The status of knitting, books and food.

The status of my Christmas knitting...  I can't seem to find the thing I started that I wanted to finish for someone.  I've looked everywhere.  Now I have to look everywhere that's not the obvious everywhere.

But, I've got this started for someone:

And this started for someone else:

I'm working on more than one thing so things will stay interesting.

And I finished these:

Yay!  Love. Them.  I hope the person I give them to does too.  In case you forgot, these are the Simple SKYP Socks which is a FREE pattern on Ravelry.

I got these in the mail today:

sideways - so aggravating...

I ordered these after storm Sandy.  The Books on the Nightstand podcast posted something on Facebook suggesting that a nice way to help an independent bookstore in Connecticut, who had flooding storm damage, would be to buy a book from them.  So I did, and I felt like I helped.  Don't have to ask me twice to buy books (and you only have to ask me once to buy two books apparently), especially if it helps.  The bookstore is Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT.

I think I heard about one of these books on the BOTN podcast and one on the 2 Knit Lit Chicks podcast.  I think Sarah's Key (click there to get on Amazon) will be my next one to read.  It starts in July 1942 in Paris when a 10 year old girl and her parents are taken by the police as they are arresting Jewish families.  Sarah helps hide her brother so he won't be taken.  Then sixty years later, her story intertwines with a journalist investigating the events in 1942.  Have to finish my other book first, though --- if I can get some time to read it other than in bed when I'm already exhausted and can only read two pages.

What have we been having for dinner you ask?  I knew you were wondering.  Yesterday I made wonderful chicken in the crockpot:

ha!  Sorry, forgot to take a picture of the actual dish, so you got the crockpot instead.  It was Italian Herb Chicken.  Oh. My. Gosh.  LOVED. IT.  Put 2 1/2 pounds of chicken pieces (skin removed) in the crockpot.  Then pour in a mixture of 2 cans  (14 oz) stewed tomatoes (I chopped them up because we don't like the big chunks), 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste, and a packet of McCormick Italian Herb Chicken seasoning  for the crock pot (in the gravy/sauces aisle).  Cook on low for 8 hours.  The chicken gets fall-off-the-bone-tender and the sauce is yummy.  We ate it with rice.  so. So. SO. Good.  It was being cooked in the crock pot while I was babysitting the doodlebugs the other day.  It smelled so good in the house all day long - I couldn't not ask for the recipe.

And tonight?.....

Mmmmmm. Soft tacos.  Haven't had them in a long time (except at Moe's... "Welcome to Moe's!").

And today was apparently impulse day at the grocery store.  Went in for a few things (apples, bananas, roast beef, bread, and sandwich bags to be precise).  Ended up with two boxes of Cheerios since it was buy one, get one free.  How could I not?  And then, I saw these:

Fudge Covered Ritz.  Again, how could I not try this wonderful new product that they placed right on the end of an aisle so it would stare me in the face?  And how could i not pay $3.29 for this little tiny box of what I assumed would be wonderful chocolate-y salty crunchy goodness?  (AND I WAS RIGHT!  They are so. So. SO. Good.)  Plus, it says right on the box, "Limited Edition", so I didn't want to miss out.

How about a quote of the day?
Just think of all those women on the Titanic who said, "No, thank you," to dessert that night.  And for what! 
~Erma Bombeck

Up to my ears

Wow, time flies quickly at the holidays doesn't it?  Thanksgiving was a week ago already.  We had a nice time in Newton, Mass at my aunt's house, catching up with family, taking the traditional post-meal walk to a local park to see the tree planted for my grandfather many years ago, and of course, eating:

Ooh!  I forgot to take a picture of the dessert I made but this is what you do:  Melt 2 cups of white chocolate chips, fold in 1 1/2 cups roasted, salted almonds and 1 1/2 cups craisins.  Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper and put in fridge for 20 minutes.  YUM!  They were a big hit.

This year Paul and I decided to stay overnight in a hotel instead of making the 3-hour trip each way all in one day.  We stayed at the same hotel as my sister and 3 nephews so it was nice to watch them playing in the pool and then having breakfast with them the next day.  My youngest nephew, age 9, kept saying, "I love this place!" since they had a free candy/snack bar from 5-7pm as well as all you can eat breakfast with every kind of breakfast food imaginable.  His plate:  3 pastries, frosted flakes and a soda.  He wanted to go back for more but my sister had to draw the line somewhere - so he picked wheat toast with cream cheese.   That's kudos to my sister -  he knows what's healthy!

Here is what adults think is great about the hotel:

Silly!

Crabtree & Evelyn products!
(I totally took them all home.)

Ok, so now it's after Thanksgiving and I'm in full on what-has-to-get-done-for-Christmas mode.  My knitting gift list seems to be growing.  I've got that oh-i-could-totally-knit-fifty-things-by-Christmas frame of mind because "It's still November."  Ha!  Until tomorrow.

The good news is I made a pair of thumbless mitts for Benjamin and Michaela's new cousin:

And I only have the toes to do on the socks for I'm-not-telling-you-who:

I know.  They look totally weird - like the leg is too narrow or something.  But, that's because the leg of the sock has  a ribbed pattern.  When they are on a foot, I'll take a picture and they will look normal.

Then I have to finish something else already started for someone else.  Start and finish something for another someone. And make something out of these for three other someones:

Don't you just love that?  You're totally getting no information.
Needless to say, I'll soon be up to my ears with knitting.

Then there is tree shopping and shopping shopping. For tree shopping, we help Paul's mom get her tree and so we get ours at the same time.  She likes to go to a local fire house in order to support them, but we have to go early in December before they run out (last year we got there too late) so it looks like we may be doing that this weekend.  And we'll likely make it a group trip and bring Paul's brother and his family (including my two doodlebugs, M & B) with us!  For shopping shopping,  Paul and I try to pick a strategic Sunday morning as early as possible since it seems to be less crowded.  Preferably the Sunday after a Saturday night snowstorm.  That year was the best for getting all our shopping done with no crowds.  Took the 4 wheel drive truck to the mall and saw about 4 other people there.  I hope that happens this year.

In Book News:
I read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and really enjoyed it!  A thought provoking story about a man who reflects on his high school/college years with friends and when some of those friends come back into his life much later, how his perception of what happened is re-framed.  That's it in one sentence.  A fairly quick read - the book is only 176 pages, but it's packed with so much story and things to think about.  It's not my usual mystery/suspense/detective book packed with action, which seem to be my favorite, but it was great.  I think it would make a nice holiday gift if you know someone who loves to read. Click up there or here to get it on Amazon:

And now I'm on to another mystery/suspense book, but I'll tell you about that another time.

That's it.  I'm off to knit.

Triple Double...

....Neapolitan Oreos!

No. Joke.  Vanilla cookies with strawberry and chocolate fillings. Paul and I discovered these in Target the other day.  Want to know how?  We were out doing errands after work, trying to hurry so we could get home and have dinner.  I need to run VERY QUICKLY into Target to get cat litter.  The pet aisle is very near the check-out line, so really, it would have been a lickety split trip.  The minute we walked in the door, Paul said, "Are you sure you don't need anything else?  It seems like  a waste to be here and not just browse around a little to see if we need anything."  As an aside, it is a general agreement between us that he really can't come grocery shopping with me because we end up with double the amount of items that are on the list.  And the extra items are usually treats, i.e. "third desserts".  So browse we did.  And we came home with these Oreos.  Which we definitely "needed". Quite yummy, surprisingly.

In Knitting News:
My Lucy Hat!:

I still haven't sewn down the brim.  Part of my excuse is that I didn't do the best job blocking it because I really need a head/hat form to dry it on.  I've been looking for one at all the flea market/antique shows we go to, because I like the look of the old-fashioned ones, but either they are very expensive or not for sale (just displays for the hats that are for sale).  On the other hand, I could have purchased a styrofoam one online or likely have borrowed one from The Spinning Room yarn shop, but I didn't think of it at the time.  Plus I was impatient and wanted to see how it turned out.  So.  I love it.  But I will love it more when it is blocked correctly.  Did I mention that the main color is yarn I spun myself????!!!!?!?!?!

Also, my SKYP socks are coming along slowly.  Not too much knitting got done this week since I was quite busy with babysitting my little doodlebugs. Pause the blog to say:  They are so darned cute.  We are in the read-this-book-10,0000-times-in-a-row stage.  Also, starting to try to say words: I say, "Benjamin, can you say 'book?'" and he says, "BA!".  I say, Benjamin, can you say, 'dog'?" and he says, "BA!".  I'm reading a book that says, "Bubbles, bubbles, POP, POP, POP!" and Michaela says, walking around the room with her stuffed Clifford dog, "POP POP POP POP POP POP POP".  They just make me laugh so much!
And so, here are the socks:

And a closeup of the skyp pattern:

Sorry.  Not great at closeups with my camera (not a great camera...), but I think you get the idea.  A pretty, subtle pattern.  And, despite not getting far, I got this far pretty quickly.  It's a very easy and quick, two-row pattern.

Oh, and I had another shopping "accident".  Except it was planned.  The Spinning Room had a Cascade Yarn Tasting and all the Cascade yarns were 20% off.  I know! Right????? I had to....

The light must be good in here today because
that is exactly what the colors look like.

Six skeins of Alpaca Lana D'oro - enough for a sweater, i hope; and 2 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash Sport -maybe for mittens or a hat.  Oh my gosh.  This is really bad, though.  My stash has seriously gotten out of hand.  Especially recently - I've made several purchases of yarn for sweaters.  When will I knit them all????  Maybe I'll get a picture of my stash for next post.

In Book News:
I finished reading .
I learned about these Carl Hiaasen books from listening to the 2 Knit Lit Chicks podcast.  One of the women on the podcast loves these books and thinks they are hilarious so I thought I'd give one a try.  This one was definitely a fun read with lots of excitement and humor.  A perfect next-book after reading
Chaz Perrone is a self-involved, inept, marine biologist who throws his wife off a cruise liner.  Unfortunately for him, she is a great swimmer and survives the plunge into the ocean.  It is then her mission not to turn him in, but to get revenge.  Excitement and hilarity and some romance ensue.  There are a few sub-plots mixed in, which add to the humor, one of which involves the detective investigating the wife's disappearance.  He is apparently a recurring character in Hiassen's books.  I will definitely read another.

But now, I'm off to start:

The You-Know-What

Bright and early (5:30am) Saturday morning, Paul and I were on our way to see Denny and Renee in ... Ohio.  To get this (the You-Know-What):

That's Renee's cool Jeep in the background.  I settled for
that since neither she nor Denny wanted to be
in a picture.

I'm sorry --- did you need a closer look at this 1970 Buick Skylark with no windshield, no hood and....

...no engine?!?!?!?!  Yes, that's right: we drove 7 1/2 hours to pick up this gem.  Apparently, it really is a car in pretty good shape.  It doesn't have much rust for it's age, the frame is in good shape and the body is in good shape; it's a "Missouri car" if that means anything to you - it doesn't to me.  The very best part of it, according to Paul, is that it is the same exact model as his first car in high school.  Supposedly it will give Paul a chance to get rid of A LOT of parts he has.  For example, he didn't mind that there was no hood because "I have one of those in the garage." Huh.  Also, there is a spare engine in the garage too.  If you remember, we made another trip recently for that.  While the front and back windows are not currently in the car, they came in a box with a lot of other spare parts. Oh and did I mention, it's "for me"?  He's fixing it up so I can cruise around in it.

So, we got there by 1:00pm, loaded up and visited with Denny and Renee for a while, then we were on our way again...

Of course, I had my knitting in the car with me....

Finished my Lucy Hat!  Just needs to be blocked (it's drying right now!) and the brim sewn up.  Also worked on my Harumi Cardi.  The only exciting thing to tell you is that I've knitted my 14" from the cast on and now I can start the lace pattern.  Couldn't do this in the car since it involved lots of marking of stitches and looking at the pattern and I would have gotten nauseous.

We made our way 2 1/2 hours back toward home and stopped to stay overnight in Jamestown, NY.... the hometown of Lucille Ball!  And let me tell you, she is EVERYWHERE.  In a good, tasteful way.

This was my favorite one:

I love, Love, LOVED that Vitameatavegamin episode!!!   We ate at the Taco Hut in this picture for dinner, which also had lots of her pictures inside.  YUMMY Mexican food.  We have yet to find a good Mexican restaurant where we live.  Anyone local want to recommend????

Jamestown was pretty at night too:

And here is a morning-after glimpse of the almost-disaster:

Looks pretty normal right?  I bet you're thinking, "What in the world could have almost-happened?"  We decided to unhook the trailer in order to be able to drive around town and find a place for dinner.  So, there was Paul doing the usual unhooking of all the wires and winding the trailer post down onto the wooden block to take it off the truck hitch.  It released from the truck hitch, like usual.  Then.... the car and trailer started to ever so slightly MOVE BACKWARD.  Then it was oh-my-gosh-what-should-I-do-how-can-I-help-are-you-holding-that-by-yourself-should-I-hold-it-with-you-is-it-going-to-fall???.....  Me getting in the truck to try to move the hitch back under the trailer.  Nope.  It had moved to far.  Me climbing up the side of truck to find the rubber tire stopper thing in the back.  Wrong side.  Run around to the other side of the truck to climb up the other side to grab the stopper.  Meanwhile, Paul desperately using all of his weight to hold the car and trailer to keep it from rolling backward.  Maybe three dessert traditions are not so bad in cases like this...  Luckily, I was able to get the stopper under the back wheel of the trailer and all was fine.  Holy smokes that was close!

Now, Paul has unhitched trailers many, many, many a-time.  The surface looked flat.  He knows how cars on trailers work and when/how they roll.  Usually.  It may have been the fact that the car HAS NO ENGINE and therefore was not heavy up front to keep the trailer in place.

The next morning, we were on our way to make the 5 hour trip home, stopping here along the way for lunch:

I haven't been to a Cracker Barrel      in some time.  I forgot what a old-time-candy-and-other-stuff-you-never-knew-you-always-wanted trap that place is!   Luckily we were in a hurry to get back on the road, so I only got a little package of some coconut/chocolate candy.  For my first (and only) lunch dessert.  I could have done some serious damage if I lingered.

While checking the tie-down straps before getting on our way after lunch, I asked what this was:

And apparently I had discovered a "bonus" feature for this car!  I forget what it is now - but Paul was pretty excited about it.  Some sort of heating element thingy for which there is a gauge inside the car.  I think.

It was a pretty ride back home through the southern tier of New York, passing through towns such as Friendship, Angelica, Cuba, Painted Post and Almond.

Gorgeous view passing through Almond, NY.  I would
love to live here simply for the name.

Also, passed through Corning and this is my attempt at a picture of the Corning Glass Factory:

The trip home was different knitting, since the Lucy Hat was done and I couldn't proceed with the cardi...

These are the Simple SKYP Socks, (click there for the FREE pattern!) made with Shibui Knits sock yarn.  They will look like this:

SKYP refers to the main stitch pattern:  Slip one stitch as if to purl, Knit the next stitch, Yarn over, Pass the slipped stitch over the knit stitch and the yarn over.  Making them for a Christmas present for I'm-not-telling-you-who.   When I was getting my project ready in the hotel room before heading out, I discovered I have this many size 2 Knitter's Pride Dreamz double points:

There are 13 there.  Which is weird since they come 5 to a pack, so I should have 15 if I'm going to have 13.  Not to mention the two other sets of 5 I have in other brands.  Anyway....

What I love about this SKYP pattern is that the top ribbing is only 10 rows, and it's in 2x2 rib (knit 2, purl 2).  Usually, I sort of dread starting a sock, because my basic pattern is supposed to entail two inches of 1x1 rib which is about 20 rows.  1x1 rib on small needles with skinny yarn is somewhat tedious and makes me want to poke my eye out with one of my 6 extra Knitter's Pride needles.  So, the beginnings of both socks went lickety split and now I will be on to the main stitch pattern on the leg.

Two more things and then I'm ending this marathon post...

I had heard about Siggi's yogurt some time ago, but hadn't been able to find it in my grocery store until today.  It. Is. Yummy.  Definitely pricier than other yogurt but I think it is worth it for a treat.  Thick like Greek yogurt but really it's thick like Icelandic yogurt - where the maker is from.  I tried the Orange & Ginger one today and loved it.  Definitely recommend it if you can find it - I hear they have it at Whole Foods, which we don't have.  I found it in the health food refrigerated section of Hannaford, which is nowhere near the regular yogurt refrigerated section.

And finally...  I washed the cat/dog bed cover today, and threw Mandy and Phoebe for a loop.  Mandy figured out how to lay on the bed anyway, despite it being folded up:

... and Phoebe went to her old standby:

No, her bed didn't shrink - she if fluffier now that the cold
weather is here.