Food this time!

I've been knitting and am done with the scarf and fingerless glove, but haven't taken pictures yet.  Yesterday, however, I decided to make some Cinnamon Rolls!  Todd gave me Pioneer Woman's Cookbook for Christmas (YAY!) and she has a recipe for them in it that's supposed to be really good.  Yesterday, however, I decided to use our family recipe.  First I tried to make the dough in the bread machine, but it's too big of a recipe, so had to finish it with the mixer.  Anyway, I decided to snap pictures of the finished projects.  :D




Pictures aren't great because I used my small camera, but they taste really good!  Still not quite like when my Mom makes them, but still good.  Maybe I roll them out too thin, not sure.

I'm thinking of next time use PW's recipe and see which one I like the best.

I took a quick trip to Michael's the day after Christmas because they had most of their yarn on sale, so I bought 6 skeins (2 skeins each of 3 different kind/color).  I also had to get some Christmas stuff that was 50% off.  And I bought a set of 12 holiday wine glasses (with gold on the rim) at Target for 50% off - $7.50!!!  They will go great with the china we brought home from Todd's grandma's house in IL.

So I've started another scarf - this one white.  I'm using the circular knitting needles again - I really like them.

After all of our Christmas celebrations are done, I'll have another post to show what I made for Megan and Kate.

Tomorrow is New Year's eve, everyone have a safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Shawl is done!

I finally decided the shawl is long enough, so finished it the other day.  I've been reading online about "blocking" knitted things, so thought I'd try it.  It is usually done (I think) for lacy things so you can see more detail, but I wanted to try it to stretch it out, so we'll see if it works.  Years ago when Todd bought my craft table for me from Craigslist, it came with a large cardboard thing and I finally used it!  It really worked great for the blocking, because it's marked every inch and I used lots of pins.  Then I sprayed it with lots of plain water,so I hope it works.  Anyway, I snapped a couple of pictures.







It measures 11 inches wide by 68 inches long.  I set it under the ceiling fan in the office, so hopefully it won't take too long to dry.  It's going to be really nice when it's colder outside!  (Yesterday it was 82 here, but Christmas is supposed to be in the 50's.)

I also finished a couple other craft projects, but they are Christmas gifts, so can't be posted yet.  Once they are given out in January, I'll post them.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!

Wow, where has the time gone?  I've been busy - we traveled to Nebraska for Thanksgiving.  That was a lot of fun and I've posted about that on my personal blog .

I did complete another quilt - this one is for our step-grandson.  He wasn't in the family yet when I started quilting and made the rest of the grandkids quilts (which reminds me, I need to make one for McKenna!).  I had already purchased fabric from Wal-Mart a long time ago and it's the same as the other Split Rail Quilts I made.  Unfortunately, I didn't have quite enough for the inside border to be the same, so I had to improvise.  Here's the finished quilt:

I need to figure out how to label it yet.  The other ones I made printed off labels on the fabric paper that I used for picture pillows, but I'm not  sure if they hold up very well.  Since I now have my MIL's Bernina, I think I'll stitch a label, just something quick, but that's all I'll need to do.   I machine quilted this with clear thread, but the back didn't turn out very well, but it will have to do. (I'm not going to post a picture of the back since I'm not happy with it.)

I've also been knitting and a little crochet.   Before Thanksgiving, I decided I wanted a shawl and had a few patterns at home, so I bought some pretty yarn - Lion Brand Homespun Barley is what I decided on.  I actually finished it while in Nebraska, but then decided I wanted to make it wider and longer, so after we got home, I ripped it out and I'm starting again.
This is where I was on it a week ago:

I've added to it since then, but still not to the size I want, so I'm still working on it.

Something else I decided I want to make are Fingerless Gloves.  I have a couple pair of them sewn out of fleece, but wanted to make some out of yarn.  The first one I did was crocheted, made out of the same yarn the shawl is: (Found the pattern on the internet)




I only made one and it's a little bulky, so wanted to try knitting one.   I didn't have a pattern for these, so made it up as I went.



Still not happy with this one, either, so tried it with a different yarn.




 That was better, but still not quite what I wanted.

So I went out last week and purchased some circular knitting needles.  These let you knit a tube.  This was the first try - it took me a while to figure it out but I sat down one morning and found a picture tutorial online and figured it out.


Showing the circular needles:


That was much better, but it turned out too big.  Yesterday we were at Wal-Mart and I decided ot buy some more circular needles, but in a smaller size.
And yesterday I made this:




MUCH better!  So I've started the second one, but need to finish the shawl to figure out how much yarn I have left.

So that's what I've been working on lately.

Friday I had a nice surprise - we were at Todd's work Christmas Party and I received an email from etsy that someone purchased another item!!  YAY!!!!
Melissa in Aurora, CO purchased one of my fabric book covers, so I'm stopping at the Post Office on the way to work to put it in the mail.

My sister also opened an Etsy shop last night, so if anyone is interested in Stained Glass pieces, she does GREAT work!  Her etsy shop, and her website.
This is a Christmas ornament she gave me:

And while I'm promoting other people's work, my step-daughter, Megan, had a blog about the items she crochets, so here's the link to that.  (She does great work, too!  Really cute items for babies.)  And her Facebook page.  Too late for Christmas, but winter's not officially here yet!!!

I needed something to organize my earrings,

so tried making something to hold them.  I saw something on craftster, another one so the last time I was at Hobby Lobby, I remembered to get a sheet of plastic - I think it's used for cross stitch.  I think it was 49 cents.  Anyway, I knew I needed to be able to get to the front and back of it, this is what I came up with:



I hung it next to the dresser and mirror where I keep the rest of my jewelry, and it's really nice to have all my earrings handy.  I probably should have made it a little smaller so I could at least put a frame around it, but it's fine for me.

I did start another quilt, this one for our step-grandson, Dom.  It will be for him for Christmas.  I thought I had taken a picture of the quilt top, but apparently I didn't.  I'll have to take a picture when it's done, I've started quilting it (machine quilting so I get it done before Christmas).