Amanda's Hat: the pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of Amanda's hat. In the month since I gave it to her, it has already stretched out and doesn't shrink back down to size. Knitters among you, is this a yarn problem? A pattern problem? A size problem? I've decided a good solution would be to thread some elastic thread through the inside of the band to try to help it retain its shape. We'll see how long it takes me to get around to that. Aunt Lola has not been the most prolific of crafters lately.

On the other hand, I did manage to do a little extra crafting at Christmas time. For you out of town readers, the entire state of Minnesota (and Iowa) was hit with a nasty snow and ice storm right before Christmas. My family ended up cancelling all festivities, and I stuck around home for the entire four days. I woke up and shovelled every morning, then watched movies and ate junk food for the rest of the day. By Saturday night, that had gotten very tiresome, so I decided to occupy myself by making a scarf to match Amanda's hat. I finished it by Monday. It may be my fastest project yet. It was a basic 2x2 rib, modeled after my favorite green scarf, but still. It included color variations!

Holiday Dinner Recipe: Roasted Winter Vegetables

(adapted from Simon)

3 carrots, cut in 1-inch pieces
3 red potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, peeled and cut into eighths
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
(parsnips and turnips are also good, but I didn't use them this time).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place vegetables in roasting pan and splash with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, enough to coat vegetables. Stir in a dash of thyme, rosemary, and two cloves minced garlic. Bake approximately one hour, stiring every 15-20 minutes.

Holiday Dinner Recipe: Christmas Ham

1 fully cooked bone-in ham (5-7 lbs)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp mustard
1-3 T cider vinegar

Score ham 1/2" deep with a sharp knife. Place ham on a rack on a shallow pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 2 - 2 1/2 hours (20 minutes per pound). Combine brown sugar, mustard, and enough vinegar to make a paste. During the last hour of baking, brush glaze on ham every 15 minutes.

Yield: 10-14 servings.

Holiday Dinner Recipe: Christmas Wassail

1 gallon apple cider
1 quart orange juice (pure)
1 cup lemon juice
1 quart pineapple juice
24 whole cloves
4 sticks cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients and simmer over very low heat for 1 to 2 hours. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 1/2 gallons (too much for my biggest stock pot!)

Holiday Dinner Party

A week before Christmas, I had a few friends over for a holiday dinner party. We started the evening with roasted chestnuts and wassail, then had a dinner of Christmas ham, roasted winter vegetables, asparagus with parmesan, and spinach and gouda gratin.

A rousing game of Quiddler was followed by homemade ice cream and Christmas cookies.

Recipes posted separately for those who are interested.

Amanda's Hat: the pattern

I've finished Amanda's hat. Pictures will have to wait until I've given it to her. I made some modifications to the pattern, so here is my version.

AMANDA'S HAT

Worsted weight yarn
Size 8 dpns

Instructions

Cast on 78 stitches onto dpns.

Work in K1P1 rib for one inch.

Increase round: Following k1p1 rib pattern, rib 7, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 7, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 8, inc 1, rib 7, inc 1, p1. (now have 88 stitches).

Work in a 2x2 garter rib pattern until the total length of the cap is 6 inches. The stitch pattern is:

Round 1: K2 P2 around.
Round 2: Knit.

Adding Stripes

In the garter rib pattern, the color change should be made on Round 2 (all knit round).

To make stripes "jogless" (i.e. to make them line up all the way around the hat), follow instructions adapted from Techknitting:

On color change rounds, change colors by knitting the first stitch of the new color as you usually would. Then, knit the rest of the stitches to the end of the round.

On the next round, slip the first stitch of the new color, then knit the rest of the stitches.

On every following round, knit every stitch as usual.

Decreasing the Top

First decrease round (on Rnd 1): (K2 P2tog) around.
Work 5 rounds of pattern as established (knit next round, then k2p1 around; repeat; knit fifth round).

Decrease round 2: (K2tog, p1) around.
Work 3 rounds in pattern as established (knit next round; k1p1 around; knit third round).

Decrease round 3: (K2tog, P2tog) around.
Work 1 round as established (knit).

Decrease round 4: K2tog around.

Break off yarn and run it twice through the remaining stitches, pulling the hole tightly closed.

Amanda's Hat

I'm currently working on a hat for Amanda for Christmas. Hard to believe, but this is my first hat ever! After consulting with the girls, and offering Amanda a choice of four patterns, I settled on this one from Head Hunters (in beanie style). I personally would have chosen this one, since I've seen the one Mollie made and it's darn cute. Plus I have been really itching to try a cable pattern. It sounds fun, I just haven't had an occasion to do it.

Frustration hit around inch two. I was knitting along, when I see a great big knot in the yarn. They didn't even try to cover up this tackiness. I decided to keep moving, until six inches down the yarn, I see a second knot. So chintzy. That's what I get for buying cheap yarn. I backed up and broke the yarn, but I am afraid I didn't leave enough of a tail to weave in, and it's already starting to come out. Ugh. Perhaps when I'm all done, I'll have to check the repair section of my Stitch 'N Bitch book.

Roasting Chestnuts

A couple of years ago, I went to a holiday season fundraiser where hot cider was served and chestnuts were roasted on an open fire. I had never tasted a chestnut before, and fell in love. I've thought about that fundraiser every year since, and this year finally got up the nerve to try roasting chestnuts myself.



At the event, the hostess was actually roasting them on a grill. And I have a fuzzy memory of her telling me that they required some sort of soaking preparation before grilling. So, I turned to the internets for advice.



Like everything I search on the internet, I came up with as many different ways to cook chestnuts as there are websites out there. I recently searched for quiche recipes when I wanted to try my hand at quiche, and decided the American Egg Board people probably have the greatest stake in making sure my quiche turns out beautifully, so I went with their recipe. Sadly, my search didn't turn up any definitive chestnut growers association.


Additionally, I went to fire up the grill, and realized, as with the last two winters in my house, the deck door had frozen shut. Alas, I decided it was too much work to go around from the front door, so I decided to settle for an indoor chestnut roasting recipe. I settled on this recipe from ezinearticles.com, a website I've certainly never heard of and have no reason to believe is reliable.


Here's the condensed version:

1. Sort chestnuts and throw out any icky ones. I didn't find any.
2. Use a paring knife to cut x's into the rounded side of each chestnut. Apparently they explode when cooking if you skip this step. One website advised against letting your knife go deep enough to actually cut the meat of the nut. I can't see why this would matter.



3. Rinse the nuts well. Apparently this cleans them and softens the shell.



4. Place cut side up on a baking sheet.


5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.



6. Remove from oven, wrap in a towel and crunch them a bit to give crack the hard shells.



7. Enjoy!

And that's it. Delicious. And apparently quite nutritious. I love how they look like brains when you remove the skull. I mean shell. And I love how they taste--almost like a potato, but a little sweeter. Can't wait to host a holiday party and serve roasted chestnuts!

Composting

This summer I decided to try composting. I was intimidated at first because of all the rules about what you can put in, what you can't, what constitutes "green" compost vs. "brown" compost, the delicate balance between the two, the moisture content, the temperature, the turning....


Then my friend Cindy told me you can compost without following all those rules. She calls it "throw it all in a pile" composting. So I dove in. The house came with a big black plastic composte bin. It was a little beat up, with cracks and holes, but I decided it was good enough.

After careful consideration, I placed the compost bin near the deck, beside the house. I knew it would be 10 times more likely to get used if I didn't have to put shoes on to dump stuff in it. Plus, there isn't really a good place for it out by the alley.




It's been kind of fun to dump stuff in there all summer--it makes me feel less wasteful when I empty out the fridge of all the vegetables that went bad before I used them. One thing I learned, though, is that I should NOT put apples and pears in there. My backyard is carpeted with apples and pears that have fallen from the fruit trees, all in various stages of rot. So each weekend I dutifully pick them all up, and this year I decided I didn't have to bag them and put them by the garbage pickup, since I have a compost bin now. So I dumped the first weekend's load in there. Bad idea. A couple days later when I went out to toss some moldy lettuce in, I lifted the lid to a swarm of fruit flies, moths, and bees. A literal cloud of them flew up in my face. Yuck. So no more apples in there.


This morning I emptied the kitchen of veggies gone bad and wandered on out to the compost bin, wondering how the moth situation would be now that I haven't put any new apples in there for a few weeks. When I lifted the lid, I saw something dart really quickly from one side to the other. A MOUSE! *Shudder* I nearly fell down backing away as quickly as I did. There's just something about animals that move quickly. They freak me out. I can't stand those spiders that run really fast across the wall, either.


I wonder if I could have avoided this if I had done a better job of turning the compost often and keeping a layer of grass clippings on the top. I seriously might have to stop composting. I can't have mice hanging out chomping away that close to my house. It's only a matter of time before they find a way in, and I will be VERY UNHAPPY if I find mice in my house. I'm trying to live peacefully with all the little beetles I have this summer, but mice are a very different, yucky story.

Gardening

I haven't crafted much this summer, because I've been spending my spare time and DIY energy on my first vegetable garden. I got lots of free plants from friends with extra seedlings, so I dug up some grass, mixed in some composted manure from Menards, and planted away. Simon's Sarah gave me a whole bunch of heirloom tomato plants from her dad's garden, as well as some eggplant. Zoe and Ryan gave me two basil plants, cilantro, green peppers, and cucumbers. Kate gave me a pumpkin plant.

I've harvested two green peppers and five cucumbers. The cilantro didn't last long, but I was able to snip a bunch and mix it in with some salsa before it all started turning brown. It was delicious while it lasted. But so far the star of the garden has been the basil. I've made lots of margherita flatbread pizzas on the grill, and have done up a couple of batches of pesto, and have enjoyed caprese salads, although all of these will be so much better when the heirloom tomatoes start ripening!

I've been too busy watering and weeding to take too many pictures, but here are a few.

Got a bumper crop of blueberries this year. They only last for a couple weeks, but I was able to make a tasty blueberry buckle and blueberry pancakes. And of course I ate most of them straight off the bush.

My pepper plants aren't big producers, but what I have been able to eat was lovely.

New Headboard

I picked up this headboard for Abby's room for $5 at a garage sale earlier this summer. I couldn't have found a new one that I like more. What a steal! Good timing, too, since it's been the summer of houseguests!


June 19-22 - Addie O.
June 25-26 - Mom
June 27-28 - Ted S. and Nick M.
July 6-8 - Michelle B.
July 27-29 - Michelle B. again
August 7-9 - Abby C.
August 29-30 - Toni & Beth (fingers crossed!)

Teaching Myself to Crochet

I'm teaching myself to crochet. Mollie tried to teach me a few months ago, but I didn't get the hang of it. When I saw her awesome squares for Henry's blanket, I knew I needed to try again. This time I decided to teach myself using the Happy Hooker book by Debbie Stoller. I had learned most of my knitting skills from her Stitch 'n' Bitch book years ago, so I decided if anyone could teach me how to crochet, Debbie could.

Alissa gave me a handful of hooks and yarn last time I saw her, because motherhood means no time for hobbies, apparently. Bummer for her! Guess that makes me lucky to not be a mom right now. But as a side note, look at this picture from Henry's baby shower last weekend! I can still adore other people's kids and make time for hobbies.

Anyway, I started reading the book and practicing the stitches. Here's my practice piece. And no, I will not be using it for a scarf.

Check out the triangular shape down towards the bottom. Funny, that's how my first knitted scarf looked, too. Looks like I dropped a few stitches.

I started out with a few rows of basic single crochet stitches (sc). Not too shabby. The funny row in the middle is a row of slip stitches (sl).

Next I learned the half-double crochet stitch (hdc).

Then on to double crochet stitch (dc).

And finally, triple crochet stitch (tr).

I didn't go on to double triple (dtr) and triple triple (ttr) crochet stitches, because I decided I pretty much got the gist. So next I started attempting a simple shell pattern. It doesn't look as pretty as the picture in the book, but I think I'm starting to get the idea.

Baby Henry's Blanket

Mollie, Sarah W., Sarah H. and I have been working on knitting a group baby blanket for Andy and Angela's new little guy, Henry. We decided each of us would knit three 10-inch squares, and then we'd sew them all together to make a blanket of love. I got a little excited and made five squares, but it worked out because Mollie had done extra too, and Sarah had lost one of her squares.

I thought this would be a good time to try out some new lace patterns, so I turned to the internet. But first I cranked this one out in no time, because I was starting to get anxious about how quickly the baby shower was coming up and I knew this one would be fast, since I had used this dropped-yarn-over pattern on a scarf before.

Also, in order to make faster progress, I used size 10 needles and worsted weight yarn for all of my squares. It was a welcome relief from the sweater I had been knitting for Baby Shae on size 3 needles. I drug my feet for too long on that one, and she has now grown too big for it. I guess I'll have to finish it up and find a doll that it fits and give it to her that way. What a disappointment.

Next I tried out this checkerboard lace pattern from The Purl Bee. I tried a couple of the suggested multiples of 10 plus 8 cast-on stitches, and ended up coming closest to 10 inches with 38 cast-on stitches.

Again, I was nervous about the amount of time I had left to do two more squares, so I threw this in my bag every morning and knat on the 15-minute train ride to and from work every day. This pattern required lots of counting and concentration, which can be hard on the train, so if you look close you'll see some imperfections.

My third square also came from a Purl Bee pattern. I found a pattern for Pretty Lace Handwarmers, and adapted the lace to a square. It took a bit of noodling to turn an in-the-round pattern into a flat pattern, but I ended up just starting and ending each row with two knit stitches to create an edge, and it worked out fine.

The fourth square came from Purl Bee again: April Showers lace. I guess I have become a fan! This one was a little harder than the last one, but not nearly as tough as the checkerboard lace. I found my row counter before I got started on this one, which helped a lot. I started with 39 cast-on stitches. The trickiest part here was the top of the little shells. It required knitting four together, which was a lot for me to get my needle through without accidentally dropping all the stitches.

Since I was on a roll, I kept going and decided to give the checkerboard pattern another try. This time I didn't screw it up.

The baby shower was today, so we all got together on Thursday night to lay out our squares and sew them together. We didn't get it finished in time, so we gave it to her unfinished and immediately asked for it back. Stay tuned for a picture of the final final project.

Twin Cities Photo Scavenger Hunt

A couple of years ago I read in the New York Times about a photo scavenger hunt. Here's a snippet of the article.

ONE reason people visit New York is to catch a glimpse of things they'd never see in the average American city. Some such sights are mystifying, some charming, some jaw-dropping — and some are even legal.

This week, Weekend in New York offers a photo scavenger hunt, in which you (working alone or in a group) seek out scenes and objects intrinsically New York and capture them with your camera. The hunt could be the centerpiece of your weekend, but also could serve as just a way to enhance your downtime as you wander from restaurant to park to museum, observing the natives in their natural habitat.

Well, I loved the idea, and of course I love my city and think it has plenty to offer in terms of interesting "intrinsically" Twin Cities quirks. So last August I organized a Twin Cities Photo Scavenger Hunt. I decided to do it as a fundraiser for my favorite charity. I recruited teams of two, and asked for a suggested registration fee of $40 per team. I sent out a list of items to photograph, gave people two weeks, and then had a results party at my place.

For the party, I had everyone email me their photos. I wanted to do a slide show of sorts, but my technological savvy and equipment were not up to par, so I printed them all out at Walgreens and hung them all around the house. The top two highest scoring teams (teams were scored based on number of items found, with bonus points for quality, e.g. Best Mullet got an extra point, but everyone who photographed a mullet got 1 point) got fabulous prizes, and in the end I raised a couple hundred dollars for my charity and had a great time.

It's begun again this year. A couple of weeks ago I dug up all the printed photos from last year's party and wrote a "Save-the-Date for the 2nd Annual Twin Cities Photo Scavenger Hunt" note on the back, then mailed them out as postcards to all my friends. The Results Party is next Saturday. Here are some sample items from the Official Twin Cities Photo Scavenger Hunt List:

Category: The Recession

• A recession-themed advertisement - 1 point.
• Multiple “For Sale” signs on the same block - 1 point. (1 Bonus point for most “For Sale” signs)

Category: Very Minnesota

• A Minnesota team mascot (e.g. Goldy Gopher) - 1 point.
• A backyard bonfire - 1 point.

Category: Twin Cities Miscellany.

• Urban wildlife - 1 point. (1 bonus point for must unusual animal or animal caught in the most unusual pose)
• “Free” furniture left on a curb - 1 point.

I'll post some photos after the party next weekend.

Aunt Lola in San Francisco

Shae's sweater and I just returned from a visit to San Francisco, and I had the loveliest time. Shae's sweater didn't see the light of day too often, but I did spend an hour or two knitting at a coffee shop. I'm now working on the first sleeve.

I also met Seth and Ilana, who have made much more progress on their house lately, but since I've run out of money, there will probably not be many DIY home improvement projects on the blog for a while.

That's Seth on the far left, and Ilana is third from the right.

The Californians really enjoyed Kassie's Hashbrown Casserole. Ted and I hid in the kitchen and devoured all the leftovers while the others cleaned up.

Just for fun, here's the recipe.

Kassie's Hashbrown Casserole

1 lb breakfast sausage
2 T flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 lb frozen hashbrowns
1/2 onion (chopped) (optional)
1 container of fresh mushrooms (optional)
1 green pepper (optional)
2 cups cheddar cheese

Brown breakfast sausage. Add flour and milk. Bring to boil, let thicken, about 5 minutes.
Pour hashbrowns in a greased 9 x 13" pan. Mix in veggies (I used half a yellow onion and a container of mushrooms). Top with 1 cup cheese. Top with breakfast sausage mix. Top with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.