Seasonal thoughts

Is this an air guitar, or a ghost one? Seen in the window of a local guitar shop, while walking the dog.

Actually, it's plastic. I really like the photo.

It's winter here in NE Ohio. I had dinner with my son on Christmas Eve and the went to Midnight Mass. Cold, but no snow, except a little left over, mostly on the grass.

Christmas morning was quiet. The family planned to get together Wednesday evening. Santa snuck in while I was out and filled my stocking. It seems my daughters think I should have something to open Christmas morning. I got candy. cookie mix and other little things. My dog got a huge rawhide bone that she hasn't started chewing yet.

A blizzard was predicted, resulting in a parking ban where my son lives. He was the host for the family Christmas. WEe held it Friday night. I made quilts from fleece and flannel that were a big hit. The smaller boy has dinosaurs on his quilt (a big interest).
I got more food stuff, flavored coffee, box mixes for baking, more candy, and the loan of an iPad. I want to buy one, but DD wants to make sure I'll use it before spending the money. She has one that she's not using much at the moment, since her phone does a lot of what she wants. I was looking for a bigger screen that a phone has. I expect to download things for use, but not store them on the iPad

Knitting has happened. I tore out my sweater. It was too small. I've started again, but concentrated on finishing a pair of socks needed by year end for a Ravelry group. The pattern is written, but I need better light for a good photo. What I'm using is acceptable, but I want a better photo as part of the pattern.

I also can show the mystery sock now that all the clues are out. I called it Winter Berries. I was thinking of mistletoe, but there were too many projects with that name. Right now, it's a free pattern, but eventually I'll reformat it and sell it.

I'm enjoying my time off from work, catching up on household things and cooking a little. I have a tendency to cook instead of clean, but I'm fighting it. There's only one of me and I can fill the freezer faster than I can empty it. I have a rule that I can't cook  a main dish if I don't have enough plastic boxes to pack up the left overs. I could buy more boxes, but have decided not to. These work well for taking lunch to work. I often full them with salad. They hold about 3 cups.

Today I made Oxtail Stew in my Crock Pot. It cooked all day until the meat fell off the bones. I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking and it is supposed to be served over noodles. Tonight I microwaved a couple of small potatoes and put stew over them.The white in the photo is reflection from the overhead lights

Time to let the dog out one last time, pack up the stew, and head to bed.

My Dog is on Vacation

She doesn't know it, but she's avoiding the waterproofing men and the noise and disruption going on this week. Monday I went to work after dropping her at the kennel. I avoided a day of jack hammering to dig up the floor around the basement walls.Today there is piping in the trench. The white is a waterproof coating for the inside walls.

This is the new sump pump. The picture shows the original "flower pot" walls which are over 90 years old and the original water proofing has failed. The blocks are made of clay similar to a flower pot and were originally sealed on the outside. The copper pipe is the cold water return to the boiler.


On the outside wall, the sump pump looks like this, with the downspout from the roof on the left.

The outside walls now have piping like this. The walls were covered with tar and plastic, which forms a trough in which the pipe is laid. The pipe connects to the downspout drain. This is where work has stopped for now.

The back yard is a storage area. Buckets were used
as a bucket brigade for removing broken concrete from the floor. I hear it weighed about 2 tons. They
are also used to bring gravel into the house to fill part of the trenches. So far only the sump pump has gravel around it.


 Everything in the basement was disrupted. I can't wash or dry clothes until this is over. It even disrupted my kitchen, because they unscrewed a small breaker box from the wall and shut it off.to do that No light over the sink, no dishwasher, no disposal. I fixed that for now, by turning on the breaker.

Dear grandson Vitor is home from college. He's now 20 years old and we celebrated his birthday. Of course, I knit him more socks. My Mystery Sock patter is doing well on Ravelry, with over 500 people downloading it so far. The only problem was a bad symbol definition. I had found the error, but not put the corrected version into the pattern. All is fixed now. I had anticipated more problems, because of the unusual stitches I used. So far, so good. 

I ended the day by cooking some Poblano Chicken Chowder. I failed to correctly read the instructions and only added 3 cups of chicken broth instead of 3 quarts! A trip to the grocery store was made and it now looks like soup. I thought that chowder contained potatoes, but this one doesn't.

Flowers for My Birthday

The color of these roses struck me as particularly beautiful.

Sunday Fun in the Kitchen

 I've tried a couple of new recipes. First is Baked Persimmons. I found some today that I think are the last of the season, they were quite ripe, but I had wanted to try the recipe.

I also made Acorn Squash and Apples. The first is a dessert and the second a vegetable.

This is not pea soup

Plan A was to make Split Pea Soup on Sunday. I ran out of time. I'd like to make it in the Crock Pot, and cook it for a really long time.

I thought about cooking it today, but decided to delay it again. Sunday, I made beef stew and I still have some. That was tonight's dinner.

The mystery sock seems to be going well. There have been 347 unique downloads so far. That makes me happy and gets my name out. I'm busily knitting the second sock, trying to stay one clue ahead. The second clue gets published late Friday night, and I think the pattern is ready to go.

It worked, I'm thrilled

I've been working on the pattern for about 6 weeks now. It is my first Mystery Sock design. It was a challenge to make a sock pattern with four distinct parts. I was worried about how to upload it and make it go live. That part was easy.

Part 1 of the pattern went live last night about 11:00. I didn't want to stay up until midnight.So far this morning, 115 knitters have downloaded the pattern. I need to get working on part 2 of the second sock. I'm checking the pattern as I go.

I also need to keep working on the SKA Mystery sock that I;m knitting for Vitor.

Yesterday the timer button on my stove broke. Luckily, I have a backup. Ping works quite well and is happy to be used instead of hiding in a corner.

The Learning Curve

I'm still learning what the iPhone app can do for this blog. It's great that it is with me at almost all times, so when I think of something, I can just write a paragraph. I can take phone pictures and insert them. They come out bigger than what I was using and I cannot resize them, not so good. I cannot add links from the phone, but if I work on the PC, I can add the links later. I did that with the Tomato Tart yesterday.

Last night, I finished the last of this year's Christmas stockings. I knit a total of 7, 5 for a customer, and 2 for the family. These 2 are #29 and #30 in the series. It doesn't seem like the family is that large, but we never see everyone at once. Ryan is my granddaughter's husband, First you have 2 kids together, then you get married. I should have done this one last year. Cyrus is my newest great grandson.

Thinking about creativity, I'm sitting here wearing clothes that I made: a wool lined skirt, a blouse and a lace shawl. Waiting in the kitchen for consumption later today is a pumpkin scone, a tomato tart, Asiago cheese bread, pumpkin cookies, and baked oatmeal. The scone is for breakfast with eggs. The tart, bread and cookies are for lunch at work, and the oatmeal is for a late after noon snack. The breads and oatmeal came from the freezer and were made within the last month. The freezer is my friend now that I live alone. I'm thinking of making split pea soup this weekend.

Trying the iPhone

Tonight is knitting night at the Bottle House. I'm looking forward to trying one of their Christmas brews if there is any left. They only make a limited quantity of each. Other beers are made in larger quantities.

I finally have a picture of my blue sweater. It seems longer than planned, but I haven't tried it on. I planned for it to hit at my high hip, but it seems to be a full length cardigan.The dress form is petite, so it's not that long. I may shorten it after I see how long the sleeves will be.

I was abler to taste the Balthazar's Gift beer. It seems to have some spices in it. I also had a glass of oatmeal ale. I tasted brown sugar in that one. Not many knitters, but a good night at the brewery.

Inherited

One drill/driver with dead rechargeable batteries. It was my husband's. After internet research, and e-mailing the company(Ridgid), I went to the Home Depot service department. The sent me to Hardware, where a nice young man tested the charger and batteries, and swapped out a dead battery for a new one. Retail price of the new battery is $69.95. I still may pay that to replace the second battery, but not today.

Yesterday, I tried to post about the tomatoes which are still abundant, although now ripening int he house. I must not have saved it on the phone. The PC version has an automatic save feature. Anyway, I have 2 gallon bags of tomatoes in the fridge which need to attended to. Some will be chopped and frozen, but I'm looking for ambition to make tomato tarts in my new pan. The mini pie/tart pan will make individual servings. Photos if I get to it today!

I used the Ziplock bowl to cut the crust the right size, and as you see the tarts fit nicely. They will be great for lunch.

Checked out The Bottle House on Facebook. The Balthazar's Gift Ale is spiced with spiced orange and coriander.

So Many Blog Posts....

....have been written in my head. so few (none) have made it into the computer.

What have I knit since i last posted? A pair of socks for my Granddaughter Luci. I bought the red yarn at my knitting guild swap sale. It is Schaeffer Anna, which I had never tried before. It is not my favorite yarn. The patter was another mystery sock, being released in four parts, a week apart. It was the September mystery, and Luci's birthday is October 30, so I had plenty of time.

 My guild is hosting A knitter's Fantasy next April, and chose Wingspan as a guild project. Mine is knit from Crystal Palace Mini Mochi that  I originally bought for socks. I don't like knitting this at a small gauge, so it became a scarf.

Another guild project is children's scarves and other warm things for charity. I have knit 2 scarves so far. One I may have shown, using squares of garter stitch. This started with bulky yarn and continued with 2 strands of worsted or what ever, using small odd balls of yarn. Black was used consistently throughout.

The second scarf was made of long strips of ribbing, sewn together with bobbles. The pattern is in Pam Allen's  Scarf Style book. Again, I used small odd balls of yarn. I haven't made much of a dent yet, but I'm trying.

 The scarf I'm knitting now uses tapestry yarn. Lots of 1 yard pieces spit spliced together. Most of this is left over from embroidery projects I have done. a little of it was inherited from my mother. It's time it was used up or thrown out, or some of each.

Once upon a time, as recently as last year, I had a vest  from Sally Melville's Purl Book. As I lost weight, the vest became too large. I loved the yarn, but the yarn/pattern combination was not a good enough mix to be worth repeating in a smaller size. One Sunday I went to church and saw a cute sweater that I thought would work. It was the February Lady Sweater. I have finished the body and started the sleeves. They will end somewhere around my elbow. I'm not sure exactly where.

I started the sleeves by measuring the two pieces of knitting remaining from the vest. They are about the same in square inches. I'm using the smaller one first. and think that I can knit 9" of sleeve before the garter stitch band at the end. The buttons are crocheted and were used on the vest. The yarn is Berocco Cotton Twist., bought specifically for the vest.

I knit some face cloths for daughter Jen's birthday at her request. I have a few more that I would like to knit for gifts for more people.

Much of my time has been used designing a mystery sock for the Solid socks group on Ravelry. Part I goes live on December 1st. I am working on the second sock, test knitting/tweaking the pattern as I go. The yarn on this project is Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn.

I also have been knitting family Christmas Stockings. The first one is finished. This is #29 in the line of family stockings. Two recipients are no longer with the family and I may reuse their designs at some point. I have a basic Christmas Stocking pattern and each stocking is different. I have a number of them shown on the Ravelry pattern page. Like members of the family each one is different, but bears a family resemblance.

I've been quite busy at work, which is good. I need customers in order to stay in business.

Frustration

Last night was knitting night at the Bottle House. About 20 knitters showed up. I was working on my last Christmas stocking for my customer. The first problem was that I started knitting the foot with green yarn instead of red. Okay retreat and try again. They I noticed that I had embroidered the date upside down.  What should have been '89 was 68,. It took a long time to undo the embroidery and restitch. I almost got it correct., but tonight I noticed that not only was the 9 too narrow, my friend noticed that it was not placed correctly. Try again! I did finally finish the stocking and used the new pompom makers I picked up earlier in the day. They are Clover brand and I think I like them, I still need a photo of all the stockings, but will do it in daylight.

My local library yielded  a disc of Paul Hindmith Kammermusick, I heard No. 1(for small orchestra) Saturday night and loved it., so I put in a reserve for the disc. I put the whole 2 discs on my iPhone. I own Berlioz Symphonie Fatastique and will put that on the phone also.


I spent a couple of hours at work today (on my day off), doing things like gluing the hem on a pair of leather pants. I had to buy more glue, which is why I also bought the pompom makers. It's been a long time since I had so much work at once. I guess the famine is over.

Busy Weekend

Saturday
I made pumpkin pie flavored overnight oatmeal, and froze the rest of the pumpkin. I worked all day. Very productive. I finally have work to do for customers. Most of September has been very slow.

In the evening I went to a Cleveland Orchestra concert with my son. We heard a Hindemith piece, a beautiful Strauss oboe concerto and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. I liked all pieces enough that I tried to reserve the first two from the library to hear again. I own the Berlioz one, but hadn't listened for a while. It will get much play time this week.

Sunday
Pumpkin pie oatmeal for breakfast. I'm not sure if I really like it. It's all right, but may not be worth doing again. I did usual church and gym and went to watch grandson play soccer  in the afternoon. Then I came home and played in the kitchen. I've been cleaning out the freezer of unlabeled mysteries. a turkey carcass turned into turkey broth. I found some chicken and turkey, as well as two containers of soup. One is the lentil soup I enjoyed last week. I need to find the recipe. The other is Senate bean soup, which I think is in Joy of Cooking. Dinner was chicken and dumplings. Very tasty.

Another scarf finished

Thursday
Planting happened. I moved a number of plants before my sister arrived. She brought 7 hostas from her yard. I had some dusty-miller/ plants that made a nice border last year. They didn't die over the winter, and this year they grew and grew. looking on Google, I still don't know if they are annuals or perennials. Last winter was mild. They might die off this year. At any rate I want to plant something else in that border next year. I'm thinking a combination of flowers and lettuce.

Friday
Busy day at work, finally! It's been so slow that it'll be hard to pay bills. I'm afraid to look at the bank account. today I had a couple of alterations jobs quick quick, because of the Jewish holidays. Easy hems as waist adjustments, and same day money. It works for me!

I finished a charity scarf made from off bits of yarn. there is a lot of Wool Ease in it, as well as some mystery yarns. I started with a chunky yarn and 20 sts. I doubled most of the rest of the yarns. Each square is 20 ridges, and is offset by 10 sts.

Tonight I cooked up the rest of my green beans and turned them into my favorite green bean salad. I found this salad in the heat of the summer when a neighbor gave me some fresh green beans. It  has lettuce and feta cheese. Dressing is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and orange juice. Fennel seeds and dried cranberries are added. YUM!

This and that

Monday
Stocking #4 is finished. Only one more to go. Sometimes even one hour a day is a slog. When I get to the family stockings, it will  go better, since I'll design those. Right now I don't even know what the base color will be for each stocking. I know where to look it up. Both family stockings are for guys, so they'll be striped. I'm thinking peerie patterns.

The cooler weather is better if the house can be heated. Scott the furnace guy cam early this morning and diagnosed my problem as  a hidden switch that needed to be reset. The wind caused a back draft down my chimney. At least it didn't cost any money, since he was just here on Thursday fixing things. Bronte the dog was sure he had come just to pet her. She can act fiercely protective, but she's a different dog if you are in her circle of friends

I had a mystery soup  for dinner today. It was something unlabeled from the freezer. Now I wish i knew what the recipe was. It was a lentil soup and looked like it had spinach in it. Next thing out of the freezer will be turkey carcasses. It's time to make more broth. I'm not sure, but I think that what I froze is from turkey breasts, not enough to make broth from just one of them.

Tuesday
Good thing Scott showed me where that switch is. I had to reset the boiler again today.

Bronte the dog got to go to the vet for a check-up. It always seems to cost more money than I expect. At  least it's only once a year.

I made a white beans & shrimp recipe in the Crock pot. It was very good, but my sister is coming to Cleveland Thursday and I don't think I will serve it for lunch. It looks bland. There are many dishes that taste really good, but you shouldn't serve to company, because they don't look very good. In this case, a little color would have helped. All is not lost, I'll just eat it myself.

Knitting at the library tonight. Worked on my latest pair of socks. I resisted the free yarn give-away. I have lots of factory yarn that is to think to be hand knit as is. Resistance was easy.

Wednesdaty
Reset the boiler again. It's getting warmer, but still raining. Where was all this rain over the summer? The tomato avalanche has slowed down. there are still plenty of green tomatoes, but they're not ripening as fast.

I've decided that Thursday lunch will be Pumpkin & black bean soup. Dear sis will just be here for a few hours. She's bringing some hostas thinned from her yard. I need more plants in my yard. Many of the things I have bought over the years have died or been eaten by the rabbit.

I finished the name on the last customer stocking.

Ugh!

This has been a weekend of things breaking at my house.

Friday I was in a cooking mood after work. I had planned on a dinner of fish in foil, a recipe from a knitting friend. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Take apiece of foil and put your fish on it, cover the fish with pesto, tomatoes (or mushrooms), yes i used tomatoes from my garden, spinach leaves and Parmesan cheese. Bake about 15 minutes. While that was cooking I cooked up another piece of chicken breast to use in salads and sandwiches for lunch. I had a taste for baked beans. Put some pinto beans in the crockpot on low overnight. I didn't have any white beans in the house. I'll have to get some. So far, so good.

The next morning, I put more ingredients in the crockpot and turned it up to high. I went to work thinking about lovely beans for dinner, made with my own tomato sauce. I came home to a cold pot and uncooked beans. The poor thing had died. It was old, with a cracked lid. Does the fact that the outside was orange give you a clue as to how old the poor slow cooker was? A couple of years ago I was able to pick up a new pot on sale with discounts. I planned to put it  into use when the lid cracked on the old one. The lid is still holding together. Both pots are the same brand and the ceramic insert from the old pot fits the new one. Last night, I transferred the beans to the new base and cooked them some more, turning it off at bedtime, thinking they were finished. This morning, I decided more cooking was needed. I ate beans for lunch after church and a trip to the gym. I now have little packages of baked beans in my freezer.

After lunch, I came upstairs to watch the football game while working on the computer. That television won't turn on. This is not a real tragedy, as I have two more working HD tvs. My husband was a real tv watcher as his health failed. He didn't have energy for much else. I will have to get the thing out on the curb, and it will take 2 men to move it. I'm not decided on whether I'll move the tv from the kitchen, or just leave it there.

As the day went on I felt chilly. I finally checked the thermostat, and it said the house was 5 degrees colder than the set temperature.I just had the furnace man here on Thursday, fixing radiators and servicing the boiler. The boiler isn't working! We think the pilot light went out. He'll be here bright and early in the morning. In the meantime, I'll wear more clothes. At least I have a heated mattress pad on my bed. It was still in the closet this morning. I don't think any of these problems will cost me money, but still it's frustrating.

Sewing - I finished a dress for myself. I found the fabric, pattern, and cut out skirt on a shelf at work. (I own the shop) I must have bought the fabric 20+ years ago. It's a rayon crepe with a print of different buttons all over it. I bought contrast fabric for the collar, which was enough for the bodice facing and the inside of the sleeve cuffs. The dress is a long sleeve shirtwaist dress with full skirt and buttons all down the front. I had picked 12 buttons, in 6 colors, each of them different. The store sold buttons loose, in the quantity you needed. I haven't decided if I really like the dress, but it was fun to make.

Knitting -  I'm at the toe4 of stocking #4. I should finish tomorrow. I'm still putting in at least an hour each day on the project. I have a pair of red birthday socks knit to the middle of the foot. They are a mystery pattern and I wasn't sure if I would run out of knitting before the last clue came out Saturday morning. I was prepared to start the second sock, even  though I have only one ball of yarn and I don't like working from both ends at once. As it happens I don't have to do that. I may be able to start the other sock tomorrow. I'll try to get pictures of the dress. The beginning of the sock looks like this:

I've been going to knit night at the local brewery. There's a nice group of new-to-me knitters, including a local designer, named Hunter Hammersen. Not knowing what the conditions would be, I started a simple project, a scarf called Wingspan. The first night I didn't have any mindless project and the stockings were not in a good place to take. The second night I took a stocking and worked on the heel. White yarn is prefect for semi-low light conditions. Actually the lighting is not bad. One of the knitters is very close to an owner, and makes sure we can see. This project sits in my purse until I need concentrated mindless knitting. The yarn is Crystal Palace Mini Mochi.

Time to crawl into my nice warm bed.

The Tomatoes are Ripe

Tomatoes
They have been ripe for a month. I have bags of frozen tomatoes. I've eaten salads and wrap sandwiches. I made tomato soup. I've roasted tomatoes. The variety is endless. I have lots of new recipes that I like. One of my favorites is chicken tomato pizza. I use preformed pizza dough, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, cooked chicken (a staple in my house), basil, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Stick in the oven until brown.

So far, all the extra tomatoes have gone in the freezer. I still might can some, but right now, I can't put my hands on my jar lifter. I really need it if I'm going to get jars our of boiling water. I can buy a new one for not much money, but I still have one more place to look. Also, if I don't actually get to canning, I won't need it.

Overnight oatmeal
A new discovery that one of my daughters found. It's made in a jar and eaten cold. So far I have tried blueberry, peach and apple. I may have tried more flavors, but they're not at the top of my mind. One daughter thinks the chocolate ones might make a good snack. Another daughter has made up large batches of pumpkin flavored jars. In looking for the link, I found a number of other recipes on Google. The one I've used combines the oats with yogurt, some of the others just use milk.

Sock Knitting

These were a birthday gift for oldest daughter. I thought of them as butterflies, but she's a quilter and saw them as bow ties. The technique is Mosaic, using only one color per row, and slipping the other color.


Daughter number three has a birthday the day after her sister. She got these socks. The dishcloth shows the stitch pattern.

Patterns for both pairs are available on Ravelry and Patternfish

We also have a granddaughter with a September birthday.. She was in town last weekend to celebrate and show off her son, who is 4 months old. She got the last pair of socks. I followed a Ravelry mystery pattern for these.

I also am knitting Christmas stockings. I have 5 identical stockings, except for name, to do for a commission job. Three are finished and I'm working on #4. As it's getting colder, I set myself the task of knitting on them at least one hour a day. I also have two family stockings to do, one for the new great grandson and one for a granddaughter's husband. Should have done that one last year. Every year or so, I knit stockings for other people. It's the same story. Grandma knit stockings until she couldn't any more and the family kept growing. I've knit a version of this pattern before. Most of what I've knit are old Bernat patterns. A few I've had to design myself. The family patterns are all original. I'll talk more about them when I get to that point.

Sunshine sweater
 This sweater looks almost like I wanted it to, but it doesn't work! There is no stability in the neckline, and it slid down as I wore it. Luckily it was just a dog walk of about 20 minutes. I'm now on try #3 of the neckline. I've kept the v-neck, but gone with a more conventional look. I'll wear it for a while before I call it done. I may have to crochet around the neck edge to keep it from stretching. I still love the yarn and stitch pattern, but I sure am ready for this to be really finished.

I finally figured out the time delay on my camera. It's a good thing that I'm not using up film on pictures the crop off part of my body.

Possibilities

 
This week is full of possibilities. Tomatoes are almost ripe on 3 plants (different varieties). The possibilities of ripe tomatoes are endless, from salads to soups to main dishes.

This basil had the potential for being made into pesto. I made two batches so far. The ice cube trays were frozen and the cubes popped out and bagged.

 

This batch has cheese.

The sweater is almost finished. I'm actually above the armholes now and running short of yarn. Not to worry, I can knit up the swatch and raid an old project for more of the solid yellow yarn if needed.

I missed tonight's guild meeting. My cousin popped into town, bringing my sister and her daughter with her. It's along story and a spur of the moment decision. Haven't seen cousin H from Michigan since 2005 for my other sister's 60th birthday. I'm Facebook friends with her daughter.

Back to knitting the sweater. I have to knit fast before I run out of yarn.

It won't be a surprise....

to those who know me, but I've met another crazy goal this year. One of my Ravelry challenges was to make a list of 12 things I'd do 12 of this year. I've now finished 12 birthday gifts, some of them sewn, but many of them hand knit socks. Today I'm mailing off 2 quilts and a pair of socks. The quilts are made of flannel on top of fleece.

Now that the socks are finished I can tackle my Olympics/Ravelry challenge. I entered the WIP Wrestling event. I qualify for Cable Steeplechase and Synchronized Stashbusting. I started the sweater in early May, finished a sleeve, and put it aside for other projects. The pattern was written a couple of years ago for TKGA, but I didn't get to keep the sweater. The yarn is cone yarn from ages ago. I'm hoping to get the back finished by the end of closing ceremonies. It looks good. I'm past the armhole now. I'll just keep knitting this project through Sunday night and then move on.

Today was spent running errands, paying bills, weeding and mowing the lawn. Ran out of time for swimming. Now the Olympics are on tv, and I'm back to knitting.