Star Trek Crono-Trek was my great discovery at the end of the summer. What a great way to wrap up an adventure packed summer! I failed at posting any Selfie Sundays this summer, so I’m going to just share some highlights today.
| Art, Craft Tutorial, Crafts, Kids, Medieval
DIY medieval banners make a fun craft for a themed party, a rainy day, or a medieval reenactment event. Kids and adults alike will have a great time making banners and they can choose their colors so no two banners are alike. Cricut Design Space makes it easy to change the central images as well.
| Animals, Blanket, Clothes, Costume, Crochet, Home Decor, Kids, Medieval, Round Up
Sometimes we all need to escape reality and join the fantasy. It’s nice to be a Princess, Prince, King, Queen, Knight, Magician, or even the Joker now and then. Daydreams and fantasy keep us young and creative. So find your inner child and make some of these fun free crochet patterns to give or keep!
| Clothes, Costume, Crafts, Embroidery, Medieval, Needlepoint, Sewing
Today I’m sharing some of the awesome sewing supplies by Clover that I’ve been using lately. I’m working on medieval garb for the kiddos, as they have outgrown the garb they have, and Clover has supplied me with lots of notions and tools that make this task so much easier. I’ll share each one and tell you what I like most about them and how I use them.
Clover is also sponsoring a giveaway of some new products and one of my favorite products for one of you! Enter at the end of this post.
| Crafts, Family, Holidays, Kids, Medieval, Review, Selfie Sunday, Star Wars, Tea
Well, we just finished spring break for the girls’ followed by spring break for Doug. Lots of fun was had and awesome memories were made. There was cleaning, too. Lots of cleaning. And some work. But the fun and memories were the best!
| Crafts, Family, Friends, Medieval, Selfie Sunday
Happy Sunday! It seems like a good day to catch you up on the various goings-on here At Home lately. I doubt I’ll do this every Sunday, but I’ll try to do it once or twice a month. Yesterday was the girls’ first day of Spring Break and this morning we opened windows. Cabin fever is finally ending!
| Art, Crochet, Medieval, Review, Woodworking
I recently had the pleasure of reviewing a beautiful wood crochet hook made in the USA by Brittany Needles.
We’ve had a fun-filled couple of weeks here At Home. Last Saturday (the day before the Super Bowl), we had a relaxing day at home. That’s always nice.
Then on Sunday we went to a friend’s house for a Super Bowl party. Our friend Chris was there. Kyla adores him and calls him “Dude”. They are adorable together. He’s also a brand new daddy, hence the big mug of coffee. (more…)
| Medieval
Hello my friends! You may have noticed that I haven’t had quite as many posts as usual lately. If you remember, I spent 2 weeks visiting my parents in Sicily, and now I am spending another 2 weeks in PA at a crazy medieval recreation event known as Pennsic. My mom is here with us, and my brother and his boys came for a few days as well. We have all been having a great time.
I am doing my best to remember to snap photos from my phone and post them on Instagram, which cross posts to Twitter. However, sometimes the fun takes over and I forget. I haven’t been posting as much while I am here because most of what is posting was pre~scheduled before I left home. Internet here is pay per minute, so it can get rather costly. However, I have found a bit of a (totally legal) work around, thanks to some wonderful camp~mates, so I have a little more internet time today, free of charge! When I get home around the 8th..ish, I will have a month before the girls go back to school, and I hope to really get on top of things at home and on the blog. I kind of need a vacation from my vacations.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I am not neglecting you, I still love you all!!
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer (or whatever season it is where you live), and we’ll chat again soon. 😉
©Copyright 2015 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
I’m home. Mom, the girls, and I got back yesterday evening, but my computer cord only got back a few hours ago with Doug. I have TONS to share with you. I need to go through photos and get my head back in the game, but I should be back to posting in two or three days. My mom is still visiting until Monday night when she flies back to Sicily. I don’t get to see her often, so I am sure you will understand if I don’t dive back into everything until Tuesday. Plus there is all the unpacking. Oh the unpacking. Ugg.
Anyway, I seem to have quite the pile of patterns that are all just so close to ready to be posted, and I really want to get those published for you. Plus nearly a week of fun from the Knit and Crochet show to share with you, and two weeks of crazy medieval camping to share with you. I haven’t even counted the photos, but there sure are a lot. You have seen a sneak peak if you have been following along on Twitter and Instagram. So…my grand plan is to alternate between a yarnie post, and a K&C show/vacation post until we are all caught up. It should be some crazy fun over the next few weeks!
Oh, and I will leave you with a giggle followed by a cute photo of my mother and the girls:
Last night~ Me: “I am going to shower. I am stinky. And groady. And I am pretty sure I am not really this tan.”
Mom: *laughs* (I am sure in agreement on all points.)
Hello, did you think I had stopped writing anything but Stitchopedia entries? I know, I have been on a Stitchopedia kick, but there is so much yarn~ie goodness I want to share with you!!
I will post the Wednesday Round Up later this evening, I just wanted to pop in and share some snaps with you. I am actually pre~writing this during my lunch break at the Elementary School where I am helping out with the book fair. I love the second book fair of the year!! The kids get a discount because it is our second book fair of the year, plus the PTO gives the percent they usually get (the PTO profit) back to the kids, giving them a total of 30% off. In addition to that, the PTO gives up to $5.00 for a summer reading book to each kid! It is so much fun to see a kid walk up with a stack of books and only have to pay a few dollars. Or even better, the kids who come with no money still get to “buy” a book. They get so happy. It is beyond adorable! I will be here today and tomorrow and they are 2 of my favorite days of the year.
I want to share a few catch up photos with you.
A few weeks ago we finally got around to planting the various seedlings that the girls had brought from school and Girl Scouts.
I should say Doug and the girls got around to it. I have a brown thumb, so Doug is really the plant person around here.
The girls are wearing the helmets because it started to sprinkle a bit, so they decided that bike helmets would make great rain hats. They are awfully silly!
Kyla has been saving her Tooth Fairy/Easter/Valentine/whatever money, and finally decided what to spend it on. She and Doug looked online and found the Lalaloopsy Doll that she wanted. She paid for it, shipping and all, with her own money. She is so happy with it!
I don’t remember when this was, but Vada was very proud of her little train creation.
The girls love to help me bake. Of course, their favorite part is licking the spatula/beaters/bowl!
That’s it for cute kiddo snaps for now. I do, however, have one more kidless snap for you.
This is all the fabric I have lined up to make new garb for the girls for Pennsic. This pile of fabric will (soon, I hope) become a pile of little Medieval dresses.
(“what is Pennsic?” you ask. Well…”Pennsic War, a two week mock “war” in which 10,000 – 15,000 knights, maidens, and other creatively anachronistic people descend on Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, briefly turning a local campsite into the third largest city in Butler County.” click here for more)
That’s all for now! Talk to you later, my friends.
©Copyright 2014 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
This post may contain affiliate links/ads. If you purchase something from a link in this post, I may be compensated.
| Crafts, Crochet, Family, Friends, Knit, Medieval, Star Wars
May has been quite busy for me. Starting on the 4th, I had a VERY busy week, and have been trying to catch up since. I found a pile of pictures I would like to share with you, which will guide you through my crazy May.
I know I shared about the meeting we had on May 4th, with about a dozen people in our house. It was fun! That night Kyla had to write her weekend story for school. Here it is:
It says, “On the weekend, I had a meeting. It was at my house. It was also Star Wars day. May the force be with you, Mrs. K.”
I love that kid.
I am really happy that the weather is finally nice and the girls can play in the back yard. Sometimes they even get me to go out with them.
There has been time on and off working on Kyla’s room. She can’t sleep in there until we get the door up, but I am hoping that will be painted and ready to go today or tomorrow. We have hit a small snag in the painting department. For some reason the painters tape works fine for me, but no so well for Doug, so everything he paints takes much longer because it needs so many touch ups when he removes the tape.
On Wednesday the 7th my friend Barbara, her husband, and their 5 children came over for dinner and for the night on the way into NYC for a long weekend. I met Barbara through CafeMom.com back when the girls were babies. As Facebook grew, we both joined and carried our friendship over there. We have been through so much together. I can’t imagine my life without her. Yet, until the 7th, we had never met in person. It was so wonderful to finally be able to hug her. It was a joyous evening, with lots of food (they are Jewish and keep Kosher, so I played it safe and scrubbed down the grill to get all the meat bits off it and made a grilled veggie dinner) and great friends. As I suspected, her kids were awesome and my girls fell in love with them all. As an outsider looking in, you would never know it was the first time we had meet in person, considering all we already knew of each other. For all its faults and dangers, I still believe the internet is a wonderful thing. My friendship with Barbara and her family is proof of that.
The very next night I had to lead a Girl Scout meeting. I am not going to go into details about it, as I shared all about it with you earlier this week, but here is a collage of the awesome and unique animals the girls created.
Two days later, on Saturday, we had a medieval event. We were there a bit early, so the girls played with their pet dragon (AKA Daddy.)
I ended up on baby patrol. OK, I may have volunteered for baby patrol. We had two 5 months olds whos parents had a lot to do at the event, and I was helping out at the kid craft table, so I had a stroller with a baby on one side, and a little baby play pen with a baby on the other side. At one point Marsha came by and had some quality time with baby Tristan. I pulled out the cell phone and put it on selfie mode so that Tristan could see himself while I took some pictures. He was very interested in the baby on the screen. *And isn’t Marsha so pretty? I just love her smile. Yes, she really is as kind as she looks.
Adorable sleeping baby.
The event was the day before Mother’s Day, so the kid’s craft was painted picture frames for Mom. The kids had a great time.
I have been avoiding taking a drop spindle class for years. I have a few drop spindles, because people like to give them to me, but I have been trying not to add to my list of addictions. I finally gave in and took a drop spindle class taught by the fabulous Vivian! She is really an expert (weather she will admit it or not) so I figured I would be crazy not to take advantage of taking a class with her with only 4 other students. The class came with a simple bottom whirl drop spindle and 1 oz of wool. The photo above is what I did in class.
When I got home I finished spinning the wool, and then made it into 2-ply yarn. It is only about 45 yards, and bulky weight, but not bad for my first go.
I still have more yarnie plans for Kyla’s room. Here is a peek of some of the yarn.
I went to Lion Brand Outlet and had a tour a few weeks ago. I think it was Friday, May 2nd, but the whole month is starting to blur together. I wrote a post about it for Stitch and Unwind. Check it out here. The last photo is my loot, and you can see a bag of roving used to make Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I couldn’t resist it. Even though (at that point) I did not know how to spin, I bought a bag. One pound for $10, who could resist? Last week I spun about 100 grams of it. First I spun it on the drop spindle, then I wound it into a cake on my ball winder. I was able to pull one end from inside the cake, and one from outside to respin it into 2 ply yarn on the drop spindle. I then wrapped it on my swift and tossed it into some VERY hot water for a while. I just let it sit in the bowl of hot water, no touching, for a few hours.
After that I squeezed it out and draped it over a chair to dry. It’s very pretty. I still have to work on getting an even thickness, and I would like to make it a bit thinner, but still, not bad.
The other day at school, Kyla made a laptop. Isn’t it cute. She grabbed a little leather belt that was rolled up on the table to use as her mouse, and the picture frame she had painted for me to hold it up, and played on her laptop for quite some time. She sent me several emails about how much she loves me.
And here we have Vada’s weekend story. She needs a little help with the spelling, but here is what she was trying to say: “If children were in charge of the world, they would do anything like be crazy. They would also play princesses and princes. They can also eat anything with no asking at all.”
That is Vada’s Utopia.
I have been working on some items for Kyla’s room. I should be able to share some photos and even some patterns with you soon.
There are still a lot of little things to be painted.
Bubble time!!
Yesterday we had to make an IKEA run. Kyla really needed a wardrobe to hang some of her clothing. We really did not feel like building a closet, and thankfully IKEA had the perfect wardrobe for just $119. Yay! I will share pictures soon.
All righty my friends, I really need to get back to finishing up that room!!!
©Copyright 2014 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
This post may contain affiliate links/ads. If you purchase something from a link in this post, I may be compensated.
I am so excited! After a year of writing, re~writing, testing and editing, the Katherine Coat pattern is finally done! Sizes XS ~ 5X, all in one pattern! I will share the pattern details with you here, along with lots of photos. You can buy the pattern on Ravelry, Craftsy, or Etsy.
The photos of my coat (the rainbow one) were all taken by my amazing photographer Emily; you can see more of her beautiful work here.
Here is the pattern info and more pictures:
This fun, fanciful, Faerie Frock will bring out the whimsy in you! It features vertical stripes of knit panels in the skirt, which are connected as they are made, thus there is no need to have multiple balls of yarn all being used at the same time. The frock can be made with or without a hood and there are many variations on the skirt, hood, and sleeves. Several line drawings are included so you can plan out your colors. As for the number of colors needed, you can do what makes you happy; use a different color for every part, or use just two or three colors for the panels or even stash~bust and wing it! The whole point of this pattern is to have fun and to bring some joy to the one who gets to wear it.
There are several videos linked to help with various parts of the pattern. There are also many full color photos to show the various options within the pattern.
This pattern was inspired by the remarkable Kat of Katwise.com who can also be found on Etsy.
Her amazing upcycled elf coats were the starting point of these knit patterns.
Photos of the Rainbow Coat were taken by Emily of http://lifeisjustperspective.tumblr.com/
Sizes: Use the actual bust measurement to determine the size. The measurements listed are the maximum for each size. The pattern is made to allow room for clothing underneath.
XS (S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X)
30 (34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54, 58, 62) inches
Yarn:
Berroco Vintage Chunky (other yarns can be used as long as the correct gauge is obtained)
Here is an ESTIMATE of yardage needed, please note that depending on the variations you use the estimate may be off.
500 (550, 600, 650, 850, 1050, 1300, 1500, 1800) yards of main color (MC)
1200 (1600, 2000, 2500, 3000, 3200, 3500, 4000, 4500) yards total of remaining colors (Just divide the total amount by the number of colors you are using to determine how much of each color is needed. Buy at least one extra skein of each color and keep your receipt so you don’t have to worry about running out of yarn.)
Needles:
US 10 (6mm) recommended, but use whatever size is needed to obtain gauge.
You will need a set of long (at least 32”) circular needles. If you do not want to use the magic circle for smaller parts, you will also need a set of double point needles. You may also want a 16” set of circulars.
Gauge:
14 sts and 18~19 rows = 4 ins [10 cm] in stockinette
Other Notions:
Extra circular needles or long piece of scrap yarn for holding waistband stitches.
Yarn needle for weaving in ends.
Many stitch markers or scraps of yarn to use as stitch markers (up to 25, depending on what variation is made)
Stitches and Skills used:
K ~ Knit
P ~ Purl
S ~ Slip
St(s) ~ stitch(es)
SSK ~ Slip Slip Knit
K2tog ~ Knit 2 together
M1 ~ Make 1
PCO ~ Provisional Cast On
And of course, I need to give credit to my fabulous testers: (I tested the 2X)
There you are. After a year, I am not sure what to do with myself now that it is done. I guess it is time to make a crochet version…
©Copyright 2014 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
This post may contain affiliate links/ads. If you purchase something from a link in this post, I may be compensated.
| Cooking, Costume, Crafts, Crochet, Family, Fantasy, Holidays, Knit, Medieval, Winter
Wow, things have been busy around here. I have some exciting news I should be able to share with you next month(ish). Between that and Christmas, I got a sort of neglected my blogland friends this week.
I still love you!!
I have lots o’ pretty pictures to share with you, so how about I just post them all with a bit about them and leave it at that. It is Christmas Eve and all…
If you hover over the pictures, a short description will pop up, as always! You can also click on the pictures to see them larger.
The Holiday Gift Shop at the girls’ school was at the beginning of the month. It went quite well. Vada had fun playing in my booth while waiting for things to wrap up at the end of the day.
A couple of weeks ago we bought our Christmas tree. We got all bundled up and went off to the nursery around the corner.
I found this in with Kyla’s school work one day. I thought it was so sweet to see this note her teacher left for her.
The girls both made Christmas lists last week. Vada wants a Hess truck, and an ornament, but not a breakable one.
Kyla wants a Sophia Doll, a Mommy Toy, a Rudolph Toy, and a Firestar Toy. A Mommy toy is a doll that looks like Mommy, so when I am not home and she misses me, she can hug it. I hope she is not too upset when Santa does not bring her a Mommy toy.
Last weekend was the Yule celebration with our Medieval group. We all had a great time. I was given the Order of the Artisan, which I apparently was supposed to get over a year ago, but every time they had the award for me at an event, I was not there. Oh, and at the end of the event, I took the leftovers of Marsha’s yummy hummus, along with her bowl. That way she has to come and visit me!
We made cookies today. Santa needs cookies.
©Copyright 2013 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
I miss my parents when they are off living on other continents. But there are some perks. My mom saw the Bayeux Tapestry and bought me back a goodie from the gift shop.
Before you say, “What, just cards?” Look inside.
Pretty cool, aren’t they? MINE!!! I love them.
A few days ago Kyla lost one of her top front teeth. The other one has been leaning to one side, so it looks like it is right in the middle. She looks like an adorable little monster with the centered tooth!
So, yarn. It. Is. Everywhere. I really need to get more organized.
Here is a teaser of my pattern I will be releasing before the month is out. The testers have finished with it, and I just have to do a bit more to finalize everything!
I still have tons of net/ruffle yarn. Tons.
I tried to get George to help me do some cleaning in the basement today, but he just taunted me with a knit pattern I really need to write. It’s about number 4 on the pattern list, so he will just have to wait.
Cheeky monkey.
Oh, here is more of a peak of that pattern to come! I really need to finish this last sample. My testers seem to be more on the ball then me this go around!
While my parents were here, Doug and I went on a date! We just went to a movie with some gift cards we had, but we were rather early so we took a stroll through Barnes and Noble. Look at the awesome books I got. The crochet one was $5 and the knit was $2. Cool!!!
I got a package in the mail yesterday. Look what my friend Laura got for me at Pennsic! I missed going on my vacation there this year, but Laura made sure I got something special anyway!
So, as she was half way up the stairs this evening, on her way to bed, Kyla decided it was time for the tooth to go. So she yanked it out. My tough little princess.
I will put up a Wordless Wednesday post for you tomorrow to catch you up on some of the pictures from the beginning of the summer that have been piling up.
Have a great night out there in Blogland!
©Copyright 2013 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
With all the blog moving and pattern posting, I have a bit of a backlog of cute little girl photos for you!
So without further ado, here is a bit of the past couple weeks in our home.
Kyla wanted a “Mommy necklace” so I tossed one together from a chain I had that wasn’t long enough for an adult version. It made her very happy.
Sometimes Kyla has issues with smaller buttons. So Vada helps out. (more…)
| Medieval
Here’s a few more snaps of camp.
Enjoy.
©Copyright 2012 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns, charts, photos and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
| Medieval
Not long after Doug went on a storage run, the skies opened up. I tried to get everything under cover, but we are still drying out. Hopefully today we will be able to get the rest of the tents up and have everything under cover.
As I am sitting here in Thor, waiting to check into Pennsic, I think I will be productive. You may have noticed I just figured out how to post from my Droid, so I may have many short vacation photos for you throughout the next couple of weeks. As long as I can keep my phone charged, that is.
So, as I was saying, productive.
The girls turned 5 last Friday. (more…)
| Medieval
See Thor. See Thor tow. Tow, Thor, tow.
©Copyright 2012 Jessie Rayot / Jessie At Home All my videos, patterns, charts, photos and posts are my own work. Do not copy them in any way. If you want to share this information with someone, share the link to this post. If you want to share on your own blog / website, then you may use the first photo in this post and link back to this post. You may not give away printed copies of this post. Thank you.
