Kitchen Fun

 Once again I was suckered into ordering from King Arthur Flour with free shipping but it is always worth it!  I treated myself to a jar of Nielsen-Massey vanilla paste this time.  This is a batch of kringla dough and you can see the flecks of vanilla seeds.

We had Dave's parents over for supper last week and I made stuffed mushrooms for one of the side dishes.  The recipe is Julia Child's and was so good!  They were nice because they could be combined and stuffed ahead of time and then roasted just before serving.  I was amazed at how simple ingredients become such a complex dish.  These are stuffed with sauteed onions, breadcrumbs, Swiss and Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and a tiny bit of tarragon and I already had all the ingredients in my pantry.

 I am in love with quinoa and found this recipe for small quinoa cakes.  They were a little time consuming but totally worth the effort.  I made up the batch and can heat up a few at a time with meals.  I'd eat kale like this any day!

And while we're on the subject of kitchen things, these are the flour sack towels I embroidered for Dave's niece as a wedding gift.  I hadn't made any of these in a while and had forgotten how fun they are.  They're kind of like coloring books for grown ups!

Babies and Big Boys

 We are having an extended family all-purpose get together this weekend!  My sister's family will be introducing their newest baby to the extended family, cousin Anna will be there with her new husband and in full pregnant bloom, my other three cousins have relatively new spouses, and I will be introducing my fiance to the bunch.  That is a lot of family activity!

 Part of the get together will be baby shower business.  It seems lately I've been working on baby things like crazy.  People I know have been popping like corks recently!  Lisa gave me the idea for 'binky clips' a long time ago and I finally got around to making them.  Kids these days have it so easy.  When I was a kid, we picked our pacifiers up off the filthy ground and put them back in our mouths.  Just kidding.

 These were made with simple grosgrain ribbon and suspender clips.  I got the clips at the fabric store and the ribbon I already had hoarded--would you believe that?  ;)  I cut a 12" strip of ribbon for each clip and turned under the edges.  I debated weather or not to actually sew the clip into the ribbon, but I worried about washing them and the clips rusting, etc.  This way they can be re-used easily for different things.  I cut a 1/2" piece of Velcro for each end of the ribbon and sewed the halves about an inch away from each other.  Then you fold the ends over and seal the Velcro--one end holds the clip and the other end holds the pacifier.

 No new baby around here can go without a baby sweater.  This was my second attempt at The Baby Surprise Jacket and I didn't swear nearly as much knitting this one.  This is such a clever pattern but it really takes a lot of faith because the original instructions can seem somewhat vague.  This was knit with a different colorway of the same cotton Boku yarn I used for Lisa's Surprise Jacket and I finished it with shell buttons.  Anna is having a boy in June so he should be able to wear this during the coming winter.

 I also knit him a star lace hat and booties out of some Kroy sock yarn.  I just love these patterns! 

 Did someone say booties?!?  Here is a whole PILE of blue booties!  I made a double batch of cream cheese mints last night.  Num num!!

 Does anyone else know what these are?  I was describing these at work and no one knew what I was talking about.  These were quite a big deal when I was growing up.  At any proper baptism, graduation, bridal or baby shower, wedding reception, confirmation, and sometimes just at fancy church luncheons--you had to have color coordinated cream cheese mints.  They're so simple to make.  It is just cream cheese, powdered sugar and flavoring/food coloring.  You whir these together in a food processor until very stiff.  Then you pinch off small bits, roll them into small balls, roll the balls into granulated sugar, press into rubber molds and then pop them out.  Freeze them until ready to serve.  My cousin is hosting the get together and if she made mints already, we will eat these the following day at my nephew's birthday party.

I can remember my mother had a whole bag of different shaped molds in the small cupboard above the stove.  As kids, we'd play with the cookie cutters, cookie press and her mint molds with play-dough!  I now have quite a collection of molds myself.  You can also use these to make shaped pats of butter but that might be too fussy even for me!  In our family we have always used almond flavoring vs. mint.  With the grit of the sugar, mint mints make me think of toothpaste.  And of course I made a double batch because I've already raided the freezer twice to sample them.  I think when my sister got married, we made mints two or even three times because we couldn't leave them alone.  When my mother was still engaged to my dad, she was driving home to southern Minnesota from Fargo with an entire Tupperware full of mints painstakingly made by her future aunt-in-law.  She famously ate the entire container during the drive.  And I don't think we've ever had a family wedding where someone didn't eat too many and got sick to their stomach.  They are worth it though!

 My little nephew Erik will be a big two year old boy this weekend and my sister is having a party for him.  One of the gifts I am giving him is a sewn Amy Butler Ditty Bag.  This is another favorite pattern and I've made quite a few of these.  There is no way to take a decent picture of this but it has a drawstring top closure, is fully lined, and has 4 pockets on the exterior.  It is a nice size to carry laundry, pack clothes, pack a lunch, or toys and books.  I got this Eric Carle fabric a while ago with Erik in mind.  The book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? has been a favorite in our house for a long time.

Husfliden Jente

I have enjoyed the last 3 days off.  My parents came home from Budapest and spent one night with us and the next two days were spent working on things I'd been meaning to get to for a while.  I hadn't spun since I don't know when.  

I got this 8 oz. roving of blue faced leicester wool almost 2 years ago in Decorah at The Blue Heron.  I sat out on our little veranda for two evenings and spun a two ply worsted yarn and got about 200 yards or so.

 

I'd baked a loaf of cottage bread the night before and had it for lunch spread with butter, strawberry jam and geitost!  :)  Utter heaven!

Here is the finished yarn.  Of course I don't know what I'm going to use it for yet, but I'm enjoying looking at it!

Strawberry Shoes

I just finished these last night after working on them here and there for a while.  I saw these on the cover of a knitted book somewhere on the interweb and it was one of those things where I had to just stop whatever I was doing and OBTAIN this book.  Money was no object.  I just needed to get this book for this pattern alone.  I thought they were THAT cute!  And lucky for me, I already had all the yarn at home for this project!  The pattern called for baby yarn but I had the appropriate colors in worsted so I fooled around with the gauge and needle size a little.  They are designed to fit a 3-4 month old so Leah will have some time to grow into them.

More Baby Things

This is a satin bound flannel blankie made for Dave's niece's new baby boy Brady. I'd had this blue puppy fabric for some time. In fact I think I got it at SR Harris. We finally got to meet little Brady when we went to his sister's house for Easter dinner.

This is the second toddler bed blankie I made for little Erik. I really confused myself too with this one. The puppy one I'd made earlier was 2 yards by 1 yard in measurement because I had 2 yards of the puppy fabric and backed it with 2 yards of broadcloth. I guess I thought I had 4 yards of this nursery rhyme fabric and I was just going to fold it in half and bind it. Once it was done, however, it was much shorter. I only had 3 yards of it but I liked the proportions of this one much better at 1.5 yards by 1 yard. Oh well. They are both nice blankies. Lisa has been using this one on the couch at their house.
This is my new baby niece Leah in the onesie I knit out of a cotton/silk blend of sock yarn. This was the first time I'd ever done raglan sleeves on anything. Baby sweaters are such good little mini projects to learn techniques. This was knit from the bottom up. The sleeves are knit separately and then joined and knit into the body. In fact the majority of this sweater was knit in bowling allies when I'd go watch Dave at his league and the final assembly was done during a bowling tournament! I used this pattern that I first saw on one of my favorite crafty blogs. The crotch and neck have button closures and the buttons came from my Grandpa Maynerd's button box. :)

Baby SEWING!

Lisa is having her baby tomorrow! I am so excited! I finally found some time yesterday to do some baby sewing! It felt so good too because I have not gotten the sewing machine out once since we moved. And of course these projects also represent fabric that I have gotten out of this apartment!
A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Mill End Textiles here in town and I got an awesome deal on broadcloth with my online 60% off coupon. I plan to back a lot of blankies with the broadcloth we found. The new baby needs a satin edged blankie and I was desperate to find some bunny flannel. These bunnies were a bit cartooney for my taste but they were the best we could find. I do like the colors though. I zig-zagged this thing to death because I want it to survive thousands of washings and last forever.
Little Erik is now sleeping in a toddler bed and Lisa said she could not find toddler bed blankies anywhere. I dug through my stash of little boy fabrics and found 2 blanket combinations. I bought these puppies in Mason City and the backing came from Mill End. This was the first time I'd ever used double fold bias tape to bind a blankie. I used this tutorial and it went fairly well. This blankie is only 45" wide. Usually when I make adult bed blankets, I keep the backing about 3 inches wider and longer than the top piece and just fold and turn under the raw edges and top stitch them to the front to finish the edges. In this case I didn't have any fabric to spare. I don't think the bias tape was any fussier than pinning on satin binding and turning corners. Even though the tape is stitched once on the wrong side, I still went around twice zig-zagging just to make sure it stayed put.

It is also worth mentioning that I got SUCH a good deal on fabric at Mill End. I bought almost 30 yards of fabric and yet ended up spending more on the binding for the blankets!

Dishy

Dave and I drove up to Red Wing for a little field trip. We shopped around a little looking for a Red Wing stoneware pie plate. I was really surprised by how expensive the stoneware was. We found a couple pieces but the dishes were deeper and curvier than I liked. I don't know if there actually is a difference between a "pie dish" and a "pie plate" but I guess I like a piece more like a plate. In the end we found a cheaper one in the seconds room and of course I had to try it out when we got home.

I thought a Red Wing crock would be nice to stand knitting needles in but passed because of the price. Instead I spent more than 4 times what I paid for the pie plate on Pyrex in the antique store! They had a medium rectangular baker with its lid in my favorite color and a set of 3 rooster patterned bowls in the same color. I have 3 other pieces in that color and pattern so I was very happy to get them. And as much as I absolutely hate the antique dishwasher in our apartment, doesn't the Pyrex look nice against the vintage sea blue rack?

The lakes in Minnesota opened up over the weekend. Just one week ago, we walked around our walking lake and there was still a sheet of ice on the surface. It was a chilly windy day and our eyes were watering and noses were running and one week later the temps were in the 80s! Hard to believe! I had to take a picture of this ice life raft. These were regularly placed around the lake and I don't think I'd ever seen one before. This must be something truly Minnesotan.

Melissa's Mukluks

These will go to Melissa as a verrrrrrrrrry belated birthday gift. I absolutely love this pattern, this project, and this YARN. It is another skein of Malabrigo Rios and each pair takes exactly one skein. I have a few more goodies to go into the box! One of these days I will get around to knitting a pair of these for myself.

DIY Detergent

I have wanted to try making detergent for a long time. The ingredients are cheap and not too hard to find. The borax and Fels-Naptha was found in the laundry aisle of our grocery store but I had a little more trouble finding the washing soda. In the end we found it in our hometown grocery store. You can also order all this stuff but I didn't want to pay for shipping. I also used a vial of my precious hoarded Sun's Eye lily of the valley scented oil to scent the detergent.

I used this recipe which makes over 2 gallons (!) and I suggest saving a few empty milk jugs or 2 liter pop bottles to store it in. The boxes of borax and washing soda will make several batches because you only use 1/2 cup each per batch. The Fels-Naptha will make 3 batches per bar.


The Fels-Naptha did have some soapy fragrance to it but I have to admit I love detergents that scent your laundry. The recipe does say that you can add 1/2 - 1 ounce of fragrance to each batch. I had been saving that fragrance oil and doling it out for bath bombs but I threw the entire thing in the batch. After I did it, I worried that maybe the oil would actually stain the laundry but thankfully that was not the case. Then I worried that it might be too flowery and strong for Dave's clothes but the laundry came out pretty close to unscented so it really was a waste of that oil. Next time I will try some of my soap scents. That fragrance might take a little better since they are designed to scent soap.

I love making things for the first time and they do what they're supposed to do! The detergent gels and thickens as it cools and becomes this lovely custard-y mixture. The detergent itself smelled so good and I'm just sorry the scent didn't last.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Elizabeth Zimmermann designed this very clever pattern. For years I have seen different knitter's finished sweaters on their blogs and Ravelry and always wanted to try it. Dave and I went to our local library where I checked out Knitting Workshop under his name and cranked one out in about 2 weeks. Mrs. Zimmermann has some wonderful designs but I have to admit/complain that sometimes her patterns are hard to follow. I finished it alright but the entire time I was wondering if I was following the directions correctly. Part of the charm of this pattern is that there are only 2 seams and the entire thing is knit in one piece. Could you tell from the picture on the left that there was a sweater lurking in that mass of knitted fabric? Once the edges were matched and folded, a sweater emerged.

I used Kudo yarn by Plymouth for this pattern. It is a single ply cotton/rayon/silk blend and a heavy DK/light worsted weight in my opinion. The knitted examples of this sweater I've seen online were very crisp and straight and boxy. I think the yarn I used made mine a little more floppy and not as perpendicular. It still looks OK and is wonderfully soft and drapey for a baby, but I think maybe a consistent and crisper yarn would have made knitting this a little easier. All the increases and decreases for shaping are made on either side of a marked stitch and it was hard to keep track of that marked stitch at times because of the yarn. And of course now that I know what to expect from this pattern, I would totally make another one. I have a grey colorway of this same yarn that would make a nice boy sweater. I used 1 1/4 skeins of this yarn for the sweater. There is a child and adult version of this sweater in The Opinionated Knitter that I'd be interested in trying.

My sister is pregnant with a baby girl and I gave her the finished sweater last weekend when we were home together. She chose pink bunny buttons for the sweater and asked for a pair of booties that would match AND fit at the same time as the sweater so I knit a pair from 60 Quick Baby Knits from the remainder of the yarn. I just love this pattern and how the yarn gradually changes color. These might be a little big to go with the sweater but then again I've never been able to size clothes/people up by looking at them. I was glad to find a use for this yarn. I bought it in Rochester years ago intending to use it for socks or hats because of the cotton content but it really has no recoil to hold up to ribbing.

I had one day off this week because this is my weekend to work, but on my day off I made refried beans. Years ago my friend Michelle showed me how to make them from scratch starting with dried beans and I prefer black beans to pinto beans. They are so much better than anything you get in a can and so easy and inexpensive. I had soaked them overnight and thought they looked so pretty and were very appropriate while I was on a purple theme.

Gift Knitting

These are Amy's mukluk's knit from Malabrigo worsted. I am just loving this project. I finished these towards the end of October and sent them to her in the mail along with a bunch of nic nac paddywacks and old costume jewelery for my nieces that I'd cleaned out of one of my closets.

Dave's niece is having a baby shower this weekend and I was invited but I am working my weekend and I work 12 hour night shifts during that time. I did want to send along a little gift though. I have knit dozens of these baby hats and booties for people because they are such good patterns.
She is having a boy and I have never been a big fan of pastels and I wanted to knit him some manly items. These are 2 pairs of booties from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Happy Late Holidays!

I enjoyed my first Christmas with Dave and his family. He and I enjoyed supper at his parents' home and we brought date puddings with caramel sauce. This is such a simple but elegant dessert and very festive. These are not steamed in a pudding mold like a traditional Christmas or figgy pudding, but simply baked in ramekins or a muffin tin.

One of the first things I wanted to do once we got unpacked was to put up the tree and decorations! I didn't get to put up any of my fall/Halloween decorations because they'd been packed. I picked up a few new ornaments in Iceland this summer and got to hang those up. The one on the left is a simple wood burned ornament of a viking ship. I love the striped ribbon because it is the colors of the Icelandic flag. The one on the right is a miniature pair of fish skin slippers with knitted insoles. I had read about these and we saw a few examples in the museum but I wanted to find a pattern for these! These were quite expensive but I loved them and wanted to have them as an example/guide if I ever get around to trying to make a full size pair.


The ornament on the left is a miniature pair of wool carders with a little wool in them! Instead of tines they have Velcro on them! So cute! The one on the right is a little wood burned laufabraud. Leaf bread was one of my favorite things I learned about in Iceland. I thought it would be a neat family activity to make these but the copper rollers/cutters cost about $80 each!These are Grandpa Maynerd's ornaments and I just love them! I set them out in a wooden bowl and I think about him every time I look at them. Happy Belated Christmas and New Year's!

I'm a Minnesotan!!!

I am now a resident of Minnesota! We rented a U-haul and Dave and I loaded up and rode off into the sunset. I had lived in my old apartment for 11 years and it was a big job! Dave was such a good sport about it too. He and I moved in together 1 year to the day after meeting. This is a lovely Minnesota tea towel I got after our visit to the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis this summer.


Here is just some of the carnage at my old apartment! I can't tell you how upsetting it was having everything packed up in boxes! It took me a couple weeks to get things packed until I ran out of boxes and I had A LOT of boxes. I had been stockpiling them from when I still worked in the nursing home (note all the boxes from incontinence products-I'm sure our new neighbors were wondering about us!) and Deedee gave me quite a few from Kraft. I used plastic shopping bags and newspapers and lots of my fabric as packing material. After the boxes were gone, we quickly used up all my trash bags. I'd even taken carload after carload of stuff to Goodwill in the preceding weeks. In the end we FILLED a 17 foot truck. I have a lot of stuff.

It took us an entire day to load the truck up and we spent the night at Dave's parents' house and parked the truck in their driveway. We moved into the apartment the next day on December 2nd and the weather cooperated with us. It took another entire day to unload and Dave's nephew came halfway through to help. The snowflakes started to fall just as we were carrying in the last few boxes. Our new apartment has an elevator which is awesome since we live on the third floor and an indoor swimming pool! We also have our own balcony which I really like. I loved putting the sewing room/man cave together. Dave has his video games in there with the other TV and I have my craft books and fabric and some of the yarn in there. I organized all of my books and my knitting shelf is one of my favorite things in the apartment! We are also right across the street from the library which I also love.



I donated my old couch and burnt orange Barcalounger recliner weeks before the move because they weren't worth moving. It also motivated me to keep busy and keep on packing because I had no where to sit! One of the last bits of knitting I did before packing up all the needles was Amy's birthday slippers (I'll post that picture later) and a Christmas stocking for Dave. I kept some cotton yarn and dishcloth knitting in a bag so I had something to knit and keep me sane. Now we are here and unpacked and domestic and happy. I've survived orientation at my new hospital and am working on my own. Life is good. I just need to learn how to drive in the city!