Steve and the Boys

Who's Steve? Inspiration for the new thing I started this week...

I have not done much with corner-to-corner crochet in the past, and I know next to nothing about Minecraft, which makes this a fun and challenging project! I'm halfway through the second block!

Another thing I've learned on this yarny adventure is how to make a decent bobbin...

So now I'm chomping at the bit to try my hand at more intarsia knitting...but first, some little kitchen scrubbies, 

because you just can't drag along 23 yarns for an afghan on every little trip you take. This "yarn" is hard to see unless the lighting is very good, but it makes great scrubbies, worked flat on a diagonal, then seamed and gathered. So clever! 

They are also a great travel project, which is good, because we busy grandparents get around! Just yesterday, the 3-year-old called Pop Pop and asked him to come over and play...so we did. 

Full disclosure, Pop Pop did most of the playing...including bike rides 

and static shocks on the slide...hahahahaha!

Later, at bedtime, that same 3-year-old told his mommy, "I'm glad Gramma let Pop Pop come over to play!" Thanks, Mommy, for texting that to us.  It made our day! 

This pic's a couple weeks old.
He's still this adorable. 😉

We're off again today to flag football,  and Sunday to apple picking, so it's good to have those portable projects! What should o knit next, friends? Christmas is coming! 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

It's November, Yo!

No shade to my friends whose houses already look like this:

but, it's November, yo! November 4th, and my house looks like this:

That's not to say that I am not in the "Holiday Spirit." I mean, I did make Christmas caramel this morning. 

Of course, that's because it's been requested for the birthday party next week, and it needs time to cool and rest before we cut it up and wrap it. So, it is now cooling and resting, yay!

Since I was at it, with the Christmas caramel and all, I also managed a batch of cookies to pop into the freezer. I mean, it's November, yo! Any guesses what these will be, friends?

I also have a pot of chicken soup on the stove, and I am enjoying some holiday knitting (can't show you, because it's November, yo!), and so I might as well watch a Hallmark Christmas movie, right? I mean, it's November, yo! Also, I might have too much yarn, so I have to do some knitting!

Where are you on the holiday spectrum? Wherever you are, I'm glad you stopped by today!

Now, go see how much yarn YOU have, and Knit in Good Health!

Anyone Want a Cookie?

For Christmas, I bought myself an embossed rolling pin. I have all this counter space now, I should definitely be baking more. And, if am going to bake, it is going to be fun! so I bought two pins and gave one to my daughter, then I made my first batch. Remember the sweater cookie from my last post? That dough was embossed with my first pin, and it was so much fun that I bought three more. Lolz... (Not a sponsored post, but here's where I got my pins: pastrymade.com)

Can I just say that these are super fun to work with! And they gave me the inspiration to find the perfect cookie recipe to use with them. One of the places I looked was my sister-in-law's recipe box. Remember these tin boxes that we all used in the 80s and 90s to store our treasured recipes?

This box first came into my possession a couple of weeks ago, and although I knew it would never be my permanent recipe box, I ventured inside to peruse the handwritten recipes, typed recipes, recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines and some other trinkets (and trick birthday candles). And yes, the family's favorite recipe for Santa Cookies, the first recipe I've tried with my new rolling pins.

Having put my hands on the recipe I was searching for, I stashed the rest in my own recipe box, and got ready to bake some cookies for my favorite cookie jar!

And they turned out pretty good. I have found that the finer details on the sheep only come out sometimes, so I will continue testing recipes for the right consistency. 

In the meantime, these are super tasty and nostalgic, after years of eating them at Cindy's house every Christmas, so I will use this recipe for iced cookies for the holidays. I am really enjoying the combination of vanilla and almond flavorings, and I've found that piping some melted chocolate onto the backs of these fancies ups the flavor and texture, since it would be a mistake to cover that embossing with icing! 

So I am still auditioning for the perfect embossed cookie recipe, and I have two or three that I've taken from the internet to try. 

The cat is not a fan of baking, since there are no laps to snuggle into when I'm in the kitchen. She would much rather I knit, so perhaps I will sign off now to indulge her (and my needles) a bit!

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe? I'd love to hear about the flavors that evoke nostalgia for you and your family, at the holidays and all year round. Drop a comment or send me an email to let me know, then grab your needles and knit with me for a bit!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!