My Francis Revisted sweater.

My latest handknit sweater is the Francis Revisted pattern, by Beth Silverstein.  It has become my uniform of sorts--I've reached for it repeatedly these past few blustery days.  It is made from Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which is deliciously squishy, yet light and warm.

I was determined to upload some photos--so I ignored the harsh light coming through our front window as I took some shots.  I almost like the glare effect, though I know it makes the sweater harder to see, sorry.  But  I figured I'd better just post what I have because today and (most likely) tomorrow are snow days.  Soon I'll be wearing my alternate winter uniform of fleece and gortex, head-to-toe.  Our boys are counting on some sledding time.

     

The sweater knit up quick because it is mostly stockinette stitch with touches of moss stitch at the cuffs and hem.  It's a great pattern, knit top down and in the round.  I am not the best at moss stitch (a.k.a. seed stitch) because I purl much slower than I knit.  Here's a close-up, although it's hard to see on the dark colored yarn.  It's just enough detail for some interest, but not so complicated as to get in the way of TV knitting.     

 

My Ravelry notes are here.  I am now working on a small lace shawlette--the thin yarn, a silk and merino blend, feels odd and delicate compared to the worsted alpaca.  And the small needle size means it's a much slower project.  Not sure how it is sitting with me.  In case it's not obvious, I am not the most patient crafter.

Sandra

Easy savory biscuits.

I promised I would post my recipe for easy biscuits...it's basically the cream scone recipe tweaked to compliment savory flavors.  It's more biscuit-y than scone-y.  And the unbaked dough is pretty crumbly, just so you know.  I don't bother patting it into a disc and cutting (like I do with scones).  I just drop by generous spoonfuls...

12-15 minutes later, they hold together just fine while remaining tender.  They are so, so easy and even though I make them weekly, they are always a hit. 

Savory Biscuits

• 2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1/2 - 1 cup add-ins (I like shredded cheddar, crumbled cooked bacon, choped turkey or ham, etc.)
• 3/4 - 1 cup half and half

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.

2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl.

3. Quickly cut in butter (using two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips) until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in add-ins.

4. Stir in half and half with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds (stir until all the dry bits are incorporated but do NOT over mix).

5.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto a prepared baking sheet (either sprayed with Baker's Joy or lined with parchment paper/silicone baking mat).  You may need to use your hands to gently shape and lump the dough together.

6.  Bake until biscuit tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes (mine go 13 minutes).  Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Sandra

Fridays with littlest one.

Each Friday--during our normal weeks--William has a lunch date.  Many Fridays, it is with friends during a playdate.  But sometimes, it is just the two of us.  And I have really come to love our dates.

He leads a quick blessing... 

...in earnest, I might add...

...always ending with an exuberant, "Dig In!"  And then, in case I don't know what he means, he shows me how it's done...

Sometimes I just stare at him, marveling at how fast he's growing.  And I'll quiz him:

"Is that yummy, Will?"

"Oh yes.  Scrumptious.  I like it." 

"I like it too."

"I love it."

"I love it too."

"No momma.  You love coffee.  And me.  And my brothers.  And daddy.  And knitting."

-------------

He is right.  And I love Fridays, too.  Have a good one... 

Sandra

p.s.  I will share the recipe for these biscuits this weekend.  They are always in our breadbox because they are so versatile.  This batch was turkey and cheddar.  And I ate four.

Sanity knitting.

Quiet time became a bit of a necessity during our recent sickfest.  Usually, at least one person was napping at any given time throughout the day.  This prompted me to begin a new knitting project.  I actually have a few projects on the needles right now...a first for me.  I'm more of a start and toil away until it's finished kind of knitter. 

One of the projects I interrupted is a hat for my mother-in-law.  It's nearly done but I mistakenly left it at a friend's house during a playdate and have yet to retrieve it.  Hopefully, I will get my hands on it soon.  In the meantime, I impulsively cast on for something else.

Another sweater.  And once again, it's for me, me, all me.  In contrast to my sewing (which is almost always for others), it seems selfish knitting will continue into 2011.  And I love it.  I'll write details and share links shortly as I just finished it up, blocking and all.  Did I mention I love it?  Especially because knitting it was a life-saver last week--between all the sniffly noses and temperature checks, I also stressed as I worked on a report (67 pages!!) as a volunteer on a committee for our school board.  It involved a lot of maps and data.  And it made my brain hurt. 

Knitting, I discovered, is awfully therapeutic.  Especially mindless stockinette in the round...

  

Sandra

No really. Happy New Year.

"I feel pretty lucky, though, because it looks like no one else caught my Christmas cold."

And that, of course, was a foolish, foolish thing to say to a friend last week.  Because not twelve hours later, I got the dreaded phone call from the school nurse.  I will not bore you with the details; I'm sure you know how it is: kids fell like dominos...too much couch time, leading to sleepless nights...a home filled with heart-wrenching coughs and whimpering.  All of this delivered with a side of grumpy, because this particular virus lasted so very long. 

I should have seen it coming.  Last week was impossibly full, schedule-wise.  And if your life is anything like mine, the crazy weeks--when you don't have time for sick days, school delays, school closings, ice storms and power outages (because, yes, all those happened this past week)--are exactly when they'll pop up. 

So here it is, more than half way into January, and I am just now (!) taking down and packing away Christmas decor. 

Other than the nagging feeling of being behind schedule, I must admit that it's been rather nice having our decorations up longer than usual. 

I did a big purge last year and kept only the things I really love. 

But I have never been so excited to get back on track.  Knocking on wood...knocking on wood...

Sandra

Little moments.

We've taken it easy this winter break.  Mostly because I came down with a wicked cold over Christmas...the kind that stubbornly lingers.  But we're enjoying ourselves nevertheless.  I thought I'd share some shots of the last few days of the little ones and what they do to entertain themselves when I'm not up to it...

1.  Show their toys some love...

2.  Test out new Christmas toys, especially ones that zip about surprisingly-fall-off-your-seat fast when used on multi-level floor plans...

3.  Read together...

4.  Read alone...

5.  Rearrange furniture to make "bridges" and climb where they are not supposed to...

6.  Distract me from reacting to climbing infractions by giving adorable brotherly hugs...

7.  Pause without complaint for a shot that had great potential if it weren't for this slow-moving momma who forget to adjust the camera's aperture to get them all in focus (grrrr you, manual mode, I shake my fists at you!)...

And yes, pajamas have been worn all day, many days this vacation.  By me too.  But we're getting back to reality.  The boys head back to school this week.  And I have a rather large volunteer obligation that, for the most part, wraps on Jan. 10th.  So stay with me if you like...I will be back.  I'm sure all of you have hit the ground running as of January 1.  But FYI: January 11th is when I start looking at the New Year like it's a shiny, new plaything.

Sandra

Christmas Card, 2010.

We're in the home stretch!  Most gifts are wrapped and tucked under the tree.  Teacher gifts and other small tokens of appreciation were delivered before school break.   And all that remains is some work on the Christmas Eve dinner menu and some more baking for the neighborhood treat platters.  The boys will hand those out later today along with the last few cards to pass out.  And since I know some neighbors read my blog--I should probably wait to post our holiday card online.  But I'm determined to unplug after this morning and have my sights set on making time to cast on for a last minute knitted gift--so it's now or never, because if you hadn't noticed, loose ends are just not my thing.

So.  Here is our card for 2010, designed on Scrapblog, same as 2009.  I wasn't going to go with a theme for the write-up, but after thinking about our year, couldn't help myself.  Books, books, and more books are taking over every inch of our home.  So it's no surprise what I came up with.  Merry Christmas to you and yours.  I hope it's your best one yet!

Sandra

(click on the thumbnail to enlarge)

 

Gingerbread decorating party, 2010.

   

At our annual "gingerbread" decorating party, our day was filled with candy-laden graham cracker houses and bits of frosting everywhere.  This year, I decided to go with traditional royal icing for the mortar rather than the melted sugar like last year. 

To make house construction go a bit faster and easier, I did two things.  First, I used one cracker for a bottom base, gluing it to the cake board then building the sides around it--it made a huge difference in stability!  And second, I did not make gabled sides...doing those pointy sides always made for dozens of crumbled and unusable crackers.  I wised up this go and simply cut crackers in half for the sides.  I then added a cookie to cover most of the gap.  I thought they looked like wreaths.

We had 37 kids this year.  And as luck would have it, it turned out that the holiday party for my new job was the night before this party.  Charlie and I had a great time at the business party.  But it left me in no shape to get the house ready for our party.  Luckily, no one seemed to mind and my good friends helped shoulder many of my hostess duties.

Notes to myself for next year:

*  First and foremost, do not drink wine hand over fist, no matter how good it is or how fancy the bottle, on Gingerbread Eve.  Just don't do it.

*  The bag of 8 lbs of mixed candy, available at Costco, is a bargain and works great but takes a bit of time to unwrap the individual pieces.  Do it ahead of time--the candies will not stick as long as no other soft candy is introduced to the mix (keep away mini marshmallows and any soft mints!).   

*  Open House style and brunch time worked well as did the simple menu (bagels, salmon, fruit, breakfast casseroles, coffee, cider, and then pulled pork sandwiches for lunch). 

*  Cake pops were probably not necessary as there were plenty of sweets.  But they still went! 

Check out the cake pop stand Charlie fashioned--details to follow...

Every year we wonder whether we'll do it again the next year.  But so far, we don't think the boys are outgrowing it, so odds are we will.  I hope so; I love this tradition.  And I love how proud they are of their creations. 

 

Hope your holidays are as sweet as can be, too!

Sandra 

Sandra goes into her craft room to clean it and comes out with four stockings.

Yup.  But these weren't for us--quite some time ago, a friend commissioned me to refurb her childhood stocking and make new ones for the rest her family.

Her stocking is so unique--a Christmas panda on furry pink felt.  I love its vintage vibe.

As a side note:  I apologize for the poor quality and blurriness of these pictures--nighttime crafting equals not so great photos, I'm afraid.  I actually took more pictures before I shipped the stockings but somehow my memory disk failed.  And as a side note to the side note:  I was almost in full panic mode thinking my camera was broken as Christmas approaches.  But now my camera seems fine???  So I'm holding strong in semi-panic mode. 

I had full creative freedom to design the other stockings.  I went with a reindeer and Christmas tree scene, a rocket wearing a Santa hat and stringing Christmas lights, and a jolly snowman. 

Here is my friend's refurbished stocking and her husband's snowman.  And as you can see, the glitter glue came calling and I answered.

I had a lot of fun with the kid versions...

I especially love how the reindeer stocking turned out--I really wish that photo wasn't blurry!  I have a bit of the felted sweater remnant left, so maybe I will make another one and get a better shot. 

Last night, as I puttered around my craft room creating instead of cleaning, I realized I've never posted a picture of it.  Trust me, it's for the best--it is such a wreck.  And stuffed to capacity.  In fact, I was able to do all four of these stockings completely from my stash.  I don't know whether that is scary or impressive.

Sandra

This and that.

A few things to share: 

I have decided to work from home for a few hours a week.  An opportunity came up that could be a great fit and I'm giving it a go.  I'm excited--and a little overwhelmed as it's an industry I know nothing about.  But I've always been a quick learner so fingers crossed. 

I'm still doing Project 360 but am incredibly behind in uploading pictures.  It will be a New Year's Resolution, no doubt.

We're gearing up to host our gingerbread decorating party again.  The main group has been together since college/law school--when I think about how we used to spend every minute together (many were former roommates), it makes me incredibly grateful for an afternoon surrounded by dear friends (and their kids!) to catch up.

And so...because I'm planning on hosting something and I started a new job and I'm behind on everything else...it makes perfect sense that I would decide to tackle organizing our basement.  All I have to show for it, so far, are buckets of cars.  There were a lot of cars stuck in improbable spaces. 

I'm also working on a better homework spot for the older boys because I need to reclaim my desk.  The only thing crafty I managed was spiffing up a few wooden clothespins for the dry erase/homework board I'm assembling.  I will post more pictures of their space--I'm digging it.  This picture is pretty awful because it was taken in the dead of night, which is when I get most things done.  I am not kidding.

Also, there is a good chance of some radio silence until after Christmas.  Just enjoying the family time  to soak it all up, you know?  Of course you know. 

Sandra