Facebook

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I posted here. Just wanted to put it out there that LaTina Steele Designs now has a Facebook page! Feel free to click the Like button over there on my sidebar ;-)

Breakfast!

I'm not sure this qualifies as "crafty," but I'm posting it here anyway. We've been experiencing cooler than normal temperatures here in Mobile this week, after Tropical Storm Lee, and it has me craving all things pumpkin. So this morning I'm making Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins for breakfast. I modified a recipe from Allrecipes.com to make these amazing fall breakfast treats.

I started using my modified version of this recipe last fall, and Max LOVES them. They were the first muffins he ever liked, and are by far his favorite muffins. And they have veggies in them, so I definitely win.

Here's my version:

• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 vegetable oil (I used canola)
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. canned pumpkin
• 1/4 c. water
• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 3/4 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
  
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 F, and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl. In another large bowl, mix sugar, oil, and eggs then add pumpkin and water (I use a wire whisk and mix everything by hand). Stir in the dry ingredients then mix in the chocolate chips. Evenly divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups (each one will be almost full) and bake for 20 minutes.

Elephants in Stripes!

I've already posted a photo of this little guy on Twitter, but I decided to share him here as well. Last month, I got a really fun, creative request from an Etsy customer. She was looking for an elephant for her son that matched a favorite outfit. She sent me a picture of the stripe pattern on the shirt, and this is what I created for her:



































I can't even begin to tell you how pleased I am with the final product. He turned out So Cute. The customer thought so, too, and she sent me a photo of her son holding his new elephant and wearing the matching outfit. I totally gave myself props for doing an excellent job matching both the colors and the varying widths of the stripes. The photo was pricelessly adorable (I won't share that here, for obvious reasons).

As I was knitting the multicolor elephant, Max decided that he wanted me to make him an elephant, too. First, he said he wanted a blue elephant. Then he wanted a yellow one. Then he wanted a red one. When the red choice seemed to stick, I started on Max's elephant. And of course, as three year olds do, Max changed his mind mid-knit and decided he wanted red and blue. So this is what he got:
























































After complaining a bit about the addition of the blue stripes ("But I didn't want blue, too!"), Max decided that he LOVES his new elephant, and it has replaced Tigger as his favorite sleeping buddy.

After the success of the striped elephants I've completed, I'm thinking about making another one in a 3 or 4 color combo to include in my Etsy shop. I just have to decide on the color combo.

In the meantime, I've started working on a new design, which I'll probably tweak a bit, but for now I have listed Penny the Pig in my Etsy shop.

New Design for a New Baby

My boss/friend/undergraduate advisor is adopting a baby, so I decided to knit her a baby gift. A while back, I made the garden snail from Hansi Singh's Amigurumi Knits. While I was pleased with my final product, the snail was actually a huge pain in the ass to knit. Here is how my garden snail turned out:
















Way cute, right? But it took FOREVER to complete, which is something you don't really expect form an "amigurumi" knit. I don't really have the patience for that kind of knitting very often, so I decided to try my hand at writing my own snail pattern - in a way that is much simpler than Hansi Singh's version, not to mention light years quicker to knit.

I completed my snail this morning, and I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out:

































I think that my boss/friend/undergraduate advisor is going to love it. It doesn't even remotely resemble the conch (which she's spent a lot of time researching in her career) that inspired to me to make a snail for her new baby, but then again, it wasn't really supposed to. Maybe next time.

Valentine's Socks...with a Twist

I haven't made these socks yet and, seeing as Valentine's day is in two days, I definitely don't have time to make them in time for Valentine's day this year. But I fell in love with this pattern the moment I saw it, and now I desperately want to make a pair for myself. They're called My Vampire Boyfriend Socks, and the pattern is available for free from Knitty.

I just so happen to have a skein of gorgeous red sock yarn... that is too fine a weight for this pattern. So I'll need to procure some more appropriate yarn to make these beauties. I have quite a stash of sock yarn, including several skeins of fingering/sock weight that would be great in this pattern - I just really love that red, and I don't have it. So it looks like I'll be placing another order from Knit Picks soon. Darn...

Featuring.... Me!

Thanks to Jocelyn from The Nesting Spot on Etsy, I recently discovered that my Etsy shop was featured on babble.com's Family Style blog. You can view the article that featured my shop here. Free advertising, woo!

Since being featured in Family Style, I have received tons of orders, and my shop is seeing way more traffic than usual. Which is, of course, a good thing. My biggest fear right now is not being able to knit toys fast enough (not that I ever have as much time for knitting as I would like...).

Speaking of toys... I've just finished two new designs for spring.

Danny the Duck - he was one of the toys featured on babble.com. The first one sold quickly, and I'm knitting another one as fast as I can.

















Next up: Rascal the Rabbit, a tiny bunny sized for Easter baskets (he's about 8 inches from the tip of his ears to the bottom of his legs, his body is about 4 inches without ears or legs).



















I have plans to make a larger rabbit by modifying my teddy bear pattern. Now I just have to find the time.

Cotty Socks

Oh, hello there. I am such a bad, neglectful blogger. I mentioned a while back that I was working on a pair of Cotty socks using Kollage Yarns Sock-a-licious. Well, I finally finished them. On New Year's Eve. What perfect timing. These socks were my last project of 2010. Feast your eyes:



































I can't say enough good things about this yarn, either. It's a blend of wool, silk, and nylon (which is not cheap), and these socks are like heaven on my feet. Happy New Year to me.