More Mish and More Mash

It has been a fabulous long weekend ! On Saturday I had a 'want to do' list as long as my arm but only got some laundry done - we were supposed to have beautiful weather and I made the most of using the clothesline. The rest of the day DH & I spent in front of the telly watching movies and knitting (well, me knitting, not him LOL)

My homemade coat hanger swift was put together and I started in on the 14 hanks of wool I picked up recently at a local thrift store.

There are 7 hanks of each. Said thrift store had them bundled up in bags 3orange/3green plus one with one of each. If you wanted one you had to buy 'em all. 'eh, for $15 total it was ok with me. It's pretty scratchy yarn. The green is labeled and it's an OLD company, closed now. The yarn is probably 30 years old. The orange wasn't labeled anywhere - I'm working under the assumption that it's the same stuff. The green's a bit thicker. Winding's going to be a pain. The orange ball I wound stuck on itself like velcro. It'll give me plenty of time to decide what to do with them.

My LYS Espace Tricot is having a knit-along (KAL) for the month of September. I decided to join in and see if I could finish a project in a month. There was a vote of 3 choices and the Holden Shawlette won. I cast on and have made quite a bit of progress so far. Using one of the yarns DH bought me for Christmas - Sweet Georgia Yarns CashLuxe Fine. It's really soft.




A couple weeks ago, I made my first loaf of multigrain bread. It was ok but I want a soft, airy, soft crust, freezable, good for sandwiches and good for toast bread. Not asking for much, huh ? This was my second recipe. Much denser and not as nice for either sandwiches or toast.


After doing nuttin' on Saturday, Sunday and today were much more productive. This was bread recipe #3. Bonus, it was a 2 loaf recipe. Whoa - light (check), airy (check), soft crust (check), freezable (2nd loaf is in the freezer - will find out later how well it thaws), toast was passable - soft but a bit crumbly. So far, this one is way ahead of the curve. The only issue is the sugar - it calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 CUP ! I don't think so, the bread has a sugary taste and the sugar is definitely coming out (or at least cut way down) if I make this one again.


More cooking...for the past few years, I've thought about buying a bushel of tomatoes and making tomato sauce. Out for groceries yesterday, I stopped in a a local farmer's stall and picked up a 1/2 bushel, about 14 lbs for $8


Today I blanched, peeled, cooked and canned my little heart out and ended up with...

6 quarts of crushed tomatoes. They seem fine, sealing properly. But I wasn't expecting this. I didn't puree the cooked tomatoes so there is liquid in the jars but the tomatoes are floating on top of liquid at the bottom of each bottle. Is that normal - do any of you know ?

So that was the sum total of my weekend. I had sewing on the list but never got to the sewing room. I've had 2 dresses (oh and a skirt, too) done for a while but completely forgot to have DH get pics, duh.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend :-)

Weekend update

Only sewing on Sunday this weekend. Yesterday I started my Christmas baking. I've got to make enough cookies for 8 tins for gifts, plus the required batch for work (a large batch - once they know you can bake, there's no escape ! :-) ) plus cookies for the house - 11 dozen shortbread cookies now in the freezer - 5 more kinds to go ........ (yes, I forgot to take a picture, once I remembered, they were packed for the freezer & the filled plastic container is nowhere near as impressive as my kitchen table full of cookies).

SEWING - I'm waffling between the snaps that my coat calls for and learning yet another new thing - bound buttonholes. Since I can't put the interfacing on the front until I decide, I started on the back pieces today. The hair canvas piece is cut out and ready to be attached. The back and the side back pieces are sewn together.

I thought the seam allowances needed to be finished. Although I don't think the wool will fray, the flannel underlining needed something. I checked around the sewalong blog and found someone who'd catch-stitched her S.A's down. That sounded like a good plan, so here I am - Almost done but not quite ! LOL. I'm starting to understand some of the ladies who start a simple project and end up with hours of changes, adjustments, tweaks, etc.

You'd think I'd be happy just to get this thing done, but noooo, already I'm making choices that add lots of time to this project. I suspect that probably means by the time I'm done, there will be buttonholes and not snaps on this coat !

I'll post a pic of the completed back once I've got the last seam catch-stitched and the interfacing added.
Probably only Tuesday. Tomorrow's my birthday and DH is taking me out to supper...so no sewing tomorrow.

They came !

Last week, Ann, of Gorgeous Things posted patterns she wanted to find new homes for. I asked for 2 and yesterday, there they were in the mailbox :-) Thanks, Ann !!!



Simplicity 4044 - 1940's Retro, Simplicity 4500 - Threads Collection

My sewing ability and time now need to catch up with my plans, I like all of these pieces, and can see trying most of them. I had the instructions out, reading at supper last night LOL

Having just had the enjoyment of getting a package in the mail, I hope Marjie soon gets the Threads mag and the pattern I sent her.

And speaking of Marjie, I just took her 'milk bread' out of the oven and tasted the first piece. Fabulous !



No sewing before Tuesday...I'm traveling tomorrow night for a VERY quick trip to New Brunswick - the bus ride between Montreal and Saint John is 14 hours each way. My Dad will be 80 on Sunday and there is an open house Saturday afternoon for him. He drove a city bus for almost his entire career and knows practically everyone in the city (it seems like it, anyway) - my sister placed an announcement in the paper for this so her place could be a zoo on Saturday.

That's it for now - next week, I'll adjust the sleeves on the coat muslin and hopefully be ready to cut the wool.