House Progress

My daughter's room is almost done. We are putting in new flooring and I have to do one more coat of paint, then I can start getting it set up. Yay!!

On the right of her closet is enough room to put her bed against the wall and I want to put some curtains on the sides of her bed. I am thinking pink. A very girly room.

We might do some stencils on her walls too, maybe butterflies.

I have to finish taking the strip of border off the closet and I think I am just doing a coat of white on the door. Break up the purple a little bit.

My dog came for a visit while I was working.

Knittin' Mittens

I have been spending some time knitting mittens.

What I love about knitting mittens is that it is a small project that you can take anywhere with you and it is quick to finish. The mittens pictured above are worked flat in one piece and sewn together at the sides. I like this method because I find it easier to use the straight needles rather than double-pointed needles. What I don't like about them is that I had to sew them and make a seam. I love the cable pattern on them, but I think next time, if I make them again, I will make them on dpns and work in the round and eliminate the seam.

Now I am working on just a basic knitted mitten. I am using Bernat Softee Chunky and using the Bernat family mittens pattern. I made a mistake in them, I put eight stitches on the holder for the thumb and I was supposed to put ten on it, so the count for the hand part of the mitten should have only had 2 extra stitches, somehow I ended up with 4 extra stitches. For the hand I just arranged the stitches a little differently than they said to in the pattern and did an extra row of decreasing, rather than undoing all the work that I had done. 

For the thumb they said to pick up 2 stitches and I was already 2 stitches short, so I needed 12 stitches on my needle for the thumb. Instead of picking up 2 stitches I picked up 4 to get the right stitch count. 

For the next mitten I am going to make it the same way, put 8 on the holder for the thumb and pick up 4 stitches when I knit the thumb in. I don't know about the extra 4 stitches I had in the hand. Maybe I can figure out where I went wrong when I make the next one.

Mmm Pumpkin Latte

One of my favorite drinks for the fall is a pumpkin latte, the other is chai tea. 

Normally when you make a latte you have to use espresso, I don't have an espresso machine, so I just make strong coffee. It works just as well, I think so anyway. 

Brew your espresso,  or strong coffee.

In a saucepan over medium heat mix 

1 cup milk

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tbsp pumpkin puree

1 tbsp sugar, or to taste

Whisk until hot, but not boiling.

Pour an ounce of espresso into cup and fill with milk mixture.