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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Shamrock Printable Box for Brigette (and everyone else)

Shamrock knot
"The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one."
-C.S. Lewis

 It's that time of year again, when Brigette starts showing off even more shamrocks than usual. Stitched, printed, colored, and all sorts of shamrocks. So hopefully she'll enjoy adding this one to her collection. I hope the rest of you like it too!

Printable knotwork shamrock gift box- click the image for a larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score, fold, glue!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New knot to color

4 strand, 4 sided knot
A brand new knot to color! This four sided knot was fun to draw and I hope you enjoy coloring it.

Click the images below for larger versions to print and color.

Small jpg version:
4 stranded, 4 cornered knot to color- available in transparent png and jpg format

Large transparent png version:
4 stranded, 4 cornered knot to color- available in transparent png and jpg format

Cute true story:
My husband works in housekeeping, heading up a housekeeping department. Recently at work, he was shredding papers, and found a few mandalas in the papers he was shredding. He thought "That looks familiar." and checked for a URL. Sure enough, someone he works with had printed out stuff from Don't Eat the Paste! He doesn't promote my site at work, so it was purely coincidental. So, if you work in Anchorage, and the head of your housekeeping department is named Mike, HI! Thank you for the smile! 

I love the therapists and yoga instructors who write to me and tell me how they are using the printables and mandalas from DETP. Thank you all. 


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Book Review- Crocheter's Skill-Building Workshop


The Crocheter's Skill-Building Workshop is a fairly comprehensive book aimed at beginners, advanced beginners and intermediate crocheters, as well as crocheters that have worked off written patterns and are ready to start designing or adapting patterns to fit their own style.

Full color photos with step by step instructions that are well written make it easy to follow, and the stitch patterns are in both international crochet graphs and American style text patterns.

It starts with a review of the absolute basics, but also shows variations on those basics. For example, most beginning crochet books don't cover using a long chain instead of a turning chain to start a row for example. This one does, and shows how it works and explains the pros and cons of each method for starting a row. It also covers extended stitches and how to join in colors.

Then it gets into various stitches, including specialty stitches like loop and knot stitches. Again the photographs and instructions are very clear. I've always had an issue with knot stitches, and these instructions taught me how to do them.

A chapter on shaping and construction shows how stitches build and how to increase and decrease neatly. It also covers how to check gauge and why that's so important. Another chapter covers crocheting in the round using finished rounds, spirals and how to taper a spiral done with taller stitches.

Advanced shaping covers all those edges- to create sharp darts, smooth sleeves and other details found in well-crafted clothing. It explains how to shape with textured or openwork stitch patterns. It covers internal shaping as well in pattern.

Textured stitches are where crochet gets really awesome for me. It's the difference between boring and interesting for projects I make for my monochrome loving husband. A full chapter covers things like popcorn, cables, crocodile stitch and crocheted ribbing.

Color crochet has the standards like stranded crochet and color checks, but it also has some pretty spike stitch techniques and an easy 2-color diamond that's a lot of fun to stitch.

Finishing techniques is seams, blocking and everything you need to do to put it all together and finish it.

After that, there are a few projects so you can practice the skills learned. Textured stitches, internal shaping and ribbing are used in projects like a slouchy hat or a star stitch cowl.

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(psst! Right now this book is a fantastic deal in Kindle format!)



Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Suet Pudding and the joy of old recipe cards

Ten Eyck Suet Pudding

You can click on the image above to make it larger.

I'm still going through my parents home, and it's hard choosing what to keep, what to donate but there is also joy. Things like finding a collection of old recipe cards. The card above is hand written by my Great-grandmother- Jane Bradley, and it's from my Great-Aunt's mother-in-law. I'm so grateful to my cousin Jane who was able to identify the handwriting. Now I know what to look for! My grandmother's typewriter and handwriting are easy for me to recognize.

The history just amazes me. It's too good not to share.

Ten Eyck Suet Pudding

1 cup molasses
1 cup sweet milk
1 cup suet chopped fine
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

Salt and season to taste (I'd suggest mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)

Steam for 1 hour.

I've never tried this recipe, but plan to this summer. Maybe modify it with the berries I have available.

Want more of my family recipes? Some of these have printable recipe cards!

Burnt Cream
Lemon Cups
Lemon Bars
Ball Cookies
Tapioca Pudding and a Salad dressing recipe
Cranberry Bread

Grandma had a sweet tooth and loved lemon. I'll be posting more recipes later!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Love's Madness Mandala to color

Rainbow madness of love quote and mandala to color

I had the idea a while back to do a music mandala, and then it was "Well, random notes or actual song notes?" and with Valentine's Day coming up, decided to do a short set of notes from one of my favorite songs. Since the song is about a crazy little thing called love, and I wasn't sure what to put in the center- I looked for a quote that fit.
The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings. - Plato
Well, that seems appropriate. I hope you enjoy coloring this in as much as I enjoyed drawing it.

Click on the image for a larger version, print, color.

Small JPG version:
JPG- Love quote mandala to color #music #Plato #Queen #quote

Large PNG version:
Transparent PNG- Love quote mandala to color #music #Plato #Queen #quote