More Than a Dishrag

Ever since I started knitting, the only things I have made are dishrags. They were a great way to practice different stitches and didn't take that long to make. While I am still making dishrags, I decided to try and make a hat. My intention was to make a hat by knitting in the round, but then my mom gave me one of those knitting looms. So I tried it out and made a hat and scarf set for myself. I love the loom knitting! It's so fast. I finished the hat in one day, and the scarf only took me about two days. The only downside to loom knitting is you can only really do a stockinette stitch. That's okay though because that's usually the stitch you use for a hat. I did go out and buy a circular knitting needle, and I will learn how to properly knit a hat in the round, but for right now I'm diggin' the loom.

Experimental Cooking

After being inspired by Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, I decided to do a little experimental cooking. I came up with Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread. It's very moist and healthy. Overall I am pleased with its outcome. After making this, I realized I really am my mother's child. Here is the recipe I made up:

Morgan's Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

1/2 c. Brown Sugar

1 Large Egg

3 Egg Whites

1 1/4 c. Orange Juice

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Allspice

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cloves

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger

Zest of 1 Orange

1 c. Whole Wheat Flour

1 c. Oatmeal

1 c. White Flour

1/2 can Pumpkin (about 7 oz)

1 Small Sweet Potato

1/2 c. oil

1 c. Chopped Walnuts and Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash sweet potato, prick with a fork, and microwave for 5 minutes. In a blender, combine whole wheat flour and oatmeal. Blend until it is a fine powder. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer, except for the sweet potato and nuts. Peel the sweet potato, cut into chucks, and place in a separate bowl. Using the hand mixer, puree the sweet potato. Add puree to the mix and blend until smooth. Hand stir in the nuts. In a greased pan, pour batter and bake for 35-40 mins until done.

Blending the whole wheat flour and oatmeal into a fine powder, eliminates that "heavy" taste that whole wheat flour can sometimes have. This bread isn't super sweet because I don't like sugary breads. So if you do, you might want to add more sugar.

A Bed for the Boys

I have a blanket that I made for myself about five years ago. It's velvety on one side and fake fur on the other. I adore this blanket! So do my cats. You can see Marty on it below.

Since the cats seemed to love it so much, I decided to make them each their own. I went down to Joann's fabrics when they were have a 50% off sale on fake fur. I found a strange, but intriguing fur that looked just like Marty. I bought 2 yardss of it for about 6 bucks. When I got home I found an old piece of fabric that I knew I wasn't going to use on anything else. With the fabric and an old red zipper, I proceeded to make two pet beds. One is just a straight blanket that lays at the foot of our bed. Jim had an old pillow that he has had since he was born. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I took the remaining fabric, made a bag and slipped the pillow inside. I put a zipper on the side so I can take the pillow out when I need to wash it.

The pillow bed is on the left and the blanket is on the left.

The picture below is the other side of both of them.

As you can see Rusty loves it!