Mommysmarketplace’s Weblog

My son Tyler is on spring break this week.  So today, we went down the hill and did a little shopping.  Tyler got Star Wars figurines and I got a couple of knitting bags.  The bags I got are to organize my needles, hooks, etc.  I got a larger one at Joann’s for all my stuff and I got a smaller makeup type bag to take with me when I’m out and about.

I’ve had this insane urge to knit/crochet my way through my yarn stash so I didn’t buy any yarn.  I have been doing some knitting though:

I’ve also had the problem of what to do  with my yarn needles so I don’t loose them.  So, I knit up this and it seems to do the trick:

I have been baking chocolate chip cookies for a long time.  I’ve gotten tons of compliments on them over the years.  Recently, I bought a Cuisinart stand mixer.  While I was reading through the manual, it said not to soften the butter/margarine in the microwave as this could effect the texture of the baked item.  Hmmm, I’ve been doing this for years when I make my cookies.  So, for the next couple of batches, I softened the margarine by letting it sit out.  Big mistake!  I was very unhappy with the taste and texture of my cookies.   Today, I did it the way I always have and they were very yummy

I’ve done this before with knitting and crocheting too.  I’ve been shopping for yarn before and have had little old ladies telling me not to use this type of yarn for whatever reason.  I have found that when I listen to others opinions on how to do something that I’ve been doing for a long time, I’m very rarely happy with the results.  The lesson in all this?  Trust my instincts and knowledge.  I’ve been baking cookies for a long time, as well as crocheting so I think that I’ve learned something along the way.  However, that’s not an excuse to be cocky or a know it all.  The key is to learn when a new or different way might be better and when to stick to the tried and true.

I wrote up the pattern for the placemats that I recently made for my kitchen.  Last week, we had company visit and I realized that I didn’t have any placemats.  So, I came up with an easy, quick pattern for them and was very happy with the results.