Cupcakes and Hats

I did a bit of baking this week; miniature King Cakes to take to a club meeting:

Yes, blue is not a traditional Mardi Gras colour, but I added
it as it's one of the club colours, and I figured most wouldn't
know anyway since a lot of them seem to come from New York.

I've decided that if I do these again (IF!) I will not make one long piece to cut into smaller pieces, as filling leaked out in the baking.  I'd forgotten to account for it.  Next time (NEXT?) I will cut individual pieces to fill and roll and twist, so they should stay sealed.  The end result was very tasty, even if the paper cases stuck a bit in places.

Next month the club is viewing a documentary about The Automat (those were before my time, but my father went to one while on a Boy Scout trip to New York and told me about it) and I signed up to make Rice Pudding.  They want people to bring Automat-themed desserts and I hoped for peach pie as I have a lot of peaches in the freezer from the summer, or cocoanut cream pie which I love, but the only options were apple (which I cannot make as well as my mother, by a long shot), blueberry, or chocolate cream.  So rice pudding it will be!  I found a recipe online that is allegedly from Horn & Hardart, so will make that one.

No progress on the sweater, as I switched to a community project for which I am the putting-together person.  I need to add borders to all the squares that came in and then sew together and put on the final border.  At least one square has gone missing in the mail, but it's high time I did my part so I've started.  I will have to re-do at least one square as there are too many border stitches and it is rippling, but I'll go back to it after I have a number more done and a better idea of how many stitches I need on each side.

I did work on a couple idiot projects, one of the inevitable garter stitch scarves, and a hat of the long-discontinued Lion Brand yarn Keppi that I mostly made during the club meeting.  The yarn moves from one colour or type to another so a very plain project looks interesting.  Each ball came with a pompon and instructions for making hats of all diameters, but you were supposed to use all the yarn for each hat, so the ones for smaller heads were more like a stocking cap and those for larger heads closer to a beanie.  I did a larger size.  And then, needing another no-attention item, I made another:

Clearly another hat is going to happen.

I finished my second library challenge book.  This time I selected "a title that has been on your TBR list the longest".  It's a little difficult to figure out which are the longest items on my To Be Read list, but I have a facsimile copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground that I thought would probably qualify.  It was interesting to read the history that was added as introductory material, and then the manuscript itself.

I think the next book may be from the library, but it's bitterly cold today and I don't feel the need to hurry and get it.  I was going to do some preparatory lookups of the booklists they have as suggestions but the QR codes on the pamphlet aren't working, so I'll see if they have lists onsite.

Mardi Bleu and Lenten Promise

When I pulled out my beads to wear yesterday for Mardi Gras, I made sure to have a blue strand prominently in the mix:

Although I am not Christian, it's a family tradition because of our long association with Catholics to make a Lenten pledge.  Sometimes I give up something; sometimes I commit to do something; sometime both.

This year, I am giving up knitting.

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No, I have not lost my mind, or my mojo.  I've decided that from now until Easter on April 17th, I can crochet, spin, and do other things with yarn - just not knitting.  This will be the longest that I can remember I haven't knit, so it will be interesting.  I do have a few crochet UFOs that I hope will get finished during this time, and I have other projects queued, so I expect to accomplish things.

I'm glad that DFW Fiber Fest moved to September, as I usually take some knitting classes.  And that I am not going to Stitches West, even though I mostly work for Fiberlady.  I'm skipping the North Texas Irish Festival this weekend, I am sad to miss it and feel badly about not going given that they seem to be very short of volunteers, and the other managers in Performer Products are older and less well than I.  However, Dallas County and surrounding counties just moved from COVID-Red to COVID-Orange and I'm not ready to travel and take the risks of being in large crowds.  Not yet.

More things upended.

 Due to COVID-19, Mardi Gras today was mostly cancelled in favor of safer experiences such as "Yardi Gras".  A colleague of mine who lives in N'Awlins told me this morning that it's one of the coldest Mardi Gras on record there, so he doesn't mind that everybody is supposed to stay indoors.

I added this as my Teams meeting background today.

Here are some shots of the snow that fell at the beginning of the month, after I delivered the social justice committee donations:

  

  

The total in my area was about 8-10", but we'd had some a few days before and then we got more a few days later.  I uploaded one as my new TEAMS background:

In better weather I might eat lunch out there, but not these days.

Midmonth Mini-Resolution Update

No progress to report.  Still reading.  Work is stressy so I've switched to simpler things, such as a garter stitch scarf of  Red Heart Super Saver in "Americana", which I will donate to the Knit Your Bit project at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.  They are receiving packages again.

I took a load of things to the thrift store on Saturday.  It's good to be back to sorting and clearing out things.  I found a bunch of unusual knitting needles and crochet hooks and posted them to eBay, and they are selling.  Not for what I paid, but it's a little money in which isn't a bad exchange.  Similar to putting them out at a yard sale.  For specialty items I like to do eBay because they have a better chance of going to somebody who really wants and will use it.  I did the same with trims I'd gotten long ago for SCA garb, and some stationery and such.  Those sold also.

In past Februarys I've played the Minimalism Game, where you try to get rid of one thing on the first, two on the second, and so forth.  I forgot about it this year, but I seem to be doing quite well anyway.  Maybe I'll report at monthend on what I've donated, recycled, etc.

Three things for March

I tried to get a post up at the end of March, but the laptop I have been using was not cooperative.  I'll add it in a few days, and then complete a link.  This is just a quick post to tell you the three new things I did in March - as you can see, I'm still working on the "update the blog more often" part of my resolutions.  Still, this has been done more often than in 2013.

The new things I did in March were small:

• March (really, dance) in a Mardi Gras parade.
• Go dancing at a local club - really, I cannot remember ever dancing at a club, so even though I have gone out dancing many a time, I count this.  They have a monthly "Zodiac Night" and someone I've met recently teased me into going, and I'm glad I went.
• Hands-on for silk from cocoon to knitting.

I did have fun with the Mawata class, which was at DFW Fiber Fest.  I got to spend one day in classes and one day shopping and visiting with friends, and then had to come home for the start of tech week.  They yarnbombed the convention centre, here are a few of my favourite pictures:

This one is my absolute favourite.

I want the pattern - and to know what yarn she used!

Someone made a LOT of these butterflies!

More pictures when I write about my adventures.

Mardi Gras in Hartford

Fat Tuesday in New Orleans was cold (for New Orleans) and raining.  In Hartford, it was cold (starting the day at +3(F) and getting up to a balmy +28-30(F) by evening) and sunny until shortly before parade time.  But we stepped off and had our own, if smaller, carnival:

  

There are professional photos, of course (a nonprofessional has already posted a set if you want to see more, plus there's a commentary at the FB site which I believe is public); mine are from the start and end, because I was too busy participating in the middle.  I dressed warmly in layers that were either brightly coloured or in Mardi Gras shades of gold, purple, and green.  All the instruments, things to throw, and so on were distributed before I got there (had hoped to get out of work early, but of course not) so I just danced along, waving at people with my bright, woolly mittens, and wearing a glitter mask.  It was cool when a busload of people waved back.

My friend Lauren got there in time to be one of the walking skeletons:

I did get a couple bits of video with my new camera, so the resolution is better and you can even hear sound, although my camera work still leaves a LOT to be desired (and I have to remember not to dance whilst trying to record):

The second one shows something you definitely would not see at the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade!

Afterwords, off to String Thing and Origami at the Hartford Makerspace, which due to lack of people other than us turned into a bunch of trigonometry, testing of newly donated projection equipment, and playing a bit with something called SÅND.

I did struggle this year about my commitment for Lent.  A lot of people look on it as a time to give up something, and often I have done that, and didn't feel like giving up something I've given up in the past.  Others look on it as a time to commit to do something spiritual or giving back to the community, which I already do quite a lot.  I thought of committing to read a psalm a day, or a chapter in Exodus, but with rehearsals for a show I'm dubious about having the time.

So my official commitment, which came about serendipitously because I ran out of bread and tortillas on Tuesday, is to not eat breadly items or similar baked goods.  This should provide some interesting opportunities for creative cooking, not to mention whittling down my store of noodly things.

And I realized that for the second year in a row, I missed out on eating a paczki.