Knitwith Homespun

Ok, so who is the brilliant person on this earth to make November National Blog Posting Month?  For those of us in America, we have Thanksgiving.  That starts things out.  If you aren’t leaving town at this time of the month, you have someone coming into town for the big feast.  If you aren’t in America, you are lucky and you can probably pull off the NBPM thing.  However, with the Christmas Holidays and Chanukah coming up,  you might have more trouble if you are shopping and planning and shipping.  Well, I give up.  I have family coming to town.  My Dad is coming on Monday.  He will be staying with a family friend.  My sister is coming from Portland with her two kids.  They will stay here.  Now technically, there is room for my Dad and Stepmom here if my sister and her oldest share a full size bed.  My Dad, however, wants to stay with the family friend who is actually more family than friend.  He will come to my house when my sister goes home the following Monday.  Anyway, my point is I am BUSY getting ready for all this.

On a feasting note, I love to  cook.  Love to plan and create recipes.  To that end, I enjoy making Thanksgiving dinner.  I made dinner last year and had it here at my house for about 22 people.  This doesn’t bother me at all.  We have a big family so even Sunday dinners I cook for 18 without counting.  David has 4 brothers and sisters and I have 2 sisters.  There are times when we all have Thanksgiving together and that one is HUGE but the 22 is just David’s side of the family.  This year I am INVITED to dinner.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the cooking part but just showing up is good too.  When we Thanksgiving with David’s side of the family, either I cook myself or I am collaborating with the rest of the family and bringing several dishes.  This year, I am bringing one dish.  It will be a great dish but just the one.  Not only that, but our family friend has a maid that does the dishes so I don’t have to clean up either.  So, no cooking and no cleaning.  What will I do!  So I am really looking forward to it.

To sum up, no more NBPM and no cooking and no cleaning!  Yeah, pressure is off.  Phew!

Enjoy!

Oh and don’t try to hear the words on the first song but the second one is funny if you can hear it.

I wonder why they don’t call it Thanksgiving?

She was very happy to see us. It was kinda fun to watch her looking for us. I think she expected us to be late because she kept checking the people standing around the edges. We were sitting right in the middle in the second row. Her face just lit up when she spotted us and she blew us kisses and waved the whole time! It was a very cute presentation about where we all came from and why our ancestors left their countries and what they did when they came to America.

Bella knew all her words of all the poems and songs. I was very proud and she totally enjoyed herself up there. David and I thought she was a little too flirty with the two boys flanking her here.

They were singing a song here and doing a little thing with their heads. Can you tell?

But I have to write something because it’s National Blog Posting Month.  Damn it!  Ok!  Tomorrow is Ancestor Day at school and I am going to the presentation.  I’ll take pictures and make a great post then, ok?  OK!  Now leave me alone and go to bed!

Last night Bella’s cousin Amanda spent the night. This morning, she did Bella’s hair. This is the only reason I am allowed to take her picture today. I like this first one but I wish she would stop pushing her tongue against her teeth. This could be bad for her in the long run.

This one I like but you can’t see her eyes that well. I can’t believe how straight her hair can look. It’s so soft and flat.

This one is photographically the best however, her look isn’t my favorite. The light, tone, and her eyes look the best to me. I wish they all looked like this one with a pretty smile and no tongue.

Yes, I have Thai cousins. Four of them to be exact. My mother had a sister and a brother. She was far younger than both. Her brother moved to Jakarta working for Arco and married a woman named Prawnee. My mother’s siblings have both passed but her brother had 4 sons, two of whom have moved to Southern California. Two are in Jakarta right now. My mother and Prawnee used to cook together and shared recipes. At my uncle’s service, Prawnee served something I have never had before that was truly amazing; Thai sticky rice. I was obsessed with this sticky rice and forced my cousin to take me to the market his mother uses and help me get all the stuff for this rice. He did. This is the pot you use and the basket steamer. The next important thing is the rice. It’s not a normal rice. It’s called glutinous rice or sweet rice. I got mine at a teeny tiny little market in Anaheim that my aunt uses. The equipment was SUPER cheap and the results are amazing. The key is soaking the rice for at least 8 hours. If you don’t, it won’t cook properly. For the rice, there is no measuring and no recipe but the trick is anticipating how much rice you or your guests will eat. If you don’t soak enough, you can’t make more. The sauce that my aunt taught me has a recipe:

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
splash fish sauce

Heat all ingredients over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

After soaking for a minimum of 5 hours (honestly the minimum amount of time you can soak), I strain the rice into the basket, fill the bottom of the pot with a couple inches of water and put it on the stove. Cover the top of the basket with a lid and turn on the pot. This will steam the rice. Steam for about 20 minutes. The rice is done when it is tender and fluffs with a fork.

Now for the fun part! This is finger food. Get a bit of the sauce you made and put it in individual condiment cups for you or your guests and serve them a bit on a plate or whatever you want. Now, after it has cooled a bit, grab a small bit with your fingers and squeeze it together to make a little bullet. Dip the bullet into the sauce and eat! To die for!

Hints:

Make sure to soak long enough. I can’t stress this enough.
It’s very good but make sure to not burn yourself with hot rice.
Watch out for the fish sauce. It’s the nastiest smelling stuff you ever smelled. You don’t want to skip it though.
You can get all the stuff here.

Not for me.  I wanted to go to this one so badly because it’s at the Farmer’s Market and I had the babysitter set up and everything.  I think I would have been ok to go if I didn’t have a migraine all day today and could have gotten something done.  But out of town guests coming from San Francisco and Las Vegas to see my Mother-in-Law and they are staying here at my house (half are).  Realistically, I need to stay here.  I will definitely set up something for Orange County for next month.

On the bright side, Alex is coming.  This is Bella’s cousin from Las Vegas and she loves him.  We haven’t seen him since July and our trip to Idaho.  He is a super good boy and I can’t wait to see him.  Bella too!

For my niece, Christine. Christine turned 13 in mid August. She always asks me to knit her something and for her birthday, I promised to make her whatever she wanted. She asked me for a bag. I kept asking her what yarn and all that and she never would pick. A few weeks ago she spent the night and I asked her to go through my entire stash and see if there was anything she liked. She chose some closeout yarn I bought at Big Lots for a song. I had three colors and almost 2 skeins of each color; blue, pink, and purple. The yarn was in my novelty stash I was about to toss or give to Salvation Army. Go figure! She chose the basic shape and we couldn’t find a pattern so I improvised.

So all last week on the way to and from the hospital and while in the hospital, I knitted this bag. Here’s how it went:

1.5 skeins of the blue (her favorite color of the bunch). Cast on and knit in the round. The fabric seemed too thin to me and I was about to run out of the first skein of blue so I decided to transition to the purple by holding the blue and purple together. Then when I got to the end of the blue, I held two purple strands together until I ran out of one of the purple skeins. Next I held the pink with the purple and then 2 pinks, etc. You get where this is going. So I slightly decreased by 10 percent three times going from 110 casted on to 80 ish at the bottom. At the end, I was almost entirely out of pink and bound off. I used the rest of the pink to crochet two pieces of dowel that I originally bought for making my drop spindles. This will give my bag a little strength. For the bottom piece, I casted on 15 stitches in the purple and held two strands together again in garter stitch to fit the bottom of the bag. Mattress stitched it to the outside of the dowels and I’m done. I can’t think how to put handles on though so I’m a bit stuck. Christine looked through my Knitting Never Felt Better book and chose braided straps but I don’t know how it would work with this bag. I think it might be better gathered at the top with ribbon and one strap from side to side. Any other suggestions?

Now for the fun part of this blog. The other night when I blogged about nothing to blog about I went to change to my pajamas immediately after that. I took this picture on the way back from putting on my pajamas. Is this not normal?

Today was picture day at school. Oddly, I didn’t take any pictures of her before she left for school. I know, bazaar. As a consolation, I will post one of my other favorite pictures of her. I don’t think I have posted this one on my blog but it was in my Flickr. The lighting at this spot is the best lighting anywhere! It’s waiting in line at Space Mountain at Disneyland.

My MIL is coming home tomorrow barring any unforseen circumstances. We are all thrilled about this (needless to say).

In knitting news, I am finishing up my bag for Christine. Stitching the bottom on and I crocheted two dowels at the bottom for structure and I am stitching the bottom rectangle to that. I will be using some suggested strap patterns from Knitting Never Felt Better by Nicky Epstein. Christine likes the braided cord there. I should be able to finish this off tomorrow and then I will start a pair of socks for my mother-in-law to give her right away.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot my emergency dental visit. My tooth broke and I went in and got it fixed. I highly recommend it this way because then you don’t even have time to work yourself into a full on anxiety attack full of stress and terror.

I have to say, posting every day might be dull for all of you (both) readers, but it makes them shorter.

This morning was a good morning.  I woke up before my alarm and got ready early.  Bella woke up early too and came into my room while I was getting dressed.  She says our blankets are warmer and she loves our blankets.  She was ready like 10 minutes early and we started memorizing her part for the ancestor play next week.  All was going really well.

Next thing on my agenda was to go to my in-laws’ house and wait for the hospital bed delivery guy.  Grandma on her way home within a day so we had to get ready.  The bed guy delivered the bed at 8:45.  I cleaned out the fridge and did the dishes from the old food, vacuumed the living room, dust mopped the hardwood floor and did some minor dusting.  Everything was ready and I was about to go to the grocery to stock them up on milk, eggs, chicken, etc, when I called Grandpa to see if he wanted anything specific at the store.  Well Grandma was in a-fib again.  Her release is delayed, again.  I wish there were something else I could do for them.  I feel so helpless.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and maybe she can make it home by Saturday.

Ok so I don’t have much to say but November is National Blog Posting Month so I have to write something.

My husband and I went to Castaic today to pick up a motorcycle.  He will be riding in the Barstow to Las Vegas off-road ride in two weeks.  He is very very excited about it and he is taking a few of his customers as well.  It’s a very long ride off-road and he’s not as young as he used to be.  We’ll see how it goes!  Anyway, on the way back, we stopped and had a hot dog at Pink’s.  Ok, that’s it!  Oh yeah and I am TOTALLY going to the Spin-in in Hollywood on Saturday.  I only have to get babysitting set up.

David’s Mom is coming home tomorrow or the next day.  This is very good news!  Ok, so that’s really it.  More tomorrow with pictures!

Yep. I missed it. Totally depressed about it. I thought it was yesterday. Hectic week and too much on my mind. I thought yesterday was the 4th and it was today. I sat around all day and watched TV and knit and wasted all that time and I could have been there. I totally can’t believe this. Seriously, I need some sleep and to stop being upset about this. Way more things to be upset about.

My mother in law is doing very well. She is out of ICU and in her own room and due to come home Monday or Tuesday. We are staying home today to catch up on stuff and get some work done around the house.

Big Daddy died yesterday. I love this guy! He was a hard worker, a nice man, and a good provider. He was 84. He would go out shrimping 3-4 times a week and sell the shrimp to local resellers. I doubt he made enough to support his family (he’s retired) but it gave him joy. You can see it in his face. I enjoyed his company and spent a lot of time with his this summer helping haul shrimp and shrimp heads around. This picture will be blown up and displayed at his funeral on Tuesday. I wish I could be there, but I will be with my picture. He was my Dad’s father-in-law.

More traveling updates: I have been to San Diego 5 times this week. It’s a 190 mile round trip. I’m tired! Bella had to trick or treat in San Diego walking to a restaurant from the hospital. Poor thing! She did well though and loved scaring Grandma! She made the day of many people at the hospital. We only saw one other dressed up child there. Our thinking was Bella has a lot of other Halloweens to go and it would be a more effective use of a costume to go see Grandma and let her see one of her grandchildren dressed up. It was a good idea and worked very very well. The nurses let her sneak into ICU for a brief viewing.

Now driving down there: We drive right by a portion of burned freeway. There is some burned grass between the north and southbound lanes of the freeway and a mile or so long section of the freeway where the fire came right up to the freeway. The smell going through this section is HORRIBLE! The weather is very very cool and very foggy lately along the coast. So, think of a wet smokey ashtray. Very soggy, very smokey, very disgusting smell. Driving through that 10 times this week was awful so I can’t even imagine what living around there is like. There aren’t very many residential areas right there but there is a weigh station/immigration checkpoint right there that has been closed all week. I’m sure the fires have a lot to do with that.

I have been knitting all week (of course) but I haven’t posted pictures. I am making a bag for my niece and I will post pictures and details tomorrow. November is, after all, National Blog Posting Month. I have been backed up, but I can do it the rest of the month! I should finish the bag and I will start a pair of socks for Grandma to wear during her recovery. She will love that.

More later when I have more time to continue reading all the blogs I missed all week.