Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Holiday Knitting...Noshing... and other Noble Stuff.

I've been having quite a good time...more fun than any decent person deserves.

My firm showed their tremendous generosity in my bonus check this year, and with a portion of said bonus I bought myself a little toy...a 60gb iPod with video! (I've named it Baby!) I love it! I loved my iPod mini, but now I can not only download and watch every episode of Desperate Housewives, but, with the expanded memory, I no longer have to take something off of the mini so I can add something else!

I gave the mini to Myfanwe and Norbert -- Myfanwe will use it for working out, and Norbert is completely addicted to it already.

I am appreciating Brenda Dayne's Cast On podcast more and more with each new episode. She has great taste in music, and, having listened to every other knitting podcast out there, I feel like hers is the perfect one for me. Listening to her latest episode on Christmas Eve, I was pleased to hear that in the new year she plans to publish weekly instead of every other week! It was like getting a Chanukah present early!

Over the long holiday weekend I spent a little time knitting a sweater for Baby...well, I actually knit two, but the first one didn't fit. That wasn't much of a problem...it fits a mini perfectly. I'll put the pattern on-line sometime soon.

On Christmas Day we did what many American Jews do on Christmas -- we had Chinese food and a movie. But we did it a little differently this year. Myfanwe and I chaired an activity at our synagogue with a choice of 4 movies, then we all had Chinese food after, followed by the lighting of the Chanukiot and the eating of sufganyot – traditional fried donuts filled with sweet jelly. The event was a huge success -- we had 25% more people than reservations! But we made the food stretch and everyone had a great time.




I got a wonderful gift from Norbert for Chanukah -- Mangoes & Curry Leaves : Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid, which contains recipes and stories of food from the Indian sub-continent. Alford and Duguid wrote my all-time favorite cookbook -- Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet -- which is takes readers (and cooks) on a Southeast Asian adventure of epic proportions. I can't wait to get a chance to really crawl into this book and start cooking.

I ordered the yarn and the pattern for a wrap which I am going to knit as a donation to the silent auction held at my son's school at their annual fund-raising dinner. The design is from Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd. I'm going to knit it in a worsted weight natural (undyed) wool...I think the natural, irregular cream color of the natural wool will be beautifully accented by the asymmetrical shaping of the wrap. I checked out the pattern at Border's Books before ordering it (on sale) from KnitPicks.com, and I will admit that finishing -- never my strong suit in knitting -- is key to proper shaping. I may need to bring in professional help!

No comments: