Yes, I've been baking in this extreme heat we've had these last couple of weeks here. Don't know why I get the urge to bake in the heat, but I love to bake and I guess the heat just doesn't stop me.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies


and the 'grab 'n go crunchy granola bars' from The Sneaky Chef book for the kids (they love 'em)


and would it be summer without my brown sugar zucchini bread? It's been breakfast for me--I'm the only one in the house that'll eat it. Go figure.


and a blueberry upside-down cake!


I finished 'fixing' B's twisted cables pullover sweater. I pulled out what I did on the collar to fix it originally because it just didn't fit over his head--too tight (after being too loose). I picked up 88 original cast-on stitches and did 2x2 rib, then decreased after about a ½ inch to 84 stitches went up another ½ inch and bound off in rib. It fits better now and hopefully this collar doesn't stretch beyond oblivion. I also added about three inches to the length of the sweater--he might be able to wear this for a while now!




I also found a monarch egg--caterpillar hatched this week!


And isn't this cute? I had to include it in my blog post. It's a honey bear bottle filled with Dial soap on our bathroom sink. I got the idea in a magazine--Good Housekeeping/Woman's Day/Parenting? Funny thing is that they mentioned where you could purchase the plastic bear containers--I just used an empty honey bottle from making those granola bars! I think it's cute, especially having young kids in the house.


To the dog-days of summer!

Labels: cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household, twisted cables pullover

B's twisted cables pullover that is. Being an active 4-year old, he managed to stretch the stretchable cotton so that the neck was out of shape and falling off of his shoulders. The length was getting too short as well. Growing boy!

Being a top down, I pulled out (frogged: rip-it! rip-it!) the bottom hem and put it back on the circs to add another few inches or so in length. For the stretched out neck I picked up about 80 stitches (originally it was a cast-on of 88) and knit one row and bound off. Now, I can barely get it over his head--oh well. It'll work for the Fall and then C can wear it in about a year.


bottom hem put pulled out and put back on circ's


the neck



It's just that I get so frustrated when things don't turn out the way they're supposed to!

Labels: twisted cables pullover

Pattern: twisted cables pullover designed by Mary K. Hobbs/Kids' Knitted Sweaters & More by Cabin Fever Designers
Finished Size: 24" (chest); 15" (length); 10" (sleeve length); size 4 years.
Yarn: Butterfly Super 10 (DK Light Worsted Weight) mercerized cotton; (230 meters/125 g {220 yards}): #3995 persian, about 2¼ hanks
Needles: Clover Bamboo US 8 (5.0 cm) 16" circular, US 6 (4.0 cm) 16" circular, US 6 24" circular, US 6 set of dpns
Comments: An intermediate knit--a nice challenge but not too challenging. I think my son will be able to wear this sweater the remainder of this Winter and during our cool Spring days into next Fall since the yolk 'stretches' due to the cable ribbing. I love this knit in the mercerized cotton--it has a beautiful sheen! Unisex in style and color so my daughter can wear it once my son grows out of it. Knit from the top down, with no sewing--love it!






From a recent Martha Stewart Living magazine (I think the December 2007 or January 2008 issue, in the "Good Things" section), someone gave me a page torn from it with a how-to on 'tangle tamers' for yarn. Basically, you take a cookie tin (or some other tin you have lying around that works best), prime and apply a coat of oil-based enamel paint in any hue to the outside of the tin and lid, let dry overnight, get a grommet kit from your local hardware store, and presto! No more knotty yarn.

Labels: children's knits, crafts, twisted cables pullover

My holiday season was stressful. Not in the ordinary/last-minute-shopping/frantic-meal-preparation/insane-decorating kind of way. That I wouldn't have minded. In fact I was ready for that kind of stress. I was looking forward to B's 5th Christmas at 4 years old--the Christmas where they are so believing in all of it.

Now, don't get me wrong, Christmas turned out to be very fun but I just wish I didn't have a breast biopsy looming in the background to worry about. Right after Thanksgiving I was called back due to 'calcifications' in my left breast after a baseline mammogram.

Got good news on Dec. 26th that it is all negative/benign. Thank goodness, but coming down off that kind of worry is not as easy as it appears to sound. That's where the knitting comes in! It's definitely a stress-reliever but it was the last thing I wanted to do for most of the month of December.

I also obviously have not been on here to blog. I keep writing that I'll be on here more often and then there's always something to stop me--dag it all! I have read no blogs either--not in the mood--I'm slowly getting there.

Here's B's sweater progress (I had a whirlwind of knitting enthusiasm recently especially during yesterday's snowstorm):





I plan to finish it by the end of this month!

Labels: children's knits, life in the BerryKnitty household, twisted cables pullover

B's twisted cables pullover from Kids' Knitted Sweaters & More is a challenge but yet still not difficult to knit--it's rated intermediate and that's about the skill level I like. The cotton is beautiful to work with and I love the color. The twisted cable yoke has proven to be a bit of a pain, I've tinked back a few times where the increases have gone wrong when I've gotten interrupted or daydreamed--I'm looking forward to the yoke being finished so I don't have to concentrate so much! The 'make one' knitwise and the 'make one' purlwise's are getting old.




I've put the sock aside for now--just need to finish the foot and toe, oh and then do a whole other one. . . .




I still need to get that ribbon for C's dress/jumper!

Labels: children's knits, socks, twisted cables pullover

The back and front are knitted up to C's Christmas dress. The bottom picot hem is done and the edging along the armholes and neck is also done. I have to get a 7/8" ribbon to weave through the bottom yarn-over holes and I also need to tie in some loose yarn ends. Oh, and there's the minor detail that I did the edging to the neck and armholes in a simple chain crochet instead of the picot crochet that the pattern calls for. Not realizing how 'unforgiving' the chain stitch is, the neck and armholes are super-tight . . . so I have the neck hole of the dress stretched over my video camera bag (with the video camera in it) - about the size of C's head. I'm going to leave it stretched this way for another 24 hrs. at least, hoping this helps. Otherwise, I'll have to pull out this edging and try something else. Not being a crocheter at all, I can't figure out the picot thing to save my life. I think it's really simple looking in the "Crocheting for Dummies" book, but to do it for an edging has me confused and the pattern doesn't help hence the reason I consulted the "Dummies" book in the first place. Being in a rush doesn't help either.

C's walking across her dress last night while I'm trying to take a picture of it (this is before hemming and armhole and neck edging done):

my camera takes horrible-quality indoor shots--and sometimes outdoor ones too. I apologize for this. Hoping to get a better camera within the next year.


Yesterday, B's yarn came in the mail from the wonderful Showers of Flowers Yarn Shop. I ordered five hanks or approximately 1200 yards. I only need 600-something yards to finish his sweater so I have two hanks too many. In my haste (and the fact that I think B's pattern is an Australian one), I saw that for his size 4 sweater I'd need 5 balls so I ordered 5 hanks. Later I thought--no wonder the price was so out of whack! But it was too late. BUT, the yarn won't go to waste. It's the beautious S.R. Kertzer Butterfly Super 10 mercerized cotton. I'm familiar with this yarn as I used it before on B's "precious jewel cardi" back when he was only about six months old--awwwwww!!!!

B's Christmas-sweater yarn in the color "Persian." I love this color! I was going to get it in "Crimson" but I'm so glad I decided on the Persian color--lovely.


In other "progress," we got a Schwinn recumbent bike! I am in love with this bike. We had a 30+ yr.-old upright that we borrowed from my parent's that had a huge, uncomfortable seat--we finally burned a hole in the front tire from overuse (between the two of us we put about 1,400 miles on the thing!). We got over a year's worth of use out of it, but the poor thing definitely needed to be put out to pasture so to speak.

new bike!!!!


I'm still getting used to the recumbent position vs. the upright, but I really love this bike--it counts calories, records your heart rate, etc. It plugs into the wall, so no need for batteries, has a space for your water bottle and even something to read! AND . . . it's QUIET.

**next post** C in her dress in (hopefully) some natural light (scarce as it is this time of year) and some progress on B's sweater.

stay warm.

Labels: children's knits, holiday knitting, life in the BerryKnitty household, twisted cables pullover