Ack!  Rainy weather and cable problems seem to go together.  We lost the cable late last night and didn’t get it restored until this afternoon.  So my post is late, naturally :)

I want to thank you all for your comments and compliments on the mutant elephant - it was most surprising and pleasing.  Just proves I should have listened to Myria in the first place - and maybe that I am not the best judge of my own work.  I did, however, move his ears a bit forward last night and I believe this improves things somewhat.

I also worked on a couple of other gift things.

The size issue aside, I was unhappy with the Landscape Shawl’s bind-off.  It is recommended that this be done very loosely - which I did.  Consequently, the top edge of the shawl has always looked sloppy to me - as though it didn’t fit the shawl.  I could have ripped itn out and done it over, but…

I decided to crochet shells along the top edge which tightens it up just a little and neatens it up considerably.  They are different from the picots along the edge, but not out of place.  In fact, the overall appearance was so much improved to my eye that were it not for the issue of it still bveing rather scanty for my fluffiness, I might consider keeping it.  Good thing it is small because I need it for a gift!

I also took an abandoned project and, with very minor reworking, turned it into a pretty little bag which will probably hold the earrings in the picture.

The yarn is very shiny so the picture isn’t great.  And while it was the very devil to work with (hence the initial abandonment) it is very pretty.  Trying to finish things neatly yesterday was all the experience with it I need though.  I have half a ball left and I’ll find some use for it that doesn’t involve knitting :)

We watched Scrooged (Bill Murray) last night.  It’s one of our favorite holiday films.  Over the final credits, Annie Lennox sings Put a Little Love in Your Heart and as I listened to it, I got an emotional smack upside the head.

The 60s and early 70s were a period of tremendous change.  Some seriously important things were accomplished and a great deal more silliness was tried.  But we did think, then, that we could change things, that it was possbile to make the world a good place for all its residents.  We, most of us, didn’t have a clue as to how that could be accomplished, but we were willing to give it a shot, We believed it could be done.

I really miss that feeling.

November 7, 2005

I received a great note from Sarah Cooley this morning with a couple of hints for creating a bit nicer elephant.  Following are her observations.  Thanks Sarah!

I sewed up the outside of the elephant according to the instructions,
and had the legs meet in the middle.  Things were getting pinched, so
instead of just seaming up the bottom of the animal, I knitted up a
tummy panel, about 8 stitches wide by about 14(?) rows long (really I
just stopped when it looked right).  I inserted it behind the front
legs, sewed along the sides of the tummy panel and the pre-existing
edges, and in front of the back legs.  That way, the elephant came out
with straighter legs (although not perfect, definitely more
realistic)and I could make the belly fuller.  I also filled my trunk
with less stuffing so it was a little flatter and more prehensile - not
so phallic!  (I learned from your comments!)

This is what I’ve been working on for the last couple of days.

I’m really not thrilled with the way he turned out - but I’m not sure how to do it differently.  The pattern is Phyllis Tucker’s Garter Stitch Elephant and it sounded like such a cute idea.  The pattern isn’t difficult to follow (or at least I didn’t think it was) but stitching up directions seemed a bit sketchy.





The ears are set too far back, but that’s my mistake.  The pattern just says to sew them on.  I may try to move them up just to see if it improves things.  The trunk is one of the most phallic things I’ve ever seen though that could be dealt with in subsequent efforts, if need be.  The legs are joined to each other under the body, along the center line.  I don’t know if that’s how they’re supposed to be joined, but it was the best I could figure out.  Goofy looking thing :(





Cute tail though :)

I had high hopes for this but I really don’t know if I want to try it again.  Myria thinks this guy is cute, in an abstract, semi-elephantine sort of way, not being elephant directly, but embracing and suggesting elephantness.  That may be, I guess - but that doesn’t make for a good toy.

Toys are tough, you know?  If I’d thought about it beforehand before just diving in, feet first, I would have realized that something with that kind of topography wasn’t going to be easily rendered in a half-page garter stitch pattern :) Four legs, body, head, trunk,ears and tail - I’m certain it can be done and done well, but either this isn’t the pattern or I’m not the girl to make it.

Yes, I’m disappointed, can you tell?  LOL…

Okay, enough of that.  The unsatisfactory Landscape shawl (remember that?) that I made a while back has joined the Christmas gift list.  I know someone who will love it and I have the pattern and the yarn to make it again (in a more reasonable size for me) sometime in the future.  That makes me feel much better about making it.  It’s a lovely pattern, even if this first iteration didn’t work out very well for me, but the shawl won’t be wasted and will go to someone who will definitely enjoy it :) So it was a success after all!

Several things turn my mind to soup.  First, it’s one of my absolute favorite foods.  If offered the choice between a well made soup or stew and a filet mignon, I’d be hard pressed to make a decision.  Then, winter’s coming.  Temperatures are plunging and we’ve had snow twice here.  It isn’t lasting, but it will soon enough.  Finally, I had the remnants of a chicken in the fridge.  Combine all those things in my kitchen and soup happens :)

These are my basics for soup and they have to be fresh.  Other things might be prepared, but these four have to be fresh - carrots, celery, onions and mushrooms.  These mushrooms were a hoot - there were four of them and they came to just over a pound - yeah, regular white mushrooms!  It seemed a shame to cut them up, they were so beautiful, but the only other alternative would have been to use them as soup bowls...naaahhh!  The bowl you see lurking in the background is stock and there were two bags of this stuff in the freezer that I also used.

I did this in the crock pot (have I told you how much I love my crock pot?) and started putting things together at about 10:00 last night.  (Note: I highly recommend doing it this way - putting a soup together in the crock pot before going to bed.  The aroma you wake up to in the morning is unbelievable and makes you feel warm and loved :) - Ahhhh!!))

Cutting up the onions did a number on my eyes - really made ‘em hurt!  Made me wonder how we (mankind) ever figured out this stuff was actually edible!  Eh, no matter.  I’ve read that if you use onions often and cut them up frequently, you get used to them and they don’t make you cry.  Seems I remember a time when that was true - I didn’t have any problems with onions.  But it ain’t true any more - guess preparing the eye-watering little buggers once or twice a month isn’t enough to confer immunity :)





No, this isn’t a real clear stock; it’s cloudy with chicken bits, garlic bits and the occasional rosemary leaf.  It is, however, very low fat and very potent :) I had two bags of this in the freezer (courtesy of previous chickens) and I put both bags in this bowl and remanded them to the microwave for 10 minutes to thaw.  Then I added the fresh stock from the last chicken (after removing the fat) and added that to the crock pot with the vegetables.

At the last minute, I found a lone tomato in the fridge, so I cut that up and threw it in too.  I didn’t want to add the chicken or the pasta until morning so at that point I put the lid on the crock pot and left it to work its magic.

When I got up, after making my coffee (first things first, after all), I cooked a pound of penne pasta and added that to the soup along with about a pound of cooked chicken in somewhat large hunks.  I like a chunky soup :)





Then I remembered that I also had a can of chick peas and a small can of tomato sauce in the cabinet that had been feeling unwanted and which would do nothing but enhance what was already in the pot.  So I added them as well.  At this point, we had to move from the crock pot to the kettle because there wasn’t any more room.  That means there’s a couple of gallons of soup here :) Hah!





And here’s the finished wonderfulness accompanied by a lightly buttered piece of spinach infused flat bread for dunking.

So the recipe, such as it is, goes something like this:

Leftover Chicken Soup cum Pasta e Fagioli

1 lb cooked, cut up chicken
1 lb carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 bunch celery, washed, trimmed and roughly chopped
3 med onions, peeled and chopped
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
1 tomato, chopped (I only had one, but use as many or as few as you like)
6 or 7 cups chicken stock
1 lb penne pasta
1 can chick peas
1 small can tomato sauce
About a quarter cup of dried parsley (would have used fresh, but I forgot to get any)
Salt and pepper to taste

The night before you want the soup, place the carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, tomato, parsley and stock into a 5 quart crock pot.  Set it on “low” for about an hour.  Then turn it to “high” and go to bed.

In the morning (or about 10 hours later), cook the pasta and add it, the chicken, the chick peas and the tomato sauce to the pot (or to a larger pot if you need to at that point!).  Let simmer till lunchtime.  Then break out your favorite bread and feast!

I got the hat finished last night…

I made a short, fat tassel this time, but almost ripped it off before I asked Myria about it.  I thought it was too goofy for words, but she thought it looked pretty cool, so I left it and thought it over while I finished up the band.  When everything else was done, band stitched, ends woven in, etc., I tried the hat on and went and looked in the mirror.  Damned if she wasn’t right - the tassel was cute!  I’m glad I asked for her opinion and didn’t just go ahead and rip!

You know about the Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendar?  It’s pretty neat - loose pages in a box/stand that gives a pattern for every day of the year, sometimes every two days if the pattern is long or complicated.  Well, next year, Accord Publishing is going to do one for crochet as well.  And these are going to be in it:

The web page is Crochet Pattern-a-Day and the project is being coordinated by Annie Modesitt.  There’s still time and I believe she is still accepting patterns if any of you creative folk have something you’d like to offer.  There’s no money involved, of course, but you’ll get your name in print (and your pattern!) and a free calendar out of it.

Thanks to Barb-in-east-texas for directing me to the web page and suggesting I submit the mitt pattern, to Dawn for putting the idea in my head and to Bron for reminding me how much fun crochet could be!

It was salmon for breakfast this morning (no, I can’t imagine it either) and Jade was hogging the bowl.  Since Goldie is roughly twice her size, I can’t imagine why he doesn’t just go over and give her a nudge - or even a nudge or a NUDGE.  He doesn’t though - he just waits.  I hope he’s not laboring under the false impression that Jade will be impressed by his gentlemanly behavior because she won’t.  All she’ll do is take greedy, piggy advantage of it and, likely as not, take a swipe at him for good measure.  I’ll have to remember to baby him a bit today :)

Happy Monday everyone!

I’m writing this late because I’m probably not going to be posting tomorrow.  I’m collecting my father at an ungodly hour of the morning to take him to the airport where he will depart for what he insists is going to be his last cruise.  Ha!  Not if I have anything to say about it.  He enjoys these things too much to give them up just because he’s retired.  Maybe limit himself to one every year or so, but give them up?  Well, I don’t think he should.

And then I’m going to come home and go back to bed.  Because you know that I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight knowing that !@#$%^&* alarm clock is set for 5:15 AM,

I did find a tarot deck liked, in fact one that I really, really like.

It’s a Rider-Waite based deck which is where I want to start and it’s utterly breath-taking.  I had seen it yesterday when I was browsing around but didn’t really hope to be able to find it this close to home.  More than its being beautiful though, it feels right - I tend to go with the intuition where these kinds of things are concerned.  There were other decks that were lovely, but none of them felt as good as this one did.  Yes, Amazon has it, but I didn’t want to wait.  Perhaps pursuing the tarot will help me to acquire some discipline and patience - ya think?

I hope you all have a perfectly splendid and spectacular weekend.  I think there will be a couple of FOs on Monday :)

If you’re a tarot reader, or interested in what it’s all about, you have to have a look at Aeclectic Tarot.  I had known about it but forgotten until Marcia reminded me in her Monday post.  Even if you’re not a tarot reader and not particularly interested, the site has a phenomenal collection of cards and some of the artwork is magnificent.

I admit to being interested and curious.  And since my arm was giving me the devil yesterday and it seemed that crafting was maybe not such a good idea, I went and explored.

My understanding of all this is very superficial, so please bear in mind that I’m not stating opinions (except maybe on artwork) so much as thinking out loud...erm...typing out loud?  No, that doesn’t work either… Sharing my wonderings and musings.  Yeah, I think that’s about right :)

Years ago, 5 or 6 I guess, I got curious about this so I went to Borders and bought a little, Rider-Waite deck and a big glossy book with plenty of pictures that explained things in non-threatening terms of one syllable. (Note: I never believe, when I start something, that’s I’m ever going to understand it or be able to do it or make it or whatever.  Consequently, I almost always start any new area of exploration at a far lower level than I really need to.  My brain knows this isn’t right, but the fear of failure doesn’t live in my brain :) And I read the book and looked through the cards and thought “Hmmm, this deserves further study”.  And then I put the cards away and never thought about them again until a few days ago.

So yesterday, I went and toured Aesthetic Tarot’s collection.  Goodness - there were more types of tarots than I ever imagined.  Of course my imaginings were along somewhat rigid lines.  I guess I had figured the rules were the rules, you know, you play the game this way and not that way, and that was that.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Even if you aren’t into this, you’ve probably run across the Rider-Waite deck at some point, in a gift shop or a book store:

It probably looked something like this. 

In a basic, standard tarot deck, there are two parts called the major and minor arcanas.  The major arcana cards all depict certain types of influences and tendencies (archetypes), represented as people and it describes a journey from youth and innocence (also ignorance) through learning and experience to age and (hopefully) fulfillment and wisdom.  The minor arcana consists of four suits (like a regular deck of playing cards) which each represent a facet of human make-up, such as creativity/action, emotion/spirit, practical/material matters or intellect/reason.  The individual cards in the suit serve to further refine the application.

But there are newer variations who’s creators have changed things to something they felt was more suitable to them.  Death is one of the cards in the standard deck, but in some of the newer, interpretive decks, it has been changed to Transformations or Endings or done away with altogether.  And there are decks specifically for certain lifestyles and/or outlooks including a Star Trek Tarot, many Native American decks, decks aimed at women’s issues and spirituality, Goth tarots, a vampire tarot, and a Sailor Tarot which uses, as its figures, characters from the anime program, Sailor Moon.  There are even Christian based decks.  One of the most beautiful (to my eyes, anyway) was the Osho Zen tarot which takes much of its theme and feel from eastern spirituality.

I have no idea as to the what the predicting or diving abilities of these card may or may not be.  However, as a tool to find out what’s going on in my own head and heart, I think they might be useful and it is that potential I’m curious about and wish to explore.

Not to mention looking at all the pretty pictures :)

Jade is lying on the arm of my chair, peeved because I won’t pet her until I’m finished posting.  She truly seems to believe that all my time (not to mention hands!) are belong to her :) Funny girl. 

I finished the red mitts last night and am breathing a little easier now, thinking about getting things done in time for the holidays.  I’ve got two pairs of mitts and a nearly completed hat.  There are four more things to do, but only two of them (I think) will be knitted. 

That means I can spend a bit of time on a pattern I found a couple of days ago for a stuffed animal - got nephews, you know :) I had wondered if I was going to get to knit them anything this Christmas and while I would have liked to, I didn’t know if it was going to be possible.  And they did get their Harry Potter scarves a while back :) But I’m really going to try to make time.  Clothing is one thing - but toys are something else entirely!  Although you know, now that I think of it, I’m not sure a Harry Potter scarf doesn’t somehow manage to be both…

These little tiny hanks are a trip to work with.  Initially I would unwind four or five of them, splice them togrther and then wind it up into a ball.  I don’t bother any more because - believe it or not - there turns out to be a couple of advantages (as I see it) to working with short lengths of yarn.

First of all, when you completely unwind one hank at a time, there isn’t any need to roll a ball.  What - for 20 yards of yarn?  So you unwind it carefully onto a clean spot on the floor, splice it in and go to work.  There’s no skein or ball to put the slightest bit of tension on your yarn so you get absolute control over it.  Very nice!

Second, as in the picture above, when you’re done knitting for the day, you can simply wind what’s left onto the needle as shown.  I put the needle through the material and wind the yarn (very gently) in figure 8s around the needle.  The next time I want to work on this, I’ll simply pull the needle out and let the yarn fall.  It will work out of the figure 8 arrangement easily without snarling or knotting :)

Of course splicing yarn every 20 yards or so can be a pain in the tuchus - or at least I imagine it would be with something that didn’t splice as easily and readily (note to self: be really really careful about even gentle washing with this stuff...) as this does.  As it is, I have a routine all worked out and it does the job.  Of course things are different depending on whether I’m knitting or crocheting.  For crochet, I wind up splicing in more yarn every 6 minutes or so.  For knitting - maybe every half hour?  Heheh - what a weird way to be talking about yarn.

There was one last gotcha in this stuff, though I don’t think it’s going to substantially get in the way - knots.  Most of the little hanks are fine, but some of them have knots and at least one of them had three knots.  C’est la vie :)

I got my first Christmas present Monday, from dear friends in the UK.  The flower is silk and a silk bag is attached to it by violet and dark green silk ribbons.  The bag is full of heady aromatics such as cedar wood, sandlewood and myrrh.  I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful the scent is - a bit spicy, very warm and very rich.  It’s a serious temptation to just hang it around my neck, but it is intended to perfume your environment and to that end, I’ve hung it in the front hall.  It is absolutely divine to enter the apartment to that wonderful aroma :)





Jade can be extrememly affectionate but she doesn’t like being picked up - loathes in fact.  So this is something we periodically work on as there will be times when she has to be handled whether she likes it or not.  We have made some progress, luckily, but any notions I might have had about the problem actually being solved were disabused yesterday morning.  I went into the kitchen and Jade was sitting in “my” chair at the kitchen table.  As I wanted to sit there, I picked her up - or tried to.  She promptly stretched out her front legs and hooked her claws under the edge of the seat.  I could hear them clicking into place around the wood just a fraction of a second before I actually felt the resistance.  I gave her a couple of gentle tugs and then had to let her go as I was, by then, laughing too hard to hang on to her.

How boring it would be if our animals didn’t have personalities!