Step Into My Thimble

This year I have established low standards for my holiday crafting. Last year my efforts were met with a sort of ho-hum response, so nobody is getting anything they didn’t ask for, craftwise. A good policy, isn’t it? All I have to do is a scarf for my mom, and a scarf for my mother-in-law. And one of them is done!

In case you have not been checking out my galleries you should sometime. I know, there’s still a big backlog to add from when my server crashed. I will, eventually.

Anyway, if you were to look there now, you’d see that this pattern came from Oz Yarn. It’s a free one, and it includes three lace scarves in varying degrees of difficulty, the one I chose being the most difficult. But it wasn’t very hard. I made it from Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in Tartan. My mom has black and red winter coats, and this yarn just happens to have flecks of both. Maybe it will look nice with the black cashmere gloves I made her last year.

I have this idea that I’m going to make everyone a tin of assorted cookies for the holidays this year, but I am not holding myself to it because every weekend is booked, and I have little vacation time left. I might just do what I did for a Thanksgiving weekend party the other night–get a box of Nabisco Ginger Snaps and make them into sandwiches using whipped buttercream. Oh, that is tasty. Go try it!

Stanley loves his new toy

Stanley has a new catnip toy. It’s a little knitted mouse made for Stan by our friend Sandy S. out of her own handspun mohair. All the better for sucking, chewing, and carrying it around in one’s mouth. Stanley has been enjoying it, especially on the drive back to Chicagoland today. Thanks Sandy!

Thanks also to Caroline for the really great gift of more Sirdar Rio. You are the best!

How was your Turkey Day? I got to have two. And there was bowling. I am a pretty inconsistent bowler, even though I took it in college and I have some techniques down. It’s all a weird balance of concentration, not too much but just enough. I never got the turkey, but I did bowl my personal best of 159, as well as a 156 and a 151, before veering off into the more familiar territory of 98, 100, and one score I wouldn’t even look at. Check out the competition. For today’s uncomfortable innuendo, I give you this: They all have their own balls.

On the Thanksgiving trip I finished my mom’s scarf, made of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (thanks Sandy). It’s a lace pattern with moss stitch border. I’m going to block it tonight and then I’ll have a picture.

I also made progress on a very loud, stripey cotton baby blanket. Of the four or five pregnant people I know at the moment, I think this is going to have to go to the one in China. She is the only one who might appreciate the colors.

It’s that time of year when I realize every weekend is booked up from now until the beginning of 2005. I don’t like that! Nothing is better than a weekend with absolutely no plans. But I guess I’ll get lots of those in the doldrums of January and February…

This is the little hat and socks that will be making their way to baby Charlotte in Hawaii soon. They’re both Debbie Bliss patterns, though I knit the hat in the round because it was easier.

The funeral for my grandmother went as well as could be expected. She had a long full life. The best part of these things is spending time with relatives and sharing all the wonderful memories. As the family archivist (as well as a professional one) I got to spend a lot of time going through family papers to sort out what’s historical and what is junk. I learned that my grandmother wrote a letter to Richard Nixon while she was on vacation in Italy, about the moon landing. And he wrote back! We also have a great little collection of love letters she wrote to my grandfather in the summer before they got married. There’s so much more…

Any funeral on my mom’s side inevitably results in a visit to Frankenmuth, Michigan, which is this weird little faux-Bavarian tourist enclave. My grandmother’s maiden name was Zehnder, and if you’ve been there, you know there is a big old family restaurant with the same name. Second cousins or something. Here are my brother and his wife enjoying their meal. Poor little brother, he got hassled all weekend for gaining a lot of weight lately!

My little German grandma died today at about 6:00 a.m. For many years her mind was gone as a result of several strokes and dementia, but she had been living relatively happily since 2001 in a wonderful Alzheimer’s facility. At the end many of her loved ones, including my mom the superhero caregiver, were there with her. She died peacefully.

Lots more memories below, if you’re interested…
Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments. I’m still a little sad, but hopeful. And Stanley seems to have returned to his normal snuggly self–he’s enjoying all the extra love lately. He just discovered how to jump on top of our fish tank, which is naughty, but it makes me think he’s got to be pretty well if he’s acting like that. Cats are little survivors, aren’t they?

Here are the completed baby socks I mentioned yesterday. They’re really sweet. The yarn is Sirdar Rio, which is a cotton-acrylic blend. I got it on a closeout sale for $1 a ball, and I have really enjoyed it for baby things. It’s washable, and soft, and it knits really nicely. I only have two balls left but I wish I had more! Anybody want to sell me some from your stash? Or trade for something?

Anyway as soon as I finish another pair of socks that are hogging the #5 DPNs, I’m making a little roll-brim hat with an I-cord “stem” on top out of the same yarn, and then the hat and socks will be off to brand-new baby Charlotte in Hawaii. Precious!

It’s that time of year when I start doing the holiday-cooking test runs. Anybody else do this? It’s really fun to practice certain meals. For example, we made a great roast chicken with sweet potatoes, fresh green beans and dried-cranberry stuffing on Sunday. It was swell. Then I made a pan of chocolate-peppermint-swirl bark. It is so easy!

First you line a baking sheet with tin foil. Then in one saucepan you melt a package of semisweet chocolate chips. In another, a package of white chocolate chips. When they are melted, stir about 1/2 cup of crushed peppermint candy into the white chocolate. Spread this part in a thin layer on the baking sheet. Then drizzle the semisweet chocolate over the top. Take a knife and draw lines in it to swirl the two together. Then freeze it for about an hour, and when it’s super cold and firm, take it out and smash it up. Yum!

Click on the little picture of the chocolate to get a close-up of the swirly mix.

Last year we got a box of English toffee that came with its own metal hammer for smashing. It came in handy for smashing up this chocolate too.