One of the projects I’ve been working on this year is to use it up, in particular, wool. Not that I have a huge stash to begin with, my yarn for the most part fits in one basket, but in order to appreciate what I have and save a few pennies at the same time I have decided to use up all the yarn I have before purchasing any more.
About half of what I have had been given to me, so there were a lot of odd skeins without exact yardage. I had been avoiding using those up because honestly I had no project in mind, but I am now having lots of fun being creative and searching out free patterns or ones that I already had to make some new projects.
This has been a great motivator as well, I have already gotten a gift for a friend done, using a chart as well. I was always too intimidated by charts before and have now found out that it is quite easy, at least the one I did. A Christmas gift for next year has been finished and tucked away and I am almost done with a hat for the children. Oh, and also a sweet little hat for the new little one of a friend. My basket is slowly emptying and at this rate I should have six months of knitting to do without spending a penny. Of course it helps the motivation that I have a couple of projects in mind for when I do use up my stash, and quite frankly I am excited to get to those.
I’m also hoping that at the end of it all I will have a nice little stash of scraps for a granny square blanket. Do you prefer to have a nice big stash, or would you rather only have what you need for your next project or two?
crochet, gifts, green, knitting • Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 • 2 Comments »
I do enjoy colour, but I also enjoy neutrals. I find them somewhat calming, the natural feel to a wooden button, the gentle twist of a creamy cable.
I am enjoying finding depth in texture and style as opposed to colour.
knitting, sewing • Friday, February 3rd, 2012 • 5 Comments »
Baking bread is about so much more than nourishment. Sure it tastes great, and fills up hungry bellies, but it is as much about the process for me as the end result. I have made my own bread occasionally for years, not every loaf, but quite often. In the last month I started making all of our bread, I used the bread machine to knead and rise the dough, but then would take it out, shape it, and bake it in the oven. I loved the result, but have wanted to get into baking my own truly from scratch for a while now. A couple of weeks ago, we made bagels, and they could knock the socks off of any store-bought bagels. I found I truly enjoyed the process of working the dough by hand, feeling it change from lumpy to smooth, fragile to elastic.
Seeing the dough rise in a bowl and gently pushing the air back out to shape it and let it rise again. Putting the loaves into the oven and the smell of bread baking, and the warmth from the oven warming the kitchen. I also love that I can make enough dough for two loaves in one batch, which means that I won’t necessarily have to make bread every day, or at the very least all that hard work won’t be gone in one sitting. Not to mention the side effect of a good workout, kneading dough for 10-15 minutes is very good for the arms.
I am looking forward to getting into the rhythm of baking bread from start to finish with my own hands, or like this morning, with the help of my two girls. I think I’ll put the boys to work on the next batch.
family, food, green, homeschooling • Monday, January 30th, 2012 • 3 Comments »
We are snuggling in for a cozy weekend of blankets, movies, yummy food and snuggles. I hope you have a great one too!
family, home, nature • Friday, January 27th, 2012 • 2 Comments »
We’ve been a bit under the weather here, first I was down for a couple of days and then one of the girls was down with a bug. Everyone seems to be fine today, but I need to catch up on some basics like laundry and dishes. I hope to be back tomorrow, see you then.
family, nature • Thursday, January 26th, 2012 • 2 Comments »
Back in October we all went to an apple orchard about an hour away for a day of apple picking. It was a gorgeous autumn day and the orchard was beautiful. We had such fun picking apples, the only problem was that it went way too fast. Picking apples is a lot less time consuming than picking blueberries.
We enjoyed a tractor ride out to a couple of different locations in the orchard, which the kids loved. We were invited to sample the apples, the best you’ll ever taste he said, and he was right. After filling baskets and bags of apples we brought our haul home.
After eating more apples than we could count, and making half a dozen crumbles over a few weeks I was also able to freeze nine quarts of apple pie filling and also can four quarts of applesauce and use a few apples to help make a batch of jelly as well. This was the first year I have really canned anything, I have done a few things before but I never really felt like I got the hang of it.
I used several different varieties to make the applesauce and they were plenty sweet without using any sugar. We just opened the first jar last week and boy was it scrumptious, just like autumn in a jar. We picked forty-seven pounds, but next year I want to do more now that I feel a little more confidant. I would love to be able to do quite a bit more applesauce and even some apple butter. I have to admit it is quite exciting to see jars of food in the pantry that we picked and made. It’s so much more than a jar of applesauce, it’s the memories that went with the day and the knowledge that something we did with our own hands has provided food for our table.
family, food, nature, travelling • Friday, January 20th, 2012 • 3 Comments »
Children of the Forest is one of the babe’s favourite books. It’s about a family of tiny forest people who happen to have four children, two boys, two girls, just like us. Daisy, the littlest has platinum blond hair just like the babe. They live in the forest, our house backs up into forest, and my littlest just loves blending into things just like the forest children have to do sometimes. They gather nuts, berries, and mushrooms for the winter and their mama knits them hats and sweaters too. They have toadstool caps so that if they need to blend in and not be seen, they can just squat down and disappear into their surroundings.
I knew that the babe would absolutely adore to have her own toadstool cap, so the search was on. I couldn’t find a pattern that was quite right until I found this pattern. I tweaked it slightly by eliminating the little tail at the top of the hat and it turned out perfectly. Then I needle felted some creamy roving into little toadstool spots all around the outside. She adores the hat, and I am so thrilled that I was able to pull it off. This was my first time needle felting and despite the fact that I broke a few needles, it was a lot of fun.
The babe always wants to take pictures with mommy’s camera, so I knew this adorable wooden camera would be absolutely perfect. It is used on a daily basis as she goes around snapping her own pictures. It’s really well made and the detail is fantastic, I know it’s going to get lots and lots of use over the years.
books, Christmas, family, gifts, knitting • Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 • 5 Comments »
Before Christmas we received a gift of clementines from family traveling in California. They were indeed the best clementines I have ever tasted and after eating clementine after clementine I knew I needed to do something with that last couple of dozen before they started turning.
I have to say, I’ve never been a massive fan of lemon curd, I like the idea, I think it just had too much of a tangy taste for my personal preference, so when I found this recipe for clementine curd I was very excited as I thought the extra sweetness would be perfect.
I made up a double batch, leaving out the zest (just another odd preference of mine) and was so thrilled with the result that I made up another double batch the next day with the last of the clementines. The next day we had clementine curd over waffles topped with whipped cream for a treat. It was declared the best waffle ever by the children, me too.
I chilled the remaining jars of curd overnight in the fridge and they are now in the freezer waiting for a dreary February day to come out and cheer our tastebuds. So if you have a handful of clementines waiting around, I would highly recommend that you try this out, it is oh so worth it.
We had a nice big snow yesterday and the kids were able to play out for a couple of hours. I can’t tell you how nice it is to live in a place where it is still bearable to be out in the winter. In Wyoming in the winter it was regularly -20 freezing and just way too windy to play out. Here the kids can get bundled up and play for hours in the snow, for which I am very thankful, and they are too.
food, gifts • Friday, January 13th, 2012 • 3 Comments »
One of the things I made for Christmas for the girls was this sweet dress. It’s Sprout, and it’s adorable. A dress fully lined in flannel which was surprisingly easy to make. Granted as I was making two dresses, which was in effect four dresses it took a bit of time, but it was not complicated at all.
The girls love the dress, it’s oh so comfy, it’s only a shame I wouldn’t look so good in a flannel lined dress. I love that there are pockets, a sweet hood, and it’s warm enough to pair with tights even on the coldest days.
I made the girls sizes but added length in the arms and hem in order to make them wearable longer, though the babe is already at the end of the size four arms even though she’s only three, she’s a tall one. I did need to buy two patterns as the size gap between my girls hits right between the patterns, but that’s ok as the regular Sprout is size 0-5 and the Big Sprout is size 6-10 so I will get plenty of mileage out of them, this would be completely adorable on a wee one.
Looks like we’re in for a snowstorm tonight, the kids are thrilled, so I better run and get some laundry done in case we lose power, which oddly enough seems to happen a lot here and not usually when it’s bad weather. Take care and have a great day!
sewing • Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 • 1 Comment »
Happy New Year everyone! It’s a new year, to be filled with lots of new adventures and I’m excited to be back. Now that we’re by the sea here in Maine, I’ve switched the blog from the prairie girl to the girl by the sea. All of the old posts are here now and anyone going to theprairiegirl will be automatically forwarded here. I do recommend subscribing to the new RSS as I’m not sure if the old one will work for the new site. Let me know if there are any problems and I’ll try to sort them out.
Every January the kids get new calendars, and this year we got a set of Sarah Jane Studios calendar cards for the girls. We will swap out the cards each month, and enjoy the new beautiful illustrations.
I’m glad to be back and look forward to a whole new year with you all.
home • Monday, January 9th, 2012 • 6 Comments »
