Sunday, December 24, 2006
So as to not leave you out in the cold...
Two stockings, ready for fillin'.
Pattern: "Christmas Stocking" Pattern 1 from 2006 Holiday Vogue Knitting (check the errata page on their website).
Yarn: A little more than two skeins a piece, Blue Sky Alpaca and Silk.
Now it's over the river and through the woods. Have a Merry Christmas!!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Darkest Night of the Year
Emily over at Yarn Miracle is holding a simple contest. Tell her why you're feeling the winter holiday spirit. Being a Christian, I chose Christmas. This was my answer. (BTW, Emily. Thanks for the heads up. The archives SHOULD be working again.)
I've been thinking about Advent a lot this year. The Christian tradition of lighting another candle on a wreath each Sunday approaching Christmas, starting a month before Christmas. I like how as the days get shorter, as the darkness increases, we light more candles to light the way. There's a sense of ancient anticipation, that things are dark, but there's SOMETHING coming, and we don't quite know what that is. There's acknowledgement that that's more than a little scary. But there's also the eternal hope that the days WILL start getting longer.
I've been thinking about the connection of Advent with Lent, the weeks that precede Easter, a traditional time of Christian penance and brow-beating. How Lent comes at the end of the winter. While not the days with the most night, they're the days when the temperature refuses to budge, when we're about to give up on Spring EVER returning. In my friend's church, she has a Lenten wreath where she takes those same candles from Advent, starts with them all lit, then extinguishes one each week, signifying the increasing darkness that greed and injustice causes in the world. It's ok to feel sad. It's ok to feel the weight of winter on your shoulders. It makes the Spring and Joy of Easter so much more...well...joyful.
Last year Christmas was a very dark time. My husband's grandmother died on Christmas day last year after a month long decline brought new knowledge each day that she would NOT make it to our wedding in the summer. There was a lot of conflict and tension about WHERE we were going to spend Christmas, WHEN each family was going to get their shot at us, and HOW LONG we SHOULD stay once we got there.
We needed a lot of light to guide us through those times. We made our own pinpoints by starting traditions we hope will last forever. Trimming the tree was an EVENT, with Christmas carols, movies, nog 'n rum. Instead of just throwing everything together as "one more thing to do." We baked cookies together for the first time. We wrapped presents together. We watched A Christmas Story together.
This year, I've found light not just in the Advent Wreath's increasing brightness, but in my new husband's face as we ice cookies on the dining room table that once sat in his grandmother's home. I've found light (despite what my blog says) in knitting the stockings for our first married Christmas. I've found light in knowing that the yarn I'm using was supposed to be for the first Husband Sweater but was too fuzzy. So now there's plenty to make enough stockings for any new family members that may come along in the coming years. I've found light in working hard and with joy to preserve the traditions and my personal memories of those who, before me, made Christmas magically happen. And I've found so much light in making my own traditions with my husband. This Christmas morning, we will be together, just the two of us. And we will be eating pancakes made with red and green mini M&M's. New traditions everywhere.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Welcome!
Welcome to those of you who read about the blog in Dad's Christmas Letter! My little section of the cyber world. Before you go much further, please check out Steph's Blog and consider her plan. I'll wait.
While it's just us knitters (because we all read Stephanie already), I'll tell you that the Christmas Stocking is still not endearing itself to me. I started the gussets on Sunday and am gradually decreasing it. Every pair of socks I make, ok, every SINGLE sock I make, I hate trying to cram all of those stitches into being. Yech. I keep INTENDING to work on it, but Christmas stuff keeps getting in the way, so that's the blog content for the day.
Ahh! You're back! Welcome back! Um, the quick tour: I write about knitting and the rest of what's going on in life, often with pictures. I've been here here for about two and a half years, often with long breaks. Feel free to peruse the archives at right. Also the buttons of favorite blogs. Click on them at the end and be transported. A variety of voices.
This past weekend was very nice. The baking odyssey continued. This time around: Buttery Almond Cut Outs.
Justin says, "And I helped!"
Another great recipe from The Cookie Bible. Soft, melt in your mouth, subtle almond flavor.
I've never worked with that runny glaze icing, but I've always wanted to try.
(The Pirate fan snowman is one of my faves.)
After we were all done, Justin and I looked at each other and said, "You know, that was really fun."
Then we went to a movie. Stranger than Fiction. Don't let the prospect of Will Farrell scare you off. Excellent.
Come back any time.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Conquering, pillaging, the normal Christmas fare.
Two doctors' appointments, two hats. Not bad.
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Superwash wool
Pattern: Interestingly enough, the pattern was from, um...err...uhh...ok. It was from:
The winter 2004 edition.
I feel I should tell you, in my defense, the reason I picked UP the magazine in the first place was the 5 page section on sock knitting. Actually, the patterns for men, children, and the home are not THAT bad, as evidenced by the hats above. If you are a female, however, the editors feel that you should accessorize with acrylic frizz, preferably in neon colors, but white will do in a pinch.
I was taught to knit by a housemate in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. She taught me about the glories of the Local Yarn Shoppe, how there's more out there than Red Heart. In a pinch, she said, Lion Brand is perfectly acceptable. The Homespun was one of her staples. She taught me the joys of being a yarn snob. No small feat when we were living on a strict stipend.
When I brought this baby home, she and I leafed through it together and she uttered the sagest bit of knitting advice I've ever received:
"Just because you can knit it, doesn't mean you SHOULD."
Thank you, Katie, for guiding me down the right path, and not the faddish one.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
A donut with one bite out of it looks like a C!
Guess the song, anyone? ;-)
Well, we baked, and baked, and baked. And on Monday...we rested. :-)
Cookies came out amazingly well. Better than I expected. I felt like a pig on roller skates with every recipe. I'd never made "tassies" before. Was the dough pushed into the cups just right? How big does a 1" ball look, exactly? Why isn't there enough icing?
But I took a plate of cookies over to Kelly's (the mom of the cutie from Thanksgiving) yesterday and was amazed by how good ALL of them tasted.
The only major debacle came from the PB&J Pinwheels. Essentially, they're peanut butter cookies that you roll out, spread with jelly, then roll up jellyroll style. Well, for whatever reason, the dough came out too dry the first time, leading to cracking all of the place when I tried to roll them up. We ended up just eating that batter for lunch. But the batter tasted SO good that we decided to give it another go.
Ready for the fridge.
No glaucoma fighting ingredients, though.
Other pictures:
Mocha Crinkles, all crinkled up.
Peanut Butter Tassies. Not much to look at but, oh my GAWD, do they melt in your mouth!
Chocolate Marshmallow Thumbprints. Yum.
Right now, we're debating whether we want to do cut-out cookies. I, personally, think those are more fun to do when you have kids with imaginations. We want to make another batch of some of our varietals. We'll see if we have time.
I have to give Justin credit, though. Not only was he the staff photographer, but he spent all afternoon on Friday and most of Saturday washing dishes. It was a nice system. I'd use a bowl or a measuring cup or a measuring spoon, put it on the counter, and bam, it was sitting right next to me when I needed it. Thanks, babe. Sorry to give you a cookie craving right before lunch.
On the Knitting Front
No pics today, but I will let you know that I got ANOTHER Christmas present added to the lineup. (Damn the Thanksgiving gift draw!) So, I'm headed over to Knit One for some last minute yarn. It's a good thing, though. I'm right in the middle of turning the heel for the Christmas stocking and have two dr's appointments in two days. I need a project that I can just shove into the bag when my name gets called. Nothing more embarrassing than getting paged for your appointment and wanting to say, "Could you hold on a minute? I'm almost to the end of the row. And I'm turning the heel. And I can't really stop or I'll lose my place." Actually, what sweet poetic justice THAT would be!
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Cripsy
We're taking a break from the baking and letting the oven cool down. Gas ovens are infamous for heating unevenly.
Angi requested the recipe for the Chocolate Cracker Kisses and as it's not in any of the current Joy of Cookings Joys of Cooking um...editions, I figured I'd go out on a limb and share it with you. If you CAN get your hands on a 1975 Joy of Cooking, I'd highly recommend it. It'll let you know how to cook your husband's eggs exactly as he likes them. :::snort!::: But no really, if you want to learn how to take a squirrel direct from the kill to the stew, it'll show you how in beautiful black and white line drawings.
A note about these, don't expect cookies, they're more like very dainty crackers.
Chocolate Cracker Kisses UPDATED!!
Makes about 60 1" Kisses. We got about 3 dozen this year. Bigger than 1" though.
Preheat oven to 300F
Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/4 t vanilla
1/4 t cream of tartar
2/3 c sugar
3 T crushed "salted soda crackers" aka Saltines
2/3 c semisweet chips or peppermint-flavored chocolate morsels (we LOVED the peppermint ones)
We're adding a few drops of green food coloring this year to set them apart as "minty"
---------
Beat 2 egg whites until frothy
Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Continue beating while adding 2/3 cup sugar and food coloring
When the mixture is quite stiff, fold in gently 3 Tablespoons saltines and 2/3 cup morsels of your choice.
Drop the meringuelike dough, 1 teaspoon at a time, onto a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes. Okay, the 20 minutes is WAY too much!
Bake until the edges are slightly brown as below, about 15 minutes. That time was down to 10 on the second batch.
When cool, store in a tightly closed container.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Vanilla Frosting, could you turn to a bit to the right. Thanks.
Yesterday looked like this:
Which finally seemed to snap my Ebenezer-esque mentality and put me in the Christmas spirit.
As it also dropped the temp 30F, the primary holiday activity of the day will be baking, further engorging the gas bill. But hey, if you're gonna go whole hog, go whole hog.
Just a smattering of the required ingredients.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens.
This year's offerings come mainly from a book called the Cookie Bible, a gift from my bridal shower.
They include: Peanut Butter Tassies, Mocha Crinkles, PB & J Pinwheels (for the kids), Chocolate Marshallow Thumbprints, Minichip Snowballs, Snow on the Mountain Cookies, Chocolate Florentine Cookies, Buttery Almond Cutouts (think sugar cookies but not).
Finally our favorite from last year: Chocolate Cracker Kisses found in the 1975 Joy of Cooking. They don't look like kisses at all. Rather very flat, thin, dainty little wafers that combine minty goodness (if you get mint chips), a bit of chocolate matched with the salty bite of saltines. They were the dark horse last year and they're the only one to make it back for this year.
Hope to have final product pictures tomorrow...or Monday.
BTW: Have no fear, ESC, as I'm no longer in seminary, the dirty bits are no longer offensive. It's like a switch you can turn off when you leave -- amazing. But as it was Big Bro who informed me of your site, well, I'm pretty sure my 'rents know, but I doubt news has made it much farther than that. But you will have to bribe me to keep this Little Shop pictures away from the scanner. Bwah-ha-ha!!!
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Dear Christmas Stocking braided piece of crap,
Look, I honestly don't know what I did to offend you so much. I mean, I've spent time with you every day since Thanksgiving. Ok, so there was that one Saturday where I worked exclusively on that draft catcher, but you have to understand. I was in a panic from that heating bill! I had to DO something about it. You can't hold that against me. It wasn't a moment of weakness, it was a choice. We all have to have priorities.
But I have to tell you, you're headed straight for being filled with coal. Your brother didn't give me any problems whatsoever. Sure the pattern was wrong, but he and I figured it out together. He was faithful, he was finished quickly and efficiently. Now he hangs by the fireplace, waiting to be filled with goodies.
You, you little trollop, a different fate should await you, chucked into the knitting basket, nothing but a failure, should you continue to behave this way. I took you to not one but two -- TWO -- knitting groups this week! I showed you off to numerous people who showed you nothing but loving adoration. Perhaps you'd like to have me all to yourself, away from everyone's eyes. That's the only thing I can imagine is wrong. How else can you explain my need to frog a good 15 rows of you after the first knitting group? How else can you explain the dropped stitch I found after 3 hours of solid knitting at Barnes and Noble? Fifteen rows down again! Effectively nullifying all the work I've done yesterday. HOW could you DO this to me? In the middle of a cable, no less. You're crafy, you are.
But I'm craftier. By ripping out only the offending cable pattern, I won't let you get the better of me. Even though you think you've won, I intend to show you who's boss. I won't go through another demoralizing frogging. It's time for me to take charge. Time for a little tough love, a little discipline.
See, that wasn't so bad. A little belt of whiskey goes a long way, even at 11 in the morning. Two hours of constant attention. Is that what you want? Now, are we gonna have any more problems?
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Trying, I really am.
I should have posted progress on the Christmas Stocking yesterday. I was five rows away from starting the heel flap. Today, on the other hand...
Nowhere near close. For some reason one of the cables started leaning to the right, not up the center as it was supposed to. The error was at least 10 rows down, so last night was froggin time.
We're also trying to get Christmas up, but we both feel so burned out from Thanksgiving. We're not expecting company this holiday season, so we're wondering why to bother. But we're soldiering on, hopefully the tree will get up this weekend. Hopefully the stockings will be hung by Christmas Eve.
Oh yeah, and they turned the water off all day. :-P
Monday, December 4, 2006
One lump or two?
I took some time this weekend to tea dye some homespun fabric for a post-Christmas project. I thought I'd share a quick primer. Note: I've NEVER done this with yarn, only fabric. I've also only done this with fabric that was going to be decorative, meaning it doesn't get washed after it gets dyed. So I am not responsible for what happens if you chuck it in the washer.
Enough with the caveats, onto the pictures.
Ingredients: 18 bags of tea, 16 of Lipton, 2 of PG Tips (it's British, don't think you could find it here.)
I used my 6 qt stock pot.
Just fill up and boil water in your biggest dutch oven, dump in a whole box, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, remove bags, set on very low heat, just to keep things warm.
Herbal teas are good for dying things a nice cream color, but you need the real stuff for getting that "primitive" look.
Step one: Immerse fabric in luke warm CLEAR water, swish it around a bit, make sure the water saturates it.
Step two: Remove fabric from clear water, wring out until damp, then submerge it in the tea, using a wooden spoon. Make sure the entire thing is under the surface. Keep pushing it down as it will want to keep popping up like a cheerio.
Step three: Set a timer for 5 minutes, check on things, set timer for 5 minutes more, check on things. It helps to stir things around every time you check the timer to make sure your fabric doesn't look mottled (unless you want that). Wait til it's a shade darker than you'd like, as it will probably lighten a little as it dries.
Step four: Remove fabric from tea bath. I recommend lifting it out using tongs as it is EXTREMELY hot. Remember, I didn't tell you to stop the tea from simmering. You also might want to use rubber dishwashing gloves because after holding the fabric in tongs for awhile, you'll eventually want to wring out the fabric.
(I, on the other hand, have hands of leather.)
Place on a drying rack to dry and cool.
I should note that I fit about a yard of fabric into the 6 qt. stock pot at once, but be warned that the more fabric you jam in there, the less evenly it will be dyed, the more mottled it will come out.
Enjoy! Hopefully you'll be seeing pictures of this fabric again sometime in January or February.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
It's cold out there everyday. What is this? Miami Beach? Not hardly.
So we got the heating bill today. Our first REAL hey-it's-been-cold-this-month bill of the new house. It freaked us out. Yes, we live in a 70 year old house. Yes, it's got a basement with no door separating it from the upstairs. Yes, it's got an attic that's more like a third floor than an attic. Yes, that basement's heated by not one, but two radiators. Yes, it's about twice the size of our old, apartment. But that apartment was drafty! It had windows that were original to the house! You could sit on the couch in the living room and FEEL the cold air on your FACE. This place has all new windows. And storm doors. And it's efficient at getting the temp where we want it and keeping it there. It doesn't take all day to move the thermostat up 5 degrees. And...and, we just expected it to be less.
Ok, I need to enlist all of the help of all of those of you out there who have lived in older houses longer than we have. Any tips? We're through with the rationalizing the situation: We didn't have a dishwasher in the last house, or a washer, or a dryer that uses gas to heat it. But still. Here's the "program" on our "programmable thermostat." Offer advice at will.
Weekdays: 3 AM: Temp up to 64
4 AM: Temp up to 68 in anticipation of Justin getting out of bed at 5 AM
7 AM: Temp down to 65
9 PM: Temp down to 60
Weekends: 8 AM: Temp up to 68, stays there til 9 PM, when it drops back down to 60.
Yeah, we never break above the 70 mark. Is it more economical to simply hold the thermostat at a constant number, like 66-68, without the drop off at night? The philosophy was that we'd have one ramp up that would gradually cool down all day.
I feel like I've got the "crafty" angle covered. But again, any suggestions...
I'm going to make a curtain out of heavy material for the basement "lack-of-door" and get a spring-loaded curtain rod to hang it on.
My "Christmas" knitting will now include many draft catchers (at least 3), due before the temp drops much more.
Seriously, any suggestions? I wouldn't take it personally if you slam us for our lack of thrifty ways. We'd like to learn. Help us with your experiences. Should we be focusing on the other areas of the house? Dishwasher? Dryer? Etc?
The average temp for this bill was 43F. It's going to be getting a lot colder than that here in the coming months, and we can't afford $400/mth (projected cost) for heat.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Thankful
How's this for "Eye Candy" on a Friday?
From the front porch, 11AM this morning. (The time stamp on the blog is wrong.)
I'm thankful it's not snow.
I'm thankful I have a roof over my head that seems to be free of leaks.
I'm thankful that the sump pump is working in the cellarway.
I'm thankful that we still have power.
I'm thankful that I have a project to keep me busy. (but no real progress, alas, to show.)
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