Personalized Firefighter Blanket

I have several good friends that are firefighters. Though I make a lot of the usual pink and blue baby blankets, I thought I would try for something a little different with my friends in mind. So here it is - the personalized firefighter blanket!

I had knitted a scarf last year for a customer that wanted it for her husband - an assistant chief. I incorporated the same idea into the blanket. Add a flame font. I could even put a number on the hat!

Now what - maybe a police blanket? Hmmmm.

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. The holiday food is apples dipped in honey and a round challah - egg bread. Usually challah is made in a braid, but at Rosh Hashanah it is round. At our house, we have both plain and raisin challah. The challah gets dipped in honey, too. Then we wish each other L'Shanah Tova! A sweet New Year.

Here is a special challah cover just for Rosh Hashanah. It says L'Shanah Tova in Hebrew. At each corner is a pomegranate - a traditional Rosh Hashanah decoration.

It is knit of acrylic yarn and lined with cotton broadcloth. You can find it here Challah Cover

Great Idea from a Customer

One of my customers asked me to do a Hebrew/English name blanket with a train around the edge. And add some color to the cars. It is terrific to get new ideas. Now I am thinking soccer balls, footballs, ballet shoes .....

Hanukkah Bread Menorah

Well, here it is Hanukkah season again. Everything is the same except that my daughter is now out on her own in NYC. When she found out she didn't have a menorah, she did what any creative person would do - she improvised with what she had. In this case it was 2 slices of bread and some birthday candles.

Whatever you celebrate this season, have a happy one!

Personalized Scarf in Rare Bird Finds!!

I was honored to have one of my personalized scarves featured in the Rare Bird Finds Blog! Rare Bird Finds gets over 2000 people viewing a day and 70,000 - 100,000 page hits a month.

You can check out more pictures of this type of scarf at my etsy shop Blazingneedles

New Shop!

I decided to do it - open a new Etsy shop! The new shop, ChickadeeChic, has all my knit bags and will have felted bags and crochet jewelry. It has been a chore moving all the bags from BlazingNeedles, but both shops now look better.

As Mae West said - Come up and see me sometime.

ChickadeeChic

New Crochet Cactus

I got back into the cacti mood and designed a few new ones. I also learned how to spell "amigurumi" correctly.

The cacti seems to be getting smaller. Now I have a teensy 1" clay pot that is on my work table looking for inspiration. I even have smaller ones that could be earings. Since I just got my ears pierced last year, I think I will try that. Imagine wearing cactus earings in real clay pots!

See more at my etsy shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5477267&section_id=5253188

Greek Baby Name Blanket

I decided to try a Greek personalized blanket to add to my Hebrew and Vietnamese blankets. I found a great font that look terrific on the blanket. If you are wondering how this is done - read on.

I retired as a software engineer where I wrote programs for CAD - computer aided drafting. This background allows me to feel very comfortable with design software. The program I use to put the names in is called DAK. If you are familiar with fonts, you will know that you can download many fonts to your computer - you are not limited to the ones it came with. The Greek font I use came from the web.

Like all graphic programs (including Paint) you can create a text box and insert words. I do that with the Greek font. There is always tweaking to be done to get it to look good, but that is how it starts.

Maybe I will try Arabic next!

More Personalized Scarves

I had requests for several personalized scarves recently. I love getting these because people have such interesting ideas that I can work with.

One request was for a scarf in purple with all the names of a friend's cats. I added some cat graphics for variety. It turned out rather nice. Now I am hoping for some dog scarves!

Another was for a boyfriend. I LOVE the sentiment - "No Skinny Chicks". This one is super soft with a special gray tweedy yarn and a pattern.

If you have some great ideas, contact me. I would love to do a scarf for you.

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Empty Nest, Pendant Bags and Lip Balm

The last of the chicks went off to college and we are left with an empty nest! What to do with all that TIME? I got right back to the knitting machine.

In previous blogs, I told how those cell bags were made with no seams. Now I made them smaller for use as pendant bags and lip balm bags. You can see how small the pendat bags are. Use them for treasures - or the tooth fairy!

Check out the bags at http://www.blazingneedles.etsy.com/

Taking my time with personalized blankets

I guess we all try to do it - get the last mile out of a tank of gas before refilling, hoping there is enough milk for the cereal to save a trip to the store.

Now if you are a machine knitter, you know that the machine HAS to be kept clean. Gunk builds up on the rails and carriage from the oil used to keep the machine running. I usually clean mine every day ... but ... setting up for blankets takes a while and I wanted to squeeze the last blanket out before cleaning. Bad move. There right down the middle was an error.

Sigh. I lost my work and had to clean the machine and set up again anyway. I hope I remember this the next time I am tempted to extend my cleaning period. But I probably won't.

You can see my personalized blankets at http://www.blazingneedles.etsy.com

My first "Section Sale"

I decided to try something new at my etsy site http://www.blazingneedles.etsy.com/ The entire section with mugrugs and coasters is 20% off. As always, I would rather create than market!

The mugrugs have always been popular - they are unique and low priced. I have several more designs to photo, including a football.

There will be another "section sale" next week. I haven't decided which section yet, so check back!

New Hebrew Name Blanket

My original blanket design is now in a catalog, so I sat down and came up with a new one! Designing is half the fun. My designs are done on a computer and then translated to my loom. Ususally it takes a few iterations before I am happy with a new design. I plan to try a Greek name blanket as well.

Israel - day 8

Sigh - the last day. Rani takes us to the old city.



Rani knows everything about Israel. He takes us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the upper room of the last supper, the western wall, King David's tomb, shopping in the Arab quarter (got some great jewelry!) excavations of ancient sites and so much more.



It is a fantastic day and we leave for Ben Gurian airport tired, happy, sad to leave and wanting to come back.

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Israel - day 6-7

On to Eilat!! Eilat is located at the northern end of the Red Sea. It is a resort city with 5 star hotels, scuba, snorkling, wind surfing and a jumping night life. You can also stand on the shore and see Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia!!

The only problem is that you have to drive through the Negev desert to get there. Unlike the Judean desert, this one is mostly flat and boring. But we did find a McDonald's!!

We needed a rest from all the site-seeing. Eilat has a coral reef and gorgeous salt water fish. Snorkling in the sea is like being in an aquarium. The most beautiful fish are within arms reach. I will have to get the underwater camera pictures developed for you to see. We spent our time in the water and in the mall.

Before leaving, we traveled to the Egyptian border for a few pictures. Back through the Negev to Jerusalem. We stopped at a McDonalds at the Dead Sea - the lowest McDonalds in the world! Way below sea level. There was Ronald.

Tomorrow is our last day and we will spend it with our friend and guide, Rani, in the Old City.
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Israel - day 5

We are back in Jerusalem staying with friends at their house in a new area just outside the city. It is a beautiful 'desert' house with a view to die for.

Today, our friend Rani will take us to see many Christian places of worship that commemorate times in Jesus' life. DS friend is Christian and we all want to see the churches. We visit the site where the Good Samaritan story takes place, where the Beatitudes were spoken and many others. We visit an ancient Roman site with shops and a theater. We see the Sea of Galilee adn the Jordan River. The river is very small - not the gushing waterway you would expect - it is the desert, after all!

Many pilgrims bathe in the Jordan - see the picture of people in white robes. Then we are off to the Golan Heights, once occupied by Syria. It is best to have a guide for this part!! We see a monestary built into the side of a cliff - talk about getting away from it all :) The road up to Golan is narrow and winding, but our trusty Kia minivan made it in fine style.

Back to our hotel in Jerusalem for the night, then off to Eilat for some snorkling.
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Israel, Day 4

Today we spent visiting friends. Ofir and Nurit live on a kibbutz. A kibbutz started out as a collective farm, but now they are more free market. Ofir and his son, Rotem, took us to Rosh Hanikra. This town is on the Lebanon border. Relations with are fairly peaceful right now. Rosh Hanikra has some great caves where the sea rushes in with a boom. We toured through the caves and got a picture of the guys with their arms in Lebanon!

The British built a rail line through the caves from Lebanon to Israel prior to Israel becoming a state. The rail line was blown up during the war for independence by the Israelis.

After Roah Hanikra, we had lunch in an Arab town at a small cafe. The owners were friends of Rotem. We feasted on falafel ( fried chick peas in pita with salad - sort of like an Arab taco), hummas (ground chick peas), arab salads etc. The food just kept coming!

Then back to Jerusalem. Check out the pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazingneedles/sets/72157605641416319/

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Israel - Day 3

Hi again!



Today we traveled North to Caesaria and Nahariya. Caesaria is a city built by Herod (the guy was a great builder) . It is an interesting combination of ancient ruins and modern use. The colosseum and hippodrom are still there and in pretty good shape for their age. The colosseum is also used for concerts! The sound is that good! Caesaria is right on the Mediterranean with a beautiful view.

We then took off for the resort town of Nahariya. The boys went swimming in the Mediterrnean. The rest of us found some great food - falafel and schwarma. We met up to watch some soccer (what else) at an outdoor cafe.

Catch the photos at:
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Israel - Day 2

Today we headed out for Masada and the Dead Sea.

Masada is a flat topped mountain deep in the Judean desert. It is an excellent location for a fortress and that is exactly what King Herod did with it. Herod created a spa in the desert. There were baths, agriculture, mosaics and a sumptuous lifestyle - all created on the backs of slaves. After Herods time, Masada stood empty until the first century. Rome was attacking all the Jews in the area. A small band retreated to Herods fortress. They lived in the protected palace for years, dividing the great rooms into smaller houses for their families. Rome decided to eradicate them. To fo this, Rome marched our their armies and encamped around Masada. But the Jews, with their water and food could last forever. Vespasian decided to build a ramp to roll up their giant war machine and end the stand off. The night before the battering ram would knock down the walls, the Jews decided they were not going to be slaves. They drew lots. The men killed their wives and children. Those who drew the lots killed the men and the final men killed those left and then took his own life. The Romans entered to death.

The Dead Sea was our second stop. The sea has no outlet and so is chock full of awful tasting minerals. But those minerals also make you incredabley bouyant! You float way above where you would in fresh water. It is a unique experience. Even the boys, who have almost no body fat, floated.

Check here for pictures of opur second day.

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Israel - Day 1

We left Newark on the great adventure on Sunday and landed 11 hours later in Tel Aviv. There was 5 of us - 2 parents, 1 daughter, 1 son and the son's best friend. We rented a car and drove to Jerusalem. We were tired but didn't want to waste time sleeping.

We took off for the Old City Jerusalem. Jersualem in divided into 4 quarters - Jewish, Armenian, Arab and Christian. WE started in the Arab quarter with the shops. The Arab shops are along very narrow streets and the shops are outside. The smells are wonderful. We ate some terrific desserts at one of the stalls.

We then went to the Jewish quarter to see the Western Wall, the holiest spot for Jews. This is the remant of the second temple. We girls had to where skirts over our shorts and the guys had to cover their heads.

We also spent some time on the Via Del a Rosa or way of the cross. It is amazing how precious this area is to so many religions.

We collapsed at our hotel to rest for our next day. See pictures of our first day at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazingneedles/sets/72157605558627998/

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