Easy-to-Make Friendship Bracelets

Lately I've been meeting up with long, lost friends with little to no advanced notice. I'm a person who likes to give gifts to my loved ones and I prefer that those little gifts are handmade. But with my crazy schedule, it's become harder and harder to make something in a short amount of time, that I'd actually want to give away.

 

Since I usually travel with a knitting fork in my purse and recently visited an ADORABLE yarn & fabric store (while meeting a friend who gave ME a handmade gift) I knew it was time to make better use of ANY downtime I had... which at most, is about 10 minutes in a day. So while I inhaled ate my lunch yesterday, I took the two new balls of yarn I'd picked up at Brooklyn General and sat down to crank out some friendship bracelets. Are these the bracelets we all learned to make in grade school? No. These are way easier! And if you can get a couple colors of lovely yarn (on sale) they are a fantastic gift to give in a pinch. I dare say you could make them while walking to your impromptu coffee date!

For those of you familiar with my radmegan knitting fork video on youtube, you will recognize this as the second method I teach in that clip.

If you haven't watched it, it's MUCH easier for you to take a few moments, check out the second technique I demo in that video, and then meet me back here.

Back already? Hi! 

My favorite part of that process is knitting a few stitches of the yarn on the fork and leaving it all bunched up.

Then, after about 12-15 stitches, I take the tail end of the yarn and pull.

Seeing the chain unfold is one of those small things in life that just makes me really happy. Like like trampolines and baby hedgehogs; it doesn't take that much.

 

As soon as I've got a strand long enough to fit around a wrist (between 6 and 8 inches depending on the size of your friend), I snip the yarn.

 

I carefully slip the two loops off the tines of the knitting fork....

...and weave the yarn end through the loops. When you pull the yarn end tight, it won't unravel.

Depending on how many bracelets you want to make for your friends, you can either tie a square knot with each end of your knitted strand, or stack a few bracelets and knot them together all at once.

 

Tying the yarn ends of your bracelets together might seem risky, but as long as you are generally close to your friends' wrist size, your yarn should have enough give in it to slip on and off of their wrist. 

 

For this project, I paired a charcoal gray color with an almost neon chartreuse. I was pleased and surprised how well they went together and look forward to experimenting with more color and yarn weight combos.

Each bracelet literally took me just a few minutes. I'm going to start making piles of these during phone calls, commercial breaks and while in line at the post office.

The bottom line is, it'll be a long time before I let myself run into a friend empty handed!

Garden Gazpacho: The BEST Summer Soup

Looking for something to do with all those lovely, ripe tomatoes in you garden?

 

I was too.

And then the heavens parted, and Aida Mollenkamp posted THIS recipe for Pretty. Easy. Tomato. Gazpacho online!

The only things I did differently in my version were, A.) I did NOT push my soup through a metal sieve. Call me lazy, it was still tasty.

B.) I sprinkled sheep's milk cheese on top when I served it, because...

C.) I added an entire extra head of garlic in my version and the bite of garlic was sooo good and strong, that I needed a leeeeeetle bit of creaminess to counter it.

We ate this gazpacho three nights in a row. And we are not people who like to each the exact same thing every day. Thank you Aida!

Photo Saturday: Vienna, Austria Juxtaposition

When I was in Vienna last year, I saw this reflection in a shop window. I loved the Juxtaposition of old and new. I miss you Austria.

Craft Wars: The Etsy Treasury

Craft Wars may be over, LOTS of the contestants are on etsy! Get to know some of your favorites from the show a little better with this Etsy Treasury!

Concrete Planter Workshop THIS WEEKEND in Santa Ana, CA

I'm teaching my Concrete Planter Workshop THIS WEEKEND at Road Less Traveled, in Santa Ana, CA from 10am-12:30pm.  Call the RLT at 714.836.8727 to sign up- Space is limited!

Super Gigantic Craft Wars Give-Away!!!

OK, SO! This Tuesday (Aug 21), TLC is airing the LAST TWO episodes of Craft Wars! The first episode, "Blinded by the Light" airs at 8/7c pm and a SECOND episode "Pilgrim Plumbing" will air with a special guest host (Producer Steve Piacenza) at 11/10c pm. To celebrate, the Craft Wars producers, Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza are hosting a super gigantic giveaway!

 

The grand-prize package is worth $800 and is chock full of supplies and goodies! There are also 5 bonus prizes, provided by the some of us Craft Wars contestants (known as #CraftWarsVets) worth more than $150.

Take a peek at some of the Grand-Prize goodies!

The Grand-Prize Total= over $800

Here's some of the Bonus-Prize loot- made by real, live Craft Wars vets!

Over $155 goodies!! 

TO ENTER THIS CONTEST:

Leave a comment below telling me 
what you want to craft next!
Make sure you leave your email address so that we can contact you if you WIN!
Open to US residents only.

For Additional Entries:

Twitter shot-outs with a link - @cathiefilian #craftgiveaway = 1 entry

Facebook shares with a link = 1 entry

More Additional Entries:

Between now and Tuesday....The following Craft Wars Vets will be posting about the show.  Leave a comment on their CRAFT WARS posts to enter.  Not all the posts are live yet...so keep checking back to enter.  A comment counts as an entry!

radmegan (Megan Andersen) Hi. That's me.
Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter (Margot Potter)
HandMAKE My Day (Andrea Currie)
All Things Luci Rae (Traci Remley)
Lisa Liza Lou (Lisa Fulmer)

Ten Seconds Studio (Megan Darrow)

Liddy B. and Me! (Cheryl Burchett)

Nikki In Stitches (Nickki McGonigal)

Foo Foo La La (Pattye Duffner)

Mindful Making (Marylena Sevigney) 

 

Cathie & Steve will answer all your questions on Twitter Here #craftwars @cathiefilian and Facebook Here.

And for goodness sake, after commenting below (with your email address and what you want to craft next!) don't forget to visit Cathie's blog, as well as all the other Craft Wars vets (listed above) to improve your odds of winning!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

Photo Saturday: Blooming Stanhopea

About two years ago, I went to the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate with my husband and some friends. While there, a display of the most beautiful and fragrant orchids were in full bloom. Needless to say, I am a sucker for a fragrant orchid, and if the flower is unique looking, all the better! I left with a Stanhopea tigrina 'Glory Of Mexico', AM/AOS. Admittedly, I was hoping it would flower later that year. Nothing. The next year? Nothing. So when two flower spikes started to push through the moss of my planter this summer, I was overjoyed. The flower was more interesting than I had remembered, and smelled of Jackfruit and honeysuckle. 

  

I brought the plant inside to show my husband when he returned home from work that evening. When he arrived, our bathroom had filled with the intoxicating smell of honey. I hope this orchid blooms again for me next year, but even it I only get flowers every 2-3 years from this plant, I still think it's worth it.