My first great-niece, Hayden Violet, was born on February 11, 2011 to Heidi and Jordan Foster. I have crocheted a sweater for the little girl, modeled here by Hannalora.
A sweater for Hayden
Christmas makings
As the kids and I chose not to give each other Christmas gifts this year, but old habits die hard, I decided to make them something. I tried knitting again, and did make fingerless gloves for the wee girl, but it was looking like, at the rate I was going, it would take till Christmas 2011 to knit something for everyone, so I returned to crochet. But here is a picture of Trina wearing hers on Christmas morning. I made hers from “Stretchy Sock” yarn, 75% cotton 25% wool blend. Christine’s were in green Peruvian wool and Heidi’s in a blue and white Queensland Collection Merino Spray 100% extra fine merino wool. Christine and Trina also got headbands.
For the men I made hats. I used Diamond Lima Luxury Collection 100% Peruvian Highland Wool trimmed in Sirdar Clik Aran with wool (70% acrylic 30% wool). I used the pattern in the Fall 2009 Interveave Crochet magazine “Leaf Peeper hats” (p.62) for Simon and Masood. I made one like that for Gary, but Trina said it would need to fit under his bike helmet, so I did hte Tahoe hat (p. 54) in the Sidar Clik for him.
The little hat on the bottom of the photo is for my wee girl. Here she is modeling:
My mother saw me making these hats and requested one, too. So I also made her one with the Sidar Clik, mostly light with the darker trim.
The Christmas Turkey
Rick Lishman received a free turkey before Christmas, but as he and Nancy didn’t want to cook it themselves I was fortunate enough to also receive a free turkey. The Gingeriches were gathering on Boxing Day (Sunday) and Trish and I determined we would supply the meat.
I picked up the frozen bird on Wednesday evening and put it into the fridge to start defrosting. On Christmas Day I borrowed Grandma Roth LARGE roaster from Mom. In order to judge how long to roast this turkey I hauled out the bathroom scale and weighed the sucker — about 22 pounds! My Betty Crocker cookbook said it would take 6.5-7.5 hours at 325 degrees. I put it into the oven at 3:00 p.m.
I had other things to do — made supper for us, mostly leftover lentils from another night. Great-Grandma joined us for supper. After eating Mina wanted Great-Grandma to hold her. I got some nice pictures:
We had a fairly quiet evening at home.
At nine o’clock it finally registered in my brain that I was no longer smelling turkey. I checked the oven — the temperature dial was turned off. I can only guess that my wee helper had managed to do that (the dials are at a level where she could reach them). What to do? I decided to simply turn the oven on again and roast the bird for another couple hours. Maybe till midnight…
Soon the house was smelling great again. I dozed off and on, waking at 12:20 a.m. I went and turned off the oven without even opening the door. I slept till just before 6:00.
I got up as quietly as I could, I didn’t want to take Billie outside, nor did I want her ‘help’ as I dealt with the turkey. The roasting pan was still warm, the bird inside even warmer and looking good! I took all the meat off the bones, put it back into the roaster, poured a bit of the juice over all, and returned all to the oven. I set the oven at 180 degrees, hoping it would keep the meat warm without drying it out. It worked wonderfully! At noon we had far more turkey than we needed to feed the Gingeriches that gathered at Queen Street Commons.
Baking…
My new favourite cookie recipe:
Mayflower Cookies
½ c unsalted butter
1 c brown sugar (I use part honey/agave syrup)
2 eggs
1¼ pumpkin puree
2 c flour (I use stone ground spelt)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
2/3 c currants (I prefer chocolate chips and dried currants)
In large bowl cream together butter and sugar.
Add eggs and pumpkin puree.
Blend in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg & currants.
Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets & bake for 10 minutes at 350?
Cool on a wire rack
Makes 2 dozen
Notes:
My (defrosted) pumpkin puree is very runny so I add an extra cup of flour (includes ground flax seed and oat bran). This gives me more cookies.
Billie’s New Sweater
I didn’t really like the fit of the first sweater I did for Billie. I found various patterns on websites for dog sweaters, including how to measure your dog to custom fit. However, in the end I just crocheted, tried on, adjusted throughout. I finished it, took the doggie for a walk and decided to modify it. Now I have a sweater that fits well.
I used Sidar’s Click #2147 Aran with wool for the collar and cuffs and Cascade yarn’s Heathers #8013 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool) for the body, both picked up in the clearance section of Mary Maxim. I crocheted the body in a alternating single and double pattern to give it a nice texture and density.
Istarted the project using the #8 bamboo crochet hook I bought in Cupertino in January; however, before the remake Miss Billie stole the hook and chewed it to bits. I was not pleased! I couldn’t find my 4mm hook so used a 3.75 to finish the project.