One Hour Coffee Cozy

I'm not going to take a survey, but I'm willing to put money down that every knitter likes a project that can be done in one sitting.  One hour-long TV show, one (or two) cups of coffee or tea.  And for Mamas - one nap time.

These little coffee (or tea...or hot chocolate, or whatever it is you drink in winter) cup cozies are quick, easy and they use up scrap yarn.  Plus, they're pretty darn cute.

This is my second-ever attempt at writing a knitting pattern; so if you try it and end up making a headband...please tell me.

You will need:
5mm straight knitting needles
Worsted weight yarn
Tapestry or wool needle
Co-ordinating ribbon

Skill level: Beginner

Abbreviations:
k - knit
p - purl
yo - yarn over hook
k2tog - knit two stitches together
stockinette stitch - knit the 'right side' and purl the 'wrong side'

Pattern:
Cast on 30 stitches
Rounds 1 - 5: work ribbed pattern of k1, p1    
Rnd 6: purl, increase 3 stitches evenly across row; 33 stitches
Rnds 7 - 9: knit
Rnds 10 and 12: purl
Rnd 11: knit
Rnd 13: k1, *yo k2tog* repeat * to end.
Rnd 14: purl
Rnd 15 - 22: continue in stockinette stitch
Rnd 23: bind off, leave a long tail (30cm or 12") for sewing the seam.

When you've cut your long sewing tail, you'll have something that looks like the photo above.

Fold right sides together and sew seam.  Fasten off and weave in tail.

Weave your ribbon in and out of the little holes made in Round 13.  I would suggest sliding the cozy over a cup before knotting the ribbon; you don't want to tie it too tight!

To prevent the ends of the ribbon from fraying, melt the cut edge ever so slightly with a lighter.

Now that you're done, what will you do with it?  Gift it away?  Keep it?  Make another?  I think a little touch of homemade is on everyone's wish list for Christmas.  I would pair this cozy with a coffee shop gift card.  And just to be extra cute, ask for an extra cup, slide the cozy on and pop the card inside!

Monogrammed Tea Towel Tutorial

I received a virtual kick in the tush last week from a fellow blogger.  She didn't think my once-a-month blog posts were sufficient.  I have to agree with her.

I've been busy.  I know that's a lame, catch-all excuse.  But, it's the honest truth.  B-U-S-Y.  Yeah, click that link.  You'll see that I've completely lost my mind and deluded myself into thinking that someone (or maybe a couple of someones) will actually want to BUY the things my sewing machine spews out.  Go ahead and 'like' my Facebook page too.  Sometimes I give stuff away on there.

I managed to snag an hour to make up a little personalized gift for a bridal shower I'm attending tomorrow.

Round up the following:

Tea Towels
Co-ordinating cotton fabric
Iron-on adhesive (I used Heat 'n Bond)
Letter templates
Iron
Fabric scissors
Tape

Optional: needle (or sewing machine) and thread

Print out lettering off of your computer to your desired size.  Cut around the letters (don't cut out the letters yet) and tape them to the paper side of the iron-on adhesive.  If you are using letters that have a right side, like 'P' or 'K', be sure to tape them down reversed.  Otherwise you'll stomp your feet and yell "Aaaahhh! I have backwards letters!"

Place the adhesive, paper side up, on the wrong side of the co-ordinating cotton fabric.  Iron according to package instructions.

Using the fabric scissors, cut out lettering. Peel the paper backing off.  Please excuse the gross, chipped nail polish.  See!?  No time!

If your tea towels have come folded, be sure to unfold them and iron out any creases.

Place lettering at your desired location.  I left my tea towel folded in half (length wise) and placed the letters in the middle.

Iron again according to package instructions.  You can either stop here, OR add a little bit of stitching.  If you don't own a sewing machine, you may want to add a neat little back stitch around the edge of the letters with an embroidery needle and thread.

I chose to use a sewing machine, since I was short on time.  Change your presser foot to a satin stitch foot (clear plastic) and switch up your stitches to a short zig-zag.

The satin stitch foot allows you to see what you're doing a little better.  You'll need to stop and pivot the fabric around tight corners.  Be sure the needle is in the fabric before lifting the presser foot!  I ended up doing a lot of manual hand-wheel turning around the 'H'.

Snip threads and you're done!

Since my tea towels came in a set of four, I thought I'd make up two animal silhouette towels as well.  'H' is a horse riding instructor and 'T' has a beloved pit-bull cross.  I was afraid the horse silhouette might come out looking like a donkey...but I think it looks like a horse.

Sweet beans.  I'm a teensy bit peeved about the lines that show through little miss pit-bull.  Next time I'll use a darker fabric.  Or pattern-less towels.  Sew and learn.

Have a mah-velous weekend!

Sunshine in the Mail

Pinterest told me to mail sunshine.

Considering March is typically one of the gloomier months in Canada, I thought it'd be a great idea for my friend's birthday.  

A few other gals and I gathered up some yellow things.  

Yummy treats.

Cheerful muffin cup liners, streamers and bubbles.  

Lip gloss and nail polish.

Squirrels?  Haha.  I saw these salt and pepper shakers at an antique store and I just couldn't stop giggling.  Their names are 'Sammy' and 'Samantha'.

I also had Rowan colour a spring-like photo.  Except he went rogue and used blue instead of yellow and orange.

All bundled up and ready to go to Calgary!  Although we've been having a very warm and sunny March, Jenn co-incidentally waited to open the parcel on a cloudy day.  Yessssssssssss!

Flower and Dot Cuddle Blanket

I saw this absolutely adorable baby boy blanket tutorial on Pinterest a little while ago. 

Super duper cute, right?  I'll admit that I was tempted to make one for Rowan.  The only thing that stopped me was the fact that he didn't need another blanket.  Thank goodness for the arrival of my niece!  I changed things up a little to make it more....flowery and polka dotty :)

Instead of flannel shirts (which is a fantabulous design element), I used flannel fabric in three corresponding colours; about half a meter of each.  You'll also need one meter of cuddle or minky fabric and cotton quilt batting.  I used Warm and Natural in the Baby/Crib size, which is 115 x 150 cm (45" x 60") and needed to be trimmed down a bit.

The top of the quilt is done in a striped rag.  It's not a full-out rag quilt; just one layer of flannel was sewn (wrong sides together!) with a 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) seam allowance.

The flannel was sewn to the cotton batting down the middle of several stripes.  I laid the blanket top on the cuddle fabric with wrong sides together and cut the cuddle fabric 6cm (2") wider and longer than the blanket top.  To round the corners, I used this uber sophisticated device called a bowl. 

Get yer straight pins!  You'll need a whole whack of these for the next step: edge folding.

Fold the cuddle fabric in towards the blanket top 2.5cm (1").

Fold again the same amount so that the cuddle fabric is overlapping the edge of the blanket top.  Pin all the straight edges this way.

The rounded corners can be tricky to do neatly, but I figured out a method that works well for me.  If you have a different way, then bugger off and do whatever it is you do so well :)

Find the center of the rounded edge.  It doesn't have to be exact...just guesstimate.  Fold (as per the straight edges) and pin.

The diagram above is either going to tick you off or help you.  I hope it's the latter.  The center fold that you just did is number 1.  Move to either the right or left side (number 2) of the center.  Fold the fabric (as per the straight edges) and make a little tuck towards the center and pin.  Complete another tuck (number 3) and pin.  Do the opposite side in the same way, making sure to tuck towards the center. 

Repeat on all three remaining corners and you should have something that looks like this!

The last step is to sew around the cuddle fabric edge (see the 'He's All Boy' blanket tutorial for this).  While sewing, be sure you're catching the fabric itself and not just the fluffy bits.  

All done! 

Homemade Marshmallows

Have you ever eaten a marshmallow and wondered: "how the heck to they make these things?"

Have you ever heard about someone making marshmallows and wondered: "why the heck would you make marshmallows when you can buy them?"

Well, the answer to question one can be found here.  Yes.  They're not just marshmallows...they're candy cane marshmallows.  However, if you're not a fan of peppermint, just omit the flavouring and food colouring.

The answer to question two....because it's really cool!!  And pretty easy.  Be sure to read the entire method a few times over.  You need to get the timing right - which is why there aren't any photos of the process.  I was focusing on not screwing up...sorry.  You have to whip the crap out of the marshmallow goo for 10 minutes, so electric beaters (or better yet, a stand mixer) are a must.  You'll also notice my marbling didn't turn out quite as nice as Martha's (does it ever?), but they still tasted great!

Since these marshmallows don't have any icky preservatives, they should be eaten quickly.

Or if you don't want to eat them all yourself, why not package them up...

 ...and pair them with some jars of hot cocoa mix to give away!  I gave my marshmallows and hot cocoa away as Christmas gifts, but there's no reason why you couldn't do them up all lovey-dovey-like for Valentine's Day.

Have a terrific Tuesday.

Homemade Beauty Products

Like most women, I love bath and beauty products.  So this year for Christmas, I decided to make some to give as gifts.

I'll start off with the project that gave me the most amounts of quieted, internal hissy fits.  The bath fizzy.

Martha's directions seemed simple enough.  But heavens-to-Betsy,  I severely underestimated these little fizzies.  You have to be sure not to add too many water spritzes, or else you'll have your fizzies bubbling out of the mold like I did.  I wish I had a photo of my failure.  In hindsight, it was quite humorous.

My third attempt (I made one batch and divided it into thirds to make different colours) turned out pretty well.  They were a little on the dry side, so they crumbled a bit.  Whatever....they still worked!  Give them a go, but just be patient and try small batches until you get the hang of it.

I found a recipe for bath salts at Canadian Living.com.  It was a very easy project, and I'm not sure why I didn't photograph it.

I scented my salts with lemon essential oil and added some lavender buds.  Yummers.

Last but not least...my favourite.  It's SO GOOD.  But only make and use it if you enjoy smelling cookies.  Because you will end up smelling like a cookie.  Which, in my opinion, is friggin' fantastic.

This vanilla brown sugar scrub can be used on your hands or on every last inch of skin.  The ingredients are probably sitting in your cupboard or pantry right now.  So go make it!!

I really like it because it exfoliates AND moisturizes.  And you could eat it.  Bonus.  The only thing I would recommend is to keep it in the fridge and use it quickly.  If you leave it sitting out, you'll have to be very careful not to let water sit in it as it could grow...stuff.  Bacteria kind of stuff.  Yeah.  Ewwww.

This scrub is a close second to the one that I like to buy from a little made-on-location soap boutique in Peterborough called Simple.  Their vanilla bean body scrub smells like candy.  And don't even get me started on how delicious their bath fizzies are....

I should also mention that the ingredients for all of these projects were mostly purchased at a bulk food store.  Citric acid (used for the fizzies) was not available 'in bulk' and thus was a little bit more expensive. 

Have a happy Monday!

Cafe au Lait Mitts

It's fall!  For me, fall = real apple cider, spiced molasses cookies, and knitting.

Remember this photo from a post in February?

I was knitting a birthday gift for a friend who was overseas for a few months.  Guess what!?  I FINISHED IT!!

Did you do the math?  It's taken me almost 8 friggin' months!  Well, to be perfectly fair, she didn't return until the beginning of May and it would have been sort of pointless to give them to her then.

I found the (FREE!) pattern on Ravelry, but if you don't have an account, it's also here.  The silk and bamboo blend yarn I used made them so luxuriously soft.  Seriously, if you don't say "Ooohhhhh" when you slip them on...there's something wrong with you.

The cross-hatch pattern is quite easy when you get the hang of it.  I will admit that I had to restart the whole mitt once or twice due to a few botched stitches.  There's always a learning curve!

I'm so in love with these fingerless mitts, it was hard letting them go.  Perhaps I'll actually take the time to knit another pair for myself....once my other knitting projects are bound off and finished!