Potato Storage

That's a lot of potatoes - I meant to post about our potato storage system before this and now sadly - they are sprouting...

We dried the potatoes outside after digging them and put them into the flat boxes in a single layer and put them on the cold floor in our unheated laundry room in the basement - and now here it is January and they are starting to sprout - I think I may have to cook and freeze a bunch of potatoes - let me know if you have a better idea...

Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth

I'm really probably the last knitter on earth to find this pattern...

I've been making my movie-going-knit-in-the-dark-stockinette-stitch-dishcloths-with-a-contrast-border forever...

But I absolutely love this pattern - and I can still knit it in the dark...

Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth

Designer: Unknown
Rating: Easy
Materials: Sugar and Cream yarn; Size 9 needles (US)

Instructions:
Cast on 4 stitches
Row 1: Knit 4
Row 2: Knit 2, yarn over, knit across the row. Repeat Row 2 until you have 44 stitches on the needle.
Row 3: Knit 1, Knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to the end of the row.

Repeat Row 3 until you have 4 stitches on the needle. You can now either bind off or do a round of single crochet and make a little loop of chain stitches in one corner so you can hang the cloth to dry when you are finished using it.

Rummage Sale

The Man-Cub's class is really a special group of kids - they decided that they would have a rummage sale to benefit people in need...
We took a big bag of 'goodies' (junk) from our house to sell and the Man-Cub and his friend set up their shop - each student or group of students set up a 'stall' to sell their wares...
Unfortunately the Man-Cub was sick on the day of the sale and so I have no pictures of that - some of his items - a couple of pool toys - a huge water squirter thingy - and an angel - were deemed so valuable that they sold tickets for them instead of selling them outright and had a raffle - I'm so sorry he had to miss it.

This is the poster in the hallway thanking everyone for their support - they made over $500 and the list shows what they decided to buy with the money!

Toucan

This watercolor/oil pastel drawing is on display at the Man-Cub's school...

I talked about the drawing here and sort of wondered why we never got it back...
Toucan Drawing...

He came home yesterday and told us that another of his paintings has been entered in an art show in town and we'll be able to go and see it for the first time there...

Miso Soup

Every morning about 10:00 I take a break from my work and have a cup of tea and/or miso soup. I make a really simple miso soup - I add about 1 1/2 Tablespoons white miso to a cup or so of boiling water - you can't get much simpler than that - Anyway I always stand at the counter drinking my tea and waiting on my soup to cool enough for me to drink it up too...

Have you ever noticed the pretty-cloudy-swirly-pattern that miso soup makes as it cools...

Frosty

Ever since we took down our Christmas ornaments and wreath we knew we needed something on our front door. We have a generic grapevine wreath that I change each season by adding flowers or leaves as here. We thought about changing the leaves for snowflakes - and we may still do that later (remember we have a pretty long snowy season HA!) as it would be fun to cut out some paper snowflakes...

...but this piece of foam was the packing material for someone's Christmas present - and I know you see the snowman in it just like I did - eh? And I love the thought of recycling something that would just end up in the landfill...

...now you're beginning to see it...

...man - those little styrofoam balls cling to everything - you should see my black pants right now...

...here's Frosty putting on a happy face...

I knitted him a little triangular cap out of blue and green yarn from the stash - the Man-Cub's choice for color of course - and I'm sort of glad I didn't go with red and green which was my first choice as I think it would look too Christmas-y...

Then I realized that I had not given him a neck to tie a scarf around - so back to the recycle bin and I just broke off a square-ish bit of styrofoam and glued it to his chinny-chin-chin...

...then I crocheted up a little scarf for his chilly little neck - just double crochet over 10 stitches in the same blue and green stripe - I like the 'country' sort of mismatch with the knitted cap and the crocheted scarf too...

He's such a happy little greeter!

New Knitting Needles

I needed some new knitting needles - size 10 - to make the Robin's Egg Blue Hat (mine of course won't be Robin's Egg Blue - more about that later) - and because I live in tiny town - many miles from any sort of knitting emporium - I decided just to whip out another set of dpns - this time from a hardwood dowel...

First I cut the 36 inch dowel into four 9 inch pieces - then I ran each end through the pencil sharpener...

...then I sanded and oiled...

...then I cast on...

The Iron Gym

The Man-Cub had been wanting a pull up bar - they have one at his Tae Kwon Do dojang (that's what they call the gym) - but I didn't want to screw one into a doorway anywhere - and when he saw this nifty over the door model at Stuff Mart - he decided to spend the money he had gotten for Christmas on it...

...and then he wanted to put it together all by himself...

It has to go in the bathroom door (24 - 32 inch doorways only)...

and he has to jump to reach it...
but, unlike me - he can actually do a pull up - I'm still working on it...

You can take it down and use it for push-ups too - I'm not sure that's such a good idea though as they have to do them on their knuckles at TKD...

You can also turn it around and do dips and put it on the floor in a doorway and do sit-ups (it will hold your feet)...

I see some mighty sore arms in our future...

Nanny's Cloth

I have always had this piece of cloth - and by always I mean that I can't really remember ever not having this piece of cloth - maybe Mom can remember where it came from. It has been in my stash since I was married (25+ years ago) - I think it came from Nanny and I think it may have been a Cranston print...

I love it and am unable to cut into it to make anything useful - There's only about a yard of it - back when short skirts were in - I thought about making one - but I couldn't do it...

Now I'm thinking about making another knitting bag out of it - then I'd have it with me and get to look at it all the time - but then I have a couple of other knitting bags that I love and what would happen to them - you can see my quandary...

Or I could just hem it and use it for a tablecloth...

Framed

The Man-Cub needed to make a frame for his Craftsman Activity Pin - and he had painted a lovely watercolor of a Christmas tree that needed a frame before it was put away to wait for next year's Christmas decorating...

We bought a $7 piece of moulding that had a groove cut into the back that would be perfect for placing the glass and picture in - then he measured and cut the sides - then the top and bottom...

...then he sanded the ends....

and checked for a fit - looks perfect to me...

Apple-y Pear Jam

I had six delicious slightly overripe pears sitting on the counter that I wanted to use up before they went bad...

The Man loves pear jam (me - not so much - something about the texture I don't like although I love a nice-soft-sweet-ripe-melt-in-your-mouth-pear)...

So I peeled and chopped and cooked the pears into a lovely jam...

I had saved some apple peels from the apple butter making - just for making jelly later so I cooked those in a separate pot and then strained out the peels...

I cooked the pears in 2 cups of this apple juice...

Added 3 cups of sugar and then tested it every four minutes until it passed the 'run test' - keep 2 small plates in the fridge and place a spoonful of jam or jelly on the cold plate - wait a minute and then run your finger through the jam/jelly - if it runs back together - it's not ready - I find that this method works better for me than watching the thermometer or the back of the spoon - I've never made rubbery jelly this way...

The take - about 2 pints...

Regina's Dove and the Bird Exchange

I realized as we were taking down the tree that I had never posted a picture of the lovely bird ornament that Regina at Creative Kismet swapped for one of my Peace Doves back before Christmas...

It's so lovely - Thank you Regina!

Also from Regina - a lovely little bird exchange - I thought about doing some more of my Peace Doves but I've changed my mind and I'm doing something completely different...

Jenga

More game playing chez nous...

I'm pretty sure this one's about to topple...

Oh well - another of the Man-Cub's amazing Jenga structures - this one's an Eagle...

Nanny's Sweet Potatoes

Nanny Gladys always made the very best sweet potatoes...

Here's the recipe - so much easier than you think...

Nanny's Sweet Potatoes

2 sweet potatoes - orange or mix orange and white - we're a small family but you can double/triple/quadruple the recipe at will
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 Tablespoons Earth Balance

That's it - Nanny always said that after you peel the potatoes - you rinse them and put them in the pot - just with the water clinging to them from the rinse (i.e., don't add any water) - bake at 350° until potatoes are tender.

Grandma's Baby Blanket

When we were visiting down south this past summer - my Grandma said she would like to have a baby doll to hold - I thought it was sweet - so we got her one for Christmas - it should be noted that she is not the least bit embarrassed by wanting a baby doll...
So I I cast on 80 stitches and knitted up a little square afghan out of some leftover Bernat Baby in white...

I added a little triangle worked over the last 30 stitches - I cast off one stitch at the middle each row for 10 rows and then every other row for 10 rows and then every row - so it makes a sort of little bubble to fit the head into.

I folded that back right sides together and stitched it.

I did one row of single crochet around the entire afghan - on the folded over part just single crochet into the knit loop.

When I came up the last side I single crocheted across the hood and then went ahead and did the shell stitch border back across.

Then I finished the SC up the last side - that left me with just a square to do the shell stitch border around.

It turned out super cute and soft - I hope she likes it a lot.

My Baby First Step is modeling the blanket for you...

Fresh

A fresh squeezed start to a new year - Nanny's old glass juicer - Happy 2009!

The Year in 40 Seconds

Have y'all seen this super cool video - it's actually a series of still shots taken from his deck - Eirik Solheim writes about how he did it at eirikso.com

So Cool! Happy New Year!

Nature's Ornaments

As we take down and put away our ornaments...

we can console ourselves...

...Nature will keep hers out for quite a while yet...

Close

Close - maybe it's just the linguist in me and no one else cares...

Pronounce with a soft 's' klōs and it describes us - a family - close - near both in proximity and for all of you faraway family close to my heart...

Change the 's' to a 'z' klōz and it's the end of something - the close of another year for example...

and it's been a pretty happy one around here...

we've been playing lots of games - Scrabble's my favorite (the linguist again) - but I've played enough Phase 10 until I'm finally tired of it...

When we can keep Jack from nosing in - we play Jenga - and sometimes we just build with the blocks - the towel is there to muffle the clatter of the blocks as they topple over on the hardwood floor...