Booze and Baby Hats

With another eventful and glamorous Saturday night is under my belt, I have little to show for this weekend except a few more GRE vocabulary words in my brain, a crappy batch of cookies in the freezer (which taste better as dough) and some beer and everything bagels sitting in my stomach. Oh yeah, and some overtime pay from work that will go towards funding my summer getaway to beautiful Schilitterbahn. 

One tangible takeaway from this weekend is my first knitting project in ages. I can feel my crafty flame being rekindled after months of dormancy (suck it GRE!). Since I know more babies at this point in my lifetime than ever before - including when I was a baby myself - I knitted a precious cotton hat. See below. 

I love the color, I love the yarn and I love the size 8 Addi's I knit them on. It was a pleasurable project that came together so quickly that I didn't even have time to take progress photos. I did however have time to enjoy a cold beverage during the process. Sure I could have snapped a few shots after I had to pull out the extra stitches at the top because the crown was too pointy (thanks beer), but why highlight my mistakes? Once it was done, I wove in the ends and couldn't help but look at the hat and think that it wasn't quite finished. 

The little blue hat was a blank canvas to try out intarsia or duplicate stitching, which I have always wanted to perfect. I have some bright embroidery thread that looks adorable with the color, and if I hold two strands of this thin thread together, it will look just as substantial as any other worsted weight yarn I could have used. 

But what should I duplicate stitch on to it? Since I used size 8 needles, the stitch height and width would be too wide to make any kind of word, like the obvious "baby" I wanted to stitch across the front. A heart, butterfly or letter might be pretty cute emblazoned (GRE!) across the brim. 

I'll let you know what I choose to put on there, but until then I just plan on celebrating the fact that I actually made something.

Where can I find these?

Meg and I stumbled upon these glasses in a store called Dressin' Gaudy (No, I am not kiddin') in east Texas. They have one lens that flip-flops from eye to eye along a hinge in the middle. I don't know what they are for, I don't know why they were invented, and all I know is that I have never not bought an item that I was so in love with as I was with these glasses in that magical store. I love them, and a year later, I still think of them and wish I had them. 

What would I use them for? One-eyed reading? General fanciness? An old lady's "camera one, camera two" scene from Wayne's World? The answer, yes to all of the above. So you can see why I need to find them. I don't even know what to Google in order to find them, hell, I even went to Bing, because my fellow humans must know where these are. If you know, please tell me. I'm in the mood to buy.

Like I need a reason to make cookies...

But I am sitting in my apartment, struggling to study the GRE quantitative section with Hell's Kitchen in the background and I can't answer one of these questions to save my life. So I decided to get up and put my math skills to the test by doubling a snickerdoodle recipe. Blaire is taking the Bar Exam next week and she could probably use a care package/"congratulations you never have to study again" present, and since I am recently heartbroken I figure I don't need an excuse. After the success of last week's homemade brownies adventure, I'm feeling motivated to try these swirled snickerdoodles from The Kitchn.

I used this super-soft snickerdoodle recipe from The Kitchn, with a few modifications. For starters I used a stick of margarine and a stick of butter rather than 2 sticks of butter as the recipe calls for. I prefer to use margarine only because one time Nanny told me she uses margarine in her ginger cookies. I also read that margarine has a higher melting point than butter so your cookies come out puffier, and more spiraled in this case. I also didn't have nutmeg, so I used a little bit of ground ginger. It sounded tastier anyway because I think if there is nutmeg in there it might turn into a egg nog cookie (which sounds rancid). 

So I mixed everything together and it was time to roll the cookies out into a sheet. I don't have a rolling pin, so I got creative with some household items. It might come as a surprise to you that a cardboard mailing tube is NOT a rolling pin. So I put all the dough on a cookie sheet and flattened it out with my hands. Then I used a trick I learned from the episode Man vs. Food: San Antonio, where he visits a breakfast food place that makes giant cinnamon rolls. The cook "makes love to the dough" by rubbing cinnamon and sugar into the dough. It all looked pretty tasty and this is the final product. 

So this is going to be a multi-day adventure in snickerdoodling because the dough needs to chill overnight, then I want it to chill some more before I cut it up into circles. I will let you know about the final product. 

Not much knitting has been going on here. Mainly because it is so hot and I just can't get motivated to hold any nice wooly yarns. But I do have a baby blanket WIP made out of some extra yarn I have laying around.  I really should pick up a new baby hat ASAP though since my cousin Denise is about to have a baby shower this weekend for her baby girl. Check out this precious picture of Ellie in her latest hat I made her!

 

Fooooooooorrrrrrt Worth Cats are back, Cats are back!

So I am a little late reporting this BREAKING NEWS but the Fort Worth Cats are indeed back, and yours truly did some "freelance design" work for them (or at least that is what I told the teller at the bank when I cashed my check, *Bling*).

With two weeks left until opening day, my daddy, THE general manager of the Cats and this guy

told me that they needed promo pocket schedules and programs for the upcoming season. With Brady's wedding, Blaire's graduation and my grandfather's funeral in back-to-back-to-back weekends, I agreed to provide  them with the materials. What I didn't agree to was delivering them before opening day. They should really read the fine print in my statement of works. 

Here are some of the photos featured in the 2010 promotional media for the Fort Worth Cats. Be sure to pick some of these up when you go to the games (Like I know you will):

GO CATS!

Summer Resolutions

And so it begins. The summer of Mallory. Memorial weekend last weekend got me thinking about all the good times I wanted to have this summer, especially now that I am really getting into the swing of summers in Fayetteville.

So with the official start of summer behind me, I hereby proclaim this summer the Summer of Mallory, and so here I state my resolutions for the upcoming months.

• Watch more movies
  
• Finish a smocked knitted garment
  
• Less smokin', more jokin' (just kidding, I don't smoke I just heard that phrase on TV and I liked it.)
  
• Actually remember the concerts I have coming up
  
• Take/Sign up for a GRE class

This past weekend, I discovered Redbox movies. Genius! I watched Up In The Air, The Blind Side, Sherlock Holmes and Vicky Christina Barcelona. All great ones, except for Up In The Air, it was depressing from start to finish. I am going to take the GRE this fall and depending on how well that goes, I want to enroll in a grad school program. Resolution numero tres is probably going to be the most difficult as Wakarusa is coming up in two days and the Old 97's are at George's on July 31. I'm not looking forward to a Shooter Jennings 2006 escapade again. 

Overall, I think this summer will be a success if I end up scrapping all of my resolutions except for finishing my smocked garment. I am working on a large ribbed tube that, once it reaches the desired length, will be incorporated with some contrasting elastic to make a smocked bandeau top, or the waistband of a skirt. Since I have no grasp on gauging for this type of garment, I will just have to see what I want it to be after it gets about 8 inches long. Oh yeah, and I would like to finish my quilt sometime soon. 

When I get back, look for a new post about hippie awesome crafts from Wakarusa. I hope I don't go too crazy buying tie-dye and hand knits. 

Too busy for knitting.

I just hate saying that. In my mind I should never be too busy for knitting but I guess that is what happen to me these past few weeks. On top of everything, Nanny borrowed back HER sewing machine to make a skirt curtain (which I still can't wait to see), and I still haven't gotten it back. I can't wait to see the curtain. The miniscule amount of knitting that I have done has been for our super secret vandalism project, so I haven't been able to start on any of the cute projects I have planned for me or Elliot. Super failure for Mallory.

Meanwhile, in my world outside of crafting, you might remember me from my performance as Brady Barnes McDuffie's first bridesmaid in her May 8, 2010 wedding in Hamburg, Arkansas. I know I was quite the local celebrity in Monticello where I was staying, and pestering the Walmart staff there. 

This trip was certainly an adventure. On the way to Monticello, Eddie and I got lost just outside of Star City when our directions led us straight down a dirt road. I wish I would have had my camera to document the journey. A lot of jokes were made about the "Deliverance" of it all, especially when the guy with the flipper hand waved at us, but mostly I think it would have made a great entrance video for our submission application to the Amazing Race. The video would have been titled Amazing Race: Arkansas and would have shown how we eventually made our way to Monticello, found a liquor store within driving distance where we received our clue that led us to the crazy red neck who told us a dog killing story. If we were able to choke back the tears during the graphic reenactment and avoid the DWI on  the way back to the hotel, we were able to reach our NEXT Pit Stop, the Holiday Inn Express in Monticello. Thank God we made it through everything -- I'm still waiting for my million dollar prize. Although, I did win an amazing necklace from Brady that I can't wait to wear all the time. It is my initials on a fancy gold disc! Look for it in pretty much all my pictures to follow.

Before that, I went to Waco for Blaire's graduation and to Fort Worth for Grandpa's funeral. Both weekends were amazing and I loved spending time with everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. Eddie loved being introduced to my old friend, Chicken Express. Which reminds me, pink and green jello/cool-whip/pineapple salads are my new favorite 60's inspired dish. 

In between all of this, I have throughly enjoyed eating fast food and going to work during the week. I have NOT enjoyed the 5 extra pounds I have gained through it all [she says as a tear falls down her cheek and she takes a sip of her Shiner hefeweizen. Ahhhhh, Texas]

My computer and new printer has taken over my sewing machine table, effectively hindering my sewing and my own lack of time has taken over my desire to make hand made goods. More to come later, as the summer laziness takes over and my brain and knitting becomes my one and only desire. Sorry work.

Your very own Kappa Ka-Quilt

Chad Ocho-chino (Fox news style) is being all sessy on Dancing with the Stars, and I just outlined the ladder for all the pages in the 2010 FW Cats program, but I really wish I was working on finishing my first quilting endeavor - my Kappa t-shirt quilt.

For Christmas this past year, I asked Eddie's mom, Sarah to help me make a quilt out of all the Kappa t-shirts I will never wear again. So, a few weeks after Christmas, we went to Van Buren and got all the necessary fabric, quilting accessories and tools in order for me to get started on my first quilt. I already had the sewing machine as it was a gift from my grandmother, but Sarah bought me all the fabric, a few cutting patterns (I'm not sure if that is the right word for the clear acrylic squares that you use when quilting), and some backing to make the shirts a little sturdier.

The first lesson of quilting I learned is that your iron is your best friend. The second lesson I learned is that measuring even a fraction of an inch off can mess up your entire project. And the third, most important, lesson I learned is that sewing machines are bitches. Mine never wants to stay threaded, I'm always tangling the bobbin and I can't figure out what all these sewing machine terms mean. WTF does tension mean? Except for the fact that there is tension between me and my sewing machine, I can't really apply the term to the work I am doing. 

So I begin cutting up all my old Kappa shirts that I never want to wear again. Sleep on them, yes. Wear, no. I'm cutting them in 12.5 x 12.5 squares, so that once they are sewn into my quilt, they will be perfect one foot squares. I'm saving the front pieces of the shirts for a special quilt square where I will merge them all into one. I cut the backing into 12.5 x 12.5 squares also, and using my new best friend, Iron, I affixed them all together. 

I cut out stripping to go between the panels, and I cut those at a predetermined width (decided upon by the VB quilt shop) and at the 12.5" length like my squares. Once I have three squares sewn together with stripping in between them, I sewed a continuous strip across the top of all of them. Then I can start all over, creating a new row of 3. 

Overall, there will be 12 squares in my finished quilt -- 11 whole t-shirt squares, and one square with all the front pocket pieces sewn together. Check out my progress! 

As soon as I get my sewing machine back from Nanny (I surrendered it back to her so she could make a curtain for her kitchen window -- look for a post about that later) I plan on finishing it up so that Eddie's mom can take it to get quilted. I can't wait to use the finished product. At least then my expensive-ass t-shirts will get a little more use then they would in a drawer somewhere.