A Place For My Stuff

I finally have a (small) place for my knitting stuff. Ever since the treadmill arrived--in the newly christened fitness room--my knitting and sewing supplies have been banished to far off nooks and crannies. The sewing machine still sits on the dining room table, but my knitting now has a home.

Granted, the fabric and yarn stashes are still homeless, but the immediate clutter problem is solved. The cupboard was made by Rose City Furnishings (no Swedish particle board here!) to our specifications and, as always, they did a fabulous job. Not The Joinery fabulous, but the within-our-price-range fabulous.

A Traditional Thanksgiving at Home

We celebrated a traditional Thanksgiving yesterday, using Grandma's china and silver. I discovered that I do not have eight matching napkin rings. How'd that happen? I bought the tablecloth and napkins at Target last weekend on one of my just-passing-through excursions and almost bought some beaded napkin rings but decided that was too much of an indulgence. Should've gone for it.

We had all the traditional foods--turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams, broccoli salad, cranberry chutney--and the requisite ham, satisfying non-turkey-eaters Ben and Grandma. My sister and her family were all curious when I took pictures of my plate, but the boys quickly filled them in, with a bit of dramatic eye-rolling, on my blogging activities. In turn, I reminded them that I could just as easily post pictures of their eye-rolling faces and the conversation turned to which movie they last watched.

What's Keeping Me Warm, Part Two

I started this scarf back in February, put it away for the summer, and pulled it out a few weeks ago. I had just as much trouble ending it as I had starting it. The pattern was a chart and not only left lots of details to the imagination, but also had an error or two. On a decrease row near the end, I had one too few stitches at the end of the row. After frogging back a couple of rows twice, I allowed that maybe, possibly, the pattern was wrong. It occurred to me that The Best Knitting Book Ever had explained about lifelines, so I used the technique for the first time with great success. Admittedly, it was only a scarf and not difficult to frog, but still, I saw how useful this technique could be. Just take a spare piece of yarn and use a yarn needle to thread it through the row just knitted. Then knit on. And if you do end up frogging, you can easily pick up the stitches held by the spare yarn. I knit several rows several times, frogging back to my lifeline, until I figured out how to correct the error on the pattern.

What's Keeping Me Warm

This Project Runway pattern is great. My only regret is that the fabric I chose--a corduroy print-- does not highlight the details of the pattern. Instead of cuffs, the sleeves have delicate tucks to reduce the fabric at the wrist. The center front does not overlap but joins with bias cut loops sewn into the edge seam on one side to buttons on the opposite side. The raglan sleeves are roomy enough to accommodate a light weight sweater underneath without seeming too big with just a tee shirt. A solid corduroy or lightweight wool tweed would show off the details nicely.

Deciding that perhaps the cropped jacket look should be left to a younger generation, I tried this Butterick pattern with some 60" fabric I found on JoAnn's Red Tag shelf. The fabric, a silk/nylon blend, was $2.00/yard and I used some left-over velvet for the collar and pocket trim. Turns out, it's my favorite jacket so far. The back is the best part, with the inverted center back pleat.

Two things about this pattern, which limits fabric selection: the fabric must be 60" wide and fairly lightweight to accommodate the four layers produced by the inverted pleat and back flap.

I Heart Fall

Nancy's gate is one of my fall favorites,

along with our vine maples

and fall sunshine.

Another fall favorite is apple pie. I have made three in the past few weeks, one for Ben's birthday, one because Peter ate the birthday leftovers and Ben was more than a little annoyed, and one because Winco has local, new crop Jonagold apples for 78 cents a pound and who can resist that? I know, many people (and recipe books) swear that Granny Smith apples make the perfect apple pie, but I disagree. For years I sought to make the perfect apple pie with Granny Smith apples. No luck. The apples were always too hard, no matter how long I baked the pie or pre-cooked the apples, and too dry, no matter how much sugar or apple juice or syrup I added. I finally found a kindred spirit in Dean, who confirmed my suspicions: forgo the Granny Smith . Liberated, I started to experiment and found that Newton Pippin and Jonagold both make excellent pies. I also picked up the perfect pie plate at a garage sale. It's ceramic and the bottom crust browns perfectly.

While I prefer a two crust apple pie, the boys want a streusel topping with lots of brown sugar and cinnamon. No nutmeg. I also tried a new recipe for apple cinnamon ice cream, but I was not impressed. I'll have my apples and cinnamon in a pie, thank you.

Halloween Reflections

I'm feeling a bit sad this year: the boys have outgrown Halloween. We didn't carve a pumpkin, I didn't sew even one costume, and I'm certainly not walking around the neighborhood making sure they are protected from ... ghosts? I loved Halloween as a child and anxiously awaited the trick-or-treat experience. Although, in my time, the rules were different: 1) You had to wait until it was dark (we had our first trick-or-treater at 4:30 this afternoon); 2) You had to wait until after "the dinner hour" as it would be rude to interrupt anyone's dinner (I don't even get home from my lengthy commute until 6:00 pm, at the earliest). Life was different in the sixties, that's for sure.

For the kindergarten Halloween parade, Peter was Pikachu and best friend Nick was Ash.

The Pokemon years continued, Ben inheriting the Pikachu costume and Peter evolving to Charmander.

There were a few years where Harry Potter ruled.

We also went through the Star Wars years until Obi-Wan's and Anakin's lightsabers were confiscated after one too many reenactments of the duel on Mustafar.

My all time favorite was Peter's portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow. While at the WASFAA conference in Anaheim, Andrea and I went to Disneyland and I bought Peter a Jack Sparrow hat at the Pirates of the Caribbean shop. Peter then decided that he needed the rest of the costume. I was just going to make the shirt and vest, but the pattern for the coat was so cool. The pants, however, are still a UFO in my sewing basket.
Very fun times!

Fall Leaves

Our next door neighbor, Nancy, has a fabulous yard. And I love that Nancy's yard spills over into our yard. The fence between our properties is covered with a tangle of vines and ivies and the fall colors are simply lovely. The fence has a trellis along the top and the sun shines through the hanging vines, casting a yellow glow in the late afternoon.