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.