Tutorial: How to Sew Scales

One issue that I had with my Hogwart pattern when I was having it test knit is the scales! Yes, it's a finishing aspect, so it's not really knitting, but it was so hard for me to describe how to do them.  So, this is my attempt to explain how to add scales to your knit toy. 

Whoops!

I've been so busy attempting to get back into the swing of school/work/misc that I forgot to mention that I did a guest post for the blog of one of my awesome online friends, Carla! She runs the blog Tiny Angry Crafter. 

So, if you're interested in designing knit toys, or just interested in a little bit of my process, check out my post on Carla's blog!

Easiest-Ever Nutella Mousse

Happy World Nutella Day Everyone!

For those unaware, Nutella is a super-delicious chocolate hazelnut spread.  World Nutella Day was started in 2007 by Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso

and has grown to be a huge event in the past few years. I'm excited to participate this year! 

In celebration I'm sharing my really easy, really tasty recipie for mousse.  It only has three ingredients, and doesn't require any boiling, whipping... etc, etc.  It took me longer to type this post out than it takes to make it - no lie! 

The full recipe is after the jump, and if you want to participate today, just follow the directions here!

How To: Lacey Tea Towel

I feel kind of guilty tagging this as a "tutorial" because it was so quick and easy! My dad gave me some tea towels (because well, you really can't have too many tea towels) and I decided to give it a bit of girly flair.  I was inspired by towels that I saw at W's mom's house, and I thought "Wow, how easy would that be to make...!?"  Plus, it can cover up tears, stains, or scorch marks when you leave your tea towel under your electric kettle and nearly set the fire alarm off and have to run the towel outside and wave it around in the snow...

Oh, is that just me? Anyway, all you need is a towel, some lace (I bought a spool of lace for about a dollar at Wal*mart ages ago: no idea why.) and needle and thread or a sewing machine. 

Sew the lace in rows into the towel.  For best results, pin the rows a little less apart than the width of your lace.

I wish I had some ribbon to finish this off! I think it would also look good mixing different types of lace, or maybe just add a lace edging along the very edge?  So many possibilities! And I still have a whole spool of lace left! I wish I more tea towels.

How To: Make a Cut Paper Garland

This whole week I've kind of been obsessing about paper.  Paper snowflakes, paper garlands around my apartment... so, I thought I'd do a tutorial.

This post will show you how to make a dancing hedgehog garland using two sheets of paper, scissors, and tape! You can also do whatever design you'd like, but if you want to make my dancing hedgehogs, I've included the template here. 

How to Write a Great Knitting Blog

As a serial blogger and a crazy avid blog reader, I feel like I have some wisdom to impart on blogging, especially for those who want to start or improve their own knitting blog.  I know I'm no means an expert, but there aren't many posts on the subject.  So if you want to write a good knitting blog, here are some steps!

How to Draw an Owl

Yes. Another one of these? I don't know, I thought I'd share my madness method.  Also, I would like to post something but am rather depressed and stressed and super-over-worked.  But the quarter is half way over, only 5 more weeks, and next quarter I'm taking less credits (or my parents will cut me off.)

These are, of course, based on the 1,000,000,000,000 doodles I did before I even started working on the owls pattern. I tend to get things in my head, and think about them over and over again, and when they don't go according to plan (as in, I don't see anyone make them, don't have any test knitters, no one says they like them, blah blah) I get rather glum and down on myself. I won't say I'm a perfectionist, just an expectionist, I guess.  

Anyway, here's the little how-to, I'm going to get some cheese for my whine.

(There's a jump, so if you don't want to draw an owl, you don't have to ;P)

How to Make Iced Tea- Cheap and Easy!

So I mentioned on Monday my killer iced tea... So I thought that I'd post up a tutorial! More after the jump.

How to Dry Herbs in the Microwave

I've really enjoyed my fresh herb collection that I've amassed on my little front porch - I'm pretty bummed though, because my apartment at college is way smaller! I won't have space for all these plants!

Thankfully, I've found everyone good homes - Some italian parlsey and basil are going to live at my house, and my peppermint plant, but everything else is going to be given away! Before I do that, of course, I had to steal as much as I could ;)

So I went to the store and bought some of these...

... and now, I have these!

From left to right: dried peppermint, Catnip, Fennel and Parsley

I was a little nervous that I would mess up, but overall it was totally easy!

How to Draw a Hedgehog

This is me, blogging pointless things from my laptop during lunch.  Just so you know, the not updating thing isn't because I don't have things to say, it's mostly because I don't have my car this week and without a car... the walk to McDonald's is about a half and hour... and it's raining...

Anyway, enjoy my tutorial :D

 ONE

 TWO

 THREE

 FOUR

FIVE - I think you should know, 1 - 4 are usually just one fluid motion.

SIX - Get some back legs

SEVEN - Add a face

EIGHT - Look, you're done.

Finally, jazz it up.  You can add whatever pattern you want to the quills, I just went plain jane.  Sometimes, when I'm on hold, I use highlighters and make some pretty ravin' hogs.

How to Knit a Flat Circle

I've had a lot of people on the internet asking for this, and a lot of people saying it's impossible. Silly people. It's perfectly possible. I'll show you.

Step 1: Cast on one stitch onto a Double Pointed Needle.

Step 2: K1, P1, K1 in the same stitch.
Step 3: Turn the needle and Purl across the row
Step 4: Turn the needle again, Kfb all stitches.
Step 5: Turn the needle and Purl across the row.
Step 6: Turn the needle, Kfb all stitches.
At this point, you should have twelve stitches and something like this:

Divide these stitches onto three double pointed needles. Knit all stitches, joining the round.
Step 7: [Kfb, K1] around.
Step 8: K around.
Step 9: Repeat 7 and 8.
Step 10: [Kfb, K2] around.
Step 11: K around.

Repeat this process, increasing by one K stitch per set.
Ex) Next round: *Kfb, K3* Repeat
-K
-*Kfb, K4.* Repeat
-K
Etc, etc.


That's basically it. It's based on the head of Katamari Ichigo and on the teapot bottoms in Interweave's Fiesta Tes Set