New Purpose

    Back in December I decided to try my hand at becoming a small business.  It's still a work in progress.  I have begun with a Facebook page Sarah's Knits and Crochets selling things I have made and taking orders for items. 

    The first few were hats and a scarf.  Then I was commissioned to make a Peppermint Throw, which was the second time making that blanket.  It's a lot of work, but the end result is a fun wintry throw.  Since then I have begun taking in orders on a fairly regular basis.  What a blessing! 

    Now I also have a Pinterest page and Instagram all for Sarah's Knits and Crochets.  This is my next step in growing my little business.  It's an old page, re-purposed.  I can be contacted via email @ dierflinger@gmail.com, or by my Facebook page.  Here are some of the things I have made and/or are currently available for purchase.

 Mandala vest, sz. 2T, $25

 Sewing needle purse $10.

 Peppermint Throw.  Price averages around $180-200.  Price may vary depending on cost of materials.  This one was made with Red Heart Soft yarn, which is an acrylic yarn.

 Magic: The Gathering large dice bag with blue and green manna symbols.  This bag is nearly 12" tall, and big enough to carry all of your game pieces, plus waterbottle and snack.  Or use it for whatever you want.  Cost is $34.

 This Fire manna dice bag is slightly smaller than the one above, by a couple inches.  Cost is $30.

Facial scrubbies come in two sizes, and can be purchased individually or as a set.  $1 for the small, $1.50 for the larger ones or $6 for all six.  These do come in many different colors and are made with 100% cotton.

Easy Homemade Donuts

Ok, I know you have seen this around the internet lately. But I just had to post my success story. My Mom used to make biscuit donuts when we were kids and today I made them for my children. BTW, they are loving them big time.  It really is simple.

 I started with generic tube biscuits, 10 to a tube. I separated them on a cutting board and used a soda bottle cap to cut out the centers of each biscuit.  I also had a bowl of cinnamon sugar set aside.

 I used an electric deep fryer since it has the temperature selection on it. I set the temp to 375 degrees F. You can use a dutch oven or other pan and a candy thermometer. Just make sure you heat enough oil to cover your 'donuts'. I cooked my donuts for 1-1.5 minutes, or until a nice evenly golden color.  They have a tendency to float, so you might want to flip them half way through their cooking time. BTW, I used Pure Canola Oil. My youngest has a peanut allergy.

Once done cooking, I turned the donuts out onto a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the oil dripping off. Don't worry, if your temp was right and steady, they aren't soggy on the inside. Then I placed them in the cinnamon/sugar bowl and gave them a nice sweet coating. I made two tubes of donuts, yielding 20 donuts and 20 donut holes. They are all gone! :)

Knit hats and slippers

This Christmas I couldn't afford to purchase gifts, but I did have yarn on hand and a ton of patterns. So I set to knitting and crocheting. I made two hats, one black (not shown) and one blue, using the pattern "Hot Head" from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'n bitch: The Knitter's Handbook". A basic K2 P2 pattern, this hat knits up very quickly. The pattern calls for a bulky yarn, so for this blue one I used Lion Brand's Homespun. I made a pair of matching slippers but need to figure a way to tighten them up a bit, as they ended up looser then I anticipated. (Maybe a braided cord woven through to cinch it up will work.)

 This pair of slippers I made for my oldest son. His favorite colors are read and black. Now, since the pair I made him last year using acrylic yarn ended up with a big hole in the toe (he wears them till the fall apart) I decided to try a wool/mohair yarn. The slippers came out nice and thick and not floppy. Though they are pilling already (he sleeps with them on). The pattern for this is very nearly identical to the one my Mother has always used, with a slight difference in the number cast on and the toe finish. Here is a link to one of the many websites touting this pattern: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/maggieslippers.html

The last thing I completed this season was this little amigurumi crobot called Mechanobot. The pattern is in the book "CROBOTS: 20 amigurumi robots to make" by Nelly Pailloux

Each Christmas my Family does a secret santa where each family draws household names to determine which family you will be "santa" to. Nothing big or fancy is necessary, but this way we don't feel like we need to get something for everyone (there's a lot of us). You only have to shop for one household. Though I can't say who I got for 2014, I can say that I will be going through my pattern books and scouring the internet to find those perfect gifts to knit and crochet. I'll let you know in a year what I come up with. Wish me luck. I think I'm going to need more yarn  :)

This week I have been working on invitations for my Pack's upcoming Blue & Gold banquet. This is the end result. Basic, but appropriate. I began with 8.5"X11" dark blue card stock, cut in half to make 5.5"X41/4" cards.  I couldn't tell you the exact color # for the paper, sorry. But any dark blue or royal blue will work. I like a good TARDIS blue, myself.

 I used 3/8" yellow ribbon run lengthwise about 1.5" from card's folding edge. I also used the fleur de lis stamp shown, stamped on yellow card stock with Close To My Heart's Honey (z2162) water-based dye ink pad. This was placed centered on the ribbon, just slightly above the bottom edge of the card. The font on the inside of the card is "informal roman" set at 48. When I printed this up, I copied this for 4 pages and then set my preferences to print 4 sheets per page.

I think the most tedious part of this card was cutting out the flower. I did 50 of these cards. But it's well worth it, and the boys really liked receiving them in the mail.  My only mistake was I forgot to put the location of our event. Not a problem for our scouts, but it can be for our honored guests.  Ooops.

To finish off, I added a stamp in a lighter shade of blue to the envelopes.  Actually some of the envelopes got the same yellow color as the cards, but it was a different fleur de lis stamp that I have. Slightly smaller, and with some fancy detail.  I wanted the envelope to stand out and tie in with the card.  Wait until you see the placemats I made out of construction paper!

Wrist Warmers

The pattern for these super simple wrist warmers can be found in "Knitting Patterns: For Dummies".  This was my first real work with double pointed knitting needles.  Also included a cast-on/cast-off for the thumb hole.

Homemade breakast pastries (pop tarts)

    Good morning readers.  So many of us out there tend to suffer from some sort of food allergy that prevents us from enjoying many delicious foods.  In my household, I have a child with a mild soy allergy.  Wouldn't you know, it's in almost everything and comes under different names.  One of my son's favorite foods that he can no longer eat due to the soy content is Pop Tarts.  He was very sad when we discovered that the local stores weren't carrying the soy-free versions.  So like any good mother I searched the web looking for a way to make this food from scratch.  I found some great recipes and saw many successful takes on it, but I was not so lucky when it came to making and rolling out the dough.  Yesterday I had an epiphany.  I could use a refrigerator pie dough, which is already rolled out!  It just so happens that Pillsbury has such a product without soy!  I thought I would share this with everyone!

1. Remove Pillsbury refrigerator pie crust from package and unroll.  Preheat oven to 425*F.  Spray baking sheet with Pam and coat with flour.

2. Using your cutter of choice, I used the Pampered Chef Cut n Seal, cut out circles (or whatever shape you choose).  

3. Add small spoonful of favorite jam to half of the circles, (I used apple butter, blackberry jelly, and chocolate chips.  The jelly oozed out of the tarts during baking).  Rub a little water along the edge of pastry.  This will help hold the top layer.

 4. Using the Cut n Seal, press down on pastry to seal it and get that crimped edge look.  

5. Place on prepared cookie sheet.  Using a fork, poke holes in each pastry.  Bake for 8 minutes.

6.  While cooling, mix glaze using powdered sugar and a little bit of milk.  Once cooled, drizzle glaze over pastries and enjoy!

For our Pack's crossover ceremony this year, my Dad and I built this crossover bridge.  Found the directions @Colorado Scouting  where they have a pdf of the plans as well as a materials sheet.  Overall cost of project was $65, which leaves you with extra rope and extra screws.  The center part of the bridge ended up being exactly 12 planks, which is consistent with the 12 points of the Scout Law.  The bridge ends up being very portable and takes up little space for storing.  Got great reviews for it at the Crossover.