little turtle knits » knitting

Day 12(ish): Warm Heads + Warm Bellies…

ltkmama — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:28:42 +0000

I got so close to finishing up the 12 Days of Christmas {crafting} with a bang….and now here it is a week later when I’m posting the final day. Best laid plans, right?

We’ve got more snow today, though my boys were quite disappointed that the 6″ or so only rated a delay for school, instead of a day off. I’ve been absolutely freezing all day, so undertook to warm myself with help from the oven. What better way to warm up than with some potato soup?

Smashed Potato Soup

adapted from Cooking Light; Serves 6

Ingredients

8 baking potatoes (about 5 pounds)
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
6 slices bacon (I prefer applewood smoked thick cut)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus 2 T cornstarch
5 cups milk (whole or 2%, or any combination of both)
3 cup chicken stock
1 cup shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream cheese (or neufachtel cheese)
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
1 onion, chopped

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°. Pierce potatoes with a fork; rub with olive oil and bake at 400° for 40 minutes or until tender. Cool. Coarsly mash half the potatoes, and dice the remaining. (Alternately, if you’re in a rush you can wrap the potatoes in plastic wrap and microwave approximately 10-12 minutes or until tender)

While the potatoes are cooking, cook bacon in a large dutch oven. Remove bacon once browned and crisy, add chopped onions and butter to pot and sauteed 5-6 minutes until onions are translucent and fragrant. Add flour to pot, stir to mix well. Gradually add milk, then stock, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, cream cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in shredded cheese, keeping 1/4 cup aside for garnish.

Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup green onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). . Sprinkle each serving with cheese and a tablespoon of sour cream. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

(frugal note: I use dry powdered milk mixed with water and a can of evaporated milk instead of fresh milk)

Serve with iceberg salad and cornbread and you’ll have the same dinner we are

The final pattern for our Christmas {Crafting} adventures is a new one, Katie Jayne. I’ve been wearing mine pretty much every day, none stop since Christmas. It’s a comfy, perfectly slouchy toque that covers even the worst bad-hair-from-dry-air days.

With a tubular cast on for a nice stretchy edge, this hat works up jiffy quick with worsted weight on oversized (US 10.5) needles. The texture pattern is embarrasingly simple, but looks complex. Clever shaping maintains the stitch pattern look as you decrease for the crown.

Sample is knit with Berroco Jasper, which I adore for it’s subtle color shifts that make fabulous stripes with no effort on my part! Katie Jayne is only $3.00 until Friday, January 14th. Don’t miss it!

Day 4: Honey Do

ltkmama — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:58:43 +0000

Today was a sledding day. For the first time in recent memory, I was able to go on a sledding day and not end up sitting in the car with a crying wee lad after 10 minutes of snow fun. Oh, no. Today, all four of my guys were sledding fools, and we spent over 2 hours on the slope outside our local library. They enjoyed dashing down the hill on their snow saucers, and I enjoyed sitting on the sideline, burrowed under a blanket and reading on my Kindle. (gracious, I’ve only had the thing for 4 days and already can’t imagine life without it. I’m in luv!) We traipsed home, the boys utterly spent, and the littles crawled into bed for marathon naps (yay!) while the bigs and I settled in to feed our feathered friends.

I adore watching the various birds that visit our property’s bushes and trees, and I always feel a bit sorry for them after the first snowfall when their search for food gets a bit more difficult. It’s become a bit of a tradition here to make some birdfeeders to hang in our tree right outside the front window, as a treat for our friends (and so I can still enjoy watching them with my morning coffee) Because my camera card is still missing (sob), you’ll have to pretend that these pictures are really our doing.

Feathered Friends Feede

Base: pinecone, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll, bagel, english muffin

Glue: peanut butter, honey, molasses

Feed: birdseed mix, sunflower seeds, oatmeal

Hanger: yarn, naturally!

First, spread an old sheet or some newspaper over the work surface, cause this will inevitably be messy. Choose your base, and tie a length of yarn around it (through the hole in the bagel or the rolls; around the top of the pinecone and around the entire muffin) so that there’s at least 10″ of tail to hang with.

Second, spread your chosen base generously with your glue. We use honey in a squeeze bottle so it’s least messy. You want to coat it very well, so that the feed will adhere.

Third, pour your feed into a deep bowl, put your glued base in the bowl and shake gently to coat well.

Lastly, go find a tree (preferrably in view of a window so you can watch!) and hang it.

Now speaking of honey….

Today’s crafting pattern is a brand new one! Honey Do is a versatile cap, suitable for either guy or gal, and works up quickly in worsted weight yarn. With a generous ribbed brim to keep ears warm (when birdwatching, perhaps?) and a fun slip-and-tuck pattern to keep it interesting enough for you to zoom to the finish, but easy enough that you’re not going to be constantly glancing at the pattern. Use my Circular Tubular Cast On if you’re up for learning something new, or stick to tried-and-true long tail cast on; either way, you’ll have a great hat. Four sizes from infant to large adult will cover all the heads in your family.

Add Honey Do on Ravelry, and get knitting on your own Honey Do today, at 50% off – that’s just 3.00 for this fabulous new design!

Ten on Tuesday: Things I will make for me in 2010!

ltkmama — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:32:47 +0000

Now that the holidays have past and we’ve entered the days of bleak midwinter, I have been knitting a lot. (not that I ever am not knitting alot, really!) But there’s something about these arctic cold days that make me want to do nothing other than drink coffee and knit, while snuggled on my couch and under a plush blanket. I’ve decided that 2010 will be the Year of Knitting Selfishly. It’s pathetic how few items I’ve made for myself. I knit for the boys, for the Hubster, for gifties, and (always) for the shop. And it’s not that I’ll stop doing those knitting projects (onthe contrary, I am all aflutter with knitting for the Spring Collection!) but I am being more conscious about taking time to work on projects for myself. So, this week’s Ten on Tuesday list is of those projects I plan to knit selfishly. Anyone want to join me?

February Lady Sweater – this is actually a re-knit, as the one I did last year is way too big on me now (yay for losing 15 pounds! Boo for too-stretchy knits)
Strawberry Lace Cardi – I’m a sucker for anything Veronik designs. Planning to use some Malabrigo for this.
Shifting Sands – To be done in a Merisoft Shimmer from Punta Yarns. Love that stuff!
Juliet – not sure on yarn for this yet.
Dahliah – having to restrain myself from casting this onbefore I finish #6.
Touch of Grey – started already, check out my progress on my project page!
Prairie Boots – quick, cute slippers. Enough said.
Squirrel Mittens – just enough whimsy to suit me.
as yet-undesigned tank top (I’ve got the picture in my head, just need to get it onto paper!)
Fill in the blank (I’m leaving this last one up to you, dear readers! Leave me a comment with the project you think I should do)

Tutorial: Pick Up + Purl

ltkmama — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:29:14 +0000

A knitter on Ravelry posted asking for clarification on the pick up and purl technique on my Stripey Slippers. I promised that I’d get a video of the technique, since it’s one that would take far too many words to describe (but can be shown in less than 30 seconds!) Please excuse the insanely poor quality of this video – it’s what you get when your 8 year old is weilding the tiny camcorder. You might want to turn down the volume before you hit play, he was way too close to my mouth!

You say Fuddy-Duddy, I say…Traditionalist.

ltkmama — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:36:06 +0000

Apparently, there are some people in my house who think I’m a stick-in-the-mud. Moi? That’s absurd. I can be exciting. Adventurous. Daring. I can live on ~~near~~ somehwere in the vicinity of the edge. Just the other day I cut the tag off my new pillow. I even started a pair of socks, two at a time, on two circs.

Aren’t they lovely? That’s absolutely scrumptious handspun BFL from my friend Meri at HandSpun by SweetKnits (Go ahead, I’ll wait here while you drool over the handspun) It’s dyed in the perfectly named Snowmen at Night, by Selah. (An aside – have you read the book Snowmen at Night? So. Cute.) I am in love with this yarn, it’s a treat to knit with. Watching the color develop, without any jarring changes because of how well the handspun is well, spun; it’s so much fun.

Only, I really hate working two socks on two circs. Really, really hate it. It’s a tangle of needles, balls, yarn flying everywhere. Sure, I suppose it’s great because I’ll have two socks finished at the same time (instead of struggling through Second Sock Syndrome) but – ugh I just can’t get into a groove like this. Fiddling with the circs, always switching and fussing with which needle I should be using.

So, I’m admitting defeat. I’m a traditionalist. Handknit socks are meant to be made on double pointed needles. The way they’ve been made for centuries. Maybe that makes me ~~a fuddy-duddy~~ an old-fashioned knitter. I’m okay with that.

The socks and I are much happier now.