Christmas Count Down Advent Calendars

 

Last year I bought my boys Advent Calendars, not very nice, a thin card board with windows to open. Inside each window was a tiny waxy tasting piece of chocolate. They were tired of the bad chocolate about half way though. James has been asking for an Advent Calendar for about a month now. So today I made my boys happy. Christmas Count Down Advent Calendars.

Supplies need: 25 Mini Candy Bars, Scissors, tape, paper, ink jet printer

I did a image web search on Google for free Christmas designs. I downloaded the ones I wanted on my computer and used Picnik, a free online image editing software to crop them to the approximate rectangle shape. Then I imported each image into OpenOffice and adjusted the size to 1 3/8" (1.38) x 3" rectangles. Some of the images are a bit skewed but they work. I typed each count down day right over the image and printed on my ink jet printer. You could also use any wrapping paper you already have and a marker to write on them, or print out my wrappers from here - Page 1 & Page 2 designs.

Cut out all 25 wrappers

Wrap each mini candy bar in a wrapper and tape on the back side.

I then used masking tape and stuck them to the side of my fridge.

You could tape them to some tag board, a bed room door or just leave them in a bowl and make the search for today's treat part of the fun. I made name signs to go above each calendar as well.

The boys came home from school today and were very excited when they saw them. They are waiting hard for December 1st to come so they can start the count down.

Butterfly Hat Pattern for sale to raise donations for Relay for Life

I have pattern sizes for hats Preemie to 24 months. To purchase a hat pattern please click on the following link Relay for Life or click on the Relay for Life button in the top right corner of this blog. Donate $5 to my dad's site in honor of my sister Leslie Schuldt. Then follow up with an email to me dana@schuldt.org and let me know you donated to purchase a pattern. Please be sure to email me with the same email address you used to make the donation with "BUTTERFLY HAT" in the subject line. After I confirm the donation I will email you a pdf file of the pattern. You can email me also with any questions you may have on the pattern.

Hat by pattern tester Marta

Photos on How to knit the Butterfly stitch click here.

To take a look at my other posts about the Butterfly hat click here. 

How to do the Knit Butterfly Stitch

I am knitting the preemie sized Butterfly hat. I used double pointed needles. On the first round of the butterfly stitch you will be slipping stitches with your working yarn in front (towards you), follow the pattern for number of stitches to slip. One row of slipped stitches, next row knit all, repeat until you end up with three strands of yarn that look like this.

Make sure that the strands of yarn are held loosely with your work stretched out. If you leave these strands too tight your hat will pucker up. A little slack is better than too tight. Your butterfly stitches will look nice and neat if you can keep the tension the same for all three strands.

Once you have three strand the very next row above you will knit until just before the center of your three strands. Then put your right needle under the three strands.

Do a yarn over.

 Pull the needle back down and out from under the three strands.

Next you will knit the middle stitch, then slip the yarn over over the stitch you just knit. This gets rid of the extra stitch you created with the yarn over.
Continue knitting until the same spot on the next set of three strands and repeat.

 And there you have the butterfly stitch.

You can purchase my butterfly hat pattern by donating $5 on my Relay for Life site. Please click on the link in the upper right corner of my blog. Donate and then with the same email address email me at dana@schuldt.org with BUTTERFLY HAT in the subject line. Let me know that you donated, once I confirm the donation I will email you a pdf of the pattern. Please email me with any questions.

Another hat I knit

This Hat was knit by my pattern tester Marta