I’m a “Fearless Knitter”!

Or at least I am on my way...

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger lately (hang head low here), but I am here now so on with the New Year! Life is just too short to sweat everything!

As a Knitting Daily fan I have been thinking hard about the “Fearless Knitting” posts lately. In doing so, I decided to be a “Fearless Knitter” this year, too! So my two FK projects for the year (posting it hear will hold me to it, right?) are going to be to make my first sweat (which I started this week) and to make something Fair Isle.

Its a “HAPPY “New Year!

Fair Isle seems like the trickier of the two, so I am starting with my HAPPY sweater. Plus, since our high temps this week have been in the single (or lower) digits, a sweater seems like a good place to start!

I purchased all but two skeins of the yarn from peeps on Ravelry reducing their stash and I saved big money there as I got the skeins for $4 each instead of $7. The Ravelryers were so very nice and every shipped the yarn ASAP.

With all my yarn in hand, I fearlessly set out to start my sweater this week! Good thing I swatched as I had to go up a needle size to obtain the gauge. So far, all is going well, but I am only about 3/4 of the way through the first sleeve.


By the way, LOVE this yarn! It is Elsebeth Lavold’s silky wool. The drape and feel are fabulous, not to mention a great color selection — especially if you like earth tones. The pattern is Happy from book 11 in her collection.

An update on the little Gracie hat I made (see previous blogs), Grace loved it! Did not take it off after she opened it — and it looked so darn cute on her! I wish I had a photo, but thing just get away from you when wrapping paper is flying about. The hat could have been a tad larger, but all in all it looked great!

Grace’s brothers loved their hats, too, but I think they like the candy more.

Anyhow, on with my Fearless Knitting... I have a sweater to finish!

The Holiday Craze...

I am sure that, like me, everyone is crazy busy with the holidays. And as if the time of year doesn’t make me crazy enough, I got my invitation to Ravelry about three weeks ago. Can’t stay out of there! It has quickly become my favorite thing to do on a Saturday and Sunday morning, when I should be finishing up some of those Christmas gifts...

I have managed to finish a couple of things. I have my hat for my favorite Aunti done. Love this color and the yarn is so soft! I am not sure what brand it is because I picked it up at my LYS bargain loft. I do know it is Italian though. I was toying with the idea of sewing some fun buttons on the brim, my Aunt loves buttons and has been collect them since she was a little girl. Thought it would be a nice touch.



I have a green one made out of the same yarn that I need to FROG part of because I think I acciden

I also just finished up my snowmen last night. I have to say, they turned out so darn cute! These are for my sister, three little boy snowmen — because she has three boys of course.



Bragger’s Corner...

I have to show off my mom here this time, too! Is this not the most beautiful table cloth ever she is working on? And guess who it is for? Yep, me! It is so very pretty and obviously a lot of work, I think she is two years into it now. Can you imagine working all this up with a tiny crochet hook and string weight yarn! Eeks! Lucky me though! I will post more pictures as I get them.


Ok, since we are bragging I have to toss in my boys here. Just look how handsome they are, how can I not toss them in here, too? The oldest one just took all conference line backer.


The younger one just got invited to play in the school jazz band (did not even have to try out) — he plays the tuba.



Favorite holiday cookie: Chocolate Covered Cherrie Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add dry ingredients and stir until smooth.
Roll into 1-inch balls about the size of a walnut (larger if desired). Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Drain cherries and reserve juice. Press center of each ball with thumb. Place a cherry in indentation.
In a saucepan, heat condensed milk and chocolate chips until chips are melted. Stir in 4 teaspoons of cherry juice. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of mixture over each cherry and spread to cover cherry. (More cherry juice may be added to keep frosting of spreading consistency.)
Bake for 10 minutes.

Grace's Hat

I have had a couple of questions about the little hat I made for Grace, so I thought I would try to give a few more details.



The original pattern came from Kids Knitted Hats by Cabin Fever. I started the hat as instructed, but quickly realized I liked the scalloped edge hanging down much more than folded up as in the picture. I knew I would have to alter the pattern, though, as the bound off top of the original did not (in my mind) go with the scalloped edge I was going to leave down. I continued knitting in the round until that hat measured a good length for a small hat, purled for three rows and then started by decrease by dividing out my stitches evenly. The decrease I used was a skpsso (slip, knit, pass slipped stitch over).

Below is a picture of the original hat from the book and the cover of the book incase anyone is interested in purchasing it.

News, Wine and gravy....

News...
Big news in the house this week is Dalton made All Conference Linebacker on the varsity team this year and him and his best bud Joey will be captains next year! It is so rewarding to see all the hard work pay off and see your kids dreams come to reality! We could not be prouder of them!

I don’t have any fun completed projects to post this week. I have been working away on a wrap and an afghan. The afghan was suppose to start out as a jacket made out of the Lion Brand faux suede. But the pattern was a little too experienced for me so I will have to wait until my mom is coming for a visit and make it then. In the meantime, the yarn is so soft I have decided to make a lap afghan out of it in the same stitch my jacket will be made out of so I can practice.

Wine...
Hurry up and wait seems to be the name of the game for Ravelry. I could kick myself for not signing up a few months ago when I first got wind of it. Don’t know what I was thinking. Now here I am weeks later with 7,932 people still ahead of me. Don’t get me wrong, this is much better than when I had 10,498 people ahead of me... Anyhow, it is good to be moving up the list. If you have not checked out Ravelry, you should!

The Ravelry address is: https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

Gravy...

Since I do not have any fun projects to post, I am going to post a recipe for make ahead gravy since Thanksgiving is just around the corner. We usually have lots of people at our house for Thanksgiving (which I love) and it can get a little tight getting everything done and on the table at the same time. Two years ago my bud, Kelly, got a recipe from her mom for make ahead gravy she had clipped from a Woman’s Day Magazine. I loved the idea and made this last year, it was fabulous and a great time saver!

Make Ahead Gravy
Makes: 8 cups
Time: About 3 hr (mostly unattended)

Planning Tip: Make up to 3 months ahead and freeze in an airtight container. Refrigerate 2 days to thaw. Reheat in a saucepan, whisking often.

4 turkey wings (about 3 lb)
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup water
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp stick butter or margarine
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Have ready a large roasting pan.

2. Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over top. Roast 1 1/4 hours until wings are browned.

3. Put wings and onions in a 5- to 6-qt pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), the carrot and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours.

4. Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.

5. Strain broth into a 3-qt saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat off broth and discard (if time permits, refrigerate broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier).

6. Whisk flour into remaining 2 cups broth until blended and smooth.

7. Bring broth in pot to a gentle boil. Whisk in broth-flour mixture and boil 3 to 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve, or pour into containers and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 6 months.

Per 1/2 cup: 52 cal, 2 g pro, 6 g car, 0 g fiber, 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 4 mg chol, 516 mg sod

One UFO Done...

Ta dah! I finished my cute little hate for Grace. I really struggled with whether or not to stray from the pattern with this (scroll down to see what the hat was suppose to look like). I don’t have the experience under my belt to be able to picture exactly how it would turn out and I really did not want to have to take it out stitches. This puppy was knit on size 4 (Harmony needles from knitpicks.com – fabulous!) which adds up to a lot of stitches!


One of the things I really liked about this pattern was how the P3 / K3 rows really accented with the stripes in the yarn. I wanted to bring this pattern back into the top prior to decreasing to create unity with the bottom part of the hat, plus I thought it would create a fabulous framed area for the six buttons I want to add around it (mostly for decoration but also to cover up the tiny holes my m1s left, not sure why will have to work on that).

So I made sure I measured out to almost the distance the pattern called for before decreasing, did two rounds of the P3 / K3 rows and then started my decrease. I have to say I am very happy with the results, although the were unexpected. The purl stitches totally changed how the decrease angled! Making the top of the cap flat instead of round, much like a little fishing hat.

Another cool thing about this patter, you could knit it in 100% wool add an i-cord handle and felt it for an adorable little basket/bowl. It would also be a great way to make a flat bottomed purse.

Off to see what other UFOs I can finish up... I think I hear a snowman calling me.

Warm the Tummy with Cheeseburger Chowder!

My kids beg me to make this soup, it is fabulous and hearty. I tend to add just a little extra flour with the butter to make the soup a bit thicker -- but not too much, you don't want paste!

Go ahead and garnish this with mustard, diced tomatoes and diced pickles -- it is so yummy! Sounds odd, I know, and it took us a while to work up to it (especially the pickles and mustard) but once we did we never looked back.

Cheeseburger Chowder
1/2 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup diced carrots
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled potatoes
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
2 cups cubed process American Cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
Garnish:
Chopped dill pickle
Chopped tomato
Squirt of Mustard

In a saute pan brown the ground beef. Drain and set aside. In same saute pan saute onion in 1 tablespoon butter until tender. Add garlic, carrots, basil and parsley. Saute about 3 minutes. Add broth and beef and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile melt remaining butter in a small skillet. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add evaporated milk, stirring constantly, cooking and stirring for 6 to 8 minutes. Gradually stir the sauce into the soup. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese, salt and pepper. Continue to stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and blend in sour cream. Garnish each serving with squirt of mustard, chopped fresh tomatoes and dill pickle slices.

Featured Free Pattern: Pumpkin Basket

I saw this Pumpkin Basket and fell in love! This pattern is from Mag Knits and is so very festive! The name of the pattern on the site is a little odd (12:01), but it does pop up as the first pattern with this name.

I hope I get to make this this year, but I already have so many other projects I need to get done I just don't know that I see it happening! Oh well, there is always next year. In the meantime, I hope someone else out there gets tht chance!

Take care all!