I designed this cuddly critter hat for a friend of mine who was having a baby earlier this spring. It came out so cute that I wanted to share the pattern. Although I made mine in 2 colors, it would also look cute in a solid color, or even stripes! Right now, the pattern is only written for a size small (14″ circumference) which should fit a 3-6 month old. I plan to revise the pattern at some point in the future with size medium (16″), large (18″), and x-large (20″). Of course, you can vary the size by playing around with yarn gauge and needles size.
Materials:
Worsted weight yarn (I used Debbie Stoller Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe)
Size 6 circular needles
Size 6 dp needles
Size G crochet hook (for ears)
Guage
5 stitches to the inch
First Earflap
CO 5 stitches
Row 1: K1, P1, K1, P1, K1
Row 2: K1, K into F/B, K1, K into F/B, K1 (7 stitches)
Row 3: K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1
Row 4: K1, K into F/B, K1, P1, K1, K into F/B, K1 (9 stitches)
Row 5: (K1, P1) 4 times, K1
Row 6: K1, K into F/B, K1, P1 (2 times) K1, K into F/B, K1 (11 stitches)
Row 7: (K1, P1) 5 times, K1
Row 8: K1, K into F/B, K1, P1 (3 times) K1, K into F/B, K1 (13 stitches)
Row 9: (K1, P1) 6 times, K1
Row 10: K1, K into F/B, K1, P1 (4 times) K1, K into F/B, K1 (15 stitches)
Row 11: (K1, P1) 7 times, K1
Repeat row 11 4 times; place onto stitch holder
Second Earflap
Follow instructions for first earflap up through row 11.
Repeat row 11 5 times (rather than 4)
Leave second earflap on working needles
Body of Hat
With second earflap on needles, CO 16 stitches (this will become the back of the hat)
Knit first earflap off the stitch holder onto the working needles
CO 24 stitches (this will become the front of the hat)
Place marker and join in the round (70 stitches)
Row 1: (K1, P1) 35 times
Row 2 (P1, K1) 35 times (establish seed stitch pattern)
Repeat rows 1 & 2 until hat measures 1 inch
Switch color (optional)
Continue in stockinette (knit all stitches) until hat measures 4 inches tall
Shape Crown
Row 1: (K12, K2tog) 5 times
Row 2: (K11, K2tog) 5 times
Row 3: (K10, K2tog) 5 times
Row 4: (K9, K2tog) 5 times
Row 5: (K8, K2tog) 5 times
Row 6: (K7, K2tog) 5 times
Row 7: (K6, K2tog) 5 times
Row 8: (K5, K2tog) 5 times
Row 9: (K4, K2tog) 5 times
Row 10: (K3, K2tog) 5 times
Row 11: (K2, K2tog) 5 times
Row 12: (K1, K2tog) 5 times (10 stitches remaining)
India is such an enormous, diverse county, it was hard to decide where to start. Since it was lunchtime, we headed straight for the cookbook and whipped up a batch of banana (kela) lassi. Of course, mango lassi would have been more traditional, but we had to work with what we had in the kitchen. You can check out our yummy recipe at the end of this post. We decided to focus on food (of course), folklore, and festivals. We checked out two books from the library which I would recommend. The first, The Indian Storybook by Rani Singh tells 8 different Indian tales and gives a quick overview of some of the Hindu gods encountered in the stories. The second, Festive Foods! India by Sylvia Goulding mixes simple (as if any Indian recipe could be simple!) recipes with culture and heritage.
Since we spent the weekend in NYC, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat authentic Indian food on 5th Street in Manhattan. Basically, the entire block between 1st and 2nd Avenues is is entirely populated by Indian restaurants. If you are lucky (as we were), you can listen to live sitar music as you eat. We stopped in at Raj Mahal, one of our long time favorites, although I don’t think you can go wrong with any of your options. If you haven’t taken your kids out for Indian food yet, don’t be intimidated by the spicy dishes. There are plenty of mild options that our kids love. You can try chicken kurma (chicken in a slightly sweet, almond sauce), mulligatawny soup (turmeric spiced soup), and an order of vegetable pakoras (fritters).
We really wanted to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors, but the weather hasn’t cooperated. During Holi, celebrants throw colored powder and colored water on each other to celebrate unity and the beginning of spring. We thought this sounded like a really fun idea, but definitely an outside activity. Even though Holi was officially celebrated last month, we might have our own celebration later in the spring. We plan to make our ‘colored’ water with kool-aid, and use flour colored with dry kool-aid or jello mix for our colored powders. I’ll update this post to let you you know how it turns out!
Banana or Mango Lassi
Ingredients:
1 ripe banana or 1 mango
2 cups of full fat plain yogurt
2-4 ice cubes
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
optional – pinch of cardamom
optional – fresh mint
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a bit of crushed ice. Enjoy!
For Christmas this year, I bought Kirby’s Epic Yarn for my husband. For those who are not familiar with the game, Kirby is transformed into cute little yarn guy, and he and his friend Prince Fluff go on a quest through a land made of yarn and fabric. The entire game looks as if it were quilted and knit together. Anyway, it became an instant hit at our house. Since I try to limit game time, I thought I would make a couple amigurumi toys so that they kids could play with their favorite little yarn guys, even when the Wii is turned off.
They came out so cute, I wanted to share the pattern I created with anyone else who’d like to make their own Kirby and Fluff dolls.
Here you go!
Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Prince Fluff Amigurumi
Materials:
Size G crochet hook
Large needle for sewing and working in ends
Worsted weight yarn (I used leftover yarn from various projects, so Kirby and Fluff are a mix of wool, acrylic, and bamboo)
Kirby & Fluff Directions: (notes: I use the “magic loop” method to start each piece. Also, I find this is the best method to crochet 2 together)
Eyes – Make 2 (black for Kirby, white for Fluff)
Chain 3
Row 1: SC into 2nd stitch from the hook, 3 SC into next stitch
Row 2: SC into back of next 2 stitches
Tie off (basically, you are crocheting a circle around the chain)
Embroider center of eye
Body (Pink for Kirby, Blue for Fluff)
Make a “magic loop”
Row 1: 6 SC into loop
Row 2: 2 SC into each stitch (12 stitches)
Row 3: (1 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) 6 times (18 stitches)
Row 4: (2 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) 6 times (24 stitches)
Row 5: (3 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) 6 times (30 stitches)
Rows 6-13: SC into every stitch
Row 14: (3 SC, SC 2Tog) 6 times (24 stitches)
Row 15: (2 SC, SC 2Tog) 6 times (18 stitches)
Stitch on eyes and embroider face. Don’t forget little pink cheeks for both guys, and eyebrows for Fluff!
Row 17: (SC 2Tog) 6 times (6 stitches); tie off and pull yarn through stitches to close the body.
Arms – Make 2 (Pink for Kirby, Blue for Fluff)
Make a “magic loop”
Row 1: 4 SC into loop
Row 2: (1 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) 4 times (8 stitches)
Row 3: (2 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) 4 times (12 stitches)
Rows 4 & 5: SC into each stitch
Tie off and stuff arms
Feet – Make 2 (Red for Kirby, Orange for Fluff)
Make a “magic loop”
Row 1: 6 SC into loop
Row 2: 2 SC into each stitch (12 stitches)
Row 3: (1 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Row 4: (2 SC, 2 SC into next stitch) repeat 6 times (24 times)
Tie off; fold circle in half to form a semi-circle. Stitch shut around the edges
Prince Fluff’s Crown (Yellow)
Chain 14, SL to form ring
Row 1: SC into each stitch
Row 2: (SC, picot) times
Tie off
Once all pieces have been made, stitch Kirby and Fluff together as shown in pictures. Make sure you position the feet under the body evenly, and far enough back, so that your little guys can stand up.
Since we seemed to get REALLY behind schedule with our ’round the world project we decided to cover Guatemala and Honduras together, mainly because they are close both geographically and alphabetically. We were able to check out a couple of really good books from the library with a lot of wonderful pictures. Deirdre was particularly enchanted with the colorful outfits worn by many of the Guatemalan girls in the book. We spent most of our time talking about the wildlife indiginous to these countries. The kids were especially interested in looking at pictures of jaguars, toucans, blue morpho butterflies, and sea turtles. The kids also decided that Diego might live in this area since these seem like the animals that he hangs out with! This gave us a good opportunity to talk a little bit about wildlife conservation and sustainable farming practices which wasn’t exactly what I intended but was covered in the book. Not a bad lesson to learn!
Legend has it that Guatemalan children would make these worry dolls out of scraps of thread and fabric. At night, they would tell a ‘worry’ to each doll, and the doll would help make that worry disappear. Here are some basic intructions to make your own!
Materials Needed:
Twist ties
Yarn
Fabric Scraps
Marking Pen
Instructions:
Bend twist-ties into basic T-shape for your doll’s body
Fold a piece of fabric over the top of the “T” for the head
Wrap yarn around the neck to secure head; wrap yarn around body, arms, and legs.
Although not specifically Guatemalan or Honduran, they are still somewhat regional. (we substituted corn flour for the corn starch). What did I learn? Dulce de leche is REALLY hard to make. Seriously, you need to stir it for, like, 3 hours. The cookies came out tasty, but we probably won’t be making them again.
Did you know you can make tasty homemade ice cream using plastic ziploc bags, soy milk, sugar, salt and ice? Whether you are digging yourself out from “Snowpocalypse” or trying to beat the summer heat, you have to try this improbably easy and delicious recipe. I saw a similar recipe in Highlights magazine a few months back and having been waiting for a chance to give it a try. It was really fun to make and even more fun to eat! Here are the basic instructions:
You Will Need:
1/2 cup flavored soy milk (we used chocolate and vanilla)
Ingredients for Home Made Ice Cream
1 tablespoon sugar
Ziploc bags in 2 sizes (we used sandwich size and quart size)
Ice cubes (approx 2 cups)
5-6 tablespoons salt
Directions:
Pour the soy milk into the smaller bag. Squeeze out the air and zip it shut
Fill the larger bag about 1/4 – 1/3 full of ice
Sprinkle the salt over the ice in the bag
Put the small bag of soy milk into the larger bag
Add ice on top of the bag of soy milk (leave about 1/4 of the bag empty)
Zip the large bag shut
SHAKE the bag for about 5-10 minutes until soy milk is the consistency of soft serve ice cream
Carefully remove the small bag and wipe off any water or salt on the outside of the bag (so that you don’t have salty ice cream)
Put into a bowl and eat!
Here is an action shot of the kids shaking their ice cream. To make the shaking part more fun, we put on some Irish music on Pandora and danced a little jig while shaking it up.
Dancing a Jig While Making Ice Cream
Science Question – Why do you need salt to make ice cream? According to WikiAnswers ,”Ice water is only 32 degrees F, and ice cream needs to be much colder to properly freeze. The salt lowers the freezing point of the water. The super cold water is what will actually freeze the ice cream. You can actually get the temp of the liquid water down to about 10 degrees F.”
Wow, have I been remiss in writing my post on France! Between the various Halloween parties and some on-going home renovations, we really didn’t get a chance to do this lovely country justice. As a starting point, we checked out a book from the library on life in France. The book was told from the point of view of a 7-year old boy, so it really held the kids’ attention. Their biggest takeaway was that life in France is not all that different than life here in the US. Children go to school, ride their bikes, play sports, and live in houses with their families. For many of the other countries, we focused on unique differences; in this case, we focused on similarities.
Ballerina in Pink - Degas
For me, you can’t study France without talking about art and food. I decided that we didn’t have time, and the kids didn’t have the patience for a deep dive into impressionism, but we did spend some time reading about Degas. I thought his ballerina paintings would appeal to Deirdre. For cuisine, I tried my hand at making beouf bourguignon, and our Czech Republic pancakes seemed to have resurrected themselves in the form of crepes!
The highlight, of course, was spending an evening with our friends Laurent, Julia, Lucy and baby Emile. Laurent is from France and the whole family is fluent in French. This gave Deirdre and Jonah a chance to practice their “Bonjour” and “Je m’appelle…” among other phrases. Although Deirdre still didn’t get an answer to her burning question of how did they get Marie Antionette to hold still when they cut off her head. (too much Alice in Wonderland this fall) Finally, a special thanks to Laurent for his delicious fall stew and for firing the pottery we made from our Bangladesh study!
Someday, I will actually visit the lavender fields in Provence. In the meantime, next stop — Guatemala.
With Halloween only two days away, I thought I would post instructions for a super easy last minute Pirate costume. My daughter and I made her version of the costume to wear to the Harbor Festival in Wickford Village earlier this fall. This costume involves no sewing and can be completed in less than 10 minutes, so it is great for a last minute costume party!
Materials Needed:
2 old t-shirts
36″ of ribbon
scissors
Optional:
Pirate Hat
Old Skirt
eye patch
head scarf
Instructions
Cut t-shirts along green dotted lines as shown in the photo below. The first t-shirt will be the “Pirate Vest”; the 2nd t-shirt will be the undergarment
Place vest over the undergarment
Lace ribbon through the holes in the vest as if you were lacing a shoe
You now have your complete pirate shirt!
Cut Along Green Dotted Lines
Closeup of Pirate Vest
Variations & Tips
This method can be used for either a child or adult; for adult, you may want longer ribbon for the ties
Use a white undergarment, black vest and red ribbon for a real “piratey” effect
Instead of a pirate hat, pair the costume with a headscarf and be a gypsy!
Cut a square neck on the vest for a different effect
Make more or fewer holes for the lacings for different effects
For a boy, use the same design, but do not cut holes for the lace up ribbon; leave the vest plain
I found that smaller size t-shirt work better since they stretch out when cut
And, since you are in the Pirate mood, here is some fun Rhode Island Pirate history for you. Have fun dressing up!
We really had fun with “Egyptian Week”. Needless to say, everyone wanted to study ancient Egypt rather than modern Egypt. Although, we talked about pyramids, the sphinx, mummies and Egyptian gods, we also learned about ancient Egyptian homes, cuisine, and clothing. Here are a few interesting facts that we learned this week:
Ancient Egyptians used honey to help wounds heal and help prevent infections
Beer and bread were staples in the Ancient Egyptian diet
In the Old Kingdom Egyptians were even paid in food
Some authorities credit ancient Egypt as being the birth place of modern medicine
I checked a book out of the library called Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors, an Activity Guide by Marian Broida which had crafts and activities associated with almost every aspect of ancient life. I definitely recommend it. The book covered everything from daily living and food to religion and the afterlife. Based on the book’s instructions, we made a model Egyptian courtyard (just the right size for Polly Pocket), made a mummy out of Pink Bear, made our own Egyptian costumes, wrote in hieroglyphics and baked fig bread.
Model of an Ancient Egyptian Courtyard Garden
Pink Bear as a Mummy
Ancient Egyptian Dress
We also did a night of Egyptian cuisine. The pictures don’t do the food justice — it was actually really tasty! Our menu consisted of Egyptian Beef and Okra Stew over rice (yes, another excuse to use the okra in my garden), hummus, pomegranate, and fig bread.
Since we’re still working on “Around the World in 52 Weeks”, I thought this They Might Be Giants video would be a perfect theme song. Although we’re not doing the exact same list, we’re certainly covering a lot of them. I just hope we can make it through to Zimbabwe… (On a side note, this was the encore at their Sept. 26 show at Town Hall in NYC – awesome!)
We didn’t find any books on Dominica in the children’s section of the library, so we did all of our research on the “Nature Island” online.
Dominica - The Nature Island
I have to admit, looking at pictures of this gorgeous Caribbean island made me want to schedule a vacation RIGHT NOW! The things that most impressed the kids about Dominica is that fact that it has 16 active volcanoes, a boiling lake, and is surrounded by beautiful marine-life. And, as Jon pointed out, there is amazing kayaking to be found.
In the spirit of Dominica, we decided to create our own volcanic island in our backyard. As luck would have it, I left the top off the sandbox right before a rainstorm, so we had a large box of sand and water right at our finger tips. We made a mountain out of the sand, surrounded by our ‘ocean’. The core of our volcano was a bottle (Pilsner Urquell left of from Czech week!), and we used paprika to make our lava appear red. Then, we just added some baking soda, poured in some vinegar, and voila! A volcanic island! Yes, I did spend the next 45 minutes bailing out the sandbox so that we did not end up with 0ur own ecological disaster.
Building our volcano
Pouring the vinegar
Kaboom! Lava flow!
After looking at pictures of tropical fish, turtles and other sea life, we decided to do an ocean-themed craft. We actually combined the concept of traditional basket weaving and marine life to make these cute woven-paper fish. They were fun to make, and Deirdre was able to do most of the cutting on her own, although she needed some help with the weaving. Jonah decorated his fish like a ‘robot fish’. I’ve included some instructions to make your own.
A School of Fish
Cut 2 Rectangles
Cut into strips, leaving about 1/2 uncut at the edge
Use basket weave technique to weave together your 2 pieces
Alternate weave until all pieces are woven together
I'm Rebecca Hamilton Stockdill and iceblueberries is my creative alter ego. This blog is a fun way to showcase my own projects, my kids' creativity, as well as that of my friends (virtual and actual!). I happily live in Warwick, Rhode Island with my husband, 2 kids, 3 kitties, and 3 hermit crabs. A special thanks to my husband, Jon, for having the patience to set up this site for me!
I'm Rebecca Hamilton Stockdill and iceblueberries is my creative alter ego. This blog is a fun way to showcase my own projects, my kids' creativity, as well as that of my friends (virtual and actual!). I happily live in Warwick, Rhode Island with my husband, 2 kids, 3 kitties, and 3 hermit crabs. A special thanks to my husband, Jon, for having the patience to set up this site for me!