What's new - Wallets and a Pie

I'm planning a visit with my sister in Nova Scotia next month.    She's due for a new wallet. Last week I made her a cork wallet just like mine, except a maroon/burgundy color.   It's nice...  

And we had dinner guests last night and it was a perfect occasion to make another fabulous Gestine Bullock-Prado pie.    This time I did a few things different.  I tightened up my lattice and cut my apples thinner to make a less bumpy pie.  I found that with my last pie, the bumpy pie, distorted the lattice somewhat..  I'll save the bumpy look for a plain crusted pie... ...that is if I ever make a plain crust again...

 After making my first lattice pie, I thought I needed cookie cutters to make a few leaves out of the pie dough scraps.  But after a little practice, I now think the organic look of my leaves are appealing.    And look closely, do you see the ladybug....

Too Hot to Wear a Shawl.

We are having unusually hot weather.    But that doesn't mean that I can't wear my shawl around the house on the chilly mornings...  I finished it a week or so ago.   The free pattern was called Diving In on Ravelry.   I just love the little picot edge.     This was made from two balls of PaintBox Simply DK.    Thanks www.loveknitting.com for the yarn.     I'm wondering now if I shouldn't make one of these shawls for each of my daughters for Christmas.  Do I have time?   Wouldn't it be nice with a shawl pin...  I'll think on it...

My Fabulous Apple Pie

On the Labour day holiday, I took advantage of the free Crafty video day.   I know they have fabulous quilting videos, but they also have great cooking videos.    Among others, I watched a Pie making class.  The instructor, Gesine Bullock-Prado was fun to watch as she demonstrated..    She made several pies starting with her signature lattice pie.   I loved the look of this pie.   I couldn't wait to try it myself and today was the day.  I tried a few of Gesine's pie crust making and rolling techniques that were different than the way I do it.   Her techniques worked for me, and I will continue to do them her way.

But first, I chose to continue to use my own pie crust recipe and not hers.   I had to increase my recipe to allow for the extra dough needed for the lattice.    

Then as instructed, I made the lattice on a flat cookie sheet and placed in the freezer.  Now that was fun.  I enjoyed the weaving.  While the lattice was chilling/freezing, I rolled out the rest of the dough for the bottom crust, cut up the apples and added the other ingredients.  ...

By now the top lattice crust is firm enough to place on the top.   I carefully position on top, trim excess dough, and it's ready for the oven.

The little flowers are just sweet and just in case the dough cracked or messed up, you can use the flowers to hide a booboo.   Now, I have to tell you, there were NO booboos in my pie crust.  But I used the flowers anyway.






And voila.  
I present to you,
My Fabulous Apple Pie!!

 

 

Shawl Knitting update

I just love knitting in the evenings.  You know that already...  

A couple of weeks ago, I started this Diving In Shawl.   I pick away at it.  No pressure, because it's only to wear this winter.  I've made great progress knitting only an hour in the evenings...  I would say another week or so of knitting and it will be done.     This is a free form pattern.  There was no instruction on how to include stripes, or how many stripes.  It was more of a recipe, than an actual pattern.   It's an asymmetrical shawl.  Very simple.  I think I'm going to love the shape.   You make all the decisions on where to make stripes or do color changes.  Great for knitting with left over yarn.    I'm using Paint Box Simply DK with size 4 mm needles.      

 I've been knitting a long time, and I love learning new techniques. In particular, the modified garter stitch in this pattern was new to me.    I made the block of many stripes using the modified garter.   The benefit of the modification is that the stripes look the same from the front or back of the shawl.   I tried just a regular garter in the single brown stripe, and you can definitely tell the difference between front and back.  Neat.    I would have never understood how to do the modified garter just by reading.  You need to read each word of the instruction, then actually knit it....and by the time I had several rows knit, I realized the difference.  

But that's all the knitting on this shawl for now.  

I'm on vacation... yippee.

Stay tuned, I'll be back in a couple of weeks.. 

A New Wallet to Travel

It's time to change wallets.  

My favorite wallet is showing signs of wear.   It's been two years that I was carrying it.   So, in preparation for my trip, I've cleaned out my wallet and put the necessary things back in my new cork wallet.  I made it last spring and had been using it as a sample in my classes.   

  It's brown and it goes with everything.  It has a bit of a different style front that will show off the stitching.   The batiks on the interior are fun and kind of wild.    I found it a bit tricky to sew with, but I may have been too cautious by using no iron and no pins.   

Over time, I am interested to see how this new new cork fabric wears.  

Purity Rolls for the kids

In a little flurry of visits from our kids before we head out on our Baltic adventure, I decided to make minestrone soup and home made rolls for lunch.    The house smells wonderful.  

Just look at these....    I just love my old Purity cookbook from the '70's.    

I know some will ask, so here is the recipe..    It says makes 4 dozen, but

if you want large rolls like these, it will only make 2 dozen.  

Sewing but Not Quite Quilting

It's been sort of a funny summer sewing wise.  I can't seem to settle down and get into a large quilt project.    I've been enjoying some knitting, and working on using up some of my fabric stash in various ways.    Have a look..

Saw this great Fabric at Country Crafts and Curtains last week.  
Aurora wants all things Paris in her bedroom.  
I've bought her a few little things, 
and now she will have a Paris themed pillowcase
for her Bed.  She's coming up later this week and will
use it while spending some time with us.

.

using Atkinson Designs, pattern, Stowaway, Aurora now has
a pencil sized case to put her school pens, tape erasers etc.
It's made out of the leftover piece of Paris fabric from
her pillowcase.  

This fall, my grand daughter Emily will be doing some fundraising
 for a school trip. I thought I would help out and make
 a few things.  To start here are 14 simple zipped pencil
case pouches.  I hope to make more things as time goes on.

It's yours truly.   I've always said that I never make myself clothes.
But I was intrigued by this pattern by the So Sew Easy folks.
This is a wrap top pattern. Besides the pdf instructions,
there was an online video.  I didn't mind making it.  I actually like it.
I think I'll make another.   So it's a good lesson for me.
Never Say Never

Does this pillow look bohemian.   I made a cover for a large pillow for
my granddaughter Jessica's dorm room at Dalhousie University
in Halifax this year.  She has a great
wall hanging that this will go perfectly with.

A screen bag for my yarn stash.   I cleaned out my yarn stash last year
only to find myself with a heap of new yarn stash.  This bag will
hold it nicely.   I'm making a rule.   Once this bag is full, I must knit, or
get rid of some yarn before more yarn comes in.

I made a few scarves using a narrow hemmer foot.
Hemmed all 4 sides of light chiffon type fabric.
I made skinny ones, and big shawl size ones.
They will be good to take on our trip that is coming up soon.

Cowl Done, and on to the Shawlette

It seems odd to be knitting winter wear in the summer, but I'm loving sitting on my porch knitting up a few rows/rounds.    This Spiral Eyelet cowl was a delight to knit with the Paint Box Simply DK. The 4 stitch sequence was easy to remember.  I loved the cast off technique which was new to me.  It's called the elastic cast-off.   I like how it has a slight stretch.

I'm contemplating how to block the cowl.  I will research later on how the best way to do it is.

I thought I'd share this next project that I've already started.  It's the Dive In Recipe Shawl.  The author says that this two-color shawl is more of a recipe rather than an exact pattern.   I like the idea of the skinny stripes and the technique is neat.   I'm using two colors of the Paint Box Simply DK.  Cream and the Medium Brown.  (Many thanks LoveKnitting.com)

This shawl will take me longer to knit of course, because it's a bigger project.  I'm looking forward to see how this turns out.

And just so you know, I haven't abandoned my sewing totally this summer.  Stay tuned and in a few days I'll show you some of the things that I've been sewing.

Hard to find Knitting Needles

When I started to knit the little bunnies, one of the sizes of straight knitting needles I needed was a 2.50 mm.   It's quite small.  Turns out they are harder to find than you might think.   While popular in the UK, they are not that popular here, and non-existent in the USA.  Even look at my needle gauge, there's no size for 2.5 mm.  So I ordered mine online.  The only length they had was 14 inches long.   Now these little bunnies have many parts, and the most stitches that I cast on is 30 or 35.  So 14" needles is way overkill.    I really want the 10" ones if they can be had.     

It just so happens that the dollar store here had some 2.5 mm needles. I bought a set and tasked my husband to shorten them.    All he was able to do was cut them off, but had no way to save the ends.   He suggested I glue a bead on the end.   Brilliant... I did, and now I have a set of short 2.5 mm needles that fit in my little needle case.   

Knitting a Scarf

I have had fun this past week (or two) doing research on Ravelry.   It's hard to know when to stop researching, and start knitting.   I have found at least 15 perfect projects that I want to knit and my must-knit list has grown exponentially.  But my research this week was intended to find projects to use my gifted-to-me Paint Box Yarns.   I want to knit a shawl type of scarf.  I'm down to 6 or 7 choices.   I'm in a delema, rectangle, or triangular.   I can't seem to make a decision.

While I ponder my delema, I decided that I really need to stop researching, and start knitting.  I'll start with a cowl.  I've been wanting to do a spiral cowl for a while, so this was an easy decision.   I chose this Spiral Eyelet Cowl pattern because the spiral is clear and not complicated.  But, after reading the pattern, I could not understand how that spiral design could happen/develop with the two-row repeat.  I thought for sure it would be a 10-row repeat.  How does the eyelet spiral?

Well, I just started to cast on, and I figured once I start knitting, I'll figure it out.    I still haven't figured it out, even after knitting 5 repeats of the two rows.  But I am liking the look and it's easy to knit while watching TV.  The Paint Box Simply DK yarn is very soft and is perfect weight for my size 4 mm 24"circular needles.   I will definitely get this cowl done out of one of the 100 gram balls of the Simply DK.   I hope to have a shawl/scarf decision made by the end of the week.

Stay Tuned and Happy Stitching..

Bunny Sweater - Adding Buttons

I really enjoyed my knitting in the park experience this week.   Aurora had a great time at the park with the day camp folks.  During all this, I sat slightly in the shade and worked away at the little sweater for the Bunny.   I never realized how bright light can make knitting so much more pleasurable.   

The little bunny sweater is done.   The final step is to sew on three little buttons.   The hard part is to choose a button color.      White, black, yellow, green or orange.     What would you pick? 

Knitting with Paint Box DK cotton

When I saw this fine cotton yarn, I knew exactly what I was going to knit.   This little piebald bunny, that I knit this spring, needs new clothes.  

She needs a red dress and a light green sweater.    The dress pattern and the sweater pattern calls for cotton DK yarn.   I've never tried the cotton DK before, so now is a good chance.

Today, I have an hour to knit in the bright sunshine in a park.  This is a totally different spot for me to knit, but I'm looking forward.   See, Miss Aurora is visiting and she's attending a morning craft camp and I'll be nearby starting my little bunny sweater.   I'm anxious to see how much I can get done at the park.