Whitniffic Whatnots

One of my goals for December is to meet a reindeer. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that happen.  One of my other goals for December is to give back, which is not hard to do at all! So far, I've purchased 10 pounds of dog treats and a gallon of antibacterial soap for the animal shelter (easy peasy... I can spare $16 for homeless pets), baked two cheesecakes for the Pulaski Senior Center Thanksgiving meal (ok... so that was November. I'm still counting it), crocheted a blanket for a sick friend (with help) and donated my time to a local high school to help them make some costumes for their upcoming production of Grease. But the good deed I'm most proud of this month was a tag-team effort between me and my friend Gina.  Gina and her husband own a beautiful (and very popular) wedding venue in the Green Bay Area, Sepia Wedding Chapel. We've been scheming ways to use the chapel on more days of the week than just Fridays and Saturdays, and of course I lo...

Let's play a game! Can you guess what the heck I'm planning to make out of all this stuff? The cat was not from Menards. Sometimes I have to laugh at myself when I shop for supplies to make my ideas come to life. For example, I wandered around Menards for an hour, round and round the store, tossing random objects into my cart. I must have looked slightly lost, because a nice young man asked if I needed help finding anything, and I replied,"No thanks, I'm just being crafty". I ended up with the following: 1- 8" concrete forming tube 2- 48" stair banister spindles 6- shatterproof silver ornaments (only 2 are shown) 1- really big red ornament 7- cans of various primer, paint and spray glitter 2- 15" round wood disks 8- MDF rosettes of varying sizes 1- bottle of wood glue 1- roll of 2" painters' tape What am I making? Well... I somehow ended up on the Santa Night committee at work (where we arrange a night for company ki...

Last year I went nuts with the crocheted Christmas gifts. Good grief. I don't know why I did this to myself. Yes, handmade goods are amazing gifts... but no one said such gifts have to be made of a billion tiny loops of yarn made one by one! This is what I accomplished: A heap of crocheted goodness. Fun "ombre" crochet blanket. More tapestry stitch! Personalized crochet. Two cute hats. Free pattern by Drops Design.   Zig Zag cowl- also by Drops Design. Cute hat of my own design! :)     I lined this one with fleece. Boot cuffs were "it" last year. All of these items were only for four different people; my mom, my stepmom, my friend Gina and her son Grayson. All of these, except for the blanket, were started the week before Christmas. See? I'm nuts. Plus, I made this cute little newborn elf hat for a photo shoot. This year, I'm planning simpler gifts that can be finished in an hour or less!...

Holy granny squares, Batman! A billion granny squares and a cup of tea. I'm not an old lady, I swear. I can't say I've ever gotten this close to finishing a crochet project of this size before! Usually when a pattern consists of lots of one little thing, I get bored and set it aside for a few years (and then forget about it). It helps that I have other crocheters working with me on this one, and a tight deadline to get it done! Our light blue ribbon Prostate Cancer Support Afghan is coming together! We've only got a couple dozen more squares to whip up (out of 180, that doesn't sound too bad...), and I sorted them into rows so we could get started stitching them together.     I'm reminded why I struggle with group projects. I tend to be a perfectionist and little irregularities drive me absolutely insane. Despite our best efforts to make all of our squares exactly the same, there are still some really funky big ones and a few with a couple l...

Ok... I was a tad ambitious when I so confidently claimed that I'd have my niece's quilt done by the end of August. In reality, I just finished it this past week. I had the whole week off for Thanksgiving because I somehow had a bunch of vacation time to burn, so I made sure the adorable pink and grey quilt was on the top of my to-do list. And here it is! Still playing with straight lines for top stitching. Not boring yet! Cute binding detail... like usual. :) Of course, it needed my signature matching tote bag too! I took better process pictures of how I construct the simple box totes this time. Here's a quick picture tutorial: Cut strips to piece front and back. Sew strips together in pretty pattern. Top stitch with batting to match quilt. Whip up a simple lining (the exact same, but 1/8" smaller than outer bag). Leave one bottom corner open to turn right-side-out. Sew sides to face pieces. What I do when my bat...

Remember those cute knitted booties I made last fall? Well, my friend Jamie loved the cable pattern, and asked me to see if I could translate that pattern into some leg warmers for her. She's a personal trainer, so she wears a lot of fitness leggings (like... all the time. They're all really cute too), and thus would like a pair of legwarmers for winter. This conversation happened last fall... and I'm finally getting around to finishing them up... a year later. They're actually pretty simple. I'm knitting them flat on straight needles, and plan to secure them up the sides with a bunch of cool buttons. I started by casting on 60 stitches and knitting a 2x2 rib for about 1.5 inches, or 8 rows. I then increased to 66 stitches (increasing in the center of  each cable). It took me forever to figure out what the heck I had done on the first one when it came time to making the second one... so I ended up unraveling a good three pieces of ribbing because nothing was t...