Acorn Pies is holding a raffle to benefit SOS Children’s Villages in Port au Prince, Haiti. The prize is an absolutely charming doll in a dress I wish were my size. I mean Ellie’s size…
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Not the Stick
Every Easter basket needs one to keeps the bunnies away from the chocolate. This stuffed carrot is a great last minute project – it’ll take less than an hour.
Carrot
It’s Good for You
They look exotic with a bunch of different green yarns on top.
Materials: You’ll need about 20 yards of worsted in orange, miscellaneous green yarns for the carrot’s top (I used Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Cotton), a set of 4 double pointed needles (I used US3s) and something to stuff it and a yarn needle for finishing. A safety pin to use as a marker is also handy.
Gauge: isn’t super important as long as your stuffing doesn’t show. My standard worsted toy gauge is 5sts to 1″ – that will get you a 5.5″ carrot not counting the greens.
Abbreviations: M1 means do that increase where you lift the yarn between the stitches. *blah blah blah* means do the stuff between the *s for the whole round.
Notes: If you don’t like to knit in the round, no problem. Knit it flat in stockinette, seam and stuff before you add the greens. Want a bigger carrot? Double the yarn and increase your needle size accordingly. Try braiding some of the green yarn to make the top more substantial for the big version.
Instructions
Cast on 6 stitches leaving a 4 inch tail.
Arrange stitches evenly on three needles and join to knit in the round.
Round 1: Knit
Round 2: *K1, M1, K1* (9 sts)
Round 3-6: Knit (4 rounds)
Use the cast on tail to close up the bottom of the carrot, securing it to the inside. Mark the beginning of the round with a safety pin if you need to.
I need to.
Round 7: *K1, M1, K2* (12 sts)
Round 8-13: Knit (6 rounds)
Stuff the tip.
Round 14: *K1, M1, K1* (18 sts)
Round 15-24: Knit (10 rounds)
Round 25: *K1, M1, K2* (24 sts)
Round 26-37: Knit (12 rounds)
Round 38: *K1, K2tog, K1*
Round 39: *K1, K2tog*
Round 40: K2tog around
Break yarn leaving about a 6″ tail. Using a yarn needle, pull the cast off tail through the live stitches and remove from the needles. Finish stuffing the carrot, but don’t pull up the opening.
Cut several six inch (at least) pieces of green yarn and tie them all together with an overhand knot at one end.
Already looks yummy!
Stuff the knotted end into the open top of the carrot, and draw the stitches up tightly.
This is the only part that might be considered remotely tricky.
Use a yarn needle to run the tail through the knot several times to hold the green in place and secure the end. Hide the rest of the tail inside the carrot. Trim the green yarn to the desired length. I put knots in my carrot’s greens to give them a nice little flop and to keep them from unraveling. But that’s optional.
Feed to your bunny.
omnomnom
As always, the things you make from my patterns are yours to give, sell or hoard. But don’t sell my patterns of derivatives of my patterns. That’s just tacky. PDF available on the patterns page. Or just go straight to the pdf.
Good Things Come in Small Batches
Do you want a brownie but find you’re afraid to commit to an entire pan? I don’t have that problem anymore. And I don’t even need to figure out how to half an egg.
Makes two brownies. Or one great big brownie if you don’t like to share.
Small Batch Brownies (vegan – but don’t be scared)
Preheat your oven to 350F.
Pull out a small mixing bowl and put in the following:
- 4 1/2t. unsweetened cocoa
- 1/4c. all purpose flour
- 1/4c. sugar
- 1/8t. baking powder
- 1/4t. salt
- 2T. water
- 2T. cooking oil
- 1/4t. vanilla
Mix it all up well and pour it into a greased 3×5 loaf pan. You can sprinkle the top with crushed pecans or walnuts if you like them. I like roasted, salted pecans myself.
Bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes. The top will look a little dry when it’s finished.
Let Ellie lick the bowl because
Hey! No eggs!
These are pretty rich. You can moderate that with a big scoop of ice cream and some homemade chocolate sauce.*
Or skip the baking altogether, it’s the perfect amount if all you want is brownie batter. I will not judge you for Brownie Indiscretions.
*Put 1/2c. water, 1/4c. sugar, 1/3c. cocoa, and a big pinch of salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat. STIR. I mean it! Don’t walk away! It can go from delicious to napalm in an instant. When you are happy with the viscosity, stir in 1/2t. vanilla. Store in the ‘fridge in a lidded container.
Made Good
Hey.
Remember when I said that I would post the Official Pattern of Son of Dish Rag Tag when the race was over?
Last time I checked the race is still over. Here’s the pattern.
Beg pardon.
PS I also updated all the links to my patterns on Ravelry. Some of the pattern pages were made pre-migration and still had old links.
Splash
Made a splash page for Yarn Miracle. Because it’s time to start looking a little more professional.
If you’ve got me in your feedreader, it will affect you not at all.
Snacks
A couple people asked to see Ellie’s felt tea bags.
Sewn up on the machine with ribbon strings and pinked edges.
I put dark brown in the middle so it looks like there is tea inside.
I went ahead and took a few more pictures of my favorites while I had the camera out – a lot of her Teeth Prizes have been play food.
I didn’t “make” these, just painted them. Ellie loves to count them.
Sandwich fixins. The sack in the back has potato chips.
One of the first things I tried.
I’m proud of the tortillas – I put aluminum foil inside to keep them folded!
Now I’m kind of hungry.
Fifteen Minutes
This is a bear I made. He’s in a magazine!
Buttercream Bear is the high end Teddy Bear in the article “Behind the Price Tag” in the March 2010 issue of American Baby Magazine. This distinction is well deserved – hand knit with cashmere makes anything pricey. And that’s awesome. Or it would be awesome if the attribution wasn’t completely wrong (even in the buyer’s guide, so good luck to anyone who wants one) because of failure to fact check or figure out how Etsy works or ask or even read the bear’s tag.
I’ve been in touch with editors and there have been apologies all around. Which is nice. Hopefully there is some kind of correction in the near future. Which will be nicer. But still.
I’m not over the angry yet and you can’t help feeling how you feel.
Many thanks to my Darling Sister (Maintaining Sanity) for the pictures and for procuring multiple copies of the magazine. I can’t wait for them to get here so I can see him in person.
My bear (my former bear – he was bought from my shop last month) is famous!