Popovers Are Swell!

Last week my sister sent me her recipe for popovers.  Popovers were a real treat from out childhood.  She made a quadruple batch for a "Family Home Evening" she and her husband host every week.  This morning I tried the recipe, but only a single batch for us.

They came out perfectly:  nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside ready for a nice spoon of jam.

Popovers

1 cup bread flour
1 cup warmish milk
2 warmed up eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well--at least 30 seconds.  

Grease a popover tin or muffin tin.  Fill wells one-half full then bake for 20 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. for an additional 20 minutes.

Do Not Open Oven Door until baking is complete unless you want your popovers to collapse and be unpleasant.

We let our popovers cool for about 10 minutes before pulling out of the tin.  Raspberry jam was so good dolloped inside, plus a little butter.  

NOTE: If you do not have bread flour use all-purpose flour with one Tablespoon of vital wheat gluten mixed in.

The Country Wife From Vermont--New YouTube Channel Name!

 In two weeks I have gone from a YouTube watcher to a YouTube channel creator!  Funny... And I just changed the name of the channel to The Country Wife From Vermont so it is not confused with the play by W. W. which seems like not the thing at all. I started reading a summary of that play and instantly wanted to be totally disassociated with that.  Not that I was associated with it but when I told people the channel was The Country Wife, that play is the only thing that came up...

This is a late-at-night post to begin a new week with up-to-date news.  Everyone is welcome to view the channel and encouraged to subscribe and comment.  I truly hope this channel will be useful to anyone who watches.  I hope we can all make improvements in our lives and are willing to share how they are progressing. 

 I hope the channel helps me, (and you, too!) keep my nose to the grindstone as far as home and life organization and getting my health together.

Do good.  Be good.  Do it now!

XOXOX

Snapdragons, Maybe?

 Today we were at the temple and saw these beautiful flowers out front.  Are they snapdragons?  Thanks for helping me identify them.

Swatching For Double Knit Button Band! Very Fun!

The sweater I am working on for the Knits That Fit course by Tonia of Nerdy Knitting calls for a ribbed button band.  I don’t want to do that. A year ago I saw a sweater with a double knit button band. I just had to knit that sweater so I purchased the pattern for a chunk of change. I then saw it was knitted with fingering weight yarn. That would take me about six years to knit in my size…so I scrapped that idea. Every pattern I have seen with a double knit button band has a V-neck. I like that neckline for shirts but I want a crew neck in a sweater to keep warm. I wondered if I could knit a double knit band on this crew neck sweater so I made a swatch!

Here is the cute little crew neck sweater swatch with a double knit button band…knit with two different-sized buttonholes so I could decide which size buttons to use…not these specific buttons but these sized buttons. Dear One liked the size of the yellow button. What do you think?

The steek went fine but I used the crochet plan for reinforcing the steek. I did not like that method nor the leftover stitches which made a bulky mess. In class tonight Tonia shared that she had needle felted her steek swatch and loved the simplicity of this method and the results. I have a good mind to make another swatch and steek with needle felting, though I totally can take her word for it…

Ran Out Of Yarn—If You Can Believe It!

 Today I went to the eye doctor. Love her and nice people there but it is always a significant amount of time invested. I ALWAYS take knitting with me so I don’t get into mischief. I specifically put the purple shawl in the car to work on and brought it into the office with me. After paying the upfront costs I went into the waiting room and pulled out the shawl. I was less than one row across when I ran out of the lavender yarn! 

So annoying since I expected a long wait. All of a sudden I remembered the sock project in the car so I excused myself, went to the car, retrieved the sock bag, returned to my seat and proceeded to knit for another five or six rounds before I was called.

As I was sitting there knitting I began a big fight with myself about buying another ball of lavender instead of only using what yarn I had at home. Checking my calendar I saw that this is the Hobby Lobby yarn sale week, so I lost the fight. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought one ball of  lavender yarn. I will use that up and call the shawl big enough. The second strand will be a mystery…! I really won’t buy any more yarn for this project. I will just slide in partial balls of yarn already in my collection.

First Strswberries of the season!

 Dear One brought this lovely box of strawberries home today!  I have eaten four so far. I was actually planning on eating strawberries for supper. He suggested pizza…

We did not have any ingredients except for crust so off to Food Lion I went.  Came home with pizza plus!!! He is happily munching Chester’s Chili Cheese Fries, some sort of chip-like thing. He will have eaten all his calories before he even gets to the pizza, I think.

First Solar Dyeing Project!

 Just finished, more or less, the first solar dyeing I have done!  I am thrilled.  I skeined up a ball of Patons Classic Wool and tied it in four places.  In a quart Ball jar with lid I placed one cup tap water and 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and stirred well. Next I added four or five drops of blue gel food coloring and stirred well.

Adding about half of the damp yarn I dropped on four drops of yellow food color then four drops of red food color then shoved in the last of the yarn.

After carefully filling the jar with water I put on the cover then shook the jar to make sure there was water everywhere.

Next step was to put the jar on the back deck railing in the sun for three days.  I brought it in every night so it would not chill down too much.  Heat is a big part of solar dyeing. I am thinking this summer will be a great time to solar dye!!!

This morning I emptied the jar in the sink and found that the dye bath was entirely clear! That is good news. I then washed the yarn and hung it to dry.   

Here the yarn has just been rinsed.

The yarn is hanging to dry.

I will be happy to see what happens when I knit it into something.  I wonder what I should knit...any ideas?