New Hat!

Hi,

I can't find the last hat I made, so I decided to make myself another one. Besides, it's been awhile since I've made something for myself. I planned on finishing it Wednesday night, and I did, so that I would have it when I went to Boston.

Sadly, I didn't go to Boston. After all, they are having quite the snow storm up there. So I will be going next weekend, but at least I have my hat done. :) I also kind of want to make my self a matching scarf, but there is so much else I want to do too!!

I don't think I've shown you, but, I got quite a bit of yarn from someone on Christmas, and now all I think about is using all the different colors!!

That one on top I received before Christmas and is being put to use on a certain dragon- which I also haven't finished. But look at some of those cool colors!! So I just had to use one of them.

The Chosen One

 I chose this soft, thick white yarn. It's hard to tell, but you can see in the picture below that there are shiny silver speckles in it! So it gives a nice added flavor than just plain white.

Now, I always have such trouble with hats, so I decided I would find a pattern online somewhere, and make it exactly as they told me, so that I can use it as a base for planning future hats for other heads.

The pattern is from Sorlenna and her blog Yarn Yearnings. It is super cool! I started it on Tuesday afternoon, and finished it Wednesday night. It probably took me 10 hours max to make. One major change is that (as you can see in the pictures) I chose to use regular knitting needles, not double-pointed or circular ones. Therefore, to get the same effect from the pattern I had to make a few alterations.
Of course, you can also just use dp or circular needles too!

Here is my final product!

Next up, I am starting on some leg warmers for a fellow undergrad in my lab! (These were supposed to be a Christmas present, but I never got to them :( But I'm making them now!)

I am also going to go ahead and make them using a pattern I found online, because I don't feel confident to make up a pattern for these. The pattern I found and want to try is over at the blog bohoknits.

Have a nice weekend.

Bacterial Amigurumi

Hi,

So, I completed my first weekly knit project! In complete honesty, I actually finished it on Tuesday (so one day after my original deadline). Another bonus is that he takes only like five hours to make! It's an amigurumi in the image of "Earl", the bacterial growth in an LB media jar in the lab. It's also a belated birthday present for one of my grad students. :) It came out pretty close to what I sketched out, and people who I've shown it to recognize it as "Earl"! Which is great!

Sorry if the instructions are confusing in any way. Just let me know, and I will gladly fix stuff to make more sense!

So, here is the pattern and some pictures:

Earl, the friendly neighborhood bacterium

Chain 2, chain 5 into 2nd st from hook (ie. Magic ring)

Row 2: Sc2 in each st (10)

Row 3: *Sc2 in one st, sc one* repeat till end of row (15)

Row 4: *sc2 in one st, sc two* repeat till end of row (20)

Row 5: *sc2 in one st, sc three* repeat till end of row (25)

Row 6: *sc2 in one st, sc four* repeat till end of row (30)

Row 7: *sc2 in one st, sc five* repeat till end of row (35)

Row 8: *sc2 in one st, sc six* repeat till end of row (40)

Row 9: *sc2 in one st, sc seven* repeat till end of row (45)

Row 10: *sc2 in one st, sc eight* repeat till end of row (50)

Row 11: *sc2 in one st, sc nine* repeat till end of row (55)

Row 12: *sc2 in one st, sc ten* repeat till end of row (60)

Row 13: *sc2 in one st, sc five* repeat till end of row (70)

Row 14: sc in each st around (70)

Row 15: sc in bottom loop of st (see pictures below- hold the disc you've crocheted at this point with the side you want to be on the exterior facing away from you. Then, sc into the lower loop of the st (ie. the loop closest to you)) around (70)- the effect of this row is seen on the picture below to the right. You effectively "turn" the stitches 90 degrees.

side view of "turn"

Row 16: *Sc2tog, sc five* repeat till end of row (60)

Row 17: *sc2tog, sc four* repeat till end of row (50)

Row 18: *sc2tog, sc three* repeat till end of row (40)

Row 19: *sc2tog, sc two* repeat till end of row (30)

Row 20: *sc2tog, sc one* repeat till end of row (20)

Row 21: *sc2tog* repeat till end of row (10) #Begin adding stuffing now (The more you add, the firmer it  will be. I want this one to be fairly squishy, so I won't be stuffing as much as I can, just enough so that it holds its shape, but I can squish it easily.

Row 22: *sc2 in one st, sc one* all in top loop of st (15)

Row 23: *sc2tog* sc one (8) (Now, normally when I decrease (sc2tog), I use only the bottom loop. If you do not, you need to for just this row so that there is a st. outside that you can use later. This is your last chance to add any more stuffing easily.

Soon won't be able to stuff anymore

Row 24: *sc2tog* (4)

Cut string and weave in end.

Depress the pointy center so that it is within the ball, and such that the loops from row (23) are facing out. 

Point out

Point pressed in

Row 25: Sc in each loop around middle of the ball (This is from row 15)

Knitting into the loops from row 15

Row 26-27: Sc in each st around
cut string and weave in ends

Row 28: sc in each loop formed in row 23

Row 29-30: sc in each st around

cut string and weave in ends

This is the bottom

Finally, choose an alternate color (I chose a black yarn with some shiny color strip in it) and using a yarn needle make eyes, mustache, and mouth. 

Earl!

What a great mustache!

And now you can properly squish him into the desired shape- flat, round, crumpled, etc. 

I've already started on my next project! I am making a hat- I found the pattern online. I got quite a few balls of yarn for Christmas, and I've been eyeing them for awhile. So I gave in and started on a hat that I am actually trying to finish by tomorrow afternoon. 

Why tomorrow afternoon? I am going to Boston tomorrow for an interview weekend! And I wanted a cozy hat to bring since I seem to have lost the other one I made. And the yarn I am using is soft and nice looking! I've also planned out my next two knitting projects. Anyway, I will probably post about the hat on Sunday, and about a new project the same time or Monday. 

Have a great week!

Sarah

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Hi!!

It's the start of a new month, so just let me say, "Rabbit!" It's rather traditional in my family, and kind of weird, and yet awesome. My grandmother would say rabbit on the first of a month for good luck. It's rather easy and simple, so I figure, why not say "rabbit" rather than "bah, what's that gonna do?" Additionally, it gives you the mindset that you are going to have an awesome and luck month, which I believe is the first step to actually having an awesome month.

I don't want to delve into it too deeply, because it really doesn't have that much to do with my post today. But I am a strong believer in positive thinking, and the fact that if you believe you can't do something, you probably never will. Whereas if you believe you can do something, you probably will.

Now, what's something that always helps me feel better, and encourages me to think positively? Baking! That's right! There is nothing like making something yourself, and then eating it. Besides, you then get used to it and stuff from the store just isn't the same.

So, here I am going to tell you about some pretty awesome cupcakes that I made. I thought, what if you put cookie inside of a cupcake? So I googled around, and got some ideas for how to do it, and I managed to find an awesome frosting recipe! Here is where I found the frosting! She also has a detailed recipe for the cupcakes as well, but I wanted chocolate, and I didn't have my computer with me when I made it so I just used cake mix, and a simple chocolate chip cookie dough recipe off the back of a chocolate chip bag.

Starting off with the cupcake, there are two things you need to prepare- the cake batter and the cookie dough. Both are relatively simple. The cake batter, to be honest, I've been making from a box. (Oh the horror!! the horror!! and you just talked about making it yourself!! A box is cheating!!). Yep, I know, but I didn't have all the ingredients on hand for cake, and I didn't want to buy them all either. The cookie dough, however, I ALWAYS make myself. Store bought just doesn't taste the same anymore.

I like to start off with the cookie dough. This is important because you can make dough balls and stick them in the fridge or freezer while you prepare the cake batter. This way, when you bake them, the cookie dough won't cook all the way, and you have warm gooey cookie in the center!

Usually, I just prep chocolate cookies using the recipe off of the back of a chocolate chip bag. Easy, right? So if you want a quick recipe, here you go. Now, if you are worried about salmonella, or other food poisoning because the cookie doesn't get cooked all the way, just remove the two eggs from your recipe. Sometimes I keep them, sometimes I don't. I actually like to keep them because I am left with leftover cookie dough recipe that I can use to make cookies. And I don't get sick from food poisoning- at least not yet- but I'm pretty young, soo... Right, just remove the eggs, and if you do, you can also halve the recipe so you don't have excess eggless cookie dough. Or you can eat the excess eggless cookie dough if you don't halve it. Make the dough into whatever sized ball you want in your cupcake, and place on a tray in the fridge or freezer.

Next, just follow your favorite cake recipe or a box recipe. I went with chocolate, but you could go with whatever flavor you like and think would go well with the cookie. White, yellow, red velvet, carrot- wait, maybe not.

Once you've done  that, get out your muffin tin/cupcake tray, whatever you want to call it. Grease it good, or stick little cupcake wrappers in. Pour cake batter until the tin is a little more than halfway full (more if your dough balls are small, less if they are big). Plop a cookie ball into each, and voila! Now, you can choose to sort of cover the dough balls with some more cake batter so they are not peeking out the top, or let them stay peeking. I've found that when they are covered they tend to sink down to the bottom like in the picture above. However, even if I don't cover them, sometimes they still sink.

Well, anyway, I pretty much cover mine like you can see above. Then I stick them in the oven. OK, so normally a human being would tell you how long they baked these suckers for, but I don't really time it. Probably about 20 minutes. (I tell when they are done by smell, that's why, and observation). If you gently poke with a finger, the cupcake should readily spring back when it is done. You can also poke it with a toothpick or a skewer into the middle of the cupcake and if it comes out clean, they're done (although be careful because you might poke a chocolate chip).

I pop them out of the pan quick because I didn't want them to overcook or stick to the pan once they cooled. Next up is frosting!!

I got the recipe from Tidy Mom, and it is really really really good! OK, it is perfect! So, then I made them, and here is what they look like!

So go to Tidy Mom's website and make yourself some!

Until next time,

Sarah