Hats & Pillows

Thank goodness I have a few months to work on this baby blanket.  I'm constantly thinking as i crochet this... crocheting blankets takes sooooo long!  I love it, but sometimes I just want to make something I can FINISH!  That's why lots of my family members got smaller crocheted items from me for Christmas. Enter: hats and pillows!

I only have a pattern for a few of these items, the others I free handed based on pictures and on generic hat patterns from my favorite blog (besides mine of course😜).Repeat Crafter Me If you haven't checked out her blog before, please do so now, she's amazing! 

So first up, my adorable nephews.   I have three of them! And they're all the perfect age to wear adorable crocheted hats of cartoon characters or animals... or animal cartoon characters! 

My first nephew, Ben, totally loves Thomas the Train. I saw lots of crocheted hats for Thomas on Pinterest, but nothing that really stood out to me.  So I decided to make my own for him, and i think it's the best Thomas the Train hat I've seen! Not to toot my own horn, but... Toot toot! 🚂

His little brother Holden is just over one years old, and loves Daniel Tiger. If you haven't watched this show yet, you should - or at least the opening sequence. If you ever watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood it will warm your heart.  Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is an animated continuation of the classic children's show, and it's just darling. I didn't have a pattern for this one either, but looked at a few pictures, and I even watched an episode of the show! The shape of the hat and the ears are loosely based on the repeatcrafterme.com tiger hat. 

My nephew Archer is still a little baby, and doesn't yet have a favorite cartoon or animal. If you remember, I made him this owl baby blanket while my sister was pregnant.  So I decided to continue the owl theme and made m an owl hat. The pattern for this one can be found in the blog I mentioned above. Here's the pattern: www.repeatcrafterme.com/crochet-owl-hat-pattern

Here's the hat:

My nephews aren't the only ones who got character hats from me for Christmas. My sister and her husband have a slight obsession with monkeys, they have since they were dating. So I decided to make them sock monkey hats from RepeatCrafterMe. LINKHERE.  I made them in two different colors; one in the classic sock monkey colors of gray and red, and the other in a brown/beige mix. They loved them, and they wear them proudly. 

My dad got a pillow made by me.  He's got a country home upstate and has always favored Americana decor, so I decided to make him a flag pillow.  I found the pattern on Pinterest, and it was really easy to follow.  He loved it, he said it was the perfect size to use behind his head while he reads his books.  You can see the pattern here: www.aseknc.blogspot.com/americana-pillow

Here's the pillow:

A while back, I posted a brainstorming session about pixel crochet in blankets and pillows. For my brother and sister in law's Christmas gift, I decided to combine two geek things, pixel art and Star Wars. I started this in the summer because it was going to finish up being a very large pillow (the finished piece was almost 20"x20").  I loved working on it piece by piece because it wasn't as hot as working on a blanket and having it draped all over. Each "pixel" is the first round of a Grammy square in a magic ring pulled really tight so there were as little holes as possible. I did a picture if R2D2 on one side and on the other I had a pixel version of Princess Leia and Han Solo. I used bright blue for the background to really help the colors pop. Im so happy with how it came out! 

Speaking of Star Wars, there's one more hat I want to show you. I didn't make this one for Christmas, but I made it by request for my cousin's kid. He loves Star Wars, I asked her who his favorite character was and I was told he loves Storm Troopers!  I have to admit, I was a little intimidated at first. Storm Trooper helmets are three dimensional, and they have a lot going on. I was afraid if I made it too flat it might look like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. But I took my time (probably longer than I should have) and didn't second guess my choices when they were half way made, and I ended up with a pretty cool looking hat! To make it a little more Storm Trooper-y I did the braids in three solid colors instead of mixing all the colors together. I figured it looked a little more uniform, and a Storm Trooper helmet is a uniform after all! Sorry, no pattern for this one, I made it up as I was going along. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the things I've worked on this winter. Now, if youlll excuse me, I have to get back to crocheting a certain baby blanket before this baby comes.... 

Happy crafting!

- The Craftmeister 

Mirror Mirror On the Wall

Spray and Stain

The mirror that came with the house in the master bathroom was nice and big and really ornate looking. The only thing I didn't like about it was the nasty dingy color it was.  I'm not  a big fan of gold to begin with, but then add grime and dirt in the crevices of gold... and you've got a mirror of yuck.  I decided to spray paint it white and add a dark stain over it. I was inspired by this Pinterest post/picture: 

 I'm glad I did! When I first detached the mirror and spray painted it, the pure white paint made it look very plastic-y, as you can see below.

An improvement over the dark gold, but not what I had in mind. So I used Martha Stewart Living Metallic Glaze in black coffee, dabbed it on the dried pure white mirror frame using a cheap-o foam brush and rubbed it in/off with a rag. A messy process, but I didn't use much glaze (have plenty left over for other projects) so it dried fairly quickly. 

I love how the glaze made the detail in the frame pop without making it look dirty or dingy. 

All in all, I think the new and improved mirror is a great addition to the nautical bathroom! 

Diamond Bobble Baby Blanket

As many of you already know, Dan and I will be adding an addition to our family this August.  My mother was always the baby blanket master in my family, but I figured since she's not here to make the blanket herself, I'd make it this time. I learned a new stitch, used my mother's yarn from her old stash.. it was going to be really special. After I started the pattern, I realized it eats yarn like crazy, and I was quickly running out. I only had a few rows done and would only have enough to make a few more. I was so disappointed, there was no more in her yarn bundle, and no paper to say what brand or what color it was. All I knew is it was worsted weight and an acrylic blend. The other day I walked into a yarn store expecting to be disappointed and expecting to hop from store to store searching for it... but I found it RIGHT AWAY! It was Lion Brand Pound of Love in Pastel Green. You have no idea how elated I was when I found it, I almost broke into song at the store. I'm so glad Lion Brand continues to make an awesome product that has been enjoyed by many generations, and will be enjoyed for generations to come!

In the picture below, what's already done is from my mother's yarn, and the new skein is above it ready to be made into whatever! I may even have enough leftover to make a matching hat and mittens!

After sharing my story on Lion Brand's Facebook page, many many people commented commending me for carrying on my mother's talent, and complimented my choice of color and pattern.  Many people asked me for the pattern, so I figured I'd write one up! 

The original stitch is from 101 Stitches For Afghans by Jean Leinhauser, put forth by the American School of Needlework, this pattern was #74 out of 101.  I got my copy from Amazon, used for about $3. Here's a link to get your own copy: www.amazon.com/101-Stitches-Afghans-Jean-Leinhauser

This pattern is fairly easy, if you can do the Single Crochet (SC), Double Crochet (DC), and a Triple Crochet, you will have no problem creating this blanket.  It may look like an intimidating pattern at first, but once you get a few rows done, you'll be surprised at how simple it is. 

Materials

Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Lion Brand Pound of Love, in Pastel Green)

Size H hook (5.00 mm)

Stitches Used

ch: Chain

sc: Single Crochet

dc: Double Crochet

Bobble: (Keep last loop of each triple crochet on the hook as you perform the triple crochet stitches) 5 Triple crochet in chain 1 space 2 rows below, Yarn Over and draw through ALL 6 loops on hook.

I plan on creating a video how-to on the creation of the booble, it took me a few times to get it right. In the meantime, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube or Pinterest.

Feel free to message me if you're having any issues with this pattern, I will try my best to explain further. 

Instructions

Foundation chain: 150 chains (Any multiple of 12, then six extra stitches will work)

Row 1: (Right side) 

Sc in 2nd chain from hook and in next chain; *ch 1, skip next ch, sc in next 11 chs; repeat from last * until you get to the last 3 chains. ch 1, skip next ch, sc in next 2 chs. Ch2 (counts as first dc on following rows), turn.

Row 2: 

Dc in next sc (remember the ch 2 counts as the first dc, so youre basically skipping the first sc here), *ch 1, skip over ch 1 space, dc in next 11 stitches; repeat from * until you reach the last ch 1 space. Ch1, skip over ch 1 space, dc in last sc. Ch 1, turn. 

Row 3: 

Sc in first dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc; *ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next 7 dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc.  Repeat from * to turning ch2, sc in 2nd ch of turning ch2. Ch2, turn. 

Row 4: 

Dc in next 3 stitches; *ch 1, skip ch1 space, dc in next 7 stitches, ch 1, skip next ch 1 space, dc in next 3 stitches. Repeat from * until you reach the last sc; Dc in last sc. Ch 1, turn. 

Row 5: 

Sc in frist 4 dc. *Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next 3 dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 3 dc.  Repeat from * until you reach the turning ch2, sc in 2nd ch of turning ch.  Ch 2, turn. 

Row 6: 

Dc in next 5 stitches,*  ch 1, skip ch1 space, dc in next 3 stitches, ch 1, skip next ch1 space, dc in next 7 stitches. Repeat from * to last 2 ch1 spaces, ch 1, skip next ch1 space, dc in next 3 stitches, ch 1, skip next ch1 space, dc in next 6 stitches. Ch 1, turn. 

Row 7: 

Sc in first 6 dc, *Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 7 dc.  Repeat from * to last 2 ch1 spaces. Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 5 dc, and in 2nd ch of turning ch2. Ch 2, turn. 

Row 8: 

Dc in next 7 stitches, skip next ch 1 space, * dc in next 11 stitches, ch 1, skip next ch 1 space.  Repeat from * to last 8 stitches, dc in last 8 stitches. Ch 1, turn. 

Row 9: 

Sc in first 6 dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, * Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next 7 dc, ch 1, skip next dc.  Repeat from * to last ch1 space on 2nd row below, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next 5 dc and in 2nd ch of turning ch2. Ch 2, turn. 

Row 10: 

Repeat row 6

Row 11: 

Sc in first 4 dc, * ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 3 dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next 3 dc. Repeat from * to turning ch2; sc in 2nd ch of turning ch2. Ch 2, turn. 

Row 12: 

Repeat row 4

Row 13: 

Sc in dirst 2 dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc, * Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 7 dc, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc, ch 1, skip next dc, sc in next dc. Repeat from * to turning ch2, sc in 2nd ch on turning ch2. Ch 2, turn. 

Row 14:

Repeat row 2

Repeat rows 3 to 14 until you've reached your desired length. 

Last Row: 

Sc in first dc, *Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next 11 dc. Repeat from * to last ch 1 space on 2nd row below, Bobble (in ch 1 space on 2nd row below), back to the working row, sc in next dc and in 2nd ch of turning ch2. 

Finish off. 

I hope you enjoy this pattern and have as much fun making your project as I am with my baby blanket. I plan on adding a ruffled border to the blanket once I have it at the size I like.  Stay tuned for that pattern, and for the video tutorial on the bobble stitch. Good luck!  

Thank you for reading and checking out my blog! As a cute bonus, here's a picture of my dog, Henrik using my crochet book as a pillow while he takes a snooze...

Happy Hooking!

~The Craftmeister

Thai Style Meatballs & Peanut Dipping Sauce

I was in the mood for meatballs, but I also recently had Italian food. I wanted something different, so I looked up a few recipes for Thai meatballs (I had them in a restaurant once and loved them). A lot of the recipes I found had Thai fish paste in it...sounds yucky.  I don't like fish, and I don't like paste. I'm suuuure it's a delicious addition to many dishes, but it wasn't something I had on hand. So I decided to take a little from all of the recipes I found and make up my own...

Cooking experiment! 

And a successful experiment it was!  Here's the recipe I came up with, and immediately added to my recipe book for my kitchen because it was so tasty.   They have a bit of a kick to them, you can leave out the red pepper flakes if that's not your thing. But honestly, they're delicious the way they are!

Not the best picture... pardon the paper plate!

Ingredients Needed
Meatballs - Thai Style

~1 pound of ground beef (I had a little over a pound, maybe 1 1/4 pounds)

3 tablespoons coconut milk

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon (heaping) cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper (optional, but adds a delicious kick)

1 teaspoon (heaping) basil

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons peanut butter (I used Skippy Chunky, the chunks of peanuts added a yummy crunch)

1/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs 

1/4 cup water 

Splash of soy sauce

Zest of 1/2 lime

Peanut Dipping Sauce

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup crunchy peanut butter 

1 lime, juiced. (Zest optional)

For meatballs, mix all ingredients in a large bowl until well mixed. Form meatballs into walnut sized spheres. I was able to make 21 meatballs. Bake in oven @350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes, or fry in peanut oil. 

Mix together the peanut dipping sauce in a medium sized bowl. Serve with jasmine rice.

I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as we did! Enjoy! 

Apples! Apples! Apples!

              

How do you get 60 apples in one afternoon? Go apple picking!

Living in the Hudson Valley means theres lots and lots of apple orchards all over.  We decided to go to the closest one, Masker Orchard.  I also like it because it's close to my maiden name, Mader ;) 

And It has spectacular views, like this! 

So now that you have apples... of course, you're gonna make pie! We did! ....and turnovers, and an apple crumb bake, and we still had over half of the apples left. 

...Before

And after....

I didn't get a picture of the pie, wasn't fast enough... 

There's only so many apples you could eat... and after all that peeling, coring, and chopping from making the desserts, I wanted to do something easy with the rest. I've been seeing a lot of recipes for slow cooker apple butter so I decided to try some myself! I love my crockpot.

You still have to core 'em and cut 'em, but for apple butter you don't need to peel the skins! There's extra nutrients in the skins so it's a win-win for my lazyness. 

Surprisingly, no butter in apple butter.  Which is awesome, I can eat it without feeling like a lard ass! All you need is apples, brown sugar (light or dark, doesn't matter), apple juice/cider/or water, cinnamon, and nutmeg (optional, but I love nutmeg).  

I did 12 apples, half a cup of Masker's apple cider (you can use water or apple juice, but I wanted mine to be flavorful and deep in color), a quarter cup of light brown sugar, two tablespoons of cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. I put it on high for four and a half hours and mixed it every once in a while to make sure nothing was sticking to the pot.  After that I used my stick blender for a while to mash everything up. I cracked the lid to let out some of the moisture and let it thicken up a bit. At this point in the cooking process it looked like apple sauce and smelled like a million Yankee candles. You can totally stop here or take some out to have cinnamon apple sauce, but I kept going with my batch. I wanted it to get to peanut butter consistancy and smoothness. I let it cook with the lid open for two more hours. I cannot even explain how awesome my house smelled. I didn't notice it because I was standing in it for some time, but then I took my dog outside and came back in and really smelled it all!  Soooo amazing! I used the stick blender one last time to smooth it out perfectly and then it was done! 

It made so much apple butter! I've been globbing it on my toast each morning, it's a wonderful way to start your autumn days. 

As they say at Masker Orchard, Live Apply!

~Craftmeister

Skywalker Boots

The internet is one of the best craft tools around. Some days I think to myself, "Hmm, I wonder how to crochet a heart..." A few clicks on google later and ...bam! Crochet heart. 

"Hmm, I wonder how to crochet a flower..." 

"What about an owl...?"

It usually works for a lot of things I search.  But of course, the one time I need to find a free pattern for booties, I can't find one in the right size. I ended up making up my own based on a pattern I found for a larger size bootie.  I found this Toddler Double Soul Moccasins Pattern pattern for toddlers and kids, they are about 6.5" in length. The kid I'm making the booties for is barely 12 months old, and his foot measured 5 inches.  So here's the pattern if you need to make one for your little one! 

I made the pattern almost exactly like the one in the link above, but smaller. I also changed the shaft of the bootie a little, I wanted my booties to look wrapped, like Luke Skywalker's boots in Star Wars. My stitches are in US terms.  And I use the typical pattern short hand.

For example, SC # means to crochet one 'single crochet' in the next number stitches. And # SC means to crochet # 'single crochet' in next stitch. Please let me know if you have any questions, this is my first time writing a pattern...

Stitches used: 

SC Single Crochet

DC Double Crochet

HDC Half Double Crochet 

sl st Slip Stitch

ch Chain

SC2TOG Single Crochet two stitches together 

DC#TOG Double Crochet # of stitches together 

Worsted weight yarn, Size G6 hook (4.00 mm)

In sole color (I used Red Heart Coco Bean), slipstitch, chain 13.

Round 1: 2 SC in 2nd loop from hook, SC 5, HDC, DC 4, 7 DC in last chain, working opposite side of starting chain DC 4, HDC, SC 5, 2 SC in last chain, sl st to first stitch

Round 2: ch 1, SC, 2 SC, SC 9, (HDC, 2HDC) x4, HDC, SC 10, 2 SC, SC, sl st join to first sc

Round 3: ch 1, 2 SC, SC, 2 SC, SC 11, HDC, SC 11, 2 SC, SC, 2 SC, sl st join to first sc

Round 4: ch 2, 2 DC, 2 DC, HDC 14, (DC, 2 DC) x3, (2 DC, DC) x3, HDC 14, 2 DC, 2 DC, sl st join to first DC

If you are doing the contrasting side double sole, fasten off. Make another sole in boot color and continue the pattern below...

Round 5: Stitch both soles together, carefully keeping them straight, using SC. ~58 stitches

Round 6: HDC in each stitch all around, should end with 58 stitches in total, decrease or add where ever if you need to

Round 7: DC in each all around, 58 stitches

Round 8: ch1, SC 21, SC2TOG, HDC, DC2TOG x5, HDC, SC2TOG, SC 21, sl st join to first

Round 9: ch 1, SC 17, SC2TOG, DC2TOG, DC3TOG, DC2TOG, DC, DC 2, DC2TOG, SC2TOG, SC 17, sl st join to first st

Round 10: SC 13, SC2TOG, DC2TOG, DC, DC3TOG, DC, DC2TOG x2, SC2TOG, SC 13, sl st join to first st

Round 11: SC 6, SC2TOG, HDC, DC2TOG, DC, (DC2TOG, DC) x4, DC2TOG, HDC, SC2TOG, SC 6

That's it for the shoe part, the next part of the boot is just 5 rows of double crochet.  I slightly modified the boot shaft from what I saw in the tutorial I looked at when creating my pattern.  I did 5 rows of double crochet then one last row of single crochet in a lighter beige color for some contrast.  I think I get the Luke Skywalker effect with these boots, the texture of the stitches help it looked wrapped.  I'm pretty happy with how they came out!  I hope you enjoyed the pattern.  Here's some fashion photos of the booties, I got inspired... 

AND you could fold down the booties for a different look!

...for those fashionista babies

Thanks for checking out my first pattern!  I hope you have as much fun making yours as I did! 

Stay tuned for more pictures of the Star Wars twins costumes updates! 

TTFN

~The Craftmeister

Happy October

Beautiful autumn sunset over the mountain behind my house

It's juuuuust barely October and I have been thinking about Halloween for weeks!! ...Okay, maybe months... I love love love   Halloween!  This Halloween I'm making some costumes for some very adorable twins, and they're going as a pretty badass set of famous twins, Luke and Leia from Star Wars!

The twins are barely a year old so the costumes have to be sized down from the originals in the movies (just a bit).  Leia's dress I figured would be easy enough, and Luke's Jedi tunic can be a re-purposed Karate Gi.  However, no karate gi is made for an eleven month old, so I'm making it from scratch.  I haven't made too many things with my sewing machine, so it's been a fun challenge. 

I've crocheted a hairpiece hat for Leia's buns, and it came out really cool looking! 

It's a single crochet hat with two very long braids wrapped in a coil.  Very easy, and warm too just in case it's chilly Halloween night.  Here's the Leia hat prototype (the real one is bigger and a darker brown).

Speaking of hats.... Check out these candy corn hats my sister Heidi ordered for some of the kids in our family.  I crocheted a total of six hats, and I had a ton of fun doing so.   I followed the tutorial on The Worsted Crochet Blog (seen here: http://theworstedcrochetblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/candy-corn-hat-pattern-for.html)  The only difference is I didn't make ear flaps and I did one extra row of yellow. We had the kids try them on ...and hilarity ensued. Trying to get three kids under three to sit still for a cute picture was really difficult, so I just took a ton of pictures.  I took so many, my phone made a mini video of all the pictures, I love the result! Its almost as crazy as being there in real life!

Thanks Google+! ... said no one ever. Except for me. This one time. 

Hats! Hats! Hats!!  Here's another hat I made! It came out totally differently that what I was expecting.  I followed the pattern exactly, but I think I was stitching too tight and using too thick yarn.  I think it came out kind of cute looking anyway, so I kept going the way I was going and added a scalloped edge to it for more fun.  It's really warm!  And it's a piece I can totally keep for myself!

#SelfieMirrorPic

Back to Halloween...

Now that I have a huge dining room table, I figured it would be fun to make a cool Halloween table setting.  My table is a nice dark wood so I wanted to use a table runner instead of a table cloth. Why cover up that beautiful wood?!  I haven't gotten around to making a long table runner just yet, so I decided to do three small centerpieces in a row as a table runner.  I used three round multi colored straw placemats that had autumn colors like crimson, gold, amber, and brown (only $2 each). 

I set a small centerpiece on each; a large sugar skull I got from Home Goods, a bouquet of spooky purple and black roses with sparkly spiders from the dollar store (YES! The $1 Store!), and a cool collection of four candles in interesting holders.  Paired all that with orange place mats (great for all of the fall/harvest season, not just Halloween) and I have a cool Halloween table! 

The Halloween wine glasses were a gift from my sister, they really complete the table spooking - I mean table setting

You know that Christmas song The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?  That is totally a fall song... totally.  Autumn is the BEST time of year!  

Stay Spooky!

~The Craftmeister