Knitting Update ~ Dishcloths

I finally did it!  After all these years of buying these knitted dishcloths, I knitted not one, but two myself. 

The first one was a basic square, and I put it up for sale in my on-line store.  The second pattern involved a diagonal garter stitch.

I do not have size 7 needles, so I made it with size 8, but it ended up 2 inches smaller than the pattern stated.  I am also concerned, because my starting point and the ending point do not look the same.  You can't really see in this photo, but to me it appeared different.


I found another pattern on-line this morning, and the woman had the same feelings about the starting and ending points.  I will try her pattern also, and make sure to keep measuring as I knit.  


I'm excited to finally do this.  I am still crocheting, tatting and making other crafts, it's just been one day at a time.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup With Homemade Noodles

It started raining before I pulled the carrots for our soup.  I darted out there and pulled the last of them (I think).  After that I realized I forgot the swiss chard.  Then it started raining harder.

I have to think like pioneers, so I thought I'll just use what I have.  I diced a green bell pepper in place of celery.

I roasted two of our chickens (meat chickens raised by us) and pulled off the meat, added it to organic broth (I try to make my own, but had a box heading toward the expiration date, so I used that).  

Prior to that I diced onion, carrots and sauteed those in olive oil, then added the green pepper, broth and water, chicken, and half of the homemade egg noodles I made a few days ago.  The other half will create another meal.

I, of course, added herbs from my herb garden.  Yummy! 

I also baked 2 loaves of pumpkin bread.  I am just now getting ripe baking pumpkins, so I used a can of canned pumpkin.  However, my goal is to start canning baking pumpkin for recipes such as this.  I also did not have enough cooking oil.  I made up the difference with my homemade pear butter, and it turned out moist and delicious.  You can also adjust the amount of sugar to your preference.


Pumpkin Bread
3 cups of sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 can of canned pumpkin - 16 oz.
3 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2/3 cup water


Cream sugar and oil.  Add eggs and pumpkin. Mix well.  Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.  Add to pumpkin mixture alternately with water.  Mix well.  Pour into 2 - 9x5 in. loaf pans, greased and floured.  Bake at 350° for 80-90 minutes, or until completely done.  Let stand 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool.


Enjoy!  Those loaves didn't last long around here.  I had to hurry up and get slices in school lunches before it was all gone.