Diamonds and Bobbles Sampler Afghan Square

[41sts x 63 rows; 1 st too wide, 2 rows too high]

So I decided that with all that extra green Berella yarn I would start a sampler afghan. This is my first square. I'm a little concerned that all the squares aren't going to be the same size so we'll see how this goes.

I found the pattern for this square here.

I modified the pattern just a little bit to be 9” x 9” so for my gauge I needed 41sts and 63 rows; I managed to tweek the pattern to be 41 and 65 rows. I eliminated two sts on the ends of each row (-4) so my cast on was 41. I also eliminatd the first 4 border rows and the ending border so after my cast on I worked rows 5-51 then knit rows 20-36. It’s still just a tad bigger than a 9”x9”, but I’m trying to block it smaller. It’ll probably stretch back out… oh well.

Note: the pattern reads to cast on 47, but the chart is for 45 sts.

This blocked well and despite being a tad large, I think it’ll work.

On-On headband

This is a combination of a the Simple Double Knit Headband and the process of creating a reversible pattern for which I found some instructions on this page at Giftable Designs.

The construction needs some work and I neglected to follow the final slipping instructions for the headband. The headband is too big and the cast on edge is stretchy and larger than the bind off which doesn't have much give. It was a learning experience nonetheless!

Wine Bottle Gift Tag

I've already posted the wine bottle gift bag but it didn't fit a standard 750ml bottle so I went and picked up a large wine bottle which fits great! But I decided that it needed a gift tag so using the tree chart pattern for the knitted socks I made this little tag. At first I used spray adhesive to attach a card the same size size of the knitted tag but it looked stupid so I peeled it off. So I cut a piece of felt to size and whip stitched it together. The end result is much nicer and neater looking too.

How to make Bookmarks and Covers

So I came up with this last minute gift idea for my nieces and nephew since I was only giving them $20 each and didn't have any money cards and since money cards cost.... money!

I had made a couple bookmarks several years ago for myself and my brother and they turned out so cool I decided to make them again. But I still had the problem of not having an envelope... so the creative wheels got turning and I wound up with these totally cool and personalized bookmarks with covers!

Here's a quick picture tutorial on how to do it. Obviously you'll first need to create the bookmark with a picture. I used a photo editing program to create the bookmark following the process as the pictures indicate. I decided to sign the backs.... "Love Aunt Marni 12/2008". Then printed them on photo paper. Had them laminated at Kinko's ($2) with hard laminate. Trim so there's about 4mm of laminate around the bookmark picture, punch a hole at the top and attach a tassel. I made my own tassels too from embroidery thread (.25 each color at Jo-Ann's).



To sew the cover I used some green felt I had laying around (thus the one that is a different hue of green). Felt squares are 9 1/2"x 12" and can be bought for about .30 each. One felt square will make 2 bookmark covers. Cut four 3" x 9 1/2" pieces. Fold down 1" on one end of each cut piece and pin. This folded over flap is the opening for the bookmark cover. Align two pieces so that the folded flaps are facing each other (this is the right side). Pin the edges and sew 3/8" around but do not sew across the very end where the flap is. Now trim the bottom corners close to the stitching and turn it right side out. Poke out the bottom corners with a pencil tip.

Decorate: The snowflakes I used are buttons that I cut the loop part off of so it would lay flat and I glued it on with "Fabric Tac". I then wrote the name in glue and sprinkled with glitter. Knock off excess glitter and let dry.

They are avid readers and I hope they really like these. I'll let you know what they think of their cool bookmarks.

The Bad Santa Hash 2008

These bad Santa helpers have been very naughty but they are definitely having fun! That's me on the left; unfortunately the flash practically wiped me out since my colors were so much brighter than everyone else. Next to me is Dave (DH), Kary, Lance and Katie.

How to Sew Devil Horns

These horns were very easy to make following the instructions I found on "Cut and Keep" website. However after making the initial ones to scale I decided they weren't big enough so I copied the picture of the horn template from the site and enlarged it by 150%. Since I was using such thin fabric I decided to add some light-weight iron on interfacing to the back for stability.

Then rather than sewing the horns to barrettes I simply folded the fabric over on itself on the bottom and glued the hole closed with "Fabric Tac", which can be found at Jo-Ann's. I also attached the horns to the elf hat with Fabric Tac rather than attempting to sew them in the right place.

From my own experience though I will warn you that if you glue the horns on while wearing the hat there is a very good possibility that the glue with seep through the hat and get in your hair. Yes, this happened to me and fortunately I didn't actually glue the hat to my head, but I did have a hard time getting the glue out. So maybe tape some wax paper to the inside of the hat under where the horns will go if you plan on gluing it while it's on.

How to Sew a Devil Tail

DH is dressing up as an "evil elf" for the Bad Santa Hash on Sunday and of course I've been appointed head costume designer as usual, but after searching the net high and low for someone else to help me make a good devil style tail I came up empty handed. So I decided to take on the challenge of thinking this through on my own. In doing so, I video taped and took pictures of the process all to help out someone else trying to figure out how to make one. Next to figure out how to make horns... sigh.

Hershey Chocolate Wreath & Wine Bottle Gift Bag

Here are a couple of small things I made. The Hershey Kiss wreath was made with a foam circle from the dollar store which I sliced in half (like a bagel), wrapped around it with aluminum foil, and hot glued Kisses to it beginning with green and adding silver and red randomly. I saw several of these in magazine ads for Hershey Kisses. This only took like 15 minutes to make.

The wine bottle gift bag is from a pattern sent to me via .doc file from a gal on the Knittinghelp forum (yes I'm a geek). I should have used a thinner yarn as the pattern calls for in retrospect, but my bag will probably suit a champagne bottle just fine! LOL

The Christmas Cards are Done!

This is the Christmas card I designed for this year from one of my photos of Detroit . The caption on the People Mover reads "Here's to 2009 and another chance to get it right".

After completing the card itself, I decided to go ahead and make the "picture page" to include in the card since people seemed to really like that when I did it in 2006. When a picture page wasn't included in last year's card several people mentioned it. Of course with my two knee surgeries that I had this year I didn't do much running... LOL. But did make a lot of stuff and do a lot of projects most of which are included on this picture page; of course there's only so much room on a page.

All and all it was a good year!

White Elephant Gift Exchange

The White elephant gift exchange is always a great time. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something to bring since I don't really get gifts from people. So this year I decided to "re-gift" stuff that I was supposed to gift and never did or stuff I made that I just don't have any use for.

I had made this apron for Chuck because he said he'd like one after seeing the one I made for DH; well then Chuck sort of disappeared for a long time and the darn apron was hanging in my closet. So I decided to add an On-On Foot in rhinestones and sew on a pocket and gift it. This was my first rhinestone design although I can't take full credit since I got the idea and really the perfectly laid out template from this site that just happened to be using the Hashing foot as an example.

The other things I included in the box where 2 eyelash scarves, the Christmas tree small pillow decoration thing, the clover hot pad, the love/hate hot pad, the Sam Adams hat and scarf set, the bunny baby hat with with misplaced ears and the wee-willy warmer that never made it in the gift box last year. I think that's it.

2 Scarves Finished and Gifted

Well I finished up the DNA scarf which I gifted to my orthopedic surgeon; yes, I know he can afford to buy his own scarf, but I liked the pattern and needed a "purpose" to make it. I don't think there is anything that I could do to actually get it to not curl in on itself. I blocked it 3 times; once with a slight elevation on the cabled part; a second time with even more elevation to the cable and the last time I simply folded the thing in half. It still curled! The yarn is Bernat Cashmere.

The other scarf was gifted to Marianne, Dr A's assistant. I just had to make something special for her since she's had to council me on the phone while I'm crying hysterically about mistreatment and denial of claims and whatnot. She's a super sweet woman and this was the least I could do to show my appreciation so I made here this Heart scarf from Bernat Alpaca. Pardon the picture quality; I was in a big hurry!

There's GOLD in them there...

Well, maybe not gold and certainly not found in the "hills of Detroit". But I just had a pleasant Christmas discovery when cleaning up my desk area. I had made these little index cards with knit stitch patterns written out on them and stuffed into a plastic sleeve. My Grandmother used to put everything in plastic including recipes cards, sewing notes and crocheting instructions, kid's games, etc. I suppose it's my attempt to be like her in a minute way, but I'm way too unorganized for such tedious work, plus when I need to know how to do the trinity stitch for instance I simply Google it rather than reach for a pile of unsorted cards in plastic sleeves.

So my point is.... back when I put these few cards together I slid some fun money in between the cards! Yep that's right.... there was $60 stuffed in there! This is better than finding loose change in the couch or favorite Chapstick in the pocket of your winter coat on the first wearing of the season.

Knee Surgery Twice on same Knee

Yep, so this sucks. I went in Tuesday morning for my second knee surgery on my left knee. It should be under worker's comp, but they are manipulative little (#()#%)(@Q#! Ok, don't get me started. I'll just try to stick to the obvious. I needed knee surgery again on the same knee that I tore in January and had surgery on in March.

The surgeon told Dave that everything went well and that it was typical for the type of injury that I had reported. I did not talk to Dr A, although he probably stopped by and I was too groggy to respond/care. When I first got home I felt great and got some stuff put away and ran the little carpet vacuum in a few places... the the drugs wore off. Over the next 36 hours I was basically doped up on Vicodin and fell in and out of sleep. Remembering how difficult it was to elevate my leg last time I set up a chaise lounge chair in the living room in advance and was glad I did. I slept quite a bit reclined in the chair with an ice pack on my knee.

I didn't start to really feel better until late yesterday morning after taking an anti-inflammatory. I was instructed not to take it for two days post op because it's a blood thinner. Today is now Friday and I can almost make it down half the stairs in almost a normal looking gait; not fast though. I can now flex my knee to 90 degrees which was impossible even this morning.

I have not taken a Vicodin today and I've also not iced much (my bad; I'm going to do that in a minute).

Two days ago I thought recovery was going to be really bad, now I'm thinking it might be about the same as the first time on the left knee.

I have quite a few little projects lined up for while I'm "relaxing" around the house.

1. The Christmas card (I've already finished Dave's for work)

2. I have got to straighten out this yarn mess

3. I have some sewing to do

4. I have an afghan project to start

5. I have to finish the two scarves that mostly just need blocking

6. I'll label the tool chest so I don't have to open every drawer looking for the pliers

7. My recipe folders really need some updating

8. Catch up with my blog.... which is just about done!

Carpet Installation

Ok, now this is something I haven't done at all before. Install carpet. How hard can it be? Well, we had all this carpet left over from carpeting our bedroom so I measured and calculated and decided that the left over pieces would indeed fit down the hallway and all the way to the front door and I could finally get rid of that nasty carpet without really spending a lot on a "temporary" solution.

So 2 days before my knee surgery I went to the Depot and purchased what I would need to do the job: tack strips, padding, seam tape, knee kicker... and start ripping out carpet and cleaning up the wood floor underneath. It was about as bad as I imagined.

I wasn't able to finish the carpet installation because I had to leave for knee surgery. Yes, I tore that darn meniscus again... more to come on that. But anyway, I did get the carpet fitted down and the only things left to do now is the seams, the knee kicker, trimming, and tucking. At least that's what I'm telling myself. It will be quite a while before I can finish the project but in the meantime I'm enjoying the new feel!

Here's how it's gone so far:



Before: this carpet must be 25 years old!


What's left of the padding

After scraping up the big pieces and digging out the staples

After "cleaning" it with a scrub brush

Tack strips are down and the padding is being installed

The new carpet has been fit and the seems cut to fit (I hope)

Applesauce Time!

Actually it's past applesauce time, but started to panic that if Jim took a bunch back to FL with him that Dave and I would run out before a year's time! OH MY! Simple solution: make more applesauce. I'm so smart. Now normally I make applesauce about the first week or two of November so this is by far the latest in the year that I've made it. My choices weren't as good but there was enough to get a good combination. I also wonder about the sweetness of the apples or maybe it was just the combination I used. The applesauce seemed a little tart, but sweet. It's still good, but next time I'll make sure I get on the ball and make it by the second weekend of November rather than the last weekend of November.

Since I was making a small batch I bought about 31 pounds which yielded 14 quarts of applesauce. I made Jim's with a tad less sugar than the "desert" kind that Dave likes.