Currant Jelly

My parents have red currant bushes in the back yard, and for the last two weeks, Thursdays have been jelly making days.

This week I thought to take some pictures and share.

On the left you will see what red currants look like, in case you aren't familiar with them. They are tangy and juicy and sort of resemble other berries that happen to be poisonous, so obviously, don't just assume berries that look like this are red currants.

To make a batch of jelly (that would be 4 8-oz. jars) you need at least 2 1/2 quarts of currants. You gently wash these, and then smash them up with berry masher. This works best if you mash a single layer of berries at a time. Jelly is made with juice only, so mash them up really good to get as much juice as possible. Once all the currants are mashed, you bring them to a boil with 1 cup water and cook them for ten minutes, stirring constantly so they don't stick to the bottom of the kettle and burn.

The next part is a little tricky. Since you only use the juice to make jelly (you use the fruit too when you make jam- that explanation is forthcoming) you need to strain the cooked berry mixture. You can do this with several layers of cheesecloth to form a bag, or you can buy a "jelly bag" and stand like my mom and I did. This was available in the canning section at RKO (that would be Rural King Ohio, it is all right if you laugh at the store's name, I think it is funny too) but I imagine you could probably find such things at hardware stores too since they usually have canning accouterments. Incidentally, that stand we bought for the jelly bag can fit over most standard sized mixing bowls or pans. Like I mentioned, a cheesecloth bag would work too. Apparently my grandma used to use that and hang it up on a hook from the ceiling of the back porch for it to drip into a bowl. The thing that is most important - DO NOT SQUEEZE THE BAG. This will cause the jelly to cloud (which I guess is bad).

Let the juice strain through for 2-3 hours, or longer if you like. To make a batch of jelly there needs to be 4 cups of juice. If there isn't enough, add unsweetened apple or white grape juice, but the flavor will not be as strong. We didn't need to do this with either of the batches we made.

The next part gets a little complicated and works best with two people, but at any rate, you do need some preparation.

We used 8 oz jelly jars, which need to sterilized prior to starting the jelly. It is also helpful to keep the jars in a bowl of hot water since the jelly will be very hot when you fill them and this will greatly reduce the risk of thermal shock. The lids and rings should be treated this way too.

It is also good to start a hot water bath since the jars should be processed right after they are filled. This is not my strength because my mom keeps doing it. She has a small canner (not a pressure canner for this) she keeps simmering. There is a rack in it and she has tongs especially made for picking up the jars. All this would be available in the canning section. She also has a funnel specifically made for filling wide mouth jars. Once everything is set up for canning, the jelly making can begin.

Heat the juice. Add an envelope of fruit pectin and stir. From now on you keep stirring constantly. Once the juice reaches a hard boil that cannot be stirred down, add 2 cups sugar. When the mixture returns to a boil cook for 3 minutes and then immediately remove from heat. We figured out 3 minutes was the right time for our currant jelly, but there is this "metal spoon test" too, and when the juice slides off the spoon in almost a sheet rather than in drops, that is the jellying point.

Then you skim any foam off the top (tip: add 1/2 t butter to the juice when it is boiling to reduce foam) and quickly fill the jars, place the lids, and tightly screw on the rings. (You might want a hot pad for holding the jars.)

The jars go in the hot water bath, increase the heat and bring to a full boil, and process for 5 minutes. Remove jars and place on a wooden surface (to avoid damaging the counter) and let them sit undisturbed for 12 hours.

Oh, and if you have more jelly than fits in the jars (leave head space!) just put it in a bowl and enjoy! Tomorrow I will show you the other berries I've been working with this week.

Summer Flowers

Just because I like to wander around the back yard with my camera sometimes

Cover Crazy?

The other day I was sitting on the couch knitting and my mom came into the room and asked if I had any old dishcloths I'd be willing to part with. She was also holding her swiffer mop. I put the two together and guessed that she was looking for a solution to those expensive disposable pads for the mop.

I knew patterns for this existed since Luscious Luka knit a couple, so I was off to Ravelry to search some patterns.

Here is what I've come up with in the last 48 hours. I'm working on a second crochet one now.

There is also a crochet pattern with loops to create a dust mop or sorts. I'm going to have to figure out how to do that too.

The first picture is my mom's mop. It actually has a spray mechanism thing and the mop head isn't flat like mine (see bottom two pictures) but the covers fit her mop head with no adjustments.

I think I'm going to need to make a couple of these for myself now too. It is great stash busting too!

I totaled my yarn again the other day.

Here is what I had:

7/1/08 yarn total is 47,586.5 yds = 27.00375

7/6/08 yarn total is 45,186.5 yds = 25.67415 (see how much yarn that afghan ate!!)

Goal: Reduce stash to < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">yds by January 1, 2009

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I don't get to subtract yardage from my stash until a WIP is completed.

Oh, and I visited the new yarn store in town today. They have a pretty nice selection of yarn, it is similar to what the old LYS had. There's a lot of Rowan, Brown Sheep, and Cascade, also a nice selection of sock yarn; I noticed Regia Bamboo, Schaffer Anne, Jitterbug, and Koigu. There was another brand I wasn't familiar with that had a lot of alpaca in it, that looks interesting. On a disappointing note, they don't seem to have a lot of patterns/books/magazines just yet, and there needle selection appears to be exclusively ChiaoGoo. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think people had some problem with that brand of needles. I bought a crochet hook to check it out, I thought maybe that would hold up better than needles, I guess we'll see, but so far so good. Anyhow, when and if I need something I will check them out, but my stash is nice enough right now I don't feel like I'm missing out too much.

Afghan!

In the last week and a half I've barely picked up the knitting needles. This is partially due to the packing/moving/driving things, but mostly it is due to this:

For the last week and a half I've been sort of obsessed with crocheting a giant granny square. This measures 65" x 65" and used nearly 2,400 yds of yarn. It all started because said yarn didn't fit in my yarn storage bins and I didn't want to pack it. I had initially planned to knit a log cabin-style blanket with this yarn, but that got tedious very fast and I wasn't too excited about having hundreds of stitches on a needle. By the time I got to the last 10 rounds of the afghan that was tedious too, but at least all I had to do was move the crochet hook along the outside.

Back to knitting for me now, which I'm very happy about. I've missed it.

ughhhhhhhhhhh

This blog entry brought to you from a much needed break from cleaning/packing. Here is a peak at the disaster area that is our apartment. I'm not even touching that today. Right now I'm attacking the kitchen, and that involves packing and cleaning. I'm waiting for the floor I just mopped to dry. I'm also in the process of cleaning the oven, but it will be another hour and a half until I can wipe that out.

I would actually like to make other entries, perhaps showing off the nice gifts from SNBWB, or maybe about my sister-in-law's wedding, or my current knitting, or my latest computer drama. I have five days to get this apartment into boxes and clean, so none of that is going to happen right now.

Books

Reposted from miss luscious luka,

These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by Library Thing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you’ve read and italicize the ones you own but have not read.

*I'm adding one category, I'll bold and italicize the ones I own, and have only partially read. I have an embarrassing number of those, but I don't feel it is fair to say I've "read" a book I didn't complete.*

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Spring Yarns

See what I finished? But wait, it isn't just one sock, it is two!

This is the second fastest pair of socks I've done (but the fastest was a pair of ankle length socks from STR medium weight on size 3 dpns while I was in the car for hours traveling to and from our honeymoon, so I'm not sure that counts really)

I knit these a little shorter than I've been knitting my socks lately because I realized that once I get maybe 3" past the ankle length just doesn't make much difference to me until we're talking knee-highs.

I have lots of nice things to say about this yarn. As you can see, the pooling was minimal and I ended up with nice stripes mostly. Pooling doesn't particularly bother me, but I think it speaks to the dying when the socks end up as nice as this. This yarn is great to knit with too, it is soft and springy. In case you don't remember, this is Simply Sock Yarn in Cherry Blossom from Rock Creek Yarns. Hey MB, I saw an ad for it on Ravelry today, cool!

This, on the other hand, is the scarf of two years. It is important to note that it is actually on the needles again instead of on stitch markers- proof that I am actually working on it now.

I started this two years ago and worked on it on and off during the summer, got sick of it, and for the last year and a half it has been solidly qualified under the "UFO" category. I needed some deeper color this weekend and picked it back up. Maybe it is because I'm used to knitting with fingering weight yarn for socks now, or maybe the humidity just isn't as bad yet, or maybe I finally have the right needles for this, but it is going MUCH better than I felt like it was a couple years ago.

Finally, this is next in my sock yarn queue. The colorway is called "Blueberry Jam" and it is Classic Merino Supersock from Knitting Notions, but it reminds me of irises. From this picture you should be able to see why. I've been wanting to knit with this since I bought it last year, but I was waiting for the right timing with the color. I definitely need to swatch first for this one since the recommended needle size is US 0-1 for 8-9 stitches per inch, which is a little finer gauge than I knit socks at most of the time.

FREE!

I came home this evening and saw this tacked to the bulletin board next to the mailbox. I love it! We've had all kinds of stuff up their lately- sofas, maid services, childcare, Avon. Whoever put this up has my stupid sense of humor

Spring?

Today is cold, wet, and I hear we have even had a few snow flakes. Just to prove we have had spring, here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.

Stash Sock Club

My sock yarn stash isn't too crazy, but I have a few potential pairs, so I've organized my own personal little sock club. I like to knit socks with yarn that is representative of the season, so here is a look at my line-up.

The socks for the last month were knit with Schaefer Anne in a pretty blue-green colorway. I thought it was appropriate for early spring as we were seeing more blue sky, and some rain, and the green leaves budding out.

I've been using New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi, and for this pair I used the "Riverbed Master Pattern." This pattern has the increases on the sole, which I think you can kind of see from the picture. I also tried the reinforced heel this time. I think it gives a nice cushion, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about the look. Maybe I just need to wash these though, I haven't done that yet. The socks are for my mom, who prefers ankle-length. (This makes knitting socks for her pretty enjoyable, because as soon as I am done turning the heel I'm almost done!)

I really like this book. I'm not much of a pattern sock knitter. I've done simple things on the instep and leg a few times and although I like the way it can look, I find I prefer just plain knitting. For one thing, if the socks are for me, I'm going to wear them in boots where no one will see them. I wear them around the house too, but I cannot stand to wear thin store-bought socks with my boots anymore. My point is that most people won't be able to see that work anyway.

The other issue is ease of knitting and portability. My socks usually get stuffed in my purse to work on at lunch when I'm on the phone, or when I'm in the car, or when I'm waiting for something. I don't want to reference a pattern constantly and I like to be able to knit without thinking for long stretches. I've tried cabled socks and even though they look beautiful, to me they are just too fiddly. I think I'll keep my cables for hats and sweaters and maybe mittens. I'm not a lace sock person either, so basically that leaves knit/purl stitch patterns. I'm fine with those if they are simple enough to memorize easily. Anyway, since I'm so picky about what will and won't work for socks for me, I need to have more basic patterns to go to.

New Pathways for Sock Knitters does have actual sock patterns in it, but for me I'm having more fun playing with the different versions of increasing on toe-up socks. I also really love the method of making the heel, especially since it doesn't involve picking up any stitches along the edge of the heel flap. One word of caution though: if you don't like math and having to plug numbers in to figure out a pattern this is not the book for you. I like math though, so all is fine.

My current socks are knit from Rock Creek Yarn's Simply Sock Yarn in "Cherry Blossom." I shouldn't have to tell you why I think this is the perfect colorway to be knitting right now, but check out the picture I took yesterday, it isn't a cherry tree but I think it is just as pretty.

This skein of yarn was the last I bought before imposing my moratorium on yarn purchases. This yarn is hand dyed by my friend MB and apparently I was her first customer! I love the way this yarn is knitting up too, it is soft and smooshy and totally not splitty.

I got to the part where I need to start increasing for the gusset on the first sock and decided to start the second one. Once I have the second one knit that far I may try doing the two socks on two circular thing, but I'm afraid of tangling the yarn. Mostly I just find I do better with my socks by doing them sort of at the same time. That way I don't forget what I did and they turn out better.

The rest of my sock line-up includes Iris colored yarn (actually the name is "Blueberry Jam") I bought at the Great Lakes Fiber Show last year. (Sadly I have to miss that this year since someone graduates from law school that weekend. I'm trying to get over it. After all I'm not supposed to be buying yarn now anyway.) Next on my list is Trekking XXL I bought on our honeymoon (for June when the roses that are similarly colored are blooming), followed by a skein of Jitterbug (the colorway reminds me of a swimming pool, appropriate for July I think), and finally a skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that reminds me of late summer flowers.

That isn't all my sock yarn, but it takes care of the skeins I most want to knit with.

Stash

I've gone a little nuts this weekend playing with yarn. I decided that it was time I finally put everything into my "Stash" on Ravelry. The big stuff was easy, most of it was already there. I'm down to remnants now, which I debated about entering at all. Here are my rules:

1. Sock yarn under 100 yds doesn't need to be entered
2. Other yarn 25 yards and under doesn't need to be entered
3. If I have less than 25 yards of something I used in a project, it can be moved to "All Used Up" but I should still note how many yards I have left, just in case I want to use the scraps for something

I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, other than I am on a cleaning/organizing kick since I'll be packing up soon. That and with the moving and temporary unemployment that is going to follow, I really can't afford to be buying any more yarn for the next few months, so I might as well know what I have. (Don't feel sorry for me, I've spent the last 2 1/2 years preparing for this so I'll be fine. If you are tempted to feel bad, take a look at my stash on Ravelry and you won't anymore.)

I did have a thought about the yarn and moving though. I'm going to use it to cushion my plates and glasses in the boxes. I suppose it could be a problem if something did break, but with that much cushioning I doubt it is a huge risk.

I'm not done with the shoe box of remnants though, so back to the ball winder and yarn meter.

One of the things I love about Ravelry is the forum. It isn't just the knitting, it is the discussions that occur in some of the groups I belong to. For instance, I really like to read through the discussion board for the "This is what a feminist knits like" group or the "Puck This!" group. Another favorite is "Knit. Hook. Cook." where someone posted a link to CookThink.

You know when you are really are in the mood for something with mushrooms, or something "gooey" or maybe just something European but you really aren't sure what you should make that would satisfy your craving? With this website you enter the ingredient, dish, cuisine, and/or mood and the website will pull up recipes that match your criteria. The recipes I've seen so far look pretty good, I think I will have to try some out.

A post that should containt a lot of links but doesn't

While I am thinking about it I am going to actually update. Work has been super crazy and not much fun lately, so I come home and knit. I knit about 5 different projects and I teach myself new things and do whatever I can to enjoy the time that I do own. The learning hasn't been limited to knitting either. (Details on knitting below) Netflix has a great inventory of documentaries, many of the available for instant viewing. This weekend it was a documentary on Emma Goldman (who I found out is buried in Chicago!) We also watched one about the Weathermen. I guess we were kind of revolutionary. The weekend before I fed my artistic side. See the little creamer I painted? I've wanted to do that pottery painting for a long time, and I'm glad I did. Since I moved to Illinois I really haven't painted. It is sort of the set-up I have in this apartment, the light carpet is a factor, and then there has been the knitting which receives most of my creative energy. When we move maybe I will fix that.

Speaking of moving, there has been much watching of HGTV. Along with that I must admit there has been a lot of dreaming about future homes. When we go back to Ohio we will rent at first, but buying a house is definitely a goal we would like to accomplish within a few years. I want a yard.

Earlier I alluded to learning some new knitting things. I am still intermittently working on Quant, which is my first entrelac project. In the past few episodes of Craftlit Heather has talked about New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Borhdi. The book has patterns, but it is more about new ways to construct socks. For the most part I am a lot more interested in trying new sock techniques, deciding if I like them, and if I do integrating them into my "perfect sock" pattern inside my head than following a specific pattern for a pair of socks. For one thing, socks are often my portable and "mindless" project so I prefer something simple that I don't need to refer to a pattern for. Another thing is that I like the creativity of pulling something together myself with what I know about sock construction and the help of a stitch dictionary.

Cat has two "practice"socks to knit first, and then she says you should be able to jump in anywhere. I am very anxious to jump into a couple new constructions, but I am being good and knitting the practice socks first with scrap yarn. As you can see in practice sock #1 above I ran out of scrap yarn #1. That was not a planned "design element." I just started practice sock #2 last night. I think I will continue on with it now.

Laugh of the Day

Mark found this link on Fark. Who doesn't enjoy making fun of lame infomercials?

Enter the busy season

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, and I figured out it was because I was anxious about work. There is a certain procedure we can only do so much of a year, and after we hit that threshold, every request for that procedure gets rejected with an explanation and the investor is told they can resubmit the request after January 1 of the next year. We reached this threshold in early March last year.

You can probably figure out where this leaves me on January 2 (being that Jan 1 is a holiday after all.)

I am super busy at work, which beats having nothing to do, but it still makes me a little crazy.

The strange thing is that my way of coping with the crushing weight of my inbox is apparently to cast on a ton of projects and plan meals to cook for the next month. You would sort of think that being busy all day at work would make me want to come home and either do nothing or only do the most simple projects. It doesn't work that way I guess. Maybe I just really want creative worthwhile things to do after 8 hours of data entry type work. Or it could just be that with the "fresh start" of the New Year I think it is the perfect time to get startitis.

New year, new projects

It is sort of fun reading other blogs today and seeing what goals everyone is setting.

I have a few vague ones for 2008, but I've never been much for setting New Year's resolutions. I also have this strange fear that if I write down a list of things to do I will never actually do any of them because I will fear restricted and rebel. I'm weird like that.

As for new in the sweater drama I wrote about last night, I think I may have found my solution. I will just ditch the contrasting color completely. I have 7 skeins of yarn, and the size I am knitting and the next up calls for 7 skeins of yarn, so I am hoping that I will still be all right with yardage. I cast on for a sleeve and so far I like the look with the solid color.

I am also gearing up to cast on for my next lace shawl. The Victorian Lace Today group is doing a KAL with a couple options, two of them being for shawls I want to knit. I haven't completely decided which one I am going to cast on, but right now I am leaning towards the Myrtle Leaf shawl in the Blackberry Ridge laceweight I got for my birthday last year. Anyway, it is decision time for me.


::Edit::

There is one New Year's resolution I will make: I want to ultilize my Ravlery Queue more. I think it could really help me organize upcoming projects. For the last six months I've been using it to add patterns that I would like to knit so that I don't use them. Now I want to take it to the next level and assign yarns and an order to my knitting to-do list.

It's a lovely night to stay inside

Well, that was the plan anyway. You see, the Bavarian Lodge is closed on Mondays and they aren't making an exception for New Year's Eve, so we decided to stay in.

It is also snowing and the roads weren't very good earlier (see, Mark is smiling because we are finally home safe), so this all works out. Not that we were going to drive, we would have walked to the Bavarian Lodge, but whatever.

We were actually told to go home about an hour early today from work. Which also was helpful considering the snow. Mark picked me up and we went out to take care of Tony. If you haven't met Tony- here he is. Not to alarm anyone who may be reading this, but when we got to the apartment there were two fire trucks and two police cars blocking the way. Don't worry- it wasn't for your apartment. It was a bit unsettling to drive up to that though!

So now that we are back, we have been celebrating the end of 2007 with some cheeseballs I made last night, fondue, and some beverages we would have found on the Bavarian Lodge's menu. Ahem.

Knitting?

Oh yeah, last week I finished Tuscany. Currently (as can be seen on the right side of the screen) I'm working on a second sock and my first entralec project. Despite my other pictures tonight I haven't bothered to take a picture of that.

I also had a sweater I was staring with my Christmas present yarn from Mark. I have the main yarn, but I need a contrasting yarn with it and am having some issues. The main yarn is Classic Elite Lush in purple, which is just lovely. I tried using white Lush as the cc, but it just looks stripey which is not the look we are going for. So yesterday I went to Wool & Company where I probably made the yarn store owner snicker to herself after I left. See, I don't like novelty yarn, but this sweater uses a skein around the bottom, the cuffs, and the neckline. Like I said, the Lush in another color wasn't working. After much consideration I pick up a tape/ribbon yarn that isn't too terribly garish and check out. As I am paying, she asks me what I'm going to make with it. I tell her that it is "for a sweater" because it is. The thought of knitting a sweater with one skein of novelty yarn is pretty funny, I would have snickered. I actually did once I thought of how that could have been interpreted. Last night I cast on with said novelty yarn. I HATE IT. I actually threw it across the room. (Do you think Tony would like to play with it?? I can't return it now, I've already knit with it.) My next attempt involves not using any cc and just knitting it all in the main yarn. We will see how that goes and if it doesn't go well I will just find a new sweater pattern.

I think Mark and I are going to investigate this snow we got.

Our apartment currently smells like brownies (I made them to cover up the oil smell from the fondue) and pork and sauerkraut.

Is this all a little random? I apologize, but this is what you get on New Year's Eve.

I'm not even doing Christmas Knitting!

Is it just me or is time going insanely fast? I have far too much I want to accomplish before Christmas.

I do have this done. I made three of these mini Christmas stockings for my "team" at work. I'll put some candy in them. I am going to be a slacker tomorrow and not make anything for the food day. Last year I made an eggplant penguin relish tray. For Halloween I made the cheese log mummy. For various food days I have made a bunch of different stuff or brought in things I got at the store. I am just not participating this time- I have no time, energy, or motivation for it. I can't even manage to make icing for the cut-out Christmas cookies I have in my freezer.

Tonight I went to the eye doctor again to try a couple new types of contacts. The ones I had were all right, but I think there may be something better out there for me so I want to give it a shot. My glasses were in too, so now I can give my eyes a bit of a rest. I'm not used to wearing glasses though, so I'm kind of stumbling around a bit, my depth perception is a little off.

I also finished my Christmas shopping today, knit two rows on the Tuscany shawl while we watched a Netflix movie that had been sitting here for a few days, and I wrapped about half the Christmas gifts. Now I get to finish up everything else I want to do tomorrow night because Thursday night I just want to sit back and relax with Mark and have our Christmas celebration.

Also on the list of accomplishments tonight, I got the Ravelry progress bars to work for me! (I use "accomplishment" somewhat loosely, after all, there is a whole bunch of posts and help for adding the code, making it work with Blogger, and adjusted it to the preferred settings. Then again, Literacy is an accomplishment some days.

All is well

All right, they did a much better job of clearing the roads and the ice really wasn't as severe anyway as it was a few weeks ago. Honestly I wasn't even that worried about myself, I was much more worried about Mark driving out to DeKalb for his exam. We just had some freezing rain advisory, DeKalb had an ice storm warning. Nevertheless, he returned safe and sound and doesn't have to go out for another exam for a week.

I feel completely exhausted. Since we weren't sure of road conditions, Mark offered to drive me to work and just drop me off early. So I got to work around 7:30 this morning which meant I had some knitting time. (I can't really clock in that early because then I would have been putting in overtime and I can't do that without supervisor approval.) I knit until a reasonable time to clock in, and then at lunch I knit at my desk since I had no car to go to and our lunchroom is currently under construction. It really wasn't the knitting that made me exhausted, it was being at my desk for so long! Normally I'm there 7.5+ hours, today I was there for 9.5! I always really feel it when I don't get to leave for lunch, the afternoon drags. Anyway, that is what I'm working on.

It has been a long day all around, because then immediately after work I had an eye exam. I ordered new glasses! I'm excited about that.

If I die on these ice covered roads I am forced to travel today, my sister gets first dibs on the stash, but the rest goes to my SNB group.

I love you

It's Christmas Time

All week I've been meaning to follow up on last Saturday's post. Lucky for us, last Sunday I woke up to find it was about 40 degrees and raining, which successfully melted the ice and made it possible to have a life.

Anyway, this week the winter weather has continued. Also lucky for me, since Mark is in exam time and only occasionally needs to go to campus, he has been available to drive me to and from work. My car does not like slippery conditions. It works out for Mark too, because then he spends the day studying at Panera or Starbucks or somewhere where he can focus more than he can at home. Here is a peak at conditions on Tuesday morning. As long as road conditions aren't too bad I don't mind the snow. It helps the Christmas spirit. I've noticed that it snows a lot more in Illinois in December than I ever remember it snowing in Ohio this time of year. In Ohio, most of the snow came a little later, and usually the really heavy stuff was in late winter. At least that is how I remember it.

Speaking of Christmas spirit, we put up the tree last Sunday. Then I discovered that only two strands of lights were still working. Two strands of lights just are not enough, so we got 400 more lights a few days later and then we finally got around to putting the ornaments on the tree on Friday. This whole Christmas thing is taking me awhile this year, I'm not really sure what is up with that. Is it because I'm not frantically finishing Christmas knitting? I am giving some handknits this year, but two of those gifts were finished months ago, and the other two I finished in the last week. I'll explain more later.

With December comes the snow

Despite my hope that the winter storm warnings were just a bunch of hype, today had proved otherwise. It started with snow. The snow wasn't really bad, but it had me a little worried because the fine flakes and the quickness of accumulation reminded me a little too much of Christmas 2004.


I went home about a day ahead of schedule that year because of the forecast, and it is a good thing I did because I would never have made it home otherwise. Of course, that would have meant I would have had electricity and running water on Christmas and I would have spent it with Mark (we had only been dating about 6 months at that point so we weren't doing holidays together yet) but those are just minor details . Anyway, there was no snow when I left Toledo, no snow on 80/90, but as soon as I hit US 250 the snow started. I wasn't worried, it was just light flurries. Except that it started accumulating much faster than mere flurries should, and it made the road super slick and I nearly slid off the road at least once. I managed to get home safely, but then later that evening we got the freezing rain. Then I woke up in the middle of the night to huge crashes as tree limbs fell on our house. Picture one is from soon after I came home. Picture #2 is the same area of the back yard the next day. I'm really hoping I don't wake up tomorrow morning to see the same sort of thing. I don't like the sound of the wind.

Picture #3 is just because the ice can be beautiful too.


Anyhow, I think it is weird that the first real winter storm we got last year was on December 1 too.

and now with some substance

I really didn't mean to neglect my blog for so long. A few weeks ago I was going to write this post about how it was suddenly Christmas time and everyone had lights and decorations up already even though it was the first week on November, but now here it is Thanksgiving and this isn't surprising at all anymore because it is commonly accepted that the Christmas season officially begins tomorrow. Although for me, Thanksgiving continues through about mid-day Friday when Mark and I go have Thanksgiving with my family. Then once the dishes are done it is Christmas time and we start putting up the tree and baking cookies.

Today is the big extended family thing with Mark's family. I am currently camped out in the guest room, not to be unfriendly, really I am just waiting for the shower to open up, but also because I'm not used to so many people (remember, most of the time it is just Mark and me) so I'm basking in some time by myself . This is one of the hard things about going home, even though we are together the whole time, I sometimes feel exhausted from being around so many people (and this is my family too sometimes, not just Mark's) and I miss my own time and our time together.

So what knitting did I pack for this trip? I have two socks going right now. I've knit almost to the point where I'll turn the heel for both of them. I also brought some cashmerino to make another pair of Fetchings, the left one is done and I began the right one last night. I tossed in the Tuscany shawl, which I haven't worked on since last time I was in Toledo when I messed it up. I really need to put in a lifeline and rip back, so maybe I'll do that when I'm at my house this weekend and I have room to spread it out and take a good look and fix it. For good measure I also tossed in my leftover Lopi light yarn from the Icelandic mittens I made last year at this time. I want to make a hat (and so I also brought some Lush to make a lining for it) with the same motif to match the mittens. This will require some math and some planning, so who knows if I will actually start that when I have all these other things going.

You know what I didn't bring? I forgot to bring the thing to upload pictures from my digital camera to my computer. Brilliant I tell you. I thought about it at work on Tuesday and then just plain forgot. Oh well, better luck next time I guess. Here is a picture of the Icelandic mittens I made last year. I had this on my computer already. This is the design I want to incorporate onto a hat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Afternoon at a Forest Preserve

Just to show you that I didn't sit around all weekend, here are some pictures from this afternoon:

Recovery

So remember the tooth that was giving me all sorts of problems? It is finally gone. I had it "extracted" yesterday and hence the title of today's entry. Obviously it isn't a big deal, but it does mean that I have to take some special care with my mouth right now. I am just glad the bleeding has stopped!

Anyway, because of all that, and because it is the "fall back" weekend with the time change, I have decided that this will be a lazy weekend. As it is, I have already spent far too much time reading forums on Ravelry.

I have also done a little more academic reading. My Norton Anthologies have arrived, so last night I spent a good deal of timing pouring over the Victorian Age volume. I reacquainted myself with some of the poems and poets I remember reading in my Victorian Lit class. I have to admit, it is a lot more relaxing to read these voluntarily and without a deadline. Nevertheless, the Victorian Lit class was one of my favorite classes I took throughout college. It is funny, but when I read these poems again, I think I understand them better. I guess 3 1/2 years will do that, especially when I consider how many things have changed in my life since the time I was 20-21.

About the Anthologies- I already had a 7th ed. of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century. The volumes I just purchased are 8th ed. and they added a center color insert with artwork with this edition. I really like that. I've always been attracted to literature more when artwork of the same era accompanies it. I feel like I have a much better grasp of the time.

On a completely different topic, I frogged the socks I started. I had ordered two 2.5 mmm circular needles from KnitPicks to try out, and I think that size needle will be much better than the 2.75 mm needles I was using. I felt like the gauge was just a little looser than I actually wanted. I plan on casting on again very soon, I really like the yarn and how it was knitting up.

Among the other things I did last night, I tried to knit Continental on the potholder I'm almost finished with. I figured if the stitches were a bit wonky it wouldn't matter because I'm going to felt it anyway. The stitches were definitely wonky, my tension isn't exactly established yet. I didn't find it too difficult to do, and I may make a more concentrated effort in the future to get the method down, but I went back to knitting English style because it is still faster to me. For whatever reason I really prefer to have my yarn coming from the right rather than the left. This may be why I've never really stuck with crochet. The directions for the potholder are in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I decided it was a good pattern to try and work through some of the yarn in my scrap box. Besides, since I have a glass tabletop, I can always use more trivets/potholders to protect from the heat of serving dishes.

Halloween Wrap-up

Here is the mummy cheese ball I brought to work for Halloween. It is basically a couple of port wine cheese logs cut up in the shape of a mummy with cream cheese piped over it to look like bandages. The mouth is a pimiento and the eyes are black peppercorns. I can't take credit for this creation, I saw it in Taste of Home last fall and knew I had to make it. Unfortunately, Jewel was all out of port wine cheese logs last year, so it didn't happen then. Why am I making Halloween treats for work? Well, my company really gets into celebrating this holiday, and Halloween is one day where it is acceptable if you don't accomplish a lot of work I guess. The picture of the hallway is from work, it isn't my floor, but I think this might give you an idea of what we are talking about. People wear all kinds of really outrageous costumes too.

I didn't dress up much, partly because my division had a theme we had to work with, and I wasn't especially inspired by anything.

I did my dressing up on Saturday night anyway. Mark and I went to a Halloween party hosted by a law school friend and his wife. I have to say that it was a great party, definitely my type. There were candelabras and little plates of food everywhere (very good appetizers as well as the usual candy) and a nice selection of drinks, including several wine options and actual wine glasses were readily available. Here I reveal one of my snobberies- I only like to drink out of glass, plastic is a last resort for me.

I didn't feel like being a Greek Goddess again (a bit too chilly for that really) and I'm not creative in the Halloween costume category. Lucky for me the party store had something that was relatively warm and not slutty, so I went with the Guenevere costume. I wasn't really trying to be her, and I ditched the silly headpiece right away, and decided to just not be anyone specific.

Mark went with the costume that fit his concern- thrift. Apparently this is a common concern among men, we had two or three other convicts at the party. It also might be that the irony of law students showing up in as a convict amused these guys, I don't know. Here Mark gives me his best mug shot face. I couldn't get over how cheesy the whole "Jail Bird" things was myself.

As you can tell, we don't do couples costumes. Last time we dressed up I was Athena and Mark was a priest. A Catholic priest that is. See what I mean?

Lastly, I have finished the Koigu socks I started back in July. It isn't a good picture, but I think it at least proves that they are finished, right? I have now begun Koigu socks #2, or "Indian Corn Socks" as I am dubbing them.