Skillz

Evidently I no longer have the right stuff to fix a computer. After much gnashing of the teeth, I've finally completed piecing together my operating system so I can at least load web pages. This "fix" will have to suffice until santa (hint, hint) drops me a new machine because I ain't even thinking about going through a system restore on this computer. Nobody would ever believe that I used to do this for a living 20 years ago. That was long before the destruction of billions and billions of my brain cells that, I must tell you my mamma never told me would occur after nursing 3 babies.

Yup that's one of those 3 babies and my mamma

So, what have I been up to? I'm almost done with my hoodie sweater but I don't think it will fit. Lots of knitting but no pictures for now, what I'd like to show you are some catching up flicks from the past few weeks.

Fortunately, being under domestic duress for nearly 20 years, one does acquire a new skill set:



Don't think that anyone in the picture below even notices what all is required to make anything from scratch but hey, at least we girls can appreciate a decent German Chocolate cake!

Thanksgiving was spent at my brother's house in Delaware. It was the first year that I didn't have to cook for what seemed like millions.


Stashing on Ravelry
I completed photographing much of my stash for Ravelry. Hopefully this exercise will remind me what I got so I won't buy any more!

A Family Affair
As you all know, I've been making chemo caps for my brother-in-law Larry James. What I didn't know was that his job was also making stuff for him, a huge tribute of 800 guests to honor his commitment to the world athletic and academic communities.

Olympic Team, 1968

Larry was part of the spirited 1968 Olympic Track and Field Team. He and many of his team mates endured enormous obstacles living in America at the time. They were expected to represent their country with pride while being segregated against and denied equal access to many institutions across our country.

Olympic Team, 2007

Larry thanking the guests. That's my sister under the flag.

Me with my niece and my sister's and Larry's granddaughter

That's my Jonathan cooling his heels at his table. At 13, he had 2 social conflicts that night - a huge Bar Mitzvah in New York City and a basketball game. I should have his social life!

After the testimonial that included his college teammates; Olympic teammates and officials; college and board presidents; and many colleagues, we were surprised to see that the school renamed their stadium to the G. Larry James Stadium!

We had the best time.

That's my little sister, her daughter and the tiny one standing is another granddaughter of my sister and Larry.

Feeling Better

Thank you all for wishing me a speedy recovery.

I've been keeping myself entertained with reading your blogs while I refrained from feeling sorry for myself and writing any tear jerky posts.

I've not been out of the house since Friday night, that is until today. I'm feeling better and decided to venture outdoors and buy some batteries for my camera. One of the boys had pinched my camera's batteries to power one of their gd$#% video game remotes.

While I was in bed, I wasn't sure what to do with all the time I had on my hands. I did start another pair of socks

I've gotten the Jaywalker pattern pretty much committed to memory now but I've got to tell you, knitting socks on zer0 needles is not therapeutic! I found myself trembling and breaking out in sweats each time I got to where I might have lost a stitch count. Also, knitting socks on zer0 needles while you are on drugs is not a good idea either

I did manage to finish one sock.

And, even though I had quickly started the second one, I couldn't handle it anymore, my eyes and fingers said, "no mas".

So I started on a different set of socks -


This is Sweet Georgia Brown yarn given to me by my swap buddy, LaVerna. The pattern was very easy but I still had to frog it once. I'm becoming so experienced with socks now that I adjusted the needle size for the cuff to size zer0s and the rest I've been doing on size 2s. I think I could have gotten away with size 3 needles because the sock did come out a bit snug


Another thing about having too much time on your hands is you watch too much tv. I saw Out of Africa - hated it; Dancer Upstairs (for the 4th time) -loved it; Lost in Translation - that Cappola family is amazing; and tons of CSPAN. What was I doing while watching the tube?

This is the first time I've done this design. It's called the Bobble Hat. It only took one skein plus just a couple of yards from a second.

I just love the spiralling colors on the top.

I wore it around the house for a few hours.

"So Mom, what's for dinner?"

One of the challenges of being sick and living with all men is that you are pretty much on your own for grub.

I pulled out my favorite cookbook and turned to a random page and came up with Chicken Pilau. I had all of the ingredients on hand, fortunately. It came out pretty good. I'd show you a picture but it looked disgusting. Instead I'll show you what I made for the #1 vegan son -

His favorite, rice and beans

Well, I'm tired again. Too much thinking, too much typing, too much cooking, too much knitting (hey, did I say that??)

Yup, it's official, girlfriend looks tired. Back to bed.

Sock trials

On Friday, I started another sock.

I love it when I turn the heel correctly -



It was going so well. I was attempting Grumperina'a Jaywalker
pattern. Then disaster struck. I got all the way to the heel gusset instructions when I realized I couldn't make head or tail of what it was I was being told to do. I should have stopped right there and emailed her or called my buddy Phyllis, BUT NOOOO, Ms. "I've been knitting for 20 friggin years and I should be able to figure this out myself" self plowed onward. I don't know, but it's wrong, all wrong and I'm now so very discouraged. Perhaps I should have done the same pattern from my first sock disaster. At least then, I would have gotten the pattern right and could have corrected the gauge with doing them in zeros this time. Nope. Little Ms. Fancy Pants had to try a whole new pattern. Bugger.

In addition to all of that drama, the weather has turned and gone from mild 40s to a single digit with minus whatever when the wind blows. We've got snow and ice. Yea, I know it's February and the weather has been mild but an overnight change makes me more schitzo than usual.

A good time to make Chili.

I'm still doing my recipe thing, trying to make stuff from favorite cookbooks. Yea, I know I said that I would pick just 1 cook book but I realized that I'm actually fond of two so I've been going back and forth.


While the men were engaged in their annual testosterone football event, I got to make a huge pot of that delicious Texas Chili. That should get me off dinner duty for 2 nights. I'll just have to bake a couple of loaves of bread and that ought to hold 'em (get it, Texas hold 'em.... never mind).

I be back

It's a new year and I had plans to do fun stuff. You remember - cook from a favorite cookbook, knit several projects from a favorite knitting book...

Well, it seems that folks are lining up early to throw me curve balls. Exhibit A -

Who needed a furnace when the temperature here in New Jersey has been so balmy? But, last night we got some ominous news by way of a power outage - the dang cold front that has iced over nearly everything past the Mason Dixon line was coming this way. When the lights came back on at 4am, I tested the furnace because the temperature is supposed to drop below the 20s. Furnace comes on ok but with an awful sound. After the furnace guy shows up, he took one listen and said, "hey, lady, youse guys are lucky, sounds like your pump is cooked." Two hours later, he fixes my 'cooked' pump and my house is hot again! One curve ball for a base hit (sorry for the sports analogies, I live with all men remember).

The curve ball before the busted furnace was with both of my cars. Two flat tires on one car, 1 flat tire on another and an expired AAA membership! You don't want to know what it cost to get out of that fix. Now I'm below the count (it's another baseball thing, look it up).

Before the 3 flat tires, it's college application deadline time for my senior in high school. I should be a drinking woman by now but, I manage to trick the pitcher into a full count and I squeeze out a walk. My son sent off his gajillion applications via a wonderful invention called the online, Common Application! I'm too dizzy to tell you what that cost me.

Before the college application deadline night, there was Martin Luther King Day speech writing marathon. My same high school senior was one of the youth keynotes. I hadn't seen his speech. I won't tell you what ensued but it was similar to college application deadline night. He wrote a wonderful speech and delivered it as if nothing ugly happened the night before...

Before the Martin Luther King Day speech marathon, I thought I'd have some knitting progress

Lovely, right?? WRONG. This is the Jo Sharpe Truffle bag I've been working on forever now. I thought I had finished it. Instead I realize that I knit the picot edge ON THE WRONG SIDE. I'll have to rip that some day but not now...

Here's the Rowan hat I modified for knitting in the round.

Something is wrong, I don't know what it is exactly. I must have mentally wandered off at some point. It will have to be ripped back too.

Lastly, my final report on how I had spent the most miserable last two weeks of this new year has to do with my middle school son. He comes home from school and announces that he needed a food item to take to Spanish class. The food item had to be an authentic Spanish dish that he can share with the class (read enough for 25 kids!)

"Hey mom, can you make a Tres Leches cake?"

So, 7am the next morning, I was up to my elbows in milk and flour and Karo syrup -







Oh, and aside from the cheers that the class gave me upon seeing my Tres Leches cake, I did have another delightful surprise -


This cheerful young lady arrived to my house for theatre practice (it seems my college application/speech writing son is directing a play this month). She is wearing a hat that I knitted last year for him. She said that it fit her better than it does the college application/speech writing/theatre directing dread head! I think she is right!

Stash Resolutions

No this isn't a laundry list of resolutions. It's a wish and a game plan to do more of something I adore - to use the delicious and coveted yarn stash I've hoarded over the years (some of it is 10 years old) and to cook from my favorite cookbooks - from cover to cover. Why will I be successful? Because I've resisted the gargantuan yarn sale at Webs!

Have you ever cooked or knitted from a book, cover to cover?? I've never done either. In the case of my knitting, I hold onto yarn waiting for the most perfect pattern or I buy a pattern book and hold onto that waiting for the most perfect yarn that is better than what the pattern calls for. Don't ask me why. I guess it must have something to do with delayed gratification or just plain dumb procrastination. With cookbooks, I don't want to waste a good recipe on everyday eating (???), I would reserve it in my mind for a dinner party or special occasion. Spell it with me D-U-M-B!!!

My plan, and I'm having fun already on this 3rd day of the year, is to pick 2 books - one knit book and one cook book. Start making stuff from cover to cover - random order is ok. With the knitting, I'll only select yarns from my stash.

What have I done so far? Well it's only been 3 days but...

From my cookbook stash -

I adore this book. I've owned it for over 10 years. I have a greased up, dogged-eared version that I use when I cook and I have that one just for reading. I've made many, many things in it but I've only scratched the surface. There are recipes for perfume even, and cough medicine and lots and lots of great southern cuisine. One of my favorites is what I call funeral pound cake.
No, no this isn't a macabre story. We all go to funerals, right? Stay with me now. If you've ever attended a funeral for a fond old aunty or uncle, most of the time they have old friends right?Trust me, this won't get strange. Well, those 'old' friends have great 'old' recipes and they bring the most delicious foods to the repast. Like you, at most funerals, I've been too overcome with grief to appreciate anything. But, for the times I've gone to support a friend or a distant relative, well, I do notice the food. Almost always there'd be poundcake. Well, just like with my silly cannoli search, I also had a funeral pound cake search. No I do not need a life, this is part of life. To enjoy and appreciate all things sensual including ya taste buds. You don't have to eat the entire portion of something and end up looking like my boy Chef Prudhomme, but tasting is good, if I could I'd taste just about anything.

There are over 100 years of recipes in Spoon Bread and Strawberry Wine starting from pre-reconstruction times when there were just a handful of years when black people had many high hopes. There are stories of how some of the authors' families were run out of town by the Klan and as long as they kept their life and limb, they kept on cooking and creating great food for their families in celebration of their survival. I guarantee that whatever your ethnic background, you'll adore this book (I know I sound like those kids on Reading Rainbow). You may even start your own project of collecting recipes from friends and family and document the circumstances around how you acquired the ingredients.

Tonight for dinner I'm going to grill outdoors and make barbecue ribs. There is a wonderful tangy sauce in the book. Why am I grilling outdoors in the middle of a Jersey winter? Two reasons. First today it is 60 degrees and 2nd, this happened last night while making dinner:


I forgot to pierce the baking potatoes before putting them in the oven and THEY EXPLODED!! I'm hoping some fairy gnome or someone comes over and volunteers to clean it out. It's bad enough she's just a Susy Bake Oven, now she's all a mess...

From My Knitting book stash -
I like the photographs in Sally Melville's books. You all know about her Einstein Coat, I've never made it, I'm going to now. I have made several of the Jen's Ponchos. I'm doing another one now for my 2 year old niece -

The scarf featured on the cover I made for my son last year but he has since lost it :(

Finally, this is one hold over from last year. It's the Noro bag I started at the DMV.

Holiday flicks

You all know I was half joking with my previous post, right? Just to prove that I'm not a holiday grinch, here are some Christmas day pictures.

All in all, we had a bunch of fun.

And other distractions...

I whipped up my holiday eggnog. The only 2nd best thing to do with a dozen eggs and and jug of cream.

That's my 20+ year old Cuisinart. I bought it for myself as a wedding present. While everything else from that early period of my life has broken down or gone missing, that sucka still works!

I use the spirits only to kill off any traces of salmonella... Honestly!

Got some knitting done too

I made a bunch of these wrist thingys for little girls who lose gloves. I told them that they could add a bit of bling to their outfits just by pulling on a couple of these (another fine way to use up the muppet fur!)

As many of my fellow knit bloggers have resolved, I too am knitting from my stash. I have some Noro odds and ends I made these with -

This shot is sort of an inside joke...