Dangerous Cake and a WIP

My mother came across this recipe (I think it is making the rounds on email) and passed it along to me. I am in turn passing it on to all of you. It is perfect I think for an after school snack for little people or if you are just having a hankering for chocolate and don't want to make a whole cake (let's be honest sometimes we just can't wait that long for a craving)...

Here is a recipe for 5 minute chocolate cake.
4 T flour : 4 T sugar : 2 T baking cocoa: 1 egg: 3 T milk: 3 T oil: 3 T chocolate chips (optional):
a small splash of vanilla essence: 1 coffee mug
Put dry ingredients in coffee mug and mix well: Add the egg and mix thoroughly: Pour in the milk and oil and mix well: Add the chocolate chips and vanilla essence and mix again:
Microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug but don't be alarmed. Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired.
Enjoy!

Our notes.....little hands had fun mixing it up....

There might not have been any mixing beaters to lick but the spoon did quite nicely...


We just popped it in the microwave for 3 minutes and hoped for the best (I have no idea how many watts my microwave cooks at, or how to set it for that matter) It might not look done but it is (mine didn't rise over the top of the mug but I'm pretty sure the fact that I have large can't get enough coffee mugs is the problem, not the recipe)...

We inverted it on a plate and since it wasn't very pretty who doesn't love a little powdered sugar sprinkled over the top?


I have to say it was good....but why is it dangerous you ask? Well now we are only minutes away from chocolate cake :).




On to the WIP. Well I have been working on Millie for the last few days and I am a little over halfway done with the back. There is A LOT going on with this little pattern. Multiple panels with all different stitches and each panel is repeated differently so I have multiple row counters going just to keep up. This is not a pattern I recommend for multi-tasking. No TV watching and knitting, or talking with my husband while knitting. Maybe it's just me but I need to concentrate with this sucker.

It looks pretty good so far. I placed stitch markers to help keep track of which panel I'm working on so I don't have to keep counting stitches.

No, that isn't a random blue stripe in my knitting, I put in a life line. I read about them recently and I have already used it once. Every couple of inches I run a piece of scrap yarn through my stitches so if I have to tear it out and fix a mistake I don't have to worry about really losing my way and ripping out a lot. I don't know about any of you but I can get all tangled up with my cables if I start tearing out rows. Was this a twisted stitch, or if it was originally crossing this way or that way. With my lifeline if I get too confused I can go back to a place that I KNOW is mistake free.

I hope I can finish this up quickly because I really would like her to be able to wear it this fall. We shall see.....

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Too much

So as the last post verified I have way too many knits on the needles so to speak. A sweater here a sweater there, frankly there are sweaters everywhere. This being said I only have inches left on my pullover and then some seaming and I'm finished. Am I quickly finishing it up then? No, I am not. I am perusing patterns on the Internet as if my life depended on it. Those of you with small children know that the few minutes/hours (depending) a child spends napping are precious and shouldn't be squandered. Maybe you want to take a LONG hot shower and spend time just lotioning and primping and such. Or maybe you have a backed up TIVO and want to veg out with some TV. Gardening, housework, reading, or in my case I should do some knitting. After all I have enough queued up on and off the needles. But alas I cozy up to my laptop with a cup of tea and start browsing knit patterns.

I just can't seem to find "just the right" pattern for myself. I found the Henley for my husband, next up for him the Cobblestone Pullover but I can't think about that now. I found this pattern for my daughter and have the yarn and everything waiting....isn't it adorable?

I have another Debbie Bliss pattern that I can't find a link or picture to share with you for my son.

I found this cardigan that I like because it's different and I have some Berrocco Ultra Alpaca I can use for it. I also have two others I'm courting so who knows which one will make the cut.

Frankly I just don't know if I can be faithful to my knitting projects. I have lost my lust for the pullover. I don't like the yarn, I don't like how it is looking on me so far. So it sits in a bag in the corner of my room, almost finished, in pieces. How sad....

I hear a teething toddler gently calling (or screaming)for me to come and get him from his nap so bye for now. Maybe I'll get the energy together to finish that darn pullover so I won't feel so guilty about the rest of these projects :).

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Another ruffled scarf and some A.D.D.

So here's the scoop. Remember the relaxed pullover I was going to work on? Well I started working on it and got the body finished.




Then I realized that my best friends birthday is this coming up weekend and I wanted to make her a ruffled scarf. So I stopped the pullover and started the scarf. Here it is...


I think she'll like it. I'm going to wrap it around the rest of her present like ribbon.





Now before we finish this post I wanted to show you the WIP of a sweater I'm knitting for my husband. If it turns out then I will surprise him with it when it's finished. I've just been working on the body of it when he's not at home.




It is a textured garter knit according to the pattern.
My gauge is spot on, I have been checking it pretty much every row, every inch, you name it and I have my trusty, handy, tape measure out. Of course I realize it really isn't that big of an achievement to get my gauge correct. It just proves that I can add 1 +1 and =2 and that I can actually read and follow directions :). So before I sign off I want to remind you all that I am still working on an aran afghan and the 'catch the wave' afghan. Besides all that I just got some fantastic yarn in the mail to knit my daughter an absolutely adorable cardigan and I also got some yarn for myself to knit a cardigan and (are you laughing yet) I got some more yarn for a jacket for my son. This of course doesn't take into consideration how many other projects I have queued up on my brain. They keep me up at night. I realize that October is just around the corner and with that comes costume sewing and trips to Apple Hill and oh the list goes on. I also still have to post pictures of the knits I made for my swap, I wonder how long it takes for something to get to New Zealand.....



I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and thanks for all the compliments on the ladybug party and for playing along with the meme.

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Meme

I was tagged for a meme by Mary. I love reading these because I am always curious about people and probably just plain nosy :)

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.Here are my six random facts:

1. I am the oldest of four kids, one sister and two brothers, my youngest brother is 13 years my junior. He is affectionately referred to as the "bonus" baby.

2. My name is Andrea after an actress from some show my parents watched while my mother was pregnant with me. That's their story but they can't seem to remember what show or what actress.

3. I met my husband when I was eighteen and a freshman at college. He is 4 1/2 years older then me and we did not hit it off at first. In his version I walked up and insulted him. In my truthful version he was arrogant and kind of a jerk. Two years of friendship and he grew on me and we started dating. We've now been together 11 years and he still cracks me up and is my best friend.

4. I have a crazy love of math. I buy math puzzle books to do for fun. I know, I know, my friends and family make fun of me all the time.

5. My favorite food is Mexican food of any kind and it must be accompanied by either a margarita or an ice cold beer.

6. My two best friends I have known most of my life, one is my younger sister, and the other I met when we were both eleven.

There you go six random things about me. I am tagging

Kate

Knitterella

Kathy

Sheepish One

Jane

Annie

If any of you don't want to play no worries, but I hope you do :). I'm glad I had this meme to post because I am in the middle of WIP, ADD knitting hell and am trying to get a grip on things to post. Have a good Monday!

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Ladybug party

Ladybugs! Lots and lots of ladybugs! We had my daughter's fourth birthday party this weekend. Whoo...I could really use some time off. Funny how only two hours can require so much prep and be so tiring, but also so worth it. First off here is a picture of the cake.

A few years ago I picked up a magazine with different birthday themes with cakes and so this is a replica of the ladybug cake from the magazine. Cute, no?

We made ladybugs for all over the house and played 'pin the spot on the ladybug'. For the goody bags I used the tutorial from here and made these goody bags.

The best part? Besides the fact that they only took a little over an hour to make, and that they were ladybugs, the best part was the fact that all the ladybugs had four dots (fourth birthday).

One last thing to share. I ordered blank puzzles from bare books and as a craft at the party the kids colored and essentially created their own puzzles. Big hit!

Lots of food eaten, lots of running around and playing, and lots of ladybugs.

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General musings & a sweater

I'm ready for a change in the weather. This picture was taken last fall in the mountains near where I live and I'm ready for this scenery. I'm done being hot and I want to have the weather that goes with all the cardigans and pullovers I have queued up in Ravelry. I spent the majority of last night perusing patterns and clicking favorite on a lot of them. Is anyone else overwhelmed at the amount of projects they have queued up or listed as a favorite in Ravelry. I wonder if I'll ever knit them all up or not but I just keep finding more I like. By the way I am "athomemommyknits" in Ravelry so please look me up. I have a pathetic amount of friends (three) so I would welcome more :).


I also decided to share with you a sweater I knit last fall. My very first sweater to be precise. The El Sol Pullover was the first sweater for myself. This is the first sweater I ever attempted and it was for my daughter.



It is from a pattern out of Family Knits by Debbie Bliss. It is the hooded guernsey and you can find it on Ravelry here. I didn't use the Debbie Bliss Cotton DK yarn I found something comparable.



It was purposely knit one size larger than she normally wears because my kids grow like weeds.




These pictures are from last winter. I had forgotten about it until I was getting her closet cleaned out and organized the other night. After the El Sol debacle I thought it might be nice to show something that did turn out and is wearable, even if it is from last year.

I also wanted to share a website that I stumbled upon that has great yarn prices. Smiley yarns is a great yarn store and they had fantastic prices on all different yarns. I want to make each of my kids a sweater this fall but somehow I can't get up the nerve to spend between $75-$100 on yarn for a fifteen month old let alone have to hand wash or dry clean it. I just can't justify it, but at the same time I don't want to knit something for them with cheap yarn (note: not inexpensive yarn cheap yarn-you all know what I'm talking about) because then it just screams "homemade sweater" and not in a good way ;). When I knit a sweater I want people to see the sweater first and foremost and then realize that I knit it. Does this make any sense to anyone? Anyway long story longer, this website had some great yarn at great prices and I ordered some right up at what I think are reasonable prices to knit the kids a sweater each. If any of you know of other places to get good yarn prices please share.

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