Baby Booties using the Knifty Knitter

I finally had the courage to make socks!  I've been wanting to for sometime.  But I'm not a pattern maker... I need instructions!  Unfortunately, my on-line searching skills are not that great and I had a challenging time finding one for the Knifty Knitter.  Rostitchery has one for an adult foot using the blue loom, but I was nervous to commit to it... I needed something smaller... a baby sock would do!  The Knifty Knitter yahoo group recommend Bev's Country Country Cottage for a pattern.  So this weekend, I sat down and tried it.  I had to modify her pattern a little to make it fit the KK flower loom...  but after three tries, I found something that worked for me!  The blue sock in the picture was my first attempt.  I used the same amount of rows Bev recommended (but remember... a different loom)  and the sock fits my 3-yr old.  I then modified the rows for the cuff and ankle, but not the foot. This sock would fit a baby with a REALLY long foot (purple sock!).  Finally, I figured it out by sock three (purple and black sock) and am happy enough with it that I will make it's pair!

Here is what I came up with thanks to the wonderful guidance of Bev's Loomed Newborn Booties!
Material:  KK flower Loom, 2 colors of Baby Yarn.  You will use 2 strands throughout!

Instructions:  E-wrap around the loom twice, and knit off 1 over 1
Knit 10 rows
Turn up for a cuff (like making a brim on a hat)
E-wrap and knit 3 more rows

Make the Heel by: E-wrap 8 pegs, knit off those 8 pegs (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
E-wrap backwards only on 6 pegs (7,6,5,4,3,2), knit off
E-wrap forward again 4 pegs (3,4,5,6), knit off
E-wrap backwards again  2pegs (4,5), knit off

Now increase the number of pegs by two.

E-wrap peg 6 (knit-off) then e-wrap 5,4,3. Knit off.
E-wrap peg 2 (knit-off) then e-wrap 3,4,5,6,7. Knit off.
E-wrap peg 8 (knit-off) then e-wrap 7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Knit off. 

Form Foot:  E-wrap and knit 6 more rows (if you want you foot longer, keep going!)
Use the gathering method to to end!

Let me know how this worked for you and thanks again to the KK yahoo groups and Bev's Country Cottage patterns!

Brewing Saison and Pale Ales

A beautiful day was spent brewing beer...  two types to be exact, a saison and a pale ale.  We began in the morning to escape the afternoon sun, only to be delayed by our search for the copper coil that cools the beer once boiled (the immersion chiller).  The previous weekend we had cleaned out the garage and I guess our organizational skills aren't up to speed, since we couldn't find what we needed!  So, by lunch time the coil was found and we were off and brewing.  We brewed both batches from a kit we got from the Northern Brewer Catalog:  Petite Saison D'ete and the Smoked Amber Ale.  In five weeks, I let you know how it tastes.

No more TV!!!

It was a great surprise to come home on Monday and see this wonderful sign!  We had been talking about it for a whole year...  "We should really get rid of TV... it's a time and money suck! "  We even "practiced" not having a TV to see if we could survive... we went tops... three weeks. The only reason we would sneak was because we STILL had cable/TV .  Now we don't, and boy does it feel good.  It means more outdoor time, more family time, and more time to be creative!  Lovin’ it!  So far in the past two days, we have poured a foundation for the chicken coop, made two batches of heart shaped rice crispy bars, put a fence around garden beds so the chickens will stay out,  brought home a truck load of free mulch that we put into the backyard, and played 4 games of UNO all between the hours of 4pm -9pm!  If we were scoring a point for each activity that the TV distracted us from, we would get 10 points!  This is a fun game, let's see how many more points we can earn this week!

Growing our own chicken feed!

The weather has been so beautiful this weekend, that it was time to start planting seeds!!!  Knowing us, we probably planted a little late (or early depending on how you look at it), so we'll see what pops up in a week.  We decided to take two courses of action: human food and chicken food. I planted the human food seeds starting indoors... focusing on lettuces, radishes, beets, and spinach.   Eric on the other hand concentrated on planting the chicken food directly into the ground.  This was a major event.  Not only did he prepare the soil, but had to fence the bed off.  You know that chickens love to dig!  In the past, they have killed very established plants.  I had to say goodbye to our artichoke plant this year.  Anyway, the bed consists of an omega-3 chicken blend, red oats, buckwheat, flax, and cow peas.   And yes, these are cover crops too.  We're rockin' multi-purpose planting.  See the diagram for the pattern the "chicken bed" was planted in.  The bed is 8 ft x 4ft.

Runaway Chicken!!

Meet Cinderella.. the chicken.  If she were to put an ad in the personal section, it would read something like this...

"Cute, friendly.  Loves worms and pill bugs.  Very adventurous. 

Loves to roam the streets of Oakland around 4pm." 

Without fail... everyday for the past week, our darling Cinderella jumps over our backyard fence into the neighbors yard, walks up their driveway, and starts cruising the streets.  Luckily for us, our wonderful neighbors help corral her back to our house.  But as our fence gets higher and higher, this free spirited chicken continues to plot her escape route.  Nothing can cage her in!

Knifty Knitter Fingerless Gloves

My new addiction... fingerless gloves.  I found this great pattern from rostitchery and now... I can't stop making them.  I originally was interested in these gloves for my morning walks.  I usually take a cup of coffee with me.  My finger gloves tended to get dirty from coffee spills (especially on the finger part) so I was always washing them.  Hence, fingerless gloves...  they worked perfectly.  A little coffee on the fingers can't hurt, it actually warms you up (and much easier to wash than gloves)!

Harvesting Quinoa

This past summer, we grew Quinoa... with the idea of harvesting and eating it through the winter.  Well, being new to gardening... (especially grains), through trial and error, this process has taken quiet while!
Step One:  Harvesting:  I collected the Quinoa stems in September and stored them in a paper bag.  I thought that the seeds would fall out once the plant had completely dried.  WRONG!  Some did, some didn't.  Now it's January, and I finally have time to take matters into my own hands... winnowing!!!
Step Two: Winnowing:  Looking at my collection of stems, I thought, "I bet I can get through this by winnowing with my hands...  I will probably get only a half a cup and take about an hour."  WRONG again!  As I winnowed by hand the first two stems (rubbing bunches of the dried florets together) , I easily had 1/2 a cup.  Plus, not only seeds fell into the bowl, but the casings as well.  Spending time picking the casings out was getting to be a time drain!! So, my wonderful husband made me a winnower out of wire mesh and voila... I had an efficient and effective winnower!

Step Three:  Washing  Quinoa needs to be soaked in water to rinse out the saponin.  I soaked and rinsed the seeds about 5 times until the water ran clear with no bubbles!
Step Four: Drying  Finally I put the clean quinoa on baking sheets to air dry!