Booties

I decided to get creative and try to make up a new pattern for booties. So far all I have is the sole.
  I'm not even sure about the colors. My mom says they look a like a carrot. But at least you should be able to find them if you're in a hurry.
I was going for something gender neutral so I could give the prototype to whichever family member has a child next.

  Why make a new pattern, you ask? Because the other one took too long to make. My cousin had twins a few years ago and I wasn't able to make both pairs before the shower; I ended up having to ship them a week later. I'd rather not have to do that again.
  I've been stuck trying to figure out what type of stich I should make the top part out of. I think I'm going to have to just bite the bullet and make one. I'm leaning towards a slip stich pattern like this pair of socks I made that my mom loves.

Sorry I didn't post for a couple of weeks, I've been working on getting ready for school. Classes start on the 28th assuming we're not underwater. Hopefully it won't be that bad.
      Have a bat-tastic day everyone!

Hair Barrette

  I've become rather enamored with the type of hair barrettes that use a hair stick and a piece of metal or fabric to hold your hair back. Right now I am trying to make my own with knitting. I have three versions in mind - I don't have the yarn for one right now, but I hope to remedy that soon.- I have the prototype for the 'original' done and have finished alpha testing it.

  The hair sticks are holding me up. I tried to dye them by soaking them in green food dye, water, and vinegar; thinking it wouldn't rub off that way, and that it would be easy to dye a bunch at once. But while it did dye them and the dye was a beautiful shade of green, the sticks are little weird looking. The are a lot paler in person then in the photo. I'm not sure if I want to go with it or not. 


P.S. I finished the shorts. They are a little long. But I only plan on wearing them around the house. Not bad considering I didn't have a pattern. Next I will be making pairs out of some fabric I bought. (The shorts I showed you were made from some fabric my grandmother gave me.)  But I won't be using a invisible hem for the others. Such a pain!    
 

                Thank you from reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Heart of Hearts Earrings

  I finally learned to solder! (sort of) I'll solder one together in one minute and the next will take me fifteen. So I still need some practice. But I'm getting there and I only ruined two heart pendants practicing.  After ruining two pendants I tried just wrapping wire to hold them together, but it wasn't very secure so I went back to soldering. I liked the wire wrapped look, so I wrap them after soldering.

  I shape the metal using a plastic jig, but I'm probably going to end up making one out of a piece of scrap wood and some finishing nails. The plastic pegs have a tendency to fall out at inopportune times. I shaped my first prototype by hand using my jewelry pliers, but that took forever and was going to drive me insane. Not the good kind of insane like I am now, either. (Yes, this is the good kind.)

  As you can probably guess, I fund the sparkly beads first and came up with the rest of the earrings later. I love sparkly beads, but have a heck of a time taking photos that accurately  show their colors. The crystal ones are especially hard, because they blend into a white background and pick up colors from other backgrounds.
 

   Now I'm not really a cutesy heart kind of girl, but even I like these earrings. I'm thinking of making a necklace version of this.

  The outer hearts are made of silver plated copper wire hand shaped into a stylized heart. The inner ones are sparkly glass beads in your choice of Fire (red with green specks in certain lights) or Ice (Clear with blue, yellow and pink tones). And the ear wires are stainless steel. The entire piece is 1 3/4" from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the metal heart and is 1 5/16" wide at it's widest point.        
Buy yours here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/175930177/heart-of-hearts-earrings-in-fire-or-ice?ref=shop_home_active_1

                           Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

  St. Patrick's day is Sunday. I wish I could dye my hair green, but I can't find a dye that works without having to bleach my hair first and I really don't like the idea of bleaching. It took me a while to get rid of my split ends and I can't see risking inviting them back (or risking my hair falling out) just for a day of green hair. I've had some luck with "Beyond the Zone" hair spray, but that gets everywhere.

Here  is a recipe for "Blarney Stones" I got from The Houston Chronicle. It's really just a cake with chopped up peanuts on top, but it's good and kind of festive for St. Patrick's Day.

 Blarney Stones
4 eggs
1 cup four
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
                                           Frosting 
1 cup butter
1egg yoke (from the 4 eggs mentioned earlier)
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1teaspoon vanilla extract
Green food dye  (optional)
Chopped salted peanuts

  Separate egg yolks reserving one for the icing. Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside. Beat the three egg yolks until thick and gradually add sugar. Alternating between dry ingredients and boiling water; add to egg yolk mixture. (Start and end with dry.) Add vanilla and beat well. Fold in egg whites. Spray a 8" by 13" (20.32cm by 33.02cm) pan with non stick cooking spray and pour in batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 325 F (162 C). Let cool
   Frosting:
  Mix butter and egg yolk. Gradually add powder sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and enough food dye for desired color. Frost cooled cake and sprinkle with peanuts. 


 I made it last year but didn't take a photo, so I included a picture of my Four Leaf Cover Bracelet. Here is a link to the Etsy ad: https://www.etsy.com/listing/126522761/four-leaf-clover-bracelet

      Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!






 

Four leaf clover choker

I like St. Patrick's Day. Every year I wear as much green as possible.
  I thought it would be cool if I could make earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet to wear on St. Patrick's Day. I'm still working on the bracelet, but I should have it posted by Friday. 
 I also like knitted chokers so I thought I'd combine the two. Unfortunately, I don't like to (nor am I good at) embroidering knitting and I couldn't find a pattern for color working four leaf clovers in any of my books or the ones at the library. So I thought to myself 'Well I'll just make a pattern, that's how all these other patterns started out.'

   I stated by doodling four leaf clovers out of small circles until I fund one I liked. Next I cast on about 12  stiches (just enough for there to be at lest two stitches framing the clover) and tried to knit it. Of course this first one didn't look that great, and was far too large, so I made a few changes to the picture and tried again. After eight tries I finally fond one that looked like a clover and wasn't so wide that it made you look like you had a short, fat neck. 
  This probably would have been easier if I had used graphing paper, But I don't have any and don't plan on buying any.

It is 14" long and 1" wide (not stretched) and costs $16. Convo me with your order if you want a different size. The yarn is 100% acrylic. View the entire listing and buy your own here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/118288635/four-leaf-clover-choker-necklace

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!