Friday, December 3, 2010

Knitting Much?

So Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is well underway and I can't believe how little I've blogged. So this post is a catch -up and I might even get to knitting.

The turkey went in the oven by 8:00 am at 325 degrees. By 3:00, I was hyperventilating, again, about it not being done. I was anticipating it out of the oven at that time and everything else going in to heat up. It came out about a half hour later and was done but after slicing, we saw pockets of underdone spots that I recooked in the microwave (just to be sure). We made up 7 pounds of mashed potatoes and had way too much. Two packages of bread cubes with 1 1/2 pounds of sausage and lots of dressing. Like to reheat it the next day with turkey and gravy-----turkey mush, as we call it. Didn't run out of any vegetable but didn't have a lot left over. Need to make 2 chocolate pies next year, the kids really like it and fight over it, with none left over. Otherwise a comfortable number of pies with lots to take home and 4 pieces left over for us to enjoy. All in all a very successful dinner, with lots of laughing, talking and family togetherness. Perfect.

The turkey carcass had so much meat left on it that was very difficult to remove, so on Friday I put it in the stock pot and made a very rich, thick soup. We have enough for three more meals, at least. I froze it with out pasta. I cooked the pasta separately and put it in the hot soup rather than cooking it with the soup. Came out very firm and delish, not mushy like it sometimes does.

The kids came over on Saturday and we dug out all the decorations and started to get in the Christmas mood. For some reason I'm having a real hard time with that. I shopped on Monday and Tuesday and cybershopped Tuesday and Wednesday and am pretty much done.

I picked out buttons for the purple mock cable sweater and had it blocking on Thanksgiving, so it was done but not worn.



Here it is unblocked. I was worried that blocking would flatten out the cables, since they were formed just by a knit and purl pattern, not regular twisted stitches, but the sweater has been in my bin and pulled out and put back so much over 3 years that it really needed a good cleaning. So I soaked it, gently blocked it and shut the door on it and made Thanksgiving dinner. On Monday when I opened the craft room door, the sweater was blocked beautifully and ready for its buttons. It still retained the cable detail I was afraid blocking would remove.



This is a mid-thigh length sweater and fits very well. I will take an outdoor picture when I sew on the buttons that will, hopefully, show the detail better.

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