A Real BIG Baby!

I just completed my over-sized Woolly Snowbaby and am very pleased. The original size of a felted snowbaby is 5-inches. The photo below shows the two sizes side-by-side.

 

two sizes of snowbabies

The little snowbaby used one strand of sport weight yarn and the large snowbaby, two strands of Cascade 220 worsted weight, #8010, and one strand of Frog Tree Alpaca cream sport weight yarn. The two yarns together created a wonderfully felted snowman! 

I used real twigs clipped from my crab-apple tree for arms. I held them in place by poking them into a small block of styrofoam placed within the snowbaby's interior. This worked slick! 
After having completed the arms this way, my first reaction is that I like him more withOUT the arms, but I wanted to have a photo to show with.

I didn't fill the snowbaby up with plastic poly-pellets like I usually do because of the size. I am planning on sticking a stone inside to give that extra weight, then sewing a circle of felt over the hole to finish off the bottom. 

For the eyes, instead of the usual french knots, I embroidered several small stitches using worsted weight black yarn. Then I added a single stitch using DMC white floss to create a highlight dot.

The nose is red wool roving needle felted into a round ball and attached to the snowbaby's face. The cheeks are small bits of pink roving again needle felted to the face.

I love this size snowbaby! so many fun possibilities for outfits, hats and accessories! let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Happy knitting!

A Little Bit of Blarney!

woolly leprechaun

Every year I need to introduce my little leprechaun to those that might not know him yet. He is created using the Woolly Gnome & Mushroom pattern and a few changes. For those that don't know, I have a free PDF download with all the changes for turning your little gnome into a little leprechaun. For that download and others, go to my website, Marie Mayhew Designs.

woolly mushroom

To help celebrate Saint Paddy's day, I found a fun snack mix with a bit of a twist, Thin Mint Puppy Chow! The recipe is adapted from the blog, Shugary Sweet. I made a few changes to include ingredients I could find in my local grocery store.


thin mint puppy chow

16 ounce chocolate Candiquik (for making almond bark)
4 ounces mint chocolate chips
a drop or two of peppermint extract, optional
2 cups powdered sugar
box of Crispix cereal
1 bag (8 ounce) mint M&M's (could never find these)

1) In the microwave, melt chocolates together for one minute, stir and continue melting in 30 second intervals until smooth.

2) Empty the box of cereal in a large mixing bowl. Pour melted chocolate mixture over cereal and gently fold until the cereal is good and coated.

3) Add the powdered sugar to an empty brown grocery bag. Spoon in the chocolate cereal mixture. Seal the bag and shake well until the powdered sugar has coated the cereal completely. Pour the mixture onto a cookie sheet and allow it to cool for about 20 minutes. Combine green M&M's with cereal, if you can find them, and serve. Enjoy!

My kids loved this minty puppy chow! My daughter brought it to her youth group and one young man ate most of it. He said that typically he can't eat puppy chow because he has peanut allergies and most recipes call for peanut butter. This recipe contains no peanut butter.

Happy knitting!