Stitchin' and remarkably little bitchin'

It got plenty cold here last night, but not as cold as was predicted. We didn't get to -30 (F, air temp), so I couldn't try the Magic Water Trick. But here's a sample, from Minnesota:



We only got to -24, which isn't cold enough. Darn.

Inside, where it's nice and warm, I've been sewing.

These are not Spoonflower fabrics, mostly because I didn't have time to design anything specific for this recipient, and also because there are lovely, commercially produced, coffee-themed fabrics, that cost far less than $16 per yard (I love Spoonflower dearly, but if there's no reason to wait 10 days and pay extra, then there's really no reason to wait 10 days and pay extra).

 I have to admit that the bloom is off the slipper rose- I'm fairly bored with sewing them. However, they are so adorable, and I do have a few more gift-pairs to sew. The little flat bag is a new notion- a sort of variation of the larger fabric box bag. I like how it came out.

 Just in case you couldn't see the print in the other pics- the light fabric is covered with Coffee Words, all in Courier, it looks like.

And I've been knitting. Here's the Noro Mitered Square hat.

This one might almost be masculine enough for a Guy. Maybe. What do you think?

At any rate, my cold is better, and my house is warm, and I'm enjoying this bit of time off, so I'm not complaining about much of anything today. I'd better enjoy that while it lasts.

Caramel Fail, Bag Win

So, I messed up a caramel recipe. Again. I found the picture of Chocolate Dipped Caramel Pecan Bars irresistible, so I tried them the other day.

The first step- the shortbreadish crust- went fine.

 The toasting of the pecans was hunky dory as well.

It was the *cook the sugar, syrup, and water until it changes color* that flummoxed me. The first time I tried a recipe like that (the salted caramels), I cooked too long and the caramels ended up like the Sugar  Daddy suckers of my youth (great flavor, but tooth breakers fer shure). So I watched this recipe very carefully, and as soon as I thought the mixture was *a light amber color*, I removed it from the heat, and added the cream.

 My light amber and their light amber were obviously different shades. The caramel didn't harden enough to stay put when the bars were sliced. We weren't able to cut them into triangle bars for chocolate dipping without the topping dripping off the piece. Instead, I just drizzled chocolate and salt over the rest of the pan. We're slicing and eating as we go, which is fine (this stuff is amazing!), but it's definitely not finger food. (Full disclosure: most of these high-carb things I'm making this year, are being given away. However, I do eat a little bit of each one... and I still can't run... I'm going to pay a price for all of this indulgence).

So recipe writers: please please please include a goal temperature for your sugar boiling stage. Or at least an amount of time for the boiling. This color matching thing is obviously not working for me.

However, this Old Port Carryall bag came out really really well. I did some quilting on the pocket,and I would have done more on the rest of the bag, but I ran out of the fancy schmancy matching quilting thread. So I went with quilted pockets only. I used wide double fold bias tape for all of the edging, rather than cut fabrics. That worked very well and looks good. However, my friend Cassie, from knitting, and I confabbed on the handle construction of this pattern, and we decided that we didn't like it (it's difficult to do, and looks awkward on the inside). So I just used fabric handles, sewn in place, covered with lampwork buttons.

The zipper pull of the little bag is another one of my lampworked beads. 

And the whole set came out perfectly!

I think I'm done with slippers for Christmas, but I might sew a few pairs for next year. The Big Tub 'O Knitted Things (which holds more than knitting) is just about empty.

Slipper City

Are these cool, or what? I finally made a pair of Pitter Patters for myself. I used some of the canvas knitting camo fabric that I designed through Spoonflower for the uppers, fuzzy stuff for the lining, and Jiffy Grip for the soles. As I suspected, this pattern runs toward the Narrow Foot spectrum (not a pattern problem, I am descended from Wide Feeted Peoples). Luckily, the pattern is multi-sized- as in it fits infants through adult men- so it was easy enough to use the Large Adult pattern, and then just shorten the heel by about an inch. There's enough overlap in the uppers (they're Velcro adjustable) for many foot widths.

The slippers are cozy and comfy. I don't suppose they'll hold up to long-term wear, but for fun (and for travel), they're perfect. The only change I made in the pattern was to sew the bias tape binding to the bottom of the slipper sole and hand stitch it down on the top (rather than the other way around- there is no way that I could hand sew through the Jiffy Grip, and I didn't trust my machine seaming to look neat enough if I tried to do it that way).

I also made a small zipper box-bag from the same fabric (tutorial here). I dug through my collection of fat quarters and found this one for the lining. I thought it was  pretty enough to show you.

Here's the bag from the outside. I still have a hard time getting my corner seams straight, but that doesn't matter much. I altered the pattern without realizing it- the handle is supposed to go from corner to corner, but I put it at the top by the zipper. I actually like it better there, and it's much easier to sew in. I also added a tag at the bottom of the zipper to make it easier to close the bag. I used some heavy duty interfacing, and the bag stands up by itself very nicely.

It's the perfect size for toting around Socks in Progress.

After Christmas, I can show you pics of some of the other slipper/box sets I made. And I still have a few more to sew and the calendar is ticking, so I'd best get busy.