Beaches, Pies, and Flaws

We took the boys for a walk at one of the local beaches the other night. I forgot to take something for them to put shells in, of course. I ended up with my hands full on the walk back to the truck.

No sign of a sand dollar. Lots of clam and mussel shells, and of course periwinkle shells.

Smurf pies. I don't bake a lot, but when I do I usually make five or six things over a couple of days, then I'm good for awhile. I don't have any pie plates. Usually if I'm gonna make pie I get pre-made shells in foil pans. These two little pot-pan things are probably only 6-7" across, and I use them if I make crust from scratch. This is graham cracker crust with chocolate pudding mixed thicker than normal (2 boxes to 3 cups milk) and whip topping a la sprinkles. They were mighty tasty. Got butterscotch for next time. Today I made coconut muffins and chocolate chip cookies. (I don't brag about anything I make except CCC! I make a helluva bad-ass CCC!) I also just got a batch of home-made rolls out of the oven, all buttered up and cooling off. (Gotta brush a little over the tops when they first come out of the oven so they stay soft!) I let the boys each have a piece of dough to make their own things, so there's a few blobs of misshapen somethings happenin'. My home-made bread and rolls come out alright, but I'm nothing compared to MIL. Then again, she cooks for a living and makes all the bread at the inn where she works. (And has done so for nearly thirty years.)

Remember the start of the orange sock from two posts ago? That didn't go so well. It started off as BFF socks (cuz the ones she did were with kinda busy yarn and look great), but you couldn't see the pattern at all. Ripped out after four pattern repeats. Then I decided on trying Dublin Bays, mostly stocking stitch with some lacy panels. I got about six pattern repeats done and thought, "Man, this looks huge!" I followed directions, 2.25mm needles, 72sts (which sounded a lot at the time), Cherry Tree Hill in Fall Foliage. Way too big. Frogged again for the second time, restarted 60sts on 2.25mm needles, eye of partridge heel over 30sts. Now I'm just about finished with the gusset decreases on the first sock, and it looks like things are okay. Almost. Take a look.

Take a closer look.

I don't think any feline teeth came into contact with this. I think it's just a flaw in the skein, although I don't remember coming across it when I wound it. I might have. I'd probably never remember. (The other day I went to McDonald's with the assistant manager at work. We go get our lunch most days and take it back to the store to eat. Anyways, we had a coupon for a free sandwich, so I ordered mine and said I'd get a bottle of pop when we got back at the store next to our store. Then he says I already ordered pop. That's how fast I forget. So that flaw may have been there, and I just didn't remember.)

Gonna go try a roll before I take any to work tomorrow. Can't take in anything sub-standard! I'd be shot if they found out I baked and didn't bring them anything. (Especially since the assistant manager loves home-made rolls! I need to stay on his good side in case he wins big in the lotto. We have a deal that if either one of us ever wins big on our own ticket we give the other something, depending on how much was won, of course. Plus three of us go in on tickets all the time when it's a big jackpot. Not that we'll ever win, but just in case. A friend of mine from town did win $2million about four or five years ago. She never thought it would happen to her.)

Happy knitting!