oh MAN. How can such an organized person have such a heap of non-compatible items in every single closet? Maybe:
I'm too busy
I have too many interests
My house is too small
I have not yet purchased enough organizational aids
I don't embrace cleaning the way I do mess-making
but never mind. The mess is spread out in front of every closet now so I can recategorize everything into the boxes set out in the middle ground, and the sooner I get it sorted, the sooner I can dash off to Knitomatic for my new addi turbo interchangeable circular needle set, which has finally arrived! Talk about yer motivation.
* * * * *
Okay, this is just weird. Of course I'm not checking e-mail, but look what Better Homes and Gardens just sent!
Also, I found a pair of glasses I have no recollection of ever wearing, yet I can see out of them (well, distance, anyway). I always keep frames for at least two years, so maybe I shouldn't have eaten so much spaghetti with meat sauce when I lived in England before anybody knew about mad cow?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Egg membranes and other hidden treasures
Kathleen from South Dakota writes: how does an egg membrane get out a splinter? You put it over the splinter and let it dry. It will adhere to the splinter and tug it out as it contracts. If it's not better by morning, use another egg membrane.
Last night I read about how kids 5-8 can make head cheese from a pig. Apparently it's delicious and I'm absolutely prepared to take somebody else's word for it. I also discovered that you can soak a year's worth of dust more effectively out of curtains if you add baking soda to the water, and that a baking soda paste works on insect stings.
Little Heathens - a great read, by the way - also has beauty tips. For example, a little apple cider vinegar in your rinse water makes your hair shiny. Or you can pat a lot of cooked warm oatmeal over your face and arms to bleach away freckles and soften your skin. From my own experience I can tell you that the fastest way to smooth rough hands on your way out the door is to scrub them with a little baking soda at the kitchen sink. But the best feelgoodlookgreat tip of all? Don't eat chocolate for breakfast, even when somebody who wasn't thinking clearly stored it right beside your new wool Christmas socks.
Last night I read about how kids 5-8 can make head cheese from a pig. Apparently it's delicious and I'm absolutely prepared to take somebody else's word for it. I also discovered that you can soak a year's worth of dust more effectively out of curtains if you add baking soda to the water, and that a baking soda paste works on insect stings.
Little Heathens - a great read, by the way - also has beauty tips. For example, a little apple cider vinegar in your rinse water makes your hair shiny. Or you can pat a lot of cooked warm oatmeal over your face and arms to bleach away freckles and soften your skin. From my own experience I can tell you that the fastest way to smooth rough hands on your way out the door is to scrub them with a little baking soda at the kitchen sink. But the best feelgoodlookgreat tip of all? Don't eat chocolate for breakfast, even when somebody who wasn't thinking clearly stored it right beside your new wool Christmas socks.
Monday, December 29, 2008
What was I thinking?
Somewhere in the exhaustion of KnitFrenzy I got the idea to offer up closet reorganization as a present. Emphasis on 're' - I do this over and over and over, which is probably a sign that the closets are just plain too small for their contents. Or more accurately, any contents, because thorough purging of unused stuff is a consistent step in every reorg.
I've been preparing for this task with a book about growing up on an Iowa farm during the Depression - there is something about thrift and hard times and stalwart bravery that always makes me feel like tidying up. Also it's research for the writing project I want to get back to this week.
Side benefits are the discovery that you can draw out a splinter with egg membrane or a piece of salt pork, plus a recipe for home made marshmallows (and you know I'm going to be trying that one, what with the Ghirardelli hot chocolate obsession and all.) But I will be a Very Good Girl and do the closets first, because I learned the hard way - this is one task that gets worse the longer you procrastinate.
I've been preparing for this task with a book about growing up on an Iowa farm during the Depression - there is something about thrift and hard times and stalwart bravery that always makes me feel like tidying up. Also it's research for the writing project I want to get back to this week.
Side benefits are the discovery that you can draw out a splinter with egg membrane or a piece of salt pork, plus a recipe for home made marshmallows (and you know I'm going to be trying that one, what with the Ghirardelli hot chocolate obsession and all.) But I will be a Very Good Girl and do the closets first, because I learned the hard way - this is one task that gets worse the longer you procrastinate.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Tablecloth of doom (and KnitFrenzy pics)
Again with the Boxing Day Luncheon lobster-claw-like allergic reaction, in spite of this year's custom table favours and entirely fresh menu ingredients! I'll be lucky if my stricken friend ever comes back. We narrowed down the problem either to the farm where the turkeys come from, or my beloved Christmas tablecloth. Yes, the tablecloth of doom:
It looks so innocent and pretty and OH how I love it, but it's much more likely to be some problem with the dye than it is a random turkey, don't you think? So away it goes, at least for Boxing Days. And I guess I will cook a ham next time to be safe.
In other news, as promised, I have random photos from this year's KnitFrenzy, which means you'll have to scroll through this post - I know, take a moment to catch your breath. I usually keep my diary so short and snappy, but some people have been complaining about a lack of pictures so you'll have to live with the length, or stop reading now if knitting bores you, in which case you can't possibly be enjoying my procrastinations at all.
As you may recall I designed most of the patterns, which made things interesting in that not-generally-so-good way, especially when one is pressed for time. Christmas Eve for example was a bit panicky and looked something like this:
I had to tell the girl whose boyfriend was stolen by God that she couldn't come to visit that night so I could finish the Thing that was still on the needles and intended for her, but it was sort of worth it because they looked great on everybody who got one and they did seem like a surprise.
(Less of a surprise was Lannie's cute hat with the pink stripes and felted rose, seeing as how she reads my diary, but the ponytail hole I put in for her got raised eyebrows so that was a nice bonus.)
Here is a mohair tube as cowl - which is to say, when it's not a scarf or muff or very very itchy tube top or skirt, all of which were proposed as possible uses for it:
I did between 12 and 14 hats (I deliberately lost count), one of which was for my friend Carol, plus a neckwarmer because the wool for her hat was so weird I knew she could never match it:
The neckwarmer was pure design bliss and came out right the very first time. I was less lucky with other patterns but mostly that was bearable. For example, an early design failure with the basic hat pattern turned into a warm cloche I coveted, especially after I added felted roses:
And then of course there was the Lucky Scarf, which I still have to parcel up and mail to the friend who helped so much with my writing this year. I designed it in a three-stitch pattern of 8 stripes on one side and 7 on the other, and knit it in red, partly because it's lucky and partly because it is my favourite. To add more luck, I brought it along to work on at every happy social occasion over the 8 or so weeks I worked on it:
The most fun thing though was the felted roses (pattern courtesy Jennifer Pace), which I made to put onto projects I ended up having to jettison. They were so fast to make and so pretty when they were done! The ones that didn't go onto hats pretty much sat around all glum and stuff until I realized I could make these adorable little pins for people I didn't have time to knit anything else for:
The final tally for the KnitFrenzy is a little scary, given that most of it happened over 6 weeks. I made twenty-seven successful Things, of which four or five were superfast rose pins, plus at least two Things that were not only not at all superfast but failed horribly, as well as one that was successful but should wait for a companion piece, I think, before I give it away. Oh, I feel tired just thinking about it... but I will do the revisions to a too-short hat anyway, because I am so knitty. And then I will write up my own patterns properly and post them at marykeenan.com for anybody who knits and would like to try one.
It looks so innocent and pretty and OH how I love it, but it's much more likely to be some problem with the dye than it is a random turkey, don't you think? So away it goes, at least for Boxing Days. And I guess I will cook a ham next time to be safe.
In other news, as promised, I have random photos from this year's KnitFrenzy, which means you'll have to scroll through this post - I know, take a moment to catch your breath. I usually keep my diary so short and snappy, but some people have been complaining about a lack of pictures so you'll have to live with the length, or stop reading now if knitting bores you, in which case you can't possibly be enjoying my procrastinations at all.
As you may recall I designed most of the patterns, which made things interesting in that not-generally-so-good way, especially when one is pressed for time. Christmas Eve for example was a bit panicky and looked something like this:
I had to tell the girl whose boyfriend was stolen by God that she couldn't come to visit that night so I could finish the Thing that was still on the needles and intended for her, but it was sort of worth it because they looked great on everybody who got one and they did seem like a surprise.(Less of a surprise was Lannie's cute hat with the pink stripes and felted rose, seeing as how she reads my diary, but the ponytail hole I put in for her got raised eyebrows so that was a nice bonus.)
Here is a mohair tube as cowl - which is to say, when it's not a scarf or muff or very very itchy tube top or skirt, all of which were proposed as possible uses for it:
I did between 12 and 14 hats (I deliberately lost count), one of which was for my friend Carol, plus a neckwarmer because the wool for her hat was so weird I knew she could never match it:
The neckwarmer was pure design bliss and came out right the very first time. I was less lucky with other patterns but mostly that was bearable. For example, an early design failure with the basic hat pattern turned into a warm cloche I coveted, especially after I added felted roses:
And then of course there was the Lucky Scarf, which I still have to parcel up and mail to the friend who helped so much with my writing this year. I designed it in a three-stitch pattern of 8 stripes on one side and 7 on the other, and knit it in red, partly because it's lucky and partly because it is my favourite. To add more luck, I brought it along to work on at every happy social occasion over the 8 or so weeks I worked on it:
The most fun thing though was the felted roses (pattern courtesy Jennifer Pace), which I made to put onto projects I ended up having to jettison. They were so fast to make and so pretty when they were done! The ones that didn't go onto hats pretty much sat around all glum and stuff until I realized I could make these adorable little pins for people I didn't have time to knit anything else for:
The final tally for the KnitFrenzy is a little scary, given that most of it happened over 6 weeks. I made twenty-seven successful Things, of which four or five were superfast rose pins, plus at least two Things that were not only not at all superfast but failed horribly, as well as one that was successful but should wait for a companion piece, I think, before I give it away. Oh, I feel tired just thinking about it... but I will do the revisions to a too-short hat anyway, because I am so knitty. And then I will write up my own patterns properly and post them at marykeenan.com for anybody who knits and would like to try one.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Top Ten in a box
Things I'm happy about today:
10/ my family liked their mohair cowls and double-strand wool hat
9/ I am having a party today, which means my house is clean
8/ my elevated cake plates are shiny and waiting for desserts
7/ the turkey went neatly into the oven, which means
8/ I have my stock pot back to store knitting in
7/ but only 1 more hour (or so) of KnitFrenzy to go
6/ and after the party I can support a beleaguered retailer
5/ by buying a new egg separator (and maybe other stuff)
4/ yesterday's meringue bake being the last straw with the old one
3/ I get to go to bed early tonight
2/ or sit on the sofa and eat bonbons, whichever I choose
1/ and does it get any better than that??
10/ my family liked their mohair cowls and double-strand wool hat
9/ I am having a party today, which means my house is clean
8/ my elevated cake plates are shiny and waiting for desserts
7/ the turkey went neatly into the oven, which means
8/ I have my stock pot back to store knitting in
7/ but only 1 more hour (or so) of KnitFrenzy to go
6/ and after the party I can support a beleaguered retailer
5/ by buying a new egg separator (and maybe other stuff)
4/ yesterday's meringue bake being the last straw with the old one
3/ I get to go to bed early tonight
2/ or sit on the sofa and eat bonbons, whichever I choose
1/ and does it get any better than that??
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas baby
I don't think that's the title of one of my favourite bits from the Verve Christmas collection, but it's how it starts. I'm also partial to Santa Baby and hope these tunes go on playing for a few more days now that I can actually enjoy them - I'm almost halfway through knitting the last Thing.
Seriously, I've been obsessing over that old Hans Christian Anderson story about the princes or princesses who are turned into swans every night and need a sister who knits to make them all some magical shirt by midnight to turn back into themselves forever. She knits like the wind but only gets through half of the last sleeve when the clock strikes, so one of them gets stuck with half arm/half wing. I feared this would be me, with half a Thing to wrap today, but no.
And on that joyful note - my best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday!
Seriously, I've been obsessing over that old Hans Christian Anderson story about the princes or princesses who are turned into swans every night and need a sister who knits to make them all some magical shirt by midnight to turn back into themselves forever. She knits like the wind but only gets through half of the last sleeve when the clock strikes, so one of them gets stuck with half arm/half wing. I feared this would be me, with half a Thing to wrap today, but no.
And on that joyful note - my best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Turkey Tips
Happy elf day! the day when it all comes together or forget it. I have two things left to knit and a very good chance of pulling them off. Of course, I also want to sew a few tiny things and will probably be stitching on my way to deliver presents.
Today I pick up a turkey and stuffing and gravy. Last year I brined the turkey and didn't rinse it enough and the gravy tasted like it was made with sea water, which is a shame because gravy is one thing I'm good at. Just in case I blow it again this year, I'm getting some of what the butcher is selling.
My friend Dave called this week and I shared my salty shame, and after very nicely commending me for brining the turkey in the first place he told me the best, as in evil, turkey tip: Get bacon. Really fatty thick slices of bacon you would never ever buy just to cook and eat, and lay them all over the top of the turkey and roast it as usual. When you're done you have turkey, plus bacon! what a bonus. And the finest makings for gravy. Also probably a heart attack if you have a ton of the gravy, but I think it would be worth serious fibre consumption and treadmill time just to try it, don't you?
Today I pick up a turkey and stuffing and gravy. Last year I brined the turkey and didn't rinse it enough and the gravy tasted like it was made with sea water, which is a shame because gravy is one thing I'm good at. Just in case I blow it again this year, I'm getting some of what the butcher is selling.
My friend Dave called this week and I shared my salty shame, and after very nicely commending me for brining the turkey in the first place he told me the best, as in evil, turkey tip: Get bacon. Really fatty thick slices of bacon you would never ever buy just to cook and eat, and lay them all over the top of the turkey and roast it as usual. When you're done you have turkey, plus bacon! what a bonus. And the finest makings for gravy. Also probably a heart attack if you have a ton of the gravy, but I think it would be worth serious fibre consumption and treadmill time just to try it, don't you?
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