Blogging by the Dozen

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My Sock is Finished!

By Tilly

My sock is officially finished. I was going to blog yesterday but I forgot.

My sock <3 It actually fits too!

This was when I'd first started it. This is I think 56 stitches, but then I ripped it out. 

This is the pattern for my sock. 

Cast one 50 stitches on size 3 needles using sock yarn. Divide evenly on three needles. Rib 16 rows (or however many you want) purl one row (because I like the way it looks better) then knit 3 inches. put 22 stitches on a holder needle (or whatever it's called) put the other 28 on a needle together. Knit 27, turn, purl 26, turn, knit 25, turn, keep doing this until you have 10 stitches between turning, ending on a right side row. Knit 10, pick up one stitch, knit into it, knit one stitch, turn. Purl 2 together, purl 10 (i think that's the right number. I wasn't writing it down as I went.) , pick up one stitch, purl into it, purl one, turn. continue until all the stitches are worked. divide all your stitches evenly on 3 needles again. Knit approximately 6 inches. you have to finish your sock however, because i did mine weird, and you probably don't want to do it the same way. 

 

Then make another one.

I'm making another one. It's not the same yarn though. It's striped, green and brown. I'm almost to the beginning of the heel. It's acrylic and nylon. It's SUPER soft! The stuff I made my finished sock out of was a cashmere/acrylic/something else I forget blend, and it was so soft, but the green and brown stuff is even softer. I got it at Apple Yarns. 

A really pretty house

I did not do anything to this picture. I just cropped it. my camera makes the colors look a little different sometimes, but it was a perfect blue sky! Yes, it's January. Yes, it's winter. But it doesn't seem like it!

I don't know why there are lines all over this picture. 

cute house

Two horses. The 2nd one is turned around so you can't see it's face. 

If you're looking for a good book to read, you should read The City Of Ember. There are 4 books in the series. The second is The People of Sparks, then there's the Diamond Of Darkhold, and The Prophet of Yonwood. The last one is not about Doon and Lina like the rest. I don't like it as much. But the City Of Ember is one of the BEST books ever! And if you read those you should watch the movie too, because it's really awesome and follows the book really well. One thing I like is that it's about the first book, and it's not all the books combined. It's really good. 

Socks, Snakes and Science

By Tilly

First, my sock. I got the best sock yarn ever at Michaels the other day. I finally started the sock.

This is my sock. I got this far and then it was looking too big so I took it apart.

I cast on 56 stitches and then ribbed until the pink was almost finished. then I purled a row, because I like how that looks, and then I started knitting. 

The more I ripped out the bigger it looked. I started over again today and cast on 50 stitches. I'm still doing the ribbing but I think it will work. 

About snakes. I'm talking about my ring. One of the gold jewels fell off.

That was really annoying. I hope the other ones don't fall out. 

Now for science. We've been making slides and looking at them under the microscope. 

A tiny bug.

a thing that was alive and swimming around but then dried up.

fly wing and leg.

fly head

Spit.

more spit.

bubbles in the spit. They looked super cool.

bubbles in the spit after they dried.

I'll post pictures of my sock later.

Duck Tape :) {and the cutest baby ever}

By Tilly

So, I went to the store again a while ago and bought more duck tape- obviously ;) 

Whenever I finally have an even number of rolls of duck tape please check to see if it's really me.

Now I have 37. 

Now, please don't say that's not 37 rolls...I know it's not. it's 24. Those are only the ones that I haven't used all up already. 

Used up ones. the purple, right beside the black, always looks weird, because my camera makes the colors look different a lot.

Two pictures of the most adorable 1 year old ever.

(photo by mom)

(photo by mom)
Is he not just the cutest baby you've ever seen? yes he is, don't deny it! 

I just read a really good book by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It's called Found. If you click over to the link you can read the book description. The next books in the series are Sent, Sabotaged, and Torn. I haven't read Torn yet but I'm getting it from the library. The first book, Found, is about Jonah, his sister Katherine, and his friend Chip. Jonah and Chip are both adopted, and they both get these weird letters. They find a list with a bunch of names and phone numbers and adresses. They call the people and find out that they're all the same age too and all got the same letters. It's a really good book and I'm not very good at describing it, but you should read it. 

Cinnamon Rolls

By Adalia

First combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast in a large bowl. 

Next put the butter, sugar, salt and milk (or in our case water, because we were out of milk) in a pan and heat until milk is just warm, and butter is almost melted.

Do not do this. I grabbed the salt shaker, unscrewed the lid to measure it out, and pepper flew everywhere... needless to say, I grabbed the wrong one. If you are very brave, and love pepper, you can add it instead, but other wise DO NOT. Most people do not appreciate having raisins, cinnamon, sugar, and pepper in the same bite. 

Pour the wet mixture into the flour and yeast mix.

 Mix this mixture for 30 seconds on medium speed. 

Next add the eggs (no we don't use invisible eggs, I just forgot to take a picture of them...) and mix for 3 minutes on high speed.

Now the recipe doesn't call for this, but it makes it a whole lot better. Add cinnamon, and if you want another spice of your choice (if you look closely you can see the darker spot, that's allspice). Just don't add too much... I have made that mistake a lot of times, (not in the cinnamon rolls, but other dishes) and people do not appreciate it... of course, if you like yours super spiced up, then this is a good way to be able to eat the whole pan all by yourself. 

Mix it up, and add a splash or two of vanilla. 

Mix up and add as much of the remaining flour as you can. 

Dump the dough out on the counter and kneed it, like this.

And this. Except preferably with two hands. I did kneed it with two hands... but you can't take pictures and kneed with two hands at the same time. 

Kneed it until it looks like the ball on the left.

Put both balls into a greased bowl, and put somewhere warm, in my case by the downstairs fire.

Let it rise until doubled.

Like this.

Divide each ball into two pieces, and roll very thin. As thin as you can get it, this makes them better.

Melt some butter, and pour it over the dough. Spread the butter evenly over the surface with a spatula.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the butter, and rub it in.

Sprinkle rasins over the surface (optional)

Roll it up carefully, and pinch closed. 

To grease the pan, melt some butter, pour it in the bottom, and spread it around. This leaves the bottoms of the cinnamon rolls sticky and gooey and sugary. 

Once you have all the cinnamon rolls in the pan, melt some more butter and pour it over the top. Then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar all over. When baked the tops will be crystallized.

Here is the finished product! Delicious golder brown cinnamon rolls! They are best served warm, but still taste good after they've sat out for awhile. Now for the actual recipe part.

Basic Sweet Dough

4-4 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 cup milk

1/3 cup butter (this butter is just in the actual dough, you will need more for the whole recipe)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 and 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast, set aside. In a sauce pan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter, and salt till just warm and butter almost melts. Add to flour mixture. Then add eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed for three minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. 

On a floured surface knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes total). Shape into a ball. Place in a greased bowl; turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double (about 1 hour).

Punch dough down. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes [I didn't do this]. Shape and prepare dough as shown above, in my pictures.

After the cinnamon rolls are in the pans, let rise till double, about 30 minutes. Bake in 375 degree over for 20-25 minutes or till rolls test done. Remove rolls from pans. Serve warm or cool. Makes 20-24. 

And, last but not least, enjoy!

socks

By Tilly

My first sock, Adalia's first sock.

My second sock. I jsut halved the first sock. Pretty simple...but when it says to knit 6, knit 2 together does that mean you should knit 3 then knit 1 together? Well, it turned out ok anyways. It doesn't fit Apollo.

My first socks....I do think my second is maybe a little less than just half the size of the first? Even though I just cut the pattern in half....

Adalia knitting.

Random knitting stuff

By Adalia

I was working on a blog post with the recipe for our cinnamon rolls... but I got tired of working on it, and I wanted to blog about one of my most favorite things ever... Knitting!

Right now I have 4 projects going. A hand warmer, which I need to rip out because I decided I didn't want to finished it. A sock out of my lace weight, which has horseshoe cabling, and so far looks to be just the right size! My purple hat... which I am almost done with, but I needed to do some math to figure out the decreases, so I got lazy, and shoved it in the corner. And a blanket... the first one I've ever tried to knit. It's going to be a random size, because I cast on 200 stitches, and started knitting. But I figured you can't go too wrong with a blanket... and the yarn was just perfect for it. I don't know what exactly you call it, but it's fuzzy, silky, and shiny. Really cool looking. And I have 8 skeins of it. When its knit up, it doesn't look knit, so I figured it was perfect for a blanket.

Yesterday and today I have been knitting like crazy. I knit up 2 of the skeins yesterday, and so far one today. I also figured out the perfect excuse for avoiding every possible thing you don't want to do. Knitting. I could have spent all my knitting time doing something that some people would think more useful, actually I guess most of them are thing that I should do, but sort of want to put off. I could be doing pilates, writing, going on a walk, and other various small things. But why? I mean, knitting is way more fun than any of that (at least, it is right now). Just think, you can already see me putting off one thing that I should be doing. I should be finishing my post about cinnamon rolls, but instead I am going on and on about my knitting. But that is because I love my knitting. I don't really love my cinnamon rolls.  

My sock has been coming along very well, except for the fact that the pattern wants me to work the cabling 18 times... and I got sick of it. Actually, I just wanted to get on with the project, so I said to myself 'Well, I am starting to get tired of this, and I have to make another whole sock, and so I will have to work this cabling all over again, as many times as I do now. And I really want to finish this sock. So I think it is perfectly reasonable to stop right now, I mean I guess I don't want really long socks, even if they would look incredible, and beautiful...' anyway, I managed to convince myself. Which was really way to easy.

For the past time that I have been knitting patterns that I must keep track of rounds (I don't remember the exact date...), I have kept track of them on my phone calendar. Which involves unlocking the key pad, clicking over to tool, and then calendar, and then clicking on the date, and then entering a number, and then repeating the sequence whenever I finish the next round. My mom apparently noticed this, and in my stocking this year I got two stitch counters. These little guys are life savers. Every time I quickly turned the dial after completing a row, I would gush on and on in adoration about how ingenious and wonderful they are (okay, okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit, but you get the picture).Along with them, I also got a skein of yarn that is the closest I have ever seen to my dream yarn. It goes from burgundy, to red, to orange, and finally to pale yellow. It is truly beautiful. So thank you again mom! 

I also got an Apple Yarns gift card (thank you Jewels!) And 10, yes TEN skeins of yarn in a package from New Zealand (thank you Ben!). Needless to say, I was thrilled. Seriously, I mean it was like yarn heaven over here! I really couldn't wait to start knitting with the silky, shiny stuff I described earlier (from the package) so that's why I cast on the blanket.  

Happy holidays, and may the odds be ever in your favor!!!! (for Hunger Games fans everywhere) 

My SOCK!!!

by Tilly

I made a sock! I actually did it.

This is my first attempt at a sock. I never actually finished it.

This is the sock I just made today. 

It's prettier than it looks. My point and shoot, which I generally use, makes the colors look wacky.

Sock in progress. I got this pretty yarn in my stocking.

The heel was all weird but I fixed it. 

My hat. I started it Sunday afternoon and I was almost finished with it and was already decreasing when I realized it was WAY to big, so I took it out and then started again. I was barely past the ribbing on my hat this morning, but then I finished it (It looks way better than before!) And made my sock. It was AWESOME and I am totally going to make another sock sometime! Soon. Just not with the same yarn because there's barely any left :( Oh well. I got an awesome hat and my first sock out of it. And it's so soft and pretty. Thank you mom :)

Photos by Mom    Adalia, me, Kalina, Jubilee and Tucker on Christmas Eve. 

 Photo By Mom        Jubilee, Hezzy, Tucker, Adalia, Cai, Me and Kalina. 

Photos By Mom           Adalia, Jubilee and Adalia, Me.

Photo By Mom                       Isn't he just the most Adorable baby ever? If you didn't believe it before you gotta believe it now! He's so sweet <3

Merry Christmas Eve!

By Tilly

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve already! It hasn't even snowed. I highly doubt we'll have a white Christmas. And then when we're doing something we're really looking forward to, it will snow and whatever it is will be canceled...right? At least you can't cancel New Year's Eve- us big kids (Enoch, Me, Judah and Adalia) get to watch Avatar! 

These pictures are of some flowers dad got mom a while ago. We still have them but they're all dying. 

Sorry, it's a sort of bad picture. 

I don't know why the first and last pictures are so bad. But the third one is better, I think.

This is the puzzle we were working on last week.

Enoch got it on Saturday and we were working on it from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday morning. I finished the bottom part and the sides on Wednesday. They were really hard! I think if we do Jubilee's 550 piece puzzle again It'll seem pretty easy. It's got bigger pieces and more faces.

See, it's 1,000 pieces. I love puzzles, especially hard ones! 

(These next pictures are all by mom)

Mom made this and the pictures are by her^ I was just working on the edges of the puzzle in the pictures. 

Also by mom, isn't that the sweetest, cutest baby ever? 

How can you not love this sweet little baby? 

He can say a ton of words now. I can't even count them. His new favorite word (other than Momma, Dadda, and I-knock, which is what he calls Enoch) is Elmo. We got some diapers from some friends because they didn't fit their baby and they had 2 packages that were in Apollo's size. And the had Elmo on them. And now he loves Elmo. He sounds so cute when he says it!

(by mom)

Isn't he just so cute? 

(also by mom)

This was when they were in Seattle when Apollo had his surgery. He was crying because the bracelet was stuck on his hand and he couldn't get it off. He uses the word 'stuck' a lot.

Tomorrow or Monday I'll probably blog, and when I do I'll probably use mom's pictures.