HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today in Canada it is our Thanksgiving Day. I hope everyone is having a good one and lots of turkey. Yesterday I had dinner at a friends. I made and brought brought my Cranberry Compote. I got this recipe from a friend's son who got it from a book. It is very easy and tastes yummy. If I am having cranberry from a can I want the jellied kind as I don't find the berry style very good BUT when I make it I want the berry style. Enjoy the recipe.

Cranberry Compote

- 3 ripe pears peeled and chopped
- about 18 - 22 dried apricots chopped
- 2 cans of mandarin orange segments (juice and pieces used)
- 1 bag of cranberries
- 1/2 cup sugar

Drain the oranges from the juice in the tins and save the orange segments.
Add water to the canned liquid to make a total of 1 1/2 cups liquid.
Put liquid in a large pot along with the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Add the pears and apricots to the liquid in the pot and bring to a simmer and continue to simmer for five minutes.
Add the orange segments to the pot, return to a simmer again and simmer for another minute now.
Add the cranberries, return the mixture to a simmer and cook over medium heat for five to ten minutes. Stir the mixture occasionally.
It will thicken as it cools.
You can make this up to a week ahead with no loss of flavor or freshness.

When I am alone on a turkey meal occasion I tend to make a cheating turkey meal which will make a couple meals or a meals and turkey sandwich depending on how much turkey I use. I season the turkey as I would a whole bird and put it in my slow cooker. I usually use turkey breasts but have been know to use thighs or legs. Then I add one large scrubbed yam and a can of turkey gravy. Remember this is a cheat meal!! Turn the slow cooker on and voila later you have a turkey dinner complete with the smells of turkey cooking in the oven. To complete the meal I will nuke a piece of broccoli and make some stove top stuffing. Again remember this is the easy cheat method. Normally I would open a can of the jellied cranberry but since I made some real cranberry on Friday I had some of that with my dinner. For dessert tonight I had a piece of apple pie that Darlene brought over today with a cup of tea from my tea exchange.

It is not nice out today. It is grey, rainy, drab and cool. The end of last month the bush down at the end of my street looked liked this:
Tomorrow I will put photos in my blog of what they look like now.

I have been busy working on different knitting projects.
I washed my monkey socks and OH NO!!! They stretched. They ended up an inch and a bit more than they should be. So I had to go swimming at the frog pond and take out the kitchnering, the toe decreasing and one pattern repeat of 11 rows. I added five plain rows and then did the decrease again. It again measures what it should. I hope it doesn't stretch out again. I wonder if it is yarn I am using or is it b/c I used a 2.5mm needle to knit them with. I am leery about rewashing them again. Any suggestions out there? Has this happened to anyone else?
I have also been working on my knitnplay bag. Here is what it looks like so far before it is felted. The single skein of yarn is to show how big the bag is.

I also changed the yarn I added on the my Mixed Jelly Bean Socks. I wanted to make the socks a little longer in the leg and I ran out of yarn. The first yarn I used was too dark. This next yarn seems okay. If it too light my eyes haven't seen it yet and I hope they don't or it means more rip rip ripping. BUT so far they seem fine.

On Saturday I went to Ram's Wools for a Jane Ellison workshop. B/C I take the bus I was there early. I was there even before the shop opened but I was let in and got to do some extra browsing and petting of the yarns.

For those of you who have to order online or via the phone here is what Ram Wools looks like. Yes it is very plain on the outside but it is very very very large on the inside.
Here is a photo of Lorna who works at Ram and Jane with a couple of her knitted items from the Marisol book. AND here is a close up of Lorna and Jane. There were 12 of us taking the workshop. Several of the ladies thought she would be older than she is. I guess that is because she has been designing knitting patterns for quite a while. She designs for Noro and Debbie Bliss also. She is working with Diamond Yarns for the Marisol project.
Here is 1/2 of the first glove I made at the workshop. They are knit in garter stitch from the pinkie to the thumb four times and then two are sew together to make a glove. The first photo shows one half of my knitted glove on the page with the photos of the knitted gloves in the Marisol pattern book and the second photo shows my glove on the cover of the Marisol knitting pattern book.
Everyone at the workshop got to choose the yarn color they wanted to use.
While I was talking to Jane I asked her about my Cavendish Blanket that I call a serape shawl I am knitting from one of her Noro patterns asking her why I was needing more yarn than called for. I even brought it with me. She looked at it and said I was knitting too loose. She also told me she liked the way I was using different colors of the Noro Silk Garden and thought they were blending well. Jane even knew the names of the colors of the Noro Silk Garden yarn I was using and could pick them out in my serape. I was amazed. From my conversation with the gals at the workshop it seemed everyone had a good time. There were even familiar faces at the workshop.

Well What should I Call this Post

I don't know what to call this post. I thought of frustrations, no knitting I've been at the frog pond swimming instead or decisions decisions decisions.


Let's see why decisions decisions decisions? Remember those books on sale at Knit Picks. Yes, those all books that are 40% off. Well I wanted them all. Almost all of them anyway. AND I didn't think I was going to be able to make a decision and chose only one, a couple or even a few. Especially when they are 40% off. It was just terrible. I did finally get it down to only 11 books (there were over 100 to choose from) and them I was stumped. Remember I wanted them all. I paced, I thought while I paced, I crossed out one or two and then changed my mind and crossed a different one or two off and then would change my mind again. BUT finally I did make up my mind on which I would get for me and one for a swap. I also got some yarn for socks for me. Not that I need any more sock yarn. HEY what does need have to do with it anyway. I also got some yarn for a swap pal. I finished my order off with something else for my pal in one of the swaps I am in, something that was asked for. Last but not least I ordered the Baby Surprise DVD for me which I've previously ordered but wasn't available yet. HMM!!! I wonder if that will that help me finish the UFO baby surprise sweater I have in my LR staring at me. All it needs to no longer be a UFO is to sew up the two seams. Of course that is unless I want to add a collar and cuffs. It then will be ready to give away to someone. I also ordered some items from Knit Picks for my friend Cathy. One of the books she wanted wasn't available and if she wants it she will have to wait until next month to order it but they said it would still be on sale. So instead she ordered extra yarn. They only ship to Canada on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope it comes quick so I can add those goodies to my swap. It is funny. I called and spoke to someone in Vancouver Washington who took the order but it is shipped from Ohio I was told. I thought the sales rep on the phone said it went from Ohio to somewhere in NY close to the border and comes over to Canada that way. A very around about way but by doing it this way it is brokered through a craft company for a 10% fee and it is delivered directly to me with no customs fees or duty. Apparently the 10% covers any taxes and the extra $5.00 delivery fee charged when ordering from out of Canada. AND with the dollar so strong here it is even a better deal than it would have been a few months ago or last year even. BUT boy did I sweat over which book I should get. And as soon as my package arrives oh my some more knitting goodness.



Now why the frustrations and why I knitted very little. Last night I thought I would use up that last half ball of yarn on my Noro serape shawl and then put it away, unfortunately in the UFO pile until I can purchase some more Noro on sale. There I am knitting merrily along doing several rows of garter stitch for a while with no problem until I get to the pattern row and it doesn't work. YUP I was short a stitch. Now how could that be. I had to tink it back to fix it and when I thought I had it fixed and started to knit the tinked rows again after counting three times the correct number of stitches it still was short a stitch when I finished that first reknit row. I even found the original missing stitch that seemed to have been dropped but wasn't really running down the shawl which would have made it obvious to find without going to the frog pond and getting my feet wet. It was strange. I would count one way and it was correct but when I counted the other way I was a stitch short. I just wasn't getting anywhere. It was like when you knit and knit and measure and then knit and knit some more and when you measure you haven't seemed to have gotten anywhere. There must be a little knitting frog or elf somewhere above sprinkling some magical dust on the knitting and us just to make sure we do not get to full of ourselves thinking how wonderful the knitting is going along and what a great knitter we are especially when the knitting we are doing is a very easy pattern. So no knitting for me on Thursday. AND no knitting for me on Friday.

Friday I put three new items on ebay. I had to talk with the live chat computer ebay person three times. I had to clean out my history again and I had to install Firefox. I have to admit ebay was easier to list items with Firefox. I wonder if blogger will also work better with Firefox. Only it is something new to get used to. It has messed up all my favorites which were in alphabetical order. No I do not have an A personality, just check my apt and you will agree with me but it is easier to find what you are looking for when it is in alphabetical order. And it is difficult with Firefox to have my two yahoo email programs open. It keeps changing the one to the other leaving me with two screens of one email program. I also worked on my tote for the ITE4 this evening. I am putting a lining in and am fighting a mental block on it and the zipper I want to put in the bag. It is not that I haven't made bags and totes before or put zippers and linings in them. AARRGHHHH!!!!!

And now I can't sleep. BUT I better try again. I am going to visit by friend Cathy in the nether regions of the city sometime Saturday. While there and watching her walk (she had a total knee replacement about six weeks ago and will have the other done in a Sept) I am going to felt a hat for the whoduknot group Maisie Dobbs project and put Cathy to work on making me two pompoms for my ITE4 tote. Gotta keep Cathy out of mischief.

Solara who was bugging me while I was trying to make a test lining for the tote this evening says MEOW and will you get to bed already again.

Gotta say bye for now..

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell from the exclamation marks in the title? My blog has not only been read but there is even a comment which I responded to. Makes me feel good.

Knitting Goodness

There is always knitting goodness to report. Today I finished my cloche I knitted for the Whoduknit group I belong to after reading the June book called Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. I am looking forward to reading her next three books she has written about Maisie Dobbs and see how the character Maisie evolves. This is a very very very fun group. We read a mystery each month. We discuss the book the first two weeks in the following month. We do a project based on something in the book. I was going to knit some vegetables since in the book Maisie's dad is a costermonger but chose to knit and felt a hat. The story takes place in England just after WWI with some flashbacks to the war. Maisie wears a cloche. I was going to knit socks as her feet are always cold but didn't think I could finish them in a week with all my ongoing projects. I now need to felt the hat. I may put a flower on the hat but that depends on what the hat looks like after felting. As you can see from the photo there is some fancy yarn (Plymouth Eros) knitted along with the wool (Plymouth Galaway) both which came from my stash and with this fancy yarn the hat may not need a flower.

Thank-you Janice for modeling the hat for me. The color is a little darker than the photo shows but it is not navy.

A little more clarification about this group. The mystery we read in a specific month is voted on by the members of the group. We are not just told this is the book we read. Everyone in the group can nominate one book and we each get one vote to pick which we would like to read. The book with the majority of votes becomes the book we read. I am a new member and if I am correct the book with the second most votes is read in the following month. Only in August there won't be a specific book to read. It is a month to catch up and read books that were voted on but didn't get enough votes to be chosen to be read. The project we do also is totally our own decision. We post photos of the project we make on the Whoduknit blog and in the photo section of the yahoo group. There are also optional swaps. I love swap. I am so addicted to swaps. There is a new swap now in the group. It is a tag/garage sale swap. We can spend no more than $10 not including postage. We are to see what goodies we can find for only $10 but we can raid our own stuff. I have been given two items (read not part of the $10 allowed to spend) from my friend Genie that are perfect for this swap. One item was an ugly hat (90% wool & 10% nylon). I say was because I unraveled it into a ball of ugly yarn and the other is a knitting mystery I never heard of by Jill Churchill. It is quite old. We will get our partners in a few days and we have until the end of August to mail out our packages to our partner.

********Oh does everyone know Knit Picks is having a sale on their books? All their books are 40% off through August 17. This is going to be a problem for me especially with the Canadian and the American dollar so close.

As soon as I figure out how to link to another page on the sidebar I will list what I do have in my knitting library. Until then the list is in my head and the books are all over my apartment. I love owning books. AND the more pictures the better.

I heard from my swap partner Sharon in the weluvknitting group today (read Wednesday). She received the package I mailed her July 3. This is a swap where we have a partner and we send four packages to each other over a year. This was our second package we sent to each other. I love putting together packages as much as I enjoy receiving them. There is something special about trying to figure out what your partner would like, finding it and sending it to her. AND it is really neat waiting for packages and wondering what goodies your partner has chosen for you.

I had hoped to finish my Noro Silk Garden Serape Shawl by the end of July but it looks like I will have to wait until Ram has another good sale. I have about two skeins of yarn left but the colors do not blend well with what I have already knitted. The serape shawl calls for 10 balls of Noro Silk Garden but with two and a half balls left to knit my serape shawl seems only half completed. Below is a photo of what is completed on my shawl. I hope you are able see from the photo how large it already is. At this stage of completion it won't wrap around me and yet it is just shy a couple inches of the actual measurements given in the pattern instructions. I think when completed it will be like wrapping myself in a small blanket. I tried to take a close up photo to show the stitch pattern but it came out blurry. Oh and this photo shows the back of the serape shawl. When completed I promise to photograph the right side of it.

AND as soon as I put it on the floor to take a photo my knitting kitty Solara decided she should check it out. You have to admit she is very pretty even if she isn't a small and delicate kitty.

And I guess she figured well now that you have taken my picture on the shawl I think I will get down to business and clean my foot and where better to do that than on a partly finished knitting project lying on the floor.

I think that will be all for this post. Believe me I have much more I could write......