Evolution of a Mitten

A crocheted decorative cutesy mitten, that is.

I started off with a pattern for a regular mitten. The pattern was written for baby size (24 months), child size, medium and large. I started with the baby size.

baby sized indeed, it's just 4inches tall!

But I thought that I wanted it a little different proportions. Wider, or shorter. So I tried the child size (with a few modifications).

child sized

That was better, but the thumb looked a little funky, and I thought I wanted it bigger. It is still just 4 inches tall. So back to the hook again, and I got this...

3rd attempt...

But that wasn't right either! Now it was too round. It looked like a balloon mitten. Still not right. The more I look at the second attempt, the more I think that was the right shape. Too bad I didn't keep the exact instructions of how I made that one. But that's ok, I'll just try again!

 Latest attempt

Here it is. Same basic proportions as the 2nd attempt, just a little bit bigger. It's almost 4 1/2 inches tall. These instructions I'll keep! Now I have to decide what I want to do with these cute little things. Gift tags at Christmas? Ornaments? I could make very tiny ones and make pins. I could string a whole bunch together as a garland! ooh, I like that idea. I could make a bunch in different sizes, a graduated garland! A wreath, I could make a wreath of little mittens...

Hmm...looks like I'll have to get more yarn.


oh darn.


***tee hee hee!***

.

Officially Spring

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy First Day of Spring! Let's hope winter doesn't fight too much on it's way out. And since I love flowers so much, here's another picture for you.

Kwanzan Japanese Cherry tree

There are about 12 of these trees that live across the street from me. They bloom every year around my birthday. What a great gift, huh? Just beautiful.

Have a fantastic rest of your weekend!

Spring has SPRUNG!!!!

Hi folks! How's everyone today? Is Spring FINALLY here, wherever you are? It is here! Just look at this...

yesssss!!!

How awesome is that? It was 63 degrees F here today! Loving this weather. I also like that the day is getting longer. It's nice to not get out of bed in the dark, and come home from work in the dark. We haven't even turned our clocks ahead yet. We do that at the end of this month. So it'll be light out even later then. Excellent.

Did I tell everyone what I did Monday? No? Hmm...I'm slipping in my blogging duties. Anyways, on Monday I made the big train trip to Utrecht to pick up my diploma for the immigration courses that I had to take. It took me over a year, but I FINALLY have it!

oooohhhhh    aaaaaaahhhh

There it is! "Inburgeringsdiploma" Inburgering = the Dutch word for integration. And you probably can guess what diploma means, right? ;) No, it didn't come with that smudged spot. I did that. Just in case. Can't be too careful these days, right? It's so nice to be done with those classes. I can't tell you how much the tests stressed me out too. Really happy it's over! But I still need to keep learning more Dutch. Just no more big tests.

Well, no more language tests. I'm sure life will bring many more big tests.

My Saturday Night

Did we go out to dinner? No...


Did we go see a movie? No...


Did we watch a fabulous show on tv? No...


I made fudge!

basic ingredients

Marshmallow Creme Fudge, to be exact. The same fudge we've been making in our house since... well, since the dawn of TIME! I am so happy that I can get Fluff here. I'm sure the good people of The Netherlands don't really "get" the sticky white treat, and have probably never even imagined a Fluffer-Nutter sandwich. But my local grocery store stocks it, and that thrills me to bits.

Normally Fudge is a Christmas treat. It makes such a giant batch that once a year is enough. (Because if you only MAKE one batch a year, then you only EAT one batch a year... get it?) But really, it's simple and fast enough to make any time of year! And what better occasion than to say "Thanks!" to all the teachers and co-workers at my school for helping me to learn Dutch and pass all of my exams for the required immigration courses.

 bubbly goodness

There is something about the smell of cooking this mixture. The sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Such a buttery creamy goodness. Smells so good it hurts.

finished product

Wanna piece? There's hardly any calories at all.

Honest.

SUNsational Sunday

It is a beautiful day here in Maastricht. The sun is shining brightly, and the skies are wonderfully clear. It's still cold, but it's just gorgeous. Makes me wish my windows were washed. And everything else. I am getting the itch for Spring Cleaning. Wash the outside of the windows, scrub the front stoop/walk, clean from the ceiling to the floors inside, organize things in the basement. Does anyone else get this feeling at spring?

I've also finished another crochet project! Woohoo! What a great feeling to finish a project. It takes me forever to finish anything because I have so many WIPs (works in progress). But here's the latest.

Granny Spiral Pillow

I made a pillow! The front is granny spirals (pattern found here), and the back is a crazy easy ripple pattern from Lion Brand (pattern here). I really love their website, by the way. It has so many great patterns! And free, at that!

the back

There's the back. I really like it too. I had to modify the pattern a little to make it fit for a pillow (I didn't do double rows of color. The pillow is too small for that, I think?). Maybe eventually I'll make a whole blanket like this though. I like it! But first finish the projects I already have going...

It matches my previously made blanket

So that's what I've got going on here. What's going on there?

Another hooking project...

Hi folks! Having a good week? No complaints here so far! Ludi’s computer is working again, which makes him happy. And that makes me happy too. We had ordered a new one for him (a used one, but new to us!) because his old one was quite slow and couldn’t be updated/upgraded anymore. It was still working though, so we weren’t in a huge hurry to replace it. But of course, as soon as we completed the transaction for a replacement, it decided to throw a temper tantrum and stop working. We tried everything we could think of doing (for days!), and nothing would get that thing to start back up correctly.  When The Replacement finally arrived, it was not what we had ordered. Fast forward a week, through an angry email, and two phone calls, the missing parts were finally delivered and we could get back on track. (Note to self: NEVER use that company again! We actually still have to make another phone call or email to them, because things STILL aren’t right. Grrrr. I hate poor customer service.) Anyways, things are going OK now on the computer front. phew!

On the crafts front, I can finally show everyone the scarf I made for Mom. It’s been delivered now, so I can’t spoil the surprise anymore.

 Mom’s scarf

It’s black really thick yarn (Lion Brand Wool-Ease) for the scarf itself, and a yellow-green wool for the flowers (she picked that one out). It was fun to make! The scarf came together really fast. I got the pattern from Lion Brand Yarn’s website (linky here). The flowers I found all over the internet. It was great to be able to make all sorts of flowers too! Hopefully I didn’t go overboard with the flowers... I hear that Old Man Winter is still tearing up the East Coast in the USA, so maybe Mom will still be able to get some wear out of it this year!

Speaking of Old Man Winter, I heard from Mom that in Coudersport they have had 68.9 inches of snow since October. Holy igloos, Batman!  The average is only 58.6 inches, and the record is ... well, I can't find the record snowfall amount for one season. But I just want it to snow about 3.2 inches more, so we can say they had over 6 feet of snow!!! Ha! How horrifying.

I'll see you again soon!