Monday, December 18, 2006

It's Be-Knitting to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We survived the storm and losing our power for thirty-two hours. Had to spend a few days catching up on things like doing the long-overdue laundry, throwing out spoiled food from the fridge, and restocking. Then we could return to previously scheduled Christmas.

We got our tree up and decorated. We could probably have found a free tree lying around on the ground this year, but we had already bought one before the storm.

I have my assorted elannite ornaments on the tree.





I'm finishing up some Christmas knitting. I had to make a second one of these orange hats out of the Katia Mexico because my intended recipient has a fat head. I mean a larger head than anticipated.



I'm making my dad a ribbed hat from a rusty-red colourway of elann's Super Tweed. This will match the rusty red scarf I made him last year. Note iPod full of Christmas tunes to put me into the holiday knitting mood.



We're busy making holiday goodies. This is an easy family favorite called Haystacks. It looks kind of plain here, but broken into chunks and put in colourful holiday bags with ribbons, they look grand. And taste better.


In a bowl, combine:
2 cups small pretzels (the crossed legs kind)
1 1/2 cups raisins (I like sunmaid)
1 cup chow mein noodles
1 cup salted blanched peanuts

Melt: 18 oz. white dipping chocolate over hot water, stir quickly over pieces until all coated, and quickly pour/spread on wax paper or parchment. When cooled/set, break up into pieces and store in airtight container. This one is perfect for people who like that sweet and salty combination.


Up until the storm and all the Christmas bustle, I was working on my Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sweater from Yarnplay. I hit a point where I realized I had made a dumb error and had to rip back all the way to the ribbing.



Yikes! Said Peppo, I can't bear to look...



But I've got the sweater back to where you divide for shaping the front/back armholes, and I'm working my way up the back.



Phew! That's much better.



A really cool thing happened on the way to making this sweater. The author of Yarnplay, Lisa Shobhana Mason, found my blog and sweater-in-progress and asked to post it on her Yarnplay blog.

Check out her blog at:

http://wild_deer.typepad.com/yarnplay/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, oh! Another great knitting book to check out! I'm glad your power came back on. You must have been on the same grid as Lougheed Mall and my sister, who also threw out most of the contents of her fridge. I hope your holiday is extra wonderful to make up for the windstorm.

Anonymous said...

Jayne,

I'm glad that everything turned out OK and that you and your family are safe and sound. I'm hoping that your belongings are OK and not too much damage was suffered. I'm also loving the kitchen sink sweater! I'm anxious to see it finished.

Libby

junior_goddess said...

I thought the Haystacks were squid. Forgive me.

Glad you're ok!

B

Anonymous said...

Peppo looks like he'd make a nice Munch-O in my house! Good thing he doesn't live here! Glad the power returned.

jayne said...

Hi, Lunadog -- we were on a different grid than Lougheed but similar circumstances. You must live in a protected pocket. A friend of mine didn't even realize there had been a storm until he got to work.

Libs, I want to finish the KS sweater too, but have to finish just a wee bit of Christmas knitting first. (or not...) ;)

Squid?? Okay, B, I can see your point. I like Calamari, but these are goooood. Probably doesn't help that they don't look very dramatic against white parchment.

Trish...cats? Peps had to be a guest at a house with a dog once. The dog didn't want to eat her, but was very eager to play. If there hadn't been such a size difference, they might have been pals.

Grace said...

glad you are back home and into christmas preperations, I will post some recipes tomorrow's blog, thank you for yours

LisaW. said...

Glad to see you're all safe and didn't suffer too much damage. Lovely tree! I love homey type trees with all the meaningful ornaments. And I'm watching the EBKS sweater...very closely..in fact i even perused Yarnplay yesterday while doing some shopping at Barnes & Noble...hmmmm it's definately on the wishlist now. Peppo's a cutie but the rest of the fam just think of them as vermin. oh well. give Peppo a lil noggin scritch for me please.

jayne said...

Hey, Lisa, glad you're up and about. I wondered if you'd sunk back into sickville.

I know...I can't wait to get back to the sweater. Maybe my mom doesn't need those slippers...ha ha ha.

We're all allergic to cats 'n dogs around here, so we're a hamster fam all the way.