Ravelry
Kollabora
As a last a last minute addition to Carter's Christmas gifts, I decided to knit him a ribbed beer cozy. It was a super simple project and helped me use up two little balls of stash yarn! Yay! 

I liked making him this because A) I used up yarn,  B) it was free,  C) I got to give him a homemade gift, and  D) he said he wanted one of these right after I started the project! 

I ran out of the red on the bottom so the base is gray yarn!

Yarn requirements: worsted weight scraps
Needles: US 6 DPNs
Time: 1-2 hours

Free Pattern by Siouxsie Stitches


I have seen these little hats a few different times on Pinterest and decided to have a go at them myself. If you are a crafty person and use toilet paper, you should already have everything you need to make these! I tried doing something a little different for this post and opted to put the directions on the pictures themselves! They may look a little time consuming but I was able to make a hat in under 15 minutes and since it's a repetitive process, you can easily make these while watching a movie!


How to:
You should be able to make 8 hats per toilet paper roll!
Just cut a bunch!
Knit Gift Pouches
It's probably fairly obvious that I like knitting and the main reason that I sometimes blog here is to share my little DIY projects with you. If you know me personally, then you probably know that I am absolutely terrible at starting crafts and completing them before I start something else. I like working on things here or there but I am bad at finishing them. I've been trying to get better. Another thing you probably know if you've ever seen my craft area is that I have a lot of yarn. A lot. I blame thrifting and recycling sweaters. It happens a lot. I've also grabbed my fair share of thrifted balls of yarn. Often times no labeled so I have no idea what it is. I've gotten better at not buying this yarn because knowing the brand and components of the fiber is something I've taken to caring about more recently. I'm rambling now so I will get to the point.

Knit Gift Pouch
These little gift card pouches. A quick project using tiny amounts of various yarns in worsted weights. I like these because I can make them so fast, I don't have time to set them aside for a different project. Plus they are only holding gift cards so I don't need to know much about the yarn fiber. I don't have to worry about how they'd hold up in a washer because I don't think many people will be washing them. I know that these are going to hold up better than a cardboard gift card box too. I can give a gift card away in these and rest assured that it will probably be passed around next year to a new owner with a new loaded gift card. A gift that keeps on giving. :)

So like I said, these are a quick little project. You can use tiny bits of scrap yarn and a spare button and then pass along to family and friends (though they will probably prefer the gift card inside it.) These are a great last minute gift packing idea.

What you'll need:
Yarn used: scraps
Needles used: US 6
Button of your choice
tapestry needle, cable needle, scissors
Gnome, Santa, Gnome

I've been a sucker for gnomes since I was 13 years old...almost ten years. Yikes! When I found a free gnome knitting pattern, I decided that I wanted to knit a few up using some of my scrap yarn. In case you were wondering, I have a lot of scrap yarn. Double yikes!

Anyways, I knit the two gnomes up over the summer. I was adding the finishing touches to one of them yesterday and decided to knit another with a red hat and red body to make him look like Santa. I guess you could say that these gnomes could double as elves too. It is almost Christmas after all! 


I modified this free pattern, Travelling Gnome, by using double pointed needles instead of straight needles. By doing this, I avoided having to knit up seams. I simply knit every purl row instead of purling it for the BODY portion. For the beard and bottom, I followed the posted directions.

I used 100% recycled yarn for this project too. Here's my tutorial on how to recycle yarn from old sweaters.

These were really quick, stash busting projects that would make a great little toy or stocking stuffer!
Ravelry
Kollabora
I don't think I will even quite understand the love of socks that my man has. Seriously. He wrote me a letter in October saying, "If all I got were socks for Christmas I would be so happy." That's a direct quote. Since he likes homemade gifts, making him a pair of socks seemed like the obvious option. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these were. I was even happier to have them finished before Christmas.

I found the pattern on Ravelry and decided it was the one to try. It was free, it had been rated as easy by others, it was a design for men, and I liked the design. I used the yarn that the project called for and knit these up in a size medium. I used a little of 1 ball in the main color (Orca) and almost the entire ball of the toe/heel/stripe color (Tahitian Pearl.) 

I omitted some changes to the original design while working on these socks. I decided to skip the square block because I thought it was a little random. After reviewing the directions for the heel I was a little confused so I decided to use the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi. Her YouTube video was very easy to follow and I can officially say that I have made a heel which is just short rows! 

Sometimes I think that I underestimate my skills as a knitter. While I still have so much more to learn, I feel like I am doing a really good job as a self taught knitter. I used a Klutz book to learn and now I turn to YouTube for any additional help. Here's to trying new things! Hoping I can expand my knitting even more in 2015!


Seriously, these are the best caramels ever. If you make these, everyone will love you and want to be your best friend, if only in hopes that you will give them more of these treats! They are simply addicting. The recipe is pretty straight forward but it will take anywhere from an hour to and hour and half based on your oven. The key part to making caramels is watching your candy thermometer. If you cook them too long then the caramels will be hard like Werther's, they will taste good but not soft and chewy. If you don't cook them long enough the carmel will cool and have a grainy texture because the sugar didn't reach a high enough point. 


Ingredients:
1 cup butter, plus a partial stick 
4 cups half and half
4 cups sugar
11/2 cups Karo light corn syrup

Additional stuff:
Wax paper/Candy wrappers
Large Pot
Knife
9x13 Glass Pyrex
Candy Thermometer


 How to:
1. With the partial stick of butter, great the bottom and sides of your Pyrex pan. If you skip this, the caramels will not come out easily at all. This works best of the stick of butter is refrigerated. 

2. Combine butter, sugar, light corn syrup, and 2 cups of the half and half in the pot.

3. Heat on high constantly stirring. 

4. Once simmering, add the remaining half and half.

5. Stir constantly until your thermometer reaches 242 degrees. 

6. Pour immediately into your greased 9x13 Pyrex.

7. Allow to cool and fill your pot with water to help remove caramel residue.

8. If using wax paper instead of candy wrappers, being cutting into squares. We do 3 squares per row.

9. Once cooled, cut the caramel into rows and then into squares. 

10. Wrap up with paper. This will turn them into a tubed shape piece of caramel.

ENJOY :)

This will make a TON of caramel