Saturday, December 29, 2012

anna knits - knit ornament 4

A few days before Christmas I finished a red and white knit ornament from the book 55 Christmas Balls to Knit. These guys are so addictive! I used Dale of Norway BABY ULL Soft Merino Yarn. It is super soft.



You can see the navy and white ornaments I made this season here

Friday, December 21, 2012

anna crochets - paperclip ice skate ornament

Still need presents for the holidays? Make a few of these paperclip ice skate ornaments! They are fun, easy, and oh so cute.


I saw a picture of crochet ice skate ornament on instagram (via sheepishknitcrochet), and thought it was a neat idea. I searched for a pattern on Ravelry, and found this one by Suzetta Williams, which I've tweaked to my liking. Here is my pattern - enjoy:


~ Crochet Paperclip Ice Skate Ornament ~

Materials:
Worsted weight yarn (I used Cascade 220) in a Main Color (MC) and White 
G crochet hook
Two jumbo paper clips


Step 1: With the long edge of the paperclip at the bottom, and the smaller loop facing right, put a slip knot onto the paperclip as shown using your MC.

Step 2: Double crochet (DC) 1 stitch around the paperclip into the smaller loop, and then DC 6 stitches into the larger loop as shown. Remember to crochet over the yarn tail!

Step 3: Chain 2. DC 4 stitches. This is the end of the MC for this skate. Bind off leaving a 1 inch tail.

Step 4: Starting from the opposite side as where you ended (in other words at the back of the skate), single crochet (SC) 4 stitches with white.

Step 5: Chain 1. SC into 4 stitches, and then chain 30 stitches.



Repeat steps 1-3 to form another skate.

Step 6: pull the existing white chain through the new skate and use that to crochet steps 4 + 5 (without chaining 30 stitches at the end).

Step 7: Bind off and sew in any loose ends.


Merry Christmas to all!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

anna bakes - holiday cookies

I made my grandma's roll out cookies this week - you can get the recipe here.



The secret to these cookies is rolling out the dough super thin. It should be thin enough for you to see your fingers through. Letting the dough rest overnight is also key. 

Happy holidays!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

anna knits - knit ornament 3

I finished another knit ornament from the book 55 Christmas Balls to Knit. This one is kind of art deco looking:


Now I've knit three total. You can read my posts about the first two here and here


I decided to give two away as gifts. They were fun and easy to wrap!


If you like to knit, these are the perfect holiday gift. The patterns are fast and fun, without being too boring. I hope I can find the time to make a few more in the next week!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

anna cooks - fruit smoothie

I was inspired to make a smoothie after seeing this beautifully photographed post from the blog food and other stuff.

So off I went to the grocery store. I decided to make a dairy-free fruit smoothie with frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, orange juice, and bananas.



So easy, and so delicious!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

blogging, etc. - pinterest verification

I have a lot of fun on Pinterest - check out my pins here! There are so many cool ideas and beautiful images floating around on the site.

If you love Pinterest and you have a blog, you may be wondering how to verify - get that little red check mark - your site.



It is sort of complicated to figure out for blogger, so I thought I'd share this video, which takes you through the process step-by-step:


Hope this helps!

Monday, December 10, 2012

crochet, etc. - crocheted snowflakes

New a winter project? Try these crocheted snowflakes from Martha Stewart Living - too cute!



Get the patterns here

Sunday, December 9, 2012

anna knits - knit ornament 2

This weekend I knit another christmas ornament. (You can see the first one I made here.)


The pattern is from the book 55 Christmas Balls to Knit


I love this project because the patterns are so fun, and the ornaments knit up so quick. I plan to make a few more this holiday season to give as gifts!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

anna knits - red hope hat

After knitting this hope hat, I was commissioned to make another. It is for a man, so I decided to make a solid red one.


I used the same HOPE design from Knit Circus, which you can find here, but I changed the way I knit the body of the hat - I was not super happy with the fit of my first hat. 

Instead of following the Knit Circus pattern, I used the Turn a Square pattern (minus the color work) by  Brooklyn Tweed, which you can download for free here. The pattern got great reviews on Ravelry and it was easy to follow. 

Here are a few pictures of the progress:




Because the back of the hat was red and not blue, I knitted the red sections of the pattern fair isle style and then used duplicate stitching for the blue. 

Monday, December 3, 2012

knitting, etc. - knit ornaments

I stumbled across these knit ornaments on Twitter. They are so cute!



The pattern is available for free on the blog Wooly Wormhead. I can't wait to make one! 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...