Lisa is a Winner!

Following up with the Grow Your Blog party, I have chosen a winner using a random number generator.  And the winner is ...

Lisa from Needles and Wool!!

 

Congratulations Lisa!

 

It would be great if you popped over to Lisa's blog for a visit.  She creates some really nice knitting projects and even has a "Stitch of the Day" on her sidebar which is a great idea.  Lisa and I started following each other through the Grow Your Blog party, and as always, it's been fun getting to know each other a bit through our blogs.  I'll contact you personally Lisa to get your mailing address.

 

Thank you to everyone who stopped by for the Grow Your Blog Party and left comments.  I visited all the people who left a comment (as long as there was a link), and have started following lots of new blogs through this event too.  I know a lot of you have enjoyed this event over the past few weeks.  It was time consuming to read through many, many blogs, but so fun seeing all these bloggers joining up together to share their blogs with new people.   Vicki of 2 Bags Full will keep the list of bloggers up all year should you still wish to visit more blogs even though the actual party has passed.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

 

 

Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies

My family loves chocolate chip cookies.  This is the most requested cookie in my household, even though I can make some pretty good baked goods ... pies, cakes & loaves ... it's the simple things that they seem to love best.  A couple of weeks ago I asked my son if he would like me to bake him something for when he came home.  He'd been under a lot of stress with the workload at school, and end-of-semester exams.  He immediately said "chocolate chip cookies".  And I was happy to oblige ...

 

Would you care to make some yourself?  Here's my recipe:

 

Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips*

 

Combine flour, baking soda, salt & chocolate chips.  Set aside.  Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Blend in flour mixture.  Gently roll into 1-1/2-inch balls and place 2-inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in 375F oven for 8 - 11 minutes until golden brown.  Makes about 3 dozen

*ok, so maybe I put in the entire 350g bag of chocolate chips rather than measure them out ;)

 

 

 

These are nice & buttery and don't last long!

 

so keep the lid on

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

Linking up with Sarah for ...

 

Block a Week

Joining with Linda again today for Knit a Block a Week Challenge.  I wasn't able to post about my square last week, although I did knit a block.  So this week I have two blocks to show you. 

 

My first block is Block 56 "Big Heart".  I'm sure a lot of people will be knitting & crocheting lots of hearts now that Valentine's Day is near.  Did you see my Frozen Heart in yesterday's post? 

Front

Back

This is knit using the intarsia method, which I've not tried before.  If you've never knit in intarsia before and want to try this heart, I would suggest reading the instructions at the back of the book before proceeding.  Of course, I didn't do that (meh! I can figure this out as I go), but realized too late that a little planning ahead could've saved me a little aggravation later on.  Anyway, it all worked out well, and you can see on the back of the block where I twisted the two different yarns together to prevent any gaps between them.  This block did curl a little both top & bottom and on the sides, but not too badly ... of course I just cropped the curls right out of the photo because I didn't block it :)  

 

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy knitting the intarsia method when I had four different balls going across the top, but I am easily annoyed if yarn starts getting into a tangle, and I didn't like having four balls of yarn carefully placed all around me as I knit ... you don't want to have to get up in a hurry to run to the phone or anything!  I'll probably give it a go again should I come across something I really want to make though.

 

My second block is Block 197 "Harris".

Front

Back

It's quite a dense square with a nice nubby texture.  This block was easy to knit up and I liked the effect with the variegated yarn peeking out from the dark brown.  It didn't curl on any of the edges, which was nice.  I can see using this knit stitch for little mug rugs, or a heat pad since it is so dense.

 

Here are all my Chocolate Peppermint blocks so far ...

 



 

If you'd like to see other blocks in this challenge, just click on the link!

 

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Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy