Ok firstly, before I start on about The Hottie Challenge, let me just tell you that a hottie is a hot water bottle (took me about a month to figure this out!!!)
And with that out of the way, have you signed up for The Hottie Challenge via Curlypops?
I did, this is my first year - the deadline is mid June & there is still time to sign up now - so why don't you? The money raised goes to a worthwhile cause. So go on. Do a hottie with me!
Above is a sneek peak of what I am making for my hottie cover - I chose bold autumn colours & a new crochet pattern .... I hope it turns out like I have pictured it in my head!
Oh em Geeeee, the birthday is this weekend - this dress/tunic needs to be finished for it as it is the birthday gift.
Quick, knit knit knit knit. Stop procrastinating, put down the e-reader Rie & knit!
I've been clickety clacking my knitting needles this week. I working hard on the dress for bubba Joe's "girlfriend" (in his mind she is!).
The deadline is looming as her birthday is soon, I knit knit knit & bubba Joe watches. Then sometimes I curse, undo a few rows & then knit knit knit again!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, this dress/tunic is knit sideways - my first sideways knit!
Giving gifts that are handmade - gifts that will be useful or eaten are certainly the way to go.
If you agree, then read on as I have an awesome, tasty gift for you to make & then give!
Here is a quick, last minute gift of Granola to make for someone special.
Toasted muesli / Granola
200g rolled oats
250g mixed nuts such as flaked almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, pecans, hazelnuts all chopped up into pieces
100ml maple syrup or golden syrup
3 Tb dried fruit - such as dried apricots or dried apple or dried cranberries
~ Mix the oats, nuts & syrup together and spread out onto a non-stick baking tray.
~ Bake in a 190c oven for 15 minutes or until the mix is golden & crunchy.
~ Cool on the tray
~ Stir through the dried fruit once cool and store in an air-tight jar.
~enjoy!
Note::: this also makes a great snack for car trips - just add extra syrup & coconut flakes and when adding to the oven, drop spoonfuls of it onto the tray (rather than spreading it out) - this bakes it into chunks. When cool add dried apricots, pineapple, apple etc and store in a ziplock bag for quick snacking.
Nah, there is something wrong with this pattern, it's just not right. I've done something wrong. After several days of debating this with myself (& sometimes with a two year old boy), I've decided that I read the pattern wrong but HEY, it's not my fault, the pattern doesn't read smoothly!
You see, one of the problems with getting patterns off Ravelry is that that normally aren't written by professionals and have unclear instructions in them. Where I went wrong in this pattern is that I turned the project & knitted back down as that is what made sense in the way the pattern was written, in fact, if they had taken their time to write DO NOT TURN - that would have saved me heaps of stress & time!
Do you find this too, that sometimes the patterns from Ravelry are always that clear or is that my muddled head?
Above is the image of the cushion before it was sewn together and stuffed with a cushion insert.
What do you think of the colours, do they work?
I like it & bubba Joe loves it, he uses it as a jumping board from the floor to the bean bag!
On Ravelry here.
I picked up the sticks again today & started a new project.
What pattern am I using? --- it's one I made up!
....I'll let you know how & if it works!
I itched to pick up the crochet hook again and not wanting to follow a project pattern, I opened up the stitchy book & learnt a new stitch. This stitch has many names ...and if I could find where bubba has hidden the book I would gladly tell you it, but until then lets just call it a stitchy circle!
Hello! How are you? Me, I'm good, really good! You may have noticed (or not but that's ok) that I haven't really been here at my blog this year but I have a reason, so let me tell you why.
... but before I go any further, this blog post contains a discussion of a sensitive nature, and if you are offended by such things, please do not read on.
This is a very belated Taa Daaa! I finished this at the start of February but my life has been really screwey lately so I'm lucky to get this taa daaa up on my blog at all!
Did you see the latest happening in Google world? They are shutting down Google Reader - yep, as of June there will be no more reader to read your fav blogs in!
Bummer! What a pain in the whatsit, cos now I have to go through my entire subscription list to see who I can subscribe to in another way!
So that means two things..
a) how do you subscribe/follow my blog? I know I haven't been around much lately but I don't want to loose you. Perhaps you might like to Subscribe to CraftyRie by Email
b) can you recommend any blogs for me to follow? Do you have a fav blog that makes your day, that makes you laugh, think or create? Or perhaps you'd like to tell me if you have a blog too.
I just had to tell you what about a fantastic book that I just finished! The novel is called Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon and it is so ace! A lovely bloggy friend recommended it to me and boy, was this book full of action, terror, drama and I had to put it down several times because the plot got so tense I was either going to cry or break into a sweat!
You can buy the book online here - I really, really recommend it and I'm off to start the next in the series now!
I have a fab giveaway for you!
How organised are you? I'm not, I run my life on sticky notes & memory - so not too organised. It also doesn't help having a toddler who loves sticky notes either as he often runs off with my notes!
This giveaway will help you organise your life, if only for a year! You can win your very own personalised planner by PersonalPlanner.com.au - how ace is that!
Just a quickie blog post....
This knitted snail was knitted by my mum for my Joe on his 2nd birthday. It is knitted using leftover sock yarn. I just adore his shell! Bubba Joe adores his snail too!
Thanks Mum!
My mum is awesome. Look at the HUGE pile of socks she made for us for Christmas! Awesome huh!
Jealous yet?
She even wrapped the yarn label over each sock so I could see what yarn was used.
Mum & I have this thing you see, a thing where I buy sock yarn & give it to her... then she knits the socks and gives the knitted socks to me for birthdays & Christmas. We are both winner then, she loves to knit socks & I hate to knit socks. I love getting knitted socks for gifts and she doesn't have to worry about buying me anything.
So tell me, do you have an arrange similar to that with someone?
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