And It Was Christmas...

So, lots happened. Kid #1 was here, now he's left to go back home. He left me this for Christmas. My yoga studio's logo in iron and steel... It's beautiful. I never thought it would be in 3-D. I had given him the logo a while ago, and was concerned that it would be an iron sign -- something the building where I rent wouldn't have allowed me to hang off the exterior and it's a storefront: drywall walls can't hold these things up!

But this? This is beautiful. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I mean, the studio floor is all classroom. I don't have a foyer, and I don't have a lot of room to display artwork. It wouldn't look good on top of the cubbies, because you'd lose the beauty of it. And Heaven help anyone it fell on... 

I'll think of something. I have time, what with the remainder of the holiday. 

The Last Baking...

Because I didn't have enough to do, I baked more. My mom requested "Nut cups." At least that's what I heard when she said, "I have a request, and I'd love nut cups." She swears she didn't and that she was going to make them. 

I made them. God's fiddliest cookie - for real. They make the Pineapple Crescents look like child's play.

There were 70 of them. What a pain in the rear end. I made over 200 of the Pineapple Crescents and it wasn't that bad. 

And then, because I had nothing else to do (can you read the sarcasm here? Because I'd hate to waste a good sarcasm...), I made 4-cheese crackers. These went to my friend "J" for Christmas. I thought she was going to serve them to her guests, but she stuck her nose into the box and stashed them. So I guess that's a good thing. 

It wasn't the "cheese puffs" recipe I've made before. I'm pretty sure that I'll find that card in about 2 weeks. But these crackers are actually quite good. I find that a 1/3 cup metal measuring cup does the flattening just fine. 

I used sharp cheddar, Asiago and a Kraft "Mexican blend." So, maybe 5 or 6 cheeses total, but I suppose you could use whatever you wanted. I'll do them again - they were that good. 

To the left here is an overall shot of all the choir cookie bags, plus the potica plates for our family's dinner. 

There were eleven bags, plus the big gift bag for the vicar and her wife. 

The potica was good; the one end was a little "doughy" but overall, it kept its moisture in the freezer. I think we'll have to make more for Easter, but we have time. 

Everyone loved the cookies; my mom got her own tray. This year, we put mine and Kid #2's cookies together on one tray. He wasn't initially jazzed about that, but it worked out well. He did CPS Butter Cookies, sugar sticks, and this cookie he called a "ganache roll up." It was fantastic; sadly for my waistline happily, he left me the remaining 8 or 9 of them in a bag. I still have most of them in the freezer, so I guess I'm good. 

Finished & Started...

I finished the Terribly Simple Shawl. It didn't block out quite the way I wanted, but I really like how it sits on my shoulders. I think the pattern was easy, and with a hand-painted yarn in a lighter colorway, that would also be quite stunning. As luck would have it, I have some lovely hand-painted yarn somewhere in my stash. 

It's nice to have one thing more finished this year. I'm not sure if I'm keeping this or if it'll be a gift at some point. Still contemplating that. I have at least one person in mind for this, if I decide to give it away. 

Here's what's started for 2019... One pair of plain vanilla socks on 9" circulars. This was already frogged by Christmas Eve, but I re-started that and I'm half-way through the ribbing. It'll be a plain leg, switch to DPNs for the heel flap and gusset, I think, then circulars for the foot till the toe decrease. Should be interesting, as this is the first time I'm trying the 9" circular method. The first few rows were a pain in the thumb; once a few rows were established, it eased up. 

These are going to be my "traveling socks project," and so I have no agenda for finishing them. Yarn is (of course) Opal, and colorway is Sunrise, Color 9445 and Lot 1732. Or the other way around. I can't read German. 

Now to find the needles for the green socks; because I have the yarn. And I have to find the other sock... I swear, 2019 will be the Year of Organizing My Knitting...

And I started this... It's the Diamond Smackdown shawl. On Ravelry. Bought it at Le Mouton Rouge Knittery, and bought the yarn there. 

MadTosh Merino Light Glitter. This looks pink in the picture, but it's really kind of a rose gold color. 

Knitting up much like Close to You, which means increasing the plain knitting along the right-hand side, and doing the diamond pattern on the left-hand side. 

I had a slight "pattern change" when I did the M1l (make one, left) wrong. I made some holes. In my opinion, it's a design element. I chose not to frog it. 

The MadTosh is really, REALLY squishy and the picture doesn't do the yarn justice. The sparkles are silver. The yarn has an ever-so-slight black halo to it, which adds a depth to the color. I'm already in love with the yarn and I'm thinking it's going to block like MadTosh usually does: like a dream. This is a bit more than the pattern calls for - it calls for 350 yards, and I have about 420 or so. I think I'll be able to make a few more diamonds. This is going to move along pretty quickly. I was bouncing between getting the ribbing on the sock done and this, but I think I'll be sticking to this for a while.

You knit till you have "half the yarn used up." So I had to weigh it. And then you start the decreases. I'm pretty sure this will be bigger than the specs, because of the extra yardage. 

What's For Dinner...

I was home today (took some time off from one of the jobs) and Hubby and I thought we'd use the Instant Pot. I sicced him on the internet to find a recipe, and he came up with a classic: Porcupine Meatballs!

I haven't had those in --- oh gosh --- maybe 20-25 years, if not more. My mom and granny used to make them as the stuffing for cabbage rolls: golubky in Polish or Hungarian - take your pick. 

We doubled the number of meatballs, and used our own homemade pizza sauce. So, one issue is we could've used more sauce! The recipe called for serving it with roasted potatoes, but I chose noodles. 

I should have just frozen the extra meatballs, but there you go. Live and learn. I'm still getting to know the ins and outs of the Instant Pot. 

For instance, "Instant" is extremely relative. The recipe said "25 minutes," but... Let's dissect this. Hubby made the meatballs. He ground up some round steak, because we like to do that. Less fat. 

Anyway, took him (after grinding) about 10 minutes to do the meatballs. The pizza sauce was already canned, so that time was eliminated. 

It took about 7-8 minutes to get the sauce simmering in the pot on the "saute" setting. Then you add the meatballs, set the pressure and let 'er rip... It took about 12 minutes to get the pot "up to steam." Then, 25 minutes of pressure cooking. Then 15 minutes to "naturally" decompress. About 2 minutes to flip the valve and along with all that, I was cooking the noodles. 

Basically, "instant" was about 45 - 50 minutes. So claims that "it cooks frozen chicken in 10 minutes," while they're technically correct, you're not necessarily going to have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. 

Just in case you believed the hype. 

It's a great appliance. But it's not as "instant" as you'd think. 

Random Christmas Pictures....

Gift bag from Kid #2 with a "Lit Wrap" -- an infinity cowl with Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions" on it. You're right - he gave me one early... But apparently, it was the wrong color, so they sent him another one, which was in purple. So I have two. 



























Church, 10:30 p.m. Vigil of Christmas Eve. It's a beautiful service. My guitar is there; I played "Silent Night," and "In the Bleak Midwinter" for that service. We had over 60 people, which for our church is pretty good! This was before we really got going. 








A hand-painted angel ornament from a friend. It's painted inside, in the Chinese fashion, and it's a beauty. I was really surprised; it's hard to tell by the picture, because of the reflection of the lights, but it's a very pretty pale green background, and she's got a lot of detail in her face and wings. Definitely an heirloom-quality piece. 












The girls at Christmas. This picture is Quinn - who's looking more like Tippi as she gets older. She's my snuggle bunny. 















Here's Tippi - my elder dog, my shadow, my therapy dog rock-star. She's a little bald around her neck - if she'd quit licking her back leg, she'd be out of the cone! We're going to have her checked for allergies - it's gotten worse as she's gotten older and I don't want to keep her in a cone for the rest of her years!














And here's Raisa, the goofball husky. She had to be bribed. The Elkhounds will smile on command, for the most part. Raisa demands tribute for the privilege of a photograph, unless I can catch her on the sly. 













So how was your holiday? Were you able to spend time with your loved ones? And were you able to have time for yourself? I hope so!