I have finally found a Fingerless Gloves pattern that I love! I made several pairs from The Cool Girl’s Guide to Knitting and did like the pattern, but it wasn’t quite right. The main issue was the lack of an actual thumb. There was just a large hole and a seam right up the middle of the back of the gloves. They looked great from the front, but I wasn’t happy with the back. I have been searching high and low for a side seam pattern that I like and wasn’t having much luck (I did find lots of side seam patterns, but didn’t like the overall look of the gloves). Then, during a quick trip to the thrift store for something totally unrelated, I found a couple knitting books for super cheap and snapped them up. Well, wouldn’t you know, one of those books had a fingerless gloves pattern that was very close to what I had been looking for! So, I took that pattern, changed it up a bit to get the look I wanted (fuzzy cuffs and thumbs, stripes, picot edging around the fingers, and a few other minor changes) and the resulting FrankenPattern is exactly what I wanted! The first pair is black and violet stripes accented with black eyelash yarn. They did turn out a bit bigger than I wanted, but I’m learning. They are for sale in my Etsy Shop and I’m taking orders for custom pairs in other colors, sizes and yarns.

Hands Down…this is my new favorite Fingerless Gloves pattern!

Becoming increasingly alarmed that I have been choosing knitting over strenuous physical exercise, I am on a hunt for a way to incorporate the two. I found this awesome photo at Deluxeville and need to find one of these machines. Ha!ha! Not really, but I do need to get back into my exercise routine before knitting really does become hazardous to my health…

I was so pleased with the first Neck Warmer that I got right to work on the one I ~really~ wanted to make. I had this idea in my head, but needed to learn how to knit vertical stripes. Also, I wanted this Neck Cuff to be fancier, so adding a little fru-fru to the bottom edge was also something I needed to learn how to do.

The bottom ruffle is accented with some Black Eyelash yarn that I recycled from a huge gorilla-like sweater purchased at the thrift store .99 cent sweater sale last weekend. I saw that  sweater and immediately had the urge to unravel it and make all kinds of fun things with the yarn. So, I snatched it up and spent a few hours picking it apart. Easier said than done. It’s got machine sewn side seams, so I get a nice long piece and then have to stop at each side to pick apart the stitching. Oh well, it’s another good no-brainer project while watching TV or a movie.

I really wanted to keep this one for myself, but it’s too small. It measures 12″ around and would be great for a small lady or child. I was, once again, overly impatient to get started and did not knit a gauge swatch even though I was using different yarn from the first version. This yarn is an Acrylic/Wool Blend and, so far, seems to be holding up better (i.e. not getting so fuzzy) than the 100% Acrylic I used for the first version. So, this one became the first knitted item in my Etsy Shop! I am also offering to take custom orders in different sizes, colors, yarns, buttons, etc. It was really fun to make and I cannot wait to make more!

Now, I’m working on matching Fingerless Gloves with the Eyelash Yarn accent and picot edging around the fingers. Actually, this first pair was another experiment where I took 3 different patterns and made up my own pattern. I wanted them to match exactly with the vertical stripes, but wasn’t sure if my FrankenPattern would work out, so opted to do horizontal stripes first since they are a lot easier. I stayed up way too late last night determined to finish one glove. The Verdict? Adorable! So, I will do the second one to match and then start on a pair with vertical stripes to match this Neck Cuff. Speaking of…I need to get off this blog and back to knitting!

I was getting bored knitting fingerless gloves. Five pairs to be exact. Two pairs for me, a pair for Mr. Monkeytailz, and a pair for each daughter for Valentine’s Day (I need to take a picture). So, I started knitting a striped headband and got even more bored with that. Back and forth. Back and forth. zzzzzzzzzzz. I was really itching to learn some skills other than just knitting or purling in rows. I started searching around the web and in all the knitting books I have laying around (our local library had a nice selection) and settled on a Victorian inspired Ruffley Neck Warmer. I learned how to do a lovely lacey ruffle and picot edging AND the whole thing only took me one evening and an afternoon to finish! I’m so pleased with the way it turned out…other than it being a bit big because I didn’t take the time to knit a gauge swatch first. But, I fixed that problem by moving the buttons over and adding a couple snaps for a perfect fit.

I also learned that, contrary to popular belief, you CAN block acrylic yarn. Yes, I used acrylic on this project because I was impatient to start it and that was the only yarn I had on hand. I’m not a yarn snob yet, but I can see that changing once I get my hands on some really nice yarn.  

Check out the fun metal skull buttons! I bought them a year or so ago and never found the right thing to put them on until now. I didn’t want plain boring buttons since the whole thing is plain black. 

So, with the first Neck Thingy done and approved (by me!), I got an interesting idea for a ~fancier~ version and immediately started stitching and finished it late last night. I need to sew on the buttons and snap some pictures, but I’ll give you a couple little hints…it has a fuzzy edge around the ruffle and vertical stripes! Yay me for learning several new techniques this week!

And what became of the stripey headband mentioned in paragraph one up there? Doesn’t every knitter have several projects going at once?!? I figure I need at least one no brainer project in the works at all times to carry around with me and work on when I have a few minutes while waiting on the kids at school or in long lines at the store or at stoplights or…

I am busy. I need to slow down and enjoy a part of each day. I thought it might be fun to start a new tradition with Afternoon Tea. Thing 2 was very excited about the new tradition, Thing 1…not so much. Apparently, 13-year-old American girls think afternoon tea is “silly”. 9-year-old American girls love having daily tea parties Here is a photo from our first tea a couple days ago. For Christmas, my mom sent a cute teapot with a cozy and matching placemats and napkins that she made. We decided these would be perfect for our tea times! This little feast included mango tea, green tea, lemon poppyseed scones with Mock Clotted Cream, and fresh strawberries….mmmmm. We are now on the hunt for an inexpensive tea cart to keep our tea things handy. Oh, American dogs also like tea time and ~constantly~ try to steal the scones.

If you read my blog, you know that I have recently started knitting. I have been searching for knitting books at my usual thrift store stops, checking out stacks of knitting books from the local library, adding multitudes of knitting books to my Swaptree Want List, etc. I have learned so much since picking up the sticks, but am still a little fuzzy on some of the basics since I just jumped right in and started stitching. Today, I was cleaning out a bookshelf in my office and came across a copy of the Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework (copyright 1979) that I picked up at a thrift store a couple years ago. I immediately flipped to the Knitting section and discovered clear, concise, easy to understand instructions and illustrations! There are lots of photos, but many of the instructional illustrations are drawings which really helped me with some of the mechanics of the stitches. A few things I have been struggling with, but forging ahead with anyway, now made complete sense! If you are a beginning knitter, or just needing some brush up, I recommend this book.

Yesterday, I needed to make some cupcakes. I didn’t just want some cupcakes, I ~needed~ them. Sometimes, the act of putting all else aside and baking something frivolous and fabulous makes everything OK for a little while. So, that is what I did. I put everything out of my mind except for cupcakes. What kind of cupcakes should I make? Well, I have all those vanilla beans just begging to be featured in all kinds of yummy creations, so vanilla cupcakes seemed right. My search led me to Double Vanilla Cupcakes by Vanilla Garlic on SimplyRecipes.com. I wanted to bring some to the SuperBowl party that we had been invited to, so I decided to make a double batch just in case they were really awesome and we wanted to keep some for ourselves. They were. OMG they were. This double batch called for a full pound of real unsalted butter and 4 vanilla beans…wow! Dense and cakey, buttery and super charged with vanilla…they were a big hit at the party and we still have some at home to enjoy. Check out the close up of the frosting (butter, powdered sugar & vanilla seeds)….gorgeous!

I am going to a Super Bowl party tomorrow and thought showing up with something besides beer…a hostess gift…would be nice. A while back, I found a bunch of cute little glass jars at one of my usual thrift store stops.  They’ve been sitting on a shelf, gathering dust, until inspiration hit. Today it hit! They are the perfect size for one cut up vanilla bean swimming in booze. I put together 5 little jars of homemade vanilla extract and then tied a bow around one of the jars to finish it off, but it didn’t look quite right…kind of unfinished. It needed a label! This part took way longer than making the extract…ha!ha! I spent about an hour scouring the web for just the right label and finally found some lovely vintage graphics that struck my fancy. Next, I “typed” on the label (i.e. PhotoShopped) with one of my favorite fonts, then printed on some parchment type paper, then turned the paper over and printed on the back with some handwriting from a very old scanned recipe card (because you can see the back of the label through the jar), then painted some Modge Podge over the fronts, then dried with a heat gun (because I was too impatient to wait for them to air day), then cut one out and popped it into my little Xyron Create-A-Sticker and…VIOLA!…a nice hostess gift!

You may have noticed that my blog has a new look! I wanted to customize it for a few weeks now, but, you know, who has time for that?!? There are lots of great free WordPress themes out there, but I wanted something a little different. I found a bit of time today and got it done. I found a free WordPress theme that looked like it would be easy to customize. I went to the Theme Editor in the WordPress Dashboard and started looking through the code for the things I wanted to change. I changed the background graphic to POLKA DOTS…I ~love~ polka dots. Then I took the header graphic and added PhotoShopped in the MonkeyTailz monkey and the MonkeyTailz name in a fun font. Finally, I figured out how to remove the blog title so that it wouldn’t show up over the name that I added. It was actually pretty easy. How does it look from your end?

Recently, Mr. MonkeyTailz went to pay a visit to one of our neighbors and when he returned he was toting a large plastic bag of, well, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was hoping that nothing illegal had taken place It turned out to be a bag of vanilla beans! A HUGE bag of vanilla beans! So, I promptly jumped on my trusty computer and googled “how to make vanilla extract”. According to the articles and blogs I found, it is surprisingly easy. Today, I was finally able to get some Vodka to get the process started. Here is what I did….

HOMEMADE VANILLA EXTRACT RECIPE

1) Get a bottle of Vodka. It doesn’t need to be top of the line, just a decent bottle of Vodka…actually, I got a cheap bottle.

2) Count out 3 vanilla beans per cup of Vodka. My bottle was 750ml which yielded just over 3 cups, so I counted out 10 beans, just to be safe.

3) Cut each bean up the middle, stopping just short of the top. I’m not sure why you can’t cut all the way through, but I like to follow directions…well, let me clarify, I like to follow a recipe the first time I make it, then make my own little tweaks the next time. My process is a combo of all the recipes I found, but the stop short bean cutting made sense to me, for some reason.

4) Find a glass jar with a lid that will hold both the Vodka and the beans. I chose a large Ball Jar. Put the beans in and pour the Vodka over them. Mr. MonkeyTailz felt that the concoction also needed a shot of Bourbon (optional). 

5) Put the lid on, admire your creation and then stick the jar in a dark place for 8 weeks. I put a label with the today’s date on the top because the old brain isn’t what she used to be AND because I have a boatload more of those beans waiting to get soaked in booze and don’t want to get the batches mixed up.

That’s it! Easy, right?!? I’ll let you know how it turns out. I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy vanilla again…the rest of my life!