A Penguin, An Owl and a HUGE Ball of Yarn

February is another month of birthdays for our family! Our oldest granddaughter, Nicole, turned 16 this year.  Where has the time gone?   One day, when she was out on Pinterest, she saw a cute French penguin and she showed it to her mom. Her mom, showed it to me and the rest is history.  :)  I found a pattern for a similar penguin and then added the mustache, scarf and beret.   This little guy stands about 5 inches tall.

Then, on February 14, Claire turned 13!  She loves owls, and I wanted to make her a fun owl.  Lots of fun colors for her owl.

 

My birthday was in January and I have a very good friend, Debbie, who lives in Minnesota.  She sent me two gifts!!! One gift is this wonderful skein of her handspun yarn and I immediately wound it into a ball of yarn.  My swift doesn't hold the size skein that it was, so I put the yarn on two chairs and wound it by hand.  I love this yarn!!!! Thanks, Deb!!

 Here is the ball of yarn all ready to go.  This color below is closer to the real color than the one above.

 

The skein measured about 440 yards of yarn.  I have decided to make a crochet vest pattern that is from Lion Brand. Here's the link to the pattern.  The pattern was written by Doris Chan and she has some very beautiful designs.

 

These mittens are beautiful!! They are the other part of my birthday gift.  I absolutely love them! Debbie, you are an exquisite knitter and spinner.

 

Remodeling, Light Weight Gray Scarf, Every Last Yard

When we were remodeling the bathroom and laundry room downstairs, we put in pocket doors.  I LOVE my pocket doors.  But, to do that we had to rip out some of the old paneling on the walls, what a shame(not!). I don't miss that paneling one bit. :) But, in doing that, we ended up having to rip the carpet off of the stairs, darn(not!). I don't miss that either. Haha!

 

But, to my surprise, probably not my hubby's surprise though, cause he is very experienced in remodeling, having done it professionally, we didn't have a nice find under that carpet.......

 

First off, the crew that installed the carpet must have used about 2,000+ staples in the pad under the carpet and then about 2,000 nails in the carpet! At least it felt like that many, I don't' think we counted.  Of course, in ripping out the carpet those little buggers stayed in the wood.  Yep, for us to have to walk on.... Finally one night we spent a couple of hours and removed all of them. Yes, we. I helped. I do help with these projects, when I am allowed. LOL!! Sometimes my help isn't always help. LOL!

 

So here are the steps after the crazy staples and nails were removed. Hubby did have to sand the wood and make it pretty. Then we had to go to the big box hardware store for paint and sealer.

 

 

After painting every other step, so we could still travel down there, my studio is down there after all. He finished the painting. Aren't the stairs wonderful????  I am so happy with them.

 

I am having fun knitting, and crocheting, light weight scarves! Here is one of my newest triangle ones, listed on etsy.  It is made with cotton yarn and has glass beads along the bottom edge and 3 larger glass beads, one on each corner.

 

For me, I finished my Every Last Yard sweater.  It was designed so that you could use up all the yarn you purchased for it, by saving up enough yarn at the end to bind off and be done.  It is knit from the top down.  I love the lace pattern at the bottom of the sleeves and sweater body. Well, I did have an entire skein left over, but that is ok. I used Brown Sheep yarn.

 

Here it is! I love wearing it!

 

Knitting Hats, Fingerless Gloves and a Monkey!

To finish out the theme of the Christmas knitting, here are a few more projects that I made. This hat and fingerless gloves set were for Claire. She loves, no LOVES, astronomy and I have been on the look out for something to make, or even buy, for her having to do with astronomy.

 

When I decided to make the hat sets for Christmas, I went to JoAnn's to purchase the yarn. To my surprise I found this yarn! It is Woolease Thick and Quick and its color name is Constellation! Those little specks are a silver thread, making the hat look like a starry sky.  The pattern is named Avery and on Ravelry, here's the link.

 

Here are her handwarmers. I used my pattern Topless Mitts for these. I did use a size smaller needle for hers. I like them better on the smaller needle.

Here is the picture of Rebekah's hat. I did finish it, even though this picture doesn't show it finished. (I forgot to get a finished picture...) I loved making this hat, with the leaves on it. It is worked in the round, which yes, that means I purled the whole thing. I couldn't believe I did that, but I wanted so much to make this hat for her. She likes gardening and working in her yard. The pattern name is Seedling.

 

I wanted to make coordinating hand warmers.  So I used my Peek-A-Boo hand warmer pattern and left off the lace and then put the leaf pattern on it. To my surprise, it worked! The second hand warmer has only one leaf.

 

This is my newest project for me. I finally made myself a Jacobus Sock Monkey Doll.

 

I kept thinking about the movie character Gracie Lou Freebush, from Miss Congeniality, played by Sandra Bullock. How she was a rough and tumble gal, who dressed up and became a beauty queen. I knew my sock monkey was going to do the same thing. Sooooo,

 

Meet Miss Gracie!

 

I designed her clothing myself. There isn't a pattern for them. The designer of the doll, had patterns for clothing and the dress is similar, but hers was made from fingering/sock weight yarn and knit sideways. I wanted to use up stash yarn and what I had to use was a worsted weight yarn.

                        She has a pretty hat, with crocheted flowers and a ribbon down the back.

 

 

And she has bloomers with lace on them.

 

 

Now she has a knitting bag!! One of my friends, Sharon, said she needed a knitting bag and made one for her. Yes, it has yarn in it. :)

 

As part of my birthday, the UPS Store guy had bought tickets for us to go see Garrison Keillor! Such a treat!!!! We have been listening to his radio show, off and on, since we lived in Minnesota in the late 1970's! So, we drove over to Richardson, TX, (where we used to live) and went to the Eisemann Center to spend the evening with a great story teller.

The theatre was packed and he talked, and sang, for the better part of 2 hours. It was a wonderful time and I am so sorry that he is retiring.  I will miss hearing his stories.  I have enjoyed listening to him and am glad that I could go see him before he is retired!

Sunsets, a Poncho and Slippers With a No Stick Bottom

 

One of the things that I have learn to appreciate and enjoy living in Texas, is our sunsets. They have wonderful colors and are always different. The camera doesn't always do them justice, when I try to take pictures. Here is one that did come out looking great, imho.

 

It was taken after some storms had come through and I was standing on my back deck. At the bottom center, you can see a bit of the pond that is down the hill behind our home.

 

 

  

When I was visiting my mom, in September, she asked me to make a poncho wrap for her neighbor for Christmas.  They usually have tea and breakfast together on Christmas morning.  Mom wanted to give Doris something that would keep her warm when sitting and watching TV.  We talked about what she envisioned and then went to the yarn shop. I came home loaded with Ella Rae Chunky Superwash yarn, distributed by KFI. When touching the yarn, I thought it a bit rough, but I suspected it would soften when washed and I was right, it became a nice soft yarn. I actually purchased enough for two poncho's, without my mom knowing. One is this lavender color for Doris and the second was a deep red for mom. I am in the middle of writing the pattern.  I am happy to say that they both like their ponchos!

 

Another project for Christmas was a couple of pair for Salomas Slippers, here's the link to the free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn or 2 strands of sock weight yarn.  My opinion is of such that you need 3 strands of sock weight to equal worsted weight, so that is what I used.  I am trying to use stash yarn as much as possible and I have bunches of sock yarn. I made these slippers for my SIL.

 

Here I am modeling one of the slippers.  :)

 

I love these slippers.  The ribbing section is knit in the round and then the garter stitch section(the part over the top of the foot) is knit back and forth in rows.  They are fun to knit!

 

I had read on another blog a couple of years ago, about putting the caulking on the bottom of slippers for a no skid sole.  I had done that and it worked really well. I had covered the entire bottom of a pair of felted slippers and wore them outside. The felt has given out in a couple of places, but that caulking is hanging on for dear life!  I had even bought my own caulking gun for the project.

 

But, exciting news!!! We don't need to use that caulking gun any more. They now sell the caulking in toothpaste like tubes at Home Depot. Buy the cheap stuff, the stuff that is acrylic and latex based. The silicone stuff, rubs off the slipper after a bit. I did try it on another pair of slippers. But, the acrylic/latex doesn't wear off. In my Home Depot I can only find the color white. No clear, so you will see the little dots. :)

 

 

The tube is super easy to use. Pull off that little cap, then cut the tip of the point and squeeze the tube, simple. Have paper towels handy and a tool, like a nail or popsicle stick, in case you need to touch the caulk. The acrylic/latex, doesn't want to come off of your hands or any other items either. It isn't water soluble. I learned the hard way! Hahaha!

 

Here is the bottom of the first Salomas slipper.

 

Here are both pairs done.  I put one less row on the aqua pair.

 

 

I didn't want to leave the guys in the family out. So, several of them received man sized slipper socks! I used the New Cottage Socks pattern from Lion Brand, here's the link. Instead of using their stitch pattern, I used a k1 p1 ribbing for the sock.  The pattern uses 212 yards of  Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick for a pair.

 

I put the caulking on them too.

 

 

Christmas Knitting and Pumpkin Cake Recipe

I have lots of ladies in my life, who I love to knit for. One of  those family members will be receiving this hat and hand warmer set.  For the hat I used the Spiralini pattern on Ravelry. It was a fun pattern.

I had purchased two skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn from Lion Brand yarns.  The hat was made from one of those skeins and then I decided to use my own pattern, Peek-a-boo Cable Mitts, for the hand warmers. In my pattern I use a special bind-off, but decided not to work that bind off, but to work a couple of rows of k2,p2, ribbing and then work a normal bind off.

When I was growing up, my mom would make this wonderful pumpkin cake recipe.  It was sooo good and I have great memories of this cake. I was wanting to make a pumpkin cake last week. As I was looking on Pinterest for different recipes, I thought about this cake. The cakes I kept findin used a boxed cake mix and I wanted something from scratch.  So, I went on the hunt for mom's recipe. 

I found the recipe in my recipe file, and decided to make it.  Instead of the tube pan called for, I used a regular bundt cake pan, cause I don't have the pan that she used to use.  Her pan was similar to a springform pan, with a tube in the center of the bottom part, forming a hole in the middle of the cake. You wouldn't turn the cake upside down to remove it, you would take the side of the pan off, and then lift the cake off of the bottom and place the cake on your plate.

I have looked for a pan like that, but I guess when the bundt pan became popular, maybe they stopped making the one I saw mom using. Recently, I found something similar at Ikea, but its not the same.  All that to say, that the cake didn't raise and fill the bundt pan I used, because it really needed a smaller pan. But, all in all, it worked and looked pretty and disappeared quickly.

The cake has an intense flavor of spices and is very moist.

Ruth's Pumpkin Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup oil

2 cups pumpkin

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup raisins(optional)

1 1/4 cups chopped nuts

-Place the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice in a bowl.

-Stir in the eggs, oil, pumpkin, and water, mix well.

-Stir in the raisins(I don't use raisins) and nuts.

-Spoon into a greased 10 inch tube pan(I used the bundt pan) and bake. 1 3/4 to 2 hours, or until done. Cool for 30 minutes and turn out onto plate. (my cake took about 1 1/2 hours, I tested it with a toothpick and it came out clean)

You can frost this with cream cheese icing, but I decided to just sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

I hope you enjoy this cake recipe and make it lots of times!

Family

Time flies when you are having fun. I heard that somewhere. Haha! I think it is an extremely true statement though.  I have no idea where the last 15 years has gone.  Here are some pictures of my oldest 2 grandchildren. Nicole is already learning to drive a car!!!

 

 

Here she is at school. Frequently, she has to dress for school as if she is going to business. Here she is on one of those days. Her mom met her for lunch and was able to get this great shot.

 

Claire picked out new glasses this summer and here she is! Always ready with a beautiful and cheery smile.

 

Here is a recent picture of my mom. I was able to visit her in NY during September.  It is always fun to visit her!

 

The granddog came to visit for a couple of days.  She loves being outside, but I don't have a fenced yard.  So, we generally go on plenty of walks and sit on the front porch.  On this day I was cleaning off the front porch and she was bird and squirrel watching.

 

Here's me!  While at mom's I was updating and cleaning her computer and while waiting I decided to take a selfie.  It was about 90 F that day and no air conditioning(and I was still smiling).

Chix Packin Stix Retreat

It was a hot 106 degree Fahrenheit day in northern Texas on this sunny day in August. It was the day I went on a crafting retreat, held in Gainesville, TX and located at a wonderful campground. One of the fun things for me, was to see the Texas cowboy them throughout the facility.

 

Here is our hotel. Clean and neat with comfortable beds!

 

Here is the view from the porch. This let's you see the typical Texas country view. Can you feel the heat?

 

Every guest room door had a sign of a famous cowboy. I stayed in Gary Cooper's room.

 

The western them was even carried into the public meeting room's bathroom.  This is the light switch cover in the Ladies room. :)

 

 When entering the building from the side door, you are greated with John Wayne. At least we think the statue is John Wayne.  He did protect us and was nice enough to let JoJo sit on his rifle.

 

One of the projects we worked on at the retreat, was a charity blanket. Each person was asked to bring a piece of fleece fabric for a blanket and then crochet an edging onto it. Here is mine. It is for a children's hospital in Dallas, and I decided that there are older children in the hospital who may not was a Minion blanket, so I used a plaid.

 

We had classes and they were all so much fun!  This is Astrid's hooked rug project. Astrid taught us about traditional rug hooking and how to do it.

 

We received supplies for drawing our own design and to start hooking.  After much thought, I drew a sheep. :) I still love folk art and I still love sheep, even after all these years.  I did start my rug, as you can see, but decided to finish it at home, with the wool strips and yarns that I have here.

 

We learned pine needle basket weaving too. Here is my little basket. It is about 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch tall. The center is a walnut. I did finish the basket!

 

 

All during the weekend, Sara, would put on her feathery hat and the room would hush. Imagine, 50 women hushing. :) Yes, we did.  Because Sara would call out names for door prizes. Everyone received a door prize to take home.

 

 

We also had a class on making shawl pins. We shaped the wire and then hammered the design. Hammering the wire caused it to set in place as a hard design, so it will hold its shape! Wonderful. We made the posts in the same way and then used a fine sandpaper to sharpen and smooth the end of the post.

I had a great time, meeting new friends and visiting with long time friends at this retreat. The atmosphere was very relaxing and the food was great too!  I have put my deposit down to attend the next one, in March 2016.