Knitting Today: Kate Atherley Custom Socks

 Last week in our Handwork/Knitting Chat group two of us started knitting socks using Kate Atherley's book Custom Socks.  We both are using worsted weight yarn to make nice thick easy to pull on, and even to use as bed socks.  Some of us have cold feet at night which interrupts sleep!

The book is a good book, I would say, but you have to have your wits about you while you are planning your socks!  It would be so easy just to knit someone else's pattern but you cannot count on the socks fitting in any way...thus the Custom Socks book.

This is the beginning of my first sock.  It is knit with Briggs and Little Tuffy sock yarn, a sock yarn I just found out about.  It is a number 4 yarn which I am knitting on US#4 needles to make it nice and firm.  We shall see how they turn out!

Knitting Today: Swiss Darning or is it Duplicate Stitch?

 Recently I knitted a hat for a grandson.  I knitted in his initials in a circle all around the hat.  I knit a hat for his brother but thought I would try Swiss darning.  I had heard it was easy.  Well, I have found out that the answer to that is--yes and no!

 

Here is the hat in a box ready to send.  (Under that hat is a pile of potpourri bags with one Cadbury egg in each bag.,,a last minute idea since I had the bags handy.)

You can see that the Swiss darning is not stellar...but I bet our grandson will be able to distinguish this had from his brother's hat!

Spring Florals in Full Swing

 Last week I went to the temple two days in a row.  It was spring, also!  On the second day all of a sudden there was wisteria everywhere!  In the temple parking lot, on the drive home, even near our neighborhood.  I love the look of it.  Come to find out, I really do like purple. And lavender. And mauve.  And probably more!

This is not a fabulous picture but I was worn to a frazzle and too much of a slug to get out of the car and go right up to the branch for a better picture.  Not that being a slug is a bad thing, just not always useful in accomplishing some activities.

Knitting Today: Blue Bird of Happiness

 Last week our Book Group discussed Indigo Girl about a girl in South Carolina in the 1700's and the beginnings of the culture of indigo here.  It was suggested that the treats be blue.  I wanted to have a few blue decorations also, but had absolutely none.  

While browsing through Ravelry.com I saw a Blue Bird of Happiness pattern!  It was so easy to knit.  I did only knit one at the time but planned to make more.  No time. And now have moved on to other things.

This is hard to see here, but for a variety of reasons, I am not putting in a better one.  You will probably note that, as usual, I did not make a face/eyes on this guy.  I thought I might use some light blue yarn for eyes but did not get to it before Book Group.

Indigo Girl is a worthwhile book to read.  At least all of us at Book Group who read it did really like it.

Munchie Monday: Soft Cut Out Sugar Cookies!

 In our house the preferred cookies are soft cookies. At least that is preferred by one of us.  The other of us doesn't care...almost any cookie is a good cookie.  Or it was until health issues made them verboten.

We had a Church Easter activity to which I was invited to bring a dozen sugar cookies that would be decorated by attendees at the activity.  Dear One is not a fan of sugar cookies, so in some sense it did not matter what recipe I made since I did not expect him to eat any.

For some reason I seem to not have the source of this recipe. It was online and when I just searched, I did not find it.  I will share what I did.

Soft Cut Out Sugar Cookies

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soft butter
3/4 granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (both my sister and a dear friend made vanilla last year and each gifted me with some.  I used 5 caps full of vanilla!  Not sure how much it was but the dough smelled delicious.)

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together.  In an electric mixer bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until nice and fluffy, or rather,  smooth and creamy.  Add the egg and vanilla and combine on high speed until fluffy.  Stop after about a minute and scrape down sides of bowl then mix again until fluffy.  Stir in the flour mixture and beat briefly, until dry ingredients disappear.

Divide batter in two parts.  Place each part on a lightly floured parchment paper then, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out each section to about 1/4 inch thick.  Put one piece of parchment paper on a small sheet pan then place the second sheet of rolled-out dough on top and place in refrigerator for at least one hour.  Don't skip this step.

Remove dough from refrigerator and cut out to your heart's delight.  I used a smallish bunny cookie cutter and was able to cut out 17.  The last three were the dough scraps from the cut-outs melded together by hand and then re-rolled. I got two more bunnies and one round cookie with the final bit of dough.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 11 or so minutes until the cookies are slightly brown at the edges.  SLIGHTLY brown.  Ours were thick enough that they took 14 minutes.  

Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.  Fortunately for me, that step was out of my hands!  I say fortunately because I often have too much icing then stick my fingers in and lick them.  Not such a great idea.  Unless you are checking to see if the icing is good enough for the project...!

It is a good idea to turn the cookie sheet around in the oven about halfway through, especially if you suspect your oven of have uneven baking spots.  I don't suspect it but turned the pan anyway.  Sadly, I put my oven-mitt-covered thumb into one of the cookies which marred its ears badly so that one had to stay home.  It did not last long here.

We took 14 cookies over to the church.  When they were hot out of the oven, after cooling the five minutes, I took the round one to Dear One who had NO TROUBLE AT ALL scarfing it down.  Even though he "hates" sugar cookies.  I asked him about it and he said it was "pretty good."  I then had no qualms about taking them to the Church for the activity.

A Good Morning's Work!

 This morning I woke up pretty early.  This was a surprise since I originally awoke at 11:30 last night and was awake until 2:30 AM.  I did accomplish a lot while up those three hours but still, no sleep.

So there is supposed to be a substantial amount of rain over the next few days, starting today.  Those pricker vines in front of the house have been staring me down for a long time...since last fall.  Now they all have blossoms, which makes them kind of pretty BUT makes me worry that they are hoping to continue propagating like crazy.  Last night while awake I was thinking about what to do this morning and decided I really HAD to get out there and pull up those miserable little guys before the rain.  Of course, after the rain it might be pretty easy to pull them as well.

Shortly after seven I went outside with headphones and iphone and a book in the Michael Vey series to keep me working.  I don't know about you but when I have a job to do that is not my favorite or for which I need a little encouragement, I put on the current audio book, or sometimes sessions of General Conference, and listen away as my hands are working. (And speaking of hands: the only reason I am really out working this job is that we acquired some fabulous heavy thick leather gloves that protect our hands from the prickers.)

These gloves make all the difference between working and not working!

A few times over the next hour-plus ( and that is NOT normal for me...I usually can only keep up the good work for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Sad, but true.) I dealt with dizziness and almost pitched headfirst into those miserable prickers, but did just manage to avoid that fate.  In the end I had stuffed many many vines into the black trash barrel we use for plant refuse.  Surprisingly, the city plant-picker-upper truck came by while I was out there.  If you don't have yard waste out the night before pick up day, you will be too late!  This batch of plants will wait until next week.

Here is some of the results of my labors this morning...

One other result of the job was this wound...fairly deep but I am sure it will heal up just fine. Pretty sure...

That is all the report for today.  I feel pretty good about that project...and even though there is more to do there by the holly tree, a large part of weeding in front of the house is done.  For now!  I am not so silly as to think those guys are gone forever though that would be ever so nice.

The side of the house has a huge infestation.  Perhaps later on today, if it is not raining too much, or tomorrow afternoon, I can get to those guys.  Once our very kind neighbor said she wanted her yard men to help us along that side of the house.  Yikes!  We did not realize how bad it looked.  Or how generous she truly is.

Now on to the next, which today is the wonderful "Handwork Chat Group" we have here at the house every Friday morning.  It is so wonderful to meet with others who like to keep their hands busy while chatting up a storm!  Recently we have had some new young knitters join us.  They are knitting their first hats. I think today they are ready for decreasing the crowns and finishing off.  They have been doing such good work and have bought into the idea that if they don't like it, they rip out their work and start again.  It is better the second, or third, time!

Fun Stuff: Jewelry Making

 Years ago our daughter made me some French ear wires to use for making earrings.  I made a pair that I really loved.  About three weeks ago one of those earrings was lost.  I thought it happened when I took a nap with my earrings on.  Nope.  Could not find that lost treasure anywhere in the bedroom, bathroom, workroom, no place at home.

Fast forward to today.  We are having Book Group at our house.  We read Indigo Girl.  It was suggested that if we had a favorite blue treat, that would be the thing to bring to share.  I had decided to make blue punch: Gallon Blue Hawaiian Punch, 2 liters 7-Up, 12-ounce can frozen lemonade made up.

AND I thought I should make some blue earrings!  I did not have any blue beads. I also did not have a crimper tool that I needed to use to make stitch markers...so off to Michaels I went.

This is what I made:

You will notice that I used split rings instead of jump rings to put things together.  It works but is not great.

AND THE BEST NEWS:  when I was putting the packages in the car after shopping the sun was shining brightly into the car and there on the floor hooked to the foot mat in the back seat was the red earring!  The lost is found!  This makes me so happy.

Immediately upon finding it, I put it in my ear.  (I did not have earrings in even though some people I know and love dearly have told me I should not leave my room in the morning without being duded up...I am not at all high maintenance even though some people suggest that it would be a good thing.  Maybe some day.  Well, now I have blue earrings...!)

Whoops!

 We have some very nice driveway lights to light our way at night.  When our children came to visit last June to celebrate with us, the boys very kindly moved the lights a foot or more away from the actual driveway.  That was such a good thing.  They did it by purchasing some PVC pipe, cutting into a good length, pounding them into the lawn then setting the light stem into the PVC.  So great!

Sadly, they probably should have been moved further away!

Backing out of the garage one day last week was rather harrowing for this particular driveway light!  I apologized to the light but there was no response.  This is not the first time this has happened!  May I say also that I am not the only person who has run over one of those lights...!  Even visitors have run over lights.  

What did I do after crashing over the light?  First thing I did was tell Dear One about the incident, which he took rather well, if I do say,  I then drove over to Lowes where I purchased two more.  (I had already crashed another light and had not replaced it...so it was time.). If you look carefully at the photo, you can see the newly broken light.  You also see a round black thing that is actually the top of a priorly smashed light that Dear One has left out with the suncatcher face up so it collects sunlight and electricity so at night time it will give light also even though it is not on a stand.

You might ask why I don't just back straight out of the garage.  Well, I DO back straight out but sometimes I am a bit closer to the right edge of the garage.  That is when the problems happen.  We never had a problem when we just had one vehicle.  Now with a car and a truck the rolling stock has to snuggle up close to each other.  Even that can be a problem.  Sometimes Dear One pulls the car in and slides right out and heads into the house.  On occasion I go out in the morning to hop into the car and head out, or I did when I was making lots of visits which are no longer necessary, and I find that I cannot open the door enough to get into the car.  This is a sad sad thing...just another indication that I really MUST reduce drastically.  Maybe soon.  In those cases I have to call on Dear One for help getting the car out of the garage.  He is always so kind and willing to help.

Going back to the opening sentence...in some ways we don't need these lights since we RARELY go out at night.  We are old. We do not like driving in the dark.  At least, I don't like driving in the dark.

What A Day!!

 Today started moderately early after a not-to-bad night.  First thing both Dear One and I sent text messages to our child who turned 50 YEARS OLD today!  Hard to believe, but true.  I remember that activity very well.  It was a very long day, ten extra people in the delivery room (after all, it was a teaching hospital...) and finally he was born about 9 :00 PM.  Forceps delivery.  Lots of stitches then around 11:30 PM the nurse came in where I was still being stitched up and said, "Your little boy is going to all right, after all."  After all?!!  What the heck?  I had no idea there was anything wrong with him.  As I recall they told me he had a a"retracted rib cage."  I did not know what it was then and I still don't know.  All I know is that "after all" he is just celebrating his fiftieth birthday.  I am very glad for that.  He was a wonderful oldest brother.

After scripture study and a tiny bit of knitting I went downstairs to see what I could do to improve the kitchen.  The last two days were so busy and no dishes got washed plus the bags that came into the house were just where they were dropped since there was nothing cold in them. So, I put on my headphones, started listening to the Saturday Afternoon session of October 2023 General Conference to keep me company while I worked, and set to work.

We have an "instant on" or "on demand" hot water situation in our house but it is on the other side of the garage.  To get hot water in the sink, I put a 2-gallon bucket in the sink so I could collect the water for the plants and turned on the faucet.  The first bucket got emptied into the Greenstalk garden tower on the back deck and I came back for more water since the hot water had not yet turned up.  One more bucket out to the Greenstalk and then the water was hot.

Washing, washing, washing and by the time my legs and back gave out, I had filled the counter with clean dishes.  This was into the fourth General Conference talk...!  I sat down in my very old blue platform rocker that Dear One purchased for me in West Lebanon, New Hampshire in the building that used to house J W Barber's store. I have long since forgotten what JW had in the store, but I do remember the name.

Picking up some knitting I kept listening to the Conference talks and was touched by every one of them.  Elder Ronald Rasband invited more couples to become Senior Missionaries.  His talk was lovely and took me back to our time in the Oregon Portland Mission in 2017-2019.  How we loved that service!

As I sat there knitting, Dear One came downstairs, saw me sitting in my chair, saw the counter full of clean dishes then, without saying a word, he started putting them away.  He next opened the dishwasher and put away all the clean dishes from there...the whole reason I was washing by hand was that the dishwasher was full and I was afraid I would deflect myself from the dirty dishes if I stopped there and put away the dishwasher dishes.  I know.  Dumb thinking, but...

When the dishes were all put away I had recouped a bit of energy and we went outside where we bagged up some brush and I took the small hand saw that Dear One had retrieved for me on Tuesday and I started pruning the live oak tree on the front lawn.  With the branches hanging down low it was hard for the lawnmower man (Dear One!) to mow without getting jabbed by the tree.

This is the tree now with no low-hanging branches.  I am rather pleased with that job.  I wish I had opened the garage door and gotten out my new heavy leather gloves which would have protected my hands somewhat.  Slivers were not fun.

While I was sawing off branches I saw something that gave me great joy:

Last fall I found a package of daffodil bulbs at the dollar store.  After a few weeks I finally put them into the mulch at the base of that live oak tree.  Will you look at this!!!  One of those daffodils survived.  I would love to see the sweet face on this plant sometime.

Later in the day Dear One noticed that it was Pi Day and that Marcos Pizza was having a sale with a medium pizza at $3.14 if you bought a large one.  Dear One is a pizza guy.  You had to order online or with their app.  I had the app but could not order through it.  I kept getting the happy note that my password was wrong.  After about ten tries I went online to order.  Same story. I told Dear One today was not his day for pizza.

He went out to mow some more of the lawn and when he came in the second time he said he would try his phone. (By this I knew that he really did want some pizza even though we had some perfectly good food in the refrigerator...) He was successful in ordering a large pizza and a medium pizza.  Of course,  it was not the Pi Day deal!  So annoying.  But he got his pizza.

Many other things happened on this day but now I am calling it quits and will probably be in bed way before my usual time.

The pitsy thing about the day is that I had put my watch on the charger before starting the dishes so many hours ago and never picked it up again until 5:00.  I did not "get credit" for all that moving I did today...so sad.  I really like those little pats on the head from my watch and the Health app.  Oh well.

Knitting Woes!

 The last few months I have worked on several small knitting projects.  One of the projects is some darling potpourri bags.  In the last two weeks I have now THREE TIMES cut the yarn before finishing the bind off!  I cannot believe it.  These are really not mindless knitting projects but I seem to space out.

You can see where I had to tie on some more yarn to finish the bind off.  This is, of course, the inside of the bag.  When the whole project is done, I will take a picture.  Except for this glitch, I am pretty happy with these little guys.  My first designed knitting pattern.

The way I knit these little bags is to cast on onto one Chiaogoo circular needle then pick up and increase with a second Chiaogoo circular needle.  The bag is then on two needles so I knit down one side of the tube then knit the other side with the second needle.... It is really like knitting socks on two circular needles.

WELL the problem has been that I get to the end of one circular needle and just merrily cut the yarn, pull it tight and get ready to weave in the ends.  Rats!  So very annoyed with myself and today I did it for the third time.  It may be about the end of the little potpourri bag project!

When I am done I will publish the pattern here in case anyone else wants to knit them.  They really are pretty cute.

The Best Banana Muffins

 Today our former Relief Society presidency is meeting to finish up some old business. To sweeten the occasion I promised some muffin tops. When I went to bed last night I thought maybe I would ditch that idea and buy something at the store. Fast forward to 3:30 this morning.

Since I was awake I decided to go ahead, find a recipe, and make the muffins.  I did find a recipe called The Best Banana Muffins and decided to give it a try.

This is how they turned out:

Here they are in a nice glass dish ready to go.  I did use up the batter in a different pan which was not as successful. Rather, getting the muffins OUT of the pan was not as successful. Those taste pretty good even though they are not as pretty as the muffin tops.

The only thing I  did differently than the recipe called for was to shake into the batter some chocolate chips when stirring in the flour. Worked like a charm.

https://sugarspunrun.com/wprm_print/12105

The above URL should take you to the recipe…I am creating this post on my phone and don’t seem able to embed the address…Looking forward to being with my dear sisters again in a few hours. Now back to bed to finish my night of sleep!

Knitting Today: Mitered Square for Blanket

 It has been a very hectic week with many activities and lots of knitting in between. I noticed it has been a week since I posted...  Today's knitting was working on a mitered square to add to the Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan I have been working on for some little time. Of course BW does not have a mitered square as I recall, but I don't like some her squares though they really are great for learning new stitches.  In this case, on this afghan, I am just trying to use up that Hilda Yates yarn on this afghan, There are supposed to be 63 blocks but I am hoping the yarn runs out before then...!

There are many different designers making virtually the same mitered square, just different yarns and either an even number of stitches cast on or an odd number of stitches cast on.  I saw Very Pink Knits had a mitered square with 40 stitches cast on. I liked that but then discovered she had you knit all the squares then sew them together.  NOT a fan of all that sewing together so I continued looking.

Then I found Snufflebean Knits had a Join As You Go mitered square.  Love it!

Cheryl Brunette also has a wonderful mitered square pattern/plan where you can knit small squares like this one and then make larger and larger ones, all sewn together...though I would Join As I Went.

This is where I am so far.  Because of my poor camera skills, the lighter green square looks larger, but it is not.  The lower left of that square is a little wonky because I was knitting from memory--not always the best idea--so I finally went online and found the Very Pink Knits video again and had my mind refreshed...  I had only been doing the K2tog and I needed to also SSK!  Made a huge difference.  Of course, in this case part of the wonkiness is because instead of only knitting K2tog, slip marker, SSK on the right side rows, I had to catch up with decreasing so I did the decreasing every row for about four rows then let it go. I thought it might be close enough.  Well, it is a blanket and is NOT going on display though I do plan to give it to one of our grandchildren...

So the knitting is going well, or at least well-ish.  I am about ready to do some knitting on the Brother KX350 flatbed knitting machine.  I signed up for a class on making a sweater in five days.  Of course I will need to give away that sweater because I do not believe I will be able to knit my size on the machine but then...I have not done a gauge swatch and might be surprised.  In this case, I would really like to be surprised.  I will be using up some of the Hobby Lobby yarn to give it a try.  When I am down to more empty yarn bins, I can then purchase some higher quality/wool yarn in good conscience.  Maybe by then I will be a different size.  One can always hope!