Nifty Swifty

Was that bad to do? Sorry.

The fabulous gals from  Mason Dixon Knitting have done it again! In their second publication, Outside The Lines, a pattern is offered that I could not resist. Do you remember the darling ball-band dish rags that I mentioned in an earlier post? The ladies have figured out how to turn that rag into a cover for our Swiffers! It is my opinion that the "swifty" picks up hair, crumbs, dust, ect.... much better than the disposable covers you buy at the store. More importantly, they are TOO CUTE! Don't you think? No more buying box after box of paper covers for me! I knit up two: one that adorns my Swiffer and a second that is in the wash or linen closet---waiting to transform what was once an ordinary household tool into something fun and fabulously chic. The first Swifty knit up quickly. The second, well, as you can see, I had help so it took longer. I used Sugar and Cream 100% cotton yarn by Lily. The yarn can be found in craft stores or the craft section of Walmart for about $2.00 a ball. I used 4 colors (4 balls) and could have easily knit 3-4 swifties from the 4. The book is full of fun useful projects and the clever wit of Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne will keep you laughing! I love these ladies!!!  Here are Kay and Ann starring in a little video they created that perfectly captures the zany sense of humor the knitting books are so full of.

When I finally stopped laughing at the video, I decided it was time to make pickles!

 I chose cucumbers for my experimental veggie in the garden this year and discovered that, on any given day one may find 8-10 pounds of pickles gracing vines that one could have sworn were not there a few days ago. So, thanks to my daughter, Sarah and her friend, Hannah, we washed, sliced, boiled, spiced and canned 14 pints of Kosher Dill and Bread and Butter pickles. In my normal fashion, I did not read the recipe from the Ball recipe book all the way through before beginning the process and was a little deflated to find that we would have to wait 6 weeks to sample our efforts. Oh, well. In 6 weeks I will share recipes if they turn out!
In the mean time---I'm off to my craft room to create something pretty!
Don't forget that you can click on the highlighted words to be transported to the Mason-Dixon website
and Amazon for the book!