Cowtown Knits

Not Your Average Pillowcase

September 5, 20122 Comments

The Mother Huddle’s Fat Quarter Pillowcase Dress is another pattern I’ve used a lot. I’ve made three already and have the fabric to make another one this weekend. I think I originally found this on someone’s Pinterest board and knew I needed to make it ASAP. The first one I made was so cute, but P absolutely would not wear it. The monumental fights we had over this dress made me alternately irate and sad. Eventually I felt so bad about it that I decided to start again from scratch for P. This next one turned out even better and she is willing to wear it on occasion so all was well in the end. The other two dresses, as well as the dress-to-be, are going to my friend’s three little girls. I hope I get a chance to see them all worn together!
The tutorial is really great. The pictures are clear and so are the explanations. I did have a bit of a problem in that my fat quarters were not quite wide enough to cut the bottom panel correctly for size 4. I ended up just trimming the sides up a little and making it a bit narrower than it called for, but it still fit fine. I’m sure that part of the problem was that my fabric wasn’t wide enough. I got the fabric for the first one from Fabricland but apparently they are discontinuing their fat quarter bundles. Fortunately, I discovered that Walmart carries tons of really cute bundles for $12. Unfortunately, there are so many that I can’t help buying more and making more dresses. If you are a friend of mine and you have a little girl, don’t be surprised if she receives one of these for her next birthday.

Cutest. Booties. Evar.

September 4, 20121 Comment

I’ve made three pair of Julia Noskova’s Spring Breath Booties now, and I’m sure there will be more in the future. The booties are absolutely adorable without being overly cutesy and they stay on really well. You should hear the oooohs and aaaaahs when a pair of these puppies gets opened at a baby shower! And the best thing of all was that the edging forced me to finally learn how to crochet a little bit.

Here they are on handsome Mr. Quinn.

It’s a Process

September 3, 20122 Comments

Now that I have finished Ryan’s socks I can turn my attention to the sweater design that is brewing in my head. My original plan was to use this beautiful plum-coloured lace weight alpaca yarn from Misti Alpaca. I had never used lace weight yarn before so I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go. So on Friday night I got a chance to sit down and start a swatch with my 2.25 mm needles. Result: yuck! Speaking as someone who generally has very good tension, it is damn-near impossible to do so with tiny yarn and tiny needles. So that idea was scrapped.

Then I got to thinking, if I’m going to knit a sweater for a toddler then the yarn definitely needs to be strong, and it needs to be superwash. I also want it to be fingering weight yarn. What does that leave me with: sock yarn! I didn’t have anything on hand that was appropriate for this project so I just had to head to The Loop and pick up something pretty. I ended up with the most beautiful teal Cascade Heritage sock yarn, 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon. Perfect!

I started my swatch and really like the look of it in stockinette stitch, but the lace pattern I picked out just wasn’t going to work on a toddler shirt. That, coupled with the fact that Pippa screams like a banshee any time I try to put anything hand-made on her lately, may mean that this turns into a sweater for me. While I don’t relish the idea of making an adult sweater with fingering yarn, I think it would be very pretty and appeal to a wider audience. There will be more swatching tonight so we will see.
Also, I was a jelly-making machine today, pounding out a batch each of mint and jalapeno jellies. Stay tuned for jelly-post-palooza.

Thank-You Socks

September 1, 20122 Comments

My friend Ryan is a great lover of hand-knit socks. If I have the story correctly, he has an aunt who knits him socks that he calls “power woolies” because if you push them down your leg then they pop back up on their own. I think those socks must be made of some stout stuff!

Ryan is also a great photographer. When the time came to take some pictures for my Everyday Hoodie pattern I knew he was the guy to call. He was such a great sport and came to the playground on a hot day and took pictures of less-than-accommodating models. I couldn’t be happier with how they came out.

So, as a thank you to Ryan, I have just finished a pair of Anne Hanson’s Sign of Four (a Sock for Sherlock) in Trekking XXL. I don’t knit socks very often because I’m usually ready to be done after the first, and this was the case again with this pair. But it was for a very good cause and I kept on truckin’ until there were two. They look great, I just hope they fit!

Mrs. Crabapple

August 31, 20124 Comments

I made crab apple jelly! In all my years of cooking and baking I have never once made preserves of any kind. Until today. I feel so relieved to have finally overcome my canning fears, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Okay, that’s a little melodramatic, but it really does feel quite satisfying.

Growing up, store-bought jam was a foreign concept, something to be withstood when dining out. My mom made strawberry jam every summer and it was the best stuff on earth. After I moved away from home my mom would still take care of my home-made jam needs. I’d get a jar at Christmas and any time I visited. Now I have the good fortune to receive blackberry jam from my mother-in-law as well.

But, like sewing, making preserves was something I felt I should know how to do. I even went as far as looking up a recipe and buying cheese cloth last year, only to chicken out at the last minute. Well this year, damn it, I made jelly! And now I’m going to share my experience with you.

Disclaimer: I am not a food stylist, nor do I own a fancy camera, so please bear with me on the photo front.

Step 1: Harvest 8 cups of crab apples. It is recommended that you do not allow your toddler to climb the ladder behind you as it could result in a fall… just sayin’.

Step 2: Wash, de-stem and quarter the apples

Step 3: Cover apples with water until you can see it, but not so much that the apples are floating

Step 4: Bring the apples to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes until apples are soft (and your kitchen starts smelling yummy)

Step 5: Place a double layer of cheese cloth in a large bowl. Pour the stewed apples into the cheese cloth.

Step 6: Gather the edges of the cheese cloth and tie with string (or non-minty dental floss if you don’t have string). Tie it to something that allows it to hang over the bowl and allow the juice to drip. I hung it from the handle on my cupboard door. Let sit for a few hours until it stops dripping.

Step 7: My recipe said I should have 4 cups of juice but I only ended up with about 3.5 cups. However much juice you have, place it back in the pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 8: Since I didn’t have the right amount of juice I winged it and adjusted the sugar accordingly. For 4 cups of juice I would have added 3 cups of sugar, but since I only had about 3.5 cups of juice I added a little less than 2.5 cups of sugar. Either way, add the sugar, stir until it dissolves and boil the mixture until it reaches between 220 and 222 degrees (since I’ve broken every candy thermometer I’ve ever owned, I used my digital meat thermometer instead). Skim off any foam that appears.

Step 8.5: In the meantime, sterilize your bottles and lids by immersing them in boiling water for 10 minutes. I sterilized a bunch but only ended up needing 3, better safe than sorry though. I also sterilized the ends of my tongs so I could use those for handling the bottles.

Step 9: When the jelly reaches the right temperature, remove from heat and pour into jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.Tighten the lids really well. I had two full jars and one about a 1/3 full. The partial jar is for use over the next few weeks so I skipped step 10 for that one.

Step 10: Fully immerse jars in boiling water for 10 minutes to seal them.

Step 11: And this is the best part. Take the jars out of the hot water bath and let them sit to cool. As the jars cool the lids will suck in and make this great “ping” noise which lets you know that the jars are properly sealed. That noise brings back some great memories of helping my mom make jam when I was little.

Step 12: Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Mary Wynne’s Crabapple Jelly Recipe.

Thanks to Mom for answering all my questions!