40 ROCKS!

So, for my 40th birdday I got some money-and of COURSE I wanted to spend some on YARN!  I've been wanting to make this sweater for the longest time, and decided the time has come.

I don't like necks that touch my neck though-I'm very very particular about that-I get a feeling of being strangled...so of course I was stressing over how to modify the pattern to avoid that entirely.  Many awesome Ravelers came to my aid and offered up some advice and I'm going to be implementing some short rows in the back between the colorworked sections...

Whilst waiting for my yarn to arrive I played with different color combinations-using photoshop to help my eyes get their thirst for a visual quenched...I'm happy with the combo I have picked and now for the fun stuff!  THE KNITTING!


My poor postman must think I'm insane.  He is so sweet to run all the way down my driveway to bring me packages-he actually waits for me to answer (not like that stinky UPS guy who just chcuks stuff at the door and all I see of him as I open the door is his backside jumping back into the truck).  I saw that box and just about lost it yesterday!  I do believe I even jumped up and down...may have screamed a bit too!

The next day:  I finished up the ribbing, colorwork and a bit more-I stressed about my gauge a little-I thought I was spot on at first but then realized it was getting 16 stitches instead of 18 for every 10cm...but I'm not going to sweat it.  I wanted this sweater to be a little roomy and I chose a small-I normally like a medium when I want roomy-so I'm going with it.  It looks lovely!  The yarn is scratchy-but not nearly as scratchy as I thought it would be!

12-22-15:  Merry almost Christmas!! In between making oodles of Christmas cookies, finishing some last minute gifts, wrapping all the presents (haven't yet broken my vow to always wrap as soon as I bring the gift home), a few little trips to the post office, I have managed to make a good deal of progress on my sweater. I have taken a few hours of the last few days to watch a movie each day with my daughter (The Hobbit movies-we always do a LOTR marathon on New Year's Eve, so we wanted to get ready) so I pounded out quite a bit watching the hobbits and dwarfs hunting down Smaug...Now I'm wondering why the plural of dwarf is dwarfs and not dwarves?

My modifications to this pattern are below...Please refer to the actual Afmaeli pattern, as I am only posting my notes on how I modified it slightly to accommodate for my neck issues... Please note that the ds refers to a double stitch as for German Short Rows-you can easily wrap and turn instead if you prefer. 

I use a 3.5 needle throughout-I tend to knit looser and it wound up working well for me that way...

During the yoke portion I used some short rows in this manner:

for round 1:  K80 (I made an adult small-you will have a different count on a different size-I think I was about five stitches from the center) PM, turn, ds, p 224 PM, turn, ds, k to beginning.

then I skipped row 4 and continued with round 5, kept going until round 15...
round 15, k to 3 stitches before SM, turn, ds, p to 3 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to beginning and then go to round 18...

keep going until you reach round 31-k to 8 stitches before SM, turn, ds, p to 8 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to end and start with round 33.

Row 42: k to 11 stitches before SM,turn, ds, p to 11 stitches before SM, turn, ds, k to end and then start with round 44.

for the neckband I omitted all of the decreases that it tells you to do.  I only did 3 cm of ribbing.  Also, I switched up the coloring-I wanted to see more of that lovely blue so I made sure I chose blue for the larger portion of the color chart-I also added one round of all black to give it a finished look before starting on the ribbed portion-SO happy with it!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I made this Rooster Hat Pattern a while back and never got around to actually making a hat for myself.  I wound up donating the last one I had after all the testing was over (it wound up getting $90 in a silent auction-which is CRAZY to me-but I was thrilled to hear that).

I had dreamed of having chickens ever since we moved to our new home.  My hubby really wasn't into the whole chicken thing, so it really took 4 years of convincing and foot dragging (on hubby's part) with the construction of the coop being in a state of construction for about a year and a half.

I am officially in love with my girls now, we've had them since the day before Easter and I haven't had to purchase eggs since July!  Very exciting!  I belong to a few chicken groups on facebook and I offered up a chicken hat to the winner of a little contest we have every month...Well, I got all excited about making one and decided to make one for an administrator who does so much for the group and one more for MYSELF!  EEEHAWWWW!!!

I love my chicken hat-although not half as much as I love my chickens!  :)  Next spring I plan on adding to my flock...I want to have a total of 12-20 hens and one rooster...I plan on buying a straight run so I have to plan for 50% being roosters...but then I have crappy luck, and you have to consider some may not hatch....so I should take that into account as well...so I will most likely be getting 50ish fertilized eggs.. CHICKEN MATH!!!  I plan on being able to raise my own chicks from my flock and butchering them for eating when I have more chicks than I need...I won't name those of course.

Easy Brioche Panel

I fell in love instantly when I saw the Stockholm Scarf (free pattern by KnittedblissJC)..I knew instantly that I had to make it-but then I also knew that I didn't have enough of any one color.  Plus, I really like to mess around with things...can't just do things the easy way, ya know?

So....I fiddle farted around a bit and wound up with this fun little infinity scarf!

I followed the first panel (the dark grey) as written...

Instead of making another panel the same way, this is where I started getting a little creative.

For each of the tan and pink panel I used a cast on of 37  (multiples of 5 plus 2) and then followed the pattern for the same amount of repeats as I used for the long panel.

For the brioche portion, I warn you-I am a brioche novice-I've never written up a brioche pattern and I just sort of fudged what I was doing...If you look at my panels there are a few strategically placed decreases and increases-those are not included in this little pattern as I just snuck them in here and there as I felt I wanted them...But here is the brioche panel for straight lines (it is up to you to add decreases and increases if you feel you need them also).

In my version of this brioche panel, please note that I switched my CC to a different color about halfway through...just cuz I felt like it (and I was running out of pink).

CO an even number.

SETUP:
1.  With MC, p1, *slyo, p1, repeat from * to the last stitch, sl-SLIDE work to the other end of the needle
2.  With CC:  sl, *brk, sly; repeat from * across-TURN work.

Body
1a.  With MC, sl, brk, *slyo, brk; repeat from * across until the last two stitches, slyo, k-SLIDE work to the other end of the needle.
1b.  With CC, P, slyo, *brp, sly; repeat from * across until the last 2 stitches, brp, sl-TURN work.

2a.  With MC, p1, *slyo, brp; repeat from * across until the last stitch, sl-SLIDE work tot he other end of the needl.
2b.  With CC, sl, *brk, slyo; repeat from * across until the last stitch, k-TURN

repeat 1-2 until the piece measures the desired height and then BO loosely.

Dumpster of Life (or Death)

Every year I try to get ornaments that have significance in our past year...Last year, if you were paying attention, you would have seen the podiatrist shrunken head and ingrown toenail ornaments I made for my son....

This year, I decided I needed a Glenn Dumpster...Now, of course I made it as an ornament, but it would make a great gift box for any Walking Dead fan...Or just a fun little table doodad...you could put some zombie guts in it or something...or candy...ya...candy!!!

Anyhow, here is how you make this little gem

With worsted weight yarn I recommend 100% wool-I didn't have wool, I used acrylic, but it isn't as structured as it could be if you used wool...
US 3 (or any sized needle that will give you very tight gauge)

Very small amounts of white, brown, grey, yellow and dark blue.

Base
with dark blue CO 15
Work 10 rows of stockinette (starting with a knit row)
BO

Long sides (make two)
with dark blue CO 15
k 3 rows
work in stockinette for 7 more rows starting with a purl row
BO

Short Sides (make two)
with dark blue CO 7
k 3 rows
work in stockinette for 7 more rows starting with a purl row
BO

Lid
With grey, co 22
(k1tbl, p1) across for 12 rows

The garter edges are the tops of your sides-so keep that in mind for the embroidery:
 using your yellow and grey and looking at photo for the details, use duplicate stitch embroidery to make the little yellow sign and the grey thinamathing....




White bag
with white, pick up 3 stitches from the top of the front long side
1.  kfb, k, kfb
2.  k2, k2tog, kfb
3. BO2, k2tog
4.  k2tog and finish off

Cardboard box
with brown, pick up 3 stitches from the top of the front long side
k 3 rows
BO

Chain

separate strands from your brown yarn.  Using one strand chain loosely, until your chain is the desired lenght.

Whip stitch the side seams-only sew the lid on the very back long seam.
Update:  I've finally gotten my Christmas Tree up and I am happy to report that Glenn's Dumpster was the first ornament on the tree!  If you listen closely, you can hear Sebastion singing softly to Glenn, "Unda Da Dumpsta!"

DIY Advent Calendar!

I have always wanted an advent calendar!  I thought it would be cute to knit some little stockings and hang them on a stick and use that as our advent calendar!  Inside each stocking will be two goodies and two papers with a random act of kindness (I have two kids so it works well that way).

I used this FREE superminis sock pattern to make my little socks.  I'd never knitted any socks before-so these were my first.  There is a great German rows tutorial included if you have never done that technique.  I have done it before so I didn't need it, but it is nice to have if you are a newb!  I used worsted weight, so they came out to be a pretty decent sized sock for the advent calendar.  Then I decided I wanted to get all cutsey and have some little ones too so I modified the pattern by:

CO 12

Omit the second short rows section

did my decreases on every row instead of every other row

There are loads of other free socks patterns I considered-this was just the first one I tried-and liked it so I just went with it...here are some more free patterns that I considered, I just haven't gotten around to trying them yet!


Sockknitters Mini-Sock
Toe-up Mini Sock
Mini Stocking Ornament

And for the crocheter in me:

Little Christmas Socks


Once I got finished with my 16th sock I hit a rut...I got sick of socks...so I tried my hand at some brioche...knitted a fun colorwork hat (and even a matching one for my dog)...caught up with a few orders for friends and family....and then went back to finishing all the socks so I could get to the even more fun part!

I then went hunting for a nice big stick...this was pretty easy as we live on a wooded lot and it has been really windy here! Of course, once I brought it in I realized there were a few creatures on it so now I have a few leaf hopper bugs in my house! DOH!

I took some wire-unfortunately I don't know the gauge-it was just thick enough to be easy to cut but also easy to bend into shape but not bend back with the weight of the goodies inside the socks...I wish I could be more helpful there, but my days of jewelry making are over and I've long since thrown out the little tags on the wire I have.  I originally wanted little hook things from Home Depot, but my husband seemed very uninterested in helping me at all, and I have to pick my battles.  Before you go hating on him, he's a wonderful man who does everything for his family, but works very long hours.  I have to keep my "Honey Do" list reasonable so I get the things I need to get done...done!  He still needs to tarp over my chicken run, and I have that as a priority as we are supposed to get snow on Friday!

I made little hooks by twisting the wire around the stick, leaving one end long enough to shape into a hook.  That's it!  I'll need to get hubby to actually hang this on my wall for me, but that can come after the chickens are all cozy in their covered run....and probably after I host Thanksgiving! :)

The Hatred Test

My good friend posted a photo of a kitty wearing a hat on my facebook yesterday...She said her dog needed one...I advised against this at all costs...Surely the dog would hate her forever if she did such a thing!  Then she told me she was only kidding...

Well...you can't tell an obsessive yarner that you think something should be made and not mean it...So I just got done making a baa-ble hat (awesome free pattern!!)  and figured I'd attempt to make my very first (and hopefully last) dog hat!  Just to test the theory that dogs do not appreciate such things....and they will hate you.....rather emphatically until the end of time...But cats...cats don't like humans anyhow so go ahead and make the wear hats!


I have to say, Lola actually didn't mind it.  She was pretty chill throughout the whole process of  taking measurements, trying it on and modeling it...

For those that want to recreate what I did....here it goes:

Click that link above to bring you to the baa-ble hat so you can follow along...

I decided that for her head size she'd need a cast on of 60...

I did K2, p2 for the ribbing-about 3/4 of an inch...
Then I did a straight k row
then I did one row of the little flowers from the baa-ble chart...

Then I came to the ear holes

k7, BO 13, k17, BO 13, k8  (in case you need a different cast on number-basically you are knitting a quarter of your hat, then binding off just a tad shy of a quarter, knitting a little more than a half then  binding off a  tad shy than a quarter and then knitting to the end)

next round: k7, CO 13, k18, CO 13, k9

Then I started the sheep (I left their little feet off because my dog has a little head and I didn't want a huge head-I planned on duplicate stitching on some feet-but don't seem to mind them footless)

Then I started decreasing after two rounds of the sky-I evenly placed 10 stitch markers then did my decrease rounds like this:

k to 2 stitches before marker, k2tog
k one round even (putting random white splotches in where I felt they looked good)

Once I was able to k2tog only in between each of the stitch markers I finished off....

Then I took a crochet hook and did some sc around the ear holes so that they wouldn't curl...giving them a nice little edge.

The verdict:  She doesn't hate me!!!  She still loves me!!  AND she has an awesome hat that matches mommy!!

White Elephant Gifts!

Every year our bunco group does a white elephant gift and every year I try to outdo myself...I don't want to just to some dumb thing..it has to be creatively dumb...The first year I did the Elf That Fell Off The Shelf-an incredibly creepy doll accompanied by an even creepier poem-complete with clown's head (perhaps the only thing creepier than a clown is a creepy elf holding a decapitated clown...

Here is the poem that accompanied him, if you choose to copy my idea and start this creepy tradition...

The Elf That Fell Off The Shelf

He once was an elf…sitting upon a shelf so high

But a task from Santa went a little awry!

He was not the most graceful and did suffer a fall

And now he gives his message to all!

You better be good for goodness sake!

Because otherwise your presents-he will take!

Into your dreams he will creep…

Stealing your gifts as you sleep…

He’ll take your chocolate when your back is turned…

He’ll make sure your carefully cooked dinner is burned…

You’ll think you’ve seen the last of this little pest…

But you’ll find he’s an unwelcome and permanent house guest….

Throw him away and he’ll just get meaner…

He’ll find his way home-and not any cleaner…

Missing socks and tennis shoes?

You might have The Elf That Fell Off The Shelf Blues!

Teenagers giving you a nasty attitude?

He’s probably spiked their food!

Toddlers whining and in your face?

Must have an Elf That Fell Off The Shelf in your place.

“How do I break this curse?”  Do you say?

Well listen close, I’ll tell you the way…

Carefully wrap him up with care…

With a new person you must share…

You must be an Elf That Fell Of The Shelf Sharer

Thus spreading the joy of the season…and the terror.

In return, I received my neighbor's son's old holey underwear...So I saved them...For a whole year...so that I could plot my revenge...

Enter Johnny's Underwear Ornaments!  

 I've already made Johnny's Underwear Snowman a pattern on Ravelry-feel free to download it for free here.

This is how I made the ornaments

With the (freshly laundered and ironed) underwear laying with two layers...I used a pinking shears to cut out some heart shapes and some star shapes.  You need two of each shape for each ornament...

 I then cut out some ribbon and stuck it between the two layers so that the ornaments would have a hanger...

Then I sewed around the ornament-about 1/4 inch from the side but left a little open so that I could stuff it...

I then lightly stuffed the ornament, just to give it some POP!

After sewing the ornament closed you have a final, unique, disgusting gift to give for your next White Elephant gift exchange! :) 

The Struggles of a Muggle....

So, my daughter has gotten into Harry Potter...Like over the moon crazy in love with the books and movies...So I thought I would be an awesome mom and buy one of those awesome pattern collections and make her a Dobby hat....She was very upset that I would do such a thing because apparently, all Potter fans would only get depressed if they saw that hat.  Such a shame too because it is awesome....

So then I thought, SURELY she'll want a mandrake...Those things were super awesome and every Potter fan needs one of those!  Duhhh...So I made one...Um ya..she was having none of it..She did, however, get in costume and take a few photos with it just to be a good sport! :)  If you want to know how I did it, this is what I did-it isn't a true pattern though...just a recipe. :)

I'm not going to work up a whole pattern as I sort of freeform knitted it...BUT if you want to sort of follow what I did here are some random little notes:

On waste yarn provisional CO 18...Then in the round for as long as you would like your head portion-increase two stitches about every inch or so...As you are knitting in the round, randomly bind off some stitches here and there-when you get to those stitches you bound off simply pick up the same amount of stitches by using the purl bumps two rows down (that gives you the nice little wrinkle look)..

Just before you get done with the head section start increasing for the arms on either side-every other round I did an increase round as if I was working a raglan top (I gave each arm 8 stitches) then put the arm stitches on a holder and continue working in the round for the lower body, but you will start decreasing two stitches every inch or so...continuing to put your wrinkles here and there...I ended with 18 stitches so I could put 9 per leg....I worked the arms and legs in the round-decreasing as I went and then finished off with icord and then a few chains with a crochet hook...

After I undid the provincial cast on, I made the branches by making icord out of them in sections...Then I stuffed and sewed closed and then I used a crochet hook to make even more branches and leaves...

I just tied some loose yarn strands to the ends of the legs and arms and frayed the ends for the little 'root' look and embroidered on the face with some black..I had actually done colorworking as I went for the eyes and mouth in dark brown but didn't think it showed up too well so I went over it with black. :)

So there you have it...my recipe for a mandrake.

The Eggless Horseman! DIY Chicken Cowboy Costume

Do or do not...there is no try-Yoda.   I do believe he had this chicken costume in mind when he said that.


It started as something I was completely awestruck with...And then it became an obsession...And then it became an very serious plot...and then it became a very intense workout...and then it became reality.

This was a labor of love as well as super mega cheapness.  I did NOT want to spend a grand on a cool costume (the one I found online was $1500 and so fabulous).....

Be warned!!!  I AM NOT A SEWING DESIGNER.  I do design knit and crochet patterns- you can see them (and all my other random craft craziness) on my facebook page.  I do not like to sew and I consider myself a novice.  I have had no formal training-I taught myself to sew to keep my mind occupied while my hubby was deployed a while back.  Don't attempt this if you need a perfect pattern-this is merely a guide for someone who is adventurous.


You will need (always err on the side of caution and buy more if you think you will mess up or need a larger size-I am a size small and I just scraped by with what I bought):

2 yards white faux fur-do not skimp-buy the really nice grizzly long fur...
2 yards yellow flannel
1 yard white (for lining)
.25 yards of red felt
3 sheets of yellow felt
1 sheet of black felt
velcro  (you'll need just a tad more than what fits around your waist)
Elastic
Polyfil (stuffing)
plastic grocery bags (a crapload)
chicken wire
pool noodle (preferably white or a very light color)
Jelly Belly Jelly beans (or snack of choice)
Sharpie
Tissue Paper (Or whatever you want to use for a 'pattern')
Overalls that you don't mind destroying
socks and/or cowboy boots (maybe knit or crochet them or make some out of brown felt)
Yarn for reins (which I still haven't made)

To begin, I sketched my ideal chicken shape onto paper to use as a guide.  Then I laid out some tissue paper (to use as a pattern-I had to tape a few sheets together) and used a sharpie to draw my chicken's body shape (be careful because sharpie will BLEED THROUGH TISSUE PAPER so put newspaper underneath or do this outside)

 I then cut out my chicken's body shape-I  made sure it would work for the size chicken I would need by holding it up to myself and making sure that back portion would be enough to go half way around my waist.  At this point, you  may need to make your chicken bigger or smaller depending on your size...

At this point you will be stressing out because you will be needing to cut into that expensive material.  Pour yourself a nice bowl of jelly bellies....or chocolate...just not alcohol.  You will be using sharp objects! haha!  

Using my chicken's body pattern I cut two pieces of my faux fur material (your fur should be folded or laid so that when you cut it you will have two mirror image shapes-I kept the wrong sides together as I cut).

I then cut two wedge shapes-one for the back of the head and one for the belly of the chicken-each were cut with the fold at the bottom so when you open them they are like a pointed oval shape.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the head wedge but this is the belly wedge, but I basically just wanted to add a little depth to the head and also the belly.  

 

I then sewed my chicken body together, strategically placing my wedges where I thought they would help give a little extra depth...Sew them with the right sides of fabric together and then turn right side out.

 Using my red felt, I drew a comb, using the sharpie and then cut it out (in the same manner as the chicken's body-you need two pieces to sew together). 

 I then sewed my little chicken comb together and turned it right side out.  I lightly stuffed my comb and then I pinned the comb to the center of the head and hand sewed the comb to the head.

 Using my yellow felt and a cup I thought was a good size for a chicken's eye I used my sharpie to draw a circle and then cut out my eye.

 I had to use a smaller cup for the black-and since black sharpie doesn't' show up on black felt I had to make a pattern by drawing it onto a piece of paper first.

I then hand sewed all my little eye bits together and then made the waddles...Which I also forgot to take a photo of-SORRY!  I did put my eye ball on the red felt though, and outlined what I thought was a good waddle shape onto the felt and cut out two-one for each side.  The eye bits then got hand sewn onto the waddles and the waddles got hand sewn onto the face.

For the beak I drew a beak shape onto the yellow felt-for this I used the fold of the felt as the top portion of the beak so I wouldn't have a seam on the top of the beak-I then used the machine to sew the front and bottom of beak-leaving the back of the beak open to lightly stuff and then hand sew onto the face. 

At this point I was rejoicing because I could tell my chicken was going to actually look like a chicken.  Of course I tried it on and got all excited.

Now was time for the destruction of perfectly good overalls.  I actually purchased these for 40% off at Target-they were wonderful overalls so I tried really hard to rip the seams nicely so I could sew them back up if I wanted to actually use these again for real.  You need to rip out the whole crotch area so your legs can fit out the opening and you can pull them up over your waist with the legs dangling at your sides.  I then just used socks for at the bottom of the pant legs...I used safety pins to keep them on-I just didn't want to sew into these jeans.  I stuffed the socks and the legs of the pants with grocery bags loosely.  I had contemplated newspaper, but it is always rainy on Halloween so I figured grocery bags won't get all soggy.

 I decided I needed a lining for the chicken's body that my body will go through-I just used my white material and made a tube that would be large enough to fit around my waist with a little extra room and then made a big hem on the top so I could put some elastic through it.  Instead of completely closing my chicken up, I wanted to be able to access his innards so I used velcro to keep the lining attached to the body.

I don't have a good photo of the innards of my chicken because I had to build it while it was inside the chicken.  I felt like a surgeon.  I put the pool noodle in the bottom of the chicken and that is my base-I put both the ends together and used duct tape and some strange wire things hubby gave me to keep it still.  I used chicken wire and made a long tube that went from the base to the top of the head and attached it to the pool noodle. I did the same thing for the tail.  

The chicken wire was a really good decision because it doesn't add a lot of weight and then you only have to stuff a little bit around the wire....

For the chicken legs I just used some old pants I have and traced the outline of them onto the yellow flannel and cut out two of those...seamed up the inner legs and then sewed the body together...

 I then used tissue paper to make a chicken foot pattern, sort of using my own foot as a template.

Each chicken foot needs two pieces of felt cut with right sides together ....then sew the outer edge of the foot seams-leave a portion open though so you can turn it right side out and then stuff.  You'll then sew closed your hole...After it is stuffed you can sew closed the inner foot part.

 I didn't really like how the foot hangs on me, so I am going to be putting a velcro closure on the back of the feet so I can keep them in place..I am also going to be putting elastic across the bottom so it will hug my shoe.

Now you need to immediately put your chicken cowboy costume on and go scare your girls! :)