Betiko

I finished my Betiko Shawl (by Lee Meredith). My shawl has my own made-up border, but the shawl pattern is a great one, with many choices for making it uniquely your own.

It fits on my shoulders well, and stays put.

Useful Skill - Swiss ('matching') darning

Useful Skill - Woven Darning

Pretty Good

Today has started well.

Last night Oscar and I were bushed. It has been a long week and we have both felt a bit under the weather. We ended up getting to sleep before 10 p.m.; about two hours earlier than usual. I must be getting over the sluggishness of the most recent incursion of germs, as I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after my more usual seven hours of sleep. The past few weeks I have been sleeping nine and ten hours a night, with a few naps added in to take off the edges.

I have been reading the books on my review list steadily the past week, as well as writing the rough drafts but until this morning I didn't have the clarity of mind to polish them up for publication. This morning I brought out the buffer and got three of them submitted to the Freshfiction site. I have several more roughed out and ready for the final stages, but I have learned I need a small break after every two or three are finished. I will get back to them in a little bit and see how many I can submit today. A version of making hay while the sun is shining; I need to use my brain whenever it shows up ready for work! I get a lot of the details and impressions down with the rough drafts, thank goodness, so the polishing usually takes less than 40 minutes for the approximately 300-word reviews. I am proud to say I have 78 reviews published, not counting today's efforts. I wanted to have 100 done by the end of the year, but I will be happy with whatever the final number ends up being.

I had a rather wonderful thing on the Otterwise front happen this week as well. Knitting Robin, a blog I have followed for some time, requested an interview from me a few weeks ago. The interview was published on Christmas Eve, and I couldn't be happier with it. She asks some great questions, and I am very honored to have my interview there among so many designers I have admired for years.

Christmas 2010 - the Otter House

Oscar had 4 days off in a row, and is working today.

He kicked butt on the house, but is discouraged that dishes don't stay clean very long.

He got the two little fiber optic trees out of storage and plugged them in... it made for instant Christmas :-}

My main task today is to prepare the marinade for Hasenpfeffer, to be shared on Thursday the 30th with Sean, Tommy and Amanda.

Oscar will be home around 7:30 p.m. and we'll have something easy for dinner, and spend the evening watching some holiday movies, probably.

I have been relaxing this month, knitting other people's patterns. It has been good. As of January 1st, 2011, I will be raring to go, finishing up some patterns and embarking on new designs I sketched this week.

Delicious Treats Even on Restrictive Diets!

My Sis-in-love, Lynn has created a cookbook with thoroughly tested recipes intended to provide lovely dessert experiences for those who cannot use standard ingredients.

She calls it:

I CAN EAT THESE!

Her standard guidelines include:

Celiac-friendly Vegan-friendly Gluten-free No Corn No Dairy No Egg No Peanuts

No Potato No Soy No Tree Nuts No Wheat No Xanthan Gum No Yeast

Her complete blog post is HERE

I have tasted some of her recipes and I have to tell you, they are delicious.

She makes the point that is it incredibly difficult to cook for a youngster who needs to avoid wheat or other ingredients, and still provide them with a treat; this cookbook fills the bill.

Spiral Bound Version

PDF Version

Happy Solstice!

Beautiful Underwater

A beautiful partnership between artist and the sculpting power of ocean life.

See the entire installation here:

http://www.underwatersculpture.com/

Miller Christmas 2010

We had a family Christmas yesterday, and had a very nice time. I managed to finish a few projects in time for gifting, but the best thing was all the hugs and playing with my grandnephew, Levi. :-}

It will take a few days to recover, but I am already on the mend.

Early Winter

Winter arrived with a bang last night.

Well, the snow started quite a bit before-hand, but when the transformer behind the middle houses on our block got all crazy and the wiring in the house began to crackle and pop and the smell of burning electrics filled the air, well, let's just say my usually calm demeanor collapsed into girly screams and rushing around to pull every plug I could reach (I can't reach the main shut off anymore). When Oscar got home about 15 minutes later, we were sitting in the dark with some flashlights and a few candles.

The cats were rushing around with me (until the screams, when they rushed away) and we were without power until about noon today. As the temps were in the teens last night (and still are today) We spent the night at a cheap hotel. The power returned, but our furnace and microwave are casualties. We have warmed the house by turning on all the lights, running the dryer and oven and so forth. It is a reasonable temperature now, and the furnace guy is due this evening to check things out.

Edited to add: The furnace's transformer had blown, as well. The money for the hotel and the repair was almost exactly what Oscar had saved back for my gift this year. I am so glad we had it to spend!

(photo is from last year, out back of the house)

Sean Socks

Today I finished the fourth sock of two pairs I made for Sean.

I used a (self-adjusted) variation of Anne Hanson's Cinder Block Sock pattern. (She's got a really cool keyhole scarf pattern up on the current blog entry, too) I like to make two identical pairs when knitting for kidlings, so that if and/r when one is lost, they still have a pair and a spare.

The yarn is Cushy Colorsport in Colorway Seaside, no longer available. It is machine washable, and since I made these top-dwn, as Sean's feet get longer, I can add more length to the toes.

The stitch pattern and yarn is incredibly stretchy, which means the width should be fine for awhile yet.

Next up, finishing Oscar's Urban Necessity convertible mittens/fingerless gloves. (just the thumbs and caps to go!). I am using bulky yarn on small (#5) needles, so it is hard-on-the-hands knitting; but he needs them, and the tight fabric (an alpaca blend) should be warm and last a long time I am going to try lining the mitten caps with suri alpaca, for extra warmth and softness.

We got our first big snow today. Expected snowfall 4-7 inches. Temps are in the low 30's, the rest of the week it is supposed to fall to the 20's. I better get cracking on Oscar's mittens/gloves!

Hilarious Animals with British Voice Overs

With Thanks to LynnM!

Cool Food Court Surprise

With thanks to Don!

"http://www.AlphabetPhotography.com - On Nov.13 2010 unsuspecting shoppers got a big surprise while enjoying their lunch. Over 100 participants in this awesome Christmas Flash Mob. This is a must see!

This flash mob was organized by http://www.AlphabetPhotography.com to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Special thanks to Robert Cooper and Chorus Niagara, The Welland Seaway Mall, and Fagan Media Group."

Leethal Mystery Knit A Long

The Mystery Knit A Long is an interesting beast. (There are also non-mystery knit a long (KAL for short) and also Crochet A Longs.

The designer releases the pattern in bits and pieces, one part leading to the next in logical order... but without telling you exactly what it is you are making. Sometimes the intrepid crafter will know they are making a shawl of certain dimensions, that will contain elements of lace or short row shaping. You will almost always know how much of what weight of yarn will be necessary before you begin. Sometimes you will be told that solids will work best, for example, or that yarn with a halo will obscure some of the stitches, so best to pick smooth yarn.

Then you wait for that first section, often info on doing a gauge swatch so that you can pick the best tools (needle or hook) for the task.

I have tried doing KALs in the past, although not mystery KAL. I usually get pulled away by health issues, or patterns of my own that want to be written.

On a whim I joined the Leethal Knits Mystery KAL a few weeks ago, and it is a blast! I have been knitting on it as a reward to myself for a long year of hard work designing.

My first reward was to learn a brand new technique for creating live stitches as you knit, rather than needing to pick up stitches along an edge later. I am also getting ideas for my own patterns, and stripes are going to show up in 2011, I just know it. Most of the knitting in each section is great for tv knitting or knitting in public. Easy enough to do, without being totally mindless.

My knit isn't exactly like the others (I somehow ended up with a wide band of gray along one side of the top textured bit) but it's all good. It is fascinating to look at other in-progress photos

HERE if you are a member of Ravelry (it is free to join).

Lee has made this pattern mutable. You have the freedom to knit (within some parameters) as long or not as you like. You can change the direction of the traveling ribs in the textured band at will, you can use whatever yarn and needle combo you find pleasing. You can choose to make it in one yarn, or several. (I chose 2, and striped them as in one of the examples) She has done a great job of giving enough information for WHATEVER yarn you use and decisions you made, without making the directions too complex.

I have to say this is my favorite knit of 2010. And I KNOW I will be making this pattern in variation for a long time to come (Watch out pals o'mine.... shawls may be headed your way in 2011).

Filling

One way Oscar and I feel prosperous is when we have a full freezer. This time of year, there are many wonderful sales going on, especially for meat, stock and other core holiday foods.

This week we invested in enough 'core foods' (mostly meats) to provide the basis for meals for about three months.

Before shopping, I sat with Oscar and drew up a list of favorite dishes, and I plan to make at least one big batch per week to help keep his choices of lunch meals changing. I am sure other dishes will work their way into the rotation, I love cooking new things :-}

So far we have planned to make:

Senegalese Mafe, Beef and Barley, Chicken with Burgul, Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage, Mujaddarah, New England Boiled Dinner with Dumplings, Beef and Noodles, Beef Stew, Burger Bean and Potato Casserole, Beefalo Chili, Chicken Gumbi, Pork and Cabbage and who knows what else? I want to try some traditional Swedish and Norwegian recipes too but I haven't narrowed those down yet.

I have (of course) also been knitting. I will be helping my Sis-in-Love by knitting a new shawl pattern this month. I am making Oscar a pair of convertible gloves and 4 to 8 pairs of socks for Sean, my godson. I also have the first sock almost done for Oscar from Anne Hanson's Cinder Block Sock pattern. I am playing with a mystery knit-a-long put together by Leethal Knits (Lee Meredith) and having a great time, too. Once the holidays are over I will be back designing again. I have my ruana/shawl almost done, I just need to finalize the front shaping. Then I have a spring-weight stole from cotton and a sweater in Sean-size out of a cotton blend. I also want to design a few new socks, and some triangle lace shawls. As my mom said just yesterday, I will never run low on ideas :-}

Well-Suited

Oscar and I have been together more than 10 years now, married for 9 of them.

The longer we are together, the more we find we have in common. Last year for example, we learned we both have an odd fondness for bad B-movies, particularly science fiction films.

Last night we indulged in one neither of us had seen before:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I think it will become a seasonal favorite.

Oscar is having a routine but unpleasant procedure tomorrow. I think we can take his mind off things if we line up some others: Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, perhaps?