Carole Knits

october zinnia
october zinnia
martinis with a view
martinis with a view
gettysburg fence for
gettysburg fence for
germinate shawl on rocks
germinate shawl on rocks
field of flags 2
field of flags 2
color affection with edge
color affection with edge
cedar leaf shawlette 2
cedar leaf shawlette 2
3_27_2014
3_27_2014
3_18_13
3_18_13
2_24_2014
2_24_2014
1_11_13
1_11_13

Unraveling

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I have some unraveling of a different sort today. Back on Black Friday, Harrisville Designs had a sale on potholder loops and I got myself the Bright Holiday Loop Pack. I love the other potholders I made so much and I thought some cheerful Christmas ones would be just the thing for the season.

And then they sat. And sat. And sat.

Finally, last weekend I realized if I wanted Christmas potholders for, say, Christmas, I’d better get cracking.  However, in the few months since I made the last ones, I sort of forgot what I was doing. I messed up the first attempt completely. I finished the second attempt only to later discover it was wrong. By the third time I was in the swing of it and moving along quickly and then, while doing the bind off (or whatever you call it in this instance) a bunch of loops sort of jumped off the loom. I tried my best to fix it but only made it worse. I texted Sean and told him the loom was stressing me the eff (except I didn’t say eff, as I’m sure you know) out. Of course he came over to commiserate but then he actually fixed it.

Hooray!

And I proceeded to make two more without any trouble. So, my unraveling had a happy ending. And now I have Christmas potholders.

On the reading side of things, I am really enjoying Mr. Dickens and His Carol. It’s perfect for the season.

Whatever you are knitting, reading, creating or otherwise doing, I hope things are going perfectly well for you.

 

Potholder Love

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Sean came over last Friday and he brought coffee and biscuits – and that was fabulous! He also brought his 10″ Potholder PRO Loom from Harrisville Designs. I knew this day was coming so I had already bought a few bags of loops in the colors of my kitchen. In other words – I was prepared.

Sean showed me how to get started and helped me through the first one. I had a few dicey moments but it (mostly) came out perfectly. And then he went on about his day but he left the loom with me. So I made another.

And then on Sunday, while watching football, I made a third.

They are BIG and all cotton and thick and just awesome as potholders and trivets, too. It takes about an hour to make one, which is way faster than knitting, and the Potholder Pattern Wizard makes is super fun and simple to create your own unique designs.

I may be holding Sean’s loom hostage for a while. Just sayin.

DIY TV Cover Up

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We have a flat screen TV on the wall in our bedroom. However, we hardly ever watch TV in the bedroom. Now, if this were up to me this TV would get regular use as I truly enjoying snuggling in bed and watching TV. Dale, though? Not so much. He’s a couch sitter when it comes to watching TV. And so, the TV in the bedroom only gets used on rare occasions. Late night football games. The Academy Awards. When one of us is sick.

In the interest of making our bedroom prettier, I decided to cover up that rarely used TV with a canvas print of one of my photos from summer vacation.

tv solution for carole knits

 

This print is just the right size for the TV and the wooden bar at the top catches perfectly on the TV. Sure, you can see a tiny strip of the TV below the print but mostly – it’s gone. And I’d much rather look at that picture of a beach umbrella than a black TV screen.

Pretty clever, eh?

Growing Herbs

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Last week I mentioned to Vicki that I was going to plant a container garden full of herbs. She asked me if I had a plan and here is what I told her:

My plan? I bought a ceramic pot at Ocean State Job Lot and I bought a few herbs at the garden store. Next I will plant them in the pot. That’s my “plan” LOL.

Here are photos of my plan, now come to fruition:

The pot is on my deck, in full sun. The container was reasonably priced ($14) compared to some that I saw.

There’s rosemary.

And oregano.

There’s lots of basil and plenty of parsley. I probably put too many plants in there but I wanted it to be full and I’m going to be harvesting herbs on a regular basis so I’m hoping it won’t be too crowded.

It smells so good and it looks beautiful and I’m rather pleased with the way “my plan” turned out.

DIY Graduation Gifts

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It’s graduation season and we had two parties to go to last weekend. The minute I saw this great idea on TheLetter4 I knew I had to make these adorable soda graduation caps to bring to these kids.

This was so fast and simple! I cut out card stock squares – I found 2.5 inches worked best – and a length of gold embroidery floss. I tied a knot in the floss and then glued it to the card stock with a glue gun and then I glued the mini mortar board to the bottle cap. I used black card stock for the soda with black bottle caps and white card stock for the soda with white bottle caps. I could only find Jones Soda for sale as singles so I used a galvanized bucket for the boy’s party and a plastic pail for the girl’s party. I put a card with some money in each one and I think they made a really cute gift.

The other thing I did was make more of those graduation candy caps. I’ve made these before and blogged about them but they are so adorable that I have to show them again anyway.

They are definitely time consuming – and even a little expensive – but they are so cute and so worth the effort. My friend was pleased that I made these for her daughter and everyone admired them on the table and told me how clever I was. That’s something I always love to hear!

And now you can all go be clever, too. DIY Graduation gifts are a very good thing.

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