Easy-Peasy Crowd Pleaser

I made these snowflakes today to take to a function at Jake's school. The moms all went totally nuts over them. I have to admit I walked past the cookie table several times to listen to their comments before I finally confessed to making them and told them how. (They really DO taste like Girl Scout "Thin Mint" cookies!)

Easy!

1 box Snowflake shaped Ritz Crackers
1 bag white chocolate Wilton Candy melts (14 oz or so)
Wilton peppermint oil to taste
Wilton edible glitter

Melt chocolate according to pkg. directions. Add peppermint oil to taste.
A little goes a long way!
Pour some into a small squatty container so that
the crackers can be dipped at least halfway.
Let drip a little and scrape back of coated cracker on the edge of the container.
Carefully place on waxed paper.
Do about 10 and then sprinkle with edible glitter.
If you sprinkle the glitter on while the chocolate is still really warm,
it will basically soak in. So let them cool a bit.
You want the glitter to stay on top so it's pretty!

Refill small container as needed, reheating chocolate if necessary.
1 bag of Candy Melts should do a whole box of crackers.

Let harden and arrange on holiday tray.

Stand back and collect the accolades!

Sending you....

Pay it Forward

Ideas blow around in blogland...some are knit-alongs, some are memes, and here is something that is going around right now that I would like to participate in, and I hope you do too!

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I don't know what the handmade gifts will be yet, I am going to wait and see who my first three commenters are and then choose something appropriate to them ;-)

All I ask is that is you commit to the idea wholeheartedly and pay it forward on your own blog!

Make sure I have your email to get back in touch with you if you are one of the first 3 to join!

Let's have fun with this!

More socks!

Don't be fooled into thinking I knit these socks since Saturday when I posted the last completed pair. They were pretty much both in progress the whole time together. I actually started this pair first, for my sock class, then got the other pair going so they could be at different stages for the class, since all of my students seemed to be on completely different knitting schedules! It's hard to convince them to do their homework so they can all be ready to do the next step at the next class. That can be very frustrating.

I used Regia Multi Effekts for this pair. I had gotten this yarn at Mary Maxim's tent sale. I believe it was 2 summers ago, and I'm not sure this color is even still available. I used the "Stem" pattern from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks book

I may have made these a little too long in the foot. I guess we'll see when I wear them. I like how they turned out though!

Today I went to the foot doctor. I have either a plantar wart or blocked sweat gland...he wasn't sure, but the treatment is the same so away we went. OWWWWW.
Anyway, the gals in the office AND the doctor were all smitten with my handknit socks (the ones in the post below). The doctor picked up the socks off the chair and was examining their construction, asking questions, etc. Kind of fun.

I have to go back next week, and possibly for more weekly treatments. I'll be sure to wear a different pair each week. :-)

I was really excited to be done with both of these pairs so that I could finally start a pair from Cat Bordhi's new book. But I'm thinking now that it's too close to Christmas, and I really should get going on a little holiday knitting.

BUT...I think I might have to do some swatching with this....



It's 100% silk from Colourmart. A whole cone for $16 including shipping, from UK! And it only took 5 days to get here. Pretty amazing.

Anyway, I am completely, insanely obsessed with the Hyrna Herborgar shawl, and I think it will be quite stunning in this silvery silk. The most beautiful one I've seen, and the one that had me clicking on her blog repeatedly for several days, is the one in the July 28th post of Beth's Knitting blog. That shawl is just stunning, and I must. make. it.

I have the book (Three-cornered and Long Shawls from Schoolhouse Press) on order through Threadbear, and hopefully I will get it soon. I've browsed through my friend's copy, and see that the charts are hand drawn, so I may use the Knit Visualizer software to create charts that are easier on the eyes.

Newest socks

This is the latest pair of socks I finished. I started them to use as my class demo recently. Online Supersocke 100 yarn from the Tropic collection. (I believe color #928, though it doesn't look exactly like the one on their poster, and I misplaced the ballband) I got this yarn at Knitter's Mercantile in Columbus when Kim and I went down for TNNA this summer.

I have another pair on the needles that will hopefully be done soon. I am really itching to start my next pair, which will be from Cat Bordhi's new book New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I want to make the pair that is on the right on the cover of the book...the one with the braid-y looking cables going up. Unfortunately this means buying sock yarn since I don't have an "almost solid" in my stash. I think I will use Ranco sock yarn from Araucania (since it's on sale at Labor of Love right now). There are some really pretty colors. I'm deciding between the last 3 on the color chart. I think I've eliminated the pink though, so it's the teal or the blue.

Got my invite!

So I'm officially on Ravelry now. My user name is BloominKnitiot (of course!) I've spent the better part of 2 days getting my profile and patterns pages set up, adding books to my Ravelry library, adding a few projects to my notebook. I've joined a few groups and read just a little bit on a couple of forums. It's an awesome resource...I can't wait to see how it evolves as more features are added.

Today should be the day!

I was really late in signing up for Ravelry, but I finally did, almost a month ago. At that time there were over 11,000 people ahead of me in line. This morning this is what I saw when I checked my status:

You signed up on October 9, 2007
You are #41619 on the list.
145 people are ahead of you in line.
11832 people are behind you in line.
76% of the list has been invited so far

Yeah! I'm about to be a Ravelry-er!

See you there! (I hope it I can be strong and not be sucked in for too many hours per day!!!)

WNIC, I boycott you!

It's wrong. It's plain, downright WRONG!

I was sitting at the corner with Jake this morning waiting for the bus. He decided to flip channels on the radio and what did we hear? CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

Excuse me...WNIC...it is ONE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN. It is WEEKS UNTIL THANKSGIVING... I realize that Target probably has Easter decorations in the aisles right now (pretty soon the seasons are going to lap themselves and we'll be back on track) BUT IT'S NOT TIME FOR CHRISTMAS MUSIC YET!

I yelled NO! And pushed another button on the radio. Jake thought it was funny and kept turning on "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" (NO it's NOT!...the leaves are just falling...after all, it's FALL!!) So I kept turning it off and saying "NO! It's not time for this!"

Why do we have to push it? Remember the days when the Christmas decorations didn't show up in the stores until the day after Thanksgiving? These days the school supplies are barely out of the stores and the Christmas trees go up. Please...time goes by fast enough without hurrying it along like this.

I love Christmas as much as the next person, don't get me wrong. I'm the first one up on Christmas morning, long before the kids...I turn on the tree lights, put on some Christmas music (yes, THIS is an appropriate time to listen to it) and wait for the fun to begin.

But 2 whole months of Christmas music? I'd be gagging on it by the time the first flakes fly. It's just not right...

So WNIC....HO-HO-HOLD OFF! (and just so you know, I won't be listening to your station until December!)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled AUTUMN activities.....

(....like holiday knitting....maybe I'm so upset by this because I am woefully behind in this department????)