Stuffed Pheasant

I'm not sure what came over me, but this stuffed pheasant project just called my name.  It's another animal in the wonderful Faux Taxidermy Knitting book that I used to make the mole door stop.  (Mole Doorstop Post)  This project was a lot of fun to make because there's really no wrong way to make a stuffed pheasant.  I used combinations of my stash Brown Sheep yarn to get the bulky weight I needed and to get the heathered look for the body and wings.  This bird was knit up on size 13 needles, so it went really fast.  The finishing work took a while.  My only criticism of the Faux Taxidermy Knits book is their finishing directions.  They are not very detailed.  I have a pretty good working knowledge of finishing knitting projects, which came in very handy here because I had to ad-lib much of the final details.  Now that it's done, I don't know what to do with it.  Maybe I'll bring it into work so the mole can have a companion.

Close up of the head.  I used buttons for the eyes.

The tail feathers add a lot to the finished look of the Pheasant

I decided to make the wings two-toned.

Flower Cupcakes

These cupcakes were really fun to make.  They are chocolate flavored mini-cupcakes with butter cream frosting.  Who doesn't love a little flower garden on their winter birthday?  Happy birthday, Baily.

I tried to make the stems look a little more defined with the green candies.  If I had a few more I would have made the lawn a little more thick at the bottom (they have green sprinkles on them).

These little ball candies were from the gingerbread house kits.  I knew they would come in handy.

Mole Door Stop

Knitted Mole Door Stop

Here's the latest addition to my "Mole Art" collection.  This mole door stop was inspired by the book "Faux Taxidermy Knits" by Louise Walker.  I'm starting the mole unit in my classes tomorrow, so I'm very excited to have a new mole for inspiration!

I love to make knitted stuffed animals.  I have made turtles, fish, elephants, cats, and bears.  My biggest stuffed animal project was a knitted dragon.  This is my first mole and my first door stop project.

Stash yarns I used to make the mole door stop

I used yarns from my stash, including Lambs Pride bulky and worsted weights and some yarn I bought at Stitches East nearly 20 years ago!  I knew I would find a use for that left over ball of yarn.  The base is filled with small gravel in a cut off leg of a pair of tights.  Unfortunately, my classroom door it too heavy and too forceful to stay open with my new door stop.  I think I'll place him on my demo table in the front of the classroom for now.  After the novelty wears off, I'll sew a mouse pad on the bottom so it will function as a door stop.

This book is a must read for any knitter.

Sour Dough Bread with Sausage and Cheese

Sour Dough Bread with Sausage and Cheese in the Dough
Cutting board, compliments of my dear husband!

This weekend I decided to make sour dough bread with sausage and cheese baked into the dough.  I used my regular sour dough recipe to make the dough.  It takes about three days to make the bread in the winter because my kitchen is the coldest room in the house.  The rising time can take up to 6 or 8 hours on the counter!  I started this dough on Friday night, and I'm serving the warm bread to my kids today (Sunday afternoon).  It was worth the wait!

Gouda cheese and hard sausage

For sausage I used  some left over hard sausage that we served on New Years Day as an appetizer.  I chopped it into 1/4 inch cubes. The cheese is gouda, coarsely shredded.  

My firm starter after rising.

The firm starter on the baking scale

I used my baking scale to make up the dough.  The recipe is 92.5% firm starter, so I measured that first and work backwards with the other ingredients.  I used regular bread flour for this bread.

Final dough before rising.

I incorporated the meat and cheese into the dough during the second half of kneading it.  It went in pretty easily, but made the dough really moist.  I had to add more flour to adjust the moisture in the dough.  Even with the extra flour, the final dough was still a little on the wet side.  I left it overnight to rise in my big bowl.  It did actually double in size after about 8 hours of waiting.

Final dough after rising.  It smells great!

I decided to make three small loaves.  Here they are in the pans before rising.  They came out great!  The final rise only took four hours for them to fill up the pans.  I cooked the bread at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the temperature was above 180 degrees. (that's F, not C).  It came out delicious.  The bread was really moist.  The sausage made the bread a little salty.  I couldn't really taste the cheese.  I plan to make it again!

Three wonderful loaves of bread ready to rise on the counter for four hours.

Christmas Gifts!

Merry Christmas Brian 2014

This is the second year of the "what do you want me to make you for Christmas" challenge.  The day after Christmas, I ask my dear husband this simple question.  This year the answer was one word:  Socks.  Here they are!  I finished the first one before Thanksgiving, so it was wrapped for Christmas morning.  The second was only a few days late, done on December 29th.

Here's the pattern I used:  Border Socks

I used a yarn called Heritage by Cascade yarns.  It's a sock yarn made out of superwash merino and nylon.  I purchased the yarn from WoolWorks in downtown Putnam:  WoolWorks Yarn Shop

Hand turned Niddy Noddy from my dear husband.  I love it!

And for me, did I mention my husband is a wood worker?  I hung up a picture from a magazine of a Niddy Noddy for him to use for inspiration.  Although I have lived a very full and rich life without one this far, I really wanted to have a Niddy Noddy that he made for me.  So here it is, my perfect and beautiful new Niddy Noddy.  I love it!  It was done on Christmas Day!  He's that good.