Teacher Gift - Pencil Scarf Pattern Review

With the kids back in school they have already lovingly shared their germs and there has been a nasty cold floating around our house this week.  It has not been conducive with my crafting time unfortunately so I wanted to share with you a little scarf I crocheted a couple years ago for a teacher in our family.  This would make a great teacher gift this winter if you are in the market.

The pattern is available to members of Ravelry for free, so the yarn and your time is all it will cost you.  The pattern can be found here. 

The pattern is easy to follow and I think even a relative newbie to crochet could conquer this scarf.  I did, however, make a few changes to mine just for added detail.  I added ridges along the length of the pencil using front post treble crochet, and I added ribbing to the silver part near the eraser.  The recipient of the scarf loved it. 

This is the only photo I have of it on this computer, but I think you can get the idea.  :)

Wild & Wonderful Origami Book Review

My 6-year-old son has had a mild obsession with origami since we checked some books out from the library a while back.  The library books were a huge fail as they were very confusing directions for us.  Having never attempted origami I needed some pictures that showed more step-by-step instead of just a bunch of arrows and words.  When little man saw this book in the store he begged me to buy it so we could give it another shot.  Having a 40% off coupon I gave in.

First off, this book comes with 50 pages of origami paper that is already colored and with faces, etc. for the animals to be made in this book which made this more fun for them, so I give the book an A+ on that front!

The pictures in the book are MUCH more helpful than the ones I experienced from the library books.  They have a difficulty level grade at the top of each project page, too, which helped.  We started with the lowest level possible.

Even though the instructions were much easier to follow my little man was still too overwhelmed to try them on his own, so he had me make some for him.  I think tomorrow I will have him try with me.  He was so excited about the little animals that we made today that he carried them to his grandma's to show them off.

I think this book did a lot of things right in making origami more attainable to the inexperienced, and to children.  Depending on the age of your child, though, this may not be a craft you can just sit your child down with for independent play.  It would make a good family bonding experience, though.  Little man has already made requests for what he wants us to make tomorrow.  I think we will get our money's worth out of this book.

Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket - Pattern Review

After a very long and painful wait trying to adopt, my cousin finally got word she was going to get a baby girl.  I had already had my eye on a few patterns for a baby blanket for her when the time came, so I pulled up all my bookmarked patterns and looked through the yarn I had trying to decide which was right for her.  I am a member of www.ravelry.com and I got the Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket pattern by Celeste Young from Ravelry as a free download.  If you crochet or knit and you are not a member of that site, go join now.  :) 

I found the pattern to be very easy to follow.  It was well written and all the stitch counts came out correctly.  I changed up the color combinations and the number of rows per color to fit my own color palette, and that was not difficult to do either.  I used cotton yarn which made it very soft.  I got a lot of compliments on this afghan and my cousin has used the afghan in several of this sweet baby's portraits since her birth 5 months ago.

Don't you just want to squeeze her!!