Did you know?

that a computer hard drive can break? not what we frequently refer to as "crash" where you got a virus or some software issue, but BREAK.
I didn't know this.

We returned home from our Christmas travels and of course I headed right for the computer, needed to download pictures, check emails, etc. Instead,I got the blue screen of death.

Long story (it's been over month since I've posted so yes, it's long) short, the little man who sits in there and writes everything down, died.

After exhuasting all our options here at home, Jeff took the computer in to the shop. THey assured us that no matter how crashed it was, they can nearly always bypass the issues, save the data, then wipe it clean.
The day wore on with no report. Finally in the evening, the phone rang. Jeff made ominous noises like, "oh really? oh my! Oh dear. I see. Uh huh, Uh huh. Oh. Well. " It did not sound encouraging.

Apparently, there is not a little man in there writing everything down, there are however little record player thingies (I'm not making this up, I looked it up and saw pictures) in there where all the data is recorded. Something broke. the little magnetic records can no longer spin. the little reader/writers can no longer read and write.

I am a bad person. My husband supplied me with a second hard drive so I can back things up. I used it for storing my volumnous digi-scrapping files. I haven't backed up pictures or files in over a year.

They told us that they can't get our data off, someone can, but they have to take the hard drive apart, take out the little magnetic disks, and put them onto something else to read them. This does of course cost $$$. At this point we have the broken hard drive and will save money and hopefully someday be able to recover all the data.

So anyway, it's been a long month of no computer, replacing the drive, reloading all the systems, etc. I am now nearly all back on track.

Lesson learned. back up your stuff. back it up. the little man in the computer will not live forever.

knitting socks, a pair at a time

So, If you are not a knitter, you may just want to admire my pretty colors and move on. Unless you are an engineer like my husband, who was intrigued by the whole process, or just acted like he was, seeing as how he's my husband.

This is a combination of the knitting small diameter projects on two circular needles technique published by Cat Bordhi, and the knit two socks at once technique by Barb. I'm sure that other people also do these things, but I'm crediting the people who I directly looked up.

First of all, the benefit of using two circs. For me, the benefit over using DPNs is obvious, as Cat points out in her book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles , using her method will save about 300 intersections vs. using DPNs. I was a little skeptical, having been taught by my mother how to do small diameter circular knitting on one circular needle and never having any trouble with it (this method is commonly called "magic loop"), why I should need two circs. I have found that there is the benefit of not having to ever rearrange your stitches, you put half on each needle, and that is where they stay. Of course there is a time for magic looping, but I do think that for projects like socks where you are going to stay in a small diameter the entire time, the two circ method is more efficient.

The benefit of knitting both socks at once... well, I have to admit, that I am often a "one hit wonder" when it comes to projects. I made it, great, now I'm done, I move on to something else. This presents a difficulty in items such as pant legs, socks, mittens,... you get the idea. Doing both at once is not necessarily faster, but when you are finished, you have your pair of socks. I know myself and myself would be highly likely to only ever make one sock.

I'm not going to attempt to fully explain these techniques, there are other websites that go into great detail and/or, you can buy the book. Mom wanted to see my projects and so did a few other people so here it is.
Cast on your stitches, then put half on each needle, join, work a round. I started my two socks separately then put them on my needles with about three rows each. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! Ok, there are going to be several important parts, but this is the first one. Your working yarn must be coming off the same side for both socks! Pointing the same direction. In the following picture, my live yarn is coming off the top needle/top facing side of the socks, and as you can see, they are both pointing "north". I lost count of how many times I put the stupid socks on and off the needles before I figured out this rule. Apparently it's either so obvious the instructions didn't say so, or I skipped that page. If your yarn is not going the right way, you will knit one side and then be stuck. You will have no needle and live yarn adjacent to each other. You will be caught on one of those mobius strips and have no where to run. You will take the project off the needles, turn it, put it back on, anxiously counting stitches to make sure you aren't dropping any, knit one side and be back in mobius hell again.

Here is a view from the "top", the socks are not connected, they are just slid together. So, straight position looks like this: you have working needle (green) which you will slide the stitches up to the point and knit them in a second, and you have resting needle (red) which just dangles there. Your working yarn is going to come off the resting needle and knit into the live side.You must use the front and back of the SAME needle, don't get sidetracked and knit off onto the resting needle. If you do so and attempt to just slide the stitches back onto the correct needle, I bet $5 that you will put them on the wrong direction and, you guessed it, be back in mobius hell.
Personally I am going to look for two different colors of the same gauge needle, or try using one metal and one wood, I really think that having two colors would free up a lot of brain space, and since knitting is supposed to be relaxing, not having to think too hard is a good thing.

So, you have the projects on the needles correctly and you knit with the correct needle, and now you are faced with this: It looks nothing like my neat "straight position" illustrated above.
Don't worry, you are looking for an end that has a needle point on one side, and a working yarn coming off the other side. If you did everything right, it's there. Again, take your working needle, bring your yarn off of your resting needle, and knit.

That's it. Each round you do will both sides of one sock, then the other sock will have mysteriously made it to first position and be waiting there for you to knit it as well.

I am also working on a pair of mittens like this... not only will I end up with two mittens at once (a handy little side effect...) I won't have to remember how many round and increases and decreases I did so that I can make the other one identical. It will already be the same. WHOO HOO.

Ok, I'll post pictures of the socks and the mittens when they are finished. Of course that assumes that I will conquer heels, toes, and thumbs.

I've been busy

These are all custom orders or gifts that I've turned out in the past month or so:
Custom dyed, then knit, as a baby gift for a friend of mine. The colorway will be available in my store under the name "Hannah's Hydrangea"
A set of shirts for a sibling group, there were actually four, but i took the picture after the first three were complete. This was for a trade, it purchased Jeff's Christmas gift from me.
Custom shirts for a newborn girl. Well, technically, she's not born yet, LOL. The mom requested the coffee cup, I don't just randomly make coffee cup shirts for infants.

Custom dyed yarn for a little guy who loves all things yellow.
Custom dyed self-striping yarn in "Cotton Candy"

These reptiles are all for one lucky kid. I am now under strict orders to produce an equal or greater number of toys for my own kids! I am particularly pleased with the lizard.

This one was a joint effort, my mom knit up the stockings, I embellished them and am offering customized name options. This one is made up and shipped out, there are other available in my store--link in the sidebar.


Custom shirts for a new baby boy.

infant sized diapers for my friend who just had a baby girl... I am SOOOO suffering from baby fever, I truly enjoyed making these dipes.
For those who understand (or care) about the inner workings of cloth dipes, these are flannel, with an inner soaker layer, then a sewn in "lay in" doubler. The doubler is sewn in across the back so it can't get lost in the dryer, but will flap freely to speed up washing and drying time. The doubler is topped with a wicking/stay dry layer of alova suede, and the rest is flannel.
I'm sure I'm missing something... oh yes, two fleece covers for the above diapers but I didn't get a picture, I barely got them in the mail box before the postman this morning. Also a secret dyejob on a skein of yarn. No pics of that yet, not until I'm ready to debut in the store, ... ha ha, take that you industrial spies who are reading my blog and trying to steal my trademarked colorways!

I also deep-cleaned the kitchen and cleaned and rearranged the living room awaiting the arrival of the christmas tree. And Jeff was out of town Monday through Friday... and will be out of town again next week, but I don't want to even talk about it, it makes my blood pressure go up. Oh, the good news is that he was accepted (to two different Universities) for his Master's program. He had an emotional pull to go with ODU since that is where he has his BS from, but he is going to choose Florida Technical Institute instead since they offer a direct program with his company. The cohort will be made up only of people from Northrop Grumman and they will hold the classes in company facilities. The other great thing is that NG pays for it up front instead of having to pay for it then submit for tuition assistance.

Hmmm. that's all for now, I have 5 minuts alone and I better use it wisely!

Pork Roast and Perspective

1. Perspective. Jessi is convinced she can fly. Remember that ANNOYING song from the mid-late 90's? I mean the girl truly believes she can fly. She spent quality time this summer jumping jumping off of the little playhouse to see if she could ever go up instead of down. Yesterday she was doing a job of straightening the pantry, which like any good job involved the use of the step stool. Once she lost interest in arranging the boxes and cans, she turned around and began making mighty leaps from the pantry to the kitchen. I tried to convince her that people couldn't fly, that if they could, everyone would be flying around. She will have nothing of it, and demonstrated that SHE flaps her wings, err, arms, just perfectly and she CAN fly.
I decided that other than the possible trip to the ER, it was harmless fun and let her continue jumping while I prepared dinner. After one particularly HUGE leap, she picked herself up off the floor and with the brightest eyes, her voice full of faith, exclaimed, "Whoa, I have to be careful, I almost fell!"
You see, in her mind, she WAS flying, that wasn't a long jump ending in a fall, it was a successful flight with a slightly rough landing. It's all about perception.


2. Pork Roast (oh wait... you thought this was going to be a perspective of pork roast?... sorry)
Every so often I just get fed up with bland American food and have to revert back to my childhood (fyi, my dad was Cuban and I grew up in Key West, Florida). One of my all time favorites is Cuban style roast pork. Here are directions.
Uhh... I don't do "recipes" so much as I simply give instructions... and to be honest, it would make a lot more sense if we were in the kitchen together and you were watching me.

Pork Roast (made with easily accessible American ingredients)
3-5 lbs pork roast
head of garlic
lemon juice (if you live where you can get key lime juice you should use that, the lemon/lime juice is for the rest of us)
lime juice
cumin (that's a spice, you should be able to find it at any grocery store)
minced onion
a large enough ziploc bag to fit your roast in (or of course, you can cut your roast in half)

-peel about 6 cloves of garlic and cut them in half
-with a small sharp knife, stab your roast and shove the cloves down into the slits
-put the roast into the ziploc bag and pour in a generous amount (see this is where the whole idea of "recipe" falls apart) of the lemon juice and lime juice in. I suppose you need about a cup total, enough that your roast has plenty to swim in
- add a generous amount of cumin ... maybe two tablespoons... I mean smell it, it's yummy, just pour a lot in
-a tablespoon or two of dried minced onion
- chop up a few more cloves of garlic and throw that in as well. save a little garlic for the beans, but other than that, use it.

seal the bag and let it sit for several hours, the longer the better.

When you are ready to cook it, remove from the bag and put it in a roasting pan,all that juice too! cover it with foil and bake at 350-375 for several hours (depends on how big your roast is). Pork is done at 155 degrees, so about 30 minutes before it's done, remove the foil so that the roast can get all brown and delicious.

Now, since I don't always have a big old pork roast laying around, I do the same thing with chops and it works great!
The only thing I don't do is stab the chops and stuff them with garlic, just marinate them the same way, then bake or broil until done.

Serve with:
steamed white rice (or yellow rice) and black beans.

black beans:
two cans of black beans
one onion
one green pepper
several cloves of garlic
salt
vinegar
olive oil

- cut up your onion, green pepper and cloves of garlic
-in the saucepan that you will use to make your bean soup, heat olive oil over medium to low heat (no, I don't know how much olive oil... cause I don't know how big your sauce pan is! you need enough to cover the bottom and saute all the veggies in)
- put the onions, green pepper, and garlic in and cook them over a slow heat, you are not browning them, you are cooking them until soft and clear (well the onions will turn clear.. I'm not sure how long to cook the green pepper to make it clear!) this is called a "congree" which is spelled wrong but I don't even know what language that is... I just know that's what my mom calls it.
- to this pan, add the black beans, let them simmer over low heat for a while (how long? well, they taste better the second day anyway, so I just let them simmer while I cook everything else), say an hour or so.
- at the end of the cooking time, taste them, add one table spoon of vinegar, stir, taste again. you may wish to add a tiny pinch of salt, but the vinegar will probably do the trick. If you want, add another tablespoon of vinegar, but please, taste in between the spoonfuls! The vinegar is important, if you don't add it, you will have bland beans and blame me. It is also important to wait until the END of the cooking time, or the flavor cooks out, and again, you will have bland beans.

Slice the roast (or plate the chops), spoon some of the juice from the pan over each serving, add rice to the plate, serve the beans over the rice. The juice from the meat will mingle with the bean sauce and you will be wishing for some Cuban bread to sop up the plate juice with.

A word about garlic. Some may read this and think that I have used too much garlic. I don't think there is such a thing. It's sort of like having too much money... people claim that it can happen, but no one ever knows of an actual case. viva la garlic!


* i found this recipe for the marinade i use, mojo criollo:

Yield 1 1/2 cups Units US

• ¹⁄₄ cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
• ¹⁄₂ cup orange juice, fresh squeezed
• ¹⁄₂ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 6 garlic cloves, pressed
• salt, to taste
• black pepper, fresh ground, to taste

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a small jar, cover and shake for 2 minutes.
2. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
3. Use as a marinade for meats and poultry.

Random Pictures

The guys are out camping (like for REAL, not just practicing in the back yard!) for Joey's Royal Rangers group, so we girls are having a girl's weekend. Except Dean is here too. Of course he stays holed up in his room, although since he lost phone privileges until he gets his grades up, I'm not sure what he's actually doing.

Anyhow, we girls are having a great time. We found this very fun site that has games for the kids. http://akidsheart.com/holidays/christms/chgames.htm we are especially enjoying the two Han Brett games, the tree and gingerbread house found here:http://www.janbrett.com/trim_a_jan_brett_gingerbread_baby_house.htm

I do have a challenge for you though... If anyone can actually complete this insanely impossible puzzle... please let me know! http://akidsheart.com/holidays/christms/chgames.htm

So anyway, I have the foot spa set up, complete with Spiced Pear Bath Salts from Faith Acre (see my sidebar) and we are all taking turns putting our feet in the bubbling, heavenly scented water. The phone rings, it's my sister telling me that mom said that all her grey hair came from she and my brother, and not one strand from me. That I am the perfect child, blah blah blah. I calm my sister down, let her know I wasn't perfect, I was merely subtle (that sounds so much better than sneaky, doesn't it?). I turn back to my own two not-so-subtle children and see that Joy's head is dripping wet. I question Jessi and she tells me that Joy WANTED her hair wet and that Joy looks SO cute with her hair wet, so... she did it. With the water from the foot bath. yum.

Yes, that is a hot pink softball and glove she is holding. they belong to the child which I most certainly carried and birthed, yet somehow is not mine. That would be Jessi, who is 100% princess, infatuated with shoes, and still very tomboy and unarguably one of the fastest runners around. I sincerely have no idea where she came from.

So we girls stayed up SOOO late that Jessi is still in bed, Joy is crawling around all over me as I try to type this. I have much to do before the guys return, so I'll close now.

Just in case you need a good smile today:

What you have to understand is that she puts this on by herself. She loves wearing the sunglasses and then plops the hat on backwards. This, one, she's mine.

One for you

OK more on gifts, but this time instead of urging you to buy them, I'll share a super simple but very impressive gift you can make.

Decoupage. Oh don't look so shocked, I could have said macrame you know.

The basic tools: Mod Podge or other type of decoupage glue, available at any craft store or probably at walmart. Papers, I love using the pretty tissues that you get your china wrapped up in when you buy dishes from outlet stores, however, you can use any pretty papers such as scrap booking paper, holiday napkins, or wrapping paper. I personally prefer thinner tissue type papers rather than good sturdy scrapping paper, but it will all work.Something to decorate. For this project we have made a number of journals. I got blank journals with hard covers for $1 each at Michael's Craft Store, I'm sure you could find suitable books at the $1 store or decorate things like mini photo albums or even picture frames. I was fortunate to find journals that had the metal spiral binding that allowed me to completely remove the covers and then put them back on later. You can do this on books with non-removable covers, you'll just have to take care not to spill glue over the pages.This book had lovely stiff covers, but was also graces with burnt orange and brown designs... I simply covered the covers with stiff card stock before starting to decorate with my tissues.Choose some papers with motifs that you like and start cutting them out, bits and pieces from a variety of papers can look really nice. I cut out fine work like the flowers and like the look of ripping motifs from scrap booking papers, such as the words in the above book. Also, when I rip the paper, I like to use a tinting marker to color the ripped edges. I will also rip strips from the tissues for stripes and bands. It's all up to you really.

It's time to get messy. You'll need a big-ish paint brush, or even better one of those small foam brush things, they are usually about .20 at craft stores and work really well for evenly applying large areas of glue. After a trial layout start gluing, you will apply a coat of the mod podge all over the cover and begin laying your paper designs on. Decoupage is all about being loose... don't get all huffed up if your papers wrinkle or the lay out changes from your original plan... and layer! I think it's nice to start with a large motif and then layer, layer, layer, on top and around it. Glue, lay stuff on, cover it with more glue, lay more stuff on, and on and on.

For your last layers of glue, you will want to pay close attention that you anchor down any edges or thick pieces. Also, depending on how much you wrapped around the edge of the covers, you may like to cut one piece of paper to fit inside and glue that down, just for a clean inner cover (hint: I often use one sheet of the paper from the journal...it fits exactly and gives a nice place for an inscription if you so desire). Once everything is dry, just reassemble the journals.
The one on the top left is what Jessi made (with help, yes, but she did all the cutting and most of the gluing) for her teacher. Of course you are not limited to books, here is a wooden star that we picked up for less than $1 at a craft store and then decorated both sides
Here is a little trinket box that Joey and I did.

I'm sure I left out some vital part of the directions, so if you are interested and have a question, just leave a comment and I'll try to clarify it or take more pictures!

Hymns and help

OH I have so much to say and share and talk about but this is gooing to have to be a quick post.

let me be to the point. i love hymns, i miss hymns, sometimes i'm so frustrated that if i could find a church who actually sang good hymns i'd go there regardless of the flavor of church.

so, please, i want recommendations of recordings i can get of good hymns... and to be a bit more picky, I would like them to be singing not instrumental, i would like them to be sort of "normal" in that they aren't fancy arrangments, but more what you would sing in church, finally, if they could be kid friendly that would be great. that doesn't mean falsely peppy, just listener friendly. My kids can enjoy good music, not just "kid music" (for instance, they know by heart most of the music from Sound of Music, even the slow songs) but I'm not sure they will be tempted to sing along with slow or operatic type music.

So really, is there such a thing out there? is it possible for my kids to grow up in this age of 7-11 praise choruses and still learn the great hymns? thanks!