Busy doing nothing

I can't believe February is over already... time flies. Chris is off to Sierra Leone for a film scouting trip, and the kids and I are making do without him. So, needles are down, great community is up (lots of great friends here on Bowen who are having us over for meals and play dates and anything that gives this 8 months pregnant mommy a short break), and therefore, not much to report.

On the needles

Someday I will figure out how to create interesting sidebars on this program... I know other e-bloggers have done it, I just don't have the fortitude to figure it out. Meantime, an update on what is on my needles right now. Actually, it is nothing! But yesterday I finished yet another baby hat, for a friend who is having a baby today (I have a blue hat all done, but suddenly realized it might be a girl - so yesterday we knit up a cotton cap that is variegated in yellow, orange and pink. I hope she has a boy, since I want to keep it myself!). And the day before I finished these from knitty - finger puppets! I only managed to do three this time - a pig, an elephant, and a striped tiger/cat. So simple, and with the right embellishments, they are pretty cute. These were a last minute panic attack for a first birthday party we are going to on Sunday - living on the island, it isn't the easiest to shop (at least not cheaply - there are several really fabulous shops for non-frugal!).

My two pre-schoolers really enjoyed the process of Atchison these come to life. I followed the pattern exactly for the cat, but then decided it was much easier to knit them in the round (less seaming) and either draw the string though to end (elephant) or bind off with the kitchner stitch (pig). That was much cleaner looking. Time spent was very short, so I think I'll end up making more of these to have in a stash for surprise gift giving! These were made literally with scraps of yarn I had, some cotton, some wool. I'm curious which kids and/or parents would like more - the cotton or wool...

Lasagna in a flash

Okay, so not really lasagna, though it tasted just right. My husband loves lasagna, and though he doesn't ask for it much, I try to remember to make it during this cold weather season. But I had dealing with the dry pasta sheets, blah, blah. Whine. So, last night I cooked up a box of regular shell shaped pasta (very kid friendly, if you have a pasta lover who is afraid of sauce). In a 9x13 pan, I layered sauce (it ended up taking two full jars), half the pasta shells, all the ricotta mixture (tub of ricotta, egg, mozzarella cheese, italian spices), more sauce, rest of shells, rest of sauce, and a thin layer of mozzarella and parmesan. Cooked for only 35 minutes (another plus over regular lasagna!). Presentation on the plate isnt' as much of a wow-er, but it tasted just right, and even the kids were willing to eat it, since the shapes were right!

Progress on the Basket

Okay, so the Nantasket Basket went way better than I had anticipated. I managed to get through the three techniques that were new - the pattern directions were clear and as long as I didn't read ahead or over think it, all went as planned. It didn't take long at all to make, and with great trepidation I put it in a lingerie bag and in the washer it went - super hot water, lowest cycle, with a pair of jeans as the pattern indicated.

It took two agitation cycles to get it right to where I wanted it... a bit smelly (I have a sensitive nose) from the wet wool, but just wild to see how much it shrunk and how different it looked! And it took two days to fully dry (we are in a cold house) - but it is finished! And I really like it. I plan on using this one to hold the newborn baby "toys", and making several more as gifts.

I took a lot of photos to track the progress - you can access them here on flickr.

Dinner in Thirty Minutes

I really like to cook. But life with two preschoolers and running a school board (and attempting to continue to have a creative life as well) has really toned down my cooking style. Today was the perfect example. Normal life, normal day: kids and I played the morning away (with bits of Board work while they painted), our regular Monday Lunch (peanut butter on graham crackers, Noodle soup, apples), a race to get to school on time, two and a half hours of Board work while at the school office (we seem to be in a season of putting out fires), home again, a random drop over from a friend and her daughter = chaotic playing while the Mum's sipped tea, and suddenly, it was five.

So now I've got two hungry kids, tired from a busy and cold day, and, if I'm lucky, half an hour to pull off dinner. Enter... thirty minute meals. A friend on the island had found The 5:30 Challenge at the library, and I think we've both been cooking from it since. So tonight was a chile relleno bake - five ingredients (beans, salsa, cheese, green chilies and corn bread mix - and even though I made the corn bread mix from scratch (and used my trusty stash of frozen cooked black beans instead of canned), this was actually ready in only 35 minutes. That included help from my trusty assistant, Sterling (those of you with five year olds know that help from that age bracket sometimes slows things down).

The result? Nothing beautiful to look at, but topped with some fresh tomatoes and sour cream, it was delicious. Some fresh fruit for dessert, and, viola, dinner in 35 minutes!

Nantasket Basket

Okay, so several months ago I received my first KnitPicks catalog, and after drooling over the many things I didn't have time to make, came up with the very practical solution of finding one pattern that looked great, and looked like a great present idea. The Nantasket Basket!

I really didn't like the colors in the advert, but I loved the petite nature of this basket. It was also a good excuse to try felting, which I had never done before. So I bought the yarn (wool of the Andes, four skeins, about $8) and the pattern, and waited and waited until I could get to the US to pick it all up!

That was a week ago. I got right to business... first, there were three terms/techniques in the pattern I didn't know, which almost scared me off. With pregnancy brain, trying difficult things is often impossible. But I navigated through the first with ease, and here we are having knit the bottom and sides!

Long time, no blog... a quick update

I'm always surprised when I suddenly realize that two weeks has passed, and while I've managed to read a few of my favorite blogs, I haven't actually managed to write one myself. So a quick update on the food and craft homefront...

Crafts are easy - after a long hiatus, I managed to get to a Michael's and spend an unseemly sum of money (this is Canada, and things tend to cost quite a bit more than the US counterpart that I'm accustomed to forking over) buying the scrapbooking pages and stuff that I needed. I haven't hauled it all out to work on yet - that will come when Chris heads back into town for his two days of classes. The kids and I leave in three weeks for California and a short, hopefully sunny vacation, so I want to have all of 2004 wrapped up by then.

I'm in a small but wonderful Mum's Group here on the island, and the other two moms and I managed a day away last Monday to celebrate my birthday (it is telling how hectic life is that this was the first day we managed it, and my birthday was back in September). Since I rarely get into town for anything but grocery shopping, it was a real treat to meet the girls and go shopping, in that poking in and out of whatever store seemed interesting at the moment kind of way. We started at our friends shop, Shed, which has just about the best collection of everything from soap to furniture and knitted baby caps to old styled metal toys. I drooled quite a bit, but managed to refrain from doing too much to be responsible for them staying in business. Then lunch at Burgoo's - what an incredible selection of soups and stews! And to get to eat in the company of all adults, with no rushing, spilling or fussing! Then on to Urban Yarns, right across the street (all of these are on 10th in Vancouver)... expensive but what a selection! The space was too tight (especially with a pregnant belly), but I just wandered up and down the store fingering yarn. I managed to fall for only one - a hank of cotten chenille that was so beautiful that I was actually disappointed to get home and ball it up for making my baby a cap - there is something seductive, to me, about a thick and soft hank of beautiful yarn.

As for projects I'm working on... I guess that'll have to wait for the next blog, but there are several.

And as for food... not so much on that front. I did get a few new cookbooks, and we've eaten a few recipes... but again, this is meant to be a blog, not a novel, and I've got to go wake up a napping girl!