Sewing!

My current mood has been:

And I've been obeying it!  I just knit a Blythe sweater, and yesterday I decided to pull out my sewing machine.  I thought it was broken, but all it was was a messed up bobbin.  Turns out it wasn't winded properly.  

After a quick fix, I dove into my "rainbow stash."  I have 8 or so baggies with fabric scraps according to their color.  I know I got the inspiration from crazy mom quilts, though I have no idea where that post is, especially since I've had these baggies since...2009?  

I decided to freeform sew them, then cut them down later and make a rainbow scrap quilt.  I never knew just how hard it is to freeform; to just pick up scraps and sew them together willy nilly and see what you come up with.  The green one isn't that freeform-y, but if I was doing a different project I know I wouldn't put those together, but for this scrappy-ness, it works. 

For example, I had no idea I had fabric with hippos!

This yellow was the first, and I call this one actual freeform.  It probably isn't, but it's freeform for me.  The different shades, the different patterns, aghh! I don't know why it isn't bothering me as much as I thought it would.  (Though looking at this picture the scrap on the bottom left looks out of place...)

I took some close-ups of this beautiful fabric I have with jolly folks frolicking, but as I uploaded it I realized it wasn't as sweet as I thought.  For example, is this fellow's head facing the wrong way?

"What did you say about my red horse?!  I heard you, don't make me come back."

And the couple is cute, but is that guy on the right drunk?

Yanke...*hiccup*...doodle dangey...*burp*

Oh well, I love it regardless.  I have new needles now, so I'm going to get working.

Happy Fourth! 

Layered Daisy Mandala

Finished my mandala!  

It started out as a remake of my Vera's Spike Stitch Daisy Square, but I kept going and it worked up beautifully.  Since mandala's are currently all the rage, I decided to go with it.  

After this was taken I added a brown round the edge to keep it all together.

The pattern is currently being typed and tested, so keep your eyes on this space for the free Layered Daisy Mandala pattern!

Just some things

Testing out my new iPhone's camera, and loving the explosion of color summer brings

The kitties got new collars; here's Arwen with her pink bow:

Photographing and adding all my yarn for Ravelry.  It's quite a chore.  This is my cotton collection:

Enlisting some help to tame the wooly madness 

My mom and I finished the main part of our Jolly Chunky bags.  Here is Pip testing it:

You can never be mad at a face like that:

Redoing the Vera's Spike Stitch Daisy square:

And having it turn into a mandala!  The pattern will be up within the month. *crosses fingers*  

Having nice days to take cats for walks:

Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy crafting!

Beets Me!

Beets, those gorgeous root veggies that make the majority of people dry heave.  Despite being a superfood, they have an odd dirt-like flavor; one almost impossible to describe and can be summed up as... beety.  My first experience with beets was last summer, when my cousin made beet burgers.  They were beautiful pink patties - the dirt flavor being covered by fresh goat cheese and a basil leaf which let the sweetness come through.  Apparently I was a huge fan of beets when I was a baby, eating cans of the pureed baby food, but my mom felt guilty because she hated them. 

One day on either Pinterest or Facebook I came upon a recipe for pink deviled eggs!

I'm a fan of anything pink, and deviled eggs are one of my specialties, so I knew I had to make them.  These were tinted pink by pickling them ever so slightly in a vinegar, peppercorn, and beet juice bath, which I prefer over food coloring.

I wanted to make them for a special occasion, so I decided to try them out for Mother's Day.

Here are my eggs, pickling overnight. 

In the morning I was delighted to find pink eggs!

PINK!

And when I sliced them, they were perfect!  Not completely pink, but with a bright border.   I had to taste one - delicious!  They had a slight kick to them, but were a tad vinegar-y, so before adding the egg mixture back I rinsed them off so it still retained that nice flavor without being too overwhelming.

Instead of the recipe given I used my favorite recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, a must have if you don't already own it.

Yummy eggs!

Along with the eggs I made pork chops and stuffed mini peppers, but went a little overboard with the pepper.  NB: don't serve peppercorns whole - your parents will have a coughing fit.

I had a lot of extra beet left over, almost a whole one, and didn't want to waste it.  As I was cooking, I noticed that beets have this underlying sweet flavor, which is why it must be perfect for chocolate cakes.  Unfortunately, I let this sit out for too long before deciding what to do with it, so I'm currently cooking another one.  I have plans to recreate the sweet recipe, and make beetsauce, and make something yummy with that, so we'll see how that turns out. 

Happy crafting! 

A Walk in the Flowers

One of my favourite apps is Hipstamatic, a photography app for the iPhone, and one of my favourite things to photograph is flowers.  Enjoy these little bits of beauty from our local vegetable/flower stand.

Resident rooster who crows all during the day.

Geranium

Mandevilla (?)

Petunias

Striped petunias!

Marigolds

Mama Hippo!

Using the special Salvador 84 Lens.

Portulaca?
Sometimes black and white is hard; it's better to see it fullview. 

Dahlias

If anyone knows the name of some of these flowers it'd be greatly appreciated.

For the Love of Lucy

I've tried writing this post about ten times and have absolutely no idea how to start it, so I'll just dive right in.

My two current projects both come courtesy Lucy of Attic24.  The first is her Granny Stripe Blanket.  I'm using 12 colours of DK yarn given to me by my best friend Sarah*. (She brought my 20 balls all the way from England, somehow stuffed into her suitcase!  I'm excited to have it though; DK at my LYS's are all pastel baby colours.)  Here how it's coming along.

 

I'm choosing the colours randomly. Each 'round' is a total of 12 colours, and in each round they're chosen randomly thanks to the Random Number Generator. So I have a nice little oceany section in the middle.

Green, turquoise, blue, green ocean!

Lucy chained 240, but I did 300, so it's long. It's longer than I am tall, so I'd estimate 5 feet 5 inches!

iPhone for comparison.

It's going to be huge on my bed, and probably hit the floor, especially when I add the border, but it'll be great to wrap around myself fully when it starts to get chilly again. (Except it's been really chilly here lately, which is fine by me. I'd like to delay the Virginia humidity as long as possible.)

The next WIP is Lucy's Jolly Chunky Bag. It's a smaller version of a bag she made in the past. (And as it's coming along, we're almost finished, I'm glad we chose the smaller version.) We because my mom is doing one as well - it's her first crochet project! She doing it really well, especially since we're using an H-8 hook with bulky yarn.

Starting rounds!  Mine's on the left; mom's is on the right

Lucy was selling a set of the yarn she used (Stylecraft Special Chunky) but it was sold out, and I wanted to start immediately. Waiting for yarn is torture. So we went to our local Michael's, which didn't seem to have chunky! (*shakes fist*) But we stumbled upon some Loops & Threads, Michael's own brand yarn in chunky weight. It's really soft and nice to work with. Here's what we chose:

Loops & Threads Charisma in Yellow, Fuchsia, Think Pink, Electric Blue, Dark Blue, Taupe,  and True Red

We should have FO photos soon. The way they're crocheting up, they resemble baskets, but I'm sure once straps are added and it's smushed into a purse shape they'll be great!

Happy crafting!

*Check out Sarah's EssHaych and Eriko's Emporium (Blythes!) Etsy shops

Starting New

Hello, and welcome to the new OnePinkHippo!  This blog picks up where the old OPH left off, almost two years later.  I hope to keep this one updated with current projects.  And my free patterns are now found on this blog.

Thanks for stopping by!