A Little Dunk'll Dukkah

WHAT?  Just playing around with the concept of A Little Dunk will Do Ya!

Dunk is what I wanted to do - dunk with whole wheat bread in yummy stuff that is.

So, a few years ago I stopped eating added sugar and white flour.  Then for a while, I just tried to eat LESS sugar and white flour.  But it worked best when I was eating NONE.  My body doesn't need added sugar or white flour, so I'd rather feed it other things.  Plus, when I removed just these two ingredients from my diet, I lost weight, gained energy, improved my running, lowered my blood pressure and cholesterol, etc... It was ALL GOOD!

And then, I started letting lots of little sugary sweets and snacks and cookies and ice cream sneak back in.  Apparently I don't do well in moderating my desserts - it's all or nothin'

I LOVE chocolate, my son works at a bakery and bakes the yummiest things that he brings me home to sample, I get sweets cravings after every meal - so it works better if I JUST DON'T GO THERE, except on very special occasions.

That said, I do eat bread and crackers and pasta and rice but ONLY if they are of the 100% whole wheat or brown variety.  I prefer organic and non-genetically modified as well.  Because I choose to eat this way, I find just about NOTHING to buy in the regular grocery and do most of my shopping at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and the farmer's market. (TJs store brand products and Whole Food's 365 brand products do NOT contain genetically modified ingredients and their dairy products don't contain BGH - so I shop more easily at these locations).

Last week I was just craving some crusty bread to dunk in something sinfully oily.  I know - I can't believe I wanted that rather than sweets but I did.  I scored a baguette of 100% whole wheat with no added sweeteners at Whole Foods (Trader Joes only has white baguettes and that needs to change!)  So I came home with my crusty loaf and did this:

One Bowl with a slosh of oil dumped in.

A spoonful of Dukkah - yum, spicy and nutty.

A twist of salt and pepper (LOVE how well the TJs grinders work).

and later, a fresh clove of garlic minced and thrown in - tho. I did that after the first few dunks and after the photos too.

Now don't get me wrong... I could have simply finished the entire 2-foot long baguette - but I did not.  But I will admit to eating about 6" worth of the darn thing.  Boy was it yummy.  Give it a try!

Sweet Sevens - a crochet flower tutorial

I've got a project brewing and I created these sweet little flowers as one part.

I call them Sweet Sevens.  They are easy, and fast and sweet as can be.  Follow along below:

Here are the step by step instructions in a little photo tutorial.  ENJOY!

The Sweet Sevens are ONE of TWO new patterns I've created for my new project.  Stay tuned.

NOTE:  I used Knit Picks cotlin dk and Sugar & Cream worsted cotton to make the Sweet Sevens.  I used two hook sizes to vary the flower diameter a bit, size G (4.25) and 7 (4.5).

Ripple Blanket TA DAH! 5 weeks and it's done!

Thank you Melissa!

I love it that thanks to the Crochet-A-Long I joined 5 weeks ago, I have a beautiful new ripple blanket to share and enjoy.

If you haven't been following my ripply progress, check out the other posts about it HERE or HERE and HERE and also HERE.

I love it that the ends were so easy to weave in as I went along and for the most part I did so.  That made the blanket finish all the more rewarding.  Yesterday I took off the final few snips of woven ends.

My proposed blanket had 96 rows, but when I got to row 96, I just knew the blanket wasn't done.  I continued rippling along til I got to row 122.

There were 5 repeats of every color.  Colors were worked for two rows and each bright color had 2 rows of a lovely camel brown between them.

I'm very happy with the outcome.  The blanket is all acrylic yarn, so I finished just in time that I can still enjoy the blanket's warmth, but not be overwhelmed by it being too hot.

I love the stares I get from dog-walkers trotting up the sidewalk by my house while I hang my blanket in all sorts of outdoor arrangements taking full advantage of the outdoor light.  Yesterday we actually had a little outdoor light - the sun came out and the weather was warm and breezy.

Youngest child and I headed out for a 2 hour jaunt to the west by car yesterday to tour a college campus.  When I got out of the car I left my coat behind and was practically sweating in a light sweater.  The sun was bright and warm.  About 30 mins later when we went back outside with the tour guide I swear the temperature had dropped 10 degrees, the sun had disappeared, rain clouds threatened and the wind whipped up something whoa!  I had to run back to my car for an umbrella and jacket - and thank goodness I did.  By the end of the tour, the rain was pretty steady and the temperature had continued to drop.

By the time we got home, hubby was just arriving home from work and set right to work on a fire in the fireplace.  Youngest son turned on Snow White the Huntress (not impressed) for a last movie night before the end of his spring break.

This morning started early - with him leaving for school at 7am and me heading off to running group.  Seriously I have a love hate relationship with this never-ending cold weather.  I love the fires, love running in cold weather, love wearing sweaters and other long and covering clothes, love the feeling of being inside covered up by a new blanket on the couch feeling warm and happy, but I do miss the sun and the flowers, the bright lights blazing through the windows making sunny spots on the carpet, and college tours in warm and beauteous weather with lots of kids outside enjoying the day.

Well -this is the end of my ripply story.  Up next, working on a pattern, but it's also a birthday gift, so it has to be hush hush for a bit longer.  Did you see my newest free pattern on ravelry?  If not CLICK HERE.  I have a 3-part photo tutorial on the blog and the pdf is available as a free download on ravelry.

Happy Hooks! Sher

Tea Light Tutorial Part 3 (Final)

Apologies, it's taken me simply forever to finish this tutorial.  If you have been following the previous parts of this tutorial, you will have completed PART 1 LINK HERE and then you've gone on to PART 2 LINK HERE.  Part 2 ended after Round 9, so we will be picking up after Round 9 where we left off.

Instructions for Part 3

Round 10:  scflo (single crochet in the front loops only) into ea dc stitch from Round 9.  Join w/ slst at end of round.  (30 sts)

NOTE:  Using the front loops only allows the crochet to "bend" more easily when you "fold down" the top edge of crochet to add the white edging.

Round 11:  sc in ea sc from Round 10.  Decrease 2 st over the course of this round (I decreased around st 5 and again around st 20). Join. (28 sts)

Decreasing by two stitches allows for even stitch pattern in the following rounds.  It also serves to give a snug fit when the tea light is inserted into the cozy.

Round 12:  sc, *ch 2, sk 1 st, sc in next. Repeat from * to end of round, join.

Round 13:  ch 1, 3sc in ea ch2 sp from Round 12.  This should give you 14 sets of 3sc.  Join.

Round 14:  sl st in 1st sc of 1st set of 3sc from prev. round.  (sl st, ch 3 sl st) in 2nd sc of 1st set of 3sc from prev. round.  sl st in 3rd sc of 1st set of 3sc from prev. round.  Repeat pattern (13 more times) once in each set of 3sc from prev. round. Join. See diagram.

Finish off color (pink shown in sample photos).

At this point, the pattern is complete and you need only add the edging.

White Edging:  Join the white thread after folding down the edge of your cozy.  You will add the edging to the inside (wrong side) of round eleven.  Round eleven falls right between the dc row and where sets of 3 clusters begin.  Round eleven is also the round where 2 stitches were decreased.  SO, when you add the edging round, you should have 28 stitches.

Once you've joined the white thread, sc in each stitch to end of round and join w/ a sl st to the first sc.  Finish off.

Weave in ends.  Insert your tea light.  Voila!  Now make a few more so that you have a colorful assortment of teeny tiny tea lights~!

A pdf version of this pattern can be found on my ravelry page under my designs.  Click HERE for the link to the ravelry pdf.

Playing Around With My PEEPS!

Easter and PEEPS!  They seem to go hand in hand.  I mean, check out the seasonal aisles in the grocery and drug stores.  Personally, I never liked peeps.  I mean not to eat them.  They just don't float my flavor boat.  How about you?

Yesterday afternoon, about the time I should have been thinking about dinner, I remembered a pattern I'd saved for crocheted Peeps and right then and there - I had to make some.  Into the bin of cotton I went, hunting a few pastels.  Four colors of Lily Sugar and Cream and a size G hook (4mm) would do the trick.

I used this pattern HERE.  It's from a blog I follow, Whiskers and Wool.  I'd pinned this one and knew just where to find it.  The pattern is a pdf file that can be saved and printed.  The instructions were easy to follow.    I liked that the peeps were stuffed, but not too round.

Four peeps... white, purple, yellow and teal.  That would do the trick.  I lined them up, stood them up, placed them in a circle, yes, they would do quite nicely.  Off to make dinner.

I was uninspired to cook, a basket came to mind.  I'd seen a little crocheted basket on someone's blog yesterday - the empty plastic cake icing container that I'd saved and run through the dishwasher was now clean and I swear it BEGGED me to make it into a basket.  I informed said little container that I would do so, but dinner had to come first.

For the most part I winged the basket.  I created a circle the same diameter of the bottom of my icing container, then I stopped increasing stitches and the basket turned and started to have sides- so it goes with most baskets.

Here is a flat circle pattern.  or try this one instead.

The base is all in single crochet, but as I rounded the sides, I threw in a few random rows of hdc and dc.  When the sides were tall enough to sit just above the container, I joined my last row with a slip stitch and then chained enough chains to make a basket handle.  To the handle chains, I added a few more rows of sc until it was a bit thicker.  I attached the handle at both ends as I went, slipstitching it to the sides of the basket.

For the final touch, I added an edging.  sc, ch3, sk 1 st, sc - I simply repeated around the top edge, slipstitching my way across the handle when I got there.

I used a varigated cotton and the same hook for the basket as for the peeps.  Miraculously, when I went to find some basket yarn, the skein I chose had ALL the same colors as my peeps - clearly it was meant to be.

This cute little package will be quickly bundled up for the post today - and sent of to my super cute neice and nephew.  As vegans, who eat only organic and gluten free and who DONT consume artificial coloring or corn syrup or genetically modified foodstuffs, I'm sure they will get a lot more pleasure out of my crochet peeps then they would the eating variety.

So, quick, go play with some peeps.  These little cuties makeup quickly and are just begging to be part of your Easter decor and fun.