Nickel-Plated Needles....ooooo aaaaaaaa

When I started knitting a few years ago I always used bamboo needles. After I knit for a couple more years I still loved the old bamboo. I used the Knit Picks Harmony 40 inch circulars for my two at time socks and liked them on TON! But out of necessity one day I knit with a metal needle and thought " wow they are neat!" They were smooth and the fiber slipped more effortlessly from needle to needle.....
So....I ordered the nickel plated #2 circulars for my two at a time socks and fell in love. ~It was love at first stitch~
I then decided I should have MORE nickel plated needles. Since I will be knitting some hats this fall/winter I purchased a pair 16 inch circular #8's.

Got them in the mail yesterday....aren't they cute?

Here they are liberated from their package.

But this hurt a little bit.

~happy knitting to you~

Pie in a Bag

I had mentioned before that I wanted to try the Apple Pie in a Bag! And since my sister "G" hangs on my every word here on my blog...I thought I would show my version of said act.
To get more information on this and the recipe go HERE.

It cooked up wonderfully. I thought it was a little heavy on the nutmeg and Chris thought a tad heavy on cinnamon, but not in a bad way....(ya gotta love him).
Give it a try. It is a ton of fun.

Getting Caught Up

It has been awhile since I have shown some knitted items here.
I finished some socks.

I finished the hat made of pencil roving (?).

Made a muff out of it as well. This wool knits up nice and thick, but feels light. I knit this with the idea in mind of sitting and riding in the truck on a cold winter day....with warm hands. We'll see if it works.

To have something to knit during down time in the truck with my husband I knit this little mistake ridden hat. It shall be put to good use come colder weather.

Until next time....

Sticks with a Solid Foundation

Last Monday we three started building a deck for a customer. At dark on Saturday...it was nearly done. With a few more finishing touches Monday morning...it will be complete. It is a 16 x 20 foot deck. Walk off that area in your grassy yard and you will wonder if it will be big enough for all of the fun you want to have on it. It will be.

In this picture some one had already came with an auger and made 24 holes in the ground.

Margaret preparing an area of the house.
Posts, cement and water to make a solid foundation.

Each post had to be level and square. The yellow contraption attached to the post is a level and it had bubbles that need to fall between certain lines to be 'level'. Each post had to be level.

These particular boards were cut by Margaret. Below you can see where they went.

The floor and then the railing. When finished the deck had lattice work all around the bottom, which was lovely.

Spindles added to the railing.

Steps looking good. Not an easy peasy thing to do, but Chris makes every thing look EASY. Honest.

Each day I came home tired and achy KNOWING I would surely die. But I didn't.

Went Down to the River to Play

9-11-11
we took our dog down to the river to play.
molly was a bit apprehensive of all that water at first.
we are not sure she had ever been in water bigger than a bathtub.
it took a few minutes.
chris walked out to a rock and coaxed her over to him.
once she got to the rock...she climbed on. it was funny. but she eventually took to the water pretty well.
it wasn't deep enough to swim, but next time we will go to a deeper part of the river so she can get her sea legs. this part of the river isn't far from our house at all....it made me wonder why we don't visit more often.

For Cryin' Out Loud

Paper Bag Apple Pie

I just ran across this at KAF website...so intriguing..."I must try it" (said in my best Captain James T. Kirk voice"
Go here.

Breading Pudding-gluten free

Going gluten free isn't for the faint hearted. Trust me. It is doable. But it is hard to get out of the mind set that I have been in for the past 50 years. I am not gluten free.....I eat wheat. But my little daughter started eating gluten free on June 1, 2011. She wanted to see if going gluten free would change some health issues she was experiencing. When she could choose from anything she was hard to feed. Now having narrowed those choices down...some days it seems impossible. My sister has helped by tweaking a lovely almond bread recipe that THANKFULLY my daughter really enjoys. But before the almond bread she tried different types of gluten free bread. Mixes and ready made loaves. Rudi's is a nice ready made bread in the freezer section of some stores. She said it was 'o.k.'. She ate some of it but when the almond bread came along....it just stayed in the freezer-all lonely like.
Well, today I decided to make bread pudding out of the unwanted gf bread.
Hey it turned out quite tasty. Sugar and butter can fix anything!
I thought I would share with you.

For the pudding: combine these in a bowl.
4 slices of bread (if it is big bread like Rudi's)
2 eggs
2 C. milk
1 t. cinnamon
1 C. sugar
2 T. butter
Bake at 350° for one hour...or so.
When I use regular bread I bake it one hour and 15 minutes.

Once it has baked and out of the oven add the sauce.

2/3 C. sugar
1 C. boiling water
1 t. vanilla
1 heaping T. cornstarch (if not gluten free use 2 T. reg. flour)
1 T. butter.
Cook this until thickened and pour over bread pudding.

****I have yet to get things thickened with cornstarch as well as with flour****
If you have any ideas I would love to hear them.