...yeah I know. But I'm here now!

OK, so there was yet another blogging black hole...but good reasons this time!

#1: My neighbor returned my copy of The Time Traveler's Wife...one of my favorite books ever and one I had no clue I had loaned to her. Of course I immediately sat down and cracked it open. Proceeded to read ravenously until it was done. Oops.

#2: Sock Madness. Busy, busy, busy knitting.

#3: Gus.

Sun on ceramic = gooood in puppy land.

Emma has come to terms with him...but he still startles her at times.

Boy and dog.

Girl and dog.

Crocheter and dog.

Is there anything cuter?

I think not. Meet my newest baby.

Payin' it forward!

First, general commentary on what's been what with me lately:

Rabbit hole of the moment: The first round of Sock Madness 3 coinciding with 3 consecutive weeks of spring break for the small people.

Brag: I had another article published, this time in the Spring 2009 Interweave Crochet. This time around I had the extreme pleasure of profiling designer extraordinaire Julia Vancosin. Spastic joy of chatting up a multi-craftual, multi-lingual grown-up aside, this process also stretched some very underutilized brain matter and opened my eyes to some horizons toward which I was definitely not looking. Loved the process. Hope to do more.

Just Sayin': Spent the last 3 days with my oral-surgeon of a sister in Milwaukee. She had some enlarged lymph nodes removed from her neck. This is the 4th time she has had this done. I have some general thoughts for you. 1) If someone takes an unexpectedly large thing from your loved ones neck, upon telling you it is much larger than it looked on the MRI they should be able to tell you immediately whether or not it is cancerous. I know that is likely a hugely unreasonable stance. Just sayin'. 2) When someone has a big ass surgical incision in their neck you should take all precautions humanly possible to avoid their upchucking. Do not believe them when they contend that being queasy after surgery is normal...make them switch pain meds thus hopefully stopping all stomach unrest ASAP. The alternative is horrific to watch someone go through, much less almost passing out because that someone is someone you love terrbily. Sometimes being a righteous bitch is justified. Just sayin'. 3) Jing in Milwaukee's Historic 3rd Ward rocks the Chinese food world and their combo fried rice has magical healing powers. (Their Singapore noodles and crab rangoons, while not magical, are quite tasty.) Just sayin'.

World-view shattering realization: After 3 days in my sister's apartment with little to do but make sure she continued to breathe, provide a variety of fluids and document consumption of pain meds, I question the need for yarn when in the presence of Wii. The crazy obsessive joy of Wii-ing could have disastrous implications for my stash.

Hope on the horizon: Puppy. Stay tuned.

On to the fun and games!

[What follows is totally ganked from Heather's blog.]

The first five (cinq) (cinco) (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (No refunds... no exchanges!!!!)
2. What I create will be just for you, with love from me.
3. It'll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you!! Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange...or awesome...or lovely...or offensive!
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note/post of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to it.
7. Send your mailing address if you don't live close to me! Feel free to email your mailing addy to crochetcompulsive at gmail dot com.

IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own note to pay this forward...and believe me, I'll look. I don't have a real job and I get bored easily so I have all the time in the world to stalk your ass!

So. Who's playing?

Of sauce making and time flying

Today, I've a tale of sauce and socks.

So it's no secret that I've been a bit unsettled. A bit restless. A bit lost. The beginning of the year pretty much always does that to me. I always make big plans to start something new and shiny and fantastic...and my life always finds a way to shut it down. Or at least that's how it seems. Truth being that I have a way of convincing myself that if I can only get more organized, more regimented, more controlled I can somehow manage to be perfect. Lose the weight. Turn the house into Pottery Barn. Banish dust bunnies for all time. Perhaps master karate or re-master yoga. Pick up a PhD or 2. Be a Super Hero of a Mom and Rock Star volunteer, yet still have time for all of the yarn play, baking from scratch and obsessive reading I can handle.

Yeah right.

What life has a way of doing is bringing me back to reality. I have this regular, recurring date with facing my limitations in an often stark manner. And it always, always pisses me totally and completely off. Because somehow the propaganda gets me. I should be able to have it all. I should be able to do it all. And that's a lie. Life is compromise. Give and take. A series of trade-offs.

And for some reason I need an annual reminder. OK, perhaps bi-annual.

So that's where I've been.

Now, where do the sauce and socks come in?

The sauce is a sop. It's my grandmother's recipe. (or non-recipe really as the making of it was distilled into my synapses at a very early age) As is the lasagna. The Italian Wedding soup. Pasta i Fagioli. Garlic bread. Carbonara. Alfredo. The tiny fried dough balls drizzled in honey and topped with sprinkles. (they have a name I cannot recall...) The things I turn to when I'm down. Yes, for me self-love = serious cooking. (hence the need to lose the weight...) The results are spectacular and bring much praise. Making these dishes, I shine. And eventually that turns me around. The house may be a cluttered mish-mash, I may be well padded, things may fall through my mental cracks well more often that I am comfortable with...but I make some truly fine Italian nosh.

So, there's been a bit of cookery going down.

Now for the socks. The socks, they've been living in a quite dark corner for almost a year now, stuffed there to keep me from thinking of them...and the things bound to them. They were started for round 2 of Sock Madness last year. They're a quite ingenious and inventive pattern...fully reversable, exactly the same inside and out.

The pattern came out whilst we were in Florida on vacation last year, a fact I thought would most likely knock me out of play. Traveling with 3 kids under 7 generally does not translate to much free time. And I was right. I might have made it had not one of our dogs needed to be put down the day after we left. Talk about guilt. I was a wreck. My husband got deathly ill. We powered through the week, me pouring all of my stress into these socks so I could hold it together and take care of everyone when we were not in a place to fall apart. By the time we got home the kids were sick as well. Really, really, really sick. And I spent many late, sleepless nights surrounded by a huge void in my home and knocking off row after row of these socks. By the time they recovered, I of course got it and was sicker than I ever remember being. By the time it was all over, I couldn't even look at the socks without being overcome with yuck. So away they went. And I promptly forgot about them. Convienent, no?

Having decided to tackle Sock Madness again this year, a few weeks ago I started pulling things out - reclaiming needles, unearthing sock yarn. And I found the socks. And I cried. And cried. And totally freaked out the other dog by hugging her a bit too much and a bit too often. The grief I hadn't had time for last year had to play itself out, so I let it. And I started working on the socks again...and finished them. But I didn't want them. At all.

So, when my sister came to town last week I happily gifted them to her. They fit perfectly (as you can see above), better than they fit me actually. She loved them and claimed them as her own.

...and 4 hours later woke me with excrutiating abdominal pain. 7 hours in the ER on every narcotic known to mankind found her being admitted with a kidney stone and apparently intractible pain. 24 hours of that and she was home again. Fine.

Anyone know how to exorcise socks?

mitts, mitts, mitts!

s
I knit 3 pair of fair isle fingerless mitts for holiday gifts. 2 for teacher gifts, 1 for my sister. Was running so last minute compounded with lifeless camera batteries led to a lack of documentation. I've only this in progress pair to show. Used 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite, so they were all very fraternal, but so very stunning. The pattern was Pam Allen's Fresco Fair Isle Mitts from Winter 2008 IK. There was enough left over for some mitts for m'self even. Who knew Noro could be so economical??? Frantic holiday knitting firmly behind me, I started a pair based on Julia Vaconsin's Basic Fingerless Mittens pattern on CrochetMe. As this was fingering vs. her aran weight, I fiddled with the maths a bit. Started with 10 more stitches then worked 3 more reps of the increase at the gusset. And I added stripes. LOVE. THEM.

Seven Deadly Spins SPOILER

If you don't want to know, don't go any further.

You have been warned. I mean it. The goodies are ahead.

Proceed at your own risk. Don't cry to me that your surprise went kaplooey because of this.

I have to show you, I have to show you, I have to show you!!!
This is by far my favorite kit so far.
Sivia Harding pattern. Luscious alpaca/merino/silk blend.
LOVE.
Are you GREEN? Like with ENVY?
The Seven Deadly Spins are almost over, but you can still catch The Six Kingdoms.

Warning: Existential crisis ahead

Quick update on me.

All of my New Year self-improvement gumption ran smack dab into 2 weeks of sick kids, traveling husband and budgetary angst. It was also pointed out to me that when #3 enters kindergarten in 2011 I will also be turning 40. Given, the last kid going off to school is one mighty nice present to be looking forward to, but whoa. That also means I will have dedicated a full decade to kids, cooking, laundry, cleaning and the like. All of my 30s. Gone. This is vastly different than the 2 kid plan that by now would have had me 2 solid years into re-deciding what I wanted to be now that I was all grown up.

So then my head blew up. I'm still picking up the pieces and hoping I can find a way to fit them back together.

Cabin Fever

It was supposed to be joyous mommy kids-back-to-school-week. Instead it was mutant roto-norwalk virus week. (or at least that's what the CDC tells me...) Here's the detrius:

It all started the second the big boy left the state on business of course. There has been much laundry, car upholstery scrubbing, not sleeping and soup making. A bit of a domestic marathon really. And my reward? The contents of this rumpled paper bag:

Yes, he took a tiny detour on his way home to get me my favorite ever burrito. Chorizo from La Bamba in Madison. Yum.

Stuck in a post-holiday house with sick 2nd grader and a traveling husband, what's a mom to do? SPIN apparently:


BFL dyed by Brair Rose Fibers. This is the second filling of my improvised plying bobbin contraption. Already have 3 ounces plied and skeined with more to go:

Hiding under it is freshly balled Handmaiden Sea Silk. My friend Amy is going to be in the state next week and I want to be knitting something she can touch and love. Off to disinfect the universe.

Images from the fray

Flashing back to the holiday crafting crazy for you.

I made 2 of Wooly Wormhead's Mystery Beret's (aka the Meret). Both done in rather on the bulky side handspun as I didn't have the requisite worsted. (and thus discovered I have a gaping hole in my yarn stash. seriously. I have little to no worsted!) I know it's not optimal for the lace, but hey I love them anyway. This is the one for my sister:

It's a wool blended with reclaimed sari silk from Lara at Green Apple Yarn. Sadly, Lara has moved from the glory of Saint Paul and doesn't appear to be selling her stuff right now. Is it something about Conneticut? Shame as she has a very locavore/natural dying bent I miss in the local offerings.

And this is mine:

Worked up in handspun from Aisha Celia. Lovely stuff. It's like a muted rainbow.

Serious Kitchen Power Tool

Color me one happy baker.
I registered for this when we got married 12 years ago.
My sis landed it under the tree for me this year.
Broke it in this morning making orange ginger cookies in thanks.
YUM.

I'm a cover girl!

Oh great galloping gargoyles!
Guess who wrote about the Twin Cities...
I'm speechless.

The Girl Effect

Just when I'm pushed beyond my limits for maintaining any sense of faith in humanity by stories of trampled Wal-Mart workers, mugged pregnant women, people making porn with 2 year olds a friend lands this in my lap. I pass the gift along to you today. Go to girleffect.org and renew your faith. There is good going on in the world and we can help.

Because I don't want to clean...

...I shall post pictures of snow instead: (bye bye fall!)


...and a finished project. Plaid scarf in crochet for the school auction:

To #1s dismay, this is never to be made again as it waaaaay exceeded my maximum allowable number of ends to weave in. Still, it turned out well, even with me adding a third color to the works.

Let's run in circles, shall we?

Yes, there has been a much dreaded dearth of blogging. Not that I haven't wanted to. My intentions of blogging each and every day remain pure as the snow falling outside of my window right now. It really is not my fault. Let's take this next week as an example. Here's the rundown:

Friday (or what remains of it): dig hockey helmet out from dregs of basement, pack bag for #1's sleepover, wrap b-day gift, begin dinner prep, pick up kids #1 &2 from school with #3 in tow, get #1 to sleepover, #2 to birthday party at skating rink (remember to bring previously mentioned helmet), return home with #3 to get chicken in oven and potatoes boiled before picking #2 up again to skeedadle home to mash potatoes and make salad, eat dinner, bathe children, clean kitchen, spend quality time with hub watching TV while folding about 20 loads of laundry, collapse.

Saturday: attack yard full of now soggy leaves if it is neither snowing or raining, wrap b-day gifts for neighbors, pick up #1 from sleepover before heading with her and #2 to hockey, hopefully have some quality knitting time on items for silent auction while freezing my ass off in said hockey arena, dash home with #s 1&2 just in time for neighbor kids' b-day party, pack overnight bags for #s 1, 2 &3 during party, reclaim all kids and get them to grandparents hopefully with time to spare for a shower before 7 pm party. crap, need to make 2 sausage mushroom strudels in there somewhere...

Sunday: fight off hangover while reclaiming children, rake yard full of leaves that have again accumulated overnight, clean out gutters, find boots and snowpants leftover from #2 that better fit #3 now buried in the basement, and all of the usual meal associated stuff, homework, prepping for the rest of the week which highlights:

Monday: grouping of auction items, fighting with #3 over napping, #1 after school drama club
Tuesday: class for #3 in a.m., parent day at school for #1 &2, auction meeting in p.m., something for the hub that I cannot now remember
Wednesday: frantic cleaning, hub heads out of town for interviews, #1 has drama club after school again, my sis comes to visit which hopefully offsets the impact of daddy being gone.
Thursday: inlaws come, #1s dress rehearsal, evening meeting at school, hopefully hub comes home and kids stop revolting.
Friday: 7:30 a.m school meeting, 9 am PTO meeting, entertaining of inlaws & sis, early family dinner before #1s school play at 6:30 (go travel agent #1!), more extended family time hopefully involving a few cocktails before I eventually collapse into a puddle.

So. Do not expect much of me for a bit, eh? For being so understanding, I shall reward you with pictures:

I have several new scarves I love:

Amy Singer's Montego Bay Scarf.
Handmaiden Sea Silk. YUM!
Seriously, it wraps around my head like 6 times at least.

This is a rogue stumpy modification of an Annette Petavy pattern.
Arucania alpaca with a fabulous button from Jenniethepotter.

These are Pam Allen's Fresco Fair Isle Mitts worked with 2 colorways of Noro Silk Garden. I'm supposedly making them for the kids' school's community auction. We'll see how that goes, though I think I'll easily get 3 fraternal pairs out of them so perhaps I can spare a few. Serious YUM. And I'm now addicted to Fair Isle I fear...

...and lookie what my friend Jennie brought me from Rhinebeck! More Briar Rose fiber!!! And a fabulous hook Chris' husband Roger is now hand turning. Fabulous!!!

...and more goodies this time from Toronto. I just have the best friends evah. You hear that Amy? Evah! The gorgeousness in the bag is SILK ROVING. (deserving of every single capital) And Blueprint Crochet by Robyn Chachula even! Swoon! Top it alloff with a luscious chunk of dark chocolate with candied orange rind and I'm in heaven! Thank you (5828456273) Jennie and Amy.

More crafting for the auction. In school colors. This one may push me over the end-weaving cliff. Patience is not my virtue.

...and the Tomten I most likely won't finish in time for #3 to wear before spring.

A better picture of my Wavelength scarf. Now washed and blocked so the Noro did that fabulous thing only Noro can do and it's sooooo soft now!

...and it's moebius version.

WHEW! That comes close to catching up. Off to find the hockey helmet...

A month is a loooong time.

Really, how can it be that I haven't posted for basically the entire month? Twitter is faking me out it seems.

There's oh so much to say. For now I shall give you my day's labor:

OK, so the dragon was a leftover. The Wall-E and the wood fairy took me days, and believe you me you so don't want to be spending any amount of time in my house right now, but oh all so worthy of the effort. They were both so happy. Some things are always worth doing well and Halloween is one of them.

Photographical Regurgitation

Found the entire month of September on the photo card today. Here's the scoop:

Veggies, veggies and more veggies: (example of our weekly box from the farm)


Saved from languishing unloved: (did I mention that we moved the parents for the third time this year?)

More handspun from my friend Meg's roving. This is from Eenie's lamb fleece.


And yes, soup has again made it's seasonal debut in the dinner rotation.

This is my mom's white bean with ham. It's easy peasy and SO good. Here's how you too can have beanie goodness:

What you need:
1 bag of white beans
1 leftover bone from a ham or a couple of ham hocks
2 bay leaves
1 large chopped onion
4-5 peppercorns
salt
butter
olive oil for finishing (optional)

1) Soak the entire bag of dried white beans overnight. Drain and rinse in the morning. Soak them again in fresh water until mid-afternoon.

2) Saute the onion in a bit of butter until translucent. Do this right in your big soup pot.

3) Add the ham bones, re-drained and re-rinsed beans, bay leaves and peppercorns. Cover with water. Bring to a simmer and let bubble along happily until the beans are soft and beginning to break down. Stir frequently. Add liquid as needed.

4) Fish out the bones. With a stick blender, puree the soup a bit. You still want to have whole beans floating around though. Chop up any bits of ham still clinging to the bones. Stir it back in. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

5) We serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top. You can skip it if you like, but you'll be missing out.

Once again on the food thing...

OK, so it was rapidly clarified that Starbucks was only pulling milk at it's outlets in China. Makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing.

A bit.

But still...

American owned company's coffee add-in. American owned company's baby food. American/UK owned company's candy. All being pulled. Not proven to have actually harmed anyone, but I read the fact they are pulling product to mean they have reason to suspect their product sourcing.

I know there's an argument. How could they know, right? But come on now. With China's recent record of consumer health scandals, you think someone might care to check eh?

This on top of the financial crisis leaves me thinking corporate America is indeed morally and ethically bankrupt. Does no one have a conscience any more?

Call to action folks. Know better. Do better. Be informed. Demand a higher standard.

Yet one more reason...

...to pay a bit more to eat LOCALLY.

Melamine. In milk. Seriously. That has to be dissolved in formaldehyde or tother chemical base before it can be dissolved in milk. One official postulates that before that they used animal skin or urine to boost the protein content of the milk they watered down to boost their production.

YUM.

Before reading this morning's paper, which contained an Associated Press article on the latest in consumer health crises in China, I assumed this was a phenomena isolated to the country in question.

Not so it appears.

Said article says Starbucks is pulling their milk.

What?

While there is not further elaboration, I would assume this means that Starbucks, the bastion of Americana cafe culture, uses milk imported from CHINA in their stores.

Seriously.

Yet one more thing to add to the ever growing list of "Evidence that Americans are Losing their Minds".

How does someone at a company of this stature decide it's a good thing to import their milk from overseas? Again with the assuming, but my guess is this has something to do with cost...and I will counter with the idea that the food that is supposed to nourish your body isn't really where you want to search out the rock bottom pennies for a gallon price. And at that rock bottom price, what kind of farming culture are you supporting? Farmers scraping by on the nothing you are giving them for the product of their family's labor. And I don't even want to think about what that means for the animals.

It's called personal and corporate responsibility people. Open your eyes. Know where your food comes from.

Gob Smacked.

That is me.

School stuff.

Volunteering.

About 5 million meetings and to-dos for both.

Garage Sale.

Designs floating around in my head.

Masses of veg I'm desperately trying to use before they rot. Must take advantage of harvest here in MN.

Gob. Smacked.

Bittersweet

I just finished reading today's paper. I think it started building after listening to Hillary Clinton's speech Tuesday evening, but these two syndicated columnists left me feeling quite unexpectedly bittersweet on a day I fully expected to feel exultation.

Ellen Goodman. (Sorry Ms. Goodman, I cannot agree with your ultimate conclusion. With the ticket as it is set forth now, historic and uplifting as it undeniably is, a potential 16 years before another female presidential candidate on a DNC - let's be real here and say "any" - ticket remains sobering. For the me this is in fact NOT history enough. Sometimes as women we are too ready to settle.)

Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Perhaps I am getting stuck on verbage here. To accuse me of this would likely be appropriate. However, after reading the column by Ellen Goodman it shines out like glaringly harsh neon. "All men are created equal." Where is the female version of Dr. King? Once again, we settle much, much too easily and quietly.)

Maybe it's having a daughter, but something in my core is just achy and deeply sad today.

So says the mother staying home with her young kids. Happy to provide your daily dose of irony. Please proceed directly to the recipe and other domestic pursuits below.