Sasha Cuddles

Sorry about the fuzzy pic. I had to take it of a cat on my own lap who's been lying there like that for the last ten minutes, keeping one of my hands prisoner. She's just a formless lump of purr. Why can't she just stop being a jerk to the other cats?! She's dang near perfect in every other way,

Sweater Gallery

I changed up the original Etsy listing for this one so I've captured it here so it doesn't get lost. :)

Based on the classic pattern, this adorable sweater has eight owls on the yoke, complete with button eyes. It is hand-knit from jade green cotton/wool blend yarn and measures 22" at the chest, 8 1/2" from underarm to end of sleeve - equivalent to a size 24 mo. (The detail image is the closest to the actual color. )

Due to the buttons, it is not recommended for a child to wear it unattended, although all buttons are securely sewn on. The yarn manufacturer's instructions specify handwashing.

















It seemed like a good idea to get all of these easily accessible in one place.

Q's New Shirt

Around Christmas time, I got a bug to finally make Q the linen shirt he's always wanted. We never found the perfect pattern but Mom did find a shirt at a thrift store that fit the bill - if it had been about 6" larger in circumference. She was kind enough to mail it out and so it has sat here for the last 3 months, waiting for me to have time and inclination to do something with it. Finally, spring break came.
I ripped out all of the seams from the old shirt and made a muslin practice shirt in a new size. I ran out of muslin though so I cut the last 10" off the bottom since that wasn't the part I was worried about fitting. Q got a little nervous when I had him try on his new muslin "belly shirt" to make sure the fit I'd created at the shoulders and chest worked. He is now baffled by women who can walk around with their tummies exposed - he was a bit discomfited by the breeziness of this style.
With new muslin, I created a proper pattern and made the shirt seen above out of fabric from my stash. I'm not entirely pleased with the drape in the front, but haven't quite decided what I want to do to fix it. I thinking of maybe reshaping the armhole bottoms on the front piece to take up some of the slack that forms a bit of a pucker where the button band ends on the chest. Otherwise, I think the pattern's just about ready to be used for the linen one he wanted originally. Maybe he won't even have to wait for the next school break...:)

The day is saved!

Woohoo! There are good people in the world. A woman on her way to work picked up my wallet when she saw it on the ground and posted it on Craigslist. I get it back this afternoon. I am so incredibly grateful.

So far, today is lousy...

Ugh...I didn't want to get up and I certainly didn't feel like riding my bike this morning but I knew it was good for me. And it did feel good, until I got off the bike after a 5 mile ride to Q's workplace to kiss him good-bye and realized that the familiar hefty wallet was not in my coat pocket. I raced the 5 miles home, scanning the bike path for any place it could have fallen out - no luck. Then I thought it surely would be on the kitchen table after I had it out last night to get some receipts out - no luck. It is really, truly gone apparently. Credit cards have been canceled and a fraud alert has been placed on our credit but it still is really, really yucky. I'm always so careful to zip my pockets to avoid this very thing.
Perhaps some honest person picked it up and is planning on dropping it by the house after they get off of work. Doubt it though. My best hope at this point is that one of the many homeless people who inhabit the woods by the river is enjoying a bit of extra hot food with the $20 that was in it and the rest of the wallet's contents are scattered in the river or in a dumpster - and not in the hands of some identity thieving shyster. Very scary.
I just keep trying to tell myself that riding my bike this morning was still good for me. Imagine how stressed I'd be right now if I didn't have all of the happy exercise hormones working for me, right? Right?! :)

Next step: hot tea, old British tv (All Creatures Great and Small), and a bit of knitting - a trio of panaceas guaranteed to make everything a little more endurable.

Star Gazing

I'm teaching astronomy right now to my middle school students. For some reason I always considered the paths of the moon and sun and stars as something that required intense study and assumed that I would never have the patience or inclination to devote myself to the study of them. I figured I would have to be content with the Big Dipper, Orion, and the North Star. This is delightfully untrue.

The first night that I looked up into the sky and all of these stars were where I expected them to be was truly awe-inspiring. Furthermore, it gives a comforting feeling of order to the great big universe. Even the stars in the immense sky follow a predictable progression, just like the seasons, just like the unfolding of one of the spring crocuses. You just have to know what to look for. I hope my students are having the feeling of empowerment through knowledge that I'm feeling right now.

First Sushi Attempt

So, I bought the special rice and the nori ages ago, determined to try and roll my own sushi. Many months passed. Today, one of my students brought in some of her homemade sushi for lunch and I got the bug again. I mentioned how I was going to go home and actually attempt making sushi, finally. My class of Oregonian sixth graders immediately piped up in disbelief. I'd never made sushi before?! Many of them make it at least once a week (mostly vegetarian, occasionally a California roll).

I began to feel old.

When I was in sixth grade, in Denver, CO, sushi was still just a tiny bit odd among Americans who didn't have Japanese influences in their lives. It certainly was many years away from being purchased in grocery stores. Similarly, nori is one of my students favorite snacks. I only started considering seaweed something people ate about ten years ago (shortly after they were born).

So, how did it go? I wasn't foolish enough to waste money on sushi-grade fish for my first attempt; I settled for simple avocado and cucumber. The hot vinegar/sugar/salt mixture smelled strongly enough that I feared it could peel paint but when it was mixed into the still hot rice it made a remarkably delicious concoction. The rice was a little too watery but it became workable as it cooled so it wasn't a huge deal. (BTW - as a huge fan of sticky, gooey, chewy, starchy things; sushi rice in mass quantities has been mentally added to my favorites list.) Placing it on the seaweed and adding the cucumber and avocado was easy enough. The quantities my recipe suggested though were clearly insane. The first roll was quite difficult to roll because it was simply too full. The second was more successful and by the fourth I was marvelling at how, when the right amount of filling is inserted, they magically roll and seal, with the help of the bamboo mat, into a neat, solid cylinder. Woohoo!

Then I realized that I was expected to violate my neat little roll and cut it into sections so it could actually be consumed. Drama! So started the learning process...and a succession of final pieces that gradually shifted from flat ovals to almost perfect circles. Ta-da! It was remarkable - I had made something that definitely looked like sushi.

Miraculously, they tasted like it too. For the most part, the ugliest sushi ever created, but I had made it and was willing to eat it! I call that a success.
Maybe next time will be enough of a success that I'm willing to post pictures as well. :) As, since I've now proven that it will not be completely inedible, it looks like some sushi-grade tuna is also in my future. Yum.