from the Beef Stew Circuit

How can you not love a kid who puts an ! mark next to your arrival on her calendar?

Must be because she's smart enough to know you're going to do a wee bit of cooking and stuffing of her refrigerator? Now, I was supposed to make Potato-Leek soup yesterday...however,

While the pumpkins were in the oven...

I sorta used up the potatoes we had on hand in the Beef Stew. Opps!

But then used some of our new apples in Apple Crisp. Thank you Betty Crocker for the recipe.

Today, we went to Critz Farms, and watched them make Cider.

Ate some apple fritters..

Had some music while we were eating our apple fritters..

Check out the huge slices of apples in there!

And then....

Picked up more pumpkins...

Before heading out to the corn maze for a little bit..

for some silly pictures...thanks to my brother and his fascination with Children of the Corn type movies..

Here's the farm from the corn fields.

And on the way home, snapped some 'drive-by' color shots by the lake.

Maybe tomorrow afternoon, I'll remember to pick up more potatoes. (Recipes for both the Beef stew and the Potato Leek Soup, are on the left side of the page...just in case you can't wait. )

oh baby! I love this place

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....I LOVE grocery shopping in this area!!!!!!! In my grocery store back home, you can pick from a 10 # bag of potatoes, and a 5 # bag. Pretty much, that's about it. Give or take. Check out this!

12. Count 'em 12 kinds of potatoes right here!!!!!!!!!!!! Salt, butter, red, russet, and and and.....and then you go to the end cap to find....

5 more kinds! OH BABY! Paula Deen would be on potato sensory over-load!

So, if I show you that I brought home a huge bag of leeks...and did you notice how HUGE these are? Knowing that I was also hanging out in the potato section.....take a guess what I'm going to go cook up in a minute? Can you figure it out? 'Pictures at 11'...as they used to say on TV...hehehe.

How do YOU pack?

Tomorrow I'll be at my daughter's in NY! And I've picked the stuff that I need to pack with me. Not only have I been doing a truck load of knitting to bring along with me, but having a 'secret' Christmas item that's in the bag in the middle of the picture under the Beribboned Sweater using HUGE skeins of Hobby Lobby's I Love this Yarn! makes for great packing material in a suitcase.

Why do I need so much coosh? Well, there are six bottles that need to be protected.

Do you think this will work with the 'suitcase inspectors at the airport? The last time I packed these, in fact the last two times, they took the soft stuff packed around the bottles, and moved the bottles into the lower corner of the suitcase. HOW they didn't break...is beyond me. I understand and agree that safety is key one. HOWEVER, where is the respect for our personal items after they've gone through them? grrrrrrrrrrr....anyway...

Daughter owes me. I have 6 of these to be delivered tomorrow, providing the 'you know who's' going through the suitcase tomorrow don't cause them to be placed in a bad place. On second thought,...I think I'll add extra layers of more bubble wrap before I zip up the suitcases for the last time. It couldn't hurt. Right?

The past two days, I knit up a few more coffee sleeves for Mom and Dad. Yes, I'm packing them to bring with, too. I thought they 'd get a kick out of receiving an envelop from NY, rather than CA. Dad asked me the other day if I could make him some new ones, they can't find the ones from last Christmas that I'd sent to them. I started thinking of all their good hiding places, and called him back, and he said every one that I mentioned, they'd already looked. Now, how can you NOT quickly pull out your wool and knit up a few more? It's it great to have your knitting appreciated? Recently, on the Knit List, the topic came up of people nearly demanding that you make things for them. Here was my final thought on the subject....

"....Think about it...right now I'm remaking coffee cup sleeves for my dad. I gave him some for Christmas to use because even the paper kind still kept the cup too hot for him to handle. He LOVES his coffee time with his friends when they go mall walking in the morning. However, they can't figure out where they put theirs recently.

Now, I'm knitting them 2 at a time on the needles. Each has a cast on of 20 stitches (x2=40) and 80 rows. 40 x 80 = 3, 200 stitches for a tiny project. How many stitches would an afghan or a sweater cost you? That's a whole lot of time for people who don't care to show respect or appreciate the time involved. I say...teach them that you have value for your time and skills and talents when it comes to your knitting.

You can knit for a variety of reasons, to show care, love and concern...or to make pretty things. You certainly aren't knitting so someone can take advantage of your abilities. They don't like it...or appreciate it...let alone don't even say THANK YOU? Well....forget them..they're off the list. There are plenty more who understand how precious your knitting truly is. Stick to them. (And that should include you, too!)after all...it's supposed to be-----ready?

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Happy knitting!"

It's October 1oth...

How's your PINK knitting coming along so far?

While I was sneezing...

...and living through yet another head cold over the past 2 weeks...I wasn't all quiet and sniffley...

Check out what I've been getting my needles into. First, see what came in the mail? My copy of the 2010 Dishcloth Hangups Calendar!

Then the red in the upper left corner, will be disclosed at a later time...but it was finished.

I made another Beribboned Eyelet Sweater from Kids, Kids, Kids. HOWEVER...this time we found a way to save my wrists from all that purling. Other than the garter stitch sections, if it said to K, then I P. If it said to P, then I K. And it worked! I think I had to add an extra row or two before binding off, but all in all, if you didn't know, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But my wrist sure does! The knitting for twins is winding down.

Yesterday I made another Little Flap Cap from Cabin Fever. This time rather than using multiple colors, I used the color chart to insert texture.

See? It's not blocked yet, and next time I think I'll add a few rounds above the brim area before starting the knit/purl section. But, it's a fast knit! And one more warm head. This will make it's way to Kiki's Hats up in Minnesota.

Now, onto the last of the twins knitting...and a hat in the Minnesota Twin's colors, thanks to the Tigers not advancing after 12 innings the other night. That hat will be sent to Ship's Support for the Medical transports back to the States. One more warm head! (Even if it's in Navy and Red rather than Navy and Orange!)

Ruffled Baby Socks, ver.2

Some of you may have read a pattern that was sent out waaaaaaaay too soon, sorry. Here's what SHOULD have been sent out.

I wanted to make another sock with a little bit longer (albeit so little) difference in the ruffle. I also wanted to make a basically solid colored sock, with just the ruffle a different color. I think it came out pretty cute. I have always thought that pink with a little bit of white trim looks really 'clean'. Now, I can't wait to have a chance to knit up some in red with white, and a whole lot of other colors! We are on a roll, or is that a ruffle? oy!

Ruffled Baby Socks, ver. 2

© September 24, 2009 Cathy Waldie

Once again you must have the book, "Knit a Dozen Baby Socks" from American School of Needlework. I used the smaller sized sock with a (US)3 (3.25mm) set of dpn's for a 6-12 month sized fit. This time I used the pattern for Basic socks.

This pattern is for 32 stitch sock, so I multiplied the 32 x 3 = 96.

To make the ruffle, I started by C/O 96 stitches with the CC color and join, without twisting.

Row 1) Purl around
Row 2) *P1, P2 tog* around (64 sts)
Row 3) Purl around
Row 4) P2 tog around (32 sts)
Row 5) Switch back to MC and Purl around
Row 5) Begin with the directions of the sock as written in the book. One other modification, I used a 2 x 2 rib rather than the 1 x 1 written in the pattern. After you finish the socks, fold the cuff down, and place on your cutie patootie!


As always, remember that Copyrights belong with the original writer of a pattern. That is why you won't see the whole sock patterns here, since they are not mine. They belong to the writer of the American School of Needlework book. Please buy the book and give credit to the original designer. In the same vein, there is someone else out there who has re-written my 'Two Heats as One Dishcloth', renamed it 'slightly' and is refusing to take it off of Raverly and her blog. In no way did I give permission to her to use my idea, or pattern. I have contacted Ravelry already and a group of lawyers. Please play nicely. For some of us, our patterns are our livelihood...it's NOT OK to steal, beg, borrow part of someone else's patterns and offer them up as your own. It's illegal, and it's wrong.

At the same time as a consumer, even of 'free' patterns, please do NOT support those who do not honor such copyrights. Your 'vote' happens every time you pick a pattern to knit and use. The best way to honor your favorite designers, is to honor their copyrights. It would be a shame to have many great patterns disappear due to a few bad apples trying to misuse creative designers' generosity.

I'm asking you politely, play nice. Play fair. We're lucky enough to have free blogs to use and share patterns across the Internet. Let's celebrate the blessings it has brought us, and NOT support those who will not play by the rules.

Adult Flap Cap

Here are the two hats together. The momma size, and the baby size. Aren't they just too cute? All matchy-matchy!

Here's what I had left over. The skein of chocolate on the top left has very little. I used it for both the hats. The middle one I used on the momma sized hat when I double stranded the Cascade 220. The skein on the right, I never touched. On the bottom, the white, purple and dark teal were used only a slight amount for both hats. To double strand the adult size, I held onto both the center strand and the end from the outside of the 'cake'. It worked very well. Now, I have plenty enough left over to make another adult sized hat. Most likely, it'll just all go back to my stash of Cascade 220 for the next time I want to add some color to another project. This time I managed to keep the labels tucked into each cake so I can remember which colors I used.

See? I'll learn down the road. At some point. Hopefully.

Yes, I will make these patterns again! Too cute and a nice fit. I'm hoping the Mommy and Little Miss "B" will be styling this winter when the winds begin to blow. Oh, and that they don't get shrunk in the wash. How do I know? Well, it's the reason my Mom no longer has her wool ski sweaters. *sigh* we don't talk about those EVER. But I can say with certainty, I have learned my lessons. The hard way.