Long Time No Post!

Welcome back blog! I admit, I haven't been as crafty as I was before BUT! I started a new type of craft! The jewelry stuff. Now it's getting pretty fun, and I am just barely starting to get in the world. Okay so 45 or so total orders isn't exactly paying my mortgage, but everyone starts somewhere.

Teapot Cozy! Finally!

Okay I know I have taken approximately one billion years to post these pictures, but seriously people, they are so cool that it was well worth the wait.

button hat

I made this hat using the Robin's Egg Blue Hat pattern from I Dream of Knitting. The band is made using a seed stitch, the rest is done in stockinette. I was an easy to follow pattern an I used a pretty bulky yarn, still not sure what the yarn is made of because I got it as a gift from a nice gal named Ashley. I love the color.... nice bright red, and it is super soft! Thanks Ashley!

Rachel, if you're reading this, your pattern rocks!! I think I'm going to make about 1.5 million of these hats!!

The yarn I used was more bulky than the one suggested so my hat seems to have come out slightly big, but I like it that way because it covers my ears and will fit over a ponytail or whatever my hair is doing that day.

teapot cozy

Now that the cozy has been received, I can blog about it! I scoured the internet looking for a nice teapot cozy that a person would not be embarrassed to display in their home. I found very few patterns that met this simple criteria. Knit or crochet, it did not matter to me! I first found this pattern which I figured I could modify to me more post-millennium-dweller friendly. No poodle, or rad flowers? The hook size was European but I found a conversion chart to US size and immediately began crocheting away. About 3 rows in, I decided that the color combo would not work and that the thing was coming out WAY too big. I frogged it. I'm not using a different hook, I'm going to find a better pattern, written in the last 20 years.

My search brought me to this beauty over at Lullabies and Lace. The instructions were great, I had no trouble getting through the pattern.
The cozy is completely awesome.

I cannot neglect to mention the help that was extended by the "boy in the house" over there. With a simple email, the dimensions of the teapot needing a cozy were relayed along with a nice description. This was a world of help since I have no teapot and am not familiar with the sizes and whatnot. I mean, I just started drinking tea like 2-3 weeks ago!! Geez!

Since I have no teapot to model the cozy, I'll leave it to Ms. Floatytoes to edit this post and add a photo as soon as humanly possible. I forgot to photograph it while I was there, staring at it. I am so proud and elated that my good friends actually like it! =]

No gnomes

My dream induced gnome quilt was not approved, having a boy in the house. I understand. I do. But I must quilt. I am still going to plan this quilt so that I can work on it all year. I have decided after much deliberation that the best quilt for my skill level AND for the amount of fabric patterns I want to use, Denyse Schmidt's Flock of Triangles quilt is PERFECT. I found this site here, where it shows a picture. Of course, the instructions are for a crib sized quilt, and I am going to make a king sized quilt. My love of oranges and yellows and warm patterns are probably overwhelming sometimes, so I am going to try really hard not to make it orange. Even though I really want to. But perhaps I could compromise with greens, say from Joel Dewberry's Aviary collection?
YES.

yikes! double points!

I decided to be ambitious last night. I opened my 5-pack of bamboo double pointed knitting needles. I am attempting to start and finish a Christmas gift by Sunday! Yikes! Anyway, using the double points to knit in the round is easier than I had expected because you only work 2 of the needles at a time, the other three just hang out until you get to them. I used this helpful article on Knitty.com to learn the proper technique. The picture is of what I have made so far. It's going to take some diligent work today and tonight to get this baby done!! The finished product will come in another post. =]

cookies and coffee

Eight years ago, when I first started working for Starbucks, I found I could take coffee gift packs as my free pound for the week. So, I took the little 2.5 oz Christmas Blend bags (I could take 6, even though that was one ounce short of a pound) and stock piled them in my moms kitchen cabinet for a month or however long they were available for. I didn't really know what to do with them but then decided to bake chocolate chip cookies to go with the coffee. I packed up the goods in little plastic tin-like containers and my mom shipped them off to whoever they were going to, I think mostly my dad's family. I got a report back from my mom that my grandma opened her package and immediately brewed a pot of the coffee and then sat there and ate all of the cookies and drank the whole pot of coffee in one sitting (they are BIG coffee drinkers). I thought that was so awesome. My mostly homemade gift was a success! So this year I decided to do the same thing but on a smaller scale, just for the men in my immediate family because I had no idea what else to make for them. And minus the Starbucks (it gets expensive when you don't work there! geez). So, the pictures are of my cookie dough and the finished cookies. Yum!! I'll edit to add the coffees and tins later.

CD Pocket

Burning CD's for someone for Christmas isn't nearly as fun without making them a CD holder to put them all in! I found this great tutorial and decided to give it a try. It was a great way to use up smaller pieces of fabric that I didn't know what to do with. The whole project took maybe an hour from start to finish. Mostly ironing and measuring, and a little sewing. Now it's a proper gift to give!