An Easy Way to Remove the Pilling on your Sweaters

Way back in the late 1970's, I got a bee in my bonnet.  I wanted a knitting machine in the worse way.  I liked knitting but over the years it had become boring.   I figured a knitting machine would speed up the knitting process, but I could still come up with new ideas and be creative.  They were pretty expensive for the time, but eventually I got one.  I took lessons.  I dragged it to Janesville Wisconsin for all day seminars.  It was fun, and I made a lot of things.  It wasn't as easy as it would seem.  There is still a lot of hand work and transferring with the machine.  Now they have computerized machines that you can program and walk away for a while.  Mine is a basic machine and is almost an antique.  I rarely use it anymore, but keep it for some reason.

At some point, I learned how to make yoke sweaters and I made several.  Recently I was exchanging summer clothes for winter clothes, and I came upon two sweaters that I had made for my mom.  They are at least 20 years old, maybe more.  She would baby them and wear them on the holidays.  When she died, I kept them.  Now I think I am ready to wear them myself. The first one was a basic cardigan.

The red sweater she wore the most.  She hand washed it and took care of it, but it still became very fuzzy over the years.  Wearing sweaters under winter jackets make them pill no matter how you take care of them.  Some yarns are worse than others.

This sweater has a fine sparkly thread in the yarn so it pilled easier.

I found a very easy way to remove pilling on sweaters.  I started out with a lint removing device.  It worked but it took a long time.  I thought there had to be a faster way.  It would be fine for a small
amount of fuzzies, but I had a sweater that needed a lot of work.

This is a super lint shaver.  It has little blades inside and the lint is collected.

Because the lint shaver has a series of rotating blades inside,  I figured a safety razor would also work.  I went in the bathroom cabinet and found a safety razor that needed a new blade.  We have a lot of them because all the major razor makers give away razors.  They hope that by giving away the razor, people will go out and buy the very expensive replacement blades.  I usually just request a new free razor.

Carefully you just shave the sweater going from top to bottom.  As long as you do it on a hard surface and keep the fabric smooth, you can't cut it.  If you don't keep it taut then you risk cutting the fabric.  The smooth part of the photo is where I removed the fuzzies.  It worked great and what do you have to lose.  You probably wouldn't want to wear a sweater that is all fuzzy anyway. 

National Men Make Dinner Day

As many of you know, yesterday November 7th was National Men Make Dinner Day.  There were 10 rules for the men, but the only two I cared about were cleaning up and making dinner without any help.  Some other rules included candles and conversation.  I don't need that, just anything on a plate and a clean kitchen.  I even went to the store and got some fresh hamburger, just in case.  I realize that I broke the rule of no help,  but I wanted to give myself any advantage possible.

My husband volunteered at the hospital yesterday and got home about 4:30.  I had the kitchen clean so he had a clean slate.  I just sat and crocheted scrubbies and watched TV.  Pretty soon it was 5:45 and I hadn't heard any activity in the kitchen.  I went in and saw nothing so I heated up left over meat loaf (which my husband had made a couple days earlier), potatoes, corn and homemade apple sauce for my dad.  I asked Mike if he wanted the leftover pork chop from the night before and he said yes and "throw in a baked potato for me".  I put the pork chop in a pan on low and put the potato in the microwave.  I then poured myself a bowl of Life cereal, sliced a banana on top with some milk and sat down to eat.  Ok, so much for National Men Make Dinner Day.

Then about 8:00 I heard something going on in the kitchen.  I went in and this is what I saw.  He was preparing the ingredients for making the hamburger into something.

A combination of ingredients.

The first thing he did was weigh out the hamburger to exactly 4 oz.

5 quarter pound hamburgers to put in the freezer.

Then the rest of the hamburger went in a bowl with the other ingredients.

Meat loaf ready for the oven.

He does make a very good meat loaf.

He makes a great meat loaf and now we will have a few meals in the freezer for later.  He uses a secret recipe taken from an old Workbasket magazine from 1979.  He didn't serve me dinner tonight, but he prepared at least three meals for another time.

But, wait there is more.  This morning I was doing my morning chores and low and behold here my darling husband comes with breakfast.  He had two fried eggs, two bacon, a few hash brown potatoes and half an English muffin with jelly.  He even brought coffee to go with it.  So now we are changing November 8th to National Men Make Breakfast Day.

*Footnote*
This is funny and I was happy to get the help, but I'm hoping that my daughters' generation will not celebrate National Men Make Meals Day.  This is not the olden days, where men go out to the fields and women keep the home fires burning.  It warms my heart to see Dad's now days interacting with the children in a way that didn't happen so much the generation before.  It's a choice, if you choose to separate duties, that's fine.  If you both work and both are gone from the home, then the duties should be divided equally.

Tiger Brewery Building in Princeton Wisconsin

Every now and then I like to write about our little town.  When you are new to a town, it takes a while to learn it's history.  We hadn't lived in Princeton too long before we discovered an interesting building about a block from downtown.  This building was brick and was on the Fox River.  When we first saw it, there was a big garage sale inside.  It was old and damp and had a lot of rooms.

It turns out that it was an old brewery.  The original owner was a master brewer who moved to the area from Prussia in the 1850's.  He struggled to stayed in business.  Apparently he enlisted in the Civil War and left his wife to run the business.  It didn't make it.  She didn't know how to keep the hops and sprouts from spoiling.   It had several owners over the years, but reopened in 1934 with a new image.  Tiger Beer began and it was marketed as the "Beer with a Purr".   After the business closed in the late 1930's, the building was used for many things.  It was a soda factory, a cheese business, a storage company, a mushroom growing facility, an antique store and even was used for a haunted house every Halloween for years.  It is empty now which is a shame.  Maybe with the popularity of small breweries, someone will come to town and reopen it.  Although I'm sure the equipment is long gone and all that remains is the beautiful logo on the side of the building.

* I got some family information from Rich West.  It was very nice of him to share.  This is what he said "August Carl Weist, the founder of Tiger Beer, was my Great, Great Grand father. He was originally from Arnsdorf formerly Prussia, now Germany. Somewhere along the line the 'e' was dropped from our name."

He also sent a bit more background on his Great Great Grandfather and the Tiger Beer building.

The link below is from a 1978 Milwaukee Journal article about the family.  Very interesting to read.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19780516&id=xm0aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iikEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6857,3632061&hl=en

Here's another link.

http://oshkoshbeer.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-breweries-of-oshkosh-part-5-fifth.html

Apple Pie with Streusel Topping

Everyone can make an apple pie, but the crust is sometimes a pain to make.  You either have to buy the crust or make it.  Making it is a little tricky because you can't work it too much or it isn't flaky.  You have to roll it out and get the proper thickness without adding too much flour.  It takes time.  This pie crust recipe takes very little time and turns out great.  Pie crust isn't healthy no matter how you make it so this recipe is no exception.

Pie Crust

In a pie plate mix 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 t. salt

Add 1/2 cup oil (I used canola)  and 1/4 cup of milk (I used 2% but skim will work)

Mix incorporating the flour until you have a ball of dough.

Wash your hands if you haven't already and press the crust into the pie plate.

I still had some apples left from our trip to the apple orchard, so I peeled 5 or 6 apples and sliced them in a bowl.  I added 1/2 cup of sugar (truth be told I used a little more because my dad has such a sweet tooth) and 2 T. of flour.   Toss the sugar and flour mixture in the sliced apples.  At this point you can add a teaspoon or more of cinnamon.  I don't add cinnamon because I don't like a brown apple pie, but that is just personal preference. 

Now pile the apples into the unbaked pie shell.  They can be piled pretty high because they will cook down during the baking process.

Then instead of a top crust, I put a streusel topping on top.

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup sugar (more sugar if you like)
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
More cinnamon (optional)

Mix together until crumbly and sprinkle on the apples.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes until the crust is browned.

Apple pie with Streusel topping

Happy 13th Birthday To Our Granddaughter

Thirteen years ago today, November 3, 2000, our daughter gave birth to our oldest grandchild.  It is hard to believe that she is thirteen already.  It seems like yesterday that she was born.  In 2000, we still lived in Stoughton, WI.  I will never forget getting the call from my daughter around dinner time on November 2.  She said that it was time to go to St. Mary's hospital in Madison, Wisconsin to have the baby.  My daughter's husband was working in Madison, my husband had recently had cataract surgery and couldn't drive, and my daughter was ready to give birth, so that left me to drive to the hospital.  For some reason we took our pick up truck.  I don't have any idea why we took the truck.  I was trying to act calm as we approached the hospital and when we got to the front, I asked them if they wanted to drop Me off.  Sarah said "no mom, I can walk from the parking area".  I wasn't too nervous.  We went in and then we waited and waited and waited.  As it became clear that it would be a while, I took my husband home.  He had been sitting the entire evening in the back of the room clutching his coat.  I wasn't the only one who was nervous.  I tried to rest at home, but got up at 3:00 in the morning and went back to the hospital.  Pretty soon it was time and our first grandchild was born.  She has been a joy and as it turned out, our one and only granddaughter.  The next four grandchildren have been boys.

Today we had a little family party with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Even great grandpa was there.

Great grandpa with Sam and Jack

Aunt Heather, Mom Sarah, Ewan and puppy Piper

Through the years with Melissa.

Three months old

Melissa at 2 1/2 years old

Dance recital at four years old

Five years old

Nine years old

Eleven years old.

Then today...thirteen years old.

She likes accessories.  Her mom always liked to wear hats at that age.

Crocheted Snowflakes

I spent some time today finishing a project.  Last Spring, my daughter asked me to crochet her some snowflakes to hang in her window.  She asked me early so I would have time and not be pressured into making them in a hurry.  Over the summer, I worked on one whenever I remembered.  Now that the weather is getting cooler, I need to finish up.

I made several different sizes and shapes.  Most of the patterns are free on the internet, and others I found in old books and magazines.  They are very easy to find.  I imagine there are even books in the public library that have patterns.  Ravelry.com is a good source.  Just search for free snowflake patterns.  I have quite a few made, but now I have to block them.

In order to block the snowflakes, I need a piece of styrofoam or a few pieces of cardboard stacked together.  I found some blocking circles online and printed them out.  Click on this link for the circles I used.   Blocking circles  I printed different size circles by changing the percentage of image.  The large one I made was at 120%.  That worked the best for the larger snowflakes.   I taped the circles on the styrofoam and covered it with clear plastic wrap.  I just taped it on the back to secure the plastic wrap and keep it from slipping.

When the snowflake is completed, it has to be stiffened.  I do this by mixing school glue and water in a 50/50 proportion.  In a small dish, I mixed the glue and water.  Then I dipped the snowflake and saturated it.  I squeezed out the excess and put it over the circle, lining up the center.  Then I pinned the points to the proper line.  If you have 12 points then pin to each line, pulling to the same circular line.  If the snowflake has 6 points, then pin to every other line.  At this point you can sprinkle with glitter if you want sparkles. 

When the snowflake is completely dry, it will peel off the plastic wrap easily.  When my daughter hangs the snowflakes in her window, we will take some pictures and I will update this blog.  

Happy Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween 2013

Today is actually Halloween.  A few days ago I wrote about going trick or treating with our grandchildren.  A few communities celebrated a few days early.

http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/10/happy-halloween-2013.html

Last Sunday was a beautiful day for the kids but today it is a dreary rainy day.  I feel bad for the kids who want to go out tonight.  Hopefully the rain will be finished by then.  On the positive side, the temperature is quite warm for this time of year.

I did check the trail camera today.  I haven't reported on that for a while.  I didn't see any photos of big foot, big boot or any other ghoulish creatures.

http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/01/primos-truthcam-46-trail-camera.html
 
We had the usual array of animals.  We have raccoons, possum, crows, squirrels and deer.  I haven't seen anything very interesting for a while.  I put some corn out so I did see this today.   It was a buck who came at 6:21 pm last night, then four hours later a doe came, then the buck again at 6:35 this morning.  I think it is almost time for the rut so I'm hoping I don't catch any of their shenanigans on the camera.

Rice Pudding

Every now and then I would make rice pudding using different recipes.  My husband isn't a fan so I would make it for myself and my daughters once in a while.  A little over two years ago we moved my parents into an assisted living apartment.  They didn't have much of an appetite for the food they served there, but they loved rice pudding.  My cousin gave me a very good recipe and every week I would make a batch.  The only trouble with the recipe is that you had to stand at the stove and stir for twenty five minutes.  I did this every week for four or five months until my mom passed away.  That is a lot of hours standing by the stove and stirring.

Dish of rice pudding with raisins and sprinkled with a little cinnamon.

After my mom died, dad moved in with us.   He quickly got his appetite back, but he still likes rice pudding.  He calls it his comfort food.  I misplaced the recipe from my cousin because I have a bad habit of writing recipes on any piece of scrap paper that I have at hand, but I remember most of it because I made it so often.  Now I make it in my digital pressure cooker.  I have written about this wonderful appliance many times before.
http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-favorite-small-appliance.html

Rice Pudding

3 cups Cooked Rice (3/4 cups dry rice cooked in 1 1/2 cups water)
3 cups Milk (I use 2% milk)
1/2 cup sugar (a little more if you want it sweeter)
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together and put in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes on low pressure.  Allow the pressure to release naturally.

If you want to stir or don't have a pressure cooker, just mix the ingredients and stir over low heat for 25 minutes until thickened.

The rice pudding will  thicken up as it cools.  I add raisins after it is cooked or the raisins will turn the pudding a tan color if they are cooked with the rice. The good part is that there are no eggs in this recipe.  My dad likes it with more sugar and a little milk warmed in the microwave. 

I made a batch to make sure I had the recipe right.  Yum!

I posted another pressure cooker version of rice pudding here:

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/04/tapioca-pudding.html

High Tech Dentistry in our Little Town

Today I went to the dentist for a six month cleaning.  It was quick and painless.  I have a gold crown that was put in many years ago.  I remember getting it shortly after we were married 45 years ago.  It cost $60, and I was so upset at how much it cost.  Times have sure changed.  She is keeping an eye on that one tooth, but otherwise I'm good for another six months.

Technology has changed so much.  I remember as a kid going to the dentist.  I can't remember exactly where the office was, but I believe it was on Main Street in Stoughton Wisconsin where I grew up.  We had to walk up a big flight of stairs and through a dark hallway into the dentist office.  Then I would usually have a cavity.  They didn't have sealants back then, and we ate candy without brushing all the time.  They didn't have high speed drills, but drills that would drone with a low pitch grinding sound.  And the smell, I will never forget the smell of the teeth being drilled.  The dentist would tell us to raise our hand if it hurt.  Needless to say, the arm would go up and down as if it were motorized.  I imagine they didn't get all the decay and finally just put a silver filling in and hoped it would last a while.  That is why I have crowns on most of my molars.

When we moved to Princeton, we needed to find a new dentist.  We looked in the phone book.  Even eleven years ago we used phone books.  There were no smartphones back then.  We found two dentists and chose one.  It was a very good choice.  She had all the latest equipment and procedures.  Some of my old crowns needed replacing and so one by one I have had that done over the years.  Our dentist has the CEREC method.  It is an amazing computerized method that can do a crown from beginning to end in one visit.  There is no need for taking impressions with that awful gunk.  The old tooth is measured out using a mini camera and the picture is transferred to a computer screen.  Then a new tooth is designed to fit in with the existing teeth.  When she is satisfied with everything, she pushes a button and a new tooth is ground from a block of porcelain that matches the other teeth.  The new tooth is then glued in place and your done.

Even the x-rays are high tech.  They put some camera type thing in your mouth and pictures of all your teeth appear on the computer screen.  Problems can be detected by looking at the computer screen. 

This is probably one of the most boring blogs ever, but that was my day.  

Trick or Treating with our Grandchildren 2013

 
Even though Halloween isn't until next week, the local communities had trick or treating today.  We have never had a trick or treater at our house, so sometimes we go to see the grandchildren in their costumes.  We are fair weather trick or treaters.  If it's cold or rainy we don't go, but today it was beautiful.  I walked with my daughters and the kids and my husband gave out candy.

Here is the Happy firefighter Ewan and Jack as Captain Hook.

These are our four grandsons, Sam, Ewan, Jack and Dylan. 

I

I noticed people went out of their way this year to decorate.  Many people who were handing out candy were dressed up.  It was kind of creepy at times because some of the costumes were very graphic.  Jack didn't stay interested very long.  He went to a few houses and wanted to go home.

Jack got a little tired because playing Captain Hook is hard work.

Ewan had a lot of fun playing in the leaves.

The strangest thing of all was that this house was handing out jello shots to the adults.

I'm not sure how legal handing out the jello shots were, but many adults were taking them.  I wonder if they were the real thing or the Trick was that they were plain jello.  I didn't try them so I will never know.  All in all, it was a Happy Halloween.

 

Cleaning the Garage

Today was the day we had to get the garage cleaned.  It is getting colder and colder outside, and soon the snow will be flying.  We had left over garage sale items and other stuff that we have gathered.  Where does it all come from?  Who knows, but it is time to get it out of the garage so we can put our vehicles inside.

We headed to The St. Vincent de Paul store in Fond du lac, Wisconsin.

 
They were open until 3:30 today and it was noon already.   We quickly loaded up the car, and packed it with all kinds of junk and I mean JUNK.  It looked like a hoarders car.

When we got there, we pulled to the back of the building.  It was amazing.  The doors opened and out came three young men.  They started unloading and within minutes the car was empty.  I didn't realize how many things they would not take, but I understand why.  They took everything we had including a high chair which I saw on the list as we were leaving.  It was so easy and fast.

I have to admit, we drove around the building and went inside for just a moment.  I was very careful not to load up the car again.  In fact, we only bought a couple things.  We bought some stitch holders for knitting and 4 yards of netting to make more scrubbies.

http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/10/nylon-net-scrubbies.html

Now the garage is clean except for 5 or 6 tons of wood pellets, and we are able to get the car and the truck inside before we get some snow.  It's a good feeling.

Making a Book of this Blog

After 24 hours of stress, I am back on track.  We decided to make my blog into a book.  It sounds easy enough to do, but I was wrong.  Blurb.com is a website that helps people put together books.  You can choose all types of formats.  I became familiar with Blurb when my friend Diane sent me a book of the photos I posted on Facebook.  It was a wonderful gift, but I never realized how much work it was.

Blurb has a means by which you can upload your blog and place each page in book form.  When it is uploaded, the software chooses where and how the text and photos should be displayed.  Most of the time it doesn't work.  Either the whole photo is cropped so it is hard to even recognize what it is or it is too small.  The captions under the photos show up in the text of the story and not under the photo.  As a result every single page has to be custom arranged.  Some blog posts are long so they take up two or more pages.  If it is two pages, then they should face each other.  My husband, to help me out, worked on it for many many hours.  I just don't have the patience for some things.  He ended up with 194 pages, and it only got us through the end of May.  He is a perfectionist so when it was ready, I knew it was good.  I looked it over and didn't see any problems.  We had a 30% off code for first time customers, so yesterday afternoon I uploaded the book.  We were excited to have it finished.  I used the code and got the percentage off.  Although it was still pretty expensive, we felt it would be a family keepsake.  That is when everything hit the fan.  I did a preview, and I saw one spelling mistake after the other.  Something had happened with the upload.  I didn't preview or spell check after I sent it off figuring it was fine.  Immediately I got on the computer and emailed them that the book was full of spelling mistakes.  It substituted 'was' with 'us' and put extra letters in many places.  They sent me a response and told me they would cancel my order even though is was already being printed.  They would only do it one time and never again.  I was relieved and began editing it again.  I ran spell checker five times and went through it.  I uploaded it again, which takes a long time.  I purchased the book, but they wouldn't give me the discount because it wasn't my first book.  When it came through, I noticed a couple more mistakes, like Santa Claus was changed to Santa 'Clause'.  I don't even care, it's done and if I have to I will make corrections in the book when it comes.  Below is the link to the book.  It will take you to a page with prices and "preview".  If you click on preview and full page, you can see the book.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/3886800/defde04637a7507ca34bd583b7df9adf73dd94b8

We may do the next six months at a later time.  Times heals all wounds, and we will be a lot smarter about everything.  Now to enjoy this beautiful Friday and put the last 24 hours behind us.

*Note:  The book was shipped sooner than they said, and I got an email stating that we would receive the 30% discount.  The customer service from Blurb has been wonderful.    They have been more than helpful.