Ice Cream Sandwiches for Ben

Several months ago, I began crocheting and knitting play food for my daughter.  A few of my friends had come over to visit, and saw the food, thinking it was cool (and that I needed to get a life).  Later, I e-mailed one of them, and asked if there was something specific her son would like, as he was particularly taken with the toys.  So she asked him what he'd like, and I decided to make them for him for his birthday.  One of the items he wanted was his favorite frozen treat, ice cream sandwiches.  So I browsed Ravelry to see what was there, but unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for.  A challenge!  Aha!!  So... I made my own pattern.  Not that it was particularly difficult--it is all flat crochet--but I'm rather tickled that it turned out so nicely.  I made him three so that he could share sandwiches with his parents, and then I thought that it needed special presentation, so I also made up a box for them.  Yeah, I'm geeky that way.

Anyway, here are Ben's Ice Cream Sandwiches, a free pattern I share with anyone who likes them!

Supplies:

• Worsted weight yarn in white/cream and dark brown.  I don't know the quantities, but it was not a lot--remnants, leftover bits, etc.  I know I used Vanna's Choice yarns, however.  I like their loft and lack of "squeak" when you use them.
• Size E hook (3.5mm)
• 1" foam (I used a pre-cut chair pad foam from Jo-Ann's) cut into 3 1/2" x 1 3/4" rectangles

Sandwich cookie top and bottom: (make two for each sandwich)

With brown yarn, chain 14

1.  Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each sc across.  Ch 1, turn (13 sts).

2-5.  Sc in each sc across, ch 1, turn (13).

6. sc in next 12 sc, 3 sc in 13th sc, do not chain or turn.  Continue sc across ends of the other rows, spacing 4 sc across, 3 sc in corner stitch, then sc in each ch across.  3 sc in first ch, space 4 sc across row ends, 3 sc in last stitch, 1 sc in each of the next 13 sc.  Tie off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Ice Cream Filling: (make one for each sandwich)

With white yarn, chain 5

1. Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each sc across.  Ch 1, turn (4)

2-48.  Sc in each sc across, ch 1, turn (4).

49.  Sc in each sc across, tie off, leaving an 8" tail for sewing.

Assembly:

Bury starting tail of ice cream filling.  Using the tail at the end of the stitching, sew the short ends of the filling together, creating a loop (be careful not to twist the stitching!).  Bury the tail and set aside.

Bury starting tail of sandwich cookie top and bottom.  Before stitching the filling and the sandwich cookies together, I made a stitch in the next sc top loops to make a smooth finish on the cookie edge.  To do this, I thread the yarn through a tapestry needle and then pass the needle under the top loops of the next crochet stitch.  I then take the needle back down into the same place that I started, making it look like the rest of the top loops.  I also like to take a little tack stitch unobtrusively in the crocheted fabric as a kind of "knot", securing the tension of that little stitch, and ensuring I won't pull it too much when I start the regular stitching.  Anyway, bring your needle up to the nearest corner and set it aside.

At this point, I put the foam rectangles in the loop of filling stitches, aligning the stitched corner with a corner of the foam, and keep it there.  It gives me a better idea of how the stitches need to be aligned as I sew it.  Place the cookie part on top, and whipstitch the edge of the cookie to the top edge of the filling.  After you finish stitching, tie off and hide the tail.

The tricky part is getting the top and bottom pieces to line up properly, which just means paying close attention to how things are lined up.  My first sandwich was just a bit off, and the sides looked a little wonky as a result.  The second two turned out better.  I found that I was expecting the second corners to end further than they really did, so I needed to start the corner stitching a stitch or two sooner.  If that makes ANY sense...  These were fun, quick, and easy!  Now my daughter wants some...  Sigh....

I also have the file for the box, if anyone wants that.  I completely made it up in Publisher.  :)  Just print it on cardstock, cut it out, fold and tape/glue the sides. 

Baby fun

Several weeks ago, I made my sister some hats and booties for the new baby, my nephew Milo.  Today she posted the cutest pictures of him in one of the outfits...I had to share:



 

Too bad the pattern was only for an infant size!!  Isn't he a cutie?  Well, in a grumpy-old-man kind of way...

Bleuette has cold feet

Ok...just a quick one, because I want to go to bed before midnight.

A few weeks ago, I was prowling through my Yahoo boards, and found a few knit/crochet patterns on my Bleuette Sewing Board that I thought I'd try.  The first one was a slipper--the same kind of slipper I had as a kid!  So...I had to make up a pair. 

 

(I really need to de-clutter my sewing table when I take pictures...)

I was tickled with how these turned out, and immediately made a pair to send to my mom.  The yarn I used here is "Willow Tweed" by Louisa Harding Yarns...lovely stuff:  40% Alpaca, 40% Merino, and 20% silk.  This is kind of a light greenish-teal/fern with cream-colored slubs/nubbies.  I have planned a robe and nightgown around some beautiful fine cotton shirting I got at Fabric Depot (aka Fabric Mecca) in Vancouver, Wa.  It has a pretty striped pattern in fine lines of fern green and white.  So...the nightgown is the 1915 Chemise de Nuit (pictured below), in white swiss batiste with coordinating feather stitching details (as the pattern shows) .  I was going to do the bathrobe Robe de Chambre 1911, but the pattern I have is missing the belt, and the collar doesn't fit the back of the robe properly as written, so I need to do some tweaking before I make that up.  The robe would be in the stripe, with white collar and cuffs with the chain-stitch embroidery indicated.  (I just checked the original pattern...and discovered that the belt is not a pattern, but simply instructions to embroider a particular length of fabric with the wavy pattern and stitch it into a belt...I guess it would help to read the pattern, huh?  Then again, it is in French, and I only know French sewing terms, not the language itself!)

    

There is a prettier robe de chambre later, in the 20's I think, that I may do instead.  I don't know...most of the early dressing gowns were pretty utilitarian.  And the embroidery on the collar and cuffs is a pain in the thimble, let me tell you!!  I have embroidered three sets of them so far (one for my mom's Christmas Bleuette Trousseau, and two to sell), and it is some finicky work.  I did it on batiste with a single strand of 6-strand DMC floss...will have to post pictures of the embroidery sometime.  Hmm...  Maybe that will be my next post--embroidery for dolls.  I like it!

Anyway...love the little slippers...will definitely have to make more. 

Until later...

Getting into gear

Now that I'm off for the summer, I have been working on multiple little projects, kind of getting myself primed for bigger projects later.  We're going on a trip to Idaho in 2 1/2 weeks, so I don't want to get too involved with any big projects. 

SO, with that in mind...here are some things I've made in the last few days...

I love Bleuette dolls, and have recently purchased a doll bed for my girls.  I thought I'd make the bedspread/blanket published in La Semaine de Suzette in both 1906 and 1917.  The translated instructions did not give me any guidance regarding yarn size or hook, so...I had some lovely rose-colored Cascade Yarns Heritage sock/fingering yarn, and used a size 3 steel hook (although a US C hook would have worked, it seemed a bit large for the yarn).  I happily crocheted away, and when I got about halfway through the main part of the blanket, I realized that there was no way this would be long enough for my doll bed, let alone be useful for a Bleuette.  Sigh...  Me and wanting things to be delicate and not "hurky".  But rather than give up and toss it, I finished it (although I made it longer than the pattern calls for...it was just too short), and decided to see if it might work on one of my other doll beds:

And it does!  This is a Strombecker doll bed (actually half of a bunk bed set) that has no bedding on it.  I keep meaning to make bedding for it...hmm...  Maybe this is the excuse I need?  I thought I'd make the second bed's blanket in cream (I have that colorway in the same yarn), and then run ecru/cream ribbon through the pink blanket, and pink ribbon through the cream blanket.  Not matching, but coordinated. 

Here is the original pattern image: 


And here is my finished blanket:

 

I have not yet blocked the blanket--I will do that soon.  I've got too much crap on my ironing board at the moment to do that.

As for my Bleuette bed, well...it is a double-sized bed, so the blanket looked completely ridiculous on it!  I think I'll find a nice DK yarn (hmm...an excuse to go yarn shopping!) and maybe enlarge the central section of the blanket to fit the bed's dimensions.  The Strombecker furniture is for 8" dolls, like Wendy, Ginny, and all my little Kish girlies. 

Sigh...must clean up the sewing room...I've got too much stuff in disarray again...

What I'm working on now!

Let's see...I just bought some crochet patterns on Etsy (I love CraftyAnna!) to make some toys for my daughter, and for my newest nephew, who hasn't arrived yet.  I also bought yarn to make some of the things I've already printed.  I've been on a bit of a yarn kick lately--crocheting things, mostly.  My grandma taught me to crochet when I was 8, so now, when I am in my early 40s, I can crochet "like the wind", so to speak.  I can knit, but it takes longer, and sometimes I get frustrated with it.  I like short-term knitting projects!  Hats, socks, that kind of thing. 

On my desk, I have a dish of beads, lucite flower beads in bags that I just took out of their shipping envelope, a collection of items I've recently made and need to be photographed and posted on Etsy, beads that I recently dug up and need to do something with, and a bunch of other stuff that I need to clean up and organize.  But...I'm tired and have a sinus headache, so...I'm going to take a shower and then go downstairs, plunk myself in my comfy chair, and break out the yarn--hmm...which project will I start today?  I'm thinking some baby shoes/booties for my sister's baby.  I downloaded an adorable free project for sea monster booties, and I think they'd be a hit!  I also bought a sock monkey hat and booties pattern, and want to start that, too.  Oh, the decisions!!  But it will be nice to put my feet up.

Spent the weekend with my parents.  My mom came out for the Sewing Expo in Puyallup this weekend, so we did a whirlwind afternoon tour of the show, and came home with tired feet and sore backs, but lots of goodies!  Maybe I'll post a list of them later.  On Saturday, I took my parents around for a drive through areas that are changing around here since they moved.  We went to Trader Joe's, had lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place (very good food), went grocery shopping, then mom and I had our hair cut.  THEN we went back out to a scrapbooking store that we had passed which had posted 50-70% off Going-out-of-Buisness sale (where I spent almost $100...but what a deal!!), followed by a trip to Michael's so that I could pick up some yarn for the patterns I'd bought.  It was 6 pm by the time we got home, exhausted. 

I spent most of the morning snoozing in my chair while my daughter played, the dog barked, and the husband took care of things.  He knew I was pooped!  :)  Maybe I can get him to take us out to dinner tonight?  Hmm....

Anyway, I think he's out of the shower now.  My turn!  Kidlet's still napping...woohoo!!