Some Toffee and Two CAL'S

Hello,
  I have been having a really nice week. For some reason my little girl stayed up almost all night. She finally fell asleep around 4:00am. That is when I get up. Lol. Anyway, because of this she is still asleep and I have had hours to myself. I have been wanting to make toffee but don't like to do it when Autumn is awake. Boiling sugar and small children scare me. My husband will be extremely happy when he wakes up and sees that I finally made it.

My sister sent me the recipe when Will and I were having our first married Christmas. Autumn was 6 weeks old and she was sleeping so I decided to make it. I knew nothing about making candy and it was a difficult endeavor that almost scared me away forever. I had no idea that damp weather can make candy hard to make. I started cooking it, it got up to about 270 degrees and stayed there. Autumn woke up and was crying, I was a nursing mother and frantic. I kept thinking " I can't stop now, almost there, only 20 more degrees to go". It ended up taking 45 minutes and I was an absolute wreck when it was over. It felt like Autumn was crying for hours. It was only about 7 or 8 minutes, and I felt like the worst mommy in the world. The toffee was really good though and Will really appreciated it. The next year I thought I would try it again and was so surprised that it only took about 10 minutes to cook. The weather was cold and dry that day and apparently that made all the difference in the world. I still make it only once or twice a year though. It is too fattening to have around the house. I kept waiting for dry weather this season so I could make it. It was supposed to snow today, well, the weather men are off completely. It is dry and sunny and still about 40 degrees outside. So the toffee got made. It is a simple recipe. If anyone wants the recipe just leave a comment and I will post it for you or email it to you.
  A little before Christmas I joined a few more groups on Ravelry. I already belonged to One-A-Day and We Love Lucy. I joined one called Everything CAL. I love it. We are going to work on number of projects over the next few months. The first CAL was a Mystery CAL. The moderator would post just a few steps everyday and no one knew what we were making. It was fun and trying to guess what it was was hilarious. Here is what we made, I finished it last night.

This was day one.

Somewhere in the middle. A this point I thought we were making a gingerbread man.

Crochet was done at this point. Then the face and sewing the sides together and this is what I got.

A wee little teddy. All we were told was that we needed an F or G hook and some worsted wt. yarn. We knew it would be something small. It was a great way to start a group and get to know some of the members. We will make something else very soon. New members are welcome. We just started.
  The other group I joined is Citizens of Stitch Nation, hosted by Debbie Stoller herself. I am a HuGe fan of hers and have all of her books. I think I was the third or fourth person to join, I was so excited. The first CAL we did was the Charleston Cloche. It is a really cute hat. Debbie waited for us to get our yarn. The pattern called for Washable Ewe. I couldn't find it anywhere. The stores all said they would get some after the holidays and that I should just order it online. Well, it was more for shipping than the price of the yarn. I ended up bending the rules and used Stitch Nation's Bamboo Ewe in grape. For some reason I couldn't get my head to figure out the pattern and frogged it about 4 times. It is an easy pattern to follow, it was all me that was messed up. I remember talking another experienced crocheter through a ripple pattern on Ravelry. The person was an expert crocheter. Just had problems with that particular pattern. She was just over thinking it. That was what I was doing too. I ended up sitting in front of the computer with hook and yarn in hand and going step by step until it finally clicked. Then it worked up really quickly. So here it is.

I took several pictures and you can't even see the flower on the side. Click on the above link, it has a great picture of the hat. Anyway, it is a really easy pattern and only takes a few hours to make. An evening watching t.v. and there you have it.
 Autumn just came out of the bedroom. Only 5 1/2 hours. Yikes. A nap will be in order today. Lol. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and I will talk to you again very soon.