Little Ranch House

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

This little strip of earth is a bit cleaner today.
And two bags of plastic bits and pieces are no longer on their way to the San Francisco Bay and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Hope your earth day was a good one!

All about the lace weight

2010-04-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

It all started with this test of my weaving skills. It is the first project on my loom that I didn't just use scrap yarn for. Unfortunately, I had almost a 3/4s of a skein on the orange lace weight weft yarn and I didn't want it to go to waste.

So the leftover got tunred into this. It only took me a week to make although it was a week where I had more than average knitting time because we drove down south to Disneyland. Since I didn't have to do much of the driving it allowed for a lot of knitting time.

Here is the same scarf on the blocking wires.

And on to the next lace project...

Passover 2010

2010-04-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

Last Monday our family all traveled to the South Bay to David's uncle and aunts's house to celebrate the first night of Passover.

Before we officially began Lauren a Klezmer piece for us to set the mood. It was lovely to hear her play for us.

Lena being the youngest sang the four question for us all.

The most photographically interesting part of the evening, of course, is when everyone loads up their matzah with horseradish and takes a big bite.

Sock, socks all around

2010-04-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

I finally finished that socks that I was making for my brother's birthday. They are from Socks from the Toe Up a book that I adore, but whose socks always turn out to wide for the narrow feet in my family. I have yet to find a sock pattern that I don't have to adapt to my families feet to make them fit.
The yarn is just Knit Picks kettle dyes that they discontinued. I think that people didn't like it because they didn't have that much shade variation in the yarn. I hope that they do come out with another kettle dyed sock yarn because I really do like kettle dyed and knit picks prices are great. I have found that their sock yarns do hold up to being used just like commercially knit socks.

Of course, I need to cast on another pair of socks and the Koo-aid dyed socks won the day...

More on Yarn Dyeing

2010-03-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

So here are the results of the Kool-aid dying project. I ended up with more white than I wanted and two purple fingers. It faded pretty quick, but I can't believe that I used to drink this stuff. I mean, if it is strong enough to dye yarn with..It has a tie-dye look to is that is kind of fun. I definately have some ideas on how to do it better the next time around. All in all, because I used Knitpicks Bare sock yarn the whole project was pretty cheap.
Here is the site that I got my directions from in case you are interested in dyeing with Kool-aid.

Going Slow

2010-03-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Things have been going pretty slow on the crafting front. I have managed to finish up a few projects. I don't have photos of them all I have a couple of shots of what I have been up to.

Lena got a simple pair of socks and matching knit cap for her birthday. I will post my toe up pattern on the blog soon. She is pretty happy with the set but says that she needs matching gloves...How fast does this kid think I knit.

I have been wanting to play around with dyeing yarn for a while ant I finally took the plunge and tried dyeing with this stuff...

I am not sure that is is good for drinking, but it sure soaks into the yarn and fingers well. I had set my spoon down and stirred in the purple with my finger. I am not sure what I was thinking with that one. The yarn should be dry tomorrow for a photo.

Monkey Party

2010-02-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

The shortest month of the year certainly flew by in a hurry. The highlight of every, for our family, February is Bean's birthday.

This year she wanted to have a sock monkey party that, what is that I can hear you asking?

Well, as it turns out it is sitting around with a bunch of other girls stuffing and sewing sock monkeys while watching I Love Lucy on the TV. All I had to do was sew up all the socks on the sewing machine before the the party.

The star of the party was the sock monkey cake that we ordered. We don't usually buy a birthday cake, so the birthday girl was very impressed by the cake.

Yes, she is 16

2010-01-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight we will celebrate as a family with Asparugus soup, crusty rosemary bread, salad, and root-beer float. My first-born turned 16 early this afternoon. Here she was just a few short years ago.
She has grown has more teeth than she did then, but she is still the same great kid.
only now she can sing....

Twenty-eight

2010-01-14T18:33:00.000-08:00

"Mom!" my lovely teenage daughter hollers from her room.
Pausing from casting on the front to my Sidelines sweater I rely, "Twenty-eight!"
The lovely teenage daughter pauses and then hollers, "Dad!"

I have done my job. Both my daughters now know better than to interrupt a knitter (me) when she is counting. Now, we just need to work on the hollering from room to room in the house, but truly this does seem secondary to me.

Waxing and waining

2010-01-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

This last week left little time for crafting, but I did manage to do a little. I finished my sample piece of weaving on my new loom. It is a bit wonky, but since it it made from scraps of yarn that I had lying around I don't really care that much that is looks a little funny. It is not long enough to make a scarf out of so I think that I will cut it up at some point and sew it into something. I think that if I pair it with a nice cotton canvas I could sew it up into a very nice messenger bag. For now I think that it will just hang around the house for me to admire.

After I finished weaving it I really wanted to warp the loom again with some hemp yarn that I was given as a gift several years ago. I never wanted to knit with it because it is a bit rough, but I think that it will be perfect for weaving. I didn't get around to warping the loom because I decided that the loom really needed to be sealed in someway. The loom assembly directions that I found on-line indicated that the loom should have been sealed prior to assembly.

Here it is in the state that I purchased it in. The wood is Ash I think and totally unfinished.
And here is it after waxing and reasembly. I used some beeswax wood polish that I had around the house and not only did it make the wood look lovely but it smells yummy as well.

With all that weaving a did find time to squeeze in a little knitting. I finished the scarf I started on New Years Day this week and added a few inches to my Sidelines sweater that I am making. I haven't taken any photos of the sweater yet.

This has been looming for some time now

2010-01-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have wanted a big floor loom ever since I first walked in to Hill Country Weavers in Austin, Texas to buy my first knitting needle and yarn for knitting. Yes, I knew that looms came in sizes smaller than that of a small car, but I wanted a big one. After it I couldn't weave a blanket the size of a king size bed what was the point in weaving at all. No matter that I don't even own a king size bed. Since, having room for a loom that size would have meant giving up one of my children, I always refused to entertain the thought (for more than two or three minutes at a time). I mean, I love my children, but have you seen some of those looms.
Now let me assure you, both of my dear daughters remain in residence at my home, but I have a loom. I broke down and compromised and bought a smaller loom. I only took me eight years to get to this point, but when I did I moved fast. I found this loom on Craigslist and bought it on Saturday night. Warped it on Sunday and have been playing ever since.

Here is my Ashford 24" Rigid Heddle loom. I have already learned so much, like how I much I want a second heddle, some more shuttles and maybe a stand for my new friend.

Lena not wanting to be left out broke out the Harrisville Easy Weaver and has been busy making a pink and brown scarf.At least when she is not playing Rock Band with the family.

Hoppin' John

2010-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

I always have Hoppin' John (black eyed peas) for New Years Day dinner and always will. Growing up my Grandma, who was from Oklahoma, used to serve them as a side dish. Now in my house hold they are the main dish. Hubby and I have Californiafied them to some extent. We serve them over brown rice and top them with plain yogurt, cheddar cheese, green onion and avocado. Why is it that if you add avocado to anything it becomes a Californian?

I also made some progress on my New Years Scarf. I decided to add a bit of Knit Picks organic cotton to the Noro yarn to ad some more white to the color mix.

A new year...

2010-01-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

And still blogging. I have not been blogging much over the last two months. I think that my attitude toward my blog needed to change, so I took a break to decide what I really wanted my blog to be about. When I started my little blog I really just thought of it as a place to show off my finished projects, but now I want more than that. I would like to post more knitting patterns that I design on my blog and I would also to document my creative process more. What this means is along with the pictures of cats, dogs, chickens, and daughters I will be posting more pictures of works-in-progress. I have discovered that I really enjoy "watching" other people projects progress in their blogs.

Today is a gray and cold New Year's Day here in the S.F. Bay Area so getting a decent photo was a challenge that I just wasn't up to.

This afternoon I finished knitting the second strip for throw blanket. This Project it really about using up some of the yarn that I have laying around the house, but it is making me a bit nervous because several of the people on Ravelry have said that it took them a decade to finish it. I really hope that mine is done by the end of the year not the end of the decade. Here is the Ravel link for this pattern.
Since it was a New Year I decided that I also should have a new knitting project.
I picked this single skein of Noro Cotton up in San Luis Obispo last year. The bright greens and yellow really remind me of spring, so I thing I'll whip up a skinny scarf to wear this spring. I'll post a pattern and the results later.

On the non-knitting side or life. Here is the new love of my life, my electric kettle. Hubby got it for me as a gift and I just love it. The water for tea heats up so fast and it never gets too hot. It also works great for Hubby french press coffee. And in case you might think that this is just a one-trick-counter-hog. I have also used it for blanching and quick soaking dry beans. Just heat the water and pour over the beans and did I mention it is very energy efficient.

Hanukkah 2009

2009-12-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

We have been busy celebrating Hanukkah in between all the other everyday goings on. Here our candles from last night. As you can see we only have two more nights to go. I was holding off posting pictures of all the things that I made and not that almost all the gifts have been given I have no excuse to not show you all those things.

Sale yarn and gratuitous chick photos

2009-11-07T15:04:00.001-08:00

I picked up this yarn the other day when I made a run to the South Bay yarn shops. Yarn shops in my area have been closing right an left, leaving me without a local yarn shop. I was looking for yarn to make the newsgirl cap for Lena and happened upon this yarn on sale.
I don't usually by blue yarn (especially blue yarn with flecks of pink and gray) and honestly I know why this yarn was 35% off. In the skein it really doesn't look that great, but I'd like to think that I saw past the outer skein into it's inner beauty. Maybe I was just blinded my the sale price, it had happended before. I put down my money and left the store with three skeins of this merino and silk bluenessWound into a ball it is looking more promising.
And knit up it looks even better. Lucky for me, I have someone in my life who loves the color blue and will be quite happy to take it off my hands when it it done. And that should be soon since I am already into the second skein of yarn. I'll show you it when it is done.

Okay, how is the time for all the chicken-phobic to look away.

Here is one of the new additions to our flock.
Isn't she cute. It was sure hard to get a good picture of her all by myself hopefully tomorrow one of the kids can help me chick rangle so that I can get some good shots of all of them outside in the daylight.

Newsgirl

2009-11-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ever since Lena had seen a picture of this hat she wanted one. It is from the book Stitch and Bitch Nation. Here she is showing off the finished product. It really was one of those quick knit projects. Two evenings of knitting and I was done. No time to get tired of the pattern. The best part is that she totally loves it.
I knit it out of 1.5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes. Which is such a lovely yarn for showing off stitch definition.

And one more picture to show off the real Lena. That's my girl!

Halloween wrap-up

2009-11-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Our Halloween was a busy one this year. A good kind of busy, but busy is still busy.

This year Lena designed her own costume. She wanted to be a bird, which some how required getting glue and green feathers everywhere. Oh, did I mention the green glitter.
Actually, costume turned out really well. She was pleased with it so that is all that really matters. She has already started talking about what she wants to be next year.

Lena also participated in our friends Haunted House. Every year Lisa and her husband turn a whole room of their house to make a haunted house. Lena loves to act in it. This year she was a guard to the dungeon. Here she is with all her fellow ghouls and goblins.

I didn't act in the house, but I did get to be in charge to food. Unfortunately I was so busy making that I only got one photo. Here are the eyeballs in process. They are really doughnut holes covered in white chocolate. I forgot to take a picture of them when they were all done.
Oh, and I even managed to do a little yarn stash busting. Here is the Halloween felted bowl I gave to our lovely host Lisa.

Okay, stash this means war

2009-10-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, most knitters have a love/hate relationships with their yarn stash. I, however, am not one of those knitters. I really don't like my stash very much. I find having all that yarn around worries me a bit. I guess I just feel pressured to use it up. Don't get me wrong I like having yarn with a purpose around. I have this lovely skein of almost black lace weight yarn that makes me happy every time I see it. I dont' have time to knit it up right now, but I know that I will get around to it sometime in the future. No, the kind of yarn that drives me crazy it the skeins or half skeins that are leftover when you finish a project.

So, with that in mind I am now trying to get rid of as many of those little orphan yarns as I can. I am going to either knit them or drop them off at the local senior center by April of 2010.*

*I reserve the right to keep a few of these orphans around, but only if I really, really love them or if I think that one of my girls will knit with them.

In that spirit I made an iPod cozy the other day. I only had a tiny bit of this yarn left and it was too pretty to throw out. Now I can toss the iPod in my bag and it will be safe. This is a great way to use up bit of sock yarn.

The Monkey who started it all

2009-10-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

Carmen Banana is finally done. Well, except she needs some clothes now. I am pretty happy with how she turned out and so is her new owner Lena.

Flowers, flowers, everywhere

2009-10-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

Twice recently I have been given flowers. I have to say that it delights me every time.
The first was this mini-orchid from my daughter. Lena walked down to the grocery store and purchased this orchid and balloon that said "Thanks." She just wanted to thank me for all I do. I am sometimes shocked at what a thoughtful kid she is.

Then I found this lovely pot of flowers on my front porch. I was so surprised and couldn't imagine who had left them. I turns out they were a thank you gift from my lovely friend Hilary for the quilt I gave her.

I also decided to press the blossoms that were falling off another orchid that I have. Even in death they were too pretty to compost. So, I got out the kids flower press to press them and I'll let you know how they turn out.

In the flower press I found these lovelies from who know when.

Going a little bananas

2009-10-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

I all started with this. As soon as Lena saw what I was working on she insisted it was exactingly what she had always needed.

It soon progressed to this.

Here is how she looked just a little bit ago. She now has her ears but I will haven't finished the tail. You can now tell that is is a sock monkey. When I saw this knit from KnitPicks I knew that had to knit it even thought I didn't know what I would do with it.

Seeing Carmen progress Lena decided that she wanted to make a sock monkey as a birthday gift for her friend. So, to the internet I went to find the proper sock to make a monkey out of.
We sewed him together yesterday evening. Much faster than knitting one!
This afternoon he got his heart.
His super hip vest that Lena made a designed her self.
Lena decided that he also needed a jaunty little scarf to complete the ensemble. Actually, she wanted to add pants, but I told her. "Don't be silly sock monkeys don't wear pants." I may have just wanted to be done with the project;)

I have a feeling that this blog is not done with monkeys yet!

Fresh from the pumpkin patch

2009-10-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

I needed a quick little Halloween gift for someone and I thought of this project that I had done in the past with a group of kids. It really is a nice simple hand sewing project for both kids and adults.

I started with a 7in diameter circle of orange felt (this felt is a wool blend so it is a bit easier to work with than). Stitch all the way around the circle with a strong thread and using a gathering stitch (just up and down).

Tug on both ends of the thread to gather the stitches, but don't tie it off yet.

Fill with some type of grain. I used buckwheat, but rice would also work well. Just use what ever you have. I filled mine about halfway but use less or more depending on your taste.

Add a small bit if some type of stuffing and tighten and tie off the threads.
The Pumpkin top is made my cutting a 2in or so circle out green felt with pinking shears. I then add a loop of felt through a slit in the middle of the circle. This own was hot glued because I pre-made a bunch of tops to do with a group of kids and in that case hot gluing was the most quickest way to do it. If you are just making one it would be easy enough to just hand stitch it and not heat up the glue gun.
The last step is to whip-stitch the top to the pumpkin bottom and enjoy.

Check out this giveaway

2009-10-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

In my blog travels today I ran across this wonderful yarn giveaway. You should really check it out.

Getting the hubby ready for Fall

2009-10-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my take on the Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd it only took a year and a half to do. I had read from other people that the sleeves on this sweater were too wide. When everyone is having the same problem with a pattern you should assume that you will have the same problems. I started out with the best of intentions and reduced the arm stitches right from the start. Oh, well I still had to re-knit those sleeves and armhole shaping at least three time. This sweater spent more time in time-out than another sweater that I have ever knit.
This is the hubby modeling the sweater for me and when I complained about his modeling job this is what I got.

Ummm, thanks honey that is very nice (the sound of me rolling my eyes)

Oh, and the lucky man also got a new pair of toe-up socks. He isn't any better at modeling socks than he is at modeling sweaters. Oh, well.

Deepening Skies Cowl

2009-10-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

I picked up this yarn (I think that is called Terra, but I can't find it on-line) intending to make a scarf out of it for my sister-in-law Lauren for her birthday. After much swatching and not a little swearing I decided to cal it quits and stop trying to make this loosely spun yarn do what is didn't want to do. The only problem is that at his point I was almost out of time and needed to make something, and did not have time for do-overs. So I used my Calming Waves pattern and whipped up a cowl for her birthday. I think is turned out well, but I don't think that I would buy this yarn again. I just really don't like working with thick and thin yarn.

In the sukkah

2009-10-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

This is a totally craft-free post, so if you are not a family member you may just want to pass on by. Tonight was the second night of Sukkot and we celebrated with a family party. Unfortunalty it was windy enough to make it unpleasant in the Sukkah, but we all were able to spend a little time in the sukkah tonight. Lena and her friend decided to sleep in the Sukkah tonight and the wind seems to have died down for them at least.

Lena and a friend decorating the Sukkah.
In the Sukkah shaking the lulav.

Some little people braved the cold and ate ouside.
Even gamely took a turn with the lulav and etrog.

And some headed for warmer pastures.

More Red

2009-09-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have finished up another languishing project. I had the red and white pinwheel squares left another from another quilt that I made (a really really long time ago) and well, they were just bugging me. SO hear we are.... This fabric can stop nagging me now.
This isn't a really good shot but I think that I might like the scrappy back a bit better than the front.

Red Socks

2009-09-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

I really should be working on my time-sensitive projects, but somehow I don't feel complete unless I have pair of socks on the needles. So, I cast on another pair of socks from Socks From the Toe Up. This is my third pair from this book and I have to say that I love the book. The only problem that I have with kitting socks from patterns in that they are always to wide. I think that it must be my family we must either have narrow feet or like tight socks. I think that I'll add some ribbing to the arch of the foot to snug them up a bit. I got this great red and black hand-dyed yarn from a yarn swap that I signed up for on ravelry.

Casting on these socks has meant that my scrappy blanket has to go on haitus because I am down to only one size 0 needle. I am always breaking this size and really should start ordering them in bulk. It is a good time for a rest thoutgh because I finished row two.

Happy Fall everyone

2009-09-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

No, I am not trying to signal aliens today, on this first day of Fall, I am just trying to cook some dinner. This is usually the time of year that I clean up my solar oven and put it away in the garage to store until next May, but the weather was supposed to be so hot today that I didn't want to cook anything in the house.

What will we be having for dinner on this first day of Fall you ask?

Well, Cauliflower/ Cheddar soup, it might sound weird, but for some reason I love soup in hot weather. I don't really have a recipe for this soup, but I will tell you what is in this pot of soup.

1/2 a sauteed onion (a whole would work, but all I had was a 1/2)
oil for sauteing the onion
3 small potatoes cut up
1 leek chopped
2 small heads of cauliflower
about 2 cups of water

This morning I stuck all that in the solar cooker and and will let it sit their all day.

Right before dinner I will bring it in side and puree all the veggies with a hand blender.
I will then add about a cup of milk (we use skim, but any would do) and cup of shredded cheddar and heat for a couple of minutes then serve.

Veggies that my picky eater will eat.

By the way, as a wrote this post the solar over was at 250 degrees.

I am also happy to report that I have my camera back at home and will be posting some of my finished objects very soon.

Out on the water

2009-09-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend our whole family drove down the California coast a bit to the Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. It is a great place to visit, when Lena was little she used to call it the nature zoo because of the wealth of wildlife. Above is a picture of the harbor seals that we shared the launch area with. We also saw brown pelicans, mud crabs, sea otters, sea lions, sea stars, cormerants and others.
My husbands friend, Dean, is a docent at the Slough. He graciously offered to give our family a guided tour. It was great having a tour from a insider, for example, I now know that the Elkhorn Slough is 2nd largest estuary in the state of California. Anyone know the largest?
This was the also the first time that Lena got to steer our canoe. That is not as easy a task as it seems, but she did great.
Not to be out done Sara kept a cheerful smile on her face for the whole 3+ hours we were on the water. That is quite an accomplishment for a 15 year old who had to sit next to her sister then her dad.

I'm sorry little blog for ignoring you

2009-09-17T14:49:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I have not posted anythin to my little blog in a week. Don't think that I have been slacking. I have finished several projects and have been itching to post them, but, well, I forgot my camera at a friends house last friday. I feel as if my right arm has been cut-off this week with out my beloved camera. I broke down and took a few crappy shots with the crappy point and shot camera that the kids use, just so that I could post this quilt that I finished over the weekend.

Thanks you all for your kind words when I posted about this quilt before. I am happy with how it turned out. I ended up doing very little actual quilting because I did not want to distract from the blocks that everyone made. I also don't think that this is the kind of quilt that will see that much washing, so I hope the lack of quilting will be okay.

Here it the square that my own talented daughter made. The pattern is from Sublime Stitching

Does not work well with others

2009-09-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

I volunteered to make a thank you quilt for a friend who gereously gives of her time. I am supplying all the labor and materials. All the other group members needed to do was decorate one square and mail if back to me in the envelope that I supplied. I did not get one square by the deadline. I know the quilt will look great, but I am not sure that I have the temperament to work well with others.
Here is the preliminary layout of the quilt. I don't want it to get too busy and detract from the lovely (and late) square that were contributed.

And four days later...

2009-09-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

The socks are done. I am pleased to say that these socks were super quick to knit up. I started these sock Friday night and finished them on Tuesday, that is a pretty fast sock project for me. Sheepfeet, yarn is a bit thicker than most sock yarns, so it knits up much faster. The pattern is from Socks from the Toe Up. What I love about his book is that is offers you three different toe cast-ons and three different heels for toe up socks. Which allows me to add some variation to my toe up socks. This pattern is called Serpentine and the color-way of the yarn is called Royalty. These will make a nice gift for someone special. Hubby was a bit out of sorts because he thought that it might might be a violation of our marriage vows for me to make socks for anyone other than him. He seemed to calm down when I showed him the yarn for them next pair of sock that I will be making (for him).

On another note the tiny squares blanket has also made some progress. I am know starting on my second row and still have plenty of sock yarn scraps to keep me going for at least one more row. I just love crazy quilt look of this.

Dividing a skein of yarn

2009-09-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I always (usually) have a sock on my knitting needles and having finished my latest pair of socks over a week ago (eight days to be exact) I am feeling out of sorts. I just could not decide which sock yarn to knit with. I have two different skeins that were calling to me and I have a rule that I only knit one pair of socks at a time. Well, the Sheepfeet (color Royalty) won the toss and I plan on taking a quite moment this evening to cast on a new pair of socks.
I decided to divide my yarn onto two equal size balls ahead of time since, as usual, I am making toe up socks. Since I don't have one of those fancy gadgets to measure how many yards of yarn you have wound, I have to use my kitchen scale.
Here is how I did it:
I gathered up my supplies:
Swift
Ball winder
Skein of yarn
Kitchen scale

I weighed my skein of yarn before started, because even though the skein says that is weighs 100g this one actually weighed 94g. Since it weighs 94g that means that I want to make two balls of 47g each.

Wind the skein as usual. After winding my skein I checked the weight again to be on the safe side. It was still 94g.

Now comes the dividing. Remove the ball from your winder and start winding from the ball you just wound. When you think you are getting close to half-way check the weight of the ball you are winding from. You will likely need to wind a bit, check, wind, check, until you get it just right. Now you just snip the yarn, remove the ball from the winder and re-wind the rest of the yarn into a second ball.
Here is my technique for holding the ball as you are winding from it and also making sure that the yarn comes out smoothly.
Here they are. Now I can knit up my new socks with confidence that they will both be the same size!

All I want to do is knit tiny squares

2009-09-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have so many other things to do. Work on two patterns I am writing, finish the quilt I am working on, but all I really want to do is sit and knit tiny little squares out of left-over sock yarn. Each square is using about 3 grams of yarn so it looks like this project will take a while. They are just so easy to knit that it is oddly addicting.

Sergered Skirt

2009-09-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

I recently finished this skirt for Lena, my daughter. I have made it up ages ago, but needed to sit down and do the hand sewing for the waistband. The two things that I love about this skirt are that I made the whole thing with my serger and that I didn't use a pattern at all. I was really free-form sewing. Since the skirt is so full the only measuring that I had to do was to make sure that the waistband fit.

To make the hem of the skirt I simply rolled the skirt fabric into a tube and stuck it inside the red hem fabric. It make a lovely hem that is finished on both sides. I took a bit of doing to get all that rolled up fabric out after sewing, but I love the results.

Counting Sheep

2009-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

When I saw the pattern for this bag in I (Heart) Felt, by Kathleen Taylor, I knew that I had to make it and I knew just who I had to knit it for. My mom loves sheep, she even had a pet ewe once (I am so serious about that she loved that Ewe), so this is the perfect book bag for her.

I also feel really on top of the world because her birthday is not even until the END of September. How cool is that I finished her gift a month ahead of time.
The handles are lime green and I lined the with a coordinating blue calico print that I had lying around. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the lining.I did make a few changes. I increased the size of the blue sky, because my mom really like blue... and well... I allowed me to buy one less ball of yarn. I really wasn't about saving money because the Knit Picks Yarn the pattern called for is really inexpensive, I just didn't want to end up with any more scraps than I had to.
I also added a pocket with one lone little lost sheep to jazz up the plain side of the bag. I sewed the pocket on before fulling the bag to the pocket should be pretty sturdy.

Into the frypan and onto the plate

2009-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

I had a little extra time today so I decided to make fresh tortillas for our burrito dinner. The thing about fresh tortillas is that nobody cares if they are funny shaped, because they taste so damn good.

Here is my recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon salt
.25 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 tablespoons vegetable oil
.5 cup warm water

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Then add the oil and slowly add the water until the dough comes together up isn't too sticky to handle. You may not need all the water and if the dough is too stick just knead in a little more flour.

Make sure you preheat your skillet to almost smoking hot (I use my cast iron skillet for this job).

To make burrito size tortillas divide the dough into 4 to 6 pieces forming each piece into a ball. The recipe will make about 12 smaller snack size tortillas.

On a well-floured surface roll the thing as thin as you can. I know I should provide some measurement here, but honestly it just takes some practice to get the hang of it.

Oil the skillet (used spray oil to make things easy) and slap the tortilla down. If your skillet is hot enough the tortilla should bubble relatively soon. When it bubbles turn is over to cook the other side.

While you are cooking the rest of your tortillas wrap the finished ones in a kitchen towel.

Side effects

2009-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

This morning when I got up and headed to the bathroom, I realized someone was spying on me. That is one lone googly eye in the corner of my bathroom. How does one end up with a googly eye on the bathroom floor. I have to say that I have know idea, but I suspect that it is a side effect of encouraging one's daughters to be creative artistic people.

On the other hand sometimes encouraging them to be creative has its pluses. This weekend I was treated to this lovely breakfast, made by none other than one of those lovely artistic daughters. Puff pancake and fresh strawberries. Yum! I guess I'll take the random eyes (and messes) around the house as long as I get yummy food too.

The garden provides

2009-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

As August wains our eggplant plant (is that just me or is that sound so fun) has gone into over drive. We picked this three beauties to make eggplant parmesan. I just love how eggplants look and I never tire of picking them, which is good because I have a bunch more to go and pick today.
Of course, the garden does not provide all that we need, for instance, biscotti. These cookies were for Hubby's dad for his birthday. I used the recipe from Baking with Julia, which is one of my favorite recipe books.
We also have to have cookies for ourselves. French Macarons from Pamplemousse in Redwood City. These are rose and violet flavored. Soon, I want to try making some of these for myself. The process it quite involved, but I am sure that it will be worth it.

Supporting small businesses...

2009-08-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

....or by another name adding to my stash. While we were traveling I stopped in at two different yarn stores. At Wildfiber in Santa Monica, Ca I picked up the lovely purple yarn to use in a project that I will be showing off soon and the green leather handles that I now have to make a bag to go with. At Yarns at the Adobe in SLO I picked up the Debbie Bliss pattern book Simple Living and some cotton blend Noro yarn that I have never tried out.

The book had some nice patterns that I might like to try, such as, these pillows.

Or maybe this throw. It sure looks like it would be cozy to cuddle up with.

Travel knitting

2009-08-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Since our recent trip to Hearst Castle involved many hours in the car it allowed me to finish up a few knitting project.
I finished two more washcloths for the new bathroom. I have made several of these and haven gotten tired of the pattern yet. The yarn for these is organic and from KnitPicks. I just machine washed and dried one of then and it held up very well, so, I think that I may order some more of the yarn.
The other project that I was able to finish was a throw that I have been working on since December 08 for Lena. I thought about adding a border to it, but she says that she likes it the way it is. I can't complain because I really was sick of knitting all that garter stitch. The other nice thing about this throw it that all, but two skeins of the yarn we leftovers. That's right I had enough leftover pink and green Cascade 220 to almost make a blanket.... I wonder what that says about me!

And here is a close up of the blanket. I also was able to work on the pair of socks that I am currently knitting, but since I did not finish them and they are not that exciting I'll save the photos till I am done.

Our first time.....

2009-08-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

.....well, our first time visiting Hearst's Castle together. Hubby and I recently took a trip there to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. It had been a long running joke between us, I always wanted to visit Hearst's Castle, but he refused to take me. It all started over ten years ago when we were living in Los Angeles and making the drive to Northern California several time a year to visit our family. Every time that we would drive by the signs for Hearst Castle I would whine, beg and plead to go there. He, however, remembered being dragged through those opulent halls, as a kid, and he refused to be bored that way again. What seemed like a fun little side trip to me, wasn't anything of the sort to him.
I have to say that I had a great time on the tour and really enjoyed looking at the over-the-top splendor of it all. And how did Hubby like it? Much to his surprise he really enjoyed it. It appears that he might actually be a grown up and enjoy doing "boring things." Now for the pictures.
Here is the outdoor swimming pool, which is just huge (as you can tell from those people how rudely got in to my picture in the upper left-hand corner).
Here is the view of the "ranch." I would dearly love to have a few acres of that Central California Coastland to call my own.

One of the THREE guest houses.

The inside of the one of the guest rooms.
Yes, those two statues really are from Ancient Egypt and yes, they really are outside.
The front of the main house.

Another main house view.

Inside the main house were some really wonderful tapistries, but they were hard to get photos of because no flash was allowed. That didn't stop me from trying.

This if the fabric that he had designed from a tapistry to cover all the couches and chairs in the great room. I would love to get my hands on some of that fabric.
This is the diving platform in the indoor pool.
Those gold tile really are gold

and a marble pool ladder to top if all off.

After our tour we found our way to a lovely winery/ B and B called Summerwood Inn in Paso Robles. This is the view from our room. It was an anniversary celebration to remember.

Catching up

2009-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

After a four day weekend I am trying to settle back into my routine and get back up to my blog. To make it easy on myself I'll show the bag that I just finished knitting for my mom. After a trip through the washer it should be nice and sturdy.
And on another note something that I totally did not make although they are hand made by one of my favorite potters, Nancy Quickert. We had her make us some tea cups with handles, we already had teacups without handles, but one can never really have too many teacups.

I think that I have a problem...

2009-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

I know that many other knitters have the same one. I'm leaving for the weekend and I spent waaaay too much time deciding what knitting project to take. On the plus side, I should have some finished project to show on Monday for all my hours in the car this weekend!

Crafts with the girls

2009-08-06T09:00:00.001-07:00

With summer winding to a close and school just around the corner I am trying to take one day a week to do something fun with my girls. This week we make books. In January I posted about making books with this a Books By Hand kit. We made Japanese Stab Binding Books which were a lot of fun to make and involved the use of a hammer and an awl. Now we just have to figure out what to put in our books. These kits are really lovely and very high quality.

Bathroom Knitting

2009-08-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Finishing up remodeling our bathroom has inspired me to do a little bathroom knitting. No not knitting in the bathroom (although I have been known to knit in the tub), but knitting for the bathroom. I used this pattern and Knit Picks organic cotton yarn to make a little hand towel for the bathroom. After I see how it washes up I might make a few more of these because I really like how it looks. Hmmm, they might also make very nice hostess gifts in the future.

I also have knitted a small stack of matching facecloths in the top drawer.

Bathroom storage

2009-08-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am not sure that anyone is interested in how we organized all our bathroom stuff, but I took photos so I'll go ahead and over share.

The medicine cabinet contains only thing that are used on a daily bases. Once I edited down to things that are used on a daily bases I found that we had extra shelf space in our new medicine cabinet.

We have four large shelves in our bathroom linen closet. I gathered up all the empty storage bins that we had around around the house. On the floor of the closet we have room for a basket of first aid supplies, a bin of cleaning supplies, a basket for dirty laundry and our bathroom scale. On the next shelf I placed bin with medicines, extra towels and bathmats.

After a empty shelf on which I think I will use for our sheets. I have three more bins. The largest bin has all the extra stuff that we use very infrequently. The medium bin for extra lotions and supplies. Smallest is for nail supplies.

The vanity has three drawers. The bottom has hand towels and a few rolls of toilet paper

The middle drawer has all the hair do-dads that an eleven year old can use.
One more drawer for washcloths and a few other things, like Efferdent for my daughters retainers!

Our new bathroom

2009-07-27T21:26:00.001-07:00

Our bathroom remodel is finally done. Although, in the past we have done all the home improvement projects ourselves (with a little (or a lot of) help from family) this time we hired a contractor. Since the bathroom had extensive rot in the sub-floor and we wanted to move every fixture in the bathroom we decided that the expense of a contractor was well worth it. One thing we did skimp on was that we did not hire a designer. I know that it sounds simple enough to design a bathroom, but I tell you Hubby and I spent a lot if time with graph paper to get just the right layout and even more time shopping for fixtures. Because we decided not to enlarge the footprint of the bathroom (the room is 8x9, not tiny, but not huge) we could not put in everything that we would have liked. We traded having a tub shower for having a rather large shower and a linen closet. Both Hubby and I were clear that we wanted an uncluttered bathroom so we made sure that we had plenty of storage space. I also knew that I wanted to use glass tile for the shower, which is more expensive so we found other ways to keep our total budget in line. One way to keep cost down was to only use chrome. It was easier to match different pieces and is usually the cheapest option for sink and shower fixtures.

That door is to the linen closet. The door has a full length mirror on both sides. It makes the the room seem even more open and airy.

The sink is nice and high so that you don't have to lean over as much to wash your face, since our kids are no longer small this works for us (actually it was even 2.5 inches taller (39"), but the contractor did not know it and placed the medicine cabinet too low, so had to cut it down; however, as 36 inches is actually on the high-side of standard, it probably is for the best). We also love that the sink has no counter space, I know that, that would bother some people but, we love it. It means that you must put away your stuff when you are done getting ready.

Tomorrow I'll write another post about how I organized the storage in the new bathroom

Day Trip

2009-07-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend hubby and took a day trip up to the north bay to visit our daughter at her camp and pick up our annual supply of beef. We decided a few years ago that we did not want to participate in the industrialize meat food chain. We bought a chest freezer for the garage and started buying beef from Chileno Valley Ranch in Petaluma. We purchase our meat this way because we believe it is safer and healthier for us and we know that it is heather for the cattle. The cattle are born on the ranch and never leave it. This means that they are never fattened up like feed-lot cows this makes the meat leaner and I think tastier. I'm stepping of my soap-bax now and will just show the picture of our trip.

First we picked up Sara from her camp job and took the very greatful girl out to lunch in St. Helena. My girl like to enjoy a good meal and to her "camp food" is not a good meal to her.

Then we walked around St. Helena for a bit. I just had to take a photo of their lovely art deco post office.
and the gazibo in the public park. It is all most too small town USA to be real. After taking Sara to the store and deli for more snacks to take back to camp with her we took the senic route to Cotati to pick up our meat from the butcher who also sells pasta.
See no joke. He is the pasta king!
In case you are wondering, this is what the meat from a half of a cow looks like in the back of our little car. After picking up the meat we enjoyed the ride home.
All that green is vinyards.
And more vineyards.

Over the Golden Gate Bridge, now all that is left is to pay the six dollar bridge toll and go home.

Not to leave it out, all the time in the car, allowed me to get some knitting done more on that later.

Question: How many sodas can a herd of teens drink?

2009-07-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

Answer: As many as you have.

When the kids are young the milestones are simple things like first teeth, first step and first sleep-overs. Teenagers have milestones too and last night my oldest, Sara, planned her first party. Of course, she had helped plan birthday party's before, but this time she planned a surprise party for a friend who is going to spend a semester abroad. She planned, shopped and cleaned up for the party and it all went off without a hitch. Her friend was totally surprised and the kids all seem to have a good time. They ate, danced, jumped (on the trampoline in the backyard), talked, and ate some more. Hubby and I just stayed out of the way as much as possible, since we are also in charge of making sure that the food platters stayed full. As an added bonus I have to say that they totally road tested the deck that Hubby added to the deck a few years back. I can say that we have had a whole heard of teeagers jumping up and down on the deck in time to the music, so that means that the deck is definalty structually sound.

My younger daughter also had a big yesterday. It was her stage debut as Tybalt, in Romeo and Juliet. She was wonderfully blood thirsty in the role. My how quickly they grow.

All this activity has lead to a decided lack of craftyness around the house and the bathroom remodel continues to plod along so not pictures on either of those fronts. I really hope to have some bathroom pictures for you soon.

The winner is ....

2009-07-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

brianbabymama. She was randomly selected by my totally disinterested teenage daughter. Thank you all for entering. It was a lot of fun to do and I can't wait to do another give away.

In progress

2009-07-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Nothing around here seems to be able to be finished. I think it is the tile guy's fault. Well, at least he started it. The tile on the bathroom remodel is still almost done. It has been almost done since Friday. My project seem to be following suit. I keep working on them but, they don't seem to get any closer to finished. Since I can't seem to finish anything I will show you what I am currently working on.

A knitted log cabin throw in picks and greens that is taking forever. I started this in December...I am so over this project
As always I am working on a pair of toe up socks. I always have a pair of these in process, so lac of progress on this project is not really bothering me.

I have this quilt sitting next to my sewing machine....I can't find my walking foot. I am a bit worried that one of my lovely children "put it away" for me if that is the case then I had better go buy a new one because I'll never be able to find it.And last of all a sheep felted bag that I am making for my mother.
Really, all these are taking to long so, I think that I should start a new project.

100th post giveaway

2009-07-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

First the bathroom remodel update then on to the giveaway. Tiling continues, it really looks good, I am totally ready for them to be done. You know how the last ten miles before you get home from a long car trip are the longest. That is how I feel right now. So close, yet so far. Now for the pictures. This is the best I could do because the floor tile is still setting as I type. I promise no more bathroom picture on my blog until the bathroom is done.

I have reached the milestone of 100 post to my blog. To celebrate I thought that I would giveaway a small knitting bundle. It consists of the knitting pattern booklet Kindred by Louisa Harding and three different Louisa Harding yarns. I just love her booklets because of the photography and the fact that she writes patterns for children and teens. As the parent of a child and a teen I can tell you that stylish knitting patterns for these age groups are in short supply.
How to win my very modest knitting package, you ask? Just post a comment by July 14th 12pm Pacific time. That is it, that is all. You don't have to list some weird random fact about yourself to win (you can if you want to but, you don' t have to). On July 15th I will enlist the help of one of my children or the dog depending on who is more cooperative and draw a person at random.

Tea Towel

2009-07-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for old embroidered kitchen and bedroom linens. I love the amount of effort that was put into such utilitarian objects. I did happen to inherit some very nice pillow cases (and I actually use them) when my grandparents died, but I never received any kitchen linens. I am sure that this towel won't survive to be passed down because I will defiantly be using and enjoying it. Hubby and I would both love to have one of these vintage travel trailer so, I really enjoyed stitching these. Unfortunately, this is a close as we are likely to get to owning one of these trailers for a while.

The embroidery patterns is from Sublime Stitching. She has a lot of great patterns that you can buy from her site. The towel came from towel yardage that I bought at the Bobbin's Nest last month. All you have to do is trim it the the length that you want and hem the end such a quick way to make your own towels.

It is about to get exciting....

2009-07-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

in our bathroom. Now that is a sentence that you don't hear everyday and probably don't want to hear. Tomorrow the tiling starts and that will make the biggest difference. The pictures are not much to look at now but, the remodel should really be taking shape by the end of the week.
Here is the bathroom when we left for the July 4th weekend.
And here is is today. That large space on the right hand side of the picture is going to be a linen closet. I may be more excited about this that any other feature of the bathroom. Well placed storage is really lacking in our house and I am so excited about having a closet in the bathroom.

Just so you don't think that all I've been up to lately is drooling over my new linen closet. Here is a picture from a hike to Chillkoot Lake that Hubby and I took with my dad's senior hiking group. The lake was cool and calm so my hiking buddy Jess got to go for a long swim.

Doesn't Jess look like he enjoyed his swim.

a little birthday present to myself

2009-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how the littlest things can improve life so much. I had been using painters tape stuck to the needle plate of my Singer 15-91 sewing machine to measure my seam allowances. I poking around I found that you could buy a replacement needle plate for my machine that had seam allowances already marked on it. I promptly bought one for cheap off the internet and took at the results. I think it looks so much better.

Before:

After:

Happy 4th of July !

Fabric covered bullentin board

2009-07-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

As my bathroom remodel continues to chug along and is not currently providing many interesting picture I thought that I would share another project that I finished a couple of weeks ago. My oldest daughter has a lovely bulletin board set in her bedroom. It was on the pricey side and DD#2 did not like any of the covering options that it came in. I am not really into spending money on things that you don't really like so, with two yards of Amy
Butler fabric and a trip to the office supply store here is what we came up with for her room.

These are just 12 x 12 cork tiles but they are a bit thinner than I wanted so I just used Elmer's Glue to glue them together.

About this much glue to be precise.
Set a heavy book on them and let is sit for about 10-12 hours. When the glue was dry I used pinking shears to cut a square of fabric about an two inches bigger than the tile. Using my regular desk stapler (I was too lazy to find the big stapler in the garage) I liberally stapled the edges down and then used nine of the adhesive squares per tile that the tile package to stick them to the wall. I might regret this last part in the future when I have to get that stick stuff off the wall, but for now I am livin' dangerously.
This really was a fun and easy project to do.

And the bathroom remodel begins

2009-06-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

After much hemming and hawing, the work on our bathroom finally started. I have to say that I am quite proud of David(hubby) and I, as we were able to plan the entire bathroom and only have one fight with any real heat. That is a successful project in my book. Now I only hope that the sharing the one remaining bathroom between four people (one of whom is a teenager) goes as smoothly.

It is such a relief to have our old bathroom gone. It may have been the worlds ugliest bathroom, but now it only exists in photographs. And here is the photographic evidence.

Ahhh, brown bathtub, I can't say that I will miss you. Nope can't say that at all.

Nor will I miss your best friend ugly, leaky, brown bidet. Also at the top of the picture you can see a bit of one of the best parts of the bathroom the plastic, oh yes, I did say plastic window.

And this is the real reason that the bathroom took priority over all other house projects... the hole in the bathroom floor. Yes, it did go all the way to the crawl space under the house and David was convinced that he was going to walk into the bathroom and fall right through the floor. Unfortunately the bathroom remodel will do nothing to prevent piles of dirty clothes that get left on the bathroom floor, like the ones in this picture.

Here is what the bathroom looked like at the end of the day today everything was gutted except for my lovely plastic window. And they had repaired the floor joists.
See all new floor joists and subfloor. I also liked seeing the steps to nowhere under our bathroom floor. Makes me feel a bit Winchester Mystery House.

Calming Waves Cowl Pattern

2009-06-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

I created this pattern as a birthday gift for a friend who lives by the sea and has been hit by and unusual number of waves in the last year. I just wanted her to remember that waves can also be gentle and soothing too.
From a technical stand-point almost all of the cowls that I have seen are knit in the round, so that the knitting goes up the neck, but I wanted my knitting to wrap around the neck. So, I started with a provisional cast-on and then knit until it was 24 inches, then used the Kitchener stitch to to close them up.
I am very pleased with how it turned out. Both edges at the top and bottom curl under just a bit in a way that I think is flattering, but does not eat up too much of the knitting. So, here is my first knitting pattern published on my blog. If you have any questions or corrections please let me know.

Calming Waves Cowl

Finished Size: 9 inches x 12 inches (this is a folded size after doing the Kitchener stitch)

Gauge: 20 stitches = 4inches in the wave pattern

Needle Size: 9 (US) or 5.5mm, cable needle and one other needle.

Yarn used: Blue Sky Worsted, Hand Dyes 50% Alpaca/50% Merino, in color 2007

_________________________________________________________________
Wave Pattern:
Row 1--- Knit all the way across
Row 2---Purl all the way across
Row 3---* Knit 2, place 2 stitches on the cable needle to the back of your knitting, knit 2, knit stitches from cable needle* repeat these six stitches until the end of the row
Row 4---Purl all the way across
Row 5---Knit all the way across
Row 6---Purl all the way across
Row 7---*Place 2 stitches on cable needle to the front of the knitting, knit 2, knit stitches from the cable needle, knit 2* repeat these six stitches until the end of the row
Row 8-- Purl all the way across

Repeat these 8 rows.

___________________________________________________________________

Cast on 50 stitches using a provisional cast on. (I will be posting a tutorial on doing a provisional cast on in my next blog post)

Begin working in the wave pattern pattern until your piece measures about 23 inches (less it you want it to be a snugger fit).

At this point you will want to knit rows 1-7 of the wave pattern, leaving your live stitches on the needle.

Now carefully remove the waste yarn and place the cast on stitches on a second needle.

At this point you should have live stitches on both the top and bottom of your knitting. Lay your knitting right-side-down in front of you and fold both ends up so that they line up.

Use the Kitchener stitch to attach the two sets of live stitches and weave in the loose ends and you are done.

Here is a link to the pattern on Ravelry if you are a member of that group.

Copyright Suzette Silberman, May 2009.

Editied 9/6/09 to correct a mistake in row 7

other people's messes

2009-06-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

After dinner today I happily made my way around the house putting things away. I put away with such uncharacteristic joy that I shocked myself. Why? Because the children have left the house for the weekend and I can happily put away their flip-flops, comic books, and scraps of paper knowing that they won't be back out again until the youngest returns from soccer camp on Monday. Don't get me wrong, in theory, I love the creative messes that my two daughters make. It is the cleaning up I don't like or the nagging to get them to do it. I hate nagging. I am already enjoying my nag-free weekend.

Cold Coffee

2009-06-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

We have been using a French Press to make coffee around here and the only problem is that the coffee can get cold fast is its little glass pot. To solve this problem I stitched up a cozy for the pot. I used two layers of quilt batting to make it nice and thick and velcro to close it with. The whole project took no more than 30 minutes. The cozy is actually reversible, but I forgot to take a picture of the other side. Maybe next time I make coffee I'll snap a photo of the other side of the cozy.

Designing

2009-06-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

The hard part for me about designing something is all the decisions. I love the creative part where you just come up with ideas, but them you actually have to decide how to proceed. I always worry that I will make the wrong choice. For the last two week I have been spending a lot of time on two design projects. The first one is pretty simple I am writing up a pretty simple knitting pattern to post to my blog. Below is a photo of the work in progress. I am pretty excited because I am pretty close to finishing it and being able to share my pattern.

The designing project is a bit more complex. I am designing our bathroom remodel. I have found making all the decisions for this kind of project a bit overwhelming, but I am eager to share photos of the bathroom once work gets started.

All in Pinks and Green (and Yellows)

2009-06-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

It seems lately that I have been making baby gifts for little boys. I have not had a chance to make very many girl items and as a mother with only daughters I have to confess that making things for little girls is special for me. It is fun to make little boy things too, but things for girls bring back the memories of when my own girls were young.
I was happy to find out that my sister-in-law is going to have a baby girl. What a great chance to break out my Amy Butler fabric and make quilt for the little one. I am so proud of this quilt because the whole thing is made from scraps just like the quilts my great-grandmother used to make. I even had a piece of batting the perfect size for the quilt and it is the first quilt that I have quilted on my sewing machine instead of by hand.

More Amy Butler fabrics on the back of the quilt.

And a close up of the quilt before it was washed.

New socks for me

2009-06-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

This week I finished the Van Dyke socks that I was making from the book Socks from the Toe Up. I think that they turned out well and am happy to report that the Sheep Shop yarn it really comfy to wear. I will definitely use this yarn again in the future.
While we were taking pictures of my socks we encountered this wild beast sunning herself on our deck. She looked so regal that we had to take a picture.
Not to be out done our cat Madeline posed for a picture in her jaunty beret. Cats in hats are just so funny to me.

Making felt the Mongolian way (sort of)

2009-06-06T02:50:00.000-07:00

This week daughter Lena was doing a report on Mongolia and being the fiber oriented household that we are she chose how they make felt. Honestly, I did not influence her a bit. Well, maybe I did, but, it was just a little bit. Aside from the written report she wrote on the making of felt in Mongolia and it's uses, she and I decided to make felt the Mongolian way. She showed me this video that she found on felt making and we were off.

Since we had both made felt before we had a general idea how it was done and just tried to scale down the Mongolian process to fit in our kitchen. Using sheep's wool stuffing that was not carded, she arranged a thick rectangular bat of it the same size at the produce bag we would be using to roll up the wool in.

We cut open the produce bag and lay the bat on one half of it. We then sprinkled it with surprisingly little water and folded the plastic bag over the top. At this point the layer of wool will be in between the two layer of plastic.

She then rolled the whole thing up around a rolling pin (a heavy dowel would work too.)

She then rolled the whole thing up in a dish towel like this and we used masking tape to hold it closed. Rubber bands would have been a better choice in hind sight because as the masking tape got wet it started to come off.

Then she rolled until past the point that it was fun .

Here is the finished result. We really did make felt.

Sewing Machine Review

2009-06-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

It is sewing machine month over at Sew Mama Sew and one of the things they have done is ask bloggers to review their personal sewing machine on their blog by answering these questions. So here is mine.

What brand and model do you have?

Singer 15-91. My sewing machine is (much) older than I am!

How long have you had it?

About 3 years

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?

I got mine locally of of Craigslist. I can't remember how much I paid, but I know that is was more than $150 and less than $259

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?

I have made a few quilt tops on it and machine quilted one baby quilt on it, I have made a number of skirts and several Halloween costume. I have also made a few bags and throw pillows with it.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?

I tend to sew in spurts, but I would say I average and hour or two a week.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?

I love her because with the proper needle she can sew through anything. I suspect that with the right needle I could sew through steel on this machine;)

What features does your machine have that work well for you?

Features? My machine does exactly two things, it sews forward and backwards. However, for the easily frustrated it's lack of feature could be considered a feature. I did purchase an old singer buttonholer for it, but I need to fiddle with is a bit to get it working.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?

When first got my machine I used to have a lot of trouble with the tread breaking on me. I used it even with this problem for about six month until I notice in the manuel (amazingly enough the woman that sold it to me had a manuel for it) that I had been treading it wrong. I just assumed that the woman who sold it to me knew how to thread it. It turns out that she had it all wrong.

The only other thing that used to bug me it that it was horrible with knits, however last year my thought full hubby bought be a serger so now I am all set.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!

When I went to the sewing machine shop last year to look at sergers the salesman asked me what kind of sewing machine that I used. He was shocked, aparently one does not serger that cost a bundle of money and a sewing machine that ones grandma could have used. He was even more shocked when I told him that was quite happy with my machine and felt no need to upgrade.

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?

Yes, because it is extremely durable and hardworking. Oh... and it is cheap. Even it I had a brand new machine I would still keep this one.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?

That it not be a new machine.

Do you have a dream machine?

I may break down and buy a Singer Featherweight some day because I can see the advantage of having portable machine.

Farmin' away

2009-05-29T15:27:00.001-07:00

I have not been blogging much, because mostly I was working on super secret projects. Ahh life would be much more simple is the blogging world and the real world did not overlap. The other reason that I have not been blogging is inertia. Once you get away from it is hard to get back or easy to stay away. I usually like to take the path of least resistance, but as I have some really cute knitting to that I can show off now that is has been given away here goes...
Look a little farmer I wonder what he could be doing?

Maybe he's looking for some friends

and here is the over view of the whole thing. If you are interested in what yarn I used here is a link to my Ravelry page on this project. I think most of the yarns are on there although I do need to update a few totals.

Now just one more super secret project to go.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all. Here is a photo that I took this morning with my mother's day present. It is a telephoto lens for my camera. What a lovely family I have. By the way in case you are wondering the thing in the photo is a fig that we have growing on our fig tree.

And here is one of the mother's day packages that we sent out earlier this week. Note the washcloth that I knit sitting on top.

My wonderful husband also made buckwheat crepes fill with strawberries, plain yogurt, and some sugar. They were wonderful and it would have been better if I had taken a picture before I started to eat, but they were too good to wait.

Lena also gave me this really cute bee's wax turtle candle that she bought at the farmer's market. It smells so much like honey you would think that you could eat it.

Yarn review

2009-05-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

I recently used some Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in Marshmallow to knit up some washcloths for Mother's Day. To be perfectly honest I am not a big fan of knitting with cotton, but this yarn is undyed, unbleached and 100% organic. It is also less expensive than some of the other organic yarns, so I had to try it. Here are the results....

For a cotton yarn it was really soft, probably because it isn't has processed as bleached and dyed cotton yarns. It would work just fine for a baby blanket and you can feel good about what you are putting next to the baby's skin. I am not sure how it would work for a sweater, but then again I am not fond of cotton for garments, so I may not be the best judge. The pattern is called Chinese Waves and is a free pattern available here. One 100g skein will make two washcloths.

Socks done!

2009-05-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

I always have one pair of socks that I am knitting, I usually have a few other project on my needles, but I am always knitting a pair of socks. They are very portable and they offer a lot of knitting time for the cost of yarn. My only rule is that I only work on one pair of socks at a time. The problem is that I have been itching to try this sock yarn that I bought last year (more about that yarn in a future post). Well, Friday night I finished the socks that I was working on for David. He wore them on Saturday and declared them his new favorite pair of socks. It is truly a win-win situation. I get to start a new sock project and he gets a new pair of socks.

I love compost...

2009-04-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

maybe too much. For Earth Day I made these cupcakes. Here is how mine turned out. They could have been a bit better if the frosting that I made was a bit stickier.They were really very yummy and tasted almost nothing like compost;)

I have not been had much to blog about lately because two of the main projects that I am working on are top secret. Here is a bit of a taste of what I have been working on.

Some sewing...

and a pile of yarn that is slowly being turned into something nice. What nice earthy colors.

What is that buzzing sound?

2009-04-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what a swarm of bees looks like? Here it is. These little guys came to visit us and hang out in our apricot tree. By the way that mass is a lump of solid bees.
We were excited to see these little visitor, but we were also worried that someone would get stung. They were only a few feet from our well traveled sidewalk. Hubby really wanted to keep them as pet, but we decided to let them go to a better home. We contacted a very nice local beekeeper who came by our house and took them away for us. He just held his box under the swarm and banged hard on the branch and down they fell right into the box.
Someday we might have bees.....
but not today.

Knitting WIP's

2009-04-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you who aren't in the know WIP stands for Work in Progress. Just about everything in my life seems like a WIP, but for this post I will be limiting myself to showing just the knitting WIP's. I actually have four, but one of them in top secret and can't be shown in this public space yet.

1. Here is the sweater I started last summer for Hubby.... I think is should be done just in time for this summer.... I am not really sure about my planning skills, but at least he won't grow out of it over the summer. The pattern is Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd for any interested parties, but if you do try this pattern you will likely need to make the arms smaller and maybe the arm holes too.2. Here are the socks I am currently knitting. I try to always have a sock on my needles. The yarn is ONline Supersocke 100 Afrika Color. It has such long repeats in the pattern that I don't notic the repeat at all. The pattern is just my own every day toe-up pattern that I keep in my head.
3. This is a left over log cabin method throw a la the Mason-Dixon girls. So far I have not purchase any yarn to make this it is all partial skeins leftover from other projects. I may have buy some to finish it up with as I have run out of pinks and greens.

4. Top Secret.

Camping in April

2009-04-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Not a very creative title, but it pretty much sums up one of the reasons that I love California. I really can't stand the cold when I am sleeping outside, but even I wimp like me can camp in April. (Note the flip-flops on the child above) Earlier this week we packed up our two kids and two dogs and headed to south Mt Madonna Park. The park itself was so beautiful and lush with plenty of banana slugs.

We relaxed.I managed to find time finish a knitted wash cloth or two. The yarn is organic cotton and it seemed very appropriate to me to be knitting with organic cotton while camping.

Lena also had a lot of fun with some leftover glow sticks that we took with us. It was hard to get a good picture with out a tri-pod, but I did my best.

Urban Silk scarf

2009-03-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

Last month I started this scarf pattern from Interweave Knits, Summer 2007 magazine and designed by Amy Singer. The pattern is called Montego Bay. I used Urban Silk for the yarn which is a silk and cotton blend.
It make up into a very soft and not too warm scarf for the spring season. Although I did have to fiddle with the yarn to work for this pattern. The scarf I made is long. When I wear it I wrap it around my neck at least twice to get it to look nice, but honestly I planned is that way. At least that is my story and I am sticking with it.Here is a close up of the stitch patternand here is a shot of the braided fringe that I think really makes a wonderful item to wear.

Sprung

2009-02-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

Spring is on it's way. At least it is where I am. Need proof? Here it is.

Yes, that is a Daffodil. It is ready to burst open at any moment.
Today is sunny, so I got to play with my new camera in the yard. There is not that much to take pictures of yet, just some yummy parsley and a few cabbages, well, if truth be told, more weeds than you can imagine.

Clapotis times two

2009-02-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, usually I try to stay away from trendy knitting projects. The great fun about having a hand knit item is that they are unique and if thousands of people are making the same thing as you, well there goes unique. With that out of the way sometimes the reason that everyone is making the same thing is because it is great. Kate Gilbert's Clapotis is that kind of knitting. Yes, everyone and their mother are making one, but that is because it is a fun, easy and not too boring project. It also doesn't hurt that the pattern is free on Knitty. I already had the yarn and the pattern was free, what the heck? Why not follow the herd? This one was made in with two skeins on Mountain Colors 4/8s wool. Above is the scarf before blocking and the photo below if the scarf during the blocking process. My recomendation for this pattern is you are using wool is to block. After I bocked mine the scarf draped so nicely.

Here it is again after the blocking was done. I used the pattern for some Rowan bamboo tape yarn that I had. This one I did not block, but the bamboo is so heavy already I was afraid to get is wet and try to shape it. Besides is really didn't seem to need it.

Introducing Elodea

2009-02-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

After looking at other peoples blogs I noticed how well dress forms display ones knitted or sewn items and I mentioned my desire to my mother-in-law and Voila! So, here she is, Ms. Elodea. Yes, elodea is a common water plant, but Lena (my youngest daughter) thought that is was pretty so we ran with is. She also had great fun dressing Elodea up and adding a head because she said that she looked creeping with out one.Elodea does not look quite as nice when you see her undressed. She does have a nice figure although she does need some work. I have to decided if I should recover her or leave her the way she is. The top is very faded by the sun and I would love to put some cheery fabric on her, but I also know that when you mess with "vintage" things you "destroy" the "value." In the end I suppose I will do what ever I find to be the most valuable to me. What do you think? Better to leave her be or monkey around with her?And here she is doing a little modeling for me. I was not quite sure how clean she was so I made her wear an old T-Shirt to protect my hand knits.
And scarf number two which I really love. I will post again with the specifics of the yarn and the pattern that I used.
PS I think I am developing a thing for scarfs. I have never been much of a scarf knitter, but look what I found on the morning paper! Another scarf. The cast-on fairy must have worked her magic last night. This one is made from Urban Silk yarn and should be nice and cool for spring.

Little Knitting Projects

2009-02-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

Many knitters like to describe themselves as "process knitters" or "product knitters". Process knitters are all about the process. They try new things and don't mind starting over after finishing 3/4 of a sweater because they are learning. Product knitters, on the other hand, want the knitted item and the sooner the better. To be perfectly honest, most knitters are somewhere in the middle and I am too. After all knitting is just like "real life" (well is is a bit better that real life) and as much as we want easily defined we are really a muddy mix of things.

All that being said, I am on a "product knitting" jag right now and you "process knitters" don't know what you are missing. Quick aside for non-knitters, the product vs. process applies can apply to other areas of you life as well. Just think about is for a moment and I am sure that you can come up with something.

Here are some of the quick to knit items that just flew of the needles.*A Hogwarts hat for Lena's birthday. It matches the scarf that I made her last year which at over eight feet long was not a quick knit. The bonus was that I didn't even have to purchase yarn. I already had it leftover from the scarf. Both patterns come from this book.I also made Sara a birthday gift, a cowl for her morning bike rides to school. She seemed to like it. I mean, I don't know for sure, but she has actually worn is and for a teenager that is saying something! The pattern is here.

Okay these are a bit of a fudge. They were not quick to knit, I mean they could have been, but I really started them last summer. They just had a little bit to go so they were quick to finish up and that felt really good. I also love the colorways of Noro yarn.

*I am sorry for the lack of photo quality. My photo quality was not that good to begin with and now I am down to using a really inexpensive digital camera of my daughters until I face fact and repair (who am I kidding, I can buy a new one for the cost of repairing) my camera

Look Ma no cast

2009-02-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, you may remember that my daughter Lena broke her arm back in November. Well, today she got her cast off, hopefully for the last time. No she has not had the same cast on for the hole time. What she did was to re-break her arm about a week after the first cast got off. This time it was no green stick fracture. The bone has to be set which required us to spend a hole evening in the emergency room and have her put under sedation. I think that for a parent there is nothing quite so scary as seeing your child sedated. Seeing the life drop out of your sweet little thing is so hard. I really feel for parents of very ill children who have to see that every time their kid needs a procedure. Here she is in the ER with cast number two. (Sorry the photo is not great, I did not take the camera to the ER, but of course I had my cell phone.)And here is that same arm today.
The orthopedist did not seem particualry concerned that the bone is not straight as you can see in the above picture. He said that kids bone can straighten 10 degrees every year.
I promise my next post will contain some actual crafting.

A different pace

2009-01-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

Toddlers worlds move at a different pace than the rest of us. I had the pleasure of spending part of the day with my nephew and I had forgotten how hanging out with a toddler really slows you down. My own children have long past the phase where they are happy just meandering through the day. They have things to do and people to see. It was nice to hang out with someone is thrilled to visit the chickens two or three times.
We walked to the library and then went outside to the park. It had been a long time since I had pushed someone in a swing and I remember what a chore is was to have a toddler who wanted to be pushed in the swing for hours at a time. I also remember how relieved I was when my girls learned how to pump for themselves. Now looking back on it I really can't remember why it was such a chore!?! Funny how that works. I mean how could pushing that smiling face (see adorable baby photo below) be a chore. Ah well, we won't ask his mother to answer that question.

Mad about

2009-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

Lena had been studying France. She built a really cool French castle, alas camera trouble prevented me from getting any pictures of that. One thing that she and I did do that we were able to get pictures of was making Madelines. I really enjoyed making them and I wish that I could give out taste test over the blog because they were so good. They were not that hard to make, but the real key is a well greased and floured pan. The pan we used was new and the first batch stuck a bit, but still tasted really good.

book making

2009-01-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Lena and I made some books. I have never really made a proper book before so we used a book making kit that we got at Yarn, Paper, Scissors in Burlingame. Lena made a lovely accordion book for her sister birthday and I made a couple because, well, we were making a mess anyway. We were not able to get very many shots of the process because our camera is trying to die. I think cause the camera to lose the will to live because I mentioned my desire for an SLR. Lena did manage to capture a few shots before the camera got to cranky so here they are.

In case you are interested the kit that I used can be found here.

like I need a hole in my head!

2009-01-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

I need a new hobby.....
I knit. I sew. I make all sorts of things. I love to hike and read. Let us also not forget gardening and composting. That really is enough to keep one person busy, at least is should be but.....
Long story short I have been on the fence about spinning my own yarn for some time, but I realized that I have enough to do until I saw Lisa's post about her new spinning wheel. Another battle of self control lost. Here is the photographic evidence. This can't lead to anything good.

Star Child

2009-01-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

I have a three more gift photos to post from last month.

This is a cute little Waldorf doll that I made as a gift. I have made dolls before, but this time I needle felted the wool stuffing for the head before I made the head. It made for a very firm and sturdy doll head.
Here is a close up of his little face.

Last but not least is some actual gift knitting. The photo above is of a pair of chunky gloves that I made for my brother. I really like the green and orange combo. The photo below is of a pair of thick and woolly socks that I made in a simple toe-up fashion.

Pimp my pillows

2009-01-11T19:57:00.001-08:00

Here are more pictures of gifts that I made last year. I only have a picture of this pear pillow. I somehow managed not to get a picture of his mate the apple pillow. I used my serger to make pillow covers then I appliqued felt on to the cover with embroidery floss. HMMM looks like hubby was playing Wii (Tiger Woods golf most likely) while I was trying to do my photo shoot.
This next set of pillows I have to give some design credit to my hubby. He said they should have birds sitting on branches. As you can see I ran with that design. In real life the fabric is really a deep purple corduroy.

In this picture you can see the backside of the pillow is a rather wild batik. Of course all the felt patterns were of my own devising.

new look

2009-01-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

I decided to go for a new look on my blog. I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. I did not make that teapot, although I do use it on a regular basis (in fact I am using it as I type this). It was made by a very talented potter in Montara California named Nancy Quickert.

My handmade holidays

2009-01-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

Since I took the handmade pledge I thought I should fess up about how well I did. With the exception of my kids all but two of the gifts that our family gave this year were homemade. It did get a little dicey at the end but I made it to the finish line and that is what counts. I did not post pictures of the gift as I was making them because I did not want to spoil the surprise in case any of my recipients happened to take a peek at my blog so over the next few days I will show you some of the things that I made.....Here is an Amy Butler Chelsea bag that I made. I was pretty pleased how it turned out although I am sure that I could do better now that I have one under my belt. I am still getting used to sewing with peltex.

This is a bag that I made from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing. The inside is made from an Amy Butler Fabric and the outside is brown corduroy. I added peltex to the bag as an after thought even thought the pattern did not call for it. The bag just looked so lifeless that I sewed a box out of peltex and slipped it in then stay stitched around the top to secure the peltex to the bag.

Today is a good day

2009-01-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it says about me, but the reason today is a good day is that my washing machine is fixed. Last week my lovely teenager tried to murder my hard working Kenmore washing machine. Her method was really quite simple: 1 throw all her clothes in the washing machine, 2 shut the door, 3 start the washer and 4 ignore all the horrible sound that the washer made. The one thing that she had neglected to do was make sure all the clothes were securely in the machine when she started it. I turns out that front-loaders (did you expect this tree-hugger to have any other kind of washer!) don't like it when you run them with bits of clothes stuck between the door and the gasket. It does bad things...... like say..... pull the gasket off the washer. Anyhow we have been with out a washer since then, but now we are back in action.

I am so happy that my washing machine is fix that I don't mind that I had to wait around the house for four hours waiting for the repair man.I thought about posting a picture of the load of clean laundry to celebrate, but in all honesty what I washed was dog towels (the towels that are so shabby that humans refuse to use, but that dogs don't seem to mind) and they are not very photogenic. I don't know what is worse that I had dirty dog towels in front of my washer for over a week or that they were the first thing that I chose to wash.

Slowing down

2009-01-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have been away from my blog for too long. Why is it so hard to jump back into something after a long break.... Anyhow I am back and I have a long over due thank you to make to Homemade and Handspun. She sent me some wonderful soaps that she made along with a great wooden mold so that I can make my own soaps. Soap making is something I have not really attempted, but it would be great to try. I promise to document my attempt at soap making here on this blog no matter what the outcome maybe. Okay that's it for today, but now that I have stopped pretending that I don't have a blog I should be posting again real soon.

Ordering from Esty

2008-12-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

I am sure many people have heard of the website Esty, but if not.... it is a little like Ebay except the rules of the game are this, you can only sell things that you made and supplies for making things. On to what I ordered from Esty.

It came wrapped up so nicely that I have to show you the wrapping.

And here it is a night light made from a vintage glass slide made by vintageaimee. Thanks Aimee it looks so nice in my kitchen. If you click on Aimee's name it should take you to her shop so that you can see all her pretty things.

Do a public service and shop local!

2008-12-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

I visited my local yarn shop today for what will likely be the last time:( I was so sad to learn that they are closing at the end of the year, so I made the trip over and bought way more yarn than I need. They would like to stay open but, they just not getting enough business. That leaves me sad and with out a close place to buy yarn. It also leaves some really great women out of jobs in this down economy. I will really miss this little yarn shop and all the helpful clerks. So is you can support your local small business, so they can stick around.

And the winner is.....

2008-12-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

I am so blown away by all the people who commented on my little give-away.
I decided to select two winners because so many people entered. They were randomly selected by my own personal ten year old daughter. She felt that this was the part of the whole process. So with out further delay here they are (drum roll please)

MichelleB of MichelleSews

And Jossan of Skrutt

I also won something. Which totally amazed me. Thank you so much Katy. She has a lovely blog called Handmade and Homespun. She gave away handmade soap and a homemade soap mold. Of course I will post pictures when I get her package.

one amazin give-away day

2008-12-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

I just want to thank all the people out there who visited my blog for the Sew Mama Sew give away day. I am amazed at how many people visited. I has been a wonderful experience and I visited so many wonderful blogs today. I will not chose my winner until Friday morning as the comments are still trickling in.

December 3rd give away

2008-12-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

This is my small little package for the give away. I am giving away a small hand knitted (by me) piggy and a linen tea towel with strip of cute fabrics (also made by me). To enter the give away please leave a comment to this post and I am sure I will come up with some horribly scientific way to select a winner. I am willing to ship pretty much anywhere with a regular address. Thanks for visiting my blog and good luck.

Creating

2008-12-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

I am finding it hard to blog about the things that I am creating lately. I have been making lots of gift for people , but I would hate for them to see their gifts ahead of time so..... I will save all my photos of those projects until all the gifts are dispersed.

This weekend the early morning sun shone through the window and made a lovely shadow above my lovely old block singer sewing machine. The star in the window is from a window star that Lena and I made last week.

Actually we made quite a few. With her broken arm she can't draw or do many of the other crafty things that she like to do. They are made with kite paper so they glow when the sun shines on them.

One of the nice things about making this is that you don't need a whole lot of supplies. Really just paper, scissors, glue and fingers. That makes clean up super easy!

I did do some sewing that I can show on my blog this week. Lena and her friends tie dyed some dog scarves and I serged the edges of all 23 of them. It was a bit repetitive, but it was for a good cause. The girls are going to sell the scarves to raise money to help animals in need.

From cast to cast iron

2008-11-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

The other day I posted a picture of our corn bread in our small cast iron skillet. I thought I would write a post about my cast iron collection. My favorite if the pan in front because it has a rather large cooking area, but is also very light (for cast iron). I use both of the larger pans for making pizza, but I have seen pans specifically designed for pizzas. I also have the large Dutch oven in the back that does not see much use. Hubby had visions of using this puppy over a campfire, but we usually leave it at home because it is so heavy. Here are the reasons I love cast iron:
It's rather inexpensive
It has no nasty chemicals
It lasts almost forever if treated well.
It cooks so well.

To clean our cast iron we just use a brush and plain water to clean up when we are done cooking. I like to run it under the water and clean it while it is still warm then let it air dry, if you wait until the pan is cool them you need to dry it soon to prevent rust.

New Cast at our house

2008-11-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

No, not a new cast of characters just a new bright green arm cast. My lovely daughter (pictured above) decided to try a Tarzan like swing from a rope swing on Tuesday. At first we thought that she had just sprained it badly. For two days we did the ice and wrap it up thing, but alas that was not enough. So off to her very nice doctor today and voila a cast.
She really is handling things quite nicely even though she is very bummed about missing next weekends annual indoor soccer tournament. I also got the full story on the fall today and I am really glad that a broken arm was all she has to show for the adventure :0

In the kitchen

2008-11-17T21:26:00.001-08:00

Food is really important our house. Above it our cornbread from tonight's dinner. I just love cast iron pans. We cook nearly everything in our cast irons. We use them for sauteing and frying, but I also love them for cooking pizza (the crust gets so crisp) and if all else fails they also make a great weapon. I have never used my cast iron in anger, but my grandmother had a great story that she used to tell about using one to lay someone out. It is also the weapon of choice for one of my daughters favorite heroines, Tiffany, in the Wee Free Men.
This is one of the last vine ripened Brandywine (the queen of tomato varieties in my opinion) tomato. The end of tomato season always makes me so sad. I know that I am spoiled but, I can't stand those fake tomato's that they sell in the super market.