The Socks Keep Coming

 The weather has been crazy. We have had high winds, a power outage, temperatures going up and down. and despite it all, I have snowdrops.

I also have a new coffee maker, since the former coffee maker decided to overheat after the power outage. This coffee maker was a warranty replacement for another one that did a similar thing 3 months after I bought it. This one lasted about 2 years. I can't stand all that excitement, so I bought a different brand this time with fewer features.

The socks are coming nicely, at ten rows minimum per day.

The February pair were finished in February and they match.

The March pair are coming nicely.

The first sock is in the home stretch. This colourway is called Joy and seems right for March.

I was asked to make a bag for a man, in oiled canvas with a waterproof lining. I decided to make a trial bag, to make sure I understood what he wanted. So after overthinking this for a couple of months, I finally started the making. I am using a pattern called Celosia by Blue Call Patterns. It has a cross body strap and it should stand up when it is finished. I am currently using quilting cottons. It takes forever to cut all the pieces and fuse all the stablisers, but I am trying to do a bit each day.

Today, I finished cutting the fabric and started on the interfacing. I made a credit card pocket which isn't part of the pattern, but I find useful.

This is the lining of the outer pocket with the credit card slots.

This is the outside of the pocket. Just because it is a trial, I still want things to match.

Here is the strap and the zipper.

I'm pretty sure that the real bag will be boring by comparison.

It is Spring Break in Ontario, so I'm running Camp Nan for 3 days this week. I don't sew for myself on those days, but I do get some knitting done. 

Yesterday, we made peanut butter cookies.

When you are seven, even peanut butter cookies have sprinkles. After the first batch came out of the oven, my helper went off to eat cookies, and I finished the rest without sprinkles.

Emme and Mudd have their backyard friends back. One came right up to say Hi.

Halloween

My partner-in-all-things has been away for a few days, leaving me to herd pets and look after things. So, I didn't manage to get into my sewing room, since the pets get too anxious if I disappear, and they aren't to be trusted if I let them in. Instead, I got a lot of knitting finished.

The spider mitts are finished, just as the weather gets cold, and they will be needed. The spider is knit using slip stitches, so I was only using one colour of yarn at a time.  I made the mistake of showing the pattern to my little guy and he decided I should knit them. So, the socks went on hold.

Last night, I made some cookies to help celebrate with my favourite little guy. He is coming for a sleepover, later.

They look especially gruesome because the gel icing had split and I kept getting liquid icing instead of gel. The recipe is from a Canadian Living cookbook from when my kids were young, however the recipe is still available. 

https://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-and-desserts/recipe/creepy-witch-s-finger-cookies

Linking to Sandra's DrEAMi linkup. Spiders can be squirrels, too.

https://www.mmmquilts.com/2023/10/dreami-76.html

Christmas is Coming

And, as the Grinch found it, Christmas will come, as it always has. In my little bubble, we have a few gifts for family, mostly handmade. Church will be on YouTube but I can enjoy it, without worrying about the weather. 

 The tree is up, and mostly decorated. No cats to climb it, so far.

The cookies got sent to far away family, so I am baking more.

My grandson was quite upset when we discovered that the dancing, singing mouse was not working. So, Grandad, the electrical engineer, replaced her switch, and Nana, the mechanical engineer, replaced her stuffing and sewed her back up, as good as new. I have an odd love for singing, dancing rodents. They have all been gifts from my children, who foster my weird loves.

 

A friend has a birthday, this week, so I made her a pouch to keep her mask in. Hopefully, soon, she can use it for something else.

Finally, in the silly department, I pulled out a nativity set for my grandson, and somehow, it ended up like this.

There are dinosaurs, guarding the baby in the manger. (Those are the Advent candles, and I will renew them on Thursday night, when they will all be lit. In our tradition, the candles are green (hope), blue (peace), yellow or gold (joy) and red (love), as an inclusive representation.) On Friday, the Wise Men will start to move around the house, as they journey to Epiphany. My kids took turns hiding them and waiting for me to find them. This year, I get to hide them for my grandson.

Life Gave Me Lemons

I had great plans for this week, but life decided to intervene. However, I thought I would give you my lemonade moments.

First up, the cat lover picture.

Every time we open the frig, Natalie jumps in. If we don't notice, the door gets shut and she moves to the shelf on the door. So when we reopen it (5 seconds later, we tend to realize right away), this is what we see. However, we have to lift her out, because she is intent on staying.

When I looked at the picture, I realized that the man who labelled the shelf JAM so he can find his marmalade in the morning, has stuck a can of  Guinness on that shelf. It puts a whole new dimension to breakfast!

My grandson, and his parents came to put up my Christmas tree. I guess I shouldn't have expected much from new parents.

The tree is up. It has two strings of lights and two ornaments.

And, of course, it had a cat in it before it was all the way up.

Nothing much gets in the way of knitting, even lemons. Actually, I think it helps with life's lemons.

 A hat, a requested Christmas present from a grownup boy, who no longer thinks hats are a terrible Christmas present. Pattern is Invisicrown.

The Flip Flop socks are nearly finished. See, there are 2. I just need to reverse the toe, from the first one. Luckily, I wrote down what I had done.

Yesterday, I started a new tradition. My grandson and I made Christmas cookies, to send to far away relatives. These are Fruit Cake Hermit cookies, my own recipe, created a couple of years ago, to use up the leftover fruit cake ingredients.  Here is the recipe.

Fruit Cake Hermits

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. rum extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder, cinnamon, and mace

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup raisins

1 cup of leftover fruitcake fruit (peel, citron, glace cherries, it doesn't matter)

Cream the butter and the two sugars. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, along with the rum extract.

Combine the dry ingredients. Stir into the butter. Fold in the fruit and nuts.

Drop by tablespoons on a parchment covered sheet pan. 

Bake @ 350F for 15 minutes. 

Try not to eat them all before they get send away!

Ready or Not!

I tried to keep the number of things I wanted to get done before Christmas to a doable amount, but life has a way of messing that up.

Social commitments, while enjoyable, cut into crafting time. I also had friends who needed help and I found myself unable to say no. Add to that the normal activities of the week, and I am fast running out of time.

The socks are finished!

It is amazing how much longer it takes to knit a pair of men's socks, then it does to knit a ladies' pair. However, I like how they turned out, and they need to get into the mail yesterday.

I got some baking done, though not as much as I had hoped.

Fruitcake hermit cookies, my own spin on a Canadian Living recipe.

Grand Marnier Pound Cake, a recipe from the early eighties. It needs to age for about a week, so it is right on time.

And my wreck of a dining room table.

That is my advent calendar, a gift from my kids. Lindt chocolate, they know me! The Advent candles, only one more to go! The rest of the table is covered with gifts, waiting to be wrapped. The dining room is the only place safe from kittens, since they haven't figured out how to get the doors open, yet.

I plan to bake more cookies, tonight, as well as make something for tomorrow's pot luck. Not sure what I am making yet.

Happy Valentine's Day

Found the recipe here.

Your turn, Cheryl!

Halloween Treats

I don't have Grandma Coco's artistic flair in cookie making, but I had some fun last night. I made these to serve at my book group tonight.

I loved how gruesome they look, while they were cooling. The recipe is from the Canadian Living Family Cookbook, that I have owed for many years.