Yarn pics

This is the Cherry Tree Hill yarn I was discussing earlier. It's a beautiful yarn. Well worth the money, too, I think. I'll be knitting with it soon. Pictured below it is the Regia 4-ply sock yarn, which has a nice little stretchiness to it. I'm looking forward to working with it, too.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me...I ordered some yarn and some books I've been putting off for the past 3 months, and let me tell ya, it was hard making myself wait. I suck at waiting, especially when it comes to buying stuff. I have no patience.

Man, I don't think I'm going to be a Blogger blog owner much longer. I don't know what's going on. God forbid that my posts aren't perfect when I first type them in, because lately I haven't been able to correct them and have them stay corrected. The other day when I was blogging about the Working Girl movie, I had to save and correct and copy the text off a previous page and repaste and resave about 12 times before it took.

Then, about 2 months ago, I decided to use the left wrap border setup on my pictures instead of the no border option, and oh MY GOODNESS!!! It changed every picture on every post to left wrap border, even the old posts!!!! I was HORRIFIED! It took about 3 hours of redoing posts until I gave up. MY patience is gone.

I was going to email tech support, but I had to click on 3 or 4 screens to get to that part, and I got so aggravated I just gave up. I can't be the only one having these problems. it's annoying.

I gotta say something or I'll be forced to sell my own cologne!

What is up with all these stars trying to sell perfume?

First I saw about it, I think, was when Paula Abdul was on her show picking out a scent at the perfume factory. Then, I saw the commercial for Mariah Carey's new fragrance.

Then Antonio Banderas (which was a shocker for me). And now Charlize Theron's doing a plug for Armani or Givenchy or one of those big name designers. What gives? Also, this just points out to me, once again, that I watch way too much TV.

I was up way longer than I planned last night just surfing on Ravelry. It's not like I have a whole lot I have to do on there since I'm not a master knitter, but it's such an interesting place. I love seeing what other people are working on, and getting a feel for what I want to do next.

Last night, I was reading the forum on "My So Called Scarf." One lady was asking what the big deal was about this scarf, so I went to the pattern page and looked at it. I have to say, it's really cute! I love the sideways V's in it, and that's one of the few scarves I'd like to attempt. (I am not a scarf lover. I don't think it always serves its purpose, and hinders more than it helps.)

I also wimped out and favorited a Knitty.com fall 2006 sweater instead of adding it to my knitting queue. My queue overwhelms me already, and I only have about 7 projects in it. Seeing how slowly I knit, it will probably take me another 2 years to finish the current list without deleting some items. I could do it, but dang, I don't want it to take forever! lol

I forgot to add to yesterday's post, that the Cherry Tree Hill yarn I want for Christmas is $20 bucks a pop. If I ever have enough money to place that order, it had better be majorly awesome! I don't think I'll have any complaints, seeing how many people love it. I just don't want to regret it like I did when I ordered the Misti Alpaca laceweight and nearly ripped it to pieces out of frustration. I would love to get my hands on some CTH sock yarn. Maybe next week, once the bills are paid.

I find myself surprised

Even though Christmas is just around the corner, and I knew it was coming, I am still amazed at how much I overestimated I would have done by now.

For instance, I thought I would be done with the poncho, and almost completely done with the bathroom rug set. As a matter of fact, I was so sure I'd be done, I signed up for a shawl knitalong (KAL) beginning January 1.

Wrong on all counts. It's moving along, just not as fast as I supposed. I'm about 65% done with the poncho, still nowhere on the rug set, and I think I'm just going to save the instructions for the KAL until I'm ready for them. I already know what yarn I'm going to use for it, though. Just have to place the order.

I will be glad when Christmas gets here so I can see if everybody likes their gifts OK. The waiting for it to get here when I've been ready for it for a month just bites.

What I want for Christmas:

Cherry Tree Hill solid color sock yarn in burgundy and lime. The Harry Potter Charmed knitting book. "A Lick of Frost" and "The Harlequin" books by Laurell K. Hamilton. The Best of Interweave Knits" and "Socks, Socks, Socks" knitting books. Juliet Sweater yarn.

FUTURE WANTS: I want to sponsor a knitalong, and create a shawl. Not necessarily for Christmas...just for something interesting to do that I down't have to buy a pattern or clear with a gazillion people.

I worked out how many more hours I have left

About 25-28 hours left on the poncho. Spent 1/2 a day decorating for Christmas yesterday, because I have no Christmas spirit right now. Nine days left, and Christmas love is at zero. I hope it's not one of those things where it doesn't wake up until New Year's, when it's already too late. That has happende before.

Working Girl with Melanie Griffith is on now. It's one of my all-time favorites. I hate to start watching it and not get to see the whole thing though. It usually just happens to be on when I'm on my way to work and can only see about 15 minutes tops. This leaves out my favorite parts.

There's the part when her boss, Katherine, goes skiing on a cliff. She pushes herself off very determinedly and when she goes over the edge she screams very loudly, finding there's no slope at the bottom. (She deserved that one, she really did.)

And when she's in Katherine's house picking out the black dress with sparkles that costs $6,000 and still has the price tag on it. Her friend goes, "Six thousand dollars??!!! It isn't even leather!!!"

And when she gets in the taxi with Jack Trainer (played by Harrison Ford), and the Quaaludes mixed with alcohol knocks her out, and he takes her to his house. Then he waffles back and forth about undressing her before he puts her to bed. He
was hilarious, and sweet and funny in this movie. He was the perfect Indiana Jones, too.

My two most favorite parts are where she's packing up her desk after Katherine fired her, and she gets the chance to explain how she came up with the Trask/radio idea, and when Jack was packing her lunch for her first morning at Trask Industries.

Katherine gets all snobbish and her elevator is about to take Trask and company to her office area. Tess says, "Ask her about the hole in the merger," and the elevator closes, but just before it does, Trask steps out. Tess explains, Trask, radio, Trask, radio, and they go up in the next elevator. At the top, Trask asks Katherine how she got the idea (which she'd stolen from Tess), and she has the nerve to ask Jack for help. He doesn't help. Katherine gets her comeuppance and I get major satisfaction.

Then there's the "first day at the new office" scene. Jack and Tess dance around each other sharing bites of toast and stuff. He packs her lunch in this black lunchbox, kisses her on the forehead or something, and tells her, "Now play nice with the other kids, and make sure you're home before dark." Awwwww!

I'm on row 99 on the poncho

and about to break 100. Yay! I need to get on the ball and finish the bottom part though, so I can finish the top. I don't know how this is going to work out with the Santa letter schedule going on next week.

And now for something completely different

A test recipe for rice cheesecake

crust

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup unsalted melted butter
pinch of salt

cheesecake

8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix crust ingredients together and press into a small square pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven.

Beat cream cheese to loosen it up. Add sugar and beat for a few minutes until sugar is almost dissolved. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Mix in rice, flour and vanilla.

Bake at 350 for one hour or until most of cake is firm and center is slightly jiggly.

I'll let you know how it comes out. I wanted cheesecake but didn't have enough ingredients. I wanted rice pudding but every recipe I fond online had a problem. So I came up with this one.

I used 1/2 sizes for everything because I didn't want to make too much and have it turn out so horrible that I had to throw it away.

I'll let you know how it turns out.







I tasted it, and I love the top of it. The rice sort of fell through to the bottom, so if I make it again, I'm going to leave the pie crust part out and see if the rice will form a crust of its own. Th rice came out kind of tapioca pudding-style, but I think the parts closest to the pan came out chewier than they should have been. I might decrease temp to 300 degrees and coat the rice with flour before mixing to keep it mixed throughout the baking instead of settling to the bottom.

Holy Hannah, I'm going to have to start using my spellchecker on this blog.