Sunday Dinner and a Recipe

Every Sunday, we have Sunday Dinner at my Mother and Daddy's house.  Here in the rural South, folks still call the noon meal "dinner".  Sometimes, it's just Mother, Daddy, and me and sometimes family or friends join us.  Sometimes, Mother cooks the meal, sometimes I do, and sometimes we cook it together.  But I almost always make the dessert.  Sunday before last, I made an old favorite, Cocoa Cake.  The recipe was given to me years ago by a co-worker.  She would bring it to work for covered dish dinners or just because.  She said it was her family's favorite cake and her grown children still requested it for their birthday's. (Sorry for the poor photo)

Cocoa Cake

Cake:
2 cups sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
1 stick butter
1 cup water
3 teaspoons cocoa
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda

Frosting:
1 stick butter, melted
3 teaspoons cocoa
1 box confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
milk

Cake:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
2.  Mix sugar, flour, and salt.  Set aside.
3.  In a saucepan, mix oil, butter, water, and cocoa.  Bring to a boil.  Add to dry ingredients.
4.  Beat eggs, buttermilk, and soda.  Add to cocoa mixture.
5.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Frosting:
1.  Mix butter, cocoa, confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Add enough milk to soften icing.

Yolanda's note:  sprinkles optional but I always add them to the top of this cake.  I love sprinkles!

Enjoy!

Attacked by Pollen

Spring is a happy time.  The weather is warmer, days are longer, and the flowers and bushes are blooming.  And in all the excitement of welcoming spring (and warmer weather), I forgot about my nemesis – pollen. This year's attack has been vicious and I’m just now feeling like I’m back among the living. 

You’d think that with three sick days off from work, several doctor appointments, and not much on my social calendar, I’d be happily knitting away.  But I just haven’t felt like knitting very much.   I did manage to finish one half done baby hat, one half done mitered square and I knit up another baby kimono.   But…..I have been reading.  A lot.  I’ve read seven or eight books and am currently reading another.  

I’ve felt better in the last couple of weeks and I’m happy to report that as of today, I've completed 23 squares for my mitered square blanket.  I’m a little worried though, that the colors won’t come together very well, that I should have planned better, and that one will need sunglasses just to look at it.  But despite these worries, I just keep pressing on and knitting squares.  Knitting those things is like eating Lays Potato Chips.  You can’t knit just one!

Off to knit another square!

Spring Is Here!

Spring has arrived here at Graves Gap Knitting!

Do Not Disturb

This week, I've all but hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on my back door after getting home from work in the evening.  Last Saturday, I snagged this copy of Downton Abbey, Series 1, The Original UK Edition at Target.  And I've been watching it EVERY evening this week.  I've been catching up since I somehow missed Series 1 when it first came on.  Well, actually I did see bits and pieces but didn't watch it through since it usually went off at 11pm and I had to be up early the next morning for work.

Anyway, I've been coming home and quickly doing my chores, and then settling down on the sofa in my jammies, a cup of Earl Grey, decaf, and my knitting.  It has been nice to be able to rewind (is that a word for DVDs?) and rewatch bits if I miss a phrase or gesture.

Someone at work who has never seen the show was asking me about it.  Where to start? This is Britist drama!  There's the superb writing, the cast, the costuming, the scenery.  And then there's all the little gestures and looks.  And then, of course, there's all the history. 

My cousin, Virginia, and I are planning a Downton Abbey Day where we'll watch Series 1 and Series 2.  I think we need to have tea and scones too. 

And finally, a big Thank You! to my local PBS station, APT, for showing Downton Abbey.

Knit On!

Knit on. Those words have been playing in my mind in an almost continuous loop for the past 2 ½ weeks. My Mother has been in the hospital so things at my house have been somewhat out of sorts, as you can imagine. But I’ve been knitting although not as often as I would like and I certainly haven’t been able to do much that required a lot of thought since by the end of the day, I’ve been tired.

I knit the entire right side and finished the MDK Baby Kimono while sitting in the ER with my Mother. Several people asked what I was knitting and when I told them a baby sweater, they had a rather confused look on their face. But I really can’t blame them since the knitting dangling from my needles didn’t look anything like a sweater. So I’d stop knitting and fold it over to show them. Then, they were amazed at how something so misshapen could turn into a cute little sweater. It has been washed and is waiting for seaming.

I made two cute little baby hats which I call Lunch Hour Hats since they were knit while sitting with my Mother during my lunch hour so my Dad could go have lunch. Her cardiologist, after observing me knitting and talking without looking at my work, told me I was “really good at that”.

I picked up my Mitered Square Blanket again and so far, I have completed 7.5 squares. Its perfect hospital knitting since it is portable and easy to put down as long as long as I’m using a row counter. It requires just enough thought to keep things interesting and deciding on colors is entertaining. Sometimes, though, I forget to carry my yarn up the side but I’ve decided not to worry about that.

Sadly, Liberty has been languishing in my knitting bag since, for me anyway, it requires concentration. But I have managed to knit a few rows here and there.

The good news is that the doctors have gotten Mother all fixed up and she’s home now.  She says that after 2 1/2 weeks in the hospital, it sure is good to sit in her own chair and to sleep in her own bed.

Click Click Clickety Click

Can you hear the sound of needles clicking?  That's me, busy working on Liberty.  It's coming along nicely now that I’ve gotten fairly comfortable with two-handed knitting again.  I’ll just be knitting along, immersed in following my chart, and ever now and again, I'll stop and take a look at my knitting and I think, "Oh. WOW!"  It is SUCH fun to see the pattern emerging.

One thing though.  My white stitches are a little tight and I think it's because I'm knitting the white with my left hand, which is not my dominent hand.  If anyone out there has any ideas or tips to help me with this, I'd surely appreciate it.

When I need a break from pattern squinting, I pick up the Cute Baby Kimono (from Mason-Dixon Knitting) I'm making for my friend's daughter, Ellen.  I’ll be making two of these since Ellen is having twins!   I’m using Berroco Comfort in Rosebud.  Since big sister, Kate, will only be 1 ½ when her sisters are born, Ellen needs something that is super easy care and Comfort fits the bill.

This is knit all in one piece with seaming up the sides and underarms.  I'm almost finished with the left side.  This is an easy and quick knit and has been my take along knitting this week.

Oh, and one more thing.  I've discovered that a nice steaming mug of Earl Grey (decaf) is the perfect accompaniment to Liberty knitting.

Liberty at Last

I’ve been wanting to make Mason-Dixon’s Liberty Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines ever since my pre-ordered copy arrived on my doorstep.  I even took a Fair Isle class at my LYS.  I keep check on the Fair Isle web cam, which Ann graciously provided in the book,  but don’t always get to see much since I tend to forget that when it’s 5:30pm (or later) at my house, it’s nighttime there. But that hasn't made any difference lately since their web cam must be broken since it's been offline.   At various times over the past few years, I’ve thought hard about Liberty but always got overwhelmed with choosing a color.  But the idea started percolating again back in December.

So at the end of December, after all the baby hats were done, and the one Christmas scarf had been finished and gifted, I took a trip to my LYS to browse their Ultra Alapaca.  Remembering Heather’s admonition, while choosing yarn for my Linen Stitch Scarf, to choose colors that make me happy, I brought home Cyclamen, Winter White, Chianti, and Pale Blue.  And then, I just looked at them for a couple of weeks. 

In the end, I chose Chianti (the red next to the blue) for the background and Winter White for the foreground.  And no, this is not an Alabama (the football team) blanket.  These colors make me happy.  Plain and simple. 

I had to go down to a size 5 needle to get gauge and now that I'm in the colorwork, it's a little slow but I'm hoping that things will pick up once I get used to holding yarn in both hands. 

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It's so exciting to watch the pattern emerge.  And the feel of the wool/alpaca is absolutely wonderful. 

Ann says in the book that this is "knitting for the ages" and she's right.  So much so that I've already asked Elizabeth to photograph it for me.

Ann and Kay, I hope that I do you proud.