Forward Motion

Leftovers

Every year before Thankgiving I make plans to use the leftover turkey skeleton to make a turkey soup.  And I just realized why I never do that. 

#1.  A turkey stripped of the meaty parts is gross.  Disgusting, in fact.  It looks like something that was hit on the highway 3 days ago.  I don't even want to look at it, nevermind cook it up.

#2.  By Thursday evening I am so tired of being in the kitchen, I don't want to cook for a week.

I think I'm going to buy a ham for Christmas. 

Can you see how the oven rack is bent under the weight of that beast?  I was worried it would bend too much and the whole thing would fall, but it held.    I forgot to take a photo of it before it got carved to bits, but it was a thing of beauty.  Still, that was a monster turkey and I can't face doing it again in 4 weeks.  In fact, I'm not at all sure I can face Christmas in 4 weeks.  Doesn't it seem awfully soon?

I did a good chunk of online shopping yesterday, aided by the wonderful Want Not blog.  I have totally lost track of how many boxes from various places I am expecting.  Between the handmade gifts, the few things I bought from the Farmer's Market today, and the internet, I shouldn't have to do much in store shopping at all this year.

Last night I  finished the second try of DH's first slipper.  I'm much happier with the wider and shorter fit this time and the DiC Fatty handling the frogging just fine.  The second slipper is in progress, and then I'll knit the cuffs.  Just a foot doesn't make for a very interesting photo, but you can kind of see how gorgeous the color is.

Grace's Sour Grape socks now have heels on them and hopefully I'll get those finished and off the needles in a week or so.  Her foot grew a size and a half after I'd begun the socks and I had to make some increases in the foot before I started the heel.  My kids literally grow faster than I knit.

As far as my color trio issue, I thank you for your votes in the poll.  I still like the Dream in Color trio, but I think I'm going to go ahead and order just one more skein of yarn to go with two other colors that are tucked away in my stash.  This is one of those projects that I will regret putting all the work into if I don't love the colors.

For Christmas, my mom and step-dad will be visiting us in their giant, rockstar RV.  Since summer, when they rented out their house(s), they are now full time RV residents.  Fortunately, their RV is nicer than some apartments I've lived in.  They've signed up to be Roving Volunteers in Christ's Service and specifically asked for a west/southwest assignment.  Beginning January, they'll spend 6 weeks in Arizona, 6 weeks in one part of south Texas, and another 6 weeks near Brownsville, TX.  It works out perfectly for them to make their way from NC, spend the holiday with us in El Paso, then continue on to the RVICs assignment. 

My mom is going to Freak Out when she sees how much the kids have grown from last year.  Like, Alex is about 5 ft. 4, with size 11 1/2 feet,  and has a 'stache.  Grace told me today that she doesn't like the Jonas Brothers for their music, but because one of them is really cute.  I had to go lay down.  As much as I'm not ready for a lot of the holiday hassle, I can't wait for my Mom and her hubby to get here.

Random Thankgiving blogging

- My dad visited his younger brother last week.  I don't think they've spoken to each other in a long, long time.  My whole paternal side of the family is a has a different way of looking at things, so who knows.  Anyhow, my uncle's wife apparently has done some deep, deep research into our family tree.  My mom had begun this years ago and gotten the Kemp side back as far as the early 1700s when we were all living in the Bahamas, explaining why I love the beach so much.  Now, the new research she did goes all the way back to the 1300s in Scotland.  According to them - bearing in mind, that side of the family loves a good story. Which is why my mom had such a hard time with the genealogy, because my grandma kept changing minor details with each asking, like her name and birthdate -we are descendents of a Scottish king and a Danish princess. 

- I have baked 2 pumpkin pies and may make a 3rd tonight.  I've put together the sweet potato casserole and cut up the green beans.  Tomorrow I just have to bake Big Bird, peel and mash a ton of potatos, microwave the Stove top (do not get me started on the stuffing issue, some battles you just concede), and slice up the French bread.  DH is miffed that I bought loaves of French bread instead of baking biscuits.  I just wanted one less thing to burn tomorrow.

- I had the foot of one Ribby Slipper sock all done this week.  I tried it on Alex, who at 12 years old, has bigger feet than his dad and it was a good 2 inches too long and slightly too narrow.  Hmmpph.  I ripped it out and am starting again.  Good thing these knit up so quickly.

- My favorite kind of pie is homemade pecan pie.  Unfortunately, I am not very successful at baking them.  I tend to get more of a pecan soup in a crust.  That's why I was so delighted when Lisa's kid showed up at my door tonight bearing a delicious pecan pie.  I had mentioned the pie thing on Facebook and she asked her pastry chef/DH to bake an extra one for us.  There's nothing better than after spending an afternoon in the kitchen, eating something that you didn't have to bake.

- Have I mentioned I've got a 27 lb. turkey?  I asked the guy at the commissary for a big one and he came out with mine, a 29 lb.er, and a 30 lb.er.  That's a lotta turkey.  It was either one of these or a 19 lb.er, nothing in between.  I'm looking forward to leftovers this year.

- While walking to get the mail this evening, I passed a house that not only has their Christmas tree up, they had THREE of them up.  At least, that's all I could see through the front window.  They might have had 6 more scattered around the rest of the house.  I can't even get in the mood for one tree yet.

- I got my hair cut for the first time in El Paso.  That makes it, like what, 6 months since I had a hair cut?  It was quite scraggly, but I hate finding a new stylist.  Finally I saw my neighbor had a cute haircut and I made her tell me where she went.  My hair looks fine, I guess, but you know how they always style it at the salon and you can never do it again at home?  After she finished blowing and blowing and blowing it out (remarking, "Wow, you're right, your hair is really straight."), I looked in the mirror.  My hair looked exactly like the stylist's.  I don't think she even realized what she did, but it cracked me up.

- For those of you celebrating it, Happy Thanksgiving!  Everyone else, have a nice Thursday.

Thinking in Threes

 So that dishcloth that I began last night fascinated me and I finished it up this morning.

 

Yes, I realized that lavender/beige mottled yarn is a bad choice.  Purple or hot pink would have been so much better, but this was really just a swatch masquerading as a dishcloth.  It's a slip stitch pattern from one of my Japanese stitch dictionaries.  I really liked the unique diamonds and it looked so different from a lot of mosaic patterns.

Side note - I am seeing so many patterns, socks especially, popping up on Ravelry that are nothing but stitch patterns taken from these Japanese stitch dictionaries.  Does that matter?  They are selling the patterns for $5-$7 and it's just a stitch plugged into a standard sock pattern.  If I didn't have the Japanese books, I would think the designers were awfully creative, and maybe they are.  I don't know why this bugs me. 

Not a week after I thought that, I saw it used in a cardigan in the book Color Style, just a bit of the pattern around the yoke.  That kind of killed my enthusiam for it, since it didn't look like the idea I had in my head on the sweater.

Still, everytime I flipped through that stitch book, I would see it and like it all over again.  Yesterday I grabbed 3 balls from my deep, deep drawer of kitchen cotton and gave it a try.  Right away, I disliked the lightest color, but it was just a dishcloth to try out the pattern.  Even thought the edges are wonky and the gauge is too loose because I just grabbed some needles, I think it's very cool.

Now I have to use the pattern for socks.  But what yarn and what 3 colors?  I really can't buy any more sock yarn for this project.  Partly because I don't want to wait for it to arrive.  My stash is considerable, but I don't have many solid yarns of the same weights.  Bear with me as I think this out.

I do, of course, have lots of Wollmeise.  Somehow though, the colors I have don't seem to make a good trio.  This was the best I could find:

 

Frosh, a froggy green.  Veilchen, a blinding violet.  Single Malt, a rich tan brown.  An interesting combination, but I'm not sure I love it.  I mixed and matched Natural, Brombeere, Granatapfel, Vergissmeinnicht, Sonne, Rosenrot, Farn, and Fratello and I couldn't combine any into 3 colors I liked together.

Dream in Color Smooshy is the only other yarn I have several colors of.  My first try was this:

 

I kind of like this one.  Buttercream, Deep Sea Flower, and Ruby River.  Is it a little too close to red, white, and blue patriotic type colors, though?

How about this:

Don't Be Blue, Into the Mystic, and Ruby River.  I think this one is the one I like, but I'm just not sure.

I'm terrible with colors.  Picking two that go together is hard enough, three is making my brain ache.  Help me out, if you would.

(Hey, there's a poll embedded on this page!  I couldn't see it when I checked Bloglines, so if you're reading the blog from an aggregator like Google Reader or Bloglines, you'll have to click over here to take the poll.)

Up a river with a cherry cobbler.

Mom?  Husband?  Just stop reading the blog 'till after Christmas, okay?  Otherwise I'll have nothing to post about.

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No, really, you guys can catch up on everything in January.

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That should be far enough down, right?

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If they are still reading then it's their own fault for wrecking their Christmas gift surprise.

I finished something!!  I really needed to do this.  It feels like forever since I've successfully finished something besides that little baby set.  Which isn't true, since I made those slippers, but it just feels like it.

Here is Mom's Christmas gift.

Pattern: Snake River Socks by Judy Becker

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Thin Supersock, colorway Cherry Cobbler

Needles: 2.5mm, Magic Loop

Modifications:  I substituted my usual heel flap.  I think it's quite close to what the pattern uses, but I just made mine plain.

I did knit 2 socks, but I only have one sock blocker, and the other sock looks just like this one, only all scrunched up and unblocked looking.  The first pair of socks I knit Mom were blue and tan, so she asked for some that would go well with black shoes.  She had seen this yarn in my stash last year and said "Ooh!  I like that one!", so I mentally put it aside for her. 

Knitted up, it seems a litte Red Hatty, which is definitely not my mom, but I don't think the purple is obnoxious enough to scream Red Hat Club.  The pattern was quick and simple, as long as I didn't abandon it for more than a week.  After a week, it was like I'd never knit it before and I had to relearn it every time.  I'm pretty sure that Mom will like them and she's a knitter, so they'll be appreciated.

I've gone ahead today and admitted I'm in a weird kind of funk.  Not a depression really, just sort of a hostile boredom.  I can't figure out what I want to do and humanity on an individual level is just irritating me.  I don't know if it's the weather or the continual uncertainty of our next move or the holidays or what.  I do know that I was the crankiest shopper in the commissary today, which is an accomplishment, and gave out many a death glare.

I thought the Monday before Thanksgiving would be a good time to get all the groceries for the holiday, but clearly September is the best time for that.  The commissary was completely out of lemon juice, turkey gravy, pecans, and All Bran with the Yogurt Bites.  The apples were pitiful, the conveyor belt knocked my bananas on the floor, and one of my milk jugs was leaking.  AND now I have to go to another store tomorrow to get the things they didn't have.

But I've got a 27 lb. turkey and probably way too many potatoes, so we are good in that direction.  And I just started knitting a mosaic swatch/dishcloth that is pleasing me with it's oddness.  I'll try not to give you a death glare if I see you, but do yourself a favor and avoid the commissary.

Tis the season to go away now, thanks.

I went to the hospital today.  Happily, just to see my neighbor's new baby.  He was born yesterday and oh my heavens.  He is so perfect and soft and snuggly and I got to hold him for the whole visit.  When I arrived, he was enduring a diaper change and it's a good thing, otherwise I might have started thinking I missed having a baby.  But he was wearing the booties I knit him!  I had forgotten how soft brand new babies are.

Now, AHEM!!  If you are someone who will receive a gift from me, STOP READING this blog.  Go look at something on Facebook or eBay.  Do NOT read any further.  Yes, Mom, I mean you, too.

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I'm serious!  If you are related to me, this blog is not the blog you are looking for.  DH, thanks for reading, but go.

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Are they gone?

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Okay....the rest of you, c'mere.  Let me tell you how the Christmas knitting is going.  I definitely don't want to talk about how the rest of my holiday gifting is coming along.  I don't have any photos right this minute because Kodak and I are still in negotiations (other photo editing software suggestions?  And no, I don't have Photoshop.  Anymore.  Thanks, computer crash.) 

I am so pleased to announce the Snake River socks for my mom might actually getting done.  While I think I had a good idea to start them back in June so I wouldn't have to rush to finish them by 12-25, it also means I'm really tired of looking at them.  I'm a matter of rows from finishing one sock and the other isn't far behind! 

Every time I ask my mom what she wants for Christmas she says, "I want another pair of socks!  I love the ones you made me last year!"  I laugh and tell her it's too late for that kind of request.  Which is not exactly a lie.  The yarn is some that she had admired in my stash one day, so hopefully she'll still like it.

I was feeling a little panicky that they were on the too small side, a side I have fallen on too many times.  My mom wears about a size 9.5 shoe, but I think her feet are about as wide as mine.  Once I passed the heel, I didn't want to try them on my longer feet.  Grace has about a 7.5-8 foot though, so I figured I'd have her try them on.  Ideally, they'd go on with a bit of room to spare.

When she tried them on though, it seems like they just fit her and I got very nervous.  Like "dig through the stash looking for some sport weight that I could knit up quick as a alternate pair even though I wouldn't have time" nervous.  Then I jammed my foot in there, just for a moment, deciding what was the worst outcome?  I'd stretch them?  Anyway, to my relief they went over my giant heel just fine and even fit on my foot just barely.  I think they'll be okay.

For DH, I'm making the Ribby Slipper Socks from the Interweave Holiday issue.  I've been swatching and research yarn all week, looking for a subsitute for the handwash only super bulky alpaca the pattern calls for.  I have several different weight of cheap yarn I've swatched and I have learned that worsted + worsted = bulky and bulky + bulky = super bulky.  2 strands of WoolEase wasn't bulky enough, but 2 strands of WoolEase chunky was just right.  Except I don't really like WoolEase.

But I looooove Dream in Color.  And they have a bulky yarn.  It's called Fatty.  And I ordered 2 skeins from Sonny & Shear.  (I have my doubts about the name of that store.  While I am all for 70s retro and fond memories of TV variety shows, it makes me think of Sonny Bono with a pair of clippers in hand.)  Anyway, while my heart and credit card belong to The Loopy Ewe, Sonny and Shear could become my fallback love.

The box came today, just 2 days after I ordered.  Nice note, well wrapped yarn, and little tea samples.  I don't really drink tea, it's too watery, but the kids like it.  And the yarn!  It's so deliciously fat and squooshy and soft and gorgeous.  I ordered a deep blue color called Midnight Derby. 

I also ordered a skein of the worsted, Classy, for the contrasting cuffs in the color Cloud Jungle.  I thought it would be gray and browns and neutrals, but there's a bit of vivid pink in it that will not do.  I haven't decided if I should keep it or return it.  I'm going to use just one strand of the Fatty for the cuffs instead of doing a contrast.  DH isn't really a guy that cares about contrasting cuffs. 

I cast on right after dinner tonight, blatantly ignoring the directions to use DPNs and cast on 12 toe stitches, then sew up the hole at the toe later.  Why, when I can use Judy's Magic Cast On?  These things knit up so quickly!!  Even with lots of interruptions and trying to hide them from DH (I'm not so sure he'd notice, but still.) I have almost the whole foot done tonight.  His foot is bigger than mine so I can try them on all I want and ooooohhh they are comfy.

My favorite thing about the yarn besides the color and the softness is the name.  Fatty.  I like saying it.  Fatty.  Fatty.  I like saying it and not referring to the size of my butt.

Go on.  Say it.  It's fun.  Fatty.  Fatty.  Fatty.  Remember, you're talking about the yarn.

3 Cheers

While watching the election results a few weeks ago, I kind of lost my mind in the excitement and bought several skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn.  I think it's totally Sarah Palin's fault.  Everyone else seems to be blaming her for all kind of stuff, why not me?

I took some lovely photos of the yarn the other day.  I would show them to you but somehow after the computer reboot, the Kodak program hates me.  And the feeling is mutual.  I did take a photo today just to see if I could make it work.  Of course, the cheap yarn photo appeared just fine, but I can't find a trace of the Malabrigo photos.  They aren't on the camera and they aren't in my computer.  If you see them wandering around cyberspace, could you send them to me? 

Anyhow, I've been meaning to show you another of the yarns my dad found at a yard sale.

 

I don't know how old this yarn is, but it's clearly from a time when people were quite excited about acrylic.  Hurrah!!  By which of course I mean, Craptastic!

15

Tomorrow DH and I will have been married for 15 years.  For me that means one thing:  I am not cooking.

I don't have any words of wisdom or sentimental odes, I'm just grateful.  I'm grateful for him and that he puts up with me, which hasn't been easy, especially lately.  Each day, I love him and he loves me.  On our 15th anniversary that is all I need to be complete.  Also, it's a good idea to get married on payday.  That way you can always have money to go out for a nice dinner.

In honor of that day when we went the Pinellas Co., Florida courthouse, then had a wedding lunch at Taco Bell, I thought a husband meme would be perfect.  I've been planning to do the Spouse Interview meme, but I haven't managed to find just the right time.  That is, the time when he's not busy or aggravated or watching TV or asleep or any time when I'm just going to end up with monosyllabic responses.  Maybe tomorrow.

The Hubby Memes to an End:

How long did you date? about a year and half,

How old is he? 41

Who eats more? I eat more all day, but he eats more in individual sittings. 

Who said I love you first? I'm pretty sure he did.

Who is taller? Him by maybe an inch.  I have long legs and he has a long torso, so he's more taller than me when we are sitting.

Who sings better? Oh wow, I love him, but just about ANYBODY sings better.

Who is smarter? I am book smarter, he is common sense smarter.

Whose temper is worse? Mine

Who does the laundry? Me, because I am a control freak I like it done my way.

Who does the dishes? I have no control issues here.  He does them quite a bit.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Him.  We just switched with this move and I don't think he likes it, but I do.

Who pays the bills? Me. 

Who cooks dinner? Me, unless I ask him to.

Who drives when you are together? Him, mostly.

Who is more stubborn? TOTALLY ABSOLUTELY me.

Who asks who out first? He asked me out first, although I didn't know it was going to be a date.

Who kissed who first? Him

Who proposed? Him

Who is first to admit they were wrong? Him, but sometimes it's just to shut me up.

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine

Who is more sensitive? I would say I am, but that's a wobbly one.  Depends on how you define sensitive.

Who has more friends? He definitely does.

Who has more siblings ? Him, he's got 3. I've got 1.

Who wears the pants in the family? the dog.

 

Seen at Uberstrickenfrau.

(Oh, and Mug root beer and yellow cake?  Also fantastic.)

CAKE!

I discovered something remarkable today.  If you take a can of Diet Coke and a box of chocolate cake mix and combine them, then bake, you get a totally delicious cake.  Apparently you can do this with ANY can of soda and ANY cake flavor.  I went with the pure simplicity of chocolate cake and Diet Coke and it is amazing! 

 

That will be gone tomorrow.  As long as no one gets gets hungry tonight.

You don't add anything else.  Just the box of mix and the soda.  Stir them together and bake according to the cake box directions.  Ours came out moist and yummmmmy.  Plus, it's fewer calories because you are replacing those fattening eggs and oil and water ingredients with the pure toxic chemical goodness of Diet Coke.

I can't wait to try more flavor combinations.  Grace has a few cans of some Diet Peach Fresca crap that would only be helped by adding a box of white cake mix.  And how about that Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Vanilla mess in a can?  With a box of yellow cake?  Hooooboy.

Inflammation of the Monday

There's been a bit of a time warp here.  As far as this computer knows, it's December 17th, 2006.  Sadly, we've had to do the brain sweep thing where you reset the computer to the original condition.  It was either than or gaze at a black screen with an error message. 

We had lots of things saved to our external hard drive, but also lots of things that were not.  I'm scared to try iTunes.  It's been a while since we backed it up and I'm thinking we lost a costly amount of songs.  And there's just the hassle of reinstalling everything you've ever used for the last 2 years.

On the bright side, my Favorites sidebar is all fresh and clean and uncluttered.  I can't remember what on earth those bazillion sites were, but right now there are only about 8.  Don't expect to see any photos for a little while.  I'd really like to give this whole computer a good hard kick in the motherboard.

I'm FINALLY, finally feeling better.  Today was the first day that I woke up and was able to breathe and I wasn't coughing.  I'm still hoarse, but that may be from talking to be heard over the commotion at the little get together we had Saturday night.  DH and his friends love to play poker (not me, I'm more of an Uno kind of girl) and we took our turn hosting.  I made a big mess of taco meat and we bought 4 dozen tamales.

Sunday I went to a baby shower and finished sewing up the baby booties only hours before.  Then, of course I wrapped them without remembering to take a photo first.  There was that game of guessing the flavor of the baby food.  How did I ever feed my children that nasty stuff?  I totally lost because I refused to taste it, unlike some of the others.  I also killed my balloon baby when I was trying to diaper it by sticking it with the diaper pin.  Maybe it wasn't so accidental.

I'm still toiling away at my same two sock projects.  I still haven't sewed up Klaralund and it's actually gathering dust now.  Even though I'm not sick anymore, I just can't seem to get moving again.  I dunno, I'm just in a lull right now.  It seems like I'm not getting anywhere.  I knit, but never finish anything.  We have people around all the time, but I don't really know anyone.  The kids are doing hours of school, but I wonder if they are learning anything.

I would love to cast on for something new, but with that holiday of which we shall not speak looming next month, I don't dare.  I've already nixed 2 items off the holiday knitting list, deciding that there must be better gifts to be found.  For now, I just keep poking through my stash and making plans.

Well, back to reinstalling and updating and mourning lost files.  I think maybe I just have Mondayitis.

My concept of fine art.

Would you believe I'm still sick?  I've never had what's basically a bad cold stay with me so long.  Since Tuesday, I've been feeling awful.  Today is the first day that I haven't wanted to stay in bed all day, not that I CAN stay in bed all day, of course.  My birthday was Friday and seriously, I want a do-over.  Being sick on your birthday is so unfair.  I tried to tough it out and act like I enjoyed it for the kids' sake, but I felt awful.  We did managed to have a nice dinner out and I got some lovely gifts, at least.

Anyhow, DH finished a project for me on my birthday and I quit hacking and sniffling long enough to fill it up and take a photo for the blog.

 

He made a shelf like this for our neighbors and I immediately said, "I need one for my Wollmeise!"  Yes, that's all Wollmeise there.  Not pictured are a skein of natural, a skein of Brombeere that I hope to use soon, and of course the skein of Sultan that we will not speak of. 

I was quite content with my beautiful collection until the Wollmeise went and came out with new colors.  I stalked the site all Friday morning and lucked into another update, grabbing 2 skeins of the new color, Baba Jaga, one skein of the new color Simple Malt, a skein of Veilchen (don't have that one!), AND a skein of Blue Suzanne lace!  A very nice birthday present for the sick one.  I swore I'd never knit lace, but Wollmeise can make you do crazy things.

My little objective is to at least see all the colors of Wollmeise.  Not necessarily own them, but at least see them.  If someone else buys them and I lay eyes on them, that counts.  There are just a few colors left I'd like to own: Krauterbeet, Wellensittichvogelfedder, Franz, Maria's Deepest Purple, and Frosch.  Someday....

The shelf is smack in the middle of the living room wall, as soon as you enter the house.  The yarn is so gorgeous, it should be on display.  I love looking at it all and it is very inspiring.  Eventually I will probably showcase other yarns besides Wollmeise, but the amazing beauty of all this fiber makes me so happy.