December 01, 2009

Baby Earflap Hat (a free crochet pattern!)


A neighbor and friend of mine asked me to make a hat to photograph her niece in for Christmas. She showed me a picture online of what she had in mind, so I created this for her. It turned out really cute, so I wanted to share the pattern. This is about a 0-3 month size, but I'm sure it'd be easy to make larger by increasing the hook size and/or making a couple extra increase rows.

This is my first crochet pattern I've written, so I apologize if it's not as clear as it should be. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'd be happy to help!

Here is a printer-friendly version of the pattern!


Materials:
1 skein Sugar 'n' Cream cotton for main color (MC) (or any worsted weight yarn)
small amount of contrasting color (CC)
G hook (4.5 mm)
tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Abbreviations:
sl st- slip stitch
sc- single crochet
hdc- half-double crochet
dc- double crochet
st- stitch
ch- chain

Directions:

HAT: The hat is worked from the top down. Earflaps are added seamlessly. Then the CC is worked around the whole hat.

Using MC, ch 2. (Or you can do a magic ring--here is a tutorial for that. I like to do the magic ring, but it's hard to write out, so I wrote the pattern without using the magic ring)
6 sc into the second ch from hook, and join with a sl st to first sc.
Ch 1 (counts as sc here and throughout), sc in same st, 2 sc in each sc around. Join with a sl st to first sc. (12 sc)
Ch1, sc in same st, sc in next, *2 sc in next, sc in next*--Repeat between *'s around. Join with sl st. (18 sc)
Ch1, sc in same st, sc in next two sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next two sts* --Repeat between *'s around. Join with sl st. (24 sc)
Ch1, sc in same st, sc in next three sts, *2 sc in next, sc in next three sts* --Repeat between *'s around. Join with sl st. (30 sc)

Continue rounds in this manner, increasing by 6 sc in each round, until you have 60 sc.

Ch 1, sc in each sc around, join with a slip stitch. Repeat this round until you have a total of 24 rounds (counting from the very first round at the top of the hat). Finish off and break yarn.

EARFLAPS:

I've put the stitch counts here to center the earflaps, but this doesn't have to be exact. You just want to have the "seam" in the back, and the earflaps centered on each side. You can just eyeball it if you don't want to count out the stitches. You should have 16 sts between earflaps (in front and back)

Hold hat right side up, with the "seam" facing you. Count about 6 sts (doesn't have to be exact--you're just trying to make the seam in the back of the hat, with the ear flaps on either side) to the right of the seam. Flip hat over, and join MC yarn with a sc at that stitch.

Sc 13 more sts across, for a total of 14. Turn.
Ch1, skip first sc, sc in each sc across. (13 sts) Turn.
Repeat this last row until you have just 1 sc. Finish off.

Holding hat upside down, count 16 sts to the left of earflap #1. Join yarn, and work second earflap as you did for the first. Finish off.

Using CC, join with sc in back of hat (where the "seam" is).

Sc around the hat until you get to the bottom of an earflap. Ch18, then sc in second ch from hook. Sc in each ch up to the earflap, and continue to sc around hat. (Work the second earflap the same way). Join to first sc in back of hat, and finish off. Weave in ends.

You can leave the hat how it is, or if you'd like to add the flower, here is how I made the flower:

FLOWER:
Using CC, ch 3.
Rnd 1: Work 12 dc in second chain from hook, and join to first sc with a sl st.
Rnd 2: Working in FRONT LOOPS ONLY, *3 hdc in next st, then sl st in next st*, around. This will form 5 little "petals".
Rnd 3: Then, working in BACK LOOPS ONLY from round 1, *work 5 dc in next st, sl st in next st*, around. This will form 5 larger petals behind the small ones.
Finish off and sew onto the hat.



(Copyright notice: This pattern may not be sold or republished without my written permission. You may post links to the pattern, but may not reproduce the pattern. Thanks for understanding!)


October 13, 2009

The First Time I Met Dr. Oz

I'm copying this from an old diary entry, because I just realized that I didn't have the story in my Runs for Cookies blog. (I'm back-dating this). Here is the story of how I met Dr. Oz, which led to my being a guest on his show a couple of years later!





Tuesday, October 06, 2009

My mom told me that Dr. Oz is coming to Detroit area and she was wondering if I'd want to go see him speak about women's heart health--duh, of course! I *love* Dr. Oz! The tickets are $100 each, but my mom said she'd pay for me if I want to go. It's going to be a week from today in the afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it!


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I'm sooo super psyched right now....

I MET DR. OZ!!

I've wanted to meet him for such a long time. I know most people don't consider him a celebrity or anything, but I absolutely love his books and I love his show. I think he's fantastic!

Anyways, my mom got us tickets to see him speak (it was a fundraiser for some Jewish community thing--I'm not Jewish, but whatever!) He didn't get money for being there--the money all went to buy these high-tech ultrasound machines to look at the heart. So my mom paid $100 per ticket for the two of us to go see him speak and have lunch afterward. There were 750 people there... RICH people I might add, so I stuck out like a sore thumb. Some people paid $25,000 for ONE TICKET... that included cocktails, breakfast, and lunch with Dr. Oz. There were apparently 8 people that actually did that. Good Lord.

My mom and I got there 45 minutes early, and we got to sit in the front row, right in front of the podium where Dr. Oz would speak. We couldn't have been any closer. All the rich people apparently thought it wasn't "cool" to sit in front, lol. Dr. Oz came out and I had the perfect opportunity to go talk to him, because he was just standing around waiting for the program to start. But I'm not really confident like that, so I didn't.


Oh, and guess who else was there? Florine Mark!! Hahaha, the president and founder of Weight Watchers. She bought a ticket and was there just like me. She stood up and asked a question, too.

He came out and spoke for an hour. Then we were dismissed and went to have lunch in a banquet hall next door. (This whole thing was in this Jewish synagogue). Lunch was gross, so I didn't eat much--chicken, brown rice pilaf, salad... healthy crap.

Then I saw Dr. Oz near his table, so I decided to walk over there and try to talk to him. He was talking to someone, so I waited until he was done. Then I just stuck out my hand and said something like, "I'm so happy to meet you! I'm a big fan of yours, and I love all that you do. Thank you for being so inspiring" or some bullshit.

Then I said, "Would you mind if my mom takes a picture of us?" And he said sure, and she did! I look REALLY bad in the picture, but it's not like I could take 50 pictures and choose the best!


May 03, 2009

The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon 2009



(This is an old race report that I wrote a couple of years before starting Runs for Cookies. I transferred it here.)



I just got home from Indianapolis, and I feel like every bone in my body is just ACHING. But DAMN I feel good for finishing the half marathon!! I really was worried that I wasn't going to make it. At the beginning, everyone started running at the start line (usually all the people in the last few corrals are walkers)--I thought "Shit! They're going to pass us and then the bus is going to pick us up for going too slow!"  but we averaged a 17ish minute per mile pace and finished in 3 hrs, 51 minutes.  I have BLISTERS GALORE on my feet... I'll even gross you out with a picture... but I finished!



Mandie's birthday was Saturday (race day) so she was really excited to do her first half-marathon on her 34th birthday. We got her a cookie cake from the mall and celebrated at the hotel. 

On Friday night, we went to this Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo. My sister made reservations months ago, because it's impossible to find a place to eat without a reservation during the 500 Festival in Indy.  Anyways, we got there and they didn't have our reservation. There were 13 of us waiting to eat. They thought my sister was lying about the reservation, so she ended up going to her car to get the print out. Showed it to the manager, and he COMPLETELY COMPED our $250+ check when we were done!! We got SOOOO much food for F-R-E-E. It was awesome.

At the hotel, the air conditioning in our room wasn't working, so we complained about that and they never really fixed it. So we got $115 comped off of that bill as well!  And... our hotel also had FREE happy hour!! 

We had SO MUCH FUN and I'm super looking forward to going again next year.  I'm making a big huge nearly impossible goal to weigh 150 before next year's race. That's 100 pounds to lose. I know I said I wasn't going to diet again, but I kind of want to now. I keep thinking how much easier the race will be if I lose this extra weight. I'm going to start counting points tomorrow... and I won't stop until the next 500 Festival (May 8, 2010).

Oh, and speaking of losing weight... Bernie from The Biggest Loser was at the race yesterday too! I didn't meet him, but just saw that he was talking to a news reporter. He still looks good.



Here are the race pictures (These were not in my original blog post because I HATED them... and later, they became my "before" pics...







February 19, 2009

A "Twilight" Inspired Coffee Cup Cozy (free knitting pattern)



I'm getting together with a bunch of girlfriends next week to talk about Twilight (losers! I know!) and since we're meeting for coffee, I thought it'd be appropriate to make a coffee sleeve with Edward's famous "Be safe" line. Very fast project! At first, I did the lettering in fair isle, but it didn't show up very well. I went over it with duplicate stitch, and it looked much better, so that is what I'd recommend.






Materials:
  • small amount of worsted weight black and red yarns
  • U.S. size 6 dpns (or long circ for magic loop)
  • tapestry needle for weaving in ends and for duplicate stitch

Gauge: Doing a gauge swatch on this would probably take just as much time as knitting the sleeve, so I wouldn't bother. But my gauge measures 5 stitches to the inch in stockinette.

The final measurement of my cozy is 4 inches tall which fits a medium to large to-go cup). If you want it a little shorter, you can work just 3 rows of rib on top and bottom).

With black yarn, CO 48 stitches, and join to work in the round.
*K2, P2* around for 5 rounds.
Knit one round.
Switch to red yarn, and knit one round.
Switch back to black yarn, and knit 13 rounds.
Switch to red yarn and knit one round.
Switch to black and knit one round.
Still holding black, work *K2, P2* ribbing for 5 rounds.
BO loosely.

Using the chart below, with a long length of red yarn and your tapestry needle, duplicate stitch the pattern as shown (the bottom of the chart corresponds with the third row of black yarn after the round of red yarn). (Click on chart to enlarge)





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