December 2008 – Page 2

Need a Scarf?

36 Comments / December 14, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Holidays, Knitting

Well, how’s it going out there? Are you all busy working on holiday projects this weekend? I’ve been sewing all day and plan to do more tomorrow. I would normally put up our real Christmas tree this weekend, but I have too much sewing to do and didn’t think I could afford to lose the weekend to decorating. I’ll work on the tree this week after work.

A few weeks ago, when I posted the knitted hats pattern, I mentioned to a few of you in e-mail that I have a scarf pattern that can be knit to match the hat. Just like the hat pattern, our now-out-of-business yarn shop provided this pattern when I purchased yarn from them. It’s a great scarf — it’s knit in the round, so it’s effectively a two layer scarf and it’s nice and cozy and warm!

I made this hat and scarf a few years ago for TheFirstChild. I knit it in his school colors and before I put the fringe on the end of the scarf, I used my embroidery machine to add an “E” (he went to Earlham College) to one end before I closed the end with the fringe. It’s a fairly quick knit — the year I made it I started about 10 days before Christmas and had it finished in time for a Christmas present. (This pattern can also be used to create a Harry Potter type of scarf without a letter.)

The “E” is from Husqvarna Viking’s baseball font set. I loved this font when the kids were in high school. One year I made our family baseball sweatshirts with our last name across the back of the shirts. Very Dorky, but everyone knew who we were there to support!

Collegiate Scarf

Sizes: Children’s (Adult’s)
Measurements: approx 6.5″ x 60″ (8″ x 84″) excluding fringe
Materials: 2 skeins each gray wool (Cascade 220, Encore, etc. — I used Cascade 220) and burgundy wool, 16″ #8 circular needle, piece of cardboard 4″ x 7″, size F or G crochet hook and yarn needle.

Note: Cut fringe before beginning scarf — with gray, wind 48 (56) times around the 7″ length of the cardboard. Cut one end and set aside. With the burgundy wind around the cardboard 56(64) times.

Scarf: With burgundy yarn, cast on 60 (72) stitches and join being careful not to twist cast on edge. Knit 20 (25) rounds. Change to gray and knit 20 (25) rounds. Repeat this color sequence for 17 (21) stripes, ending with burgundy. Bind off all stitches loosely. Using an overcast stitch, sew the ends of the scarf closed.

Fringe: Beginning with burgundy and alternating colors, attach fringe with crochet hook using 4 strands per fringe for a total of 13 (15) times. Trim edges of fringe even.

My front door Santa seemed very happy to have a little warmth — it’s cold out there. He’s not alone, even TheEmptyNestChild loves this scarf!

And for the non-knitters among you, primarily Isabelle (who I’m sure is only temporarily a non-knitter), I offer my front door Christmas lights. Isabelle posted her front door (make that beautiful front door with the gorgeous stained glass window!) with a description of how it will look after Mr. Life puts some lights on her little tree. Rather than wait on TheManoftheHouse to put lights on our trees, I’ve resorted to two little fake trees and a garland that get put into the attic with lights in tact every year. That way I can just pull them out of the attic and plug them in. The Christmas tree in the window is fake too (although it gets taken apart, so it’s more work) and it’s inside where it can be decorated in warmth. The red bells in the window were my grandparents and they’re one of my most treasured Christmas ornaments. They’re not valuable (SweetiePie just bought some on e-bay for $3.00) but very sentimental.

Oh! And I had a really weird thing happen last night. I was commenting on someone’s blogspot blog and the verification word that popped up was our last name! Has anyone else ever had that happen? Your own last name??? Maybe blogspot is stalking me LOL!

XOXO,
Anna

A December Book Group

42 Comments / December 11, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books, Crafting

Ah, yes…it’s that time of year again. I’m reading more and more posts where people don’t have time to blog. I haven’t had time to read blogs! It was busy, busy here all weekend as I was getting ready for my book group which occurred last night. It’s always a lot of work to clean my little pig sty up and even more work when there’s decorating and cooking to do.

We used to be a normal book group that just discussed the book and then had dessert, but several years ago someone started serving dinners, so now we all do it. And since it’s Christmas time, I thought I’d bring out my MeMum’s Christmas china. (Please excuse the dark pictures — it’s mood lighting LOL!)

I love my candle holder. I used to borrow MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s candle holder, but I think she got kind of sick of it, so she bought me one of my own. (Hey — it’s a technique — you should try it sometime!) It’s always fun to arrange different things around those candles. In this case, I cut a few branches off of our pine trees and added some little red balls, drums, and nutcrackers.

And then I added the dogs to the table because our book discussion was about The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. (Which we all LOVED, btw. I hated the ending, but LOVED the book. Some of the passages were really beautiful — especially his passages about the relationships that the dogs have with the characters. And there were more than a few places that brought tears to my eyes. One member was sitting on a plane to NYC between two big burly guys when she hit one of those passages. She had to slam the book shut and wait until she had a little more privacy LOL!)

On the menu we had:

Baked Brie in Phyllo Dough (YUMMY!)
Strawberry Romaine Salad with Raspberry Vinagrette
Chicken Madeira
Ina’s Raspberry Cheesecake

Here’s a close up of the place setting. I think MeMum’s nutcracker china is so pretty. I made each guest a little soldered pendant to take home. One side said “She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain” and the other side had a black silhouette of a woman reading a book. Thank you again Beckie, for teaching me how to make those pendants!

So, whew! Now that’s over, and as MyDadLovesMeBestSister says, I can get busy doing stuff for the really important people. Indeed. It would be really nice though if there were four weeks left, instead of two. TWO! As Ms. Farmhouse so eloquently put it, there’s a knot in my stomach! How are all of your plans coming???

XOXO,
Anna

Emergency Sewing

59 Comments / December 7, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Quilting

Ok, show of hands….how many of you treat yourself to a little present while you’re out there Christmas shopping? C’mon, tell the truth — a few of you ‘fessed up last year! My little treat last year was the Williams Sonoma peppermint hand and dish soaps and this year I just couldn’t resist Ina Garten’s new cookbook. I LOVE, LUV, LUUUURRRRVE Ina. Her recipes are so straight forward and she uses normal ingredients. As much as I love Martha, I’m not a huge fan of her recipes — she uses too many weird (to me!) ingredients. (And while we’re talking about Martha and Ina, whatever happened to that twosome? Did they have a nasty split? I kept looking for the scoop on the Enquirer front page in the grocery store, but it never appeared.) Anyway, I’m embarrassed to say I have all of Ina’s books and when I saw that she had a new one out I just couldn’t wait for Christmas. (It’s awesome, btw.) Sorry loved ones who can’t think of anything to get me LOL!

On the sewing front, Hester’s back all healthy and happy. WooHoo! I picked her up yesterday and rushed home so I could make an emergency tile cover-up. I’ll be hosting my book group this week and I just couldn’t face another year of bare-naked ewe-gly tile. I have the most hideous tile on this side of the Mississippi River. No…make that the Pacific Ocean.

I hate it so much, to paraphrase a Brigette (who just put up a fabulous nut carmelized tart picture and recipe link!)-ism, “it makes me want to throw up a bit in my mouth”. Eeeewwww! Whoever put that tile in this house, was smoking sump’in. Forgive me if you’re a counter-top tile fan, but this tile has made me hate tile. I mean…you can’t roll out a pie crust or cookies on tile. And spill anything. It all runs into the grout. Sugar? Into the grout. I can’t wait until we can Get. Rid. Of. It!!!

Since the tile’s all green-y, Christmas-time, with all the red and green stuff, is the only time it even remotely doesn’t burn my irises. I had some Christmas fabric scraps, so I just hurried and stripped them together. I was feeling all Crazy Mom-ish. Speaking of which, how does that woman get so many fabulous quilts done — she’s amazing!

The emergency tile cover-up runner will look even better on book group night when Ina’s fabulous raspberry cheesecake is sitting on the end of the runner that’s empty! I’m off to bed — hope you’re all having a great weekend and getting lots done!

XOXO,
Anna

Carrot Puff

38 Comments / December 4, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Recipes

I love this time of year in blogland. Are you all finding as much holiday inspiration as I am? I need to quit blog surfing! I was editing pictures, and then I started snooping around the picture services (where at one time or another I loaded pictures for printing) to see if I can get digital copies of my pictures (since I lost most of them when our hard drive crashed). Did you know that they charge you to download your own pictures??? That’s pretty funny! (Not.) They’re my pictures and I have to pay for them. Huh. I guess I just need to be re-educated and change my thinking to look at it as paying for storage services.

Oh well, once again, it’s the first Thursday of the month so that means it’s time for another recipe box swap. Our hostess, Randi, at I Have to Say, has chosen Holiday Favorites as our theme this month.

Wow. How to choose? We have several holiday favorite recipes in our family that we have every year. It’s not quite cookie baking time for me, so I’ll wait for our favorite cookies. And it just didn’t seem right to make MeMum’s fabulous steamed cranberry pudding or our beloved egg casserole when it’s not Christmas Day. So, I’m going to post our favorite holiday vegetable — Carrot Puff. MyDadLovesMeBestSister came home with this recipe several years ago and it’s been a favorite ever since then. We don’t always have it with one specific meal (Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s) but we do always have it at least once during the holidays. I hope you like it as much as we do! (And excuse the odd pictures. Carrot Puff is about as photogenic as Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters, but it tastes a WHOLE lot better.)

Carrot Puff

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Grease an 8-inch square baking dish. Place carrots in medium-size saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender. Drain.

Place butter, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and vanilla in blender or food processor. Add carrots a little at a time and puree the mixture. Pour into prepared baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until firm. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

This carrot puff is very sweet, so you might want to cut down on the sugar a bit. We love it though! And because I was a little disturbed that the carrot puff is so orange and autumn-y looking, I put a bow on it and put it under the Christmas tree for you.

Enjoy!

XOXO,
Anna

Working on the Catch Up

35 Comments / December 1, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Knitting

Boy, I hope all of you in the US had a good Thanksgiving. It sure went by quickly, didn’t it? I’ve been trying to catch up on a few blogs — I’m so far behind! Like many of you, I can’t believe December is here already. I guess I should come to grips with the fact that Christmas is only 24 short days away. Aaaacccckkkkk!

I managed to knit four hats for Jean‘s hats for the NYC homeless while we were just sitting around with the in-laws over the holiday break.

I used the jogless stripe method that I mentioned in the previous post, but I had trouble with it when there were consecutive single rows. Guess I’ll have to get that figured out and, in the meantime, I’ll just cross my fingers that Jean, being the expert knitter that she is, won’t look and laugh. Just remember, Jean — Look ‘n Laugh — it’s like Drink ‘n Drive and it’s a no-no!

Some of my bears decided to model the hats. Their heads aren’t big enough though, so they’re looking a little goofy. Don’t worry, those hats will conform to a normal human head shape and they should look ok. I really enjoyed knitting them and it was a great way to use up some yarn scraps. The red was left over from a hat and scarf set that I made TheFirstChild in his college colors (red and gray) a few years ago. I’ll try and take some pictures of the scarf later this month.

Look what came in the mail the day before we left for Oklahoma:

I ordered two needle punch kits from Karen‘s online shop, Farmhouse Woolens. I love doing needlepunch and I thought these patterns were cute. My big problem is that I never know what to do with these when they’re finished. My wall space is pretty limited and you can only have so many pillows. (Note: No plan didn’t keep me from ordering LOL.) If any of you have any great suggestions for needlepunch pieces, I’d love to hear them!

Anyway, look at the beautiful thread that Karen included! I couldn’t believe it when I opened the package — what a wonderful surprise! Aren’t those colors beautiful? I can’t wait to use them (after the mad Christmas rush, of course.) Karen’s service is fantastic — her shop is easy to use and she has quick service. Go check her out — maybe you’ll find something you love there too!

So. On to the big one. I’m. Not. Ready. A lot like We’re Not Worthy, only I’m. Not. Ready. So much to do. Guess I should get off of this computer and get to work, huh???

XOXO,
Anna

Month: December 2008

Carrot Puff