Winter Hat for Kat, Part 3

Kat's winter hat has been stalled for the past several weeks.  I was able to extend the hat successfully.  But once I figured that out, the hat has sat on the end table neglected.  Which is just plain sad, 'cause the only thing I had left to do was weave in the ends.

I researched quite a bit to figure out how to extend the hat.  I read lots of suggestions about ripping out the bottom row(s) of stitches (like this), but I wasn't a big fan of this method.  First of all, it looked really tedious (and I'm lazy).  Also, Kat's hat was knit from the bottom up, with ribbing at the bottom, and most sites that I read cautioned that adding on to ribbing would result in a half-stitch jump between old and new stitches.   Finally, and probably most importantly, the thought of cutting into the work and having the whole thing unravel scares me!

Instead, I chose to use a contrasting color and basically sew a cast-on row to the bottom of the hat in the new color.  I threaded a yarn needle with the new color (gray).  I put the needle between the stitches on the original cast on row, looped around my knitting needle, and back through the hat in between the next stitch.  The biggest trick was just making sure to cast-on the same number of stitches that I had in the original cast-on row.  Once I had a new cast-on row, I continued the same rib pattern top-down.  And because I looped my new cast-on stitches between the old stitches, I didn't really notice any jumping, mostly just that the ribbing isn't exactly smooth (but I expected that).

So, what do you think?  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think Kat is too!  (What a ham, eh?!)

This project is listed on my Ravelry profile.

Knitting: Winter Hat for Kat, Part 2

I have been racing against falling temperatures, trying to finish a warm winter hat for Kat.  Kat's head measured a whopping 19", so originally, I thought I would need to follow instructions for the child sized hat.  However, when I first started the hat, I had a little bit of trouble matching gauge, mostly because I wanted to use a heavier yarn than the pattern recommended.   So after going back and making several gauge swatches, I decided that following the instructions for the 12 month to 2 year size would allow me to accommodate a worsted weight yarn. 

The pattern calls for the hat to be worked in the round until it measures 6" from the cast on edge, but the last hat that I made for Kat (just 1 month ago) only measured about 4.5" for the same part.  So I started the decreases for this hat at 4.5" too.  This turned out to be a bit of a problem...

As you can probably tell, the hat fit around, but just barely reached the tops of her ears!  Uh-oh! 

So now I'm working on how to make her hat longer.  Guess I should have followed the pattern.  (I'm really not good at following directions!)  Since this hat was knit bottom up, I could either (a) rip out all my decreases, add more rounds, and redo the decreases (giant UGH! to ripping out my working and then having to redo it) or (b) figure out a way to add length to the cast on edge.  I think I pick B.  Stay tuned!

Cooking Techniques: Pumpkin Purée

Thanks to Pinterest, I have been seeing a lot of pumpkin recipes lately. Previously, any pumpkin that I cooked with came from a can. But this year, I decided to try making my own pumpkin purée.

According to Mavis at One Hundred Dollars a Month, cooking pumpkin isn't any harder than cooking any other type of squash.  After reading her post and seeing the piles of pumpkins at the grocery store, I was inspired to try making my own pumpkin puree.  Plus, every time we pass the pumpkins at the grocery store, Kat exclaims, "Punkin!"  And how can I ignore that?

I decided this would be a fun exploration project with Kat, so before I sliced the pumpkin in half, I asked her what she thought was inside.  "Apple."  As good of a guess as any!  While we didn't find any apples inside, she still ooo'd until she touched the "guts" and declared them sticky.

We scooped out the insides, and Kat helped me separate the seeds from the pulp.  She really enjoyed stirring the seeds (although no stirring was really required).  Growing up, I was never a fan of pumpkin seeds, but I saw a recipe for cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds and was hoping to try it out.

I put a bit of olive oil on the cut sides, put pumpkin on a baking sheet cut side down, and baked at 375 for about 35 minutes, when I noticed the skin starting to wrinkle.  When I pulled them out, the pumpkins basically collapsed onto the baking sheet.

  The flesh was incredibly easy to scoop off the skin.  I put it directly into the food processor, and ran the processor until the pumpkin was smooth.  However, the puree didn't look like the stuff that comes from the can.  The color was closer to yellow than orange, and it was very watery.

I was concerned about making pie with such watery puree, so I looked for ways to thicken it up.  After a failed attempt at reducing by boiling (I don't recommend this; boiling puree is messy!), I lined a colander with a coffee filter, set the colander over a bowl, and poured in the puree.  About half a cup of water drained out!  Success!

I used the puree to make pumpkin pie (NerdDad's favorite), but adjusted my recipe to include less milk since the filling already looked pretty liquidy.  It turned out perfectly!  In fact, the pie was half gone before I got a chance to take a picture.

The process to make my own puree was so easy that I decided to buy another pumpkin yesterday. Now I just need to decide what to do with more puree.  Do you have any non-pie pumpkin recipes?

Toddler Activity: Painting Pumpkins

While I have fond childhood memories of carving pumpkins at Halloween, the thought of attempting to carve a pumpkin with Kat makes me shudder!  She's 21-months, so she has an attention span that's about 21 seconds, follows about 21% of any instructions I give her, and would probably end up needing 21 stitches.  But I didn't want to skip all pumpkin activities.

So last weekend, during our family trip to the grocery store, I let Kat pick out a small pie pumpkin by herself.  Surprisingly, she picked one of the smallest ones; I thought kids always went for the biggest is best philosophy.  I also picked out a pie pumpkin for myself with the intention of making my own pumpkin puree - more on that soon! (Update 11/4/12: See how to make pumpkin puree.)

Sunday afternoon, Kat and I set up a painting station at the kitchen table.  I taped a couple broken down cereal boxes to the table to create a work surface and to hopefully make clean-up easier.  I put a bib on Kat and sat her in her booster chair. 

I let her pick five colors from my collection of acrylic paints.  I like acrylic paints because they wash off with water, are available at most craft stores, and are pretty cheap (less than $2/bottle).  I have a whole shoebox of paint bottles from my time in college when I was still trying to be "artsy".  I also pulled out one paintbrush for each color to minimize the need to rinse brushes mid-project.

I squirted a bit of paint on the cardboard, handed over the paintbrush, and let her go!

I tried to avoid "helping" (a.k.a. taking over), and stuck to just turning the pumpkin whenever one side was mostly covered.  I let Kat decide when she was ready for a new color and then swapped brushes with her.  Amazingly, the paint was contained to the cardboard and just a bit on her fingers (yea for no paint in her hair!!).  

 

This project kept her attention for about 15 minutes.  From set-up to clean-up was slightly longer than a football game halftime.  ;-)  And since it wasn't overly messy, I think we'll have to try more painting projects for future holidays.   Any ideas?

Winter Hat for Kat, Part 1

Fall is definitely my favorite season.  It's the time of comfort foods - chili, stew, apple or pumpkin anything; and the weather is just cool enough to call for an extra layer, but not so cold as to rule out spending an afternoon outside.

This fall, Kat is in the Toddler room at daycare, which means that they spend part of most afternoons outside.  This also means that it's time to send all the fall and winter clothing supplies  that will live in her cubby - warm hat, jacket, back-up outfit with long pants and long-sleeved shirt.  When NerdDad asked if we had an extra hat to send, I promptly said that I would make one!  He laughed...

But my knitting and crochet skills are getting to be pretty good, and a hat is small enough that I can measure time to completion in hours, not days.   I'm not sure why he laughed; I have made three different hats for Kat, and another hat for Buddy.  So it's not like I'm a hat-newbie.

I quickly hopped on Ravelry (you can find me here) and began looking for a pattern.  Since I already have a crochet project in progress, I wanted something I could knit.  I also wanted something fairly simple that Kat could pull on herself (no ties or flaps).  I settled on this Swirl Hat.  The pattern is straightforward, but the swirl adds some fun.

I'm using a very dark pink that matches her coat - gotta keep things fashionable!  I am making pretty good progress, especially considering that I ripped out 6 rounds because I had an extra loop of yarn just hanging out (grr!).  I have finished the ribbed edge, and have (re)started on the swirl pattern.

Are you a knitter?  If so, what are you working on?

Apple Picking

My sisters were in town visiting this past weekend. With a weather forecast that predicted a near perfect fall day, we decided to venture out and pick our own apples at Lynd Fruit Farm.  Because we wanted to finish up before lunch and naptime, we got moving fairly early, packed everyone into our new (to us) minivan, and made the 40 minute drive out of the city.

The farm had three apple varieties ready for harvest - Rome, Fuji, and Winesap. We quickly ruled out Rome apples as they are grown on large trees.  We realized that with me wearing Buddy and the toddler wanting to pick her own apples, we should stick to the small trees. Since Fuji apples are readily available at the grocery store, we decided to branch out and try Winesap, an heirloom variety that is good for eating, sauce, and baking.

Kat was slightly frustrated at first as she wasn't strong enough to pick the apples on her own. Fortunately, Aunt K saved the day by teaching us to rotate the apples a few times to loosen them up enough to let Kat pluck the apple off.

Kat was even more excited about apple picking when NerdDad let her pick an apple to eat as we were walking through the orchard.  We all had a fantastic time and enjoyed the perfect fall morning.  By the time we were leaving the traffic to get in was nightmare; I was so glad that we had gotten there early!

 

We picked half a bushel of apples (about the size of a standard plastic grocery bag) for $20, so this was a fairly inexpensive outing.  My sisters promised to take a few apples home with them, but I still have enough apples to entirely fill my refrigerator's crisper drawer.  Fortunately, if stored properly, the apples should last for a couple of months.  I'll soon be posting some of the ways that I intend to take advantage of our fall harvest! 

However, if you have suggestions beyond the basic apple sauce, pie or crisp, please share!