The Iditarod

The Iditarod is coming. I love following it and always pull for Lance Mackey. Yay.

Baby Surprise Jacket Pattern

Schoolhouse Press is the place to find the pattern for the BSJ. Have fun!

BSJ Purple - Complete - Happy

My daughter calls it origami knitting.

Knit an odd little shape and then give it a few folds.

Then...surprisingly, you have a little jacket.

The applied I-cord closed the only seams on this piece, at the shoulders. It is in the above picture on the left. It looks like a ridge. It is dark purple.

I picked up stitches around the neck and knit a little collar.
The buttonholes are built in, so all I need are buttons.

I gave it a little steam bath and it looks much nicer.

The socks of Orange-y-ness

The orange-ish socks are coming along great. They have been crafted to fit Margaret's feet almost perfectly.....it only took six other pair to get it right. :)

Chocolate

We don't normally get 'all valentiney' on Valentine's Day, so you can imagine my surprise when I was presented with this before The Husband left this morning.....
Upon expressing my shock and dismay that I had not gotten him anything...he said....I could SHARE these with HIM. So I shall.
They smelled very good when I opened the box.
I think I shall sample the flat square ones first. :) If I don't like it I shall save THAT HALF for him.

Chilly Temps

It is -15 degress at 8:00 a.m.
Not complainin'..just sayin'.

Wordless Wednesday

Pizza Dough - Bread Month Four

So you will know where I am coming from this chilly February evening........

If you can't see it very well. It is indicating a 60 degree difference from inside to outside. I guess I am just saying this because I am chilly sitting here at 69 degrees. Anywhooo, it will be colder when we all awake in the morning.

The bread I am working on this month is pizza dough. Pizza dough has been a thorn in my side for years. I just can not make it come out right. So a while back I looked on YouTube to see how others did it. I found this one. Seemed easy enough. It is Wolfgang Puck's recipe. I hopped on over to here.
It has the printed recipe. So with great anticipation and some...hesitation I started making the dough.

We were to mix it with a mixer until it pulls away from the sides and clings to the dough hooks.

Looks good so far...it is pulling away from the bowl. At this point though, I should have kept adding a little flour at time for just a little bit longer. It was just a bit sticky.

So I formed a lovely round dough glob. It was just a little sticky still...at this point I was still thinking....I should have put a little more flour in.....
but it rose nicely.

It said....divide into 4 pieces and make them pretty and round. So I did.
I then covered them with plastic wrap (plastic wrap bothers me...but we will discuss that later) and let them rise and after they rose....I covered them individually and let them live in the fridge for a day, til I needed them.

I wrestled them into little rectangles. I really wanted circles but it just wasn't gonna happen. They were still a little sticky....I wished I have put a little more flour in. :)

Oh, but looky here....things are looking up.....
Although sticky...they cooked up nice!
So......give them a try...make sure you put that extra bit of flour in there. You will be glad you did.
The amount of flour one needs generally depends on the weather...if it is moist or dry,etc. so what you do on one day may not be what you would do on another day.

You can view my previous BREAD adventures here.

Life in A Snowglobe

The sun is shining. It is snowing.
When it snows during sunshine, the snow is like glitter falling from the sky.
So pretty.

The Red Pot has a Friend!

The Highway

Near our house.

You all know how much I love my Red Pot. The daughter and I ventured into town during a big ole' snow storm ( see above pics) and ended up at Meijer. I had a gift card in my purse. I ran across this cute little pot on sale. I seized the moment. It is a three quart cast iron pot. It is not a Lodge, which automatically drops it down a notch or two, but I thought I would give it a try. It was just too darling not to bring home. Sometimes the big red pot is just too much pot for our little family. The brand name is Grand Gourmet. I will let you know how our relationship goes.

The honeysuckle vine.

Our Feathered Friends

My sister is a great bird watcher and we just recently, this past 1/2 year, started watching birds. We began by sneakily hanging a suet feeder right by the kitchen window. ha. It took awhile to get some regulars. The downy woodpecker, Mr. & Mrs. were our first visitors. The rest followed. These pictures would be so much less embarrassing if the window was clean.

Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tufted Titmouse

Nuthatch

BSJ Purple-y

Looking ahead to Springtime, I have decided to knit a Baby Surprise Jacket in purple with a little silver thrown in. It is acrylic and will not be as warm as wool. Perhaps a lovely warmer weather jacket. Perhaps as I knit it, I will come to love acrylic. Ain't makin' any promises. :)
Updates will follow.

Wordless Wednesday

Ugh, round two

We have had an onslaught of ice pellets since mid-day...it is now close to mid-night. Still more to come....blizzard like conditions are here.

Take care.

On a happier note, we have not lost power, PTL.
Another happy note: knitting is progressing nicely and Margaret has successfully finished her Baby Surprise Jacket, with only buttons to go and a little sewing up of the shoulder seams. She has had a time with this project, lamenting that it was her first AND last, but after completion, I think she fell in love with it and is not so bent on never making one again.

I am working on a pair of socks for her. Two at a time below.

Patons
Kroy Socks FX
Wool/Nylon
I can't recall the actual color name, but it is a beautiful copper blend.
I love this sock yarn for its warmth and comfy-ness. :)

Ugh.

So many shades of 'weather' coming our way...which will we receive?

Inspired

I went to a gathering of ladies yesterday and was quite inspired by a fellow knitter. She knits and sells her items on Etsy. I have an Etsy page, but after a less than successful attempt to sell crocheted hot pads, I kind of gave up. But, alas, that was crocheting and this is knitting. I can knit better than I can crochet. So I have decided to try again. Smaller, quicker knitted items may be on the agenda first. Larger items later. I have been knitting mostly socks since early fall. I think I need a diversion. While I love to knit useful items for my family....I think I need to expand.
My husband is down at his son's house and my daughter and I plan to sit snugly in the house, eating homemade chicky noodle soup, watching girly movies and knitting. The free pattern downloads from Ravelry should give us a few afternoon inspirations.

Week in review: Read the obituary of an old school mate that died too young. Worked on knitting socks for The Daughter, house work, part-time job, walked the dog 315 times, (o.k. not that many really, but you know what I mean, right? a whole lotta times), lived through my one billionth head cold (again....not that many), shoveled the side walk, knit on socks, shoveled the walk again and again, etc. visited with my mom and sisters, went to church twice, the library, piano lesson, blogged a bit, watched the president on TV, drank 4 pots of coffee,home educated The Daughter and got jealous at Debbie's warm south Texas weather. So....I guess you could say...I have been busy. Today.....the couch is my friend and the tissue box. :)
Have a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday Bre!

Bre is turning twenty today. Happy Birthday!

Pie Recipes

Hello again.
The two recipes for the pies I made for National Pie Day are here and here.
You can view all of the recipes from The Year of the Pie, here.
Thanks for asking.

The Pies I Made for National Pie Day

National Pie Day has finally arrived.
I made a Snow Pie for my husband and church. It has coconut in it and all of the ingredients are white, except the vanilla.

For my daughter and for home, I made a French Apple Pie. It isn't lovely looking, but it usually tastes great.

I invited my blogging friends to make pies too, and
Debbie has made a delicious looking pie. Go here.

National Pie Day!

The pies are being made........stay tuned.