It's bootie time

Hi, Everyone,

It's a warm Wednesday summer night in San Diego.  I feel good and I'm listening to "the King":  Love me tender.


I have a few new things to show you. First some crocheted booties.  

No idea why I made so many.  They're like potato chips. I just couldn't stop. 

Then I liked the "Peruvian mix" colorway so much,  I got some more and made Dan a hat, Me a hair band, A sutra case and a "manly" pair of slippers, size 11.  Dan doesn't like that style, so we'll see who gets them at Christmas.  Not one of the "big feet" guys, LOL.

 Tonight was the annual stash sale at the Knitting Guild.  I bought this necklace partially finished.  After I got home I finished it.  

Like the Hallmark bag? LOL.  

I made turkey mole today and it was out of this world.  Wanna know how to make it?


Turkey Mole 


Break up about 6 large dried chili peppers into a heat-proof bowl and add  about 2 cups boiling water.  After a few minutes process (blender, food processor, stick blender, etc) until smooth.  We're doing the modern version of the molcajete here.


In a crock pot put:

The chili sauce
1 frozen turkey hindquarter (it will thaw as it cooks)
3 minced cloves garlic
1 large onion, chopped
6 ribs celery, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
3 diced potatoes (after they are well cooked they will thicken the sauce)
1 round Mexican chocolate 
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried oragano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
cayenne to taste for heat ( I used 1/2 teaspoon)
1 cup tomato sauce (leftover marinera is what I used.  A couple of sliced tomatoes works, too.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup wine vinegar
pinch dried thyme
Salt and pepper


Add water to cover.  Cook on low 2 hours. Cut the turkey into chunks and return to the pot, including bones.   Stir everything well.  Now that the chocolate and peanut butter are softened, they will mix in easily.  Let 'er rip for another few hours, until the smell is just killing you.  Serve over rice, or anyway you want!  I imagine a vegetarian version could be made by omitting the turkey and adding garbanzo beans and olive oil. 
 
Lilo sez." Hi!"  She's headed out the window to see what is afoot.


Now that I wrote about it,  I have to have a taste of mole before I go to bed. 


Goodnight.
Julie

Reviving the languishing UFO's

 

Hello, Friends,

I hope you are warm and dry. It's a cold, wet, stormy and windy Friday night here in Southern California. We should not complain, as the rest of the country gets this stuff all the time, but for us it's unusual. I know, I know, it's called rain...
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It's good to hear back on some of this stuff. Glad you liked the free baby leggings pattern. I'm going to do another one in a solid color. I'll post when it's done.
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Today I finally put the buttons on a cute toddler bolero that has been a WIP for a very long time. It's my own design, the yarn is some simple washable stuff from Michael's, size 3 needles.

I got frustrated with the lace at the sleeve hems, put it aside and there it stayed in the bottom of my WIP stack by my chair for a long time. My knitting chair has a nice heated massage pad in it that Dare got me for Christmas a couple of years ago, so I was motivated to sit there today, warm up and dig through the stack. The lace is right side up on the bottom edge, but would be upside down on the sleeves as they are picked up from the armhole and knitted down. I finally found it and pulled it out and the answer to the lace problem was so easy I finished it up in no time. Funny how that works. Answer? I just let it be upside down. It looks great that way. Only 4 rows of lace. Now, I just finished sewing on the cute green triangle buttons and we're good to go for my niece's birthday this spring.  I think I'll make a plan to resolve (either finish or rip) one UFO a week in 2010. 
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The baby I originally started this for is in kindergarten now, but who's counting. Babies are like buses, if you miss one another one will be along soon. So if I can't finish a baby gift in time, I give something else and finish at my leisure. I have a couple of pairs of cute baby booties made up in my gift drawer at all times for emergencies. Let me tell you why.   My daughter called me late one Wednesday and said she was going to a baby shower for her boss and could I make something homemade, it's so much more special than store bought. “Sure”, I said. She replied, “OK, Mom, the Shower is Saturday and she's having twin boys, so it needs to be 2 cute blue things.”    I did a hand crocheted contrast edging on 2 store bought blue blankies.   Cute and fast. LOL.
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I also want to show you a couple of fun slippers I designed. I wanted cute turned up toes like Turkish slippers and enough fabric in the back that they'll stay on. Pull on loops to help me get them on quickly.  Enough foot coverage to keep me warm. Sexy would be nice, too. I think I got the requirements all covered but the last one, sigh. I'm still working on that. Warm and comfy seem to be in conflict with sexy ... Story of my life?

The pinks are a ladies small and the grays are a ladies medium. Hmmmm.... I wonder who fits these?

Don't you like the knitted in purple beads on the pink ones? I used short rows to turn up the toes. Yarn is more of the 60's WW stuff, size 7 needles.
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Here are a few Warming Words from my mentor.  Something to warm the heart on a cold winter's night.    "The ungrateful feel that it is below them to show any kind of appreciation. They are under the delusion that showing gratitude to others diminishes their own worth. But it is this sense of appreciation that elevates, enriches and expands the human spirit. A lack of gratitude is actually a sign of arrogance"    - Daisaku Ikeda

Ta Ta,

Julie

• Location:home in San Diego
• Mood: mellow
• Music:Metropolis

Coming back, Happy New Year

Hello, Happy New Year!

Sorry I've been away so long.  The holidays were a busy time for me.  I'm a Buddhist who was raised Christian.  Dan's what I lovingly call a BU-Jew.  Relatives of every possible combination.   So we just celebrate ALL  the holidays.  Even Hindu New Year with an Indian  friend, Kesh, some years.  Now that I think of it, not since his wife passed away.  Now that's sad.  This year I'll have to make a point to look him up.

Result of all this holiday foolishness?  About a hundred hand knit gifts.  And a bout with bronchitis that did not help.  But I'm back now. 

This year I'm pruning the gift list and starting earlier.  I already have 6 put away in the "magic drawer".  Sigh, I say this every year.   I never learn, do I?

Last night I finished a fun pair of slippers from yarn I got from my garage-sale-loving friend, Nhien.  The ball band of one of the balls was dated 1961. Great, intense colors.   These are very purple, darkly luminous psychadelic purple, even though they photographed more blue.  The pattern is from the same era as the yarn, very retro.



I also recently (since New Years)  finished a keyhole scarf with a ruffled edge.



And a pair of bright orange socks in a small women's size, with fufu  yarn along the top edge to trim the cuff.  In my mind, I have my friends classified by the size of their feet, LOL.  There are several who might fit these small socks.  Hmmm, I wonder who likes orange, I mean really likes 'em really orange. And has small feet.



And a Sutra case for an English language Sutra.  I like the floral lining.  The outside looks like Mexican tooled leather, but it's a suede-like fabric.



And another Sutra case sized for a Japanese language Sutra, much smaller.  This one has a piece of Guatamalan fabric from my friend Kim's mother (who is Guatamalan) in it.  The lining is the same pink and black floral that wraps around to the front flap: outside shot.



and inside shot. This one has an added extra inside pocket.  My Nam Myoho Renge Kyo card for scale.   I only had the one small piece of the great Guatamalan fabric, so I had to build up from there.



I have been reading Poetry in Stitches by Solveig Hisdal and now put colors together I never would have before, like rust and pink. The olde time fiber artists from Norway had a very different color aesthetic.   I'm beginning to like it.    I hope they would approve.

Tonight it was pouring cats and dogs, (winter in San Diego) so we decided we needed comfort food.  We're both getting over colds.  We went to the Souplantation in Point Loma.  Hot soup and salad and muffins, perfect for a cold rainy night... 

Keep warm and dry, where ever you are.

Lilo, busy reading the mail, looks up to say goodnight!



Ta Ta,
Julie

• Location:home
• Mood: full
• Music:Gardens of the world