Sheepie Knits

I have had some Strawberry Jam 2 mornings in a row So Good!

This was my first time making Jam and i got nervous a few times.  I really did prepare for it well or use the best utensils i cold have. But let’s start at the beginning.

My grandma makes jam every year and the past couple years she has been telling me i should try but it just seemed way to hard.  Like everything had to be so exact and if it wasn’t you were screwed Lol. But this year i decided to try it. 

For about a week i have been looking at Mason Jars and the different brands and forms of pectins that they had at my local grocer.  i finally just decided on the regular Sure-Jell.  I got these mason jars mainly because i didnt want to get one of the packs of 20 i didn’t need that many.  I knew i might be cutting it  close with getting all the jam into them but i had some old jars at home from salsa and stuff and thats acutally just what my grandma uses so i figured if i had to i could use one of those and i would make sure i ate from that first.  I got three 2lb packages of strawberries becuase they were on sale and the Sure-Jell said i would need around 5 lbs to make 5 cups of crushed strawberries.

So I come home and started getting everything ready for making jam-cleaning the counter, getting a big pot to put the jars in because you have you “cook” them while you make you mixture.  It makes the glass hot and keep it from cracking when you put the hot jam mixture in and it sterlizes them as well.  The pot is covered with a lid but i took it off for the picture. I probably should have used a bigger pot but it worked for what i needed it to do.

 Then i realized i had forgotten lemons. So we went back to the store for lemons.

After we got back i started cutting the leafy tops off the strawberries and put them in a big glass bowl to mash. I used a potato masher because in the Sure-Jell directions they stated this preserved the strawberries natural pectins better than if you used a mixer.

This is after i already took out the 5 cups i needed:

and here are the 5 cups of crushed strawberries and 1/4 cup lemon juice in the pot i was cooking them in-if you do this USE A BIG POT, i learned later this was not big enough:

The i stirred in the Sure-Jell slowly and made sure it was mixed in well and put the pot on the stove to cook-you have to bring it to a rolling boil. You know how sometimes when you are cooking adn it is boiling and you stick your cooking spoon in to stir it an that slows or stops the boiling well when they say rolling boil they mean boil it to the point where if you stick a spoon in it still boils and it rises and foams and this is where i learned i should have used a bigger pot. But the damage was minimal i caught it in time and surprisingly just a tad of the mixtures went over the pot onto the stove-so yay

here is a shot of it cooking and you can see the foam on the top. The foam isnt a big deal you can spoon it off if you want. i did spon some of it off but its hard to get it all.  You can put a teaspoon of butter in at the beginning to deter the foam a little but i didn’t. i didnt think it would be a big deal and it wasn’t.

After it boils you take it off the heat and put in 7 cups of sugar!!!  and Bring it to a rolling boil again-You are supposed to let it boil for a couple mins but since i didnt use a big enough pot i had some trouble letting it boil that long because when its boiling it rises and i was close enough to the top of the pot as it was but i let it simmer and everything seemed fine. 

i then took the jars out of the pot one at a time so that they wouldn’t cool on the counter while i was filling another jar.

Filling the jars was also a bit of a messy bit becuase i just spooned it over into the jar. But slow and steady did the trick for the most part.

i realized at this point that my 4 jars wouldnt be enough so i pulled out a salsa jar and gave it a good rinse and put in the pot of cooking water to heat it up and sterilize it. and was able to put the rest of the mixture in that jar.

Now the Ball mason jars have to be put back into a pot of boiling water for 10 mins to seal them up.  I tried to put them back into the pot that i cooked the jars in when there were empty and it would have workd it the jars didnt need to be covered by about and inch of water so i tried to put as much water in and cover them and then put the lid on (dont ask why i just did) and as soon as i put the lid on tone of water overflowed onto my stove. Yes, yes deep inside i knew it would happen but i did it anyway becuase i didnt want to hunt down a bigger pot and really the next size up would have been a HUGE stock pot but in the end i had to go and get it anyway.  And the bell jars happily coked away in there.  Well again it tell you Rolling Boil but my water in the stock pot never came to a rolling boil and i let them cook much longer than the 10 mins it says hoping the water would start rolling. It didn’t and so i took my chances and just figured they really must be done by now. i let them sit the 5 mins and then took them out.   The old salsa jar i did not boil because it does not have that seal that the mason jars do. so i did what my grandma told me she does (she always uses old jars she has around the house) and put the lid on turned the jar upside down for a little while and then turned it back the right way and left it on the counter to cool with the other jars.

Sure-jell tells you it can take up to 24 hours for your stuff to fully set but whenever i walked by the jars i would pick them up to see if they were setting up yet. I also checked the lids to make sure when you pushed on them the didn’t move and happily all the lids were nice and hard, no up and down movement when i pushed on the middle of the lid-So they had sealed up perfectly even the old salsa jar.  That really was my biggest worry-it meant i would have to repeat the whole boiling of the jars.

anyway here is my Yield:

If you look at the top left one you will notice it is a bit lighter than the others. That is just because thats the first jar i filled and so it has some of the foam that you get at the top.

And here is the yummy-ness on my English Muffin yesterday:

It was all worth it. 

i will be making jam again for sure and i have learned a few things:

1) BIG POTS-you may think it will be big enough but use bigger

2) 7 cups was a lot of sugar but the jam is not like super sweet so don’t let that scare you. That being said i think i still may like to try the Sure-Jell that is No Sugar Needed just to compare.  My grandma is also sending me what she uses for her jam and i don’t think she uses as much sugar either-she buys some kind of sweetener packet.  But again the jam is not overly sweet so don’t let the amount scare you.

3) I used regular tongs-like ones you use for meat or cooking veggies and that worked fine for getting the empt jars but not so well at all when the jars were filled so i think next time i would get the special tongs you use to get the jars out of the hot water.  in the end i just dumped enough hot water out so that i could reach in with a pot holder and get the jars and that worked with no problems.

4) Don’t be scared-there was a few times where i couldn’t meet the exact times or didn’t get the rolling boil or something just didn’t go according to exact directions.  i had always heard making jam is so exact and i am not saying it isn’t but i messed up a few times and didn’t do things for the full length or boiled the jars longer but not at a rolling boil and in the end it still all worked out.  Obviously the true test will be over the next few months when i get another jar from the basement if they are still good, but i am not so worried about that anymore. And you know what if it didnt seal the first time then you just have to do the 10 minute boiling process over and that really isn’t so bad.

5) It is messy-or maybe i am just messy but have fun with it and

6) be patient-it takes awhile to get to the rolling boil, you think you are there but then you stick your spoon in and it slows down so youhave to wait a bit more.  it took until the next morning for my jam to be set so just let it hang out.

Now i am no expert and this was my first time making jam. Different things work for different people but remember if you do decide to make Jam let it be fun not stressful.

I was going to post the finished surprise i made for Little Man. i got it all done last night but since this has ended up being so long i will save it for tomorrow.

Have a Good Monday!

Oh and i am sorry for any mistakes i or the spell checker may have missed. i type fast and make lots of mistakes and usually i miss them or just dont care. I know that really bothers some people but i am not one of those people but i hope it doesn’t take away from being able to read the post-if it does-let me know i will try and make a better effort to not make such a mess

Oh and in case your wondering i used just under 4 lbs of strawberries so i still have lots leftover.

Whew! It’s been a while.  Thank you all for your well wishes i really had something wicked and i am so happy to be back among the living. And thank you for all the wonderful things you said about my grandma’s stuff-i can’t wait to tell her about it when she calls tomorrow it will make her feel so good And we all know crafters like that encouragement.

Well this past week has really been about catching up on everything.  Stuff around the house, knitting, blogs and really just doing SOMETHING, since i did nothing but lay in bed the whole week i was sick.  Sometimes it can be nice doing nothing but seriously i was so happy that i was physically able to move again and have energy that my second day better i cleaned up my whole basement, started rearranging stuff in our bedroom and it felt good-By the end of the day i was so sore and dead tired but i didnt care. 

I have been doing all kinds of stuff. 

First up i had a Belle Armoire magazine for my grandma, it her favorite and i needed to mail it but i wanted to put in a little surprise for her. Well originally i wanted to knit a shawl and put that in but i soon realized that would take me forever.  So instead i remembered that she wanted to see how my sewing machine embroiders so i made her a little towel.

So maybe i went for a quickie project but i am still making her the shawl-It’s the Kiri Shawl (pdf).

I still have a ways to go

But that’s not all. I also started another shawl this week-Its a Mystery Shawl-here is the Ravelry link-i think you can still join until tomorrow and then the group closes So Hurry if you want to join!!

I only have Clue 1 done. But i am hoping to get Clue 2 done this weekend and since 3 came out today i would have the week to finish it and be all caught up with everybody else.

And i can’t forget that i signed up for Summer of Socks so i also have those on the needles. I am already working on the heel of the first sock so this picture is a couple days old.  I love the color of the yarn so i decided to just do a plain stockinette. Which i haven’t done yet-i usually always do a pattern.

AND lol i still have Little Man’s Cardigan, my squares for my blanket (i only have 4) and i started a surprise for Little Man on Thursday that i should have finished this weekend as well. I have no idea why i have so many thing going i am usually more of a 2 project person but i have really let things get out of hand. its gotten to the point where i am assigning myself time every day to work on a project so one doesn’t linger too long.

I attempted making Strawberry Jam today-i wont be able to tell you until tomorrow if everything worked but aside from my grandma you will be first to know whether it was a success or a failure-so hopefully i will have a picture of some toast with jam tomorrow for you guys

Other than that things are all going well, hubby has vacation next week so i know we are planning our annual trip to the zoo but i am not sure what else.

Today i am ending with My Little Man’s summer haircut-we do this every year but it’s still hard for me becuase i like when he has longer hair but i have to think about his comfort before my preferences, and he says he really likes it. it’s actually a tad shorter than we usually so but all hubby had in his shave kit was #4 and #1 so #1 it was-Eeeee… but he still looks adorable and we did save 12 bucks by doing the haircut at home.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I am not sure if i have mentioned it or not but my grandma loves quilting and is very good at it though she always says she isn’t.  Usually during the warmer weather she does more sewing than knitting and there is only so much she can make for herself so that means i get some goodness   i have a whole bunch of quilts and a shelf full of runners, placemats and just other general decorational stuff.  I want to hang some up but havin’t figured out how yet without hurting the quilt.

At first i wasn’t going to say anything about it because i guess i thought you guys wouldn’t be interested but i got a bag about a month ago and Lane really didn’t pay any attention to it in true manly fashion. Then we were getting ready to go somewhere and the bag was right over by where h was putting his shoes on and he said “Oh is this new? Did Omi make it?”  

 I looked over and said “Oh yeah i got that like a week ago” 

“Wow, Honey that is really good, i can’t believe she made that” and he picked it up to look at it, looked back up at me and said “Do you like it?”

“Well of course i like it!!! I wouldn’t be using it if i didn’t like it.” i said with a bit of a i can’t believe you asked me that tone.

“Did you put it on your blog?” He asked.

“No”

The with a slightly raised voice he says “You don’t like it, if you liked it you would have posted about it”

“NO! i just didn’t post it, i don’t know i guess i didnt think they would wanna see some bag my grandma made me”

He has continued to accuse me of not liking it and asking whether i put it on my blog yet.

Well yesterday i got another package and there was more handmade goodness in it. So before he even got home from work i got my camera and took pictures of everything. Even the first bag that started all the silly drama.

So without further ado–My Omi’s Quilty Goodness

The bag that started the drama, i love the swirly colored background against the creamy color:

The new bag i got yesterday, i love the color of this one   Its more of a deeper purple than the photo shows:

And some boxes. Little Man loves these-he took the two smallest to use as boats for his Playmobile pirates.  I love them as well-as soon as i clean my table i will be filling them up with things, i could probably even use the biggest for a sock project with Summer of Socks just around the corner

Here are all of them spread out:

and tucked in one another, as you can see someone desperately wanted to be in the picture-he tried to sneak in a few times i have some blurred shots

I hope guys enjoyed it-It will make hubby very happy to have proved me wrong Lol but i think it would make my Omi feel special that i put her stuff on here for all to see

 Stacey-i got some Malabrigo the other day from The Loopy Ewe-i can see why you love it so much I can’t wait to make something with them, i got 2 balls-awww heck here they are, a picture can be better than words. 

This will be a hat for Little Man:

This one is for me-i couldn’t resist the color. i am thinking probably a neck-warmer of sorts.

Joanna, yes i think a hoodie just like his bears would be adorable for Little Man

Karen, Little Man does like his bear-they even went sliding yesterday but his first love will always be Rhino. I think i make these things more for my pleasure than his

Happy Thursday!

With shorts on, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

For over a week. I think he looks adorable in clothes-it hides some of the things i didn’t like about him There are more pics of him with his hoodie and Little Man on my Flickr.

I used random yarn from my stash-the shorts are some sock yarn and his hoodie is yarn Joanna gave me some time ago.

I would tell you the details but honestly i don’t feel up to it-i have been under the weather the past couple days. i think its my allergies but it has hit me hard worse than usual and different than usual-it could also be a cold but it very different from other colds i have had-So no clue right now. i am just hoping i improves soon.
i think my cat, max, knows something is up he as been very cuddly again. he kinda disappeared for a few weeks to just be on his own in the basment or living room by the door-i think because of the heat ANYWAY He has decided to lay across my lap and laptop in not the best way for typing and knead on my stomach and he has half closed eyes–So cute i love when he i like this epecially since Cleo is not remotely cuddly she tries to claw you if you pick her up.

Tomorrow i have some pictures to show of some things i have recieved in the mail recently from my grandma.

Burnin’ Rings, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

“Your still working on that?”

“Have you even touched it since the last time you were over?’

Well now i won’t have to hear that anymore because my Burnin’ Rings of Fire are done!!!

Project: Burning Rings of Fire by Kirsten Kapur
Dates: April 12 -June 11, 2008 Almost 2 months to the day
For: Me-i know i have been very sock greedy-I am planning socks for little man and my grandma this summer.
Needles: Size 2 dps and 2 circs
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Bamboo Color 2 balls but i didnt use a full skein-there was probably about a quarter of each ball left.
Notes: Easy pattern. The yarn is soft and colorful perfect for this pattern. The yarn can be a little splitty but i didnt have a whole bunch a problems with it but maybe about 6 times i poked my needles through the yarn-usually if i wasn’t paying attention. The pattern is written in 2 circ needle format but i started with Dps, then after working on it for a few rows i tried the 2 circs and it was okay but i felt like it slowed be down so i went back the Dps. Then i made those hearts for the teachers and that was with 2 circs and it kinda got me in my groove so when i came back to the socks i changed to the circulars again and stuck it out for about 75 percent of the second sock then i got tired of it and went back to the Dps. It’s not that i don’t like the circular needles there are a few nice things about working with them but i felt like having to move the needles and get everything in position for each row was slowing me down and i wanted to get these babies done. But i am glad i tried it out and i will continue to do so. I think it is a good technique to know if you ever want it.

Today i have some seaming together planned for a hoodie that i finally started to make this week for the Knitted Bear i made Little Man. The i have shorts and socks to make him but i am not in a huge rush to make those. i want to start another bear-for me
I also started Kiri (pdf)  i this week but not a lot has been done on that. I am trying to finish up more WIPs.

Tomorrow is WWKIP day, Are any of you going to be outside showing your skills. There is a little gathering at a park nearby so i think i may stop by, depends on the weather and if i chicken out. Lol i am so shy-horrible at meeting new people but since Little Man will be at grandma’s i think i should suck it up and go hang with some fellow grown-up knitters.

I found out yesterday that next Saturday Little Man is having his first soccer practice and the Monday after that his first game!!!!! i am so excited I hope he likes it.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Thank you for all you well wishes for Little Man. I am happy to say that he is all better and using his arm like a normal wild and wacky boy.

Shorts for Little Man, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Last week i tried making some shorts for Little Man.
They turned out pretty good. I still need to seriously work on my sewing and cutting-yes i realize cutting should have been easier with a pattern but when i say i am a horrible cutter i mean it-i just can’t explain it. It’s like the scissors get a mind of their own.

 Little Man likes the shorts very much and i do too. The other day we were at the playground and it was really crowded and whenever i thought i had lost him i could look down a little and look for blue elephant pants running around-not something all the kids have

The pattern is Butterick 3109.

 I also got a pattern to make hubby some shorts for Father’s Day but now i am not sure i will have time to make them. I hope i can do at least one pair.

well off to finally do my laundry-i wish it would just go away

Have a Happy Wednesday!!!

What a day and night.  Yesterday we went to the graduation party of Lane’s cousin and toward the end of the party Little Man was hurt during some roughing and wrestling with older kids.  He said it was his arm and a Doctor at the party said she didnt feel anything so we iced it and waited a bit.  About 40 mins later he wanted to eat something and when they tried to move him he screamed bloody murder so it was decided we would take him to the hospital for further examination and x-rays. We got there shortly after midnight-after about 30 mins they took his blood pressure and information and then sent us back to the waiting room.  We werent called back to see a doctor until 3 am and then she looked at it tried to talk to him about it and all he really did was cry because he was beyond tired.  So x-ray it was.  We didn’t get the x-ray done until  some time after 4 am and then after that we waited another hour before there was any news about what the x-ray showed…Nothing.

So the doctor told us he had a contusion on his wrist and it could be sore for some time and to ice it and give him motrin-We got home at 6 am.  i was surprisingly very awake the whole time and having been up for 24 hours didnt hit me until i layed in my bed.  lane didnt handle it as well everytime he sat down his head would fall into sleep which was quite amusing for me. Little Man slept during most of the times we waited.  it was horrible-i couldnt believe we ended up being there all night and sometimes you look out into the hallway and it seems like nobody is doing anything so why arent they helping you. Normally i would be super mad but i kept my patience the whole time even though that last hour it got pretty hard. I am glad that Little Man had nothing major like a break but it was still such a long night just to find out go home and use ice and motrin.  He is doing much better today and has actually used the left arm a few times.  So anyway since Little Man did get some sleep at the hospital and woke back up at 10:30 this morning i am still pretty tired after only 4 hours of sleep so i have been lounging the day away and i decided to do the meme that Joanna tagged me with over the weekend to perk things up

1)What was i doing 10 years ago?    10 years ago i was a quiet, shy sophmore in High School and i remember that year at this time i had to take all my finals early because my summer trip to Germany had been planned for a little bit before school was done.  I was excited to go but sometimes it was hard because after i came back home at the end of summer so much had always changed with my friends-hair, new friends or boyfriends-there were usually things i had missed but trust me looking back i am so thankful that i had that chance to spend summers in germany with my grandma.

2)What are 5 thing on my to-do list for today?  well since its already evening i am going to make this my list for Monday.  

                    a)Get some extra sheets for Little Man’s bed-he has been potty-trained for almost 2 years now and and we haven’t been able to shake the night-time wetting at all. So i am begining to wonder if he has just become accustomed to the night pull-ups so we are taking them away cold turkey to see what happens. I am hoping this works i really can’t come up with other ideas-i have cut off his drinking early i have tried waking him up in the middle of the night (hell for me lol) and so far nothing so Cold Turkey it is wish me luck!

                  b)Dishes-they have piled up all weekend-i did nothing today, too lazy.

                  c) Sweep and clean the Living room-i noticed some ants by the front door so i need to do a good sweep and clean up to get rid of them-we get them every begin of summer

                  d)Start Laundry

                  e) Clean up my craft area and Little Man’s room we have both let them go so while he cleans his i will clean mine but i will be helping him with his since he has the hurt wrist.  Man my day tomorrow doesn’t sound very fun-lot of clean-up Phooey! but it has to be done.

3)Snacks i enjoy:   Oh boy, what snacks don’t i enjoy. i am more of a sweet snacker than a salty snacker. chocolate, cakes, cookies, ice cream, I also like fruit out of the fridge-nice and cold

4)Things i would do if i were a Billionaire:  Well first of pay off any loans we have-the house, lane’s student loans, credit cards.  Finish School. Then we would fix up the house we are in so that way we could sell it and get a house with maybe one more room and a big kitchen Not really out in the country but right like borderline where the yards a bit bigger and you don’t have a neighbor within 5 feet next to you and i would want that house to be in Germany-close to my grandma of course. i would travel  and i would want to go out and meet some of those internet friends i have made!! i would donate some as well.

5) Places i have lived:  Germany, a few cities in Michigan all within minutes of each other besides one city that was further away when i was younger and shortly Georgia.

6) Jobs i have had: briefly i watched 2 kids regularly and then after i got out if school i worked at Meijer for 4 years  in the Health and Beauty Care department.   I did stock and helped customers made sure the department looked good.  Then Little Man came and i have been lucky to be able stay home with him.

7) Bloggers i am tagging who i will enjoy getting to know better- Oh few lucky blog readers of mine i tag you well not Joanna cause she already did this.

Another FO! WOOHOO! Now if only it hadn’t been in progress for over a month.

June Bug, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Project: June Bug by Jess Hutch
Made for: Me
Dates: April 2-June 2, 2008 (wow exactly 2 mths-i am ashamed)
Needles: 6 & 8 double points
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft for the grey and dk. Purple and i think the light purple is Bernat Satin.
My thought: Very easy pattern, i got kind of tired of the legs even though they technically could be go pretty quickly. I messed up on the placement of one of the legs a little but other than that no problems. So far i am having great fun with these patterns and can’t wait to do more but i don’t think it will be soon because i have Summer of Socks coming up and i have some socks to finish before then and i want to knit a lace shawl to surprise my Grandma. There is so much i want to do!!

And i forgot to load this last time so here is the cake i promised-i got the recipe here. Blueberry Banana Cake-i followed the recipe but instead of Cream Cheese frosting i made a powdered sugar and lemon juice frosting. I made it for the tea party little man wanted to have and it was delish!! But he changed it last minute to a Hot Chocolate Party-either way it was great and we all had fun

Thursday was Little Man’s last day of 3-yr old preschool and he wanted to make the teachers cards and hearts. he was in charge of the cards and i was asked if i could knit the hearts. of course i agreed. Boy was i starting to regret after i frogged my first heart 3 times.

Hearts, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Pattern: Seamless Heart by Sara L
Dates: May 26-28, 2008
Made for Little Man’s teachers
Needles: size 2 circs
Yarn: leftover regia sock, Regia bamboo sock and Louet gems sock yarn
My Thoughts: it’s a great pattern and i love that it’s seamless. But for whatever reason i totally screwed up the first 3 times i cast on-somehow on the 3rd row i totally messed something up-don’t know what but my numbers were off and on my first heart i started to end up with a three sides heart-like i was doing to many repeats. But i finally just figured out what she was aiming for and made the heart with my own numbers and i ended up making them just a tad bigger. I did not stuff them since i was making them to hang and i did a crochet chain for the hangers. great pattern i will make more of these.

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!!