Knitted Baby Booties

My sister-in-law is expecting a boy, so I knitted these baby booties and gave them to her at a baby shower this past weekend. My mom told me about the pattern (they're called Saartje's Bootees) a while ago, and I found it on Ravelry and was pleasantly surprised to find that they're knitted flat (instead of in the round) and then seamed together, so I figured I could do it.

It took me a while to figure out how to do a couple of things it calls for, but I think they turned out pretty well. It was my first attempt at seaming and making button loops. I used US size 2 straight needles, brown fingering weight sock yarn (Patons Kroy Socks 4-ply in Flax colorway), and some dark brown buttons from a stash my mom gave me (thanks, Mom!).

These are quite possibly the cutest things ever. I'm going to have to figure out how to make an adult-sized pair.

Knitting Goals

In August, it'll be two years since I taught myself to knit. Since then, I've completed 12 washcloths (some are duplicates of ones I've posted about) and four scarves, and I've learned a few techniques and tried new stitch patterns along the way. So, I've gotten pretty good at knitting things shaped like squares and rectangles, but circles, triangles, and various polygons are calling my name. I'd also like to get a little less 2D, if you will. Here are five things I hope to learn/try in order of increasing perceived difficulty (to me). I'll call them goals, but I'm not going to put a time limit on them.

1. Using different yarn colors in the same project. I don't know why this seems difficult to me, but it's probably just a pain to have to keep switching colors and having to weave in a million ends when you get done. I couldn't find any good photos of small projects that I liked, but I'm thinking maybe a pot holder or fingerless gloves.

2. Knitting "in the round" (pretty much knitting in circles). This is useful (and often required) for hats and some garments. I think a good way to start would be a basic beanie-type hat in a bulky yarn, like this one:

That Favorite Toddler & Baby Winter Hat (Photo credit: A Crafty House blog)

Then maybe I can try to make this adorable stuffed hedgehog:

Knit Hedgehog (Photo credit: The Purl Bee, Purl Soho)

3. Cables. Maybe I could start small with a reusable coffee cup sleeve:

Woven Cable Coffee Cup Sleeve (Photo credit: Purl Avenue)

4. Sweaters/cardigans (garments in general, really), preferably from vintage (mostly 1930s-1950s) or vintage-inspired patterns. I really can't wait to start knitting tops for myself and sweaters for Ed.

Cardigan knitted from 1940s pattern (Photo credit: Elegant Musings)

Sweater knitted from 1930s pattern (Photo credit: Elegant Musings)

5. Socks. I'd like to knit some wool socks for Ed (and for me, too), because they're surprisingly hard to find around here for a decent price.

Sporty Striped Peds (Photo credit: The Purl Bee, Purl Soho)

Homespun Boot Socks (Photo credit: The Purl Bee, Purl Soho)

I'll let you know if/when I successfully knit any of these things. (That means less washcloth posts!)

Bread Machine Adventures: Cookie Dough

Continuing with making things other than bread in a bread machine, I made some cookie dough using the "Pasta Dough" cycle. I used a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies (but used craisins instead) from a bread machine manual I found online (same brand as ours but different model).

Here it is in the bread pan at the end of the cycle, which only takes 14 minutes:

Some of the oats and craisins on top didn't fully mix into the dough, so I stirred them after I put the dough into a bowl.

Other than the fact that it didn't completely incorporate all of the ingredients, requiring a tiny bit of effort on my part to stir them in, it worked fine. I baked them and they came out perfectly. Better than my previous, non-bread machine attempts at oatmeal cookies, actually. I got about 2.5 dozen out of this batch.

For Your Listening Enjoyment and Edification

Last week, a guy at church sang and acted out a couple of songs by Ken Medema, a blind composer and pianist. He did an excellent job. The songs are about people in the Bible and express wonderful truths by showing how God called them to serve Him. Please take the time to enjoy these. You can also click on the links below to read the scriptures being referenced.

The first one is about Moses being called by God at the burning bush in Exodus 3 (performed by Ken Medema). The guy at church didn't do this one, but it's excellent (he did do the one about Ananias below).

Another good one is about the disciple Ananias, whom God called to minister to Saul/Paul in Acts 9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZbP9VsZW5I (performed by Fred Frank, who also has a good performance of the Moses song on YouTube). For some reason, I can't get the video to load up on here like the other one, so just use the link to view it on YouTube.

Praise God for the timeless truths found in His Word!

Bread Machine Adventures: Jam

We've had a bread machine for about eight years now. After a few experiments baking different types of bread in it when we first got it, I switched to using it for the dough cycle (especially for pizza dough and cinnamon rolls), since it does the kneading and I don't like the shape and density of the bread when the machine bakes it. I recently decided to get the most use out of it as possible.

Did you know you can make jam in a bread machine? That is, assuming it has a "Jam" cycle, which ours does.

I had to try it, just to see how it compares to making it the old-fashioned way (on the stovetop). After finding that there's no actual jam recipe in my bread machine manual (all it says is that the recipe shouldn't exceed 3.5 cups--I assume this means yield) and after a few internet searches, I settled on the recipe below (which I've included in case anyone reading this has a bread machine and wants to try this). It was also a good excuse to use some berries I had frozen last summer.

Bread Machine Triple Berry Jam

Bread Machine Triple Berry Jam
Yield: About 1.5 pints (about 3 half-pints)

2 cups total of crushed raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, combined*
About 1.5 Tbsp. lemon juice (I didn't measure it exactly)
2 1/4 cups sugar (could use more--maybe 3 cups?--to try for a thicker set)

1. Pour crushed berries into bread machine pan, then the lemon juice, and then pour sugar on top.
2. Close lid and start Jam cycle (ours took 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete).
3. Pour hot jam (carefully, it splashes!) into clean, warm/hot jars and let cool, then refrigerate. I covered them with a clean dish towel so I could use the plastic screw-on lids you can get for canning jars when they were cool enough.

*If using frozen berries, thaw them before crushing. You could try other berry combinations as well.

The set is pretty soft/runny, but that makes it easier to spread on bread or to stir into yogurt. By the way, the bread in the photos was homemade using the dough cycle, then baked in the oven--we're totally getting our money's worth out of this machine now. We haven't stirred it into ice cream yet, but we'll have to try that, too.

Plain yogurt with bread machine jam

I also made some jam rolls (with this jam, of course) using a cinnamon roll recipe with the bread machine dough cycle and then baked them in the oven. I saw the jam roll idea on Pinterest. They're good, too.

More bread machine adventures to come!