Fibers on Friday: Multnomah

Well hello there! Welcome to another Fibers on Friday! I had the itch this week, my friends! I spent HOURS working on the Multnomah Shawl. I would say at least 5 hours since Sunday night. So here's the progress:

I'm so close to being finished. Under 10 rows left. But each row takes so long! I'm going to keep at it, while not adding any other yarn related crafting to the mix, and hopefully be done this week.

A Fail? A Work in progress? To Be Continued?

I've been wanting to make my own hand soap pumps for a little while now. You know....it's all the craze, turning a mason jar in to a soap jar. I love the idea. I didn't want to use plastic pumps, though. So, when I saw good quality, METAL, pumps advertised in last month's Organic Gardening magazine I knew I was ready for a project.

I ordered the pumps from onedreamdesign.com. I already have tons of mason jars.

Then.....oh then....Pinterest got the best of me. I saw an idea for turning a bar of soap into liquid handsoap. I got excited because I have lots of bars of soap from Goat Milk Soapers, but I'd rather it be liquid soap. So.....I got to cookin'.

Ugh! It's been 24 hours and this is the gobbly goopy mess I have right now! I've read through the comments on the soapdelinews site, because lots of people had to tweek their recipes. Originally my batch turned out too runny, so I added a tad more glycerin.

That didn't work.

I used an immersion blender to whip it up.

That didn't work, just made it milky in color with all the extra air.

I added a salt water mixture. This step thickened it up, but it's still pretty gloppy and yuck as you can see.

Has anyone ever done this? Do you have any advice?

I'm going to keep working it because I'd really love to figure it out...fill my beautiful pumps (which I'll show you later) with lovely soap that's not laden with chemicals, and eliminate all that plastic from store bought soaps. I'll keep you posted!

Meatless Monday! Pumpkin Bread

This counts! Oh yes it does!!

I'm doing everything in my power to make it feel like Fall here in Florida. My Fall decorations have been up for weeks, we had friends over for chili night, and I've made this pumpkin bread twice! It's so good....

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs. Add pumpkin and mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to the pumpkin mixture alternately with water. Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-65 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool completely.

For the glaze, melt 4 TBS butter. Whisk in 2 cups of powdered sugar. Cut with about 2 TBS milk until it's a nice glaze-like consistency. Spoon it over the top of the cake and push it over the sides to make those pretty drips ( I learned that when I decorated cakes for Baskin Robbins.....oh yes, I did.)

Happy Fall, Ya'll!!

Fibers on Friday: Hair Pretties

Hi! Welcome to Fibers on Friday! Thank you so much for continuing to party last week even though I had nothing to show! This week, I crocheted two things; a bunch of hair pretties and a baby cocoon for photo shoots.

Here are the hair pretties. A terrible picture taken in the dark. I'm sorry.

And now I can't, for the life of me, find the link that showed how to make them. Argh! Essentially it was this:

chain 6 and connect with a slip stitch to make a ring.
chain 2
2 HDC through the center, chain 2
slip stitch through the center
repeat 4 MORE time. (as you can see I only did 4 total which leaves me with only 4 petals. I think 5 would be better.)
Then hot glue a button on the center and glue it, along with some ribbon, onto an alligator hair clip.

As for the baby cocoon....TEASER!! I really want to wait and show you when I have an actual baby posed in it! I took pics of a baby yesterday, but she was having nothing to do with the cocoon, so it will have to wait. Maybe next week.

Wordless Wednesday: More Creepy Crawlies

On the outside of our bathroom window every night. The light above the toilet attracts the moths and the geckos come to eat the moths. It's cute, I have to say!

Meatless Monday! Waldorf Salad

This Waldorf Salad recipe is out of this month's Cooking Light. I substituted carrots for the radicchio because I can't find it anywhere around here. I served myself this big plate full for my lunch the other day. I really liked it at first. I liked the bite of the steel cut oats. I liked the flavor combination of the sweet apples and grapes, with the savory blue cheese. But, then it got to be too much. If I make this again, I will only have it as a small side dish or just top a salad with a little bit of this.

Fibers on Friday

Hi everyone! Happy Fibers on Friday! I've had a long day. Actually a long week, so I'm going to publish this party without any pictures of my own. I ran out of yarn for my Multnomah Shawl. It was supposed to only take one skein, but I was misreading a part of the pattern and increasing too much for a little while. I don't think it's messing it up, so I'm not ripping it all out. I just need more yarn! I bought this in NJ before we moved. I called to see if my former yarn shop still had some to send me, but they didn't. Anyway, I found it on line and I'm good to go.

Until I have more to show you, I'll let you guys lead the way with show and tell!

Wordless Wednesday: Invasion of the Millipedes

Fibers on Friday: Pot Holder

Hello friends! Happy Fibers on Friday! I'm glad you're here to join this party dedicated to knitting and crocheting!

Because it's fiber related, and because I think it's a wonderful thing to do, please check out my post from yesterday about the Christmas Stocking for the latest Craft Hope project.

This week, in crocheting news, I made a pot holder. A Fanciful Flower Pot Holder, which can be found on ravelry. Oh it's gorgeous, isn't it?


I LOVE how it LOOKS. Love it! But, I'm very sad to say I burnt the ever loving snot outta myself when I tried to actually use it on a hot pan of cookies. Dropped the cookies. Cookies went splat. Burn on my thumb. Perhaps a couple profanities, but I can't be sure.

The patterns suggests that because of all the layers of ruffles, it should be perfectly usable. I say it probably is, but you have to be super careful to have it folded up perfectly so as to not be burned.

The yellow yarn is Lion brand Cotton. The fuschia is Cotton Fleece from Lamb's pride (I think). The aqua is from Knit Picks Dishies. The pattern is written without the very center part filled in. I simply made another little loopy magic ring thing and did a couple half double crochets and sewed it in with yellow yarn. I likey.

Craft Hope: Christmas in Dixie

I just finished sewing four Christmas Stockings for the current Craft Hope Project, Christmas in Dixie. This project feels good. If you knit, crochet, or sew you still have time to whip up a stocking or two before the deadline of September 23rd.

(Front)

(back)

I found this free pattern on-line. I totally overlooked the fact that the instructions make FOUR stockings. I thought I was just making one....and this had me BAFFLED as I cut sooooo many front and back pieces, lining fleece, and lining fabric. I was focused on the fact that the pattern said it yielded a finished, seamless, stocking that was beautiful inside and out. So, I'm moving along thinking "wow....it takes A LOT of fabric to make such a nice, finished stocking". Eventually I got to the point of asking my husband how on earth all this was going to come together and he broke it to me, "hon, you're making FOUR stockings." Well, that's wonderful. It's what I would have made anyway....BUT, I would have made four different, coordinating, stockings.

Nevertheless....that was my little brain spasm for the week and here we have FOUR IDENTICAL stockings that are lovely and beautiful and have a lot of love sewn into them in hope that the tornado survivors will have a little peace and happiness this Christmas.

The fabric I used came from Raspberry Creek Fabrics on Etsy. I won 5 coordinating yard of fabric last year....what a nice use for some of it!

Wordless Wednesday: 21 years in the Making

Fibers on Friday

Hi everyone! Welcome to Fibers on Friday! I hope you're all gearing up for a nice, long, final weekend of the summer. Unfortunately for us it's predicted to rain all weekend. Oh well, we have a bedroom to paint and maybe the girls and I can get some crafting on!

This week I worked on two crocheted flower patterns. This is one I found on Pinterest:

Source: made-in-k-town.blogspot.com via Beth on Pinterest

And here's mine:

I've been using this one as a mug rug, but these would be great sewn on a pillow or something. I had fun with it!

I also have a flower pot holder in the works, but it's a tangled mess of loose ends that need to be weaved in, so I'll show it to you next week when it's all finished and pretty.