Knitting Fail

A few weeks ago (or many, however you want to look at it) Melissa posted about loving this slouchy, beret style hat and how she wanted one. I commented that I'd be more than happy to make her one, and she accepted the offer. I did a quick Ravelry search, sent her a few patterns and asked her to choose one, measure her noggin', and pick a color (or two!).

The pattern she chose was this one (Ravelry link). I set out to start it 2 weeks ago, and it came with me on the plane on my way to mom's during my last visit. It started out just fine. This was my first cabling project, and that part wasn't hard at all, but as I had started I realized it didn't look big enough at all, and I'd even added a few stitches to the pattern. I ripped it apart a few inches in, added a TON more stitches (I think 36, possibly more) despite my gauge swatch being just fine, and went to town. When you're knitting in the round it's really hard to tell exactly how big something is/how exactly it's going to look. I finished it one evening watching TV with mom, and when it was done I realized it wasn't right. At all. It doesn't slouch. It fits very awkwardly, and is just wrong, wrong wrong. Mom said she actually likes the way it fits in it's wrong-fitting-ness, so it'll probably go to her when I'm done trying it on and modeling it for blogs like this. Just kidding. Maybe it'll appear in her Christmas stocking next month...

I still can't quite figure out the errors of my ways, but now that I go back and look at other's pictures of their completed projects I notice that theirs look closer to mine than to the pattern's original... Hmm...

This weekend I made the executive decision to just try the second pattern I sent to her, one that has great ratings and good outcomes based on the pictures of other's completed versions. It's this hat, (Ravelry pattern) and so far it's coming along a lot better. Knitting can be so hit or miss sometimes, you never know how things are going to turn out!

I'll report back when it's done, and will show the finished product whether or not it turns out correctly!

Last Night

Last night, after what felt like a very short yet very fun weekend, I started to make dinner around 6. The Sunday rule is either I have dinner done in time for Sailor Boy to watch 60 minutes at 7pm, or he's allowed to eat in front of the TV. The menu planned was to broil a t-bone steak from the freezer, roast some asparagus, and make some spaetzle.

I grew up occasionally eating spaetzle at Gran's, she'd sometimes make it when we'd all get together for dinner and pair it with a roast and some cabbage and it was always so good. One of my aunts used to make it fairly often as well, but for some reason I never understood mom didn't make it that often. Spaetzle is a very German food, and it's kind of like little noodle dumplings. And it looks like worms.

I knew we had a "spaetzle maker" this grater looking thing, and when I was home last weekend I dug around in the cabinet I remembered it being in, and ironically found it. No small feat since the last time I remember mom using it was at least 6 years ago, and she's moved in and out of the house multiple times since then, and I would have thought it would have been one of the first things to be tossed in a move. I found it, and asked mom if I could take it, and questioned her as to why she never used to make spaetzle very much. She answered that she likes to eat it but that it's a pain in the booty to make.

I took the maker home with me, and set out to try my hand at the spaetzle. I didn't get around to it until this weekend between not having enough eggs and working last week, but last night was the night. All was going well so far, but once I started trying to use the maker I suddenly realized why making this sucks. It was SO hard to get the dough to properly come out of the part that holds it and then for the slider thing to actually cut off the bits in a reasonable manner. It was a huge pain. SB ended up helping me as you almost needed two people, one to hold it, and push the sliding part, and the other to repeatedly push down the dough. Oh, and the dough is hugmongously sticky. And you're standing over a pot of boiling water.

I had the steak in the oven at the same time, and noticed it was getting a little smokey, but turned the fan on and didn't think much of it. Then, suddenly the piercing noise of the smoke alarm began. We both put down the spaetzle stuff, ran to open the doors, and I grabbed a dining room chair to pull down the alarms to get it to just stop!! Ziggy was freaking out, I got the one in the hallway down and unplugged, did the same in our bedroom (for some reason didn't think of the other bedrooms, but the doors were closed because we had a fire going and we're trying to keep the living room warm) and we realized we had to get to the alarm between the kitchen and the living room, at the highest point of the cathedral ceilings. I told SB to climb on the kitchen counter, onto the fridge, on to the tops of the cabinets, and then hoist him onto to the ledge between the two rooms. From there he was able to reach the alarm and we finally got it to stop. Only after we were both partially deaf. And the dog was cowering.

We both started laughing hysterically, and I took a picture of SB laying on the ledge. Just for proof. He made it back down, and we finished the spaetzle (and I took the steak out of the oven, it was done anyways!) and soon enough we had almost all the smoke cleared from the room. Yes, the spaetzle was a pain to make, but it was a darn good meal, and we had some extra entertainment along the way...

Tomorrowland Trees

Last year Blair over at Wise Craft posted a tutorial for these neat little trees. I had shown them to mom last year because I thought they were just the sort of thing she'd really like, but neither of us actually got around to making them.

I was reminded of them again when I saw Blair's newest holiday decorations and as I had a bit of time this weekend at mom's (and she has a good stash of fabric!) I decided it was time we gave it a try.

I did mine a little differently than the tutorial above. Instead of cutting and then sewing the fabric together, I just freehand sewed the tree outlines (I tried to draw them on, but it was nearly impossible to see on the dark fabrics so I just wung (winged?) it instead), and then cut them out just outside of the sewing line. Much easier for me at least.

I also didn't do the styrofoam forms inside. I cut narrow triangles of cardboard about the height of the tree, made a cut at the bottom about half an inch long, vertical to the bottom of the cardboard. Then I cut a piece of cardboard that was about 3/4 of an inch tall and just under the width of the bottom of the tree. I cut another little notch in the top of this one, and fit the two pieces of cardboard together at 90 degree angles so that it created a good stand. Then I fit the cardboard inside the fabric and voila, they stand on their own! I used a variety of felt and velour scraps mom had for the trees themselves, and the only thing I bought for the project was one $2.50 little bag of 12 crystals for the tops which I glued on with Elmer's.

This was the whole crew of 10 I made, take when I was still at mom's.

And I took 6 home with me, and left 4 for her. Now, what other Christmas crafting can I get my hands on....?

Sweet Potato Casserole

I came to visit my Mom this weekend, and we both wanted to cook something. I've actually been doing a pretty fair amount of cooking and trying out new recipes at home considering how much I've been working. On the other hand mom, who is still dealing with Gran stuff (yup, she's still alive... how is beyond us...) and commuting to Oregon for work doesn't get as much cooking in. I brought the November '09 Martha Stewart with me to catch up on, and the "make ahead side-dish" article had some pretty appealing recipes. Martha, as I've said before, is so hit or miss. We went to the store to gather the items, and bought some chicken to serve with it.

The recipe itself was very easy to put together, minus chopping the potatoes, but I sometimes get a little bored with a task like that. I cannot seem to find the recipe on her website (which is sometimes the most frustrating thing to search through. Ever.) but this other review I found of the recipe give a pretty clear description of how it's made, and for those of you who cook even just a little, I think can figure it out from there.

My one issue with it was that the potato mixture got a little too creamy. #1, I used the food processor instead of a ricer, because mom (nor do I actually) does not have a ricer and I figured the food processor was the next best thing. In actuality I think this would have been fine, but if you do use the food processor instead, (#2) I highly suggest using less milk than the recipe calls for. It made the whole thing a little too liquidy for my tastes and didn't firm up during baking at all.

I have to say it was really yummy. Although, anything made with this much butter pretty much has to be yummy, right?

The hint of sage is great, I loved the crispy bread crumbs, and of course the butter just pulls it all together. The review I posted above didn't like it very much, but she also said she isn't a huge fan of sweet potatoes in general, which I think you kind of have to be in order to like the recipe. both mom and I really like them (and didn't you know they're the most nutrient rich vegetable? Or at least so says Rachel Ray...) so it worked in our favor. We completed the meal with some steamed artichokes and the pre-cooked skewered chicken from Wh*le Foods. It was yum yum.

In fact it was so yum yum I think I should go eat some more before we leave to take me to the airport to fly home...

Adjusting

I figured because I was young, and a sleep lover that I'd have no problem switching back to night sleeping and then back to day sleeping again, but so far it's harder than I originally thought. I can't tell if it's because I did four days in a row, or because the day after my last day of work I had to get up at 5am to go do stupid class things at work, but it's been rough. Night #1 I went to bed with Sailor Boy at about 10, I read until 10:30, and slept well until 2 am when I woke up wide awake. Since I had to be up at 5 I told myself I had to lie there and go back to sleep, but if I was still up at 4am I could get up and do some things. I think I finally fell back asleep around 3:30, and it was hard getting up at 5.

Yesterday was painful, driving to work I was awake but felt exhausted, I felt nauseous from being tired, and knowing I was going to work for useless reasons made it harder. I came home, picked up SB who had the day off for Veteran's Day, and we went to Applebee's for lunch to claim his free meal. We got home at about 1 and I was so tired and we both napped until 4. I tried to go to sleep around 11 last night, fell asleep for 2 seconds then woke up and could not fall asleep again. I read for a bit, then got out of bed and went to the garage at 1am and worked for an hour and a half on the cabinet. Autum warned me of this from her experiences night nursing and decorating the Christmas tree at 2am, but I didn't think that would be me. Armed with my phone playing my new favorite Pandora station (Nora Jones, and everything kind of like her, it's soothing, and really nice.), and the wind blowing against the garage door I removed the rest of the screws holding on the hinges, sanded, and put down my first layer of paint.

It's lighter this morning in the light than I thought it would be, but I still like it a lot! I can't wait to get another coat on it today (read, not tonight) and then work on putting it all back together. I'm trying to figure out something cool to do for the top so that it's not so plain. Last night I think I decided it should go in my office/sewing room for some misplaced office things I have.

I got back into bed and read some more after that, I still wasn't tired and I knew SB would be getting up shortly after 3 to get to base for stupid PT, so I figured I'd wait up for him. I went back to sleep at 4 when he left, and slept like a rock until I woke up at noon. Noon. What the heck!?

I'm determined not to nap today and to go to bed at a normal time. I have 5 more days to get back on track and then it's time to mess it all up again. At this point I'm wondering if I'm not better off just being on a slightly screwy schedule where I stay up late and sleep late, but who knows. I think I'll give this night shift thing more time before I decide!

This Week

- I'm using my new crock pot (hello 16.99 at Target, for that price I can live with it being red and not matching the rest of my appliances) and looking for good easy one dish meals to make with it. Any good recommendations?

- I switched to the night shift. Last night was my first shift and it went way better than I anticipated. Everyone says your first night on is easy, so I dread my four in a row this weekend. The only thing was this morning after I got off I was so discombobulated and confused as to what day it was, what time it was, and what I was supposed to be doing. I feel more on track after sleeping for four hours. I plan on switching back and forth from sleeping at night to at day when I work, because I like living a normal life too.

- I managed all four patients on my own last night for the most part. I was horribly behind in charting until the last minutes of their stays (either before I discharged them home or sent them to the floor), but I made it work. I'm feeling like I might be able to do this on my own, but am thankful I have 6 more weeks where I'm on orientation and someone HAS to answer my questions!

- I'm working on repainting this cabinet I found on our local yard sales site (I think it's associated with military bases? Kind of like Craigslist but the CL in our area is lame, so this i better). Only thing was whoever painted it last painted over the hardware, so I'm doing the right thing and trying to get it off. This is taking a lot of paint thinner, and more attention than I usually have. Hopefully it will be done at the end of the week?

- Working on some Christmas presents. Ain't no shame in starting early! Especially when you're doing a lot of handmade items.

- Enjoying our spazzy warm weather. It was at least 80 again today. But now it's cooling off and becoming overcast? I have to say it's strange living somewhere where it's sunny about 95% of the time. On the other hand I doubt I'll have my usual Seasonal Affective issues I tend to have mid-winter. And that will be awesome.

- I had my hearing tested today for work because of us having the helipad and having to get patients from the helicopters. Good news, breaking my eardrum at age 3 did very little to mess up my left ear's ability to hear!

And with that I'm going to catch up this week's Brothers and Sister's and enjoy some knitting time!

Halloween

I have to say, this was the first Halloween in probably 8 years that I actually dressed up and kind of got into the holiday!

Sailor Boy and I were invited to a Halloween party put on by the civilian woman who works the front desk of his clinic. She's one of those crazy into Halloween people, plans-her-party-for months-in-advance, takes-down-all-her-family-pictures-and-puts-up-strange-creepy-pictures, and every-inch-of-her-house-is-decorated type of people. We knew we had to come up with a good costume, and wanted to do some sort of "couples" theme, and spent quite a bit of time searching for ideas when we finally hit the jack pot. We decided to be Popeye and Olive Oyl. First off because the play on Sailor Boy being a Sailor was kind of funny and the fact that I look like Olive Oyl, aka freakishly tall and thin, almost black hair.

I slacked a bit on our costumes, but finally threw it all together in the last two weeks. I bought a plain long sleeved red tee at and cotton long skirt at Goodwill. We ran by WalMart and bought some yellow ribbon and white edging, and a few minutes with the sewing machine later my costume was done. Everyone was so blown away by my outfit which always makes me a little crazy because how do people not understand how easy this is to do!? I mean I just sewed on some ribbon, seriously! The skirt could have been a better fit (and if I cared more I could have taken it in a little in places, but whatever. I didn't have any luck finding boots, so I just threw on my plain black ballet flats. JUST as I was getting my hair cut this week I had an "oh crap, what about Halloween!?" moment, but it was too late. I just pinned bits back in the front into big looping curls, it was the best I could do with how short it is now!

For Sailor Boy's costume, he just wore a black t-shirt, his everyday jeans, and his uniform black boots. I made him a "cape" (did you know that's what the floppy big collar on the back of Sailor uniforms is called!?) out of a yard of plain red fabric, then sewed on some blue ribbon about an inch in from the edge, and sewed on two red star buttons I had found. I made two neckerchief pieces to tie in the front. I asked him to show me how to do the creases properly (and he did) and then he tied it correctly on his own this time! I wish I had taken a picture of the back when he had it on. He wore one of his old covers (Sailor hat), and found a corncob pipe at a smokeshop. He figured out a great way to make his bulging forearms. He saved the air-filled packing things from the packing of a few things we ordered online, and I bought some women's knee-high stockings. I cut off the toes and we pulled them on him like sleeves, and then slipped the packing things under the stockings. I drew an anchor tattoo on his forearm, and wha-la! Everyone thought we'd bought his forearm things! Nope! I also had saved a can from making enchiladas this week, put it through the dish washer after peeling off the label, and printed a new label for it that read "SPINACH, Makes you STRONG!" and then had a picture of Popeye on the back. SB used it as his drink cup for the evening at the party.

The party was pretty fun, but we were both tired, and were late getting out of the house to go (hence the crappy pictures!), but it was nice to have something to do Halloween related for once!

Saturday we decorated the house with cobwebs and a few little things, but the wind blowing so hard so regularly kind of puts a damper on wanting to decorate when it all just blows away anyways. I'd bought a pumpkin this week and carved it, and I made the fall wreath a few weeks ago with Dollar Store garland.

We only had two groups of trick-or-treaters, the twins from next door and then a random group of little kids. That just means more candy for me! We spent the evening catching up on this season of Trauma, and waiting for the doorbell to ring!

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Navy Ball

Last weekend was my first time (and Sailor Boy's too) attending a Navy Ball. I'm not sure what I was expecting, in fact I think I wasn't really expecting anything in particular because I truly had no idea what was going to occur.

It was held up in this neat mountain community about a little over an hour away from us that both of us really like. The best part about it is that A) it's really quite close and B) it makes you forget how close you are to the desert because this place ain't no desert. And yes, sometimes I get very sick of the desert.

My dress was thrifted, strangely enough, a $15 (the woman gave me $5 off because I'm in there all the time...) David's Bridal (usually invoking a huge gag from me), and fit perfectly. I'd been debating what to wear for a very long time, I didn't want to go buy something new, and what I really wanted to wear was one of the very cool vintage formal gowns we have from Gran. Mom sent them down to me, and I tried them on and got opinions, and everyone said that I was being very risky wearing a non-floor length gown to a military ball, and that if I did wear one I should wear the black one, and I didn't really want to wear the black one... This dress was really appropriate, and you know what? The ball isn't about me. It's about Sailor Boy and his career and the Navy's 234th birthday, and I should suck it up and do the right thing.

So I did. In the end plenty of women were wearing shorter dresses, and I still would have looked very appropriate wearing one of the vintage ones, so maybe I will next year. On the other hand I wouldn't say many of them looked appropriate and I could seem them being looked at funny, and it felt good to know I had done the right thing. Anyways, orange/coral/pink (depending who was looking at it in what light) won, I had it dry cleaned, and wore it with a grin. And some shoes.

All in all it was nice, I got to meet the rest of Sailor Boy's coworkers (minus one of the Dr.'s who was taking call for the rest of them, and also has a teeny new baby at home anyways. Oh, and possibly had swine flue), and it was funny watching Sailors in their whites boogie down, and the Navy ended up comping our hotel rooms. Can't beat that!

The next day we got up much earlier than anyone else (even though it was 8:30!), packed up, had a yummy, yummy breakfast and wandered around the lake for awhile. It was a gorgeous day, cold in the morning but it warmed up, and checked out some funky thrift and antique stores.

We also went to check out the Oktoberfest that apparently is the best one in all of Southern California. SB really wanted to go, and I spent most of the time being confused and perturbed. Someone explain to me what the chicken dance the hokey pokey has to do with beer and Germany? I guess you can relate beer and dancing though...

We stayed around to see the clog dancers who were entertaining but left a little to be desired. I was intrigued by their costumes, and kind of impressed with their fancy footwork. We left shortly after that as we wanted to get home and pick up Ziggy who was staying with his previous owners. Plus I had to work the next day, so I needed to be home at a reasonable hour!

It was a nice (and very cheap!) trip, and I think we'll probably go next year, well, depending where they choose to have it!

Today

Today I got up at 7:30, my first day at home in almost a week, and it wasn't even 40 degrees. The wind has been slamming the house like a freight train, and my outside cushions were up against the opposite fence. Yesterday we'd had a sandstorm, it was hot enough I needed my AC on the drive home from work at 3, and the sky was yellow as the sand whipped across the highway. Last weekend it was at least mid-80's here. The desert weather is so strange.

I took the dog for two long walks, the first this morning up the desert path across our street, I had to get out my Uggs on the way out the door. I came home with freezing ears/nose/hands. The second (evening) was one of our usual street loops with the lease (for the above I let him wander on his own, he's so ridiculously good that even if he takes off after a rabbit the second you call him he comes back).

I decided to chop off my hair again, a decision I made just last night. As usual the girl did a great job, and I love, love love it and wonder why I waited so long to go short again.

We made our first fire tonight. Sailor Boy stopped for firewood on his way home from base, and lit it up as I finished up dinner. We're currently debating how to carve our pumpkin for Halloween, I'm finishing up our costumes and we're waiting for Glee to start.

All in all it's been a pretty good day.

Halloween Lanterns

Lately it just feels like the days are flying by with little to remember them by. An ever constant stream of working and being at the hospital interspersed with cleaning the house, grocery shopping, taking care of the dog, going to church and trying to see Sailor Boy every once in awhile.

Even when I manage a few consecutive days off, it feels like I'm playing catch-up, creating never-ending to-do lists, struggling to get everything crossed off, and feeling like there are never enough hours in the day, especially never enough hours to relax or to craft or to figure out a different solution than the pile of flip-flops on the laundry room floor.

In the last few days (one of them an accidental day off that wasn't planned for but couldn't have been better timed seeing as A) we were driving to meet my sister for dinner and didn't get home until late the night before and B) I had just gotten sick with a cold) I've been trying to figure out why I'm trying to get myself to do things that I feel like I don't want to be doing, and trying to find better ways to effectively use my time I do have at home. Some things I just have to bite the bullet and do, and some things I have to pre-convince myself the value of prior to doing the work, with the promise that the end result will be well worth it.

I think a big part of the "yuck" lately is that my schedule is so whacky, it can often change, and I'm required to be down at work more days than I will when I'm off orientation. Right now getting off orientation is something I'm seriously looking forward to (having control over my schedule and only working 3 days a week will be seriously awesome) but also dreading. I'm completely petrified of being on my own, especially as we're entering the busy season (snow birds are returning!) and have already had unprecedented numbers of ER visits for this early (supposedly). Like 220 patients last Monday on the 12 hour day shift alone. And a good number of those very critical. We have 28 licensed beds, so do the math on how much turnover we had. I'm also a little worried about transitioning to nights, but that will happen before I'm off orientation, on November 1st, so at least it doesn't happen all at once!

Today I buckled down and decided to finish one of the tasks I really wasn't digging. I loved the vellum Halloween lanterns in the October issue of Martha, and had gathered all the supplies. I couldn't find well-sized black cardstock, so I ended up buying some of the big flimsy poster-like boards from Rite-Aid and used those instead. To be honest, this project was a total pain in the rear. I started the first one (the witch one) last Sunday night and it was just not coming together well, and I didn't like the way it was looking. It was also a pain to print the images because my printer is being a bit finicky about the way it feeds in the paper lately, and you have to print four, and blah blah blah. I moved it back onto my sewing table unfinished and have avoided completing the project all week.

I got it set up again today, printed out more papers and patterns for the last two, turned on This American Life (I listened to the Frenemy one) and knocked them out. Once you get into it a little they get better. I had to take a sharpie to the top of the lantern parts because I guess the paper in between the layers is white, and that looked no good. Today while we were out running around I bought three little candles in glass holders for 97 cents each at WalMart. The best part is they smell like fall, two pumpkin spice and one mulled cider.

I think the part I hate most is that they look really good now that they're done. I almost wish they could be another thing I chalk up to Martha's inevitable perfection that is impossible to replicate, but I can't. They're hanging out in our front window and shining away, and they look pretty darn good, which is a plus. I guess they were just one of those tasks that I had to make myself do and hope the end result would be worth it?