Donations before the storm

My congregation's social justice committee decided to collect items for the South Park Inn and worked with Hands on Hartford for some programming.  This gave me incentive to finish a few items.  These hats were made from Red Heart's Heat Wave yarn, which is a manmade fiber that absorbs heat from sunlight or other UV light.  I picked three colours that I thought look happy together.  The first hat I made is the V-stitch one, and then I decided to try the Ugly Christmas Sweater Beanie.  It was more fun than I thought it would be to make.  These photos show the colours fairly reaslistically:

I had enough yarn left over to do a second hat, for which I reversed the Blue Skies and Beach Ball, leaving Radio in the same position.  Unfortunately, the light was different enough when I photographed the two together, so the colours look very different:

In addition to the hats, I had ten scarves I'd made and was waiting to donate someplace (often I would take them when I went on trips back to North Texas, sending them to the Samaritan Inn, but of course I haven't been there since last March).  I'd forgotten about some of these:

They also collected toiletries, so I gave them all the little things I'd collected over my travels in 2019 and early 2020, plus some bars of soap because when I organized the bathroom cabinets I discovered how much I've acquired.  Well, I love pretty soaps, and certain scents, and I tended to stock up, but with all the travel wasn't home to use it.  In the last year I've made definite inroads to my collection, but there's more than enough to keep me clean for quite some time.

The elder daughter of the social justice committee's leader hosted an educational program on Martin Luther King Day weekend, when our congregation does service activities, showing us how to arm-knit scarves and blankets, and how to make blankets of fleece.  I still had some fleece blanket kits from when I made them for a dialysis center (donations suspended due to the pandemic) so I made two of them.  Forgot to take a photo!

I packed everything up and dropped four large bags at their home, because the leader was willing to make a collection and drop them at South Park Inn.  We're supposed to get a big snowstorm this weekend and I wanted to be sure she has them; awaiting confirmation.

Mini-Resolution Update

I've knit a bit more on the Omega shawl but otherwise am not making much progress.  I still haven't made 7/7 on my tracker, in part thanks to work (when you have to stay up until midnight work work with somebody in Japan, it's hard to get the required hours of sleep) and in part just because.  But I have a year to do it, so I'm not yet discouraged.

I noticed that I am completing every month on Microsoft Games Solitaire, something I rarely did.  I realize that it's because I am home, because you have to finish all the days by the last day of the month, and while you can do catch-ups for missed days, it's the last day that I was often away.  Now I've been home and am racking up month after month of completion.  It feels good - and weird.

Challenge Issued

As last year wound and we continued to be in various degrees of isolation, a number of knitters and crocheters I know got into make-alongs, where a designer issued a pattern and people did it and reported progress.  Sometimes you could get a prize for completing, other times it was just the finished item.  Most of the time these are mysteries, where you work a step and then another and at the end hopefully have a finished object that looks as it should.  I don't like those because I worry that I will put much time into something that isn't to my liking.  Also, the immediate time commitment can be pretty daunting, and not always possible depending upon what work requires.

They do seem to be a way for people to strengthen a community, so with the isolation requirements stretching into this year I thought of trying a make-along for a (mostly) knitting group I founded online in 2005.  Given how I feel about make-alongs, what would I do?  Not everybody wants a shawl, or socks, and I didn't want to design a pattern that would intimidate people or have "I don't like that style" responses.

And given how the year is likely to go, I wanted to develop a series of make-alongs that people could do, but without requiring one in case somebody joined the group later or didn't have time for one, or was on medical time-out, or any other reason.

So today I announced the first make-along for 2021, with the theme of 

Make Something Using The Colour BLUE.

And that was it.

No restrictions on shade, except that it has to be clearly BLUE.  No restrictions on design, except that the BLUE must be evident and not just a row or a few stitches or a button added.  Something new, something in progress, doesn't matter as long as it contains BLUE.

None of my in-progress items contains a clear blue; the "We Knit In Texas Y'All" vest contains grey-blue but I want to use something definite.  So I cast on the Dots hat from Berroco using these supplies:

I've had the KFI yarns in my stash for a long time.  It's thinner than the yarn the pattern calls for, but I knit a bit loosely when in the round so hopefully it will be fine.  If not, I'll frog and try something else.  Not as if I am lacking for yarn.

Midmonth Resolution Report 

I've done some reading but not finished a book.  I have worked on the "Omega" shawl, spending two days untangling the current ball of yarn as it collapsed badly near the end.  I've work in the remainder and am now on the second ball of yarn and somewhere around Row 50 of the seventy-six or so rows of the last plain (mostly stockinette, only the single increase at each edge) section.  I may make it slightly longer before I do the border.

A personal resolution I didn't mention was to achieve 7/7 for my tracker: one week (which starts on Monday) of at least 6h30m of sleep each night; getting at least 250 steps each of the nine assigned hours (during workday, which can be more difficult); achieving my minimum exercise minutes; and if possible meeting the new metric of "mindfulness".  Last year I had exactly ONE week where I met the three metrics that existed:  Sleep, steps per hour, and minutes of exercise per day.  Often I miss out on sleep or steps, especially when I have a lot of cameras-up meetings - or in the before times, when we were doing in-person meetings.

This week I was 7/7 on the first three and 4/7 (but I am assigned for only three days, so in a way it was 4/3) for the mindfulness.  Next goal will be to get 7/7 on all four metrics.

Not that I want this blog to be political, but.....

It's a rough time for many of us, not just in the USA, but since I live here, it's what I know about the most.  The abovementioned online group has people in other countries which are also going through elections and other political activity, on top of the pandemic.  We have people who work in the USA government who are having a lot of distress right now.  And since the group is not limited in the type of persons allowed, we have differing political opinions.

I had to ask people to back off a bit after the events of January 6th, which got some upset, and one demanded that I remove her.  I said that I don't remove people but she could leave if wanted, and in the end, she didn't.

Another person did leave.  Somebody posted about the "Inauguration Celebration" shawl pattern, and this person responded only "Why would any thinking person celebrate the inauguration?", without signing the message.  While not forbidden, I ask that people include knitting or other fiber-working content in their messages (so, a shawl pattern is fine, a response to it might not be) and to sign their messages.  I politely asked the person to send her message directly to the person to whose message she was responding, or to repost it with some knitting content ("OKC" = obligatory knitting content) and her name.

No, instead the person left.  I'm a bit offended as I wasn't telling her that she couldn't voice her opinion on the list, just asking her to follow some simple rules about posting.  I have friends all over the political spectrum, some of whom believe that the certified results of the USA's November 2020 election are not accurate, and some who believe that the president-elect isn't going to do enough for the country.

As for me, I will do what I can, where I can.  I'll get the vaccine when they finally get to my group.  This weekend, I am participating in some Day of Service activities in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  So I think I'll end with a quote of his:

And given that this week's parsha or Bible passage for my religion is Vayera, this seems appropriate as well:

Looking at the year ahead.

 "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." 

 ~ Lou Holtz

That seems an excellent motto with which to start a new year.  Also, this contemplation:

So many people make resolutions, or set intentions, this time of year.  I've found it much easier to do a month at a time, but here are some goals for me this year:

Read (or finish) six (or more) books. 

Complete three specific UFOs:

    

Make a cardigan I've been thinking about for some time.

Make another cheese soufflé.

Given how this past year went, I think any more definite or additional plans are frivolous. 

 

While I don't generally wear my religion on my sleeve, this resonates with me:

A New Year's Prayer by Rabbi Naomi Levy

I'm good at making resolutions, God.
But I'm not very good at keeping them.
There are so many goals I'd like to achieve, so many changes I'd like to make.

I pray to You, God, for strength. I want to live a meaningful life, God.
I want to comprehend my true promise.
I want to understand why You have put me here.

Help me to see, God. Show me the person I have the potential to become.
Let me find my passion, God.
Teach me to resist temptation, to conquer self-destructive habits, to overcome selfishness and pettiness.
Give me the humility and the courage to repair relationships that pride has destroyed. Show me how I can bring hope and healing in this world.

Let this be a good year, God.
A year of health, a year of blessing, a year of love, a year of peace.
Amen.

And so the year ends

We've all been through it.  Although 2020 has affected all of us differently, we're almost through it and we can look hopefully to 2021.  Do I have resolutions for 2021?  Not to speak of, although I think I will continue with the monthly mini resolutions.  Those were much easier to manage.

Speaking of which, my final tally for the December mini-resolutions is that I have not finished a book, although I decided that one of the ones I had wasn't worth finishing.  I am sure that it's a marvelous book, I am just tired of the author's writing style, which I find tedious and unnecessarily "look at how much I know" and insufficiently "look how much I can tell you".  It's a subtle difference, but a definite one.

I did finish the UFO shawl:

 

I started it when I lived in Madison, WI, about four years ago.  The designer was doing a knit-along and I didn't have much social life (nor time to create one, given work hours and commute) but I did have yarn and crafts stores nearby.  I think I intended to photograph each section as I knit it, but I don't find anything more than the photos of the skeins after purchase.  So, the finished shawl.

I did not follow the pattern exactly.  In the striped section, I alternated the purple and blue so they took turns being ridges and background.  I made the final, seed stitch, portion wider because I thought that balanced better.  It's very generously sized for me, and I am quite happy with the end result.

I have made steady progress on another book, despite the weight of work, and I may settle down to finish it this weekend.

My grandmother did make it until Christmas to open her gifts, and she loves them.  She thinks that since her hair is now grey due to the lockdown we won't recognize her, and I said she can wear one of the vests I made for her and we'll definitely know.

Something I Accomplished This Year

Just in the last week, I made my first cheese soufflé.  It is something I have wanted to try for some time, and haven't.  Somebody I know posted about having made one, and I said I wished I could do it, and he assured me I could.  Another friend suggested making a puffy omelet and calling it good enough, although he also thought I could pull off a soufflé, noting that even a failed one should be tasty.  So I thought the long weekend, with plenty of time to not rush through the steps, would be a good time to try.

While getting up the courage to go to the kitchen and actually do it, I noticed that The French Chef was rerunning on a local PBS channel, and importantly this episode was included in the offerings:

  

I have almost the exact pan that Julia Child uses, but smaller.  I took it out and made sure it was clean, and watched the episode closely.  I found a recipe, remembering later that I think I have the show's cookbook and should have pulled it out and used that one, if it's in there.  No matter, I used the recipe mostly for quantities and Mme. Child for method.

And it worked:

  

Lacking Parmesean cheese, I used Mt. Tom for sprinkling on the butter-smeared pan.

Although Julia Child recommends real Swiss cheese, lacking it I decided to use Crybaby.  But I also very much like Europa, which melts well.  As a result, I used some of each.

   

Butter into the pan, then add flour, and it bubbled nicely and quickly, due to small amounts.  I halved the recipe, except for the eggs, where I used two yolks and three whites.  The other yolk I thought about using for mayonnaise, but put it into dinner with stir-fried vegetables a couple evenings later.

Of course a local hot sauce.  I don't find it too strong.  About five drops.

Egg whites at stiff peaks.  If a machine is good enough for Julie Child, who am I to use the whisk?

At this point, I  have added the milk and then egg yolks to the butter-and-flour, along with pepper and hot sauce.  As Mme. Child instructed, I refrained from making a cheese sauce.

  

Whisking a bit of the whites into the béchamel to lighten it.

  

Folding the lightened sauce into the remaining egg whites.  To do this and sprinkle in the cheese every few turns requires both hands (a third would be handy), and to photograph it requires more hands than I have, or would get the phone messy.  Thus you get the beginning and the end points of the process.

Into the prepared pan, and into the preheated oven.  Because I had scaled the batter down to what I thought would be right for a single person, I did not add a collar to the pan.

I should have buttered it higher on the sides.

Thirty-five minutes later, it's perfectly done.  Maybe a minute over, but I like toasty cheese.

The end result is beautiful and tasty.  While it was baking I had an apple to stave off hunger, so I almost didn't finish the whole soufflé.  Inside it was a fluffy, cheesy cloud.  Not perfect, but definitely something I now have the courage (and cheeses!) to try again.

In Conclusion

2020 was far from perfect, but some good things came out of it: if nothing else, I paid off my mortgage and I learned to make a cheese soufflé.  And - we survived.

See you next year.

Mid-December report & a special gift for my grandmother

My last post included photos of the items I knitted and crocheted for my grandmother's Christmas gifts.  I didn't include this because I purchased it from an eBay seller who has been running an online estate sale and the auction had ended too recently for it to be here when I did my first-of-month post:

As you can tell, if you are from Chicago, this is an ornament featuring the famous clock on the Marshall Field's building* downtown.  It came with the original box, in which it is shown at left, with the Marshall Field's logo on the cover.  When I saw this in his postings it brought back memories of when my grandmother and great-grandmother took me to The Walnut Room for luncheon.  My great-grandmother got the pot pie, I don't remember what my grandmother got (maybe also the pot pie? I tried it once or twice), and I got the fruit salad with little date bread sandwiches.  They were such a treat!  I remember having to be very dressed up for these occasions, and when I spoke to my grandmother last weekend after the ornament arrived (with the cookies and rugelach I sent her for Hanukah, so she knew she could open it immediately), we reminisced for quite a while about these "ladies' luncheons".

*Yes, I know it's now owned by Macy's, along with everything else Marshall Field's.  But to longtime Chicagoans, the building itself will never be Macy's.

Channukah 2020

This year was the first one in a long time (maybe since childhood?) that I was home on all eight nights:

   

   

   

   

Because I am allergic to chocolate, I bought a chest (it looks like a miniature treasure chest) of fruit jellies gelt, and had fun coordinating each evening's treat with the candles.  I confirmed for myself that one box of 44 candles is exactly enough candles for the festival - it's been a long time since (a) I had a new box to open (purchased specially this year) and (b) I've been home every night.

My cooking club met on the 7th night, and the theme was "Christmas Cookies" so I made a Channukah treat.  I thought I should do something dessert-ish because of the theme, so regular potato latkes were not an option, and I didn't want to try to make a single sufganiyah.  I found a recipe for apple latkes, but decided to make levivot, which are a sweetish cheese-based pancake with raisins - or in my case, since I have a lot of them, dried blueberries.  I added some sautéed apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and the whole was yummy.  I had enough to make levivot for breakfast the next two mornings.

Mid-Month Mini-Resolutions Report

No progress to speak of in finishing this month's mini-resolutions, in part because some of my cleaning and organizing and looking in the stash turned up a book with a mitten pattern I wanted to try, and knit a pair:

That is actually the second pair I knit.  It's made from leftover odd bits of yarn that may have been part of a baby sweater for my brother and/or me.  I knit the first pair with some vintage Red Heart yarn from a time when it was 100% wool, plus some bits of brown alpaca and black wool lingering in my stash:

  

I had wool left (I just barely had enough alpaca for the mittens; it was very fine so I carried it with black) after finishing the mittens so I made the hat.  This finished off the multicolour.  Both pairs of mittens and the hat (garter stitch except for ribbing at the bottom) will be donated to charity.

The mittens work up fairly quickly, especially as I did the thumb side of both at the same time.  This is so narrow, it makes sense to me to do it this way.  The Red Heart ones are much too big for me, the pink-and-blue ones (I used thinner yarn and smaller needles than the pattern indicates) just about fit me, although I want to fiddle a bit with where the mittens divide.  Third time might be the charm - and those will be for me.

Three shawls in November

 By the official calendar, it is December.

For Thanksgiving last week I got some turkey at a local barbeque place and ate it with sweet potatoes cooked with apples; some greens; and of course a slice of cranberry jelly.  Dessert was a local dairy's pumpkin pie ice cream.

I got to see family for the first time since February or last December, depending upon who it was, as we did a Zoom gathering.  There have been a few photographs, but not live.  I know some families have been doing weekly online gatherings, but somehow we haven't done it.  Next one will be on Christmas Day.

My boss ordered me to take the four-day weekend, and I did very well at (mostly) staying off work.  It helps when most of the persons with whom I am working also have the long weekend!  Weather cooperated so I did some walking outside, and house chores, and attended a friend's (online this year) stupid movies night.  Attendance was much higher than in past years as people from far and wide could attend - and make comments about the films.

Status of my November resolutions

I did fairly well - I finished my grandmother's twinset:

They are Wool-Ease DK in "Meadow".  I used all but about four metres of three full cakes.

It's on the way to her, along with another shawl I'd knit for her:

This is one cake of Parfait Layers in "Peachy Keen", a very simple pattern with eyelets on the rows where the colour changes.  Just a small bit of yarn remained.  This one zipped along because it is a chunky yarn.  I think my grandmother will love how soft it feels.

I also finished my Textured Triangle Shawl of the Periwinkle Sheep's Rhinebeck 2020 colourway:

I rarely knit anything this quickly after buying a commemorative yarn, even when I know what I want to do, but somehow this leapt ahead.  I had to start it three times: First restart was because I didn't like the resulting fabric and drape, so I moved up a needle size to US#8.  Then I realized that one of the skeins was very different from the others, and I thought it would do better at the lower border than the beginning triangle.  So, restart and re-restart, but I am very happy with the finished shawl.  One benefit is that I could tell I didn't like the garter lace, so I changed the return rows from K to P  as the closeup shows.  I like it much better.

My December mini-resolutions

Finish one of my UFOs, and finish a book.  I currently have three partially-read on my headboard, and I have a couple of holiday-themed ones waiting.  I am going to finish one of the three before I open another!  As for the UFOs, I have an abundance of options.