lolajl: December 2004 Archives

Well . . . here we are, the last day of 2004. What an eventful year this has been - full of triumphs, full of tragedy, and just plain old living each day the best we can. It won't be any different in 2005. But perhaps, we can all learn from our experience and maybe do it a bit differently when we're faced with the same situation.

Now, it's the tradition to make resolutions. I have a really poor track record of keeping my resolutions. grumpy, whom I met last night at the DC Bloggers get-together hosted by LaShawn Barber, pointed out that I should be updating this blog more often. Yes sir . . . that will be my resolution that I will try my best to keep. I will also have more knitting and spinning projects that I will start and complete.

Another resolution I'll be making is to continue to be a loving, and supportive, wife to my Hubby, Bruce. I'm still in love with him just the same as when I first met him. That's a resolution I won't be breaking. Come to think of it . . . this is one of my more successful resolution.

I also resolve to spend more time with my family. One can never get enough time with family members that you love. And even when there are family members that irritate you . . . well, that's part of the parcel and you make do with whatever parcels that you get - it's how you deal with it that can make a better person out of you.

And of course, to spend more time with friends. One of my very good friends from church is planning to move to an area that will be within 15 minutes driving distance, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with her and getting to know my little buddy Alex. And there are other friends in my life that I should spend more time with as well.

May 2005 be a good year for y'all.

I've finally been able to get a few pictures taken around the house as we celebrate the Nativity of Christ. Here's a picture of the tree that is sitting in front of the bay window:

You can see what I mean by rustic. Some of the ornaments are heirlooms. Mother, several years ago, made quilted squares and she gave these to me. And other ornaments I've collected over the years and intend to pass down to my children, if I ever have any.

Yesterday we hosted the dinner here. Originally there were going to be about 12 people, but a couple of them couldn't make it, and sister and bil had to go over and spend the day with his parents (and they're off to Hawaii tomorrow as her friend is getting married on New Years Eve . . . I'm so jealous).

But at least, I was able to get my good china out at last. Here's how the table was set:

For dinner, we had the usual traditional dishes - turkey, which we injected with butter, and stuffing with onions, celery, garlic, and shallots; sweet potatoes puree laced with bourbon; rice, collards cooked with onion and garlic, and cranberry relish :

I found this recipe from a website:

Cranberry Relish, by Elizabeth Powell

1 cup sugar
1 onion, finely chopped
6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 whole cardamom seeds, crushed
1 pinch cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup vinegar
2 cups cranberries, fresh
1 cup seedless raisins
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in large soup kettle. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes. Serve chilled.

It is truly delicious. It tastes good warm, but even better when it is chilled, and so much better when it's been allowed to stay in the refrigerator overnight. This just may become a family favorite.

And I finally got to take a picture of the sock. Here's how it looks right now:

Lovely, isn't it? I'm getting ready to turn the heel. I love this part of the work and I never cease to be amazed at how the 3-dimensional shaping forms. Isn't knitting amazing?

Nothing about knitting in particular, except that I haven't picked up the needles for the past couple days. I'm taking today off from work so I can do some last minute shopping, get the ingredients picked up for Xmas Dinner, and to have some time to myself as Hubby and MIL go out to get their hair done and to stop at the thrift stores.

Hubby got the tree up, and decorated it. I must say it looks lovely with quite a bit of rustic ornaments that gives it the homespun look. No glitzy balls for me.

Well, I gotta go eat breakfast and then head out the door. Maybe I'll update later today.

These pop top mitten look like a really cool gift . . . and I would suspect that this would be really easy to reproduce. Matter of fact, I've got the pattern lurking around. This would be a perfect item to wear on a day like this, with the temperature at 12 F. as the Weather Bug on my PC is displaying. Brrrrrr!!!

It took four visits before we finally found our tree. For some reason, it was really difficult to find a nice tree that is full and doesn't lean over. Usually we get our trees at the Greek church up the street from the one we go to. But these trees were a bit pricey, and we discovered that the money doesn't go to the Greek church - they just rent out the parking lot. So we figured we might as well go to other places.

Of course, the best trees are at that place in DC (probably because the people who live in that section are rich and demand the best). Finally, though, here's the tree we picked out:

Today Bruce, his mom, and I are off to find a tree after we have breakfast at Double T Diner in Annapolis with my parents. Yes, his mom flew out here all the way from California to spend Christmas and New Years with us. She's staying in the rec room where we've made up a nice bed for her. It's hard for her to move around and the bedrooms are on the 3rd floor, so we felt it would be best that way. It will also give her some privacy.

Meanwhile, I've been busy knitting the cabled sock. I really like this pattern and the yarn is great to work with. I'm going to see if I can get a picture of it later today, along with the tree.

Another blog - feeding dexygus seconds. Bruce and I just have to win that multi-million lottery so we can get that mansion with a butler, maid and cook . . .

Came across a really attractive recipe blog - Simply Recipes. Each recipe has a picture included. And you can look through categories to find recipes for, say, lamb or turkey. Now if I can only find time to organize my clippings in MacGourment . . .

Well, since I've stupidly left my socks at Mrs. Zh's home, I decided to start a new pair of socks. So, I went through my books and found this:

“Knitting on the Road” (Nancy Bush). I looked through the book, and I found this pattern that I really liked which uses a twining cable pattern. It's on page 24 - I didn't xerox the main pattern page so I don't have the name handy right now. I'm using a really nice variegated yarn that I found in my knitting stand next to my bed. The colors are burgundy, a bit of dark orange, and a little bit of green. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the yarn as I'd like to get more, it knits up so nicely. The pattern is simple enough that I don't have to use a stitch holder to make the cables.

So . . . back to my stashes I go into. I found this sock that I'd been working on and not finished. This is from Priscilla's Dream Socks, published in Interweave Knits and later elaborated in “Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy: A Short-Row Technique for Heel and Toe” (Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts). It uses short rows to shape the heels, which is a lot like what is used in commercial socks. It should be interesting to see how this comes out.

Last night Bruce went over to Mrs. Zh's home (our Russian teacher) and I bought along my little bag with my sock that I'm working. When time came to leave, we got the bag of salad fixings, the bowl, the notebook, my book of Dostoevsy short stories, and my pocketbook. And the sock bag decided to stay behind. Doh. We'll have to call her up later and see if she can bring it tomorrow; if not then to the class.

Meanwhile, I've temporarily liberated my boxes of handspun yarn so I can go in and select several skeins for my attempt at making socks with handspun yarn. Now I have to figure out which patterns to use.

Checking the news online, I came across this article Parents Go on Strike, Move to Front Yard . . . what a creative idea. Unfortunately, it looks like the kids still haven't shaped up. And it's already gotten Child Protective Services involved to see whether they should take the kids away or not . . . sheesh.

testing another software

Testing from Palm ...

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

The winter issue of Knitty is out now, and as usual they've come out with patterns that are a mixture of “I would love to have that!” and “Uhh . . . a little too quirky for my taste”. Mariah is a pattern that I would love to knit as I love Aran patterns. This would be nice to wear under my winter coat (yes, even at this point where it's fall/winter, I do feel the cold). I have plenty of handspun yarn, so I'll have to go through my stash and see which ones I want to use. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the hood - I never wear hoods and I don't like the weight on my back (although I'll make exception for a Kinsdale cloak). I'll just put some kind of a cabled ribbing around the neck. And, will I finish it before this winter is over? I'm afraid to find out, if I ever do get started on this . . .

Took another look at the category list and found that definitely Knitting is there, with links to 533 blogs. So, whining taken back.

I just came across a new blog index website - QuackTrak. I checked a few categories; these look good for the most part. however, there's still holes here and there. Under Crafts, I'm seeing spinning, weaving with its subcategory tapestry. Even crochet. But no knitting . . . huhhh??? Still, this is worth checking out if you're looking for blogs on historic costumes, for instance.

Oh, and another thing - they could fix the code so that every time you click on a category, the list will load in the same browser window - they just need to make sure they include target as part of the A link tag. I'm looking at 3 separate windows on the PC right now.

Here's the lesson - never, ever go more than 2 months before knitting the 2nd sock of the pair. Especially if you're very picky about these looking exactly the same.

Bruce is giving me a sewing table for my birthday. The Koala sewing cabinets would be nice, but these are expensive. We checked out the ones available at WalMart, but Bruce didn't like the cheap look. So, he's going to build it himself. Right now he's working on the design, keeping in mind the limited space in the rec room.

At present, it looks like Bruce's mom will be coming out to visit us for the holidays. We're still planning this out, but hope to get this firmed up within the next few days.