Cats caught in the headlights

Several weeks ago, the local Humane Society was having a big fund-raiser flea market and bake sale. We were very excited and prepared to make some cookies to donate. We made 2 batches of lemon sugar cookie dough and stashed them in the freezer. Just before the day when we had planned to bake and decorate, we came down with that awful bug. We figured no one in his/her right mind would want germy cookies so we had to give up the whole idea. :(

Now, we have 2 batches of lemon sugar cookie dough on hand. We haven't made cookies in a while now. There just seem to be so many fun things to do each day. Without practice, it seems that cookie decorating is like everything else ... you get a little rusty. For what it's worth, these are our kitty cookies. If we were going to make these for a bake sale, we think we'd do a lot of things differently next time but for today, we're pretty sure, they'll taste just fine.

A girl can never have too many bags

Love Will Find Us
Copyright  © Cheryl Coville 2012

That's a quote from Kate and we agree wholeheartedly. We love bags. We love them for holding all the projects we have on-the-go at any given moment. We have one that's very special to us because Stephanie made it and she made a sweet label that she stitched inside. The fabric she used features cats and mice because she knows how much we love cats. (Mice?...not so much.) We keep all our quilting templates in that one and always know where to find them.

Not too long ago, our friend Karen told us about Spoonflower. Yesterday, we got a little envelope in the mail from them. We put one of our drawings on fabric and sent for a couple of test swatches to see how they look for real. (It's one thing to see them on the monitor and quite another to see them on fabric.) Spoonflower allows you to buy an 8 inch test square so we ordered one of each. The cool thing is that 8 inches is useable!!

This morning we decided we'd take the day to play. (So, what else is new?) And we made ourselves a knitting project bag from Love Will Find Us. SO MUCH FUN!!! It shouldn't even be legal. The second fabric swatch is a variation with white lettering. Both fabrics are now available for sale since we've seen and approved them.

The really interesting thing is that last week when we were at Taylor's Sewing Centre (our favourite local quilt shop) we fell deeply in love with the flowered fabric in the photo. It was on sale and it didn't take too much convincing for Cheryl to let Grandma Coco have it. We didn't have a project in mind for it. We just liked it. And, look! It's perfect for this bag.

Purple Prose

Beaded Micro Macramé Bracelet.

Purple with gold accents, about 8 inches long. 

The round purple beads are glass with lovely gold swirls.

A Toque for Paddy

There's nothing worse than a summer cold so when Paddy complained that his head felt chilly, we felt honour-bound to do something about it. We don't want him getting sick after all. We expect his little friends could use a nice, warm toque, too. Just in case you find yourself with a hat-less monkey, here's how we made ours ...

Paddy’s head is 8 ½ inches around.

You will need some leftover sock yarn and a set of 4 double-point needles in size 3.5mm (4US).

Cast-on 44 stitches. Join in the round and knit 1 ½ inches of K2, P2 ribbing.

Switch to stockinette stitch by knitting every round. Reduce 2 stitches somewhere in the first round. Continue knitting evenly until work measures 3 inches from the cast-on edge. 

Decrease for the crown:

Rnd 1: * K5, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 2: Knit

Rnd 3: * K4, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 4: Knit

Rnd 5: * K3, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 6: Knit

Rnd 7: * K2, K2tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 8: Knit

Rnd 9: * K1, K2 tog, rep from * to end.

Rnd 10: Knit

Rnd 11: * K2tog, rep from * to end.

Cut the yarn leaving a 10-inch tail. Thread the tail on a darning needle and draw the tail through the remaining stitches. Draw up tightly and fasten. Pull the tail to the inside of the toque and make a pompom. (Monkeys like pompoms.)

Pompom:

Cut a piece of cardboard about 3 inches long x ¾ inch wide. Holding a 6-inch length of yarn along the long edge of the cardboard, wind yarn around the cardboard for about 100 wraps. Keep the yarn bunched up in one spot, as much as possible. Tie a secure knot with the two ends of the 6-inch length of yarn and cut the ends of wrapped yarn opposite the tied side. Trim your pompom to get a nice round look. Use the yarn you tied your pompom with to secure it to Paddy’s toque.

If you need more pompom help, just google them. There are lots of tutorials all over the internet.

As we mentioned before, the monkey itself is the brain-child of Anita Wilschut and the pattern can be found at  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jacobus   It's a great design. (And, no, we don't get a kick-back for saying that. It's just the truth.)

If you'd like to download a .PDF of A Toque for Paddy, just click here. We're working on more PaddyWear. You can find our pattern for his backpack here.

Paddy’s Toque Pattern Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2012

You're welcome to use our pattern for your own amusement and if you want to sell Paddy Toques (and good for you if you find a market for them!) feel free to do that as well. However, please don't reproduce the pattern for distribution in any form. Oh, and as with all our designs, please be sure to give us credit. That's only fair.

                           

The gift of Second Sight

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "sight".

Copyright © 2012 Cheryl Coville 

When we were kids, we used to hear a lot about people with "second sight". It was widely believed that our great-grandmother had it. Second sight is the ability to perceive things that others can't ... a sort of extra-sensory perception that allows you to see the future. For a while, we remember thinking we had inherited the gift. Stranger things have happened. However, all we really managed to achieve was a nasty phobia about riding in the car. 

As a young adult, starting out in life, we had a car that was pretty much running on life support. Every time we got in that heap to go any farther than the grocery store, we had visions of tow trucks and failed brakes and fiery crashes. Somehow, we managed to conflate these images of dread with our so-called psychic abilities and ended up with severe anxiety that's taken years to overcome.

Knews for Knitters

After we wrote about the heroics of our Mr. Coco, we heard from others about their men-folk. One wanted to borrow him for training purposes (and we are in negotiations right now about that). We did hear from some who already have well-trained thoughtful spouses. Kate's husband is an example. He found this link and brought it to her and she shared it with us. (We hope he was suitably praised and rewarded for his good behaviour.)

If you're a knitter, you'll find the Knitting as Programming article very interesting (even if you're like us and don't know much about computer programming). In the body of the article is a link to a Youtube video on Guerilla Knitting. If you have the time, it's a great video and well worth watching. 

We don't need to be followers on this knitting adventure. We can set ourselves free and let our creativity soar. 

Cool and Sophisticated

We bought this beautiful bead last November 

at Rideau Art Beads in Kemptville, Ontario. 

It`s been waiting for just the right project.

Part of the fun of working with beads is finding a bead here, a bead there

and having them all come together in their own good time.

Three Cheers for Mr. CoCo

This is the long weekend that kicks off the summer season here in the Kingdom and, as usual, the countryside is alive with garage and yard sales. We know many people find these sales appealing but we generally avoid them lest we find ourselves in an episode of Hoarders.

However, this morning after his tennis game, Mr. CoCo found himself with time on his hands and a yard sale beckoning. He moseyed over to see what was on offer. This is what he brought home:

For all of $5. including the storage container. Hail the conquering hero! It's full of quilting cotton! and some of it still sports price stickers from a local (now out-of-business) quilt shop.

Even Cassie was impressed.