Knitting Cake and the Peanut Recall

My friends Jaime and Stepheny both had birthdays this week, and since both of them are knitters, I did a knitting themed cake. I do not think it is some of my better work, but people seemed to like it.


I made the fondant decorations on Tuesday: knitting needles, a pair of mittens, a pair of socks, a hank of yarn, and a ball of yarn.

I baked the cake after knitting group on Wednesday, let it cool over night, and then iced it with chocolate icing on Thursday morning. By the time I got home from work Thursday, it had crusted up nicely and I made more icing to decorate with. I free-handed Stepheny and Jaime's names, and I really should have used a Number 1 or Number 2 tip instead of the Number 3 I used for the writing. The icing I decorated with was supposed to be purple. I am not quite sure why blue and red made brown, but oh well. Using the icing, I piped a pair of socks, a pair of mittens, a pair of knitting needles, a scarf, and a tangle of yarn.

Now for the other part of the post..

As some of you may know, I am severely allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. The whole salmonella outbreak associated with peanuts is a horrible thing, but something good is coming out of it. More people are reading ingredients, and some are really surprised where they are finding peanuts and other nuts.

When I was surfing on Ravelry this morning, I came across a link to a Peanut Product Widget on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's web site. It is a neat widget, so I decided to add it to the sidebar.

Once Upon a Time Blanket

I finally finished Peanut's blanket.


I really need to find a better place to take a picture than the spot on the floor I used. The shadow on the left side is probably from the end table the lamp is on.

It is a bit longer than I had originally intended, but I rather like it. I wanted something before starting the castle to make it appear further in the distance so I used a cabled pattern for a few pattern repeats. It can either represent a field or perhaps the hedge that surrounded Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Peanut's Blanket--Knitting Part 2

By January 22, 2009 I had finished the first panel of trees and a section of reverse stockinette. I had not had much time to work on it, and I was still tinkering with the design a bit before starting the next section.

January 30, 2009--I really did not like how I finished the window and door on Enchanted Cottage swatch, so I used a reversible cabling technique to bring the cabling to a point. I like the finished result much better.

I finished the Enchanted Cottage motif on February 6, 2009 and continued working on the Gingerbread Castle. I am knitting from the instructions I typed up, which has enabled me to edit the pattern as I go along.

This morning I discovered I left out a row on the instructions for the Gingerbread Castle motif, so I had to refer to the book I got the pattern from. I also made some slight modifications to the flag flying over the castle. I managed to finish the Gingerbread Castle motif and another section of reverse stockinette. Now I am working on the final section of trees.

After Rich called the trees spooky, I asked a number of my friends if they thought they were spooky, and they do not. Rich has also decided they are not spooky.

Peanut's Blanket--Knitting

After finishing swatches, I cast on 132 stitches on January 13, 2009. The next evening at group, I ended up dropping some of the cast on stitches while helping a friend with a provisional cast on. I ripped out, cast on again, and started after counting my stitches. However, I really should have counted a second time, because the next day I discovered I had two extra stitches. So I ripped out, cast on again, and counted two or three times before starting to knit.

Coincidentally, Peanut arrived that same day. He was a bit early, and he had to stay at the hospital for a few days after mom went home, but he is home now.

By January 22, 2009, I had finished the first two sections of the blanket. I was still tinkering around with the design a bit, so I had not moved on to the next section. After getting some input from a friend about a swatch I was working on, I started the next section. Since I work on my knitting at the pub quite a bit, I showed Rich what I was working on, and he said the trees were spooky. I asked some others, and one said they are winter trees. I like that theory better :)

Peanut's Blanket--Swatching Part 2

Well, I finished two more swatches, and now it is a matter of putting the design elements together and getting the pattern written up.

The three motifs are:





These swatches will not be used in the actual blanket, but they have been a good dry run so to speak. I had to modify a couple of them slightly. I do not particularly care for bobbles, and they just did not look right, even though I followed Janet Szabo's tips for bobbles (found in her book, Aran Sweater Design). Then I tried substituting smaller bobbles (popcorns), but they still did not look right, so I got rid of them entirely. On the castle I just added another spire instead of a bobble, and I like how it turned out.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year's everyone!

Something tells me 2009 is going to be an interesting year. I am not really one for resolutions, but I have made the following resolutions for 2009:

Keep enjoying life (life is short, and you never know how much time you have)
Trust my instincts
Look into getting a concealed-carry permit

More Project Pics

My friend Christina modeling the mitts I made for Marcia Stevenson.


The mitts I made for my friend Sharon.


Pete wearing his Jayne Cobb hat.