We had a major crisis this morning. We went to playgroup, but my son didn’t make the craft because he was too busy playing. He realized this on the drive home, and cried the entire way home. I had to do something fast, so we made turkeys.
I realize that this isn’t a new idea, but if you’ve got a crying toddler, it’s one that you can do quickly and easily.
And with that, I’m off to cook pumpkin for my Thanksgiving cheesecake. Recipe to come soon!
I discovered Shay’s Clays last week, and she had a project about putting clay on everything that wasn’t bolted down. Ok, maybe not quite that… But she had made herself a handle for her blade, and I wanted to do the same thing, because what I currently had wasn’t cutting it.
Well, maybe it was. My fingers. I used the leftover cane that I had from making beads for my son, and I pressed it down on the dull edge. I used a block of clay to hold it in place.
I also made sure that the clay covered the hole I. The blade, just to help secure it. And here’s the finished product!
So I wondered what else I could cover with clay… I ended up doing a crochet hook handle, because I’m making some slippers for a friend, and my hand cramped up the other night while I was working with the hook.
I was trying to do a Skinner Blend with blue, orange, and white, and it didn’t work out for me. I think my problem was that I was using too little clay. So I just kind of swirled it together, and came up with what you see.
It was a little too much fun using that pasta machine, so I think that another Skinner Blend may be in my future this week…
My son has been asking me to make him a necklace lately, so today I though that I’d tackle that project. I’ve also been itching to make my first cane out of polymer clay.
We started out by picking out three colours of clay. David picked his three favourites:
I then broke off about 1/4 of each block, and then conditioned it slightly.
I then smushed the pieces together.
Then I started rolling the clay into a long snake, and then twisting and rolling again until I was satisfied with the marbling effect.
Using a blade from an exactly knife, I started sawing off small sections of the log I had made.
I rolled the sections into spheres, and then used a toothpick to make the hole. Then I baked the clay on parchment paper at 275 for about 15 minutes. We broke out the hemp, and started stringing the beads.
He was very pleased with the end result!
I want to apologize for not posting much recently. We had someone new join our family six weeks ago, and he’s been taking up quite a bit of our time. Here’s Jack!
Also, this is the first post that I’ve made using my iPad. I’ll let you know how I feel about this app in a future post…
Saturday was a very busy day in our household. Hubby took our son for a drive in the morning. They went out for breakfast and then went ‘topping’ (shopping, to my two-year-old son). Once they got home, my son and I hit the road again. First we went to a baby shower. Here’s a few shots of the gifts that I made my friend:
Here is a link to the bootie pattern, and you can check out my previous post on the hat (also includes a link to the full pattern). This was my first time making booties, and I’m very pleased with how they turned out. If you check out the site where I got the pattern from, she also includes a video tutorial on how to make the sole of the bootie, to help you out.
After the shower, we went to a second birthday party for a little girl who lives up the road from us. We arrived a little late, because the shower and the party were at the same time, but we also stayed later because the two kiddies were having a great time playing with her new toys.
Another exciting thing happened on Saturday:
A parcel arrived in the mail for me! Actually, it arrived Friday, but we could only get to the post office on Saturday morning. Isn’t it great when you get something in the mail? Even though I knew exactly what it was, I was still pretty excited. Here’s what I ordered:
A new baby blanket pattern and yarn for our new arrival, and a set of kitchen cloths with toppers. My hubby really likes the kitchen cloths, so I figured that it was time for me to learn how to make them myself. The blanket is a knit entrelac pattern in vibrant colours. I made an entrelac scarf back when I was in university, but it should be interesting to make it on a larger scale.
March break started for us this weekend, so I’m off for a whole week. I’m hoping to finish a few things that I started so I can begin that blanket. Once I get them done, I’ll show them to you! One is a sharp crochet hook project that I’m quite excited about. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!
When I came across this pattern, I knew I was going to have to make it. (Please visit the link for the pattern! Amy’s pretty creative!)
I made the 6-12 month size, so I used a 5mm hook, and made 11 rows. I made a few changes from the original pattern. For one, I didn’t use buttons. I’d be scared that the little babe would take it off in the car and find a button to chew on. I just used black and white thread for the eyes and nostrils. Secondly, the first first row I made, I did it in hdc instead of dc. Lately, all of my hats have been cone-headed (just see any post that I’ve put up with a hat), so it was suggested to me to make the first round hdc, and it seemed to work pretty good here! Thirdly, because this is a hat for a little one, I didn’t make the final round for the eye, to make the patch smaller. I also only did four rows of the muzzle, as well. For the muzzle, I ch 17, and instead of making 16hdc, I did an increase on the first and last stitch, to make 18. This made the muzzle more round. And finally, I made two additional pieces for the ears in white, so the ears would have a white back, and it would cover the mess of changing colours.
Have fun with your crochet!
I finally finished my first knook project! I made a hat.
In case you’re wondering what a knook is… see my previous post with my knook review.
It does take some time to get used to using the knook, it was slow going at the first. However, once I got used to it, I could speed up a bit, and I think it turned out quite nicely in the end. Here’s a close shot of the lacing in the hat:
The pattern came from a book by Leisure Arts, called Urban Hats for the Knook. I’m looking forward to trying some of the more complicated patterns, and maybe trying to make up some of my own!
I didn’t actually make 99. I made 16 pairs of red, and 3 pairs of green.
I did take a picture of all 19 pairs, but it got accidentally deleted, so I just have this one mobile picture of the first two pairs that I made. I found the pattern on this website.
This post isn’t exactly about slippers, it’s about taking a big project on. In September, my friend asked me to make these slippers for her wedding in December, and I told her that I’d be glad to. This brings me to point number 1:
In the end, I’m glad that I took it on. It was very satisfying to hand over a huge bag of slippers to my friend. Plus, it will probably be a pattern that will be stuck in my head until the end of time… meaning the slippers will probably end up as gifts for others in the future.
