Hat!

Before leaving for Israel I had managed to collect quite a surplus of yarn.  I sold much of it before I left, but there were bits and pieces I just couldn't bear to part with.  Since returning, I've decided that said yarn either needs to be made into something useful...or otherwise disposed of.  

With that goal in mind, I thought I would use some of the yarn to make a hat.  I like hats.  And I must say, I think it turned out rather adorable.  

Cute model too. ;)

Here's a view of the back with the "heart detail" visible.  

And the side: 

Obviously the model is quite delighted by it.  

Where did I put my towel?

Apparently, this has been a problem from the dawn of time, back when humans first started cooking.  You just get going and boom, you get something on your hand!  You go to wipe it off, only to discover that you've misplaced your towel.  Something like that anyway.  It took thousands of years for humans to figure out how to crochet before they could come up with a solution: cut a towel in half and crochet some contraption on it to attach it to some sort of handle in the kitchen!  Brilliant.

Ok, so, maybe it didn't quite happen like that.  All I know is that when I was growing up, my mom had similar items that she would attach to our oven.  They made for handy hand-drying towels - always there when you needed them.  When I got older, I figured out how to make them myself (both towels pictured in this blog were made by me for my mother).

Here's one in progress

I'm not going to give exact directions for how to replicate this wonder of creativity, because I'm pretty sure I do it differently every time.  I can, though, give a general idea, and I'm sure those of you with some crocheting experience will be able to figure it out, should you be interested.  (I'm telling you, they really are handy.)

Cut a towel in half.

Row 1: Single crochet along the cut edge of the towel.  Your crochet needle should be able to puncture the fabric - especially if you choose a smaller one, maybe D or F. 

Rows 2-?: Skipping every other stitch, double crochet back and forth until you have only about 7 or 8 stitches in a row.

Rows ?-??: This forms the neck of your towel and can vary in length, depending on what you plan to attach it to.  Double crochet back and forth until it is the desired length.  You may wish to chain over the middle stitch(es) in order to make a larger button hole.  If your button is not too large, though, this probably isn't necessary.  The row with the button hole should be your second to last in this series of rows.

Rows ??-???: These rows are not strictly necessary, but can make your towel more decorative.  I believe I single crocheted two stitches between every stitch on the last row, just for a little flair.  You can make yours more or less decorative, as you wish.

Attach a button in the desired location.  I didn't have much in the way of buttons when I made these, so, I sort of made yarn buttons.  Be creative. 

Completed towel, with both home-made button and button hole visible.

 No more wet hands!  Hooray!

But she's a young thing and cannot leave her mother

While other similarities to this famous lady of song may be lacking, it turns out that I can also bake a cherry pie.

I had found an intriguing recipe here earlier this summer.

When I found cherries on sale at the local grocery store, I had just the project in mind.

After sorting the good cherries from the bad (there was a reason they were on sale), I began the rather tedious and violent  task of disemboweling the cherries.

Ok, ok, I just took the pits out, but you have to admit, disemboweling is an apt description with all that red juice.

Here are the cherries (about 4 cups worth - I had enough to double the recipe) with a cup of water.

Here they are after I added a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch.  In retrospect, these cherries were pretty sweet and probably didn't need that much sugar.

Here's the pie crust on a sheet pan with the filling in the middle.  I also need to get better at making pie crusts. They never quite turn out as I would like.

All folded up, painted with egg, sprinkled with sugar, and ready to go!

Bubbling in the oven...

...and here's the finished product!

I wouldn't call it a screaming success, but for my first attempt at any sort of cherry pie, it wasn't too bad.