Bread: Take 3

My second bread baking adventure was pretty disastrous.  I got this honey wheatberry bread kit that you were supposed to be able to make artisan no-knead style, but they only had you rise it for like 2 hours when everything else I've seen that is no-knead has to rise overnight.  It was too wet and I ended up with what looked like focaccia rather than the ball shaped loaf I was supposed to get.  Pretty tasty though...
This actually inspired me to find a basic focaccia recipe, which I did in my better homes and gardens prize winning recipes cookbook.  I had everything to do it with, except yeast.  And then I looked at some of my bread recipes in the kitchenaid mixer manual and all I needed to do those was yeast.  So I put a jar of yeast on the grocery list.  Then I convinced Tim that we didn't need to buy bread and I would just bake us bread from now on, which was pretty easy.
That night I prepared some dough using the quick mix, cool rise method.  It was actually a bit easier to get the dough to come together with the recipe because you get a range of flour and can add more or less based on texture.  After it is mixed and kneaded (by my kitchen aid dough hood), it rests for only 20 minutes at regular room temperature and actually puffs up quite a bit before you divide it and form loaves.  Then the loaves get refrigerated for 2-12 hours (I left mine in there from 10pm to 2pm the next day and they were fine) before baking.  I should mention that you use something to the equivalent of 3 packages of yeast.  This is really close to storebought bread in terms of texture because all the little bubbles are very tiny and uniform and its really dense, but it is on a completely different scale in terms of flavor.  You can taste the yeast, salt, and butter so much.  I actually think I might cut back on the salt next batch.  We still have a loaf waiting in the freezer but I think I will also try a rapid rise method on my next day off.  And focaccia is still waiting to be made.

The giant vinyl bag! (Part 2)

My giant vinyl bag is done... its not quite as good as I wanted it to turn out, but it definately is giant....


One piece of liner with makeshift pocket.

For the liner, I chose some sport nylon.  I have another small glitter vinyl purse that uses a similar material as its liner and it works really well.  I did a makeshift pocket on one side for things I need quick access to.  I didn't even measure it...


The liner, finished.

I sewed the liner to mimic the actual shape of the bag, rather than just a big old loose liner.  I have a pet peeve about coins and stuff getting lost in there.


The silver lining?  (it looks so much more metallic with flash on)

My plan, originally, was to put the liner inside the bag, sew around the very top once, and then use a piece of bias or twill tape to cover up the raw edges.  Unfortunately, the liner came out a bit too small, so as I sewed it in, there wasn't enough of it to go around.  I was able to ease it in by sewing the bias tape to the vinyl and then hand sew the liner to the other end of the bias tape.


Finished!  (yes, it is that big compared to the cat litter bucket)

I used the twill tape to sew on some clear plastic handles that also have glitter embedded in them.  I think I will probably add a removable shoulder strap at some point too, but otherwise, I've already got it loaded with all my junk and a sock project and still have tons of room!

The giant vinyl bag! (Part 1)

I decided that I would start carrying a knitting project to work with me all the time a long time ago.  Unfortunately, I picked a purse that would only carry about 1 project.  It would have been ok, but that project always ended up being a sock or something small.  I decided I needed to make a bag that was big enough that I could actually throw an entirely different project bag into... you know, to be able to switch them out... and it would also have to hold all my normal purse stuff too.  My current purse was already the size of a small tote bag, so I had to thing really really big.
A while back, I had ordered some glitter vinyl to make a purse, so I decided my meganormous tote bag would be made from that.


A sea of glitter vinyl.  (or maybe just a yard)

Luckily, the glitter vinyl I ordered from Joann.com is the upholstery type of vinyl.  It is bonded to a cloth backing and its pretty hardy stuff.  I had read it was best to use a leather needle because it leaves a smaller hole and it can stand up to punching through the vinyl, but as I was leaving Hancock Fabric, the cashier girl told me not to use them on vinyl because they could leave a hole.  This reminded me how important it would be to take some scrap bits and sew them all together.


Testing tension, got some loop-de-loops.

I used some extra strong upholstery nylon to sew the vinyl.  I think my machine liked it less than the vinyl.  It kept getting jammed in the hook and then I had to take apart the whole hook assembly and oil it.  That made it a bit better but I kept getting those loops and I had to crank the tension up to 7.  I had the stitch length set really wide too because it would leave fewer holes in the vinyl.


Bits o' vinyl.

I decided to use two side pieces and one long piece for the bottom and skinny sides together.  For me, the fewer the seams, the better.  I left a good 1/2 inch seam allowance on them all.  It should actually provide a bit of structure in the finished bag, i hope.


The first seams.

I cut the long piece extra long, so I could cut the sides to an even length at the end.  This mean I had to find the center of the pieces and line them all up.  Amazingly, this worked pretty well.


All the vinyl seams sewn.

On the last two seams, of course, I met with a few problems.  First, the machine decided to jam to the point where I had to remove the bobbin, the hook, and the presser foot before I could get the needle out of the fabric and loose.  Not sure what happened but it seemed to work a bit better after I replaced the hook this time.  Perhaps I had it off the first time and was just getting lucky up until then.  Finally on the last seam I ran out of bobbin thread.  Doh.


The outer shell of my dream bag.

So far, it looks great!  Now that I've rested a bit and posted this, it's time to think about the lining.

my newest knit

I have started a new project, even though I have yet to finish my brother's socks.  (its ok, i'll get back to them when i'm done starting this one)  It is a baby blanket.  I kind of have this rule where I have to knit a baby blanket for people really close to me (except my bff's 3rd baby because i was kind of planning a wedding).

Here's the ravelry link: The next baby blanket

I linked to the actual pattern and everything before but here that is again: New Traditions Baby Blanket

It creates a quilt block style pattern by starting with a knit square and then picking up stitches from the edges and knitting other geometric shapes around them.  It sort of reminds me of entrelac except maybe a bit less cool.  I still need to do an entrelac project someday.

I'm hoping to take pictures as I go to kind of demonstrate the construction process.  I will be putting them up on the ravelry link rather than here, so check it out.

No More Puff Sleeves!

About 3 years ago, almost all button up shirts had puff sleeves. It was trendy right then and there. I think it may have been when Mad Men started airing (which is silly because puff sleeves are more like a '40s thing).

At the time, I thought that I was getting a good deal on a few button up work shirts. However I've gotten very little use out of these because the interior sleeve circumference is about 12.5" (size XL, stretch cotton) which is about my arm circumference right above my elbow where the sleeves sit at first. Farther up my arm, where the sleeves eventually end up as I work, my arm ranges anywhere from 13"-15", especially when flexing. So after about an hour of working, I'll discover that suddenly I can't feel my left hand or its tingling. Then the weather gets cold and I forget that this happens until I can start wearing lighter shirts again. This year, I have determined to fix it.

Here is what the puff sleeve looks like before:



Notice how the sleeve is gathered at the top to begin with? I'm pretty sure that taking the gathered seam off the bottom isn't going to make them any puffier up there.

I tried to take off just the little band of fabric around the bottom with a seam ripper first but the thread they used is tiny and i found myself quickly ripping the crap out of it with the seam ripper. I cut off that band and then straightened it out on the floor and cut them straight. I followed that with a simple one fold edge and then used a liquid stitch reinforcer behind the seam allowance to prevent any fraying.

Clean house?

On Easter, I discovered that my grandma literally lives right next to *the* Thelma Meyer.  That's right.  The one who supposedly wrote this book:  Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home: No-Nonsense Advice that Will Inspire You to CLEAN like the DICKENS and has a huge line of supposedly Eco conscious products. Of course, my grandma only lives next to her when they aren't snow-birding to Arizona...  After a bit of googling, I discovered that one of her daughters is the main influence behind the company, but apparently she wanted to pimp out her mother.  Even though my grandma doesn't appear all too pleased about the 'tales from the neighborhood' she claims are at the end of the book, she bought my mom a copy and got Mrs. Meyer to sign it...  Mom didn't read it, but now I'm thinking I should steal it from her just to see what it says.  The whole thing makes me laugh really hard.

In other news, I'm considering this as the next baby blanket I make... for my brother and sister-in-law from the Other Mother.  (A nice one, not some creepy Coraline style Other Mother)

This old house...

Since we moved into this house, it has been clear that the bathroom has undergone a lot of bad renovation.  On the surface, it looked like a tiny 1950s 'everything pink' bathroom, but the wall cupboards looked more like something done in the 80s or 90s.  Truthfully, it only seemed big enough for half a person.
The changes started when I tried to replace the toilet seat.  It was wooden, really old, and had lost its sealant.  So basically it smelled like urine all the time in there.  The screws holding it to the toilet were some kind of brass or copper and had totally crusted up and once I got Tim in there to try to help me loosen them, the toilet ended up cracked.  Tim's education in plumbing went pretty quickly there for a while.
Once the plumbing skills were confident enough, he replaced the pink sink that had been leaking and had a really tiny spout with a small white pedestal.  It made a lot more room for, like, walking into the bathroom.  We talked about doing some more stuff but nothing changed for a time until we watched an episode of this old house where they were removing wallpaper.  The bathroom had this pink wallpaper/tile/too high chair rail thing going... and I came home to most of the wallpaper removed one day.  And underneath was like a dark tan.
One of the things that has bothered me about the bathroom from the beginning was the medicine cabinet.  It was huge, old, and the shelves were all wonky.  On one side, the mirror wouldn't latch right.  At one point I lost a very full bottle of essential oil because it rolled down into the sink.  I'm pretty sure thats why we have a tiny chip on one corner of the new sink.  Anyways, yesterday I decided that I'd try to level the shelves by rehanging them, but I quickly discovered they wouldn't come out because they were additionally attached by something coming through the back.
Now, the reason we'd never tried to replace this before was because, first, we hadn't felt like spending much money and, second, there was a strip of vanity lights going across the top.  Ever since I got Tim Wiring Simplified: Based on the 2008 National Electrical Code for Xmas last year, he had learned an awful lot about wiring (whether he actually learned it from the book, I don't know) and had even put in a bunch of stuff in the basement.  This was the moment which decided that the medicine cabinet would finally come down.  We discovered that the only things that attached it to the wall were 4 giant flathead screws, 1 drywall-ish screw, and a thick layer of caulk or something where it attached to the tiles around it.  The latter was bearing most of the weight and doing the best job of holding it up.  It was good we weren't too attached to the tiles because it ripped a bunch off with it.
As you could have guessed with an old bathroom, there was totally a hole in the wall behind this medicine cabinet for a recessed medicine cabinet, but there was a problem... the size of the hole was 20"w x 16" h.  Most modern recessed medicine cabinets completely flip that dimension.  They are taller rather than wider.  There was some talk of getting one and then moving the hinges but then the shelves are the wrong way and stuff, so we decided to build one.  Also, we installed a new cute little light where the electric came through.  We also replaced the overhead light in the bathroom with basically the same fixture (but newer) because it was always losing its connection with the lightbulbs, but it turns out that even the new ones do that so we basically just made it look slightly better.
I just thought I'd blog this so that I can post some pictures later of the finished product (hopefully soon).

Baking bread...

I have never, by myself, baked bread without a bread machine. I really like the taste of something like a wheatberry or multigrain bread but only if it is really fresh and that seems to call for some self baking. But first I wanted to make sure that I could just bake some bread in general. So I picked up a mix that pretty much had everything I need. I'm sure it would be better from scratch with real butter and such, but we're going with process first.

So I decided to use my kitchen aid to do all the mixing because I have sore hands and I GOT TO USE THE DOUGH HOOK! Ahem... according the the stand mixer handbook, the method that this mix used was something called the quick mix method. Basically the yeast goes into most of the dry ingredients first, followed by the wet, and then the rest of the dry. Its supposed to be more foolproof.

The only difficult part in this whole thing was getting the water to be between 120 and 130 F. Our hottest tap water is much hotter than that, but somehow I managed to get it to about 131 and then let it cool down a bit.

And here is the loaf. Rolling it out was about as easy at the kitchen aid manual made it look.

And 40 minutes of rising later, here is the risen loaf! Right there in the lower left hand corner is the spot where I poked it to be sure of the fact that it had indeed doubled. Apparently if it doesn't un-dent it is ready.

And finally, all baked up. It is pretty typical white bread but it is BREAD! I can do it.

Dishwashers

A little while back, I decided to stop buying dishwasher rinse aid and start using white vinegar. I didn't really make sure that all of the rinse aid had gone out of the dispenser and I ended up with a red scummy substance that looked a little like rust. Despite my attempts at overflowing the dispenser to remove it, there was more and more of the stuff. Also, the overflowing attempts had left of streak of rust colored stain down the inside of the dishwasher door!

I discovered that the best way to clean out this thing was to either take apart the door (p.i.t.a.) or use a syringe. I happened to have a syringe from when Tim had his wisdom teeth out, but it couldn't reach all of the liquid inside... so I stole the little red flow director tube from a can of compressed air and fitted it on the end. Voila! I rinsed it out twice with water and twice with vinegar. I filled it with vinegar again and no more red junk.

Unfortunately, the stain and some others were still there. So next I had to figure out the secret behind dishwasher cleaner. It is made almost entirely of citric acid. There's really no secret to that because almost all products have to list their active ingredient for safety reasons. A bit of internet research led me to this little tidbit: 3 unsweetened lemonade drink mix packets in the main cup is enough citric acid to do the same job. It HAS to be lemon and unsweetened or you'll just make more mess.

So now I had a clean dishwasher, but the vinegar was doing just about the same job as the previous rinse aid: not that great. Now, we had been using some sort of Palmolive eco liquid that was doing an excellent job of cleaning, but we have a 'portable' dishwasher and they don't have the best cleaning power in the world. After searching around for more info, I discovered that nearly every dishwasher repairman with an internet presence believes that liquid detergents leave some sort of residue every time and recommends powder instead.... I also discovered that if you want more rinse aid power, you should get a product with built in rinse aid. This has led us to switch to Cascade complete powder. So far I would say it is worth the money, but it is really too bad that it is the only powder with built in rinse aid that I can find.