City Garden

 

Last week, I posted about a sweater and was a bit nervous doing so since it was officially spring and, who wants to read about sweaters in springtime?

Well, whaddya known? Here I am posting about another sweater!  It's been spring for a WEEK and it's still chilly enough to wear this thing. 

After finishing the Dusk sweater, which involved small yarn, small needles, and more than a year of my life, I was ready for something quick.  This pattern, called Modern Garden, calls for bulky yarn and size 15 needles.  They're huge! (twss)

Instant gratification, if you will.  Except that this is knitting, and instant gratification still took me about a week.

I made the small size, but could have made the extra small and been fine.  The shaping for this sweater is all created by the leaf pattern. 

I found acrylic buttons at Botani that have little bits of twigs in them, which I thought matched the theme of the sweater, being named for a garden and all.

Leti liked it so much that she gave me sweet puppy kisses!

Let's take a walk!

Early Spring Dusk

 

Remember when I posted about starting my second sweater?  Remember how that was over one year and one month ago?  Remember how I could not get myself to finish the darn thing?

Well...TA-DAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I finished it!  Actually a few weeks ago now, but we just got around to taking some pictures.

I was all worried about posting about a sweater in March, since it's spring, and, you know, warm.

Except it's not warm.  Today, on the first day of spring, it barely got into the 40's and there's a chance of snow overnight.  Good job, Mr. Groundhog.

Snow on the crocuses!

At any rate, it's a good thing I have another sweater to keep me warm while we wait for spirng-like weather to arrive. 

I mostly loved this pattern.  It was very simple, but the double-moss stitch edging was interesting and is beautiful.

Pretty double moss stitch

It's super comfortable, and I would love to make it again, except that there's soooooo much plain ol' stockinette stitch.  And the yarn is thin, compared to most of my other knitting projects, and it just took forever to get through.

"Darn you, stockinette stitch...

Now that it's finished, though, I really do love it.  I've worn it a lot in the past couple of weeks.  The fabric is so nice and soft with a really nice drape.  I love the 3/4 sleeves, and the fact that I can wear it with or without a belt, and that it's DONE!

No-Knead Bread and an Irish Supper

I know that St. Patrick's Day was yesterday, but today's post is still a little Irish.  I hope you don't mind.  Other crafting and cooking bloggers who have their stuff together would have posted this before yesterday, but I'm not one of those bloggers.  For, you see, my stuff is not together.

OK, so, I've posted about bread before.  I haven't bought bread for a really long time.  I actually haven't been using the starter recipe from the post mentioned above; I've been using a whole wheat yeast bread recipe (which I'll post about soon).  But, I've been intrigued by this recipe since it appeard in the New York Times almost 7 years ago.  Man, I feel old.

After spending at least 12 hours chillin' like a villin' in its mixing bowl, the dough gets plopped on the counter.

Anyway, this was indeed as easy as everyone has claimed.  The start-to-finish time was super long, but hands-on time was minimal.

Shh!  The dough is sleeping!

I used this altered recipe, because I wanted to use 100% whole wheat.  It turned out so wonderfully!  It's nutty and chewy and hearty and amazing.  I love anything involving my enameled cast iron dutch oven, so using that as a baking vessel made this even more fun for me.

Ready to bake!

Since I baked this yesterday, and since yesterday was everybody's-Irish-day, I used this delicious bread to make the corned beef and cabbage open-faced sammies featured in the latest Everyday with Rachael Ray. Here's the recipe.

The layers of flavor are really great in this recipe.  The cabbage is simmered with caraway seeds, the onions are caramelized in butter with a bay leaf.

Top: cabbage simmering in broth with caraway seeds. Bottom: caremelized onions, relish, cider vinegar, sugar

And of course the corned beef and swiss are a great combination.

mmmmmmmelty. 

This is definitely a keeper!

Irish Soda Bread

Part of the reason that I love my job is because I love my coworkers so much!  I met Kari at work, where she used to be Best School Operations Associate Ever, and my dear friend Lorraine, who holds the title of Best Preschool Teacher in the History of the Universe.  Lorraine makes really great Irish soda bread every year for her kiddos, and she shared her recipe with me.  I mean, of course I made it today!! (By the way, today is St. Patrick's Day.  Just in case you didn't already know).

This recipe made two huge loaves, one of which we gave to a neighbor, and the other we ate almost half of this afternoon.

I was so eager to taste it that I didn't let it cool enough before trying to de-pan the loaves...which resulted in some crumbly messiness, but didn't alter the amazing taste!

Mmmmmm, caraway seeds!  The combination of these little babies and raisins are so awesome. 

There is no yeast in this bread, so it's not technically a bread; Lorraine said it best when she described it as somewhere between scones and cake.  However you put it, it's delicious.  You should make it now.  Hurry up, St. Patty's Day is almost over!

That's a lot o'stuff, Laddy!

By the way, if you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own!  Just add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to a cup of milk, let it sit a few minutes, and you're done!  As LeVar Burton would say, "You don't have to take my word for it." The Joy of Baking says so, too!

Buttermilk is happening right there, people1

Lorraine's Irish Soda Bread

6 cups flour (I used about 1 cup white and 5 whole wheat, because I ran out of white...)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
4 cups buttermilk
3 sticks butter, melted
4 cups golden raisins
4 tbsp caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift dry ingredients, then add wet and stir to combine.  Fold in the raisins and caraway seeds.  Divide between two well-greased bread pans.  Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Notes: I totally didn't sift anything or pay attention to the order of ingredients...I just dumped everything in a big bowl and stirred until well-mixed.  Worked out fine for me!  Also, I ended up baking my loaves for almost 90 minutes...you just have to keep checking.

Manly Baby Booties

Oh-Ehm-Jeeee!!!

Photo credit: Lorraine Egolf

What is Kari so excited about?

Well, you remember how I made these about a year ago?  Well, they've quickly become my go-to baby gift!  They are super fast, super easy, and super cute!

I've made these at least four times (I think) in the past year, all with the rainbow yarn that I used the first time.  This time around, though, I was in the mood for some different colors.  Since my darling friend knew she was having a boy, I found something that is still fun and stripy, but more masculine.

I love the result!  They say, "Hey, world, I may be a tiny bebe, but I'm a man, and the colors in these amazing booties tell you how butch my little muscles are."  Maybe not exactly that...but something like it.

Using this yarn and needles is like knitting dental floss with toothpicks.  Seriously.  Not that I've ever done that, but I imagine.

To close this post, HUGE congratulations and blessings are in order because Kari had her sweet baby boy just a few days ago, and he's perfect!  Woohoo!

Blue Yeti

One of the coolest parts about making stuff is getting to make stuff for other people!  Lately, it seems like lots of those other people are very small.  So many babies!

This is the Baby Yeti sweater, made for our dear friends' baby, Liam.  I made this with yarn from my stash, and it was a super fast project.  The yarn is really soft and squishy, thick and nubbly, perfect for turning a little baby into a blue yeti!

I found the simple wooden buttons at Michael's.

 

I think Liam is still a teensy bit little for this sweater, but that's OK.  There's just more cuddly fluffiness to keep him warm while we wait for spring to arrive!

 

 



Puppy Poncho

 

Our dog, Leti, is adorable and smart and loving.  She's also crazy. A dog trainer friend of ours recommended the Thunder Shirt as a way to calm her down a bit...it's basically like wearing a big hug, and the pressure is supposed to take the edge off.  It kind of worked, but we mainly used it for an extra layer when it's super cold outside.

The old one...

After several seasons of use, it was looking a bit raggedy.  I mean, maybe a lot raggedy.  Maybe the velcro was starting to come off in multiple places, and perhaps the areas that I had mended were re-disintegrating.  So, I decided it was time for a new one!

I used the old thing as a pattern, and just reused all the velcro, placing it where it had been before.

The whole thing took a couple of hours, and most of that was spent with a seam ripper pulling off all the velcro.

Keep your eye on the ball...err, frisbee!

 

Gitít!

The material is a super soft basic gray fleece from Mood.  It's nice and warm and stayed tight and snug during so many activities!  Like flying through the air...

...or rolling around in the snow...

 

...or digging for buried treasure.

 

 

I think she likes it!