Christmas Gifts 2013

Now that Christmas is over and gifts have been received by the desired recipients, I can now safely post them on my blog.  The goal was to have this post done before I went back to work after the New Year, but obviously that did not happen.

Last year I made a baby toy for my master teacher as a baby shower gift.  My mom always made blankets for friends and family who had kids.  While my knitting is improving with each project, I am nowhere near as fast as my mother was, nor do I have as much free time as she did.  I wanted to make something for my MT, but I didn't have 6 months to make a blanket.  Searching through Raverly.com I found this adorable pattern. Made it up in about a day!  Find a board book version of the story and TADA! perfect baby shower gift!

MT's baby shower gift

Another friend saw the picture and working on another project.  She would often mutter how much she wished she had an older sister to make stuff of her and her daughter.  Since she was moving soon, I had to be quick anyways.  Plus, with some help from my dad, I managed to make it a baby safe rattle too!  ^.^

After I wrapped it up, naturally I discovered I technically did the eyes backwards.  Oh well, it makes it unique!  I'm not sure who will it enjoy it more, mom or baby.  :D

Also for Christmas I attempted some photo transfer techniques I saw all over Pintrest...was never very satisfied with the results.

The project I had the hardest time keeping quiet was the quilts for my nephews.  I was organizing the uniform room at WSU over the summer and found a ton of old band shirts.  With permission, I took home 24.  I was initially planning on 4x3 square design, but while I was laying it out, I felt it looked too big, so I cut it back to a 3x3.  I also tried two different battings.  I definitely like the low loft better, at least when it comes to the quilting.  But, the nephew with the thicker quilt lives in colder place, so it all works out.

Someone likes to play peek-a-boo with his new quilt.

The best part of all this, is my brother is a die-hard UW Husky fan.  I think the main reason my nephew seems to like it so much is he knows that it's his.  Hey, maybe if I had access to Husky band shirts I may have made a Husky one...maybe.  Not really.

Adventures in Canning

I've been canning jams, applesauce and apple pie filling for years.  I feel very confident canning with my hot water bath canner.  :)  I have always been interested in canning other foods too, like vegetables and such, but would get scared when I would read up on it and see "pressure canning required".  I've always had visions of the canner exploding or something.  I remember canning green beans with my mom once and everything went well.  But when it came to doing it on my own, I was terrified.

A couple weeks ago, I got the strange idea to can chicken noodle soup.  Homemade is SO much better for you, especially when you feel crummy.  But it can be tiresome to make repeatedly, especially when you're the one sick and/or you don't have all the stuff on hand.  I scoured the internets for recipes and recommendations from the USDA until I found one I liked best.  Crystal has some other great canning recipes that I'm interested in trying in the future.  And she's rather quick to respond to questions.

So, I finally decided to face my fears and ask a friend if I could borrow their pressure canner...then I discovered mom did have one...buried in the depths of the stairs closet.  I was hoping to get this done earlier, but stuff can up and didn't have a large chunk of free time until today.  That and I didn't have all the jars I wanted either, until my grandmother mentioned yesterday she had a ton for me and a couple stockpots too.  Jackpot!!

Unlike Crystal, I still don't have a 14-quart stock pot, so I didn't feel comfortable letting the chicken simmer overnight.  However, after 2 hours today it still feel apart as I took it out to cool.  I chopped up 2 lbs of carrots and a whole thing of celery, along with 4 small/medium onions.  I hot-packed the jars about two-thirds full and filled them with hot boiling stock.

 Then came the moment of truth.  It took a bit for me to figure out how to regulator worked with my stove, but everything processed as it should.

Yummy!!

I managed to get 19 pints of soup!  Now all that is left is to assemble the "herb packets" that I will tape to each jar and add the label.  I found some removable labels that are meant for use on glass jars, woot!!  I'll let the jars cool overnight and probably put the packets together tomorrow.  And, yes, I am now more comfortable working with a pressure canner.  Now all I need is to get my garden to produce and canning can become a little more commonplace.  :D