Episode 08 - Getting back into the swing of things

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting and letting me chat at you today. Grab your favorite drink, and come sit a spell. I have a lot of crafty things to chat about. 

Works In Progress

Vanilla socks on 9-inch needle

Needles: U.S. 1 (2.5 mm)

Yarn: Knitpicks Felici

Colorway: "Eclipse"

Finished Objects

Crochet blanket
Started: Oct. 25, 2018

Finished: Dec. 2018
Hook size: 9 m.m.
Yarn: Red Heart
Colorway: Black and the "Favorite Stripes" colorway.
Crocheting two strands together. 

Vanilla Socks
Started: Around Oct. 22, 2018

Finished: End of Dec. 2018.
Needle: US 1, 2.5 mm 
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici
Colorway: Lost Lakes

Ashville hat (ravelry link)
Started: Early December 2018

Finished: End of December 2018.
Needle: US 9 needles 
Yarn: Knit Picks Brava bulky
Colorway: Solstice Heather

This was a test knit for my friend.  Proceeds from hat sales will go towards buying items for her angel bags, which go with the hats. Many thanks to my friend who sent me bulky yarn. 

Cabled Tassel Hat (link to Lionbrand)

Started: Early December 2018

Finished: End of December 2018.
Needle: US 13 needles 
Yarn: Lionbrand Hometown USA
Colorway: Azalea colorway

Still trying to decide if I should put a pom pom on.  Is one better than the other? 

Forbidden Fiber Co Mystery Advent KAL

Started: Dec. 2, 2018

Finished: Dec. 31, 2018.
Needle: US 7 needles 
Yarn: Forbidden Fiber Co DK weight yarn
Colorway: variety of colorways

I've spent entire days with this lovely draped around my neck. 

Yarn Talk
I got new ChiaoGoo shorties. There was a learning process for me. 

I also signed up for a year of BluPrint (Formerly Craftsy)

I got a weaving loom for Christmas.  It's a 32-inch Kromski Forte Harp. Thanks to my friend who sent me a warping peg. Major thanks to my husband for finding the deal of the year. 

My first project ended up being a table runner. I used Red Heart acrylics. 

My second project was a set of tea towels. Yarn used was Peaches and Cream dishcloth cotton. I don't know the name of the colorways. 

In Stitches

I got the itch to quilt. Two summers ago I started a quilt for my son. I completed it Jan. 12, 2019. Hooray!  My son is thrilled to bits with it and has slept with it every night. 

Here's the diagram my son made, to show where he wanted the different squares. 

Book Chat

I did finished listening to "The Rosie Project." Such a fun book!  

I'm almost done listening to "A Corner of White." This is my second time listening to the story. 

Coop News

Nothing too exciting going on with the girls.  They aren't too happy with the cold weather.

From the Hutch

News about Shadow. She's no longer itty bitty and sweet.  She's large and in charge!

Barefoot in the Kitchen

Not much has been going on in the kitchen. The busyness of the holidays has thrown me off kilter, a bit.  I'm slowly getting back into routine. 

I did make a banana cake recently.  Very good!  I got the recipe from Sugar Spun Run. 

I did make one modification to the cake recipe, and one to the frosting recipe.  I reduced the sugar by one-quarter cup. I do recommend using the tin foil, to prevent browning and drying out. 

This is the recipe, with my modifications. Follow the link above, to see the original recipe.

The Best Banana Cake

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter softened

¾ cup canola or vegetable oil 

1 cup light or dark brown sugar 

1/4 cup sugar

4 ripe bananas, peeled and well-mashed (this is about 2 cups mashed)

2 large eggs lightly beaten room temperature

¼ cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese softened

1/4 cup unsalted butter softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray or lightly grease and flour.  Set aside.

Combine butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric mixer). Beat until well-combined and light and fluffy.

Add oil and beat to combine.  

Stir in mashed bananas.

Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Gradually add to wet ingredients until completely combined.  

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake on 350F (175C) for 45-55 minutes* or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with few moist crumbs.  Allow to cool completely before covering with frosting.

Silky Cream Cheese Frosting

Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.

With mixer on low-speed, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined.

Add heavy cream and gradually increase speed to high.  Beat on high for 30 seconds.  

Spread over completely cooled banana cake.  Top with chopped walnuts (if using).  Slice and serve!

Notes

*Important -- keep an eye on your banana cake as it bakes.  30 minutes in, check your cake to see if it's becoming too brown on top (pay attention to the edges, if they're getting darker in color and pulling away from the edges), if so you may lightly tent with foil before baking the remaining 15 minutes.  I had this issue when baking in a glass dish but not in a metal one (which was opposite of what I expected).  

Nature Notes

It got cold out.

My Happiness This Week

Jayme Closs was found! 

Or, after almost two years, I finally completed the quilt I promised my son.  He's thrilled to bits with it. 

I lived in a snow globe

Around New Year's Eve/New Year's Day my neck of the woods had some odd January weather.  Temps rose high enough that we had some rain.  Then the temps dropped and the rain started freezing and gradually turned to snow.

I woke up to a winter wonderland.  Too bad hubby and I had to move all that blasted snow.  He did an awesome job clearing it away and making paths to all the necessary places.

It was something to go to bed with no snow on the ground, and to wake up in a winter wonderland. 

When I took a drive I randomly stopped and took some photos.

The weather is forecasted for another round of this rain/sleet-turn-to-snow weather again, starting tonite.

In other news, back to work went all right.  My first day back was a work-at-home day. That helped ease the transition back to work after more than a glorious week of vacation. 

I've been puttering around with my knitting, weaving (squee!) and quilting.  I thought I was done with all my quilting squares.  Turns out I need to make four more. I've trimmed all the squares done and sewed together all the pieces and rows that I can.  My hope is that I will get those last four squares done this week, and the entire top sewn together. Then I'd like to have it completely done by the end of the month.  Crud, I just gave myself a deadline. 

Sorry for being MIA

I'm sorry for being MIA and not saying a peep about it. Once Thanksgiving happened, life went crazy.  As it tends to do this time of year.

I know I'm not the only one who has life and routine go totally off the rail at the start of the holiday season.

And the time went so swiftly! It is sort of hard to believe it's the new year and 2019.

Wow.  It's 2019. *sigh*

This last week I've been on vacation with family and we've been running here and there, trying to take advantage of the nice December weather.

My boys have discovered ice fishing. I sit in the truck and knit and watch videos on my phone.  Until the weather got *really* cold.  Then I stayed home.

What to say ... so  many things going on.

We had a lovely Christmas with family on the Sunday before Christmas.  Christmas Day we had a meal at home, with just the three of us. My main Christmas gift was a Kromski-32 inch rigid heddle loom.  Can you believe it?  Never in my dreams did I think I'd ever want to weave.  Something clicked in November and I decided I wanted to do this thing. 

My husband found the loom for me on Ebay, for a really great price.  Felt like it took forever to finally arrive.  I've already made one project on it and I have a second project on it.

Here's Shadow, helping show off my first project. I'm amazed at how quick it goes. Naturally I did something wrong, and warped it backwards. ... Among other things.  But I took some time and fixed it.  It could be a small scarf, but I'm using it as a table runner.

 

Here's the warp of the next project.  I'm trying to take my time and do a good job.  I'm learning a whole new skill set, and a whole new vocabulary. 

My husband's main gift was an ice house for fishing, along with all the new toys, tools he needs to ice fish.  My husband and son have been spending a lot of time out on the lakes and they've pulled in some really big fish.  I don't have any pics on my phone, otherwise I'd share.

Oh, wait.  I do have one. ...

Anywho, tomorrow it is back to the grind.  I feel ready, so I know I've had a long enough break. You know how it is. I don't take enough time off and I get into burnout mode. Thankfully this year's Christmas break was a bit on the long side, so it was good. 

You'll have to excuse me, I'm writing a bit stream of conscious right now.  Knitting has been happening.  I did complete a few projects.  But I'm going to save that stuff for a different day/post.  I'm hoping to record another video within the next week, or so.  It's been well over a month and I think I could fore more than an hour easily with just the crafting stuff. 

I noticed today on Facebook that a lot of people were sharing their goals and resolutions for the next year.  I haven't done any of that stuff.  Mostly I'm just looking to get back into some sort of routine. I've realized that I'm a creature of habit and routine.  Anything that knocks my routine off kilter, and the whole ship goes down. 

Quilting!  I've been cranking along on some quilt squares for a quilt I promised to make my son ... two summers ago. I've got four squares left. I want to get that all together before it's time to start hatching out chicks. I'm not sure if I want to tie the quilt, hand quilt it, or try my hand at some sort of machine quilting.