Knitting? Check. Baking? Check? *LOVE*

Today has been good and bad. The bad would be a dog managing to track in something unpleasant from outside on her paw(despite it being about 10 degrees BELOW 0, it was impressive). That was no fun to discover or to clean up.

The good? The knitting and baking of course :)! I just started a new sweater the other day and I am really looking forward to having it done so I can wear it every day. Seriously, I think I will live in this sweater. For one thing, it is knit in Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino - which might just be heaven in yarn form. For another it is a super pretty purple - Enna. To top off the awesomeness, I give you the pattern - Ease by Alicia Plummer. It is the ultimate comfy everyday sweater. I feel warm just looking at it!

Up for baking today is bread. Well, bread and rolls. Or maybe just rolls, I haven't totally decided yet. My kids have a love for rolls that seems to know no bounds. I have an hour or so before I need to shape the dough for it's second rise, so I can still be indecisive. I am tweaking a recipe that I've adapted from Peter Reinhart from his book Bread Baker's Apprentice . I've got it at 50/50 white and white whole wheat right now and it's yummy. Once I have it all figured out, I will share it.  Until then, I will have to sacrifice and continually test fresh homemade bread. Someone has to, right? The link above for the cookbook is a referral link.

Another one!

My second pattern officially graduated from the editing process today (huge thanks to my friend Trisha from TAAT Designs for editing)! It was a much simpler pattern than the first (which I hope to be able to share soon!), but I am still thrilled that it has come together.

I don't have any firm release details, but I can say that there is beauty in simplicity, in letting the yarn shine as the star. Especially when you are working with gorgeous yarn from Three Irish Girls.

So called 'mindless knits' have their place in many knitters' lives, I know they do in mine. As you knit something simple, your mind is freed up for mental multitasking or meditating or praying or listening. Or for a rest from everything and a chance to enjoy the peace.

I remember reading something from the Yarn Harlot once that has stuck with me - she wrote that a child wearing a handknit garment was like a message to all saying "This child is loved". There is love in every stitch and that makes it special.

Knit, Bake, LOVE!

This is the season for the things that I love to do the most. Fall weather just screams baked goods and handknits to me. Sure, I knit my way through the summer, doing sweaters even (fingering weight ones), but the baking really fell off. Truth be told it's been off for a long time, something about doing it as your job can put you off doing it at home too, and it hasn't come back much in the time since I quit.

I have baked since I was old enough to be trusted with the oven. I mostly baked sweet stuff, since that is so much fun to 'quality control'.  I learned early on to ask my dad if I could bake; his answer was never no.  Mom would always ask things like "Didn't you just make brownies?  Do we really need cookies too?" and "Are you going to clean up afterwards?" I totally get where she was coming from now, I would be asking the same ones, but then it was so much easier to just ask dad....

The most likely things to come out of my oven these days are scones, muffins, or cookies.  Still the sweet stuff. I get a kick out of the fact that my 5 year old will request scones. Chocolate chip ones, but still. Muffins are another go-to around here when the baking mojo is with me.  I have one recipe that I memorized a long time ago after making it dozens of times.  It can become chocolate chip muffins as easily as it can become the brown sugar and cinnamon that I made this morning.  Gotta love quick, easy and yummy!

I'm hoping to jump back onto the bread making bandwagon soon, there is nothing quite like bread fresh out of the oven with a little butter on it.  I'll have to wrestle the kids for it, and make about three times what I need so that I have some left for sandwiches or another snacktime, but it will be worth it.

To fall, when my loves shine :).

Mmmmmm Scones

I love these scones.  They are very yummy. I've tried lots of other recipes, but I keep coming back to this one. I got it from a mom at my daughter's school 4 years ago and it has been a breakfast staple here ever since.  There is only one downside - the non dairy creamer.  I really prefer to use natural ingredients whenever possible and let's face it, there is not very much that is natural about non dairy creamer, but they just don't turn out the same if I use half and half and add vanilla.  I will continue the quest to find the perfect scone recipe that uses half and half or cream, but until then, this is my favorite. Not all non dairy creamers are the same, I always use International Delight French Vanilla.  I've tried CoffeeMate's and it left a 'chemically' aftertaste that was not pleasant.

Chocolate Chip Scones

4c flour (or 1lb 4oz  - I prefer to measure this by weight since it's more accurate)
3T sugar
4t baking powder
1/2t salt
1/2t cream of tartar
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, separated
1 1/2c non dairy creamer
1c mini chocolate chips (you could use regular, but the minis disperse oh so nicely throughout the scones)
 Raw Sugar or crystal sugar

In a large bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients.  Cut the butter pieces into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two knives.

In a small bowl (or the liquid measuring cup where you have measured your creamer), combine the non dairy creamer with the egg yolk. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead about 10 times. Divide dough in half and shape each piece into a circle about an inch thick (7-8 inches across). Cut each circle into 8 wedges.

Brush scones with egg white and sprinkle the sugar on top.  Any chunky type sugar will do, it adds a lot to the scones.

Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy some and then hide a few from your family or else they will eat them all.

Designer moment

I had a flash today of feeling like a real designer today.  I was starting to type my pattern into the final format that it will be published in and it really started to sink in that this is real and I will have a published pattern soon! 

Adding to the 'real deal' moment was last week, when my yarn support arrived.  I had been waiting on this package, and when I finally got to open it and see what color the sample will be made in, it was awesome.  A very cool feeling to have someone send you yarn to make a sample of your pattern. 

I am really happy that soon all of the secrecy will be over and I can show the gazillion pictures I have of the various stages of this process. 

Has it really been that long?

A month and a half, really?  It's been that long since I posted? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, we had a lot of life stuff happen.  As in, we lost half of our finished basement to an undisclosed grading/water issue and the water/mold issue that it caused.  Good times.  I've had my pity party about it and we are moving on.  I only occasionally want to yell at the previous two owners and their decision to not disclose anything, this is progress. I do wish the dryer hadn't decided to give up at the same time, but I *love* my new washer and dryer, so that's an upside.

On the design side of things, I have made progress! I actually finished writing the pattern and grading it into 6(!!!!) sizes. I was originally planning to make it into 4 sizes, but I found out that the patterns that sell best have a size range of 2-12, so I went for it. A couple of Sunday mornings spent at the coffee shop with my calculator, and it's done. For the most part anyway.  I still have to type all the final numbers into the pattern on the computer (I did my calculations old school on paper) and then check and make sure that my measurements of certain parts work.

I can say that I have never actually spent any time before now pondering the proper neckline depth of a size 2 versus a size 6 or 12. Or the armholes. Oh, the armholes. They are very important, but they are not always easy to figure out - how deep, when to start underarm shaping, how many stitches to cast on for the underarm. Especially when you have other factors to work around, like stitch patterns and chest circumferences.

The hardest part is behind me, I think.

I did it!

I did it.  I am still in a little bit of shock.  I created a sweater from an idea that I had and I knit it.  With no pattern. And it looks like a sweater and even fits the intended recipient!

I want to show everyone, and I mean everyone, this sweater.  But I can't. I'm not self publishing this design, so it is up to Three Irish Girls to release it for the world to see.  It might kill me to wait.

The knitting was just the first part, though.  I wrote down what I did as I went (thank goodness, because I would stand no chance of remembering all the tiny details if I hadn't). The next step is taking those notes and assembling them into a coherent set of instructions that someone else can follow to make a sweater that looks just like mine.  

My husband racked up major points by taking the boys to the grocery store to give me time to type up the pattern.  It went surprisingly well (the pattern typing, he isn't back with the boys yet so I will have to assume that they all survived the trip). I was worried that turning my notebook pencil scrawls into something that made sense would be impossibly hard.  It wasn't too bad.

It going smoothly might have something to do with the fact that I decided to just leave the number parts blank. Fully grading this pattern into the 4 sizes I want it in is still a bit daunting.   I have lots of the numbers worked out, really.  But it can start to make your head hurt when you are trying to figure out exactly how many inches and fractions of inches a neckline should go down or an armhole should be for a 4 year old versus a 6 or 8 or 10 year old.  I like the easy measurements a lot -- chest circumference and length, those make me feel smart (I am choosing to ignore the fact that at least half of my children could figure these out without much help).  The others, not so much.  I will get there.  When I am properly caffeinated and feeling rather brave.

For now though, I am going to relish my (albeit small) victory.