wee artsy knitsy

I was doing a mini run through of a LynnH pattern and decided to use wee little needles and some fun glittery Quilting fibers mixed with my knitting yarns...

Afghans, granny squares and love

I've encountered another way to give. I've mentioned the Friends of Pine River Reservation here before, but I hadn't realized there was a related group dedicated to creating afghans to give to different places at Pine River.
Its called Love Afghans for Pine River Reservation
and was started by Pam Wingard:

Pine Ridge Reservation is located in the southwesten part of South Dakota.
After reading about the Elders that died during an extremely harsh winter on Pine Ridge Reservation, I began collecting squares and partially used skeins from others to assemble afghans for the Elders.

This list will concentrate on afghans. One afghan can mean the difference of a cold night or a comfortable sleep. Squares of all sizes in worsted weight are welcomed. Partially used or new skeins are also accepted. Together, one square at a time, we can help those that are so in need. Come join us !

Whole afghans are accepted as well as squares and yarn. Let us know which you would like to contribute and the appropriate address will be given to you through private email.

If you don't care to join the group, but, would like to donate yarn, squares, or cash for shipping, you can send it to

Pam Wingard P. O. Box 80597
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
70898-0597

If you do wish to send some knitted or crocheted blocks, those measuring 6" or 12" square are the easiest to assemble.

One of the new projects the afghans will be used for is called the FoPPR Beds Project.
Specifically, the afghans being created will be used as part of the Re-Member project (described in detail at the link above):
Re-Member is a nonprofit organization located on the reservation that hosts volunteers to Pine Ridge who help build bunk beds and set them up in the homes of those families on the reservation who have none. Many of the kids who receive these beds are sleeping on one for the first time in their lives!

Feeling Happy

It's been a good day.
As long-time readers know, I feel that volunteering, finding some way to give back is one of the best things you can do for yourself, particularly if you have physical or other challenges. Not only does it benefit the organization or person to whom you are giving your time and energy, but it can provide much-needed self respect and a feeling of empowerment that can become threatened when life trips you up with a debilitating illness.
One of the things I most wanted to do was to become involved with adult literacy. Books have been such a large part of my life. Fellow bibliophiles will know what I mean when I say some books have been very good friends to me.
Unfortunately, to become involved in any meaningful way with the local (very fine) program it required that I be able to promise my presence at specified places and times. That's a commitment I am not always able to keep any more.
Then I thought of contributing my vocal talents to Books on Tape. I have a very good speaking voice, and acting talent, it seemed a good thing to do.. but that would require traveling to Grand Rapids. Other programs (like reading for the blind) again required that I know exactly when I would be available.
Today, I found something I CAN do to fulfill that desire to bring more books to more people.
While Lynnie and I were both sick, she told me about a wonderful knitting podcast. CAST ON
hosted by Brenda Dayne, who is an American living in Wales with her partner and family. I've been listening to the archives, from episode #1 on. Today I reached #8 (it feels remarkably like time travel to span from October 2005 to January 2 006 within a few weeks) where she mentioned LIBRIVOX (acoustical liberation of books in the public domain)
"LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project."

And Audio books can be an important tool for teaching adult literacy
LINK TO AN ARTICLE AT LITERACY TRUST

And Librivox needs readers.

And all I needed was a free download or two, and a microphone (Oscar will find one of the 2 microphones we have when he gets home tonight) I already did the download and installation of the programs I'll need.

Tomorrow, I'll start reading to the world. From my recliner.
(image: Kitsune on a happy happy day)

Sherri's Shawl and Wolfheart designs

I finished a shawl for Sherri's Birthday. It is soft and luscious and I think she likes it.
I've also included images of her jewelry, she is the creatrix of Wolfheart designs.
She carves her pieces from various woods and in the case of the pendants, strings them with semiprecious stones (in this case, amber). I think one of her favorite woods is lignam with its living patina and spicy scent.
She also carves some of the most magical wands I've ever encountered. If anyone is interested in buying some of her one-of-a-kind beauties, just let me know and I'll give her your email address! The pendant is a design incorporating a howling wolf and wolf paw print. Beautiful.

Better!

Bits of my brain have started showing up again so I was able to work more on the Emperor's New Scarf (Half done with the edging of the holes!) and start the Oscar-sized version of the potato chip sock pattern Lynn is working on. This is a photo taken about half through the upper. These are so fun to knit!!

hiney dragging

This flu is kicking my butt. We're talking day 12 here. I think I'll give in and take some major meds so I can get a full night's sleep tonight. Lately, when I lay down to sleep I start coughing and cough most of the night. This is not good as Oscar needs his rest too!

Sparkle

And they wonder why people worship the Sun?

our turn

I woke up to an ice-encased world this morning. I remember the first time it happened, back when I was a kid living in Branch County (Michigan). That day I was up for the sun rise, and it was glorious watching the colors of the sky picked up by everything for miles and miles, covered in crystal, my own aurora. After the sun was fully up, the crystal and white contrasted so sharply with the blue that it took my breath away. Being much sturdier on my pins I walked for miles that day.

Today its pretty much gray outside, no sun, no snow, just the ice and the brown-green land. I will go out long enough to put more seed down,. As you can see from the photos, the bird seed is encased too thickly for most of the birds to peck through. As I look out the window, I see a few dozen birds waiting right now, so I'll wind this up and start today's expedition.
P.S. I added a bit of sunshine of my own

long lingering flu

I've had the flu more than a week now. Not a tummy bug, but the sneezing, achey fever congestive singing tenor kind.

Lynn sent me an email detailing some herbs and spices good for what ails me. I made a curry last week with almost all those ingredients... so I guess I'll take the curry cure :-}

... Nipples to the Wind

and other sayings..

I am delighted whenever I come across a new (to me) euphemism, or phrase that just hits dead center.
I still remember the first time I heard 'whatever trips your trigger', 'whatever blows your skirt up' and 'about as useful as teats on a boar'.
The full phrase used in the title is 'chin up and nipples to the wind' which gives a very accurate image of what the phrase is proposing. Face life head on, ya know?
When I was a kid we'd refer to something that was out of kilter as 'whopperjawed' although none of my acquaintances since have ever heard the word before.
Anyone have any quirky words or phrases to share? I'd love to hear them!

Better energy and a bobotie recipe

I have a better level of energy, but the cold has firmly settled into bronchitis. If it's not significantly better tomorrow, I'll call the docs and ask for my usual antibiotic. This is the first serious case of bronchitis I've had for at least two years, which is really good! Bronchitis can slide all too easily into pneumonia for me as my immune system is compromised by lack-of-spleenitis.
Back to the better level of energy, a much friendlier topic. I have been knitting (of course) this time a gift for a friend's upcoming birthday. No pics, as she sometimes reads here and I want the details to remain secret until the gift is given. I can't knit anything too complex for long, though, as the brain shorts out. Hopefully that will be better tomorrow, too. I have two projects that require brain awaiting!
I cooked, too. I spent two days putting together curry meals for the freezer. A day to cook the rice and flavor the meat, and a day for the cooking. It turned out well, I think.. its harder to judge seasoning when you have a cold.
Today I finished off a meatloaf. I'll cook potatoes tomorrow to put with it in freezer containers. I make my meatloaf as healthy as I can by using grains instead of breadcrumbs, and adding chopped onions and peppers in abundance. It doesn't hold together as well as traditional U.S. meatloaf, but it tastes lovely. I prefer my 'meatloaf' like other countries tend to make it, rather than the almost homogenous bricks common in this country.
Some examples? Greek Moussaka, Puerto Rican Mofongo (the only meat there is pork rinds or bacon) or what may be my favorite, Bobotie.

Bobotie is a meat pie currently made all over Africa but with a very rich heritage, brought by the Dutch East India Company from Indonesia to South Africa in the 18th Century (more details here at Wikipedia) Like meatloaf in the U.S., every person or family that makes it may have thier own subtle variation, but the recipe I like best is as follows:

2 pounds ground meat (I like a blend of 2 or 3 meats, like lamb, beef, pork, turkey or chicken)
2 TBS butter or olive oil
1 cup onions, finely chopped
2 bread slices, soaked in milk (or milk substitute in this household)
2 TBS curry powder or curry paste
1/2 c golden raisins
1/4 cup slivered or coarsely chopped almonds
2 TBS lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or milk substitute
generous pinch each of nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1 Tbs garlic
If you have chutney, add about 2 TBS of that too.

Put meat into large mixing bowl.
Pour Milk substitute over bread and set aside to soak in.
saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent, set aside to cool.

Squeeze out the excess milk from the bread slices (SAVE THE MILK), then shred the bread and add to bowl. Add the onions-garlic-oil mixture, curry powder, spices raisins, almonds, lemon juice and zest, ONE egg (chutney if you have it) and mix well. Get your hands right into it is the best way, I think.
Place mixture in a 9 x 13" baking dish.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes for the first bake.
While the Bobotie is baking, mix together the second egg and reserved milk (mix it well!) then pour it over the Bobotie after the 1st 40 minutes.
Bake for 15 more minutes. This makes a lovely savory custard on top.
Let rest about 15 minutes before cutting.

Yum. I brought this to a theater group pot luck and one of the members asked me to bring it every time thereafter. I didn't always bring it, but she always asked :-}

New Knittings, cold fighting and onion Syrup

I am working on a pattern for cabled wristwarmers. I will be redoing them as there are some design elements slightly off, but the first pic is of the first draft, in LynnH's Peony Rainbow Sky colorway (cushy colorsport DK weight).

I am also making a Cozy shawl from a design Lynn is working on, for my friend Nickers (as we called her a few decades ago) :- } I've included an image of the yarn choices, as well as a closeup of the fabric in progress.
Lynn gifted me with much of the yarn in payment for knitting for her, and she also gave me a surprise gift of a Yarn Swift! Hurray!!! It is so much easier to wind balls from skeins, and the cat's are highly in favor of this new entertainment I'm putting on for them. (picture three cats, heads swiveling back and forth in unison)
A cold finally caught me, and its moved past the initial fever and aches into bronchitis. If my cough gets worse, I'll haul out my old native american recipe for cough syrup. Onion juice and honey.. not at all a good taste but it really helps loosen your chest.

Sunshine Friday, dimSun Day

Ok, we won't really be eating Chinese dumplings but I couldn't resist the pun. Like my husband, I am an invertebrate punster (spinelessly unable to resist a pun).
Friday was fabulous. A dear friend of ours had been ill since October, but was returning to perform with The Yellow Room Gang. We discovered this on Wednesday (from Jim Bizer's email list). Oscar arranged a day off, and we made a lovely evening of it. Parking in Ann Arbor, especially handicap parking is problematic, but we found a solution. We left home at 5:15, found parking only a block away, and had a long leisurely dinner at Connor's Pub a few doors down from the concert venue (The Ark). We ALWAYS love Yellow Room Gang performances, but Friday's was very special. For one thing, we got to hug David and see that he really was mending.
Today is very grey. But we will be meeting Lynnie for supper, and that brightens the entire day for us. I am so very blessed she is in my life. Today she referred to me as her Sister in love, and I have to agree, its how I feel about her, too :-} I'm not afraid to seem soppy, I AM soppy. if soppy means celebrating having people I love in my life.

Images: Partial image of the Yellow Room Gang Cd (from their site linked above), Image of Lynn as Eudora

Roasted Root Stew

Yesterday I made a lovely stew.

I should start with Tuesday, though.

Tuesday I had a lovely time with a group of knitters at Borders. I drove to 'Arborbland' and met Lynnie there, was happy I did. We made a quick sweep through Hillers just before the store closed (in the same shopping center).

The next day, however, I didn't take into account the physical effect of the effort involved and decided to make stew as planned, adding in all the lovely root veggies I'd picked up at Hillers on Tuesday night.

So, I figured the stew would be an all day event, because that's the best way for me to cook and still have enough of me left for the next day, but I should have divided the cooking into two parts and two days after the exertions of Tuesday, ah well, I'll know better next time. Anyway, here's the 'recipe'.

First I cubed the meat. For this time I used 1 part beef to 3 parts venison. You could use any meat you have around, seasoning appropriately. You could also used baked tofu or seitan, or even tempeh. If using baked tofu or tempeh , you can skip the long slow cooking bit in the next part.

I browned the meat in shifts, and when that was done I put all the meat back into the cast iron dutch oven and added enough broth to cover. I left this to simmer-cook a few hours while I prepared the veg. This next part is what makes the stew special.

I prepared the vegetables by peeling or not (as appropriate) cutting them in about 1 inch cubes, giving them a light covering of olive oil, preading them on a parchment-paper-lined sheet pan and slooow roasting them (at about 325-350 deg. F.) until they were soft on the inside and starting to brown on the outside corners. I peeled the rutabaga (it comes covered in wax) and the turnips (as the turnips had some poor spots) and the onions, but the parsnips and potatoes I just gave a washing before cubing them. I was going to roast the carrots, but the bag I had in the fridge was past it so I just dumped a few handfuls of frozen carrots into the stew when the time came. If I'd had whole garlic, I would have roasted that too.

By the time the veggies were all roasted ( I roasted two pans at a time, and dumped the veg into a big mixing bowl as they were finished) the meat had cooked through and was almost tender, and the broth was very rich. I dumped in the veg with some seasoning (this time I used a big splash of worcestershire, plenty of diced garlic, a small amount of thyme, a smaller amount of marjoram, a dash of spike, and most importantly, a pinch of dried chipotle pepper.. Not enough pepper to make it spicy, but enough to give a hint of smoke. You could also add a half shot of good scotch for the smokey effect (especially an Islay scotch). I added some beer, but I think it would have been about as good without it, as I didn't have stout. A little stout would have added something.

I then let it cook for about another hour to allow the flavors to meld, then put in some roux I'd made over the holidays from the duck drippings. If you don't happen to have any roux around, you can thicken it with your prefered method, or not at all. We like a very thick stew, so I always thicken ours.

I wound up with enough stew for a meal yesterday, 6 meals in the freezer for Oscar, and enough for a few more meals in the fridge.

The roasted rutabaga was absolutely delicious on its own, and I'll be making it again just as a side dish. Lynnie told me how good it was and I was eager to try it.. she was right, it was fabulantastic.

I think the stew would work just fine as a hearty vegetarian dish, using whatever protein substance you prefer and adjusting the cooking method to take best advantage of your choice. The stew is even better the next day, after it's had time to 'nuzzle itself' (as Oscar says :-} ).

Ukes and Flukes and Music

I've been wanting to learn to play an instrument. I played French Horn for 5 years, and loved it, but I also love to sing... and singing while playing a French Horn is better left to P.D.Q. Bach compositions. I tried to learn guitar once (I had a boyfriend who played classical guitar professionally, and was a great teacher), but my stubby child-sized fingers will not reach across the neck for any barre action.
Luckily, we have a perfectly suitable instrument here, called a Fluke. (available from Elderly Instruments, if you're interested)
Even more luckily, once I've diddled around on my own for awhile, I have someone from whom I can ask advice when the time comes to find an instructor, or just to pester with questions. My Sisinlaw, Lynnie, is one half of a wonderful music group called 'The Fabulous Heftones'. They are fairly well-known, especially in ukulele circles. Brian was mentioned just today on Ukulalia. He has a video on Youtube.com, playing My Blue Heaven. (Wonderful, we played it while we had breakfast, and it was just perfect for this sunny morning :-}
While I was there, I clicked on an associated video by Jake Shimabukuro called Ukulele Weeps... wow... I like 1920's music like the Heftones play, but I also hoped I could learn other genres.. this video cemented my desire to learn.. Not that I'll likely reach the level of playing Brian and Jake are capable of, but I might be able to figure out a few favorite Celtic and Pagan songs...
Tomorrow I'll look for an online site to pick up some basics...