Doh!

Every time I make more kefir soda I mean to take pictures so that I may accurately describe the process. This has yet to happen and I average a new batch every two to four days. There are some things that I have discovered during the process. Here are my thoughts/conclusions:

1. Any juice with an apple base does not taste good. The apple juice leaves a little bit of a sour (but not pleasant) flavor. I don't mind the apple juice soda but my husband does. I haven't made grape since most grape juice (unless you pay premium) is like 95% apple juice. We did try some grape when my sister-in-law brought it up and Chris wasn't a huge fan. Keep in mind that I don't know what brand of juice she used. I think it might have had apple in it.

2. Ocean Spray juice is no longer  made with HFCS. This is great because when I feel like going cheap on juice- I can buy something without.

3. Black cherry juice doesn't taste that good. It's not worth the money. Now, to keep things fair, this is based on the Whole Foods brand and not on the R.W. Knudsen brand which probably has a better flavor. I also have not tried Tart Cherry.

4. Cranberry Pomegranate is really good. This is the flavor that my husband likes the best- and considering he's really picky this is huge.

5. Molasses leaves a strong flavor. If you love molasses then add it. It's too strong for my taste. The reason that you would add molasses in the first place is to add minerals to the water for the kefir to eat.

6. Adding egg shell makes it better IMHO. It satisfies the mineral requirements for the grains and it adds calcium to the water. I also think it makes a better fizz.

7. I have seen some websites with recipes that suggest adding raisins and orange peel to the water- with no other juice for flavoring. This just sounds gross to me.

Pictures with process coming soon...I promise.

New Completed Project

I just finished a gift for my friend S who just had a baby. Here's what I made her:

Hooded seed stitch baby blanket.

This is a Lion Brand pattern. I purchased two different colors from the Pound of Love line. The pattern called for one Pound of Love divided equally into two balls. Quite frankly, I think that's an impossible task so I purchased two skeins. While acrylic yarn isn't my fave by any stretch, it is easy to wash which is great with children and babies.

My next project: leg warmers for my grandmother.

I'm So Excited

that I just can't hide it! Well, that's a bit much, but I am pretty excited about my new water kefir grains. My sister-in-law/best friend L. hooked me up with some grains and showed me how to do it. She even brought up some kefir soda for us to try. It is so yummy!

Kefir water, juice, and kefir water with juice ready for 2nd fermentation.

Close up of kefir grains in water.

I just fed my grains today and decided to post some pictures.

A Gift for My Grandma

I spoke to my grandmother Mimi a few weeks ago and mentioned that I had made an apron for a friend. She was surprised that I sewed, which I thought odd (I thought she knew). Through the course of the conversation she mentioned how she is unable to find a cobbler apron and asked if I could make one. I then emailed her a few pictures of some patterns, which were close but not quite what she wanted. She is very picky (it's probably where I get it), so I am going to be making up a pattern. I'm kind of excited. I think it'll be easy to do. As I currently do not have any pattern paper- something which must be remedied- I am going to be drawing the pattern out on wrapping paper.  Pictures to follow.

Gift Basket

One of my friends is getting married, and for her bridal shower I decided to make a gift basket. I like gift baskets because they are very personal and I think a lot better than going and buying something off the registry and having them wrap it. This particular gift was geared toward pie making. It contained the following:

1. French Rolling Pin
2. Homemade apron
3. Pie beads
4. Pie plate
5. Pastry blender
6. Pie server
7. Dish towels
8. Flour sack towels
9. Apple cider vinegar (to help stock the new couple's pantry- a nice idea)
10. Icing spatula
11. Basket

Here are the pictures:

Bzzzzzzz

Well, it's been a busy week...okay...more like a few weeks. 

I am not going to do an update post just now, as I am busy sorting through my pictures folder (it's a little out of control at the moment).

The Bee Man brings his bees to the Farmer's Market.

Bees up close. So cool!

I took this picture at the Dallas Farmer's Market. I just thought it was really really cool. 

Baby Booties

I made these as part of a gift for one of Chris' coworkers. She is just as big a fan of pink as I am. She's sure to love these!

Hello World!

I have been under the weather for almost all of June. I am finally over my stomach bug and am ready to get back to reporting my girlie adventures.

Things I've been up to since last updating:

1. Lactofermenting vegetables
2. Cable knitting
3. Finishing my first knitted garment (well, just about finished it)
4. Brewing kombucha
5. Filling out an address book

Lactofermenting vegetables? What is that you are probably asking yourself.  Lactofermentation is the process of  combining vegetables with salt, whey, and other various spices. The salt and/or whey contributes enough acidity to the vegetables to prevent putrification of the produce. This allows ample time for friendly bacteria to prosper. Lactofermented veggies are a type of super food because they are not only raw (you should have a certain amount of raw in your diet), but they also contain probiotics- much like yogurt. I made gingered carrots (no picture), pickles (my new obsession), and salsa (it was amazing raw I can't wait to taste it after fermentation).

Before fermenting

After fermenting

This salsa looks beautiful.

The best part of making these is that it's so easy! The salsa was a little time consuming because of the dicing, but the pickles are a breeze to put together. I made two prior jars of pickles and kept them whole. Not for nothing, but I think these vegetables look beautiful. I love the vibrant colors. This is what food is supposed to be like.



Cable knitting has been something that I have really wanted to learn because to me it is one of the prettiest types of knitting. I made a simple cable scarf (pattern from Lion Brand Yarn). It was so easy! I am so excited. I can't wait to try something more complex. At some point I hope to create a cable knit sweater or sweater dress.  The sides of the picture are rolling slightly. After I finished the scarf I blocked it with my Rowenta Steamer and now it rolls no longer.

I have been talking about kombucha, I know. And I know that I very much need to post some pictures. I am hoping to grow a really good mother and then I'll post pictures. 
Onto the address book- I received a beautiful pink leather address book from my father and mother-in-law. It is awesome! It has a calendar, which my mother-in-law filled out with birthdays and such, and it came with replacement stickers for when individual's information changes so you don't have to replace the whole page. It's great, now I don't feel bad about using a pen to write down information.

Bad Llama

I am such a slacker! I haven't updated squat lately. My life hasn't been uber hectic or anything like that.  I just haven't felt like updating.

I've been having fun with my new toys- KitchenAid Food Processor, KitchenAid Blender, and Brother Sewing Machine. It's like Christmas in June! I have been so blessed by my mother-in-law's generosity. She enabled me to purchase a new food processor and blender and a few other things. The sewing machine was a gift from my husband.

I can't tell you how much I have missed having a food processor! The ease with which I can turn out a pie crust is just delightful. I am so happy to have one back in my life. It's the KitchenAid 12 Cup Extra Wide Mouth Food Processor in Brushed Nickel. As you can see it is quite large. It came with three different bowls, a bunch of blades and a nice storage box for the extra equipment. It's fantastic.

I found this great recipe for a strawberry-rhubarb cobbler/crisp, which I made after going strawberry picking. It's a great easy recipe from the William-Sonoma Baking book. I have referenced this book before. It also has modification recipes so the other night I did a Three Berry Cobbler. I used blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. It had such a good flavor!

I also joined an organic coop. I am very excited because it will force me to eat vegetables that I would not normally choose to purchase, like Swiss chard. I can also purchase non-homogenized milk through the coop,which is nice because the homogenization process absolutely destroys anything that the pasteurization didn't kill. Visit www.realmilk.com to find out more about the processing of milk. I still prefer raw milk to this milk, and may end up driving up to Plano once a month. We'll see. Here's a picture of the half share from my coop:

The picture does not include the head of lettuce and Swiss chard.

An Untitled Update

It's been a while since I posted last. I would call myself a slacker, but I've been out of town and then had family come into town.

Good news though- I got a new digital camera. So yay, more and better pictures.  I have successfully made cream cheese from scratch. To be more precise, cream cheese and whey. Whey is the by-product when you make cream cheese the real way. It is used in cooking, fermenting drinks, and can be a standalone beverage. I'm pretty excited.

I'm now making a real batch of komboucha. It should be ready tomorrow. Details and pictures will follow!

Tootles!

Half & Half

I used to drink the little half & half servings at the diner growing up. I recently had one when I was in Florida, and I can honestly say that it has re-ignited my love for half & half. So, I am currently sipping some delicious organic half & half.

If I had to pick a perfect pectin

It would be one in which I didn't have to use tons of sugar and that consistently produced jammy jams and jellies that jelled.

I thought that this didn't exist. My mom and I always used Certo Liquid Pectin with excellent results. We tried some of the Ball brand pectins, but found that Certo was almost guaranteed to work. The one downside to Certo- the exorbitant amount of sugar required to activate the pectin. How exorbitant you must be wondering? How about 4 cups of mashed fruit to 7 cups of sugar? It's kind of a lot don't you think?

Always on the quest to find the perfect product, I purchased some pectin at Whole Foods called "Pomona's Universal Pectin" which advertised as a low sugar or sugar alternative pectin. The pectin worked off of a calcium activation instead of a sugar activation like most other pectins, and you could use sugar or honey as a sweetener. This intrigued me.

I tried it yesterday, with fabulous results. The strawberry jam is very cohesive. I can tell just by turning the jars around. The flavor when it was warm reminded me of strawberry fruit roll-ups except that there is nothing artificial in them. The best part? I only needed to use 3/4 cup of sugar for the same 4 cups of mashed fruit!

The one downside? Since I'm not dumping 3 lbs. of sugar in with the fruit, my yield is about half what it usually is. With Certo's recipe for strawberry jam I would have yielded about 8 8 oz. jars, but with Pomona's I only yielded 4 8 oz. jars. Depressing.

The flavor after it has cooled and sealed? Indescribable.

So here's my conundrum: I am a purist. Jam by definition must have equal parts (based on weight) mashed fruit and sugar, while a fruit spread has almost no sugar in it. So in that sense, I want to make jam when I set out to make jam. Plus, to be a realist, it would be awfully expensive to make large batches of fruit spread. I'll find the middle road, and when I do I'll let you know.

Someone had a little lamb

And now I'm going to eat it!

This is my first time cooking a leg of lamb. I've only had lamb a few times, and I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I'm now trying it as an adult. We'll see how it goes.

I found this great recipe from Cooks Illustrated (as you can tell I'm a fan) with lemon and mint. The recipe is for lamb shanks, but I think a boneless leg of lamb should be okay. It's a braise, which I love. Braising is such a great way get a lot of flavor without too much work.  You can also braise with cheap cuts of meat. Another plus.

I'm going to be making peas as well with dinner. I haven't decided if I'm going to try a mint and shallot variation. Since I have shallots and extra mint, I think I may as well go for it.  The lamb will also be accompanied with mashed potatoes.  In my household I need to make sure that I at least have one item on the plate that my husband is guaranteed to like.

Dessert will be ice cream, cookies, or leftover cake.

P.S. I WOULD post pictures if I had a working camera...

I'm Back

I just got back today from being in Florida with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephews. It feels great to be home, and I don't think that I'll be spending 9 days away from my husband again.

I am so very tired.

In other news, I think my digital camera is kaput. It's old, but clearly I won't be able to add any pictures up for a while unless I use my webcam...

My most recent acquisition was a serger (a gift from my mother-in-law). It is amazing. I don't know why I was sewing for so many years without one. It's the Brother 1034D with the optional clip cup and feet. I'm super excited and really just want to go serge something.

My next project is to brew some komboucha from scratch. Stay tuned- I'll take pictures, maybe a video, and will definitely address the health benefits of the this traditional beverage.

I can be sneaky

Last night I made steak, baked potatoes, and carrots with maple syrup for dinner. Well, that's what my husband thought anyway.

He however is slightly misguided. I did not make carrots with maple syrup; I actually made carrots vichy (carrots cooked in water, butter, and honey). He had no idea that he ate a dish with honey and liked it! As an aside, my husband has some food issues that are borderline blasphemous.  The fact that I was able to pull of the recipe is a victory.

I found the recipe while going through Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, which is an excellent resource of nutritional information, culturing and fermenting, and recipes.

P.S. I didn't lie to him at all about maple syrup carrots. I just told him we were having carrots.

My New Toy

I picked up a new toy at Sur La Table a few weeks ago. It's called the Kuhn Rikon Cookie Press and it is so far a neat little gadget.

It comes in a clear plastic case, which I think might be one of the best features (Note: the case has rubber feet on the bottom to prevent slippage). I'm a huge proponent of storage cases primarily because I grew up with cluttered cabinets. You know the kind- you open up the door and plastic storage containers come spewing out at you seeking refuge.   I'll have to put up some pictures of my cabinets so you see just how much it bothers me...I have issues, I know.

Back to the Cookie Press...

I especially like this gadget because it comes with fourteen different plates for cookies and 6 decorating tips. I have not really gotten very into cake decorating. It something that I want to do in the future, and this was an easy way to get my feet wet. I also abhor the pastry bags. Does anyone else have flashbacks to royal icing oozing out the back of a pastry bag while putting together a gingerbread house?  I also enjoy multipurpose tools- more bang for the buck and less to store.

The press is made of both plastic and stainless steel. I like being able to see how much dough is left in a press, so for me the clear plastic tube is a huge plus. The really cool thing is that you only need one click for cookies, which makes making the cookies go really quickly. It's literally half the time than it would take if you were to use the old fashioned aluminum with the screw mechanism.

I picked this up for $30.

Deal of the Day!

I found these two items whilst doing some shopping:

1. Pie Weights (Beads) in a Jar- $4.99 at World Market. They cost $13.59 at Williams-Sonoma and $9.95 at Sur La Table. These are used when you make a pie crust and have to cook it before filling the shell. If you are a real cheap skate, you can just use pennies!

2. Bay Leaves- $1.99 for 1 ounce at World Market. I recently purchased 0.1 ounce of bay leaves at Whole Foods for $4.99.  I'm sure everyone will say "That's because Whole Foods is expensive!" And you may be right, but McCormick's is probably around $3.50 or so, and quite frankly I'm not going to run to Wal-Mart to purchase that if I don't have to.

A Must Have

I do want to share another book review with everyone out there in the interwebz. The book that I recently checked out from the library is entitled "The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting."

It is absolutely fabulous! It teaches the completely, wet behind the ears, knitter how to knit by incorporating new techniques into each new project. The best part is there really aren't any bad projects in the book. The book begins with the basic garter stitch, and works its way through increases, decreases, constructing a garment, and even covers felting! I will definitely be adding this to my library.

My poor, poor fridge!

Do you ever get into a state of denial when it comes to the food in your fridge? Well, I do! It seems to come in waves where I get out of the habit of keeping the food moving and then I end up with a science project.

My science project for today was some leftover cabbage and potatoes from St. Patrick's Day. I know, I know, for someone who tries to be a good homemaker, I really dropped the ball (and a few comma splices!). Needless to say there were some fuzzy sections and strangely enough some pink discolorations. I probably could have extracted some penicillin from it. But, alas, it's fate was to go down the garbage disposal.

I now have a lot more space in my fridge. Funny how that happens...

Awesome Alert!

I did however make Dark Chocolate Cupcakes- a recipe that I found on Ghiradelli's website. I must confess, that I didn't know what to expect with the recipe. I did have mixed emotions about the frosting recipe based on the ingredients that went into it. I found the recipe here. Seriously scrumptious!

My mixed emotions regarding the frosting was well founded. It worked out to be a lot more like a ganache, which if that's what you like, it's great. I prefer something more like a frosting. I think I might try the frosting one more time because it's very possible that I misread the directions. Either way the flavor is there, which is the most important thing. This is a must have in any recipe collection!

I don't feel like posting...

...but I really don't have anything else that I feel like doing except maybe cleaning, knitting, or playing my flute. Unfortunately, it's a little late to play my flute. What can I say, I'm a considerate neighbor?

So, alas, I find myself catching up on some posts. I finally broke down and put up some pictures of my brown shantung (polyester :( ) dress that I made. It's a Simplicity pattern- if you like it let me know and I'll tell you the number. The pattern was actually fairly easy to work. I opted to put in an invisible zipper instead of a normal zipper. I prefer it, and believe that it's easier to do. The best part about it is that it's a fully lined dress. I love lined clothes- it's such a finished look. It definitely kicks up the sewing a notch or too! Oh, and this had ruffles to make the dress fuller! I love ruffles!

I also finished my Easter dress (New Look Pattern) today and have included those pictures in this post as well. Admittedly, the pictures aren't very inspiring and the dresses would look WAY better if they weren't on a hangar. I'm just in one of those moods where I don't even feel like putting forth that much effort. Going back to the dress...the dress boasts a lined bodice, invisible zipper, and cute lavender buttons shaped like roses to match the fabric (linen).

I know, I know

I have really been slacking! To my defense, however, I did have company for a few days including a 2 year old and a 4 year old.

It was a good visit. Lots of laughs and even some sewing! I helped my sister-in-law make a skirt. She was never taught how to sew and she has been learning with each project. I was so glad that I was able to help her leave the world of elastic waistbands behind and move onto zippers and more stylish waistbands!

I will be posting pictures of my brown shantung halter dress, as well as the dress I am working on for Easter Sunday. I am very excited about it! I haven't owned anything lavender in quite a while. My mom says it's a good color for me. The Easter dress is made out of a lovely linen that I picked up at Joann's.

More to come. Stay tuned!

Sleep Sack for Baby

I threw together in the course of about five days, a sleep sack to give as a gift at a baby shower held on Sunday. I had originally planned to do some intarsia knitting and have a little duckie on the front, but since it was my first attempt at intarsia I opted to practice that separately and try it on the next sleep sack.

While there are many types of sleep sacks that you can purchase online, my knitted one was nothing more than a tube or sleeping bag for the baby. The sleep sack allows you to keep the baby warm and not use a blanket. This prevents the blanket from getting in your baby's face and preventing him from breathing, which apparently reduces the risk of SIDS.

The great thing about this pattern is that you use a three needle cast off which looked great and was super easy. All you do is (with right sides together) put the two needles of the project together and take a third needle and feed it through one stitch on each needle and then knit the stitch and cast off like you normally would. It's super easy and looks great.

Raw Milk Campaign

I am going to begin collecting research regarding the health benefits of raw milk with the end goal of having the sale of it in grocery stores to become legal. Here in Texas the sale of raw milk is perfectly legal on the farm. This is quite frankly retarded. Why is there a difference in purchasing raw milk on the farm versus buying it in the store? It's the same milk isn't it?

In light of the recent events in Washington; however, the Raw Milk Campaign may have to wait until after the November 2010 elections. Securing our freedoms are more important at this point. If we congress continues to take away our freedoms then we won't even have the option to purchase raw milk at all.

Okay, I'm off my soap box.

Swedish Knits Book Review

I checked this book out from my local library. I love Norwegian styled sweaters and thought that this book might be something along those lines. And yes, I recognize that Swedish styles can differ from Norwegian styles.

To say that the book was a disappointment would be an understatement. The book had 21 patterns in it with only two of them truly representing traditional Scandinavian sweaters. The other patterns were good- don't get me wrong- but in a book entitled Swedish Knits am I expecting too much to expect that all the patterns would be either traditional Swedish Knits, updated versions of the same, or a discussion of Swedish knitting?

This book did not touch on really any of this. The first few chapters of the book discuss knitting techniques- from beginner through advanced. It even discusses creating your own patterns. That's great and all, but that's the type of information I want in a book about how to knit and not from I book that is supposed to be about a specific type of knitting.

The overall presentation of the book was quite nice with the photography being very good. The directions were easy to understand. The one nice thing about the book is that they walk you through making a sweater (but then again a lot of other books do as well).

There is no real niche here. I gladly return this book to the library.

Am I being too harsh?

Fun with Rit

We all know what Rit is right? For those that need a slight memory jog- Rit is that powder dye that comes in a box and looks like the logo hasn't been updated since the 1972. You see it in some supermarkets and in craft stores.

Today I dyed one of my skirts. I purchased a crinkly type white skirt from Forever XXII a few years ago (and by a few I mean at least 4) and picked up about three stains along the way. I'm not sure when or how I acquired them. I tried to treat the stains even going so far as applying the bleach from a bleach pen and letting it sit over night and then soaking it in Oxy Clean. The stains were set.

I liked the skirt and decided that it would be the thrifty and resourceful thing to do to dye it a new color. I opted for a practical chocolate brown. All of this isn't very exciting, I know, but I did do a few things the package didn't instruct, and thought I would pass it on to you since it worked so well.

I followed the directions for the stove top dying bathe. Once I was done with the bathe I decided to rinse out the skirt in the sink with cold water to try and get all the residual dye out. I must confess that I did this because I am extremely anal-retentive about my washer and dryer. When I could not get the water to run clear by rinsing and ringing, I decided that I would just wash the skirt in the sink (the box recommends putting it in your washer).

Then I decided to use the recipe for color fasting from my book entitled Lemons, Salt, Vinegar, and Baking Soda- a must own. I filled the sink up again with cold water and then added 1 cup of white vinegar (Wal-Mart's finest) and 1/2 salt (mine was Kosher). I let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. I then rinsed it off and hung it up to dry. This was not in the directions at all.

The remarkable thing was that the water was turning colors when I was filling up the sink again but as soon as I put the vinegar and salt in, the water become colorless again. Then when I rinsed the skirt, no dye came out!

Prepping for St. Patrick's Day

I am corning my own beef brisket this year. I have to step things up every now and then, ya know?

So how do you do it?

1 beef brisket (4-6 lbs)
Salt (Kosher) (I used large sea salt)
Bay leaves
Thyme
Allspice
Paprika
Cracked black pepper

Spear the brisket on either side and then rub the spices on it. Put it in a Ziploc, remove the air, and then put it in the fridge with a brick or cast iron pan on top, turning twice a day. Leave for 5-7 days. It's that easy.





On a side note, I am totally in love with Vanna's Choice Baby color Little Boy Blue. It's gorgeous.

Playing Catch-Up

During the course of the past week and a half that I have been dodging this blog, I embarked on some interesting projects. Me and my friend S (she had never canned before) did some canning. We made grape jelly from scratch, apple butter, and two batches of applesauce. Some pictures where taken and unfortunately a lot was never taken.

We used the recipes from the Ball Blue Book as well as the recipe that you get in the box of Certo pectin.

We used the Certo recipe for grape jelly, but instead of using Concord grapes, a mixture of green and red seedless grapes were substituted. This yielded a lovely jelly with a potent grape flavor and a pretty shade of pink.






The applesauce recipe was from the Ball book, and it came out well. I opted to add cinnamon because my husband requested it. The second batch I added some ground cloves and cinnamon. I had a second batch of applesauce because I had so many red delicious apples (20 lbs.). I also had a great idea to put some of the applesauce into the small 4 oz. jelly jars so that I could just grab one to put in his lunch box. This has really worked out well in the mornings!

The apple butter recipe I used the ingredients and processing time from the Ball book. The flavor is phenomenal. The recipe lacked two major things: the estimated cooking time and how to tell when the butter is ready. The recipe read along these lines "Cook slowly until thick enough to round up on a spoon." This was not helpful...in the least.

I then consulted another canning book Jellies, Jams, and Chutneys fortunately this book was a lot more helpful. The butter is done when you spoon some out on a clean plate and let it cool and there is no liquid ring around the butter. I can work with that. The time indications in that book weren't very helpful either. I cooked the butter for 3 hours, and it still wasn't close to being ready. I was hopeful it would thicken up after canning it and cooling it, so I canned it. It wasn't any better a day later.

I began to search the internet for recipes/cooking times/examples of butter and stumbled upon a recipe on www.pickyourown.org. In this recipe the author puts the butter in the crock pot for 6 to 12 hours. This was the answer.

Unfortunately, I never think to take pictures while actually ladling, measuring, and sealing. One of these days I'll have a friend be here just to take pictures.

Oscar's Favorite Sweater Pattern

Oscar’s Favorite Sweater

1 skein Bernat Baby Sport
Size 5 straight needles*
Size 5 16" circular needles*
Yarn needle
*Any size to obtain gauge
Gauge: In stockinette 30 sts x 30 rows = 4 inches x 4 inches

Main sweater:
CO (Long tail chain method) 90 sts
Row 1 *K2, P2*
Row 2 *P2, K2*
Row 3 *K2, P2*
Row 4 *P2, K2*
Row 5 *K2, P2*
Row 6 *P2, K2*
Row 7 *K2, P2*
Row 8 (WS)*P2, K2* - Should be about 1 inch tall
Row 9 K All stitches (Switching to the stockinette pattern)
Row 10 P
Row 11 K
Row 12 P
Row 13 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 14 P
Row 15 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 16 P
Row 17 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 18 P
Row 19 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 20 P
Row 21 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 22 P
Row 23 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 24 P
Row 25 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb
Row 26 P
Row 27 Kfb, K until last stitch, Kfb (Should have 106 stitches)
Rows 28 through 76 Work in stockinette stitch
Row 77 K2TOG, K*, K2TOG *Repeat until last two stitches
Row 78 P2TOG, P*, P2TOG
Row 79 K2TOG, K*, K2TOG
Row 80 P2TOG, P*, P2TOG
Row 81 K
Row 82 P
Row 83 K
Row 84 P
Row 85 K
Row 86 P
Row 87 K
Row 88 P
Row 89 K
Row 90 P
Row 91 K
Row 92 P
Row 93 K
Row 94 P
Row 95 K
Row 96 P
Row 97 K
Row 98 P
Row 99 K
Row 100 P
Row 101 K
Row 102 P
Row 103 K
Row 104 P
Row 105 K
Row 106 P
Row 107 K2P2* Repeat until the end of row. While doing this, knit from straight needles onto circular needles. At the end of the row cast on (via Cable Cast On Method) another 18 stitches.
Row 108 K2P2*
Row 109 K2P2*
Row 110 through 127 K2P2*
Row 128 Cast off in pattern.

Chest:
I knit the chest piece from bottom to top, but you could likewise reverse it.
CO (via long tail chain) 30 stitches
Row 1 through Row 30 *K2 P2*
Row 31 K2 TOG, *P2 K2* Until last two stitches, P2 TOG
Row 32 K2 TOG, *P2 K2* Until last two stitches, K2 TOG
Row 33 *P2 K2*
Row 34 through 41 *P2 K2*
Row 42 CO 10 sts, P2 K2 until end of row, CO 10 more stitches
Rows 43 through 50 *K2 P2*
Row 51 (RS) Cast off in Rib Pattern
Block pieces over night, and stitch together.

I added stitches when joining the neck to knit in the round, however if that would be too big for your dogs neck, just add two stitches to maintain the rib pattern and join to knit in the round.

I'm so overdue!

I have been needing to make a post since about a week ago, and I just haven't gotten around to it. I feel like such a slacker. I have a book review and some pics and projects to update.

Stay tuned, a real update is coming. But now, I must make bread, finish the laundry, and test the apple butter.

Cheers!

Finished!

Here's a few pictures of Oscar's Favorite Sweater. I'll post the pattern soon.

Oscar's Sweater Update

I finished the chest piece of Oscar's sweater tonight (praise Jesus!). I have both pieces blocking right now.