Blue baby hat

 Recently I have been working on hats for a charity called Cure International. Cure International provides medical services to those in need overseas and right now my favorite radio station is collecting hats to give to babies and children. I finished the first one yesterday.

 

The pattern is Be Loving and it's cute even though it's pretty easy. I used up some of the extra yarn from the most recent blanket (side note: there is still yarn left over. I know it's a pound of yarn but what's it going to take to get rid of it!). I used size 8 needles for the bottom and then switched to size 6. Can't wait to do another one or two. It's kind of nice to knit something that doesn't take months!

 

Peanut butter chocolate chip muffins

 This past Christmas my sisters gave me baking stuff since I have been trying to bake more. So far I've put the measuring cups and mixer to good use but I haven't had a chance to use my mini muffin tin. I decided that my baking this weekend would have to include using it, so I made some chocolate chip muffins with peanut butter. I found the recipe here.

• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 2/3 cup peanut butter 
  
• 1 egg 
  
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla 
  
• 1/4 cup oil 
  
• 1 3/4 cup flour 
  
• 2/3 cup brown sugar 
  
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 
  
• 1/4 tsp salt 
  
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
  

Mix the milk, peanut butter, oil, egg and vanilla together.

 Next add the dry ingredients (the original recipe calls for mixing the dry ingredients and the wet separately but mine came out fine without mixing the dry ingredients together first)

 After it is all mixed together add in the chocolate chips and stir.

 Lightly grease the mini muffin tin and drop the batter in. The originally recipe says it will make 24 muffins but I was able to make . I found out why after these came out of the oven - mine didn't rise very much. The tins need to be filled to the very top. They still tasted great though!

 

 

Blanket 2 is done!

 I finished my nephew's blanket yesterday! I actually had quite a bit more yarn leftover than I originally thought I would. Surprisingly the ribbon border was where I had the problem. I used almost all of it - I had about an inch leftover. 

 It's hard to tell from the picture but I used a brown ribbon with white stitching on it. I love those two colors together! Hopefully my nephew will get a lot of use out of it but I think it's going to be a little while before I feel like doing a blanket again.

 My next project is going to be hats. One of my favorite radio stations, Air1, is partnering with an organization called Cure International to provide knit hats to Afghanistan children. I hope to get at least a couple of hats done before the deadline of February 15th.

Drawstring bag and a Resolution

 I really need to make some progress on the nephew's blanket, considering he's here now. But first I decided to make a little drawstring pouch; I really needed a way to keep some items together in my purse. Plus I was dying to use some stripped yarn I had. This was so simple to make - I browsed Ravelry for a pattern but didn't find quite what I was looking for so I winged it.

The pouch is knit in the round from the top down on size 8 needles with Sugar and Cream yarn. Cast on 24 stitches.

Row 1-4: k1,p1 to the end of the row.

Row 5: k2tog, yo to the end of the row

Knit until the piece measures the length you want. I wanted mine to be about 6" from the eyelet row.

Next Row: k1, k2tog

Transfer stitches to two needles evenly and kitchner stitch them.

For the drawstring I cast on three stitches and did an Icord. Ribbon would also work.

I also finished something on my New Year's resolution list - I tried a new vegetable. I went out for lunch on Wednesday and my meal came with a side of veggies. One of the veggies was zucchini, which I have never tried before. Yes somehow I made it to 30 years old without trying it - shocking, I know. So I tried it. It wasnt too bad; it's not going to be one of my favorites but I'll eat it.

 

I'm blessed

You know I wasn't even going to do an "I'm Blessed" post this week. But I was thinking about my blessings this week and realized I had a ton of them!

 

- My friend has tried for a baby for seven or eight years. This week I had the privilege of going to her baby shower.

- My baby turned two and is a very happy, healthy toddler with a lot to say.

- Even though J had to miss his birthday party because we were at urgent care, I'm glad that his eye healed quickly without patches, drops or surgery.

- My sister had a beautiful baby boy this morning!

- My kids rebounded quickly after being sick

What a week! Check out other blessings at He Sows and She Sews.

Blanket 1 is done!

So it's been quite the drama filled week a our house! We were all set to have J's birthday party on the 1st but an hour before his party he scratched his cornea. So instead of enjoying his birthday party, he got to spend the evening in urgent care and then the ER (the ER was just a precaution because the urgent care wasn't sure about their diagnosis so they sent us there). We ended up redoing his party the next day. Then a day or so later both boys got sick. Fortunately they are both better now! The last big thing was my sister had a baby today! He is very cute, not that I'm biased or anything ;)

Somehow in all of the chaos I managed to get a blanket done for my friend's baby shower this past weekend (never mind that it came out of the dryer 3 hours before I had to leave for the party). I used Baby Coordinates yarn in pink, yellow and beige and made 15 squares in various patterns and stitched them together. I'm pretty pleased with the result!

I put it in a basket with a few things off of her registry.

Now I just need to get finished with the blanket for my cute little nephew. I just love new babies!

2012 resolutions

Happy 2012! I wanted to get my list of goals posted yesterday but there was a bit of drama going on (more on that later). Here we go:

 

Practice Cable knitting (8/17/12)

Knit a pair of socks

Learn at least one new cast off

Try crocheting again (11/16/12)

Learn some sort of color work (7/20/12)

Try short rows (6/1/12)

Eat more vegetables

Make pasta from scratch (7/20/12)

Lose 10 lbs

Get to the point where I'm exercising 3 times a week

Try a new vegetable (1/11/12)

Bake a loaf of homemade bread

Make caramels

Give up chocolate for a week

Organize the crafty stuff (done but can't remember when)

Read at least five books (The Friday Night Knitters Club - 2/15/12, Free Range Knitter - 6/3/12, Winter of the World - 9/23/12)

 

It's a little bit shorter than last year's list but I'm okay with that. I don't want to add things just for the sake of adding them. The list definitely skews towards knitting goals - I'd like to really take my knitting to the next level. There are also a few repeats from last year, things that were important but I didn't get done for some reason. If I get 60% of these done I'll be happy. Happy New Year!