Christmas Gifts

In my family, we usually celebrate Christmas more than once, with different sides of the family. Besides the obvious benefits (having lefsa for one meal, and eggrolls for another) when "Second Christmas" comes in the beginning of January, it gives me a bit more time to get those presents made!

First Christmas:

Snowflake Cowl, pattern by Celeste Young

This is a 100% wool Norwegian star cowl for my mom. The pattern called for size 10 needles, I used 11s. I'm not the happiest with how it turned out, but boy, was it fast. I'd like to re-make it sometime, only double-knit.

My sister got the tam she had picked up and asked for before Thanksgiving:

 

Corinthian Tam, pattern by Angela Hahn

My grandma, who used to be a knitter before arthritis limited her crafting, got her first sweater from me, in her favorite shade of blue:

Marigold Sweater, pattern by Amy Polcyn

Grandma cried. I both am, and am not, proud of this sweater. Most of the body was knit while on the stationary bike at the gym. In December, I mostly gave up swimming for biking because you can knit and bike, but not knit and swim. I figure if you can wash manure and dirt out of wool, you sure can wash sweat out of it.
This was the only gift that technically wasn't done in time. The sweater had the buttons sewn on, and was blocked and dried but it was gifted with an IOU for the sleeves. Fortunately, I was able to knit and attach the sleeves within 24 hours. This is actually the third time I've knit this sweater pattern. I have one in teal, and I gave my mom one in pink for her birthday last summer. I love wearing mine with sleeveless dresses.

Second Christmas:
Christmas round 2 was actually a little harder to knit for, since they're the relatives I live with, which makes it hard to hide knits and work on them at the same time.

I have a musically-inclined cousin who doesn't talk much. I thought his present would be the easiest to hide, but no, he came into my room for the first time ever while I happened to be working on his hat:

Piano Hat, pattern by Lindsay Koehler

In typical teenage boy fashion, I can tell he likes it, because the only time he gets more excited than this is when food is involved.

My aunt got the second Xenia shawl I've made (I plan on making more!):

Xenia, pattern by Vanessa Smith

sooooo much lace

The most difficult present by far to keep secret was the afghan I joined for my cousin. I didn't actually crochet any of the blocks, but received them in a "Lily Pulitzer" color-themed swap in the Vanna's Choice Fan Club group on Ravelry.

Over the summer, I did crochet 20 9" blocks, but the ones I made have been dispersed all over North America, and the ones in this afghan are the ones I received back from others. While these aren't "my colors", I do love how cheerful they look together: so summery! The block that everyone comments on in the pinwheel "Beach Ball" block that incorporates all the colors.

I had to do several rounds around each block to ensure that they were the same size with the same number of stitches, then join the blocks and finally border them. I feel asleep several times late at night under this blanket while working on it after the recipient had finally left my room to go to bed. Although she had seen some of the blocks before, she didn't know I was joining them or giving them to her:

The day I needed to finish it, I actually brought it with me to Royal Grounds, so I could weave in ends in peace without her showing up unexpectedly. ;0)

Mini Apple Pies

These weren't difficult, but they were pretty labor intensive. And delicious. I was trying to make them look like little apples, but I think they look more like calzones.

And some Pi pie for good measure!

Cowls on Call

I almost forgot:

I've got some lacy cowls for sale at Royal Grounds coffee:

It's the perfect weather for soft, lacy, warm circle scarves. I really love these variegated colors too- I've got a purple one in the works and will be doing one in browns and one in grays in the future. Get one for yourself and one for a gift. ;0)

Pecan Pie

One of my favorite fall pies is pecan. Recently, I've started using pre-chopped pecans instead of pecan halves. The real reason is that chopped pecans is all I had available to use at work (Royal Grounds)*, but it has the nice added benefit of making the pie easier to cut into slices. 

Pecan Pie

Spread out 1 cup chopped pecans (or pecan halves) in  the pie crust. 

Mix together: 1/3c melted butter, 3 eggs, 1c corn syrup (dark is better), 1/2 t salt, 1/2t vanilla and 1c sugar.  Pour this mixture over the  pecans.

Bake @ 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the edges of the pie are set. It's ok for the middle to be a little big jiggly still, but not the whole pie. I usually bang on the oven door or the oven rack to assess how much the pie jiggles. For pecan, this is the best way for me to be able to tell if it is done. 

Allow to cool to room temperature (feel the center bottom of the pan to be sure) before cutting into it. It's best to refrigerate it too.

*The pie in the photo is currently for sale, by the slice, at Royal Grounds Coffee, in Minneapolis.

Let's Get Started

I've never been one for blogging. I've not good at journaling. But I do like baking (some cooking) and knitting (and crocheting, and some sewing). I usually do some every day, but I'm not good at keeping track of everything that I do. I'd like to keep this really simple, but just be able to post some photos and possibly recipes or patterns of things I make and bake. Since joining Ravely, I've gotten better at recording the things I knit and crochet, but not all the creative things I do fall into these two categories.

Here is an apron I sewed for my 10 year old helper at Royal Grounds back in August: