Sewing up a storm

The day job is done for the season and now I have a lot of time on my hands.  I've already done the whole cleaning & purging, which is easier done when nobody else is home; and I did my fair share of couch sitting.  It was during a cleaning/purging session in my sewing area, that inspired me to pull the sewing machine out again after a few years.  I was going though my fabrics and scraps deciding what I wanted to keep and what could be donated.  Originally I was going to donate all my juvenile prints to a local charity to make baby clothes, but after a day or two I started to think about it and decided that there was still enough there for me to do something with it.

That's when I made this cute little bubble dress.  It's 100% made from fabric and materials I already had.  It's 2T and listed in the shop for $30.  I can make this style from 2T to size 8.

The next project I did was this hobo style bag for my daughter.  I was looking online at fabric and ran across this Michael Miller print on eBay.  She fell in love with it.  This project was a little more involved, since I had to go buy supplies for it, but both of us are very happy with the results.  The straps are made from an old pair of jeans I had in my stash of up-cycled fabric.

Since I still had some of the fabric left from the bag, I thought I'd make her a matching fabric bracelet.  I let her pick out the strip she wanted and whipped this up in about 10 minutes.  Super simple project, especially since the batting and interfacing was already attached.  I just had to cut it to size and sew it together.

 And I still had enough left over to make this make-up bag.  Three projects from 1 yard of fabric.

This next one was a fun little project for an internet friend.  She posted on Facebook how she needed a super hero cape (and what mom doesn't)  for when she played dress up with her son.  The fleece blanket tied around her neck just wasn't cutting it.  She wanted pink & sparkly, so when I walked into the fabric store and found the sparkly organza on sale I knew it would be prefect for her.

And in between all this sewing I managed to finish a knitting project too.   This cowl is perfect for dressing up up an ordinarily outfit and keeping the winter chill out. It's listed in the shop for $43.00.

Peasant Loaf

We do a pot luck kind of Thanksgiving, and I'm always in charge of bringing the pies. A few years ago I discovered this wonderful bread recipe, and now I'm also responsible for bringing the bread.  With Thanksgiving just a week away, I'm busy baking.  I put together an apple pie earlier this week and froze it, I have 2 more to make and I'm on my second loaf of bread.

I wanted to share this recipe with you.  Although time consuming, it's very simple and makes a European peasant style loaf.  The best part is you can add ingredients to make just about any flavor and works well with white or wheat flour.  I could of let this loaf bake a little longer, but I like my crust a little lighter otherwise it tends to get hard.

Peasant Loaf     

Time: about 1 ½ hour plus 18 to 24 hours’ rising

Ingredients:

3 cups	Flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon	Instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoon	Salt
1 ¼ cup	Water
	Cornmeal as needed

Directions:

1.  In large bowl combine flour,  yeast and salt.  Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest 18 to 24 hours at room temperature

2.  Dough is ready when surface is dotted with bubbles.  Lightly flour a work surface and place and dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold over itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

3.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more cornmeal.  Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 to 3 hours.

4.  At least ½ hour before dough is ready; heat oven to 450°.  Put a 6 to 8 quart covered pot (a covered casserole dish works well) in oven as it heats.   When it ready, carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into a pot, seam side up.  Shake pan once or twice to evenly distribute dough.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake until brown

Entrelac cowl

Remember when I asked what to do with with 250 yards of alpaca yarn?  Knit myself a entrelac cowl was the answer.  This was a great project because I not only learned a new technique I also got to knit with some luxury yarn and now I have a beautiful scarf to wear this winter.

If you're looking to learn entrelac here's a free tutorial and pattern to get you started
Entrelac tutorial

Basic Entrelac Scarf

I knew there was a reason why I was hesitant to start my next sweater.  I couldn't put my finger on it for weeks, but finally figured it out last night.  My pattern was way off.  I entered the wrong bust size in my pattern software, and when I entered my hip measurement I had something that flared out at a very unusual angle and would of look something like a skin tight maternity sweater.  It would fit my hips, but I'd be damned if I could get it buttoned over my chest.  I'm so glad I finally figured it out, because I would hate to put in all that work and not have it fit.  I re-figured the pattern last night with the correct measurements, and I'm going with the slightly angled version.

What to do with 250 yrds of Alpaca yarn?

I'm still dealing with health issues.  I woke up Saturday morning covered in hives.  It was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic I was taking for the cellulitis, so back to the doctor I went.  I'm now on a different antibiotic, an allergy pill and steroid.  The hives are getting better and my leg is getting better so hopefully I'm coming to the end of this.  This has been a very long 2 weeks of what seems like constant doctor appointments.

Anyway, Sunday as I was running my daughter to a girl scout meeting, I ran across a local alpaca ranch that was having an open house.  I stopped in just to see what is was all about and picked up this beautiful skein of hand painted alpaca yarn.  I'm thinking of using it for a cowl, but haven't found a pattern yet.  I'd really love to do something entrelac, but I don't think I have enough.  Any suggestions?

I had no idea how dangerous dry skin could be...

Until I almost ended up in the hospital.

I've always had dry skin, I don't like the greasy feeling of lotion so I've just dealt with it the best I could.  This summer I developed a itchy patch on the bottom of my foot that I scratched until I built up a callous.  The  callous cracked open so I started to peel some of the dead skin off causing it to bleed.  I didn't think to much about it because this has happened before.  I put some antibiotic cream on it, covered it with a band aid and forgot about it.  Sure a sore on the bottom of my foot hurt to walk on, but I figured it was just the tender new skin being exposed that hurt.  It started to heal and I completely forgot about it.

Fast forward about a week later, I woke up one morning feeling fine. I had plans to meet a friend for lunch.  I took a shower and immediately after my shower I started to shiver.  I knew it was chilly in the house but I didn't think it was that cold, so I went to check the thermostat and it was 69 degrees.  Not excessively cold for our house, but yet I was freezing.  Still undressed, I curled up in my robe and a blanket hoping I would soon warm up enough to get dressed.  I laid there for 20 minutes, still shivering until I finally had to force myself to get dressed.  I dressed as quickly as I could between uncontrollable shivering and put on the warmest sweatshirt I could find but I was still cold, and I was suddenly feeling tired and nauseated.  I laid down on the couch with a blanket, hoping I'd start to feel better before I had to leave to meet my friend.  After about an hour I realized I wasn't going anywhere expect back to bed.  I canceled my lunch date, crawled in bed with several blankets, still chilled to the bone, and now feeling dizzy and nauseous.  I thought it was the flu.

My son, who was also home sick that day, woke up about 11 and I told him he had to help me. I had to get to the bathroom, but I couldn't get myself out of bed.  He helped me to the bathroom and back.  Feeling that I could pass out at any moment, I told him if that happened to call his dad/my husband.  He was very sweet, he took care of me the rest of the day, bringing me water and anything else I needed.  When my husband came home I was still very sick and once again couldn't get myself out of bed.  Some time during the day a pain had developed in my lower leg, it felt like a charlie horse, but I couldn't remember having one.

The next morning I was still sick so I stayed in bed, while everybody else went to work and school.  The pain in my leg had gotten worse to the point where I could barely stand on it.  My husband came home to check on me around 10 and I showed him my leg, which was red all the way from my foot to my knee, very hot (you could feel the difference between the skin temp above and below my knee) and very painful to the touch.  I called the doctor and they were able to get me in right away.

After spending most of the morning in the doctor's office, having my blood drawn, and an ultrasound of my leg to rule out a blood clot; she concluded that it was cellulitis.  A staph infection of the deeper layers of skin, that if left untreated can spread to the blood causing blood poisoning and death.  Since it had spread to my whole lower leg and I was as sick as I was, this was serious.  She said we could do one of two things, she could put me on an antibiotic and I'd have to come back in 24 hours or she could send me to the hospital.  I really wanted to stay out of the hospital, so we choose to come back in 24 hours hoping that there was some improvement.

The next morning we when back to the doctor.  I had my blood drawn again and my white blood cell count had gone down a little so we knew the antibiotic was working.  She suggested that I have some penicillin injections to help boost the oral antibiotics.  I had 2 injections before we left and I had to come back the following day for another 2 injections.  She told me to stay in bed as much as possible  with my leg elevated over the weekend, and to go right to the ER if things got worse.  After going back in for the last 2 injections, I stayed in bed most of the weekend.  By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling strong enough to venture into the living room for a little while.

Yesterday morning I had to go back to the doctor.  My leg although still sore looks quite a bit better.  The redness had gone down to about mid-calf, but it's no longer hot so we know that the infection is going away.  I still have to watch it though to make sure it things don't make a turn for the worse, and it all started because the dry skin on my foot cracked open.  This was a hard lesson to learn;  but I've learned the importance of taking care of my skin and protecting any opening on my skin from now on.

Learning Entrelac

For a long time I've drooled over entrelac patterns, but thought they were beyond me.  Basically you knit a series of triangles and squares and they all fit together to form your project.  When I first saw this, I thought each square was knit individually and then seamed together.  I loved the look but it wasn't something I wanted to take on because I hate seaming.  When I found out it was just picking up stitches I thought I can do that, but it still took me years to even try it.

I'm knitting dish clothes for a girl scout fundraiser and using this as an opportunity to learn new skills and try out the patterns I've been wanting to try for a long time.  Turns out entrelac isn't as hard as I thought it was, just takes some getting used to.

Garter stitch entrelac dishcloth