Tunisian Crochet Blanket!!!!

Heeellooooo!!!!
Here I am again!! with what I think will be my last post of the year to show you my (MG) tunisian crochet blanket...
This was my secret project during mid November and almost whole December... I couldn't post a lot of it here, because I didn't know if MG would read about it, you see even when he's not a regularly reader of my blog, he peeks in from time to time to see what's going on here at wires & yarns... so I couldn't risk to spoil the surprise for him! This is the blanket I made as a Christmas present for this year for MG.


So here's the blanket... I wanted to make 9 blocks but I couldn't manage to make them all, partly because I was doing more things and I run out of time and partly because I haven't been doing my hand therapy as I should have so I'm having pain in my hands again while and after yarning (knitting or crochetting)...

 So I just managed to make 6 blocks... add a border to each one of them and join them together... I'm planning on make the remaining 3 blocks soon, but I'm glad that I won't need to hide it any more and that I won't have any pressure while doing them.
The first 3 blocks took about 8-10 hours each, the remaining 3 I manage to make each of them in about 5-6 hours, so I think that it's something that improves and comes out easier and faster while you practice...
The tecnique itself it's pretty simple, and it's all made in basic stitch which is also very easy to make... I think the complex thing here is the change of color because, although is not really difficult to make, it requires to have a ball for each color change, which makes it a not to-go project and you have to sit down with it, focus a little bit and pay atention to the chart so you make the changes in the correct place... and having all those threads and balls hanging from the back of your work is something that takes some time to get used to it...
I used an 8mm hook, long tunisian hook with a hook in each point but I only used one...
And I used I Love This Yarn yarn from Hobby Lobby... and I really liked it!!!
Here a close up in one of the blocks...

So that is my blanket... right now it measures 33x44 inches... I plan to make and add 3 blocks and then a proper border as it corresponds....

The best thing, I am SUPER happy with it and MG is totally loving it!!! so I am in heaven with that!!!

Have a great New Year!!!!
I'm off to fix something to eat now!

See you soon!
S.

Christmas Presents!!!

So here I am after a whole week with MG just for me!!! yei!!!!
it has been a great week, with games, movies, cooking, working on the computer, laughs and love!

Here I want to show you my Christmas presents!!!!

All those great things that MG bought for me!!!!

This is a muffins/cupcakes pan... and has a great lid, you can slide the handle and take out some plastic discs....

 And put them together to have a cupcake exhibitor!!!!

Pictures are not great as I took them at night, but you can get the idea....
I LOOOOVE it!!! it's so great!!! so now I can make muffins, cupcakes, little breads or whatever, and take them out on the tray, and then get to a place and put together the red "tree" and display the treats!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!

Then we have a cookie mold, a pizza sheet, a cake mold, spatula, cookies recipe book, and box of sprinkle tubes!!!

 Here a detail picture of the cookies mold!!

The spatula has measures conversions printed on it, and I also received a wire cooling rack!!!!

And booooks!!!!!!!!!!!

Such great gift!!!!!

I'll show you tomorrow my present for him!

See you soon!
S.

Christmas Day...

Hello Everyone!!!

I'm in my 3rd day of MG all for myself!!! I'm really happy that he's off work so I can have him here with me all the time!!! I cherrish every moment of our time together.
We had some shopping on Thursday and a Play at the theatre at night with the local act company. We saw "A Christmas Carol"... it was really nice and got us in the Christmassy mood all the way!!!

Yesterday we spend the day at home, happy, enjoying hanging out with each other and preparing our dinner. We went to Church and returned to saw "The Holiday" movie while the dinner was in the oven... had dinner and after that we opened our presents... We have always had our presents on the 24th night, so we did it that way this year too...
MG had asked me like 2 weeks ago if I could write a letter to "Santa" so he could know what to get for me, and I told him that all I wanted was a surprise present.............

And he did so well!!!!! he went totally over any expectations!!!!
I'll have to show you what I got from him in another post, but I'm so so so so so so happy and excited with my presents!!!!!

He is also like that with his!!!!! I finished my secret project for him!
It is a blanket!!!!!! made in Tunisian Crochet... I can't wait to show it to you!!!
I worked on it for the past month, and it's finally over! at least the part I "needed" to get done to give it as a present to MG!!

Anyway! I hope you'd had a GREAT Christmas!!!! what did you got for presents!!????

See you soon!
S.

Merry Christmas!!!

Surface Braid Hat + New look!

Hello!!!!
MG asked me a few days ago to make a seaman cap for him... I found this pattern on Ravelry, and he liked it... I started working on it a week ago... it's coming out nice and it seems that it will be very good for the cold as the fabric is thick and nice, but it's slow to make, so at the same time I'd been working in some other stuff... you know how this is!! several WIPs at the same time, always!!!
Here is MG's hat so far...

 There I put it over the ball of yarn... in the next picture you can see that I've only acheived like a quarter of the total round of the hat...

So, meanwhile I made a Surface Braid Hat for me (Pattern from Ravelry too)... this one in Acrylic yarn, that I got back in June from the Yarn swap made at We Love Lucy group at Rav...
I decided to go for Acrylic because, as much as I loved my Cabled hat it's really itchy and I'm thinking I might be allergic (just a bit) to wool because when I wear it, it doesn't just itch, but I end up with my forehead all red...

 I Loved the pattern when I first saw it!! It's totaly crocheted, super simple to make and it has a knitted look somehow... I think it's the braid surface that gives it that effect!!!
Here a close up of the texture...

 Plus, it has a different looks on both sides... so it's a reversible hat that you can use with 2 different looks! It's super stretchy and warm... And I kept crocheting until it was long enough to fold the bottom part to have a brim...

Me, looking outside the window... MG took the picture.

It took a complete skein (100g, about 4oz) and I'm completely in love with it... It's cozy, it's nice, soft, great looking....

I am Happy with it!!!

I have a new look... I cut my hair last Saturday... I thought about it for a month and I decided to go for it because I have always had migraines, but it was not until this past month that I felt desperatly that I needed to get rid of the weight of my hair... I've always used it long, very long and I loved that... and now I decided to go short... I hadn't have it this short in more than 20 years...

Here how it was that morning... not super long, but still...

 And here how it's now...

I like it... I am a lot happier than I thought I would be...

I have to go to keep working on secret WiP!!!!! I have only 10 days before Christmas!!! so I better hurry up!

See you soon!

S.

Chocochips Muffins!!!!

Just really quick!!
While I was writing my last post, the muffins were ready!!!
I just took them out of the oven... look at this!!!

Behind is a ground beef-broccoli quiche that I made for today dinner!!
So bad that you can't smell my house right now!!!

See you soon!
S.

Happyness

Isn't it wonderful that sometimes is the simplest things that get us all happy and heart skippy????

I'm happy, oh yes I am!
Sky is blue, snow is kind of melting away (although tomorrow will snow again). Temperature is not cold to die for... aaaaand..... I have a batch of 12 muffins in the oven... 12 chocolate chip muffins!!! made from scratch!!!
Appologies for my enthusiasm above this simple thing... but it's my first batch of muffins from scratch!!! remember I made some out of a box? I was equally excited, and now they are from scratch which adds some more charm to the whole thing...

Any way, I have to run... more happyness to spread around!!!

Here some pics of our winterys scenes...

 I absolutely LOOOOVE this trees ::::

 Caramel Latte!!

 MG made snow angels... out first time!

 and a delicious christmassy cupcake that MG bought for me!

See you soon!!!
S.

Quiche recipe...

I've been asked to share the recipe I use to make a quiche, and here it is...
Sorry, no step-a-step pictures in this one... What I love more about this is that truly you can make the quiche with whatever you have in your fridge... Here it is.

VEGGIE QUICHE RECIPE

4-5 servings

Ingredients:::
5 eggs
3/4 - 1 cup of half and half cream (to make it fluffy)
1/2 - 1 cup of shredded cheese (as much as you like cheese)
a bit more of shredded cheese to sprinkle the bottom of your casserole dish, mold you are using
flour (enough to sprinkle over the cheese, depends on the size of your casserole dish)
Veggies: I used onions, carrots, broccoli, green beans, tomato.
1 tsp butter

How to:::
Preheat oven at 350°F.
In a pan, cook the veggies on the butter until they are soft and crisp.
In a bowl mix eggs and half and half cream and whisk them together, add salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like to use, add the shredded cheese and mix.
I don't use a dough crust for my quiches, it saves me time and calories :o), so I make a cheese crust on the bottom...
On your casserole dish, sprinkle shredded cheese all over the bottom until covered. Then sprinkle flour on top of the cheese. there's no need to be all white and cover completly the cheese.
Add your veggies to your egg mixture, mix a bit and then add all of it to the casserole dish over the cheese and flour. Decorate with sliced tomato.

Put it in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when inserted in the center.

Enjoy it with a salad!!! you can use my Parsley dressing for it!


The great part of it is that once you have the eggs, half and half mixture, you can add whatever you want to the inside.
Here are some combos I've made:
** onion, bacon
** ham, cheese
** shrimp, asparagus
** tuna, shrimp
** ground meat and tomato
** sausage, bacon, onion

Remember to cook the inside first, maybe not all the way done, before adding it to the eggs mix!

Enjoy!
See you soon!
S.

A lot of things!!!

Hello!!!!!
I bought a new yarn last Monday, I think...

You can't really tell the colors from this picture, I thought it was a good idea to take the picture in the sun that came through the window this afternoon in my living room, but they seem fade... it has blues and purples...
I started a cowl!! I'm following this pattern, it's free, it's not for beginners, but it's simple to follow and once you get the rythm of it it's very simple...

This is how much I've done until now...

I went to my LYS yesterday to knit and chat, and a woman arrived that wanted help with a snowflake pattern... I'm pretty sure that it was Lucy's pattern (at Attic24) but the pattern sheet she had didn't show the source... anyway, the owner of the store wasn't there, and the vendor at that time just knits so she couldn't help her, but told the woman that I could help her and that I was an expert crocheter!!!!! how's that!!!!!
So I sat up straight and put a smile on my face and proceed to help her with her snowflake pattern... she had a bit of trouble counting and knowing which stitch was what, but she managed to make 2 on her own... and I made 2 while helping her, before returning to my cowl... I used the scraps of my cabled hat for the snowflakes and I LOVED how they turned out!.

I don't know if I want to block and starch them... I like them so much like this!
I was also playing with Puff stitch flowers, you can find the how to here and here. This is what I made... one with the same yarn as the snowflakes and the hat, the other one with cotton scraps from my girl dresses...

So after a while, the store owner arrived as well as more women, and they were intrested in the flowers and the cowl... and guess what!!???

I've been ofered a space there to give a class and/or sell my things next semester when (and if) I get my work authorization for this place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!

I'm really really happy!!! it astonish me that the owner of a yarn store says that I'm a great crocheter!!! it makes me happy, smile and warms my soul...
And another woman started asking me what type of classes could I give and if it would be possible to make them on Saturdays...

Crazy!! fun!!! exciting!!!!!!!!! yyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!

 Ahem, ahem....

Two last things.... I made a veggies quiche for dinner on Wednesday....  was delicious...

and I bought a small porcelain Nativity set at a Christmas sale...

Uff!!! that was long and with all kind of themes... LOL...
Hope you have a great weekend!!!

See you soon!
S.

First Snow...

Yesterday we had our first snow of this season... it wasn't much, just enough to wake up and discovered all covered in white...
I made this Scrapbook page, I want to share it because I liked it and I'm excited about it!!! it's in spanish though, but it says First Snow, and the date (remember we use day/month/year)...

See you soon!
S.

Giveaway from Kniterella

Helloooo!!!
No, I'm not hosting this... this is from luvinthemommyhood blog... and she is having a giveaway of Kniterella products... I just discovered her, she makes stationery for knitters... I think not exactly for crocheters...

Have a look!
See you soon!
S.

Cable Hat Finished!!

This is what I worked on this week... I got the yarn at my LYS, it's a fancy handspun and handpainted yarn, from Dream in Color brand... the name of the yarn is "Classy" and it's worsted weight, 100% superfine australian merino, and it's supposed to be superwash... I hope it won't undye when I wash it.

Anyway... the pattern it's from rheatheylia again, the same place where I got the pattern for my mom's Lattice Hat.  They are both free patterns, very nice looks I think, though they are not beginners patterns. But she offers some great tutorials on how to do it.

Well, enough chit-chatting... here's a picture!!!

I hope you can see the cables, as today is a very grey and dark day so there's not a lot of light in my house.... here's another one, it's blurry but I noticed that when the pic was already in my laptop, and I didn't want to go and take another one, hehe... but this one is with the mittens...

So now I have a set... it's not exactly the same color but they are close and match... noone no "expert" is gonna notice... the only bad thing is that the hat was made with a fancy yarn, and the mittens with a very cheap acrylic yarn.... no matter that, I'm really happy with both of them, and they are very warm and nice...

I'm off for now,
See you soon!!!!
S.

ThanksGiving...

There is so much to give Thanks for!!!!
First thing, I'm a very happy young woman, married with a lovely and great man whom I'm totally inlove with and that loves me madly...
I have a whole bunch of loving family and friends that have my back and take care of me always...
And I'm one of those super lucky persons that have a roof over my head, a comfy and warm bed to sleep at night, nice and warm clothes to wear, food on my table, and sometimes I have a plus: spare money to buy cute things that make our lives happy and easier...

We had a nice Thanksgiving lunch with MG chemistry fellows, with a LOT of food!!! I made a Chocolate-Vanilla Marble Cake to take to the lunch.

I added a glasé made out of confectioner sugar...

It was really good, fresh, sweet and moist... mmmmm yum!

MG made a Cranberry Ham that was very good and very celebrated for everyone at the party!!

After giving thanks we had fun going shopping to the black Friday deals (this is the Friday after Thanksgiving, where stores open really early and have really good sales and discounts, specially in the first hours after their opening), so there we went at 7 am...
I needed a new coat to face the winter, and with the deals we managed to buy 2, a coat and a jacket... I'm happy, happy with them!

But what I want to show you is some decoration posters we got for my craft room!!!!

 

I'm not sure you can see the letters, it says "Embrace yor dreams, Follow your heart, Cherish your life"...
And this other one, just to add another splash of color to my walls...

Here' how they look together in one of the room corners :::

Sorry for the glare reflection... it's a sunny and light-y day today (luckily) so the sun comes in the window...
I absolutely love the way my walls are dressed now, right amount of color splash, happy, inspiring...
Great!

See you soon!
S.

Cable fingerless mittens and Wool slippers

Helloooo!!!!
I can't beleive it has been so long since I last posted... I wanted to do it, but the thing is that the weather is changing, and we'd had several very cloudy, grey and dark days... and those kind of days doesn't inspire me to open up... or something like that...
But gladly, I'm very happy, not depressed at all, just more slow and not so chit-chatting as usual...
But I've been busy busy as a bee.... though my hands are having pain again so I can't crochet as much as I'd like to, but I'm back with my wonderful Ice Diping therapy, and I'm confident that I'll be better soon to crochet as much as I want during the cold and snowy winter...

So one of the things I've been working on is a pair of Cable Fingerless Mittens...
Here they are!!!

At first I worked based in this free pattern, that I had used before to make some mittens...
but now that I've been working in the wall hanging, I like the texture of this "up-stitches" and I'm a lot into cables... so I modified the pattern to add a cable and I came up with this mittens...

The color is more similar to the one showed in the second picture, where I'm wearing it...
I really really love the way they came out, they are very comfy and warm... as it was an experiment I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn, that I had at home... so I like them and I'm sure I'll use them a lot, but I might have to make another pair with a fancier yarn...
I'm working on the pattern now... to share it of course, and to remember how to make them when I'm ready for my next pair...

Other project was this slippers that I made with the same wool of the wall hanging... I also made these up, but didn't wrote the pattern down for them... I made them when I was in Mexico but haven't show them to you until now...

I tried to felt them last week and, as it was also an experiment, I threw them in the washer and then the dryer... they didn't felt!!!!
The ladies at my LYS keep telling me that it's not wool if it didn't felt... but I don't think so!! I'm pretty sure my friend made this yarn out of his own sheeps... and I've made a bit of research, and aparently the breed of these sheep (Polypay) produces a wool that is not very easy to felt... and also, the place where I live has Super High Efficiency Washer and Dryers... and I've read that those take more cycles than normal felting to work... so I might give it another try, either by hand or in the machines... Hope to show it later!!!

See you soon!
S.

A bit of all...

Last post I ran off to go with MG and labmates to have dinner...
...well, we went to a burger place, that claims to have "ugly" burgers... and the uglyness of them is their size!!!! Their signature burger is made with 1lb of meat, and it can be beef or elk, and if you decide to go for it and succeed in eating all of that monster, you win that they take your picture and it goes to the wall.

I'm not sure if you can see the size of it as it doesn't show anything next to it to compare scales, but note that the meat is big enough to have 3 cheese slices on top and it's still big...
But no!! I didn't eat that! don't think it for a minute!!! I had a quarter pound of elk meat burger.

But MG decided to go for it, as well as 4 of his labmates (we were 10 people)... and all of them succeeded and now have thier picture in the wall!!!

So that was on Friday night...
Saturday was a very Fiber-y day!!!
In the morning, I went to a restaurant to met a knitting-crochet group, that in fact had just one woman on that day, so it was just me and her, but it was nice to meet someone new, someone that knits and likes to talk a about it, and we just spent a nice time there, hanging out and working a bit, she knitted and I crocheted.


Afternoon-midday, was at my LYS with another new group for me::: B-Town Caps for Cancer, that is a local group that meets every other Saturday to knit or crochet hats to donate to people of all ages with cancer. There was 2 young women there, about my age or younger, and we had a nice time... I made a girl hat.

With a little flower!

I liked the idea of the group and I look forward to more of these meetings...

Then, afternoon-evening I went to a local Fiber arts-looms-weaving show... it was nice to see all the things that people do with looms and felting and weaving... I'll have to try it sometime...

At night we went to a show at the auditorium over the campus... DrumLine Live show... and it was a GREAT show of marching bands, gospel, review of last decades rythms, drum "fights" and more... it was awsome, and MG loved it too!!! we were very happy...

Well, that's all for today... I haven't been great today... I've been feeling down and I have a headache... so I'm off for now.

See you soon!
S.