My Gracious Acceptance Speech

Thank you. (pause for applause to subside) Thank you very much for this award for Best Dinner Ever. I will cherish it and use it for inspiration on those dull afternoons when I cannot think of anything to cook for dinner.

I'd like to thank my family who nominated me for this award. (blow kisses) I appreciate their enthusiasm for all three dishes (pause) and the food in those dishes. (pause..laughter subsides) Thank you sweet husband and children; I love you and wish to feed you healthy, delicious food.

I'd also like to thank the farmers who raised the sweet potatoes and green beans. Your dedication to small farm life and organic non-chemical growing make our world a better place and our food was delicious. Thanks also to Nigella Lawson for the Green Bean (not really a casserole) Casserole recipe. The quick boiling of the beans left them slightly crisp and the toss with butter and lemon gave them a silky finish with a fresh bite. While I used no recipe for the baked sweet potatoes, I give thanks to Alton Brown for his confirmation that baked potatoes need nothing more than a swipe of olive oil (and maybe a sprinkling of salt) to showcase their amazing flavour and texture.

Finally, I'd like to thank the fisherpeople and merchants who caught, cleaned, and sold the char. I an grateful for the omega 3 fatty acids and other heart friendly benefits of this delicious fish and I am especially grateful that my husband loves char since he does not care for salmon.

Thank you again for this award. I will try to cook to these high standards more often.

Frog or Tink?

Frogging is scary. Really! Maybe it is because I knit into the back of each stitch (don't ask - I taught myself from a book and must be somewhat dyslexic) but when I frog the stitches I can't tell when to stop (sigh) and I generally lose a couple of stitches into the edges. Anyway, even using the hint to hold the knitting flat and frog until the live yarn is on the left I still mess up frogging. Frankly, if I have to frog a row or two then I frog the whole thing and start over. It's less confusing. Oh, and I didn't find out for MONTHES that it's called frogging because you rippit out. groan

I had read about people tinking but wasn't sure what it meant. Okay, I'm still not sure what it means to other people but to me it means unknitting (tink = knit backwards). When I tink, I turn the knitted work around so that the opposite side is towards me. Then I put the tip of the right sided needle into the lower loop (beneath the next stitch on the left needle); I slide that loop onto the right needle while pulling gently on the live yarn. The position of the live yarn (on the you side of the needle or the away side of the needle) depends on whether you are tinking knit stitches or purl stitches. When I tink, I do not lose any stitches and I have more control over the rate of unknitting.

Fat Tuesday and those Slouchy Socks

Those slouchy Olympic socks made my family laugh very hard. They are like leg warmers with feet; I can wear them OVER my jeans. I Think that they look great worn over a pair of tights with ankle boots and a mid-calf skirt.

Yesterday was Fat Tuesday (also known as Shrove Tuesday). We shrive (?) every day in confessional prayer and did not schedule confession at church. We did have a special fat and carb dinner last night along with a discussion of how Fat Tuesday used to be about thrift and not gluttony. People would not eat fats, sugar, or meat during Lent so they would have a feast to clear those ingredients from the house so that they wqouldn't go bad before Easter. That's not really an issue for people who don't give up those things anymore. Our family doesn't give up all of those things as a family - last year we only bought organic meat during Lent; we ate less meat as a result and I liked supporting the small farmers. We still buy about 60% organic meat. Last year G, then 7, gave up struggling over bathtime. We usually pick something new up for Lent and then keep it - some habit of kindness or prayer...something that helps us to live more like we think we should be living.

What did we have last night for dinner? Bangers and mash, carmelized onions, green beans, and fondue!

Team Kenya overcomes the odds!

Kenyan Jr. member, K, finished her knitting well before the extinguishing of the flame in torino.

The exuberant team members stood solemnly for a playing of dual national Anthems: The Star Spangled Banner and Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu. I regret that the high notes in TSSB lead to embarrassing squeaks from the elder team member and that the concensus was that the Kenyan national anthem, even in swahili, is easier to sing and to hear non-experts sing.

WooHoo~ (I spring into the gymnast TADA! position)

Lead member of the Kenyan team has finished a Toddler Sweater and Slouchy Socks

Team Kenya is taking it to the photo finish!

I ran into a snag with my second sock; I ran out of yarn. Yes, I'm getting gauge for row and stitch but I still ran out. Go figure! While we were out getting groceries I dropped into the 'local' yarn store The Yarn Garden to get a supplemental skein. Sadly, they were out of this particular Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Infusion Mohair (long-o name) in colour 614.

We came home and I moped for a while about maybe finishing the sock in a different colour of mohair or missing the Olympic deadline. WAH! Since the laundry was well in hand I decided to search out another yarn store. Local is certainly a relative term. The Yarn Garden is about 15 miles (25 minutes on the highway) from our house and StitchDC is also 15 miles away but it may take 25-35 minutes to get there and parking can be a problem. Today I went exploring to Fiberworks. Fiberworks is 25 miles away and it took about 45 inutes to get there and less than 30 to gt back (I recognized where we were and took a shortcut). Fiberworks is more crowded with yarn than StitchDC and The Yarngarden. StitchDC is the least crowded. Fiberworks had a good selection, a variety of prices, and the owner was able to tell me exactly where to look for the Jo Sharp mohair. Yay! They had the beautiful and needed colour. I also picked up a Jo Sharp book I've been looking for and three balls of Aran Tweed.

My policy of knitting whilst watching Olympics seems to be paying off. The sock is only a few centimeters from the toe!

I am also keeping to the Knitting Olympic oath by doing the laundry, loading the dishwasher, and comforting puking children (blech!). tonight A cooked the dinner of 2 kinds of ravioli (cheese and pumpkin) is two sauces (creamy tomato and olive oil garlic) and salad. SOME people felt the need for dessert so there was left over Yum and lime popsicles.

Olympic Update: It looks like Team Kenya is finishing strong! I have finished the toddler sweater and one of the slouchy knee-high socks and the second sock is already past the heel. K is just finishing up the fish tail (and then it will need to be felted). Though she is bedridden with some sort of stomach bug, she valiantly knits between bouts of heaving.

Two more kid meals done for this week. Last night was K's dinner of barbecue brisket (crockpot cooked and pulled by hand), homemade biscuits, soy/ginger carrots, and harvest melange a la Trader Joe. For dessert she prepared chocolate walnut Yum (as opposed to the berry yum A made last week). Yum is primarily whipped cream - I don't really care for the desserts. Tonight was G's meal of turkey cheeseburgers, salad, roasted potatoes, and leftover ice cream from last week.

Last night was G's dinner. He chose homemade sausage pizza, salad, and fruit salad. He made the dough in the mixer but I put everything else together because he's been having intestinal issues for the last few days.

Tonight was A's dinner. She made grilled chicken enchiladas (I grilled the chicken and YES it was freezing outside today), steamed carrots, and Berry Yum (whipped cream and fresh blackberries in a chocolate cookie crust). The yum was nice except that my piece was riddled with cookie crumbs and I really dislike that texture. Blech! The blackberries were very tasty.

Tomorrow I'm back in charge of the meals. I'm planning a stew for dinner. My microwave suddenly died today and I am realizing how I use it for almost every meal in some capacity or another.

Tonight K made dinner.

She made the shopping list, plucked the items from the grocery shelves, and cooked the whole thing herself. Indeed, she made up the entree recipe! She served: Sliced french bread with olive oil for dipping, salad with homemade peppercorn dressing, and spagghetti with calimari in a tomato sauce. She chose ice cream for dessert.

I think she did a great job and I am very proud of her!

Announcing a new member to TEAM KENYA: K. - 13 year old K. is knitting a series of fish to be felted and a fluffy stuffed rabbit. She cast on the first fish on Sunday because she was in bed during the opening ceremonies (as telecast in this area).

BTW, does it annoy anyone else the way that the NBC stations pretend that they are covering live Olympic action when Italy is about 6 hours ahead of the Eastern USA. Blah!

I have finished knitting my Rumplestiltskin toddler sweater. I'll block it tomorrow and try it on a toddler but It looks awfully small. Perhaps too small for even the thin 21 month old I will use as a model.

Knitting Olympics

I have cast on for the Knitting Olympics as organized by Yarn Harlot. In the strategy of Venezuela and Ethiopia I am entering these Winter Games as the Kenyan Team. I have, of course, missed the official deadline for signing up but that is (vague wave) not necessary for the experience. Efforts to engage other knitters in the family have failed.

I have cast on a Toddler Sweater.

I have been knitting. For Christmas I made 24 tiny sweaters as ornaments to be given as presents, 4 tychus Hats, a Boing hat and then I frogged it. I made a hat from Sally Melville's Purl book. I also made (but not for Christmas) a Mosaic Scarf from MAGKnits (sorry browser acting up) and an Irish Hiking scarf from Hello Yarn which was my first excursion into cables. I then tried a cabled sweater but I've had to frog it 3 times and I'm giving it a break.

Third Booga Bag 

My first socks 

Knitting in public has never been a problem for me. Maye this is because my mother knit at faculty meetings and in airports and so I thought it was normal. I don't think anyone knitting in public was particularly brave or bold unless they were generally shy. Even then knitting is great for shy people (I am very shy) because it keeps you from having to interact too much.

There are times and places that I don't think it is appropriate to knit in public. I don't knit during meetings or church services or musical performances because I think these are things that need my whole attention and I am not such a good knitter that I can not think about my knitting. I think knitting and reading are perfect for when I'm waiting for a performance to begin (my kids have to be at the venue an hour before the music starts and I sit and wait), during swim practice when I can't swim, and while I wait for appointments.

A number of bloggers and writing knitters say that knitting in public gets people to talk with you about knitting but I have had very little interactions with unknown bystanders. Maybe my fierce concentration throws them into silence. At our community pool I sometimes knit during swim practice or during breaks in my swimming (sometimes I read) and I have had two strange interactions.

The first was while I was knitting my first pair of socks. I was knitting and a woman approached me and mentioned that she was interested to see that I was knitting during swim team practice these days and not reading. She said, "It must be so much more satisfying to finish and have something because when you finish reading a book you have nothing." She is wrong. When I finish a book I have ideas and thoughts and stories. I have debates even though most of them remain internal. I have pictures in my mind of myself integrated into the situations from the book: Would I respond like the main character or how would my personality and experience affect my storyline? What does this article mean to me? What do I think it means to other people? How does the viewpoint put forth mesh with or change my vision of the world? I am changed in ways grand and small by the things I read; the things I knit are not quite as life changing for me. She was also incorrect about my knitting/reading ratio. It is only that I've been working on my knitting during swim practice because I'm making my first pair of socks and it takes concentration and chunks of time.

The second experience was with a different woman at the pool. I was knitting while I waited for my family to finish practice and come join me for a picnic dinner and a woman walked by and commented "Sew, sew, sew! Every time I see you you are sewing at something. I even saw your daughter sewing at the swim meet last week; she was all (woman puts her hands up before her face and hunches over). That sewing! My Grandma used to always be sewing stuff too." Then she walked away. Where could I have started? That I was knitting, that it is a fun thing to do, or that it helps my daughter filter out the stress of competition? Typically, I did nothing.

Tonight I was very brave and I went to a local stitch and chat session. I took my daughter with me for a knitting buddy and moral support. The group was very noisy and happy looking with a nice variety of ages of men and women. Nobody specifically greeted us but plenty of people made eye contact and smiled in a welcoming way. We sat and started knitting and after a few forays for drinks and yarn we settled in for some good knitting. I did what I usually do in social situations, I sat quietly and listened while smiling and reacting to stories that were being told. I told my daughter that I felt sort of isolated but that it might be ME not THEM. Then, I am so brave, I started inserting myself into the conversation. We ended up spending the whole 2 hours knitting and talking and I learned a few names and had a lot of fun. When we left someone said they'd see us next week. Woohoo! I don't have to take my daughter with me every time though she liked going; it is past her bedtime by the time we got home. There were several other children knitting and one even seemed to be about her age but my daughter was unsure of approaching them. She did deal with all the vendors and asked someone for help calculating yardage. LOL! We joked that she didn't interact with her own peer group but that my peer group was sufficient.

I have been knitting. Since the mitered hearts I've finished the pink X-back shirt for K's birthday, made myself a pair of socks (woohoo! first pair), and started on a second pair of socks for G. Pictures will be posted soon.

Mitered hearts for comparison 


You can see what a difference there was in size because of yarn choice.

These mitered hearts are a great break from Booga bags and the monotony of knitting 6400 stitches all the same. Before these mitered hearts, picking up stitches was a weakness in my knitting; it seemed like I always ended up with the stitches on the wrong needle. Now, I'm practically a pro at picking up stitches.

Red mitered heart 


Made with Dalegarn Sissik. This yarn is easy to knit with but it feels a little waxy. I think the flecks of colour look great.

Mitered Heart Sachet 

I bought Interweave Knits magazine for two patterns - this heart and a baby kimono only to find out that the heart pattern is free online as a pdf. I made this heart with mystery yarn that is thicker than the recommended yarn. It worked well because it made it easy for me to see what I was doing. The bottom square is supposed to be textured like the other squares but I didn't realize that until I was on the 3rd square. I kept going for the experience. I'm now knitting another heart out of sock yarn and it is much smaller.

Felted Booga Bag #2 

I did not use Noro for this bag; I mostly used Lamb's Pride worsted which is a mingling of wool and mohair. This yarn knits up beautifully (it almost seems a shame to felt it) and felts very quickly. The mohair goes create a little bit of a halo effect after felting but if it bothers you you can always trim it. The red is a mystery wool from the thrift store and the black is Red Heart 100% wool.