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!

Sugared Molasses Cookies

It's not technically autumn yet, but on this dreary, sloppy, wet, cold (am I painting an ample picture?) day, I needed to make molasses cookies.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Autumn = molasses cookies.  I'm one of those people who associates certain foods with seasons.  Rich, hearty fair like stews, roasts, pumpkin pie (or muffins...or pumpkin anything for that matter) and molasses cookies are definitely fall and winter food.  Nonetheless, not I realize not everyone feels this way; I've actually had a debate with someone over when you should eat molasses cookies. 

It doesn't matter when you make them, they're damn good all year long.  I'm not sure where the recipe came from.  I begged an former co-worker for it (and her name is Autumn, nifty!) who cited 'the internet' as her source.
 

Collect the following ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened or shortening
1/3 cup fancy molasses (or black strap for a bolder flavour)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2tsp baking soda
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup white sugar 

Crank your oven up to 350'F (180'C).  Expect 48 small or 24 large cookies.

Fresh ginger gives a fabulous flavour to these cookies.  My aunt (the Gingerbread Lady....and Strawberry Lady) swears by fresh ginger, and she makes AH-MAY-ZING gingerbread.  I keep my ginger frozen until I need to use it and then grate it with a microplane.  Of course, if you have ground ginger in your cupboard, go ahead and use it in place of the fresh stuff.

With an electric mixer, beat butter, molasses and brown sugar together.  Add the egg and mix well until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the molasses mixture and blend slowly, either by hand or with an electric mixer.  Don't forget to scrape down the sides!

The dough should be slightly sticky, but if it's TOO sticky (ie cannot be formed into a ball for the life of it), add a little more flour.

Pour white sugar into a small bowl.  Take a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball, roll it the sugar and place on an un-greased cookie sheet.

Press down slightly with the back of a spoon.

I like to make larger cookies, but for the kiddos, scoop out the dough by the teaspoon to make itty bitty ones.  Roll in the sugar and don't flatten.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before storing.  These cookies store well at room temperature for a few days, or for about 2 weeks in an airtight container in the freezer. 

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday [little] Dinosaur!

Rowan turned two yesterday and to celebrate, we had a few family and friends over for a party!

I chose a dinosaur theme because Rowan is in L-O-V-E with them.  Here are a few things I put together:

Dinosaur tracks to the front door.

Paper pinwheels.  The plastic pinwheel handle is from Martha but I changed up the paper to suit my colour scheme.

Birthday banner and pom-poms.

A custom birthday shirt, which he refused to put on until right before cake-time. 

Dinosaur nest cupcakes.  Really easy to make!  After smoothing brown icing (could be chocolate, mine was just a buttercream dyed brown), I piped green icing with a grass tip and 'laid' (teehee) three yogurt covered almonds for eggs.  The R-O-W-A-N is paper taped to toothpicks.  I used my Cuttlebug and the 'Olivia' alphabet set to cut out the letters.

The cake!  I love that you can rent different shaped pans from Bulk Barn, otherwise I would need a second house for all the pans I'd have to buy!

For some birthday fun, I kept it simple and only planned one activity.  A dinosaur egg hunt!  Well, dinosaurs and candy :)  Rowan loved his dinosaur 'babies'.  He cuddled them as if they were real and gave them kisses.

A friend of mine gave Rowan a ginormous dinosaur colouring book for his birthday.  So a few sheets went up on the wall for an art break before dinner.  Between a 1, 2 and 4 yr old, only one line of crayon got on the wall!  I'd call that a success.

Rowan thought our 'Happy Birthday' singing was utterly hilarious.

Yummy-yum-yum!  Happy Birthday, my little dinosaur!

Felt Birthday Banner Tutorial

A homemade banner has been on my must-make list since Rowan's 1st birthday.  He's turning two next week and I got my act together and made him a felt and ribbon banner to fit into his dino-themed party.  Yay me!

To make this retro-style, uber neat banner, you'll need:

Felt; 7 sheets (8.5 x 11") each of two co-ordinating colours and 4 for lettering.  An iron and ironing board, iron-on transfer paper (such as Heat N Bond or Wonder Under), sharp scissors, lettering (I used 'Airplane' which you can download for free if you type in '0' for the donation amount.  It's kind of a jerk move, but I have a hunch that a lot of people do it), 5.5 m of 4cm (6 yds of 1.5 inch) wide ribbon and a pencil. 

Depending on whether you want to sew the pennants on or glue them, you'll also need straight pins and a sewing machine with co-ordinating thread or fabric glue.

Let's get started!

Print out your lettering (I used airplane in size 500) and cut them out.  I noticed that the 'p', 'd' and 'b' were essentially all the same (just flipped around...it was a "duh, Anne" moment) when I cut them out, so you can save paper if you use this font and just type out one of them.  I also cut out a dinosaur (a brontosaurus - I'm becoming reacquainted with dinosaur species) silhouette just for kicks.

Arrange them on top of the paper side of the transfer paper reversed and trace around them with the pencil. 

Cut around a few groups of letters (don't cut out the letters yet) and arrange them on top of the felt.  Iron according to the transfer paper directions. 

Cut out the letters.

Cut a large triangle out of the coloured felt, I left about 5cm (2") off the bottom. 

I wanted to do a blue-green-blue-green pattern with the dinosaur on a ivory pennant at the end of 'happy'.  To make sure I didn't fudge it up, I layed out all the triangles in the pattern and placed the letters in order.

Peel off the paper backing and iron letters onto the pennants.

Be sure to place the letters on the same spot on each pennant.  I used the first 'h' to keep me on track.

The dinosaur's head was a little too tall and would have been run over by the sewing machine.  I left it un-ironed until after the banner was sewn.  If you're gluing the triangles on, it doesn't matter.

My banner ended up being H-U-G-E, so I split up the 'happy' and the 'birthday' on seperate lines of ribbon.  I decided I wanted the ribbons the same length, so I made up the 'birthday' banner first.

Place the pennants side-by-side on the ribbon, or over-lap them if you prefer.

Pin on each end of the triangle.  Obviously if you're gluing, you can skip that part.

Sew with a straight stitch on the top and the bottom of the ribbon. 

Iron the dino head.

 Well done!!  Relish your birthday banner success.