Wow... my poor, neglected blog. School was canceled for all of last week due to the weather here. Now we're in to the winter break. Christmas is Thursday, and I don't have as much accomplished as I'd like. I take comfort knowing that I am not alone. (I've been reading your blogs! I know you're all just as behind as I am. :))
Thursday before last (the 11th), I took the elf to the Raindrop Knitting Class at Gossamer in Portland. It's a very short drive across the bridge from Erin's school. I think I remember there being four other girls there. Someone mentioned that a couple of them went to school at Richmond and I did overhear them telling each other they could speak Japanese. Richmond is only partial immersion, with much bigger class sizes. Erin didn't seem to learn anything new, knitting-wise. However, I do think it was nice for her to do something with kids her own age. The teacher, Susan, did a GREAT job. She was very patient and spoke to the kids as equals. (I notice that many adults speak down to children). At one point, I found myself very impressed when after only two rows of work she switched Erin to loom knitting. She explained that children can only be expected to really focus on something for about as many minutes as their age in years. I completely agree on this. Erin is 6 years old and actually did a great job focusing for a little more than fifteen minutes before she started talking a lot and not paying attention.
The loom was a marvelously simple homemade contraption of four short popsicle sticks glued to a sturdy cardboard tube. It worked perfectly to keep Erin occupied for the remainder of the class and she ended up making a three foot icord.
All last week we kept ourselves very busy. We made gingerbread, gingerbread ornaments, popcorn garland, put our tree up, and many other things. I've made a fair amount of progress on my gifts list as well.
The gingerbread turned out fantastic. I am not a fan of gingerbread. In fact, I usually run the other way. It tends to have a falling out with my tummy and makes me feel less than presentable. I really wanted to make some ornaments though. Because we have allergies to deal with and it is easier to go from a Vegan recipe than from a regular recipe wih substitute, I searched Google for a Vegan gingerbread recipe and lo' and behold it came up with a hit from The PPK. I am a huge fan of this woman's recipes. I spotted the Veganomicon in Powell's when we were there for the Mason Dixon signing and fell in love after a quick look-thru.
Isa really outdoes herself, as she has converted my hate for gingerbread to pure joy-upon-sight of the stuff. I doubled the recipe on the site, intending for all of it to be used for construction materials in a glorious gingerbread city. However, I ended up eating more than half the cookies we made. Actually, to be honest I had help. Yes really! Even Connor was allowed to eat his own gingerbread cookie. The rest, I overcooked (purposefully, mind you!), strung with crocheted ties and hung on the tree. They're beautiful! And it took all night plus another day to accomplish. After adding popcorn garland, I just fell in love. Our tree is gorgeous. It has to be the most lightly trimmed tree I have every done, but it is simple and beautiful and really more work than you'd think.
If anything, you should strive for the opposite. i.e. "Oh, that? Simple. Quick. Easy." and not its horrible opposite "It took you how long??"
Next year, I resolve to begin Christmas prep in advance (hah!) and make felted ornaments and add some shiny orbs and candy canes. The perfect, and perfectly cheap candy canes in the store got the snub as I chanted my personal mantra "I could make better ones myself!"... Yes, if only there was a tear in space-time and I could crawl inside it to work on every monumentally over-simplified Martha-Stewart-esque task that I could ever dream up. If only.
This story will have to continue later on, as my patient husband is waiting for me to stream an episode of "Heroes" via Netflix, and I really should get back to work on the last two inches of my Fingerless Mitts Gift project. Until next time.
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