the long awaited "what I've been doing" post

Firstly, here's the corset. It's a bad pic, I'll get some better ones with my full costume. I'm going to be a cat at the mean girls party. I still have to make my skirt a little less skanky.

I used the Mccall's costumes pattern 4107. This one is view E. I would like to eventually make view B. We lengthened it by 4 inches so I had to remove the boning from the back, because it was hitting my butt and making the back bunch up weirdly. I hand stitched all the lace on last night. crazy.

I'm still working on clue 2 for the secret of the stole. Last week was a bad school week so I didn't get a lot of knitting done. I have another bad week this week and a paper due on Halloween, so that may be put on hold for awhile. It was stupid of me to join a KAL during my first semester of grad school. I'm a fast knitter when I have time though, so I'm pretty sure I can catch up fairly quickly.

I'm also working on the hemlock ring blanket. This is a Christmas present. I am loving this pattern. Its a fairly mindless knit, so I was able to work on it at stitching group on Saturday.

I made pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing for my stitching group on Saturday. They were amazing!

I will share the recipe since I already have it typed out :) The muffins are actually a bread recipe, but I just scooped them into muffin pans and baked them for 25 minutes. This is the recipe that my mom has used for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure where it came from, but everyone loves it.

Pumpkin Bread

2 1/3 C Sugar
2/3 C Oil
4 Eggs, beaten
2 C canned pumpkin (1 Ib can)
2/3 C Water

Sift
3 1/3 C Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin spice

2/3 C nuts, finely chopped
2/3 C raisins (soaked in boiling water for 1 minute, drained & dried) raisins are optional

Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl. Sift dry ingredients together; add raisins and nuts. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix until well blended. Grease and flour (4) 1 - lb coffee cans or 2 regular loaf pans. Fill halfway with batter. Bake in preheated 350 degrees oven for 1 hour 15 minutes
Using small mini loaf pans bake for 25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Icing
2 8oz pkgs cream cheese (softened)
2 sticks (1/2 c.) butter (softened)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar (plus up to a 1/2 cup)

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powdered sugar. If piping onto muffins, add more powdered sugar to make it the right consistency. Store in the refrigerator after use.

I also went yarn shopping on Saturday! That made me super happy. See my new acquisitions on my flickr page.

Ok I hope this is was a fulfilling post, since my next week and a half is going to be crazy. I'm not sure when I'll post next. If I get free time, I'm more likely to knit instead of post. Even if I should use that time to clean. ;) I have tons of presents to start knitting. Why does Christmas always seem to sneak up on me?

Labels: cupcakes, food, knitting, recipe, sewing, yarn