Not what I planned

First I want to thank all of you who visited my blog on Wednesday.  Evidently posting a tutorial, albeit a paper and not a yarn or knitting tutorial, was a good thing.

My plan for yesterday (after work) was to stop and pick up some paper supplies to maybe, just maybe, make my Christmas cards.  I bought some cards a few weeks ago and, well, they were not exactly what I want to send.   There are nice inexpensive cards and then there are cheap cards.  Really cheap cards.  My name is not going on these cards.

We got some snow.  Unexpected snow and it was slippery snow.   It wasn’t a lot of snow but it was the right kind to cause havoc all over the place.  Cars were off the roads and in ditches.  By the time I got to our neighborhood, I knew there would be a problem getting up the hill.  The half mile hill.  The half mile snow-covered steep hill.  I saw tire tracks all over the road.  Then I saw brake lights at the top of the hill.  That’s never a good sign. Someone (not me) was spinning their wheels at the top.  Since everyone had to stop on the steepest part of the hill until the first person got to the flat part, we all got stuck briefly but eventually got moving again.

Mr. Aitch was at work so our driveway hadn’t been touched.  I tried to go up and into the garage but it was too slick.  So I parked the car at the bottom of the driveway and walked to the house to get the shovel.  Fortunately the snow was dry and light instead of the heavy wet stuff.  It only took about an hour and fifteen minutes to clear it.

I was too tired to make the cards so I sat down and knitted another hat.  An unplanned hat.  No charts, just simple no-brainer knitting.

My plans for this evening include making cookie dough, making the above mentioned Christmas cards, working on the felt ornaments, knitting Mr. Aitch’s Musica mitts, and finishing two hats.

Well, that’s my plan…

Ms Ida pictures

I gifted the Ms Ida Chain Link mittens to my sister and she sent me a picture of them.  For some reason I forget to take the pictures before I gift something.

Ms Ida Chain Link mittens

I followed the pattern (large) including the yarn and colors except I left off one diamond repeat on the thumb and it was plenty long.   My original plan was to make these flip top mittens but I was having such a time with the thumbs that we (my sister and I) decided the flip top wasn’t necessary.

I used Knit Picks City Tweed in Dungaree and Andean Silk in Cream.  I loved working with this yarn though it is sticky.  Just don’t make many mistakes to tink or frog.

Thinking I would make two pairs of these mittens, I bought another Andean Silk in cream and City Tweed in Cottontail that appears to be discontinued.  It’s a taupe color.  I’ll find something else to knit with it.

Paper garland tutorial

This…

circles

Turned into this…

Merry Christmas Garland

Merry Christmas closeup

Closeup 2

Materials used:  card stock (I used green and white card stock), 1 1/2 inch circle punch, black thread (or any color that works for you), glue, typewriter key font, computer, printer

This particular font is available in black keys and white/clear keys and I used the white/clear keys so I didn’t use up so much ink and the cardstock color was more visible. 

I had to fiddle with the size font (105 pt) to fit inside the circle punch.  20 “keys” fit on my paper, four across and five down.  Cutting the paper into strips made it easier to get the punch centered on the letter.

The circles are glued back-to-back with black thread in between for some toddler-proof garland.  It’s made so if the circles flip over, the letters are still the right way.  Our tree has so many lights on it that I couldn’t get a picture with the garland on the tree so I tried it on the banister. 

This was very easy and relatively inexpensive.  Cardstock can be purchased from Staples for five cents a sheet so you don’t have to buy an entire ream for this project.  The circle punch was on sale at 40% off and can be used for other projects.

If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll reply as soon as I can.