The crochet Cross Creek Hat is from this book Cold Weather Crochet by Marlaina “Marly” Bird. There are many lattice pattern crochet hats, but this one caught my eye because of the interesting crown and how the top is finished. The author recommends using one skein (about 230 m) of DK weight yarn, so I used […]
Oma’s German Dessert Waffles
Our Oma would make these cake-like dessert waffles in her heart-shaped waffle iron. These are great fresh, or dried out and dunked in coffee or tea. Then, our Mama said she used to quickly whip these up when unexpected guests came to call – company could start eating the first batch while the rest baked […]
Cactus-Themed Items for Your Home
From what we’ve seen on instagram and pinterest, cactus- and unicorn-themed things are all the rage these days. I haven’t been into unicorns since I was about 8 years old, but cacti are a whole different thing. Tomiko and I first saw cacti when we visited Arizona around 1993, and we were awed by the […]
DIY: McCall’s M7188 Princess Seam Dress with Piping
McCall’s M7188 is a dress with princess seaming and a lined bodice. I sewed this out of a navy rayon twill fabric with a turquoise, white, and red floral print. This was the first time I used piping, so that was a learning curve for me. Some of the piping is not 100% straight but […]
DIY: Crochet Knit Stitch Beanie with Ribbing and Free Pattern
This crochet knit stitch beanie is made with a fingering weight wool and made to look like knitting. I bought two beautiful colours of Schachenmayr Merino Extrafine 170 from the nearby Ewe Knit shop and decided to make a finely crocheted hat. Since the hat is made of single crochet knit stitches, the hat fabric […]