I Found Old Professional Bakery Recipe Cards from the 1980's!

When going through the old photographs my folks had in storage, I came across my mother's old recipe cards from when she ran her own bakery. The video below is a process video of me scrap booking the cards into an album. I deconstruct and redesign one of the pages, I decorate one from start to finish, and then do some alcohol marker coloring.

The challenge to this was that they were all the same size, and looked basically the same. They were laminated so if I cut them it would compromise the integrity of the cards. I needed to breathe life into the pages; trying to give them variety to keep the interest of the pages.

Over the break, I taught myself to crochet

Feeling ill, I kept to my bed and for a whole day watched YouTube and created sample swatches. Then, I picked up my hook and created the beginning mandala from Sophie's world. as with any new skill, I pulled more than I have kept for this endeavor. the Mandala remains intact, and I created a new kitty bed with a folded side for support. that was teaching myself flat circles. so. new skill. I decided to learn to granny square, and now have a 4' by 4' square that I have to get more yarn for... my sister's gonna love it! I actually am using a hook equivalent to a size 13 needle... is that a L? I have no idea. 

I looked. Its actually an M. 

Shetland Fine Lace

My greatest goal as a knitter is to achieve this beautiful lace.

A Sockventure!!!

I started on my very first pair of socks a while back, like the third week of September maybe? And I am knitting on size 2dpn with sport weight yarn and a cast on of 60sts. Stepping stones socks is the pattern I am following, and I am so far marginally pleased with the results of my work. I am using a local, hand spun and hand dyed yarn in a lavender color that I picked up a long time ago, when I was first looking into yarns that were not acrylic for the very first time. Before this yarn graced my stash with its presence, the only yarns that lived there were Red Heart, Caron Simply Soft, and Lion Brand Hometown. I have to say, Simply Soft and Hometown are not bad quality yarns, and I still have so much Hometown that I do enjoy producing things with it. Hometown does get shaggy when washed though. HOWEVER this beautiful lavender ball is the symbolic torch that brought on shopping in specialty yarn shops, knitting with Addi lace tip turbo rockets, and karbonz double pointed needles. It lead to lace samplers, mittens, and hats. I am no longer a beginner knitter. I dare say, I am no longer an easy knitter... I am INTERMEDIATE. Soooo the first socks on a meaningful, symbolic yarn--- yeah, what could go wrong?
Don't answer that. I did not jinx myself. The socks will be fine.

A Cat Cuddler; don't do this at home.

When a pattern shows you a yarn and needles, but no gauge, do the math yourself. Save yourself time and heartache and stupid aching hands. Also when you frog it the first time, don't go back for more torture without math and research!!!!! I made this disaster from scraps and things that I really would not want to wear, so I'm not sad about wasting yarn or anything... it just was a waste of time! And now I have a psychedelic rug hanging around my house. It's so weird.

Knitting Intarasia

About a week ago I picked up my trusty size 15dpn and cast on 36sts of bright, obnoxious acrylic yellow. I garter stitched three rows and switched to a green that has a decent amount of blue, and next to that yellow looks Kelly green. I did quite a bit of Ravelry searching, searched Lion Brand, and Yarnspirations and came across http://www.yarnspirations.com/nordic-hat.html this Nordic hat. I did a variation on it. It looks pretty cute, but the top is weird because I decreased too quickly. But, any more rows and it would be too big, and I really didn't want to take out any rows.

Update: it worked beautifully. Gifted and now loved by my best friend, Julia, the hat was a bit tough finishing but ultimately a success. It was not to big, but just right!