Hot Mits

Ever wonder what's insulating your hands from that hot pan coming out of the oven?

I know I always wondered how two knit (or crochted) layers were supposed to be insulated enough (even with all those stitch "holes") to use for hot baking sheets, so I decided to experiment with adding more insulation to my own prototypes. 

For my knit hot mits, I knit two dishcloths, one with the crocheted loop, and then sew in two squares of denim from an old pair of jeans onto the second square.  Then they are sandwiched together and crocheted shut with a crocheted loop to allow them to hang out of the way while also being a pop of color in one's space.

Doesn't that make you feel more confident when you're ready to pull out that hot pan of yummy cookies?  ;)

New-to-Me Typewriter

 

I found this mechanical typewriter on the side of the road about 3 or 4 months ago, next to a house I was babysitting for.  Well, it's taken a while, but I was finally able to break it out of its case & sit down to type something.  I found extra recipe cards while cleaning & unpacking the kitchen & decided to type up some of my regular recipes to go in my new recipe box, a shower gift from my sister.

 

I probably would have typed all night but I ran out of recipe cards.  And you can see from the first picture I have quite a lot more than just 5 recipes that need typing up nicely.

 

So the next thing to do is take some of my stashed cardstock and cut it up into 3x5 recipe cards. ... I'm thinking of decorating them with little doodles by colored pencils... if I can find the craft supplies box I usually keep them in...

 

Send your snail-mail address to knittedhome[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll enclose one of my typed recipes in a Christmas card for you to enjoy.  Merry Christmas!

Living Frugal

I know this is supposed to be devoted to my crafting, but I thought I would divert a little since I came across this blog post in so much of my "catch-up" reading today.
In a way, it does tie into my philosophy on crafting.  I like to knit & crochet items for my home to save money on purchasing new items.  I also like to use up leftover yarn scraps (and eventually cloth scraps) in projects that can be made over time.  I'll try to remember to post a picture of my draft blocker I've made specifically for those leftover yarn scraps that I just couldn't bring myself to toss.  I also stuffed it with used dryer sheets to make it fluffy.  Turns out they also make it smell yummy! :)
Do you challenge yourself to live frugally or re-use items you thought were trash?  I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to post a link to your post :)

First Mobile Post

This is my first *mobile* blog entry from my phone. Let's see if it works....

In other news, look what I made today! It's a bag!

Edit: Success!  Now I have an idea what it will look like when I post from my phone (not the best formatting, but nothing online editing can't fix, hehe).

Anyway, it may look like just a bag, but!....

It's the bag/package that the dishcloths will be shipped in!  I'm thinking about decorating it a little more so it's not just a brown bag but this is what I got done today (x3).

And the stitching...

Not the best job (I rolled the wheel by hand because I didn't feel like running the plug across the living room, hehe), but pretty good for using recycled and on-hand materials, huh? :)

It even fits a baby blanket!

(& a sneak peak of the baby blues blanket ---> ready to ship!)