And so it begins....

Two weeks before Christmas and now it feels like the season is beginning.  Paul and I drove to Cooperstown for a late lunch at Sal's on Saturday:

 We had our usual pizza and garlic knots.... Mmmmmmmmm:

 It was finally a very cold day and even though there wasn't any snow, it felt like winter.  Even the lake (Otsego) looked cold.(Although all the birds swimming around didn't)

 And on the main street, Santa was "In":

 What a cute little house they had for him.   Everyone had to stand outside in the cold, though, waiting their turn.

On the way there and back, I worked on bitty mittens:

On Sunday, we ventured out bright and early to do our Christmas shopping.  The plan was to get to Boscov's at 9, since that's when they opened.  Then hit shops in the mall when it opened at 10.  The plan worked beautifully and we even mall walked in between since we had time before the mall shops opened.  Not many people there yet and we plowed through our list.  We rewarded our efficient selves with an early lunch at Five Guys.  Mmmmmmm... Five Guys.  We didn't quite finish our list but, fingers crossed, it won't be long before we do.

Speaking of Five Guys, this one was newly installed at the mall and they have this way excellent soda machine.  It is a touch screen and you can choose from 50 million coke products.  For example:  Choose the "Coke" button and you get a screen that has six types of coke (cherry, raspberry, vanilla etc....).  Same with the "Powerade" button and the "Fanta" button.  In case you were wondering, I had Cherry Coke with my lunch and Grape Fanta to go.

Also on Sunday was the Altamont Holiday Traditions day in town with lots of things going on (including Santa arriving on the train at the old train station!).  I was meeting someone at the yarn shop to help them with a project so I walked around town a bit.  I went to the Festival of Trees and voted for my favorite:

The Spinning Room's of course!  All the ornaments were knitted by Deirdre's customers.  Here is a (blurry) close-up (gotta get that photography class....):

 And there were gingerbread houses:

 And then, while I was at the shop, a group of Girl Scouts came in to do some caroling:

 Very festive weekend!

In other news, car related.....  Paul pulled the motor out of his car this weekend.  And I helped.  I worked the engine hoist and various jacks, as directed.

 This stuff always makes me nervous because everything is so big and heavy.  That engine is about 650 pounds!

Big hole in the engine compartment now.

 And now Paul will work on the engine.  Doing stuff and checking stuff and fixing stuff and replacing stuff.  Then I imagine I'll help put it back in.  I'm vital to this operation, I tell ya.

In other news knitting related, I knit up the Bandana Cowl in about 6 hours!  Really quick knit and it's great.  It's a Christmas gift, so I'm not saying who it's for.  Hopefully I'll get a picture of the recipients wearing all the knitted gifts and post them.

On the evening I finished it, I immediately gave it a soak:

 I set the timer in the kitchen so I wouldn't forget about it because I was working on mittens.  The timer went off when I was in the middle of a row or something and because it was going off for so long, Paul turned it off.  I promptly forgot all about it and kept on knitting, then went to bed!  So, apparently a 12 hour bath does not hurt because it turned out fine:

 I really can't wait to take a picture of the person wearing it because right now it just looks like underpants to me.

And, I think I've solved the problem of the Mukluk bottoms!:

This is Puffy Paint (not the Slick) by Tulip.  I did a test spot on my mukluks (which I'm not showing you because it involved peeling off some of the Slick dots and the others that are left are dusty, so you'll just have to trust me) and it turned out great.  The Puffy Paint isn't as hard as the Slick and has a little more give to it.  And this time I did it in lines, not dots, so that helps with not being able to feel it when you are wearing them.  In my opinion, you can just leave the paint to dry, and that's that.  OR, you can actually activate the "puffiness" with an iron, as directed.  I tested it both ways and it works fine.  Activating it with an iron will make the lines wider and taller.The picture above was taken just after applying the paint.  They are still drying.

Later this week, a book review of Devil in the White City!
!

The Biebs

Just a quick post to show you a finished project and to vent about something.  First the venting.

So, Paul and I were waiting for The Biggest Loser to come on last night and we watched the last few minutes of the Michael Buble Christmas special.  Justin Beiber (or The Beibs, as Brian Williams on NBC calls him --- I just love Brian Williams.  He's so funny.) was a guest singer.  He came out on stage to greet Michael and when he reached up to hug him, his sweater rose up in the back and you could see his underwear and the fact that his pants were buckled/belted below his butt.  On purpose.  I. Hate. That.  (On national tv!  Isn't his mother watching out for him since he's only like 12.  Ok, I know he's older than that.)  And as he was singing, he had to hold on to the front of his pants so they wouldn't fall off.  Ridiculous.

I just don't understand this "fashion statement" and why it's actually persisting.  It looks terribly uncomfortable and who wants to go around holding onto their pants to make sure they don't fall down?  Actually, they don't... I was in a nail salon once and another patron's (who was sitting in front of me) boyfriend came along to sit down and when he did, his pants were so low that I could actually see through his legs.  He apparently didn't feel like he needed to pull them up, even a little bit.  I bet as the day went on they were down to his ankles and he was still walking around, thinking he looked cool.  Ridiculous, I tell you!

I've been thinking about that all day.  On to other stuff....

Mukluks are finished!

YAY!  Cross them off the list.  Boy does that feel good.  I was getting a little (a lot) tired of knitting the same pattern over and over and over and over.  And over (made 5 pairs).  But they came out great and I'm excited to gift them at Christmas to all my little friends.

Only a little more Christmas knitting left to do.  One small adult project and then two small projects for my two littlest friends.

Thanksgiving Weekend (whew!)

A great Thanksgiving weekend!  We had a yummy meal at my mother-in-law's (with my mom too!), a great visit with Paul's brothers and their families (including the twins at their first Thanksgiving), a successful trip to the mall on black Friday (more on that later) and a whirlwind trip to New Jersey on Sunday.

Yes, you read that right.  We went to New Jersey, for the day, on Sunday.  The Sunday at the end of the busiest travel holiday weekend of the year.  It was the last drag racing event of the year for Paul, usually scheduled two weeks earlier but postponed for some reason.  Leading up to the trip, I kept asking Paul if he was sure he wanted to go.  Because, you know, the traffic could be (read:  will most assuredly be) horrendous.  He said "yes" every time I asked.   I must have asked a few times too many because he eventually said, "You don't have to go with me, you know." But,  he wasn't going with Rob and it was a 4 hour car ride (on a good, non-holiday-horrendous-traffic day) and I wanted to keep him company.  I just didn't want us both to be miserable when we got stuck in traffic at the end of  long day of racing.

So..... off we went very very very very very early in the morning:

 The trip down to Atco was entirely pleasant.  No. Traffic. At. All.  We got there in the expected 4 hours.

It was "Buick vs. Ford Day"

Unfortunately, Paul was having trouble with his timing and was out in the first round so we were back on the road by 2:30pm.

So, I guess his unfortunate-ness was sort of fortunate for our driving situation.  We took some alternate routes to avoid the New Jersey Turnpike (drove through some scary parts of Trenton, but the beautiful town of Princeton) and some accidents closer to home, so we made it home in 5 hours, by 7:30pm.  Not bad really.  All that belly-aching and whining and worrying for nothing. What else is new?

And did you know there is a Mercerville, NJ (in Mercer county!)?:

I have no idea why these things thrill me - probably because I never saw my last name anywhere when I was growing up.

One of the things I like about going to the races with Paul is that there is usually lots of down time for knitting and reading.  So I worked on another pair of Christmas Mukluks.

AND, I read my newly acquired Nook!

I got the bare bones version which happened to be $20 off on black Friday only -- and I used my birthday money.  Hence, a trip to the mall that I swore I was not going to do on black Friday.  We went at around 4pm, which was apparently a good time to go, as there were no lines at all in Barnes and Noble.  I had done my research so I knew what I wanted and I was in the store all of 5 minutes!

And I LOVE. IT.  It is very light and the screen is big enough and it's so portable (fits right in the pocket of my knitting bag) and great.  Of course, I had to purchase a book so I got the most recent Janet Evanovich book:  Explosive Eighteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels)  --- that's the link to the physical book.  Here is a link to an e-reader version:Explosive Eighteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel  Loving the book - very fun, funny and exciting as always.  And the saga of Stephanie choosing between Morelli and Ranger continues. [Jan, I'm going to figure out how to lend this to you since you lent me the last one!  Hey, you can borrow my Nook!]

In knitting news, I'm on my 4th pair of Mukluks, which is my final pair, since I revised my plan --- I realized the babies would not keep them on their feet.  So I'm making them thumb less mittens that have the string between them so you can put it through their coat and they won't fall off and get lost.  Like this:

  The pattern is in 60 Quick Baby Knits, which has a million (ok, only 60) great patterns in it for babies and toddlers.  I think I will be using it a lot for my new niece and nephew, but also two new cousins. You can get it at The Spinning Room! And there are many small projects that would be quick to knit  for the holidays.

However, all that is being put on hold since I need to knit a shawl for a January class I'll be teaching. Have to get the sample knit up and down to the yarn shop asap so people will see it and sign up.  It will be the Daybreak by Stephen West.  That's a link to the pattern but here is a picture:

Pretty, don't you think? Mine is also going to be purple-y (of course) but it will also have some light and dark blues and teals in it).  I have a tonal purple and a self striping yarn:

*This is NOT what the colors look like in real life. I really need that digital photography class...

I think it will be great. WIP (Work In Progress) pictures to come.... but beware, I'll be knitting it really fast so the pictures might be blurry.  Ha!

Finally, a few pics of the car.  Just because I was trying to be creative:

Take Two, Take Three, Take Four

Take Two:  Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

Hmmmm...amazing what that non-stick spray can do.

The second round of pumpkin bread came out better -- in more ways than one.  First, it came out of the pan.  I mean right out of the pan.   No shaking the pan, using a knife around the edge etc.  Two and a half words for you:  non-stick spray.  Second, it tasted more flavorful since I found pumpkin pie spice.   Yummy.  I still haven't gotten the maple extract, and my cream cheese "filling" was more like a "puddle" but that's because I fiddled with the recipe and tried to cut it in half and it's hard to add half and egg so I just added a whole egg and that made it thinner so it just sort of ran over the batter rather than sit in the middle.  The next one (the one I'm bringing to Thanksgiving) will be perfect.

Take Three:  Mukluks (aka The Knitted Slippers for Christmas Project) 

Pair #3 almost done!

Take Four:  Book Lights

This is it!!!!  THE one.  The BEST book light.  Ever.  After three other duds, the fourth one was the charm.  Which I knew it would be.  The Might Bright book light is what I used to have and should have just been my go-to light to begin with.  But this one is even better than the one I used to have.  The neck is long and flexible and stays anywhere you put it (my other one had a long extending neck and the light swiveled, but those two mechanisms broke after a lot of use -- which is what got me into this dilemma in the first place) .  And it lights up both pages of the book. LOVE.  IT.

Pumpkin!...

....and lots of finishing and something I love and something I don't love so much.

I love fall.  Love. It.  So many pretty colors, crisp, cool air, apple crisp and pumpkin! You may remember in a previous post that I was on a quest to find a pumpkin muffin.  Today, I made Pumpkin Bread with Maple Cream Cheese Filling .  I know!  Sounds yummy right? (that link is to a website called Just a Pinch and has lots of recipes!)

The recipe involves layering the pumpkin bread batter with a cheesecakey like filling:

 The house smelled SO. GOOD. while it was baking and looked so yummy as it came out of the oven:

 Unfortunately I couldn't find pumpkin pie spice or maple extract, so mine didn't come out quite as flavorful as it could have.  Or quite in one piece.....

 I have no idea what possessed me NOT to spray the non stick pan with non stick spray.  Maybe because the pan is supposed to be non stick!

But I was able to piece it back together...

... and cut a piece to make a nice blog picture...

All in all, pretty good.  Still tastes nice and pumkin-y and the cream cheese is nice and sweet and cream chees-y (but not maple-y even though I used maple syrup instead of extract, as the recipe suggested).  I would make it again but use the extract and the pumpkin pie spice (and non stick spray).

While the bread was baking, I was getting lots of knitting finishing done.  "Finishing" involves seaming knitted pieces together, weaving in all the ends, putting on buttons etc.  I take on finishing jobs through The Spinning Room and seam sweaters for those who don't want to.  So, today, I finished seaming Ethel's pretty sweater (no pics since I didn't have her permission) and knitting the collar (which you can only do after some of the seaming is done).  Then, I seamed, and crocheted edges on, my Boogie Vest which I finished knitting last night:

 I haven't blocked it yet so the neck opening looks a little wonky (crooked).

I also finished Paul's felted slippers!  Here is one slipper from his last pair:

 That's right --- loved 'em so much that he wore them all the time and right through the bottom.

Here they are pre-felted (put in the washing machine to purposely shrink them):

 To give you an idea of the difference pre and post felting, here is an old slipper next to the new one:

 Pretty funny huh?  They look like clown slippers before hand, since they are sooooo huge.

And here they are, post-felting, enjoying a cozy sit by the fire (drying by air, not the dryer):

AND a few days ago, I finished my Mukluks!

 These are very cozy and warm knitted slippers (not felted), made from a chunky yarn. I used Kathmandu Chunky, a nice tweed-y yarn with wool and silk and cashmere (mmmmmmm..... cashmere), and I used two colors because I only had one ball of each color and one ball was not enough for a pair.

 I love. Love. LOVE them!  So warm and comfy.

Ooh, and I finally tried a non-skid sole treatment and I think it will work.  I used fabric paint and put it on the bottom in little dots:

 The results is a plastic-y, rubber-y feel and I think it will be a great non-slip option.  I think I'll put it on Paul's slippers too.

Now, on to something I love.  My little, portable speaker for my i-Touch:

My i-Touch has a speaker built in, but you have to turn it up very loud to hear it well enough (if you don't want to use the earbuds) and then the battery runs down quickly.   I listened to some podcasts while I was knitting and baking today and it was just great. (That's the Spilled Milk Podcast on the screen -- a short, funny podcast about food -- lots of fun.) It's amazing the sound that comes out of that little thing.  So great.  Love. It.

Here are some options on Amazon if you are interested:
GSI Super Quality Mini Hamburger Capsule Speaker - for iPod/MP3/MP4/Computer/Laptop/Notebook/Audio/Gaming-Devices/PDA - Black

Satechi SD Mini Portable Pocket Speaker for iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, SanDisk Sansa Clip Plus, BlackBerry, HTC EVO, DROID, Samsung Wave and Galaxy S

X-Mini II Capsule Speaker (Black)

Something I don't love so much?  Cheap book lights.  I'm on my third one that I will test out tonight.  The first one was $1.  Yes, $1.  What was I supposed to expect?  It was horrible and barely lit up one page, nevermind both pages the book was open to, like it should (in my opinion).  That's what I get for a Dollar Store purchase.  The next one was $4.  I went out shopping saying I was going to go to Barnes and Noble to get the ones I've gotten there in the past.  Nice and bright, long lasting etc.  But, I was in another store and saw this one, so I thought I'd try it.  It was a little better, but still pretty horrible too.   That's what I get for a Wal-Mart purchase.  I said to Paul, " I knew I should have gone to Barnes and Noble."  So, we were in Target today - can you see where this is going? - and saw a $7 one.  Don't ask me why (see quote from previous sentence), but I bought it.  I just thought, "It has to be better.  The package says it light up 2 pages. And it costs more."  I'm not terribly optimistic though, because when I went to put it on a book, the length of the post from light to base is awfully short and I'm not sure it will do what it promises.  So, now I'm $12 in, which is what I would have paid if I went to Barnes and Noble in the first place. Der.

Wow, who knew I could go on so long about book lights, and my refusal to just go to Barnes and Noble?