An actual knitting update!

Slowly but surely I am making progress on the On your toes knee socks I mentioned in my last post. I am finding as I go along that I really like these socks. They are knitting up very soft and squishy and I anticipate that they will feel great on the feet. I finished the short row heel this morning before work and got a round or two past that. I have a few more rows until I start ribbing my way up the leg. Unfortunately I don’t think I am going to have enough yarn though to make it to the knee the way I want. I originally bought this yarn along with two balls of the same in black to make a pair of mittens. The mittens never got made and while I’m fine with that I think I may have to go on line and see if I can get some more of this grey because I really want these to be the knee socks I envisioned and not crew socks. I’ve looked around a bit and I don’t think it should be too hard to find – I need the ball band which is sitting at home to be sure of the color name though – I can’t remember it for the life of me. I may get a couple more balls of the black yarn too and go for a second pair of knee socks while I’m at it.

As an extra here is a photo of the last of a pair of purple socks I finished up recently. I started them sometime early on in the year and put them away when the weather got warm. I pulled them out of the knitting chest last week and was amazed because I only had the toe decreases left to do to give me a finished pair. I can’t believe I tucked them away that close to the finish line. Maybe I was just really sick of them – I don’t remember.

I had a hard time knitting over the summer. I think it’s been about six months since I’ve really been knitting regularly. I chalk it up to the warm weather, being seriously busy at home over the summer and maybe just boredom. I don’t know what’s gotten into me recently because my desire to knit (and spin) has woken up with a vengeance. Over the last few days I have been all over the knitting blogs catching up on those I’ve ignored and planning projects in my head for the winter. I’ve also been eyeing my wheel at home longingly – I’ve got a good bit of beautiful wool my husband gave me for Christmas last year that I’d love to spin up for a sweater I have in mind.

*** don’t think I gave up knitting completely – I don’t think that will ever happen. I just seriously slowed down and my projects got smaller. I have been baby knitting some though – there are two new babies in the family and one coming for a friend at work so I’ve been knitting some of the EZ baby sweaters. I haven’t taken many pictures but I have a few I’ll have to dig up.

Thanksgiving Recap

All in all I’d say we had a pretty nice holiday – we spent most of the official day itself out at our various families’ homes not overeating since there wasn’t that much for us to really eat. I did have a little too much wine at my family’s house but other than that not much damage done. As I mentioned in my last post we had our own thanksgiving this weekend at home and I really had a nice time. I spent most of the day in the kitchen cooking but it was mostly fun cooking – no real rush (except for hungry people) – relaxing and nice. The movie afterward was good as well and every bit as sweet and moving as I remembered – I definitely recommend it. The food all turned out well except for the pumpkin pie – I didn’t puree it in the food processor like the recipe said and it was a bit stringy. The soy and seitan “turkey” was a big hit with everyone – even the kids seemed to really like it with one of them even going back for seconds. I thought the stuffing was the best – I had added some soy sausage to the onion and celery mixture and used a combination of homemade corn bread and whole wheat bread that I thought was wonderful. I probably liked the stuffing the best because it was what I was missing the most at the various houses we went to – even the stuffing with no chunks of meat in it was made with chicken broth so I was completely out of luck. Hubby and I decided that this is something we’d like to do every year – have a day just for our little family where we can establish a few of our own traditions – the good food is just a perk! I do think that next year my cooking needs to be a little more organized – several things should be made ahead like the soy and seitan turkey – it took forever! I think if I planned better and made that and the pie the night before would cut the cooking time on the day itself down considerably. I spent about four hours this weekend all told on the day itself – I’d like to cut it down to about two if I could and spend more time with the family.

  In other news I picked up a new knitting project this morning. I have been looking at Ann Budd’s “On Your Toes” toe up socks using the Eastern cast on method because I have a yen for some comfy knee socks. Now that the weather has gotten chilly I have pulled out all the hand knit socks I have but I noticed that knee socks are something I’ve never bothered to knit. Not because I don’t think I’d have the patience but because I never really run across knee sock patterns when I’m looking for new socks to knit. Since I wear skirts most of the year the shorter socks are just not cutting it when the wind blows around my ankles. I’ve had some brown sheep sport weight yarn in a lovely grey languishing in my knitting chest for a couple of years now and I thought this pattern would really fit the bill. I actually checked my gauge over the weekend to find how I liked it knit up – this is something I never do for socks – I don’t really know why since I religiously check gauge on most everything else but I usually don’t bother on socks. This morning after figuring out my gauge and foot measurements I cast on for the first sock. I am not really sure how I feel about the new (to me) cast on method. I thought it was a bit fiddly but very clever. I flubbed it a couple of time but managed to get it accomplished eventually. After working several of the initial increases to form the toe I can tell the original cast on stitches seem a little loose. I’ve tried to tighten them up a bit using the tail but it doesn’t seem to make much difference. It’s not very noticeable but is something I’m going to try to improve. I made it through most of the toe increases and should start the main portion of the foot this evening. Will post photos of that later.

Wow – It’s only been five weeks since I’ve posted!

Thanksgiving is not one of my favorite holidays – it never really has been and it’s definitely gotten a little worse for us as a family since we made the leap into vegetarianism (I don’t even really know how long it’s been – maybe two years now). Both places we end up going each year are decidedly meat centric and make no concessions to our vegetarianism. I think people are assuming it’s just a passing phase or something we only do around them to annoy them. Needless to say there won’t be much in the way of food for us to eat on the day itself – except for desserts. At least one can reasonably count on no one putting chicken stock in the pumpkin pie! Instead of just getting ticked off though I am planning a vegetarian feast to take place on Saturday for me and mine – a long leisurely day where we get what we want and get to enjoy it too! Frankly I’m very excited as I’ve never actually cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for myself. Even with teenagers we are still “the kids” and have to go to someonelse’s house for the meal instead of eating at home. So – coming up with a menu for the day has been my mission over the last week or so since I decided to cook. I’ve actually had loads of free time at work lately so I’ve been searching online for the perfect holiday recipes. By the way I really don’t like this not much to do thing – I like to be busy and there has just not been anything for me to do – this is driving me a bit nuts. Now I’m fairly traditional when it comes to holiday meals – I like the sweet potato pies and the stuffing and the gravy so my search hasn’t been that exotic but I think I’ve managed to come up with a list of recipes that suit my and the family’s foibles and aren’t so complicated that I’ll spend ALL day in the kitchen. For your use and mine I’m going to list them here.

Download soy_and_seitan_turkey.doc

Download vegan_green_bean_casserole.doc

Download Stuffing2.doc

Download sweet_potato_casserole_with_pecan_topping.doc

Download maple_cranberry_sauce.doc

Download pumpkin_pie.doc

Download pie_crust.doc

Download pumpkin_pie_wontons.doc  (I may not make these but the idea was too good to resist!)

Mashed potatoes – no recipe needed – I’ve got this down.

Gravy – also no recipe needed – veg bullion and cornstarch – some herbs a little wine

After dinner we plan on continuing with a fairly new Thanksgiving tradition – Watching Pieces of April. I’m totally not a Katie Holmes fan – she kind of bugs – but in this role it works. This is a great little movie we got by default from my MIL – she doesn’t really like movies that don’t have Julia Roberts in them and we do so we kind of borrowed it and have yet to give it back. For full disclosure’s sake it has been a couple of years but I don’t think she misses it. It is a great little movie about kind of a bad girl who wants to make thanksgiving dinner for her estranged family from the suburbs. Oven turns out to be broken and she’s got to cook that turkey somewhere – hilarity ensues. Really folks – this movie is truly touching and sweet. We save it for Thanksgiving each year to keep it special.

That’s what my family is doing for Thanksgiving – what are you going to do?