little turtle knits » crafting

Day 4: Honey Do

ltkmama — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:58:43 +0000

Today was a sledding day. For the first time in recent memory, I was able to go on a sledding day and not end up sitting in the car with a crying wee lad after 10 minutes of snow fun. Oh, no. Today, all four of my guys were sledding fools, and we spent over 2 hours on the slope outside our local library. They enjoyed dashing down the hill on their snow saucers, and I enjoyed sitting on the sideline, burrowed under a blanket and reading on my Kindle. (gracious, I’ve only had the thing for 4 days and already can’t imagine life without it. I’m in luv!) We traipsed home, the boys utterly spent, and the littles crawled into bed for marathon naps (yay!) while the bigs and I settled in to feed our feathered friends.

I adore watching the various birds that visit our property’s bushes and trees, and I always feel a bit sorry for them after the first snowfall when their search for food gets a bit more difficult. It’s become a bit of a tradition here to make some birdfeeders to hang in our tree right outside the front window, as a treat for our friends (and so I can still enjoy watching them with my morning coffee) Because my camera card is still missing (sob), you’ll have to pretend that these pictures are really our doing.

Feathered Friends Feede

Base: pinecone, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll, bagel, english muffin

Glue: peanut butter, honey, molasses

Feed: birdseed mix, sunflower seeds, oatmeal

Hanger: yarn, naturally!

First, spread an old sheet or some newspaper over the work surface, cause this will inevitably be messy. Choose your base, and tie a length of yarn around it (through the hole in the bagel or the rolls; around the top of the pinecone and around the entire muffin) so that there’s at least 10″ of tail to hang with.

Second, spread your chosen base generously with your glue. We use honey in a squeeze bottle so it’s least messy. You want to coat it very well, so that the feed will adhere.

Third, pour your feed into a deep bowl, put your glued base in the bowl and shake gently to coat well.

Lastly, go find a tree (preferrably in view of a window so you can watch!) and hang it.

Now speaking of honey….

Today’s crafting pattern is a brand new one! Honey Do is a versatile cap, suitable for either guy or gal, and works up quickly in worsted weight yarn. With a generous ribbed brim to keep ears warm (when birdwatching, perhaps?) and a fun slip-and-tuck pattern to keep it interesting enough for you to zoom to the finish, but easy enough that you’re not going to be constantly glancing at the pattern. Use my Circular Tubular Cast On if you’re up for learning something new, or stick to tried-and-true long tail cast on; either way, you’ll have a great hat. Four sizes from infant to large adult will cover all the heads in your family.

Add Honey Do on Ravelry, and get knitting on your own Honey Do today, at 50% off – that’s just 3.00 for this fabulous new design!

The Twelve Days of Christmas {Crafting}

ltkmama — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:55:41 +0000

Right now, if you’re anything like me, you’re in a frenzy to finish up last minute gifts, wrap the straggling presents, and bake/cook/prep enough food for a feast (and at least a few days’ worth of leftovers, so you won’t have to cook afterwards.) Each year, in the days leading up to The Day, I get through the mayhem by promising myself that I’ll cast on something lovely and perfect and destined to be mine sometime in the hours after Christmas dinner has been devoured enjoyed. In talking with several of my crafty mates, I’ve realized that I’m not alone in this. In the spirit of comraderie and giving that epitomize Christmastide, I’d like to invite you on a crafty journey with me over the next 12 days, ending with the celebration of 12th Night.

Each day, I’ll post a gift to you, my lovely friends, here on the blog. It might be a tutorial, perhaps a new pattern (or two), a recipe, a (non-knitting) crafty something, a story, or something else entirely. Along with whatever goodies are on the blog, I’ll also announce a discounted pattern – a different one each day, that will be 50% off for that day only.

I’d love it if you’d leave a comment and let me know if you’ll be joining the journey through the 12 Days, and please grab a button for your blog/facebook/website/wherever! The first Day of Christmas Crafting will be Christmas Day…

Break has Begun!

ltkmama — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:08:51 +0000

Christmas Break officially began an hour ago in our house. Christmas breakfast this morning with The Brain at the middle school, followed by lots of errands and then a Sing-a-Long to end the schoolday at the elementary school. Christmas gifts have all been delivered safely into the arms of the saints teachers, and I have to admit that I’m awfully happy with how our elving worked out this year. Here’s a quick picture I snapped this morning of the last batch just before it was carted off to school; imagine approximately 9 times this amount and you’ll have a better picture of how many treats we crafted + assembled over the past week. (4 kids’ worth of schoolteachers+ sunday school teachers + and a Hubster who thought they looked so good he decided to gift these to all his employees = a LOT of candy crafting!)

In the wax paper wrappers are some to-die-for yummy salted caramels. They’re rich, chewy, gooey little lovelies – and dead easy to make. Seriously. You can whip up a batch in less than 10 minutes. You know you wanna make some Salted Caramels for yourself. The other treats are Buckeyes (which never fail to send my die-hard Penn State fan into fits) and again, embarrasingly easy to make. the boys and I made about 10 batches of each of these recipes over the past 5 days, and none of us have been reduced to stuttering, rocking-in-the-corner sucking on our thumbs messes (yet – I’ve still got wrapping and knitting to finish, which may push me over the edge. But still, it won’t have been from these treats!) Pop them in ziploc bags, with some pretty scrap paper toppers tied on with angel or star ornaments, and they’re lovely little gifts that won’t break the bank or your sanity. (the bird ornaments were from Michael’s, purchased several years ago AFTER christmas. The stars are salt dough ornaments made two Christmases ago for an ornament exchange I didn’t make it to because I was ill)

These are great last-minute gifts to put together, that don’t feel like last minute gifts. What are your go-to quick-and-dirty I need a bunch of gifts for tomorrow ideas?

Fight the Forced Air Balm

ltkmama — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:06:34 +0000

So, I’ve been miserable all day because my face and fingers hurt from the cold, dry air outside and the hot, dry air inside (I swear, my next house is going to have old fashioned radiator heat-I still miss that warm, moist air we had in our Boston apt, and it’s been 12 years since we lived there!)

Anyway, I was cleaning up after dinner and spotted the coconut oil in the pantry and had a spark of an idea. Remembering a post from Amanda earlier this week, I was inspired to whip up some balm-y loveliness. Her concoction was for lipbalm, but I wanted a bit more of a body bar balm, so I played around a bit with ingredients. I just slathered it all over my hands and face and I’m in heaven! thought I’d share in case anyone else is suffering with nasty, gnarly dry skin.

Lavender Honey Balm

5 T beeswax pellets

6 T coconut oil

3 T raw honey (I used some from the Hubster’s Uncle, with the comb still inside)

2 T shea butter

10 drops lavender EO (you can sub with any essential oil you want, I think sweet orange is what I’ll do next)

Combine all the ingredients up to the EO in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over a pot of water on the stove (or, do the quick and dirty method I did, which was to dump it all into a mason jar and melt it in the microwave for 45 seconds, then increments of 10 seconds until it was all melted). Add the EO, and then stir continually until it cools and starts to get opaque (I put the bottom of the mason jar in a bowl of ice water to speed this process up) Pour into tins if you’ve got them. I poured into my silicon mini-muffin pan, and set it outside in the cold (under a towel so no snow got in) until it was set (and pretty much frozen) and then popped them out and stored them in some tupperware until I can figure out a better better storage solution.

My hands feel better already, and prepared to tackle the (long) list of knitted gifties still waiting to be finished!

Tutorial: Pick Up + Purl

ltkmama — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:29:14 +0000

A knitter on Ravelry posted asking for clarification on the pick up and purl technique on my Stripey Slippers. I promised that I’d get a video of the technique, since it’s one that would take far too many words to describe (but can be shown in less than 30 seconds!) Please excuse the insanely poor quality of this video – it’s what you get when your 8 year old is weilding the tiny camcorder. You might want to turn down the volume before you hit play, he was way too close to my mouth!