The latest accessory

Last week The Boy pulled this box out of the recycling bag. He looked in the slots and then looked around the kitchen. He put his Melissa and Doug condiment jars in the slots and then started carrying them around the house. He's quite serious about it. He fills up the box, carries it into another room and then empties the box.



I plan on getting some paper and covering the beer logo.

Sock Summit Challenge

I was at the Knitting and Crochet Show back in September when Cat Borhdi announced the Sock Summit. I was so excited! It was going to be here in Portland! It was going to be in August 2009! It was going to feature the who's who of the sock knitting world. I won't tell you how long or how hard Greg laughed when I told him that. And I was going to have a three month old! Wait a minute.

Needless to say, I was sad. I knew there was no way I was going to take any classes. But they're going to have a marketplace. And I can take a three month old to a marketplace. Here's my challenge - to see how many adult socks I can knit between now and August 6. For each sock (not pair) I get to buy a skein of sock yarn at the summit.

I say each sock and not pair because I don't doubt I can get more then two pair done (that's only two new skeins of yarn). These are adult socks and I have to continue down my sock check list. I can't keep making the stockinette socks until the summit. Although that might be a good way to get rid of some stash. I looked and the next pair after my Mom's basic socks is another pair of "Thuja-Walkers" for Greg. I should be able to get relatively far on these two easy patterns in four months. Maybe.

Speaking of my Mom's basic socks... I've made some progress on the first sock. I've been trying to keep these handy for when The Boy decides to play on his own. I was worried about the pooling in the cuff but I really like how the leg is all stripey.



Enough typing! I gotta go knit!

A change I can use

Goodbye and good riddance!



Hello beautiful!



Today our new oven/range was delivered. The old oven came with the house and was a piece of junk. Only two of the burners worked and the oven heated unevenly. The new one is a smooth top range with convection oven.

It's so shinny and intimidating. I did work up the courage to make hard boiled eggs and a loaf bread. However, the second rising on the loaf was about three times as long as the recipe called for (bad timing on my part) and I didn't use the convection feature. We'll see how the loaf turns out.

I did use the "proofing" feature. This is a warm setting for rising bread. It did a pretty good job with the first rising. I'll use it for both rising on the next loaf. I'm also looking forward to using this feature when I make the No Knead Bread I've been obsessing about.

A good afternoon

It was a lovely afternoon today. The Boy and I spent the afternoon out back. He occupied himself digging in dirt.



I occupied myself with a little sock knitting. This is the Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe. I'm using Zen Yarn Garden cotton sock yarn. This is a really great pattern for toddler watching. It's two inches of rid and the rest is stockinette. As easy as it is, this pair will probably take me awhile to finish.

St. Patrick's Day Baking

Today was a St. Patrick's Day themed play group. I made brownies with cream cheese mint frosting. The brownies were from a box but the frosting was from scratch. They were actually pretty tasty.



Next time I'm going to try and make the brownies from scratch.

More fun with stencils

Last night I did a large batch of t-shirts for The Boy. Five shirts in one night. It helps that three of the stencils were store bought and the other two were already cut out.



I didn't really care for the store bought stencils (airplane and car). The stencils weren't very wide so there's a few mistakes. But I really dig the two in one aspect.



I'm planning on doing a reverse of the car too.



The Boy has just started saying yellow so he has to have a yellow truck.



The last one is inspired by a book we got from the library - Little Blue Truck. I love this book but The Boy isn't really into any more.



I have a couple of shirts left and a huge list of ideas. I keep telling myself he only needs so many t-shirts. But I'm not really good at listening to myself.

More bread

I've made several more loaves of sandwich bread since my last post about bread. It looks like we go through about two loaves in a week and a half. My friend Whitfield found a recipe for Country Seed Bread.



This is my second loaf of the bread. It's a bit too seedy for me but it doesn't require room temperature butter (it's hard for me to think too far ahead these days). Both times I've found the dough to be very sticky and have added the extra 1/4 cup of flour.

I just realized today was very productive. Tomorrow I'll show you what I finished this evening.

Maybe it'll be okay

Every so often I read about something that makes me think the world will be okay. That and shoot water out of my nose laughing so hard.

Finally Finished

Last night I managed to finish off two projects. First off, I finally weaved in the ends and blocked the Spring Forward socks. I'm glad to say the socks grew some and are a lot looser now. I'm off to the post office tomorrow to mail them.



The second project isn't knitting but it's taken just as long. The Boy (as he now refers to myself) moved into his own room awhile ago. I decided I would decorate his room with homemade pictures. Here's the first. A cement truck. Up next... a garbage truck.

Signs of Spring

We woke up to a slight dusting of snow this morning. But this photo was taken on Friday. There are signs of spring. We even have crocus in our front yard!

Actual Knitting

Last night I finally finished Little Miss's purple Nottingham Hat. This hat took a lot longer then it should have. I did, however, manage to get through this hat without any problems. Third time's the charm!



No big surprise. It's Debbie Bliss Cashmerino again. I used US8 needles this time. I'm really glad I did. This hat isn't as loose as the previous two. If it was earlier in winter I'd make The Little Guy another one of these in the child size with smaller needles. The last one I made is too stretchy.

Winter will be over soon. Even if they are predicting snow (again!?!?) tomorrow.

You know it was a good day at the playground when...

You have to take your pants off before getting into the car.

And bread makes three

Yesterday was my first attempt at making sandwich bread. I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe. I had two slices this morning. It was really tasty. I have a few more recipes I want to try but I like this one.



Homemade bread with homemade jam. That's how it's meant to be. And no, I have no intention of churning my own butter.

Baking

I've done some baking the last couple of days. I've only tried two of the three. I'll wait until tomorrow to tell you about number three.



These applesauce bran muffins are something I should have blogged about sooner. This is the third batch I've made and I've done them a little differently every time. The Little Guy LOVES them. The only problem is they are very, VERY high in fiber. Feed them to the young with caution.



Today I made brownie cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Last week a mom brought something similar to play group and I've been craving them ever since. There are completely from a box. I used Dr. Oetker organic brownie mix and added chocolate chips. They're frosted with Betty Croker "cream cheese" frosting. I'm not sure there's even any cream cheese in the tub. I hope I never have to use this stuff again as it doesn't even taste like cream cheese. These turned out really dry. Next time I'll make a sheet and frost them with real cream cheese frosting.