Then, I made some flowers to stitch onto it. I also took apart a vintage doily, that was in my doily stash, and appliqued some of those pieces on the shawl. This shawl is in my etsy shop.

This purple shawl, was hand knit from several different types of yarns and used several stitch patterns for a variety of interest. I love working on these artsy shawls.

I have written a pattern for this shawl, but it isn't published yet. The name is Butterflies In Flight. A knitting friend saw one of my earlier ones, which has sold, and said it reminded her of a butterfly in flight.  So, the name stuck! This shawl is also listed in my etsy shop.

On Ravelry there is a group called "Free Pattern Testers."  I joined that group, to have some patterns tested, and decided to test one for someone else.  The pattern that I tested was a crochet bag pattern. It had a pretty stitch on the bag, but was a solid bag, with no embellishment on it.  I decided I couldn't live with that, soooo, out came the books of crocheted and knitted flowers and leaves.  After the leaves were finished, I appliqued them onto the bag and then lined it. The plan is to use the bag as the fall temperatures come to north Texas.

The pattern that I decided to have tested in the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry was this scarf.  I named it "Holiday." A few years ago Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet made a movie together named "The Holiday." I really like that movie, but also, Kate's character wore some great scarves in that movie and this one was inspired by those.

The pattern testing went well and I have now published this pattern on Ravelry and on etsy. It uses a self-striping yarn and a solid yarn in a simple slip stitch pattern. Knitting this scarf is a great stash buster, because you need only 239 yards of each yarn!

The pink and gray scarf, above, used a sock yarn with shorter color changes. The scarf below used a Noro Kureyon, fingering weight, with the longer color changes.

Last year, sometime in 2012, I don't remember when exactly. :) I purchased the Doris Chan pattern for this top, started it and then stashed it.  So, I took it out of storage and finished it.  I used the Hobby Lobby yarn named "I Love This Cotton."

And wait there is more!  I, also, took out the large and growing basket of doilies and pieced together another poncho.  This one was a bit of a challenge.  I was trying to safety pin the smaller doily pieces together on the mannequin. Gravity, or a doily magnet in the floor, was having fun with me. Hahaha!  Not a successful venture. 

Then my daughter, Rebekah, suggested that I use bobby pins!  Yep, the kind we use in our hair.  What a fabulous idea!!  Those worked great! To fix the gravity problem, I decided to make a pattern piece out of an old sheet. To figure out what the size of the finished rectange should be, I looked at several crochet and knitting patterns from several years ago. They were made by making 2 rectangles and then stitching them together to form a poncho. The patterns had schematics on them, so I was able to see the different dimensions and what each looked like. After that, I decided what look I wanted for this poncho and decided on the dimensions for my rectangles. I cut the sheet into the size of the rectangle, that I needed, and laid it out on a table. Next, I filled in the sheet pattern with doilies, bobby pinned the doilies together and then stitched them together on the sewing machine, removing the bobby pins.  Voila!

Then last, but not least I made this sweater.  I had purchased the yarn for this sweater in February, 2013. Several of my friends had purchased yarn to make this sweater too.  They made their sweaters right away, and that spurred me on to make mine.  The yarn is from Plymouth yarn and named Kudo. The pattern is named "Women's Open Front Cardigan." Here is the link to the pattern on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/womens-open-front-cardigan . The designer liked my finished cardigan so much, that she wrote and asked me permission to use my sweater on the page. :)  I was honored and of course, said yes.  :)

Well, those are some of the projects finished this summer. Hope you enjoyed seeing them and that something inspired you to be creative!!  :)