We Interrupt This Sock...

I have been diligently knitting my socks all last week. I have figured that I progress at the rate of half-sock per day if I do not get distracted by knitting or crocheting something else. And if I ignore some (OK, most of the housework) I can knit a heel or a toe too. So now I got two socks finished. Of course, they are each from a different pair. This means I still have to finish their mates to be able to wear them. I was planning to get them all done by now, but... I get distracted big time! I meant we are talking me. Hey, when I get distracted, I get distracted! "The Large Good Mood Shawl" has been lingering for a long, long time. It is pretty, and a pleasure to knit and I love Kauni, but... It got too big to carry around, the rows got too long for - "I just got 15 minutes to work on something" unless I was planning to spend at leas an hour working on it, it made no sense to pull it out. Well, it is supposed to get very cold here in Israel before the end of the week. Cold Israeli style - 46, 49 degrees. Also there has been a snow warning for Yerushalayim. Since I want my friend, a.k.a. the intended recipient to be warm, I decided to just finish the shawl.
I started on it Saturday night, after the Shabbos ended. And knit the last row yesterday. Then I decided that what the shawl needed was an applied I-Cord edging. So I started on it. It was finished about an hour ago. I estimate that the edging only took me about 10 hours at least! Thank G-d for books on tape! If it were not for them my boredom might have been terminal! Yet I love the finished look it gives to the shawl and very happy that I went with it.
Unfortunately, it is now too dark to take a picture of the finished shawl. I hope that the sun will come out for a bit tomorrow and DH will be able to take a good photo.
And now - just a coupe more rows on a "Positive Sock" and off to bed!

Shoshi the Sheep

A while ago I have told my blog-reading friends about the cute little sheep my friend made for me.
I am not sure why I have procrastinated, but I have finally got Eli to take a picture of my cute sheep. I named her Shoshi (this translates as Rose) because of her coloring.

A year later...

It is a good day today!
And surprise, surprise - a second post!
But then today is a very spesial day - it is exactly a year since we came to Eretz Isroel - Israel!
Yes, our aliyah is exactly one year old! We survived our first year and we are definitely wiser, have less illusions and more realistic than we were when we came. And we are still very happy to be here. We have all grown in physical or spiritual way. Also I have grown thinner - I lost 35 pounds!
So to mark this one year anniversary I will make a partial list of things I have learned in this year. They are in no particular order and as always with a tongue in cheek.

1. I can always find yarn. I have a build in homing devise. I can sence it.

2. No the hot water will not just pour from the faucet when you want it. One has to turn on the heater first and then wait a bit.

3. Good tea is not a luxury, it is a necessary. With milk, sugar and lemon, please!

4. One can survive without avocados for four months. If they are not in season - they are not available. No matter how many times you will ask for them in your local fruit shop.

5. Yes, Israeli roaches are really big, but they tend to stay outside, verses the Brooklyn variety that was small, but definitely prefer indoors.

6. Cats are cute, but not the feral kind. Feed, but do not touch!

7. There is only one thing that makes me miss Greyhound, when I am riding an Egged bus - bathroom!

8. Americans only think they work a lot. Israelis work much more and talk about it much less. And relax even harder than they work.

9. Knitting and crochet helps.

10. On learning Hebrew - when in doubt - smile. It was probably a compliment.

11. Change is good! It might heart, but it is good pain, kind of like childbirth. Unfortunately G-d does not give out epidurals.

12. When things get unbearably hard - forgive yourself, your spouse, and others. It is much easier to go on afterwards.

13. No one will die if there are macaroni for dinner 5 nights in a row. As long as there is Ketchup to go with them.

14. Some things I just have to live with, no appeal, no tragedy. The key word here is "live".

15. Yarn can always find me. It is a miracle and I accept it.

A gift of friendship.

Yesterday DH went to mail the packages with stitch markers I have made. Well, he did not come home empty-handed. Instead, he brought me a small parcel carefully wrapped in brown paper. I have to mention, that here, in Israel packages usually are not delivered to the home of an address. Instead, we get a notice and then pick up our parcels from the post office.
Now I will humbly admit that I love getting mail. All kinds of mail. But of course, packages are my personal favorite! So I just could not wait to tear into it and let that paper fly! Instead, I made myself hand the package over to Eli, so he could take a picture.


Well, there where two things I have been waiting for. First - a few kilos of yarn I have ordered. If buying yarn by the kilo seems strange to you, I will explain. My current favorite Kauni is much, much cheaper by the kilo. So this is how I order it. Obviously this package was not it. A second thing I have been expecting was a "knitting embroidery" made for me by one of my Internet friends. Marian lives in England and we belong to the same knitting group on Yahoo. A little while ago she wrote to me and told me that she found an embroidery pattern that made her think of me. So she did it. I was floored! I absolutely, positively can not embroider. And if sometimes I delude myself by thinking that one day I might learn quilting, embroidery is not on my life list of skills to acquire. I know it is way over my head. I was also touched that someone MADE something for me. It does not happen often.
Well, enough talk, here it is - the knitting picture. It is going up on my wall tomorrow!

Sick knitting.

I did not post for what feels like an eternity. Today, for the first time in days I am finally feeling human.
I have been feeling sick all past week. Nothing hurt horribly, but my mind refused to cooperate with me and think. I could not read, could not do much, could not even blog. So I just did the simplest king of knitting and slept as much as I could.
Thankfully, this meant lots of sock-knitting time, since socks are my favorite comfort knitting projects. This means I am close to solving my sock crisis.
Here are the results of my sock binge:
"Kit-Kat" Socks are now done!


They came out very nice and I love the easy rib pattern that gives me just enough stretch and at the same time lets me show off a very pretty yarn without any distractions. Unfortunately, I run out of yarn at the toes, so I had to use the best match I could find. The socks are very definitely fraternal, since the stripe pattern was reversed in the balls and I did not realize it until I was finished with one sock and past the heel of the other one.


I have thought about ripping one sock out and starting over, but was too lethargic to contemplate it for long.
I have also dug out a project started a long time ago "Positive Socks". I bought the yarn, and loved it, and wanted it on my feet soon! What happened? I wanted to try an undulating, zig-zagging rib. It looked good, but not on my ample leg. So for months the sad started sock lingered in my WIPs. I did not want to give up an idea if the stitch pattern I like, but was unwilling to put any more time and effort into something I would not be able to wear. So last week I finally ripped our almost all I knit and started experimenting. In the end I choose a simple rib with one slim cable on the side of the long sock. I named this new pattern "Slightly Cabled".


I loved this pattern so much, that in a spirit of knitting ADD I started knitting it using another yarn. The second pair of socks will be even longer! I am using Stroll Handpaint from Knit Picks. The name of the colorway is "Make Believe", it is a magnificent mix of teal, purple and green.

Sock Security.

I am working on my next pair of socks!
They are knit in a very simple rib to show off the lovely yarn to the max. I am calling them Kit-Kat socks because the yarn label has a cute kitty on it and I love cats.


Also because the rib looks a lot like a chocolate bar I used to love before I started keeping kosher.
So, as I knit a lot and purl sometimes, I started to think about protecting my brand new pair of socks from the hazards that can significantly shorten a life of a well knit sock.
Of course, the main danger to my socks is... me!
That is right, me. After all, it is I who wear out the socks to the point where they become more of a hole than a sock.
Of course, I can minimize the wear on each individual sock by having a lot of pairs... But I will need a few weeks at least to build up my sock stash. The other sock killer is an ordinary washing machine. And no, I am not just talking about the "Parallel universe of separated socks" theory. The problem with washing my socks in the machine is that the yarn gets "traumatized" every time. With many washings and wearings some of my socks became so thin that I can read the proverbial newspaper through the sole. I tend to walk around barefoot, well, bear-socked. And the floors get very dusty and not very clean with so many people walking in and out all day.
Got to find a solution soon since I got more socks on my needles and I want them to live long and prosper.

Farbrengen Salads.

One of the ways in which we celebrate our birthdays is to hold a Farbrengen - a hasidic gathering. There we tell and listen to the Torah insights, sing, talk and, of course, eat and say L'Chaim.
My DH held his Birthday farbrengen Saturday night after the Shabbos ended.
I had very little time to pull things together. Generally people expect much less variety and fanciness in food here, in Israel. This is wonderful for me, since I never did cook "fancy".
So most of the menu was salads.

Henya's Hassa Salad
I love Hassa - Romaine. It has a taste, it is usually fresh and robust here and, best of all, I buy the brand that does not have to be checked for bugs, just rinsed thoroughly.

Ingredients.
2 large heads of Romaine.
2 medium cucumbers (preferably Persian).
1 small tomato.
1 small avocado.
1/2 cup shredded carrots.
1 medium red onion.
2 (or more) cloves of garlic.
1 can of smocked tuna in oil (optional).
1/2 cup of raw hulled sunflower seeds.
1 lemon.
1 Tbs. Olive Oil.
Sea Salt to taste.
Craisins and toasted slivered almonds are also wonderful in this salad.

Separate Romaine leaves. Wash them, dry, shred. Put into a large bowl. Add shredded carrots.
Peel and cut cucumbers into quarters. Chop them. Chop tomato into small pieces. Peel, seed and chop avocado. Cut the onion into quarters, slice thinly. Crash garlick. Crumble tuna into flakes. Add all of it to a bowl with Romaine. Juice the lemon into the salad. Mix. Add salt and Olive Oil, mix again.
Serve.
This salad is better if it stands for half an hour and then mixed again.

Garlicky Carrot Salad
There is no such thing as too much garlic in this salad.
Ingredients:
5 medium carrots.
6 (or more)cloves of garlic.
Enough mayonnaise to hold it together.

Peel and shred carrots on the large side of the grater. Chop garlick as small as you can. Preferably even smaller. Add to carrots. Add mayonnaise. Make sure not to add too much, or the salad will get too wet.

Childhood Beet Salad
This tasty salad was usually made by my Dad's Stepfather, who was a splendid cook. He explained that one of the secrets was to bake the beets, not cook them. This concentrated the sweetness and gives the beet a specific "caramelized" taste.
Ingredients.
5 medium to large beets.
6 or more cloves of garlic.
6 dried, prunes.
Enough mayonase to hold the salad together.

Put the beets into a baking pan, cover tightly with foil and slit the foil in a few places to allow the steam to escape. Bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour. Until soft and skin looks charred. Peel the beets and grate then on the large side of the grater. Chop the garlic very fine. Add to the beets. Chop the prunes into large pieces. Add to the beets.
Add mayonnaise.
Mix and serve. This salad is even better next day.

Super Simple Olive Spread
1 can of pitted olives.
2 cloves of garlic.

Drain well 1 can of olives. Discard the garlic from the can.
Chop garlick in the food processor. When done, do not remove, add olives straight to it. Whirl until finely chopped.
Scoop it out and serve.
Do NOT add salt.

I will freely admit that only the first salad is my original recipe - the rest are variations on the salads I love. Please feel free to change things around and try out your own versions.
The quantity of ingredients I give make family sized salads - and here I mean my family of 9, plus a few guests. So if there are less people at your table simply halve the quantity of the ingredients.

Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Today is the Birthday of my wonderful husband - Eli!
He is the second half of this blog team. A guy behind the camera.
And the technical editor of all my patterns.
Happy Birthday, dear Eli - you have learned to knit - so you could understand what was I so frustrated about. You never tell me to downsize my stash. You keep supporting me in my wild fiber adventures and crazy bead searches.
You gave me the courage to try out new things (like blogging), you share your life with my countless WIPs and UFOs and still able to look sincere when I tell you how I will finish them all before starting a new project.
You brag about my knitting to strangers, friends and family alike and never resent me finishing "just one more row".
You are always happy to teach and glad to learn.
In a word - you are the best! And I wish you many more happy, healthy years, filled with light, happiness and all kinds of good things.
May our stash of good memories and kids ever increase!

Not a Lemon...

I have written much about my lemon tree. It is my joy. Whenever I feel sad or upset I go to it, look at it and touch it. Invariably I feel better.
Well, right next to it is another smaller tree. Last year it put out a few flowers, but we had seen no fruit. For a while we thought that it too was a lemon, then I realized that the brunches had thorns, so we decided that it might be grapefruit. This would have been nice. We love grapefruits.
The mystery of the tree was solved by my MIL! And how! She found that a tree had a fruit on it after all!


It is an Etrog (Citron)! And a huge one! I can not imagine how we missed it! There are quite a few flowers on the tree this year. I hope we will get a few more Etrogs in this coming year!

I Got Socks!

Well, the first pair of socks of 2012 is now done!
And yes, they are warming my feet as I write this post.
But I need at least a few more. So I have decided that for the next month I will concentrate on equipping myself with enough socks to see me through the remaining cold months. I estimate another 4 or 5 pairs.
I have also started working again on my Vegetarian Fur Blanket - the goal is a stripe a day. And I have to finish up the last of the "Good Mood" shawls - Winter is going by and my friend is feeling cold. Another reason to finish it, of course, is that I want to start another "Ample Shawl" - this time for me!
If this sound like a knitting delusion of grandeur - then you are not mistaken. I know I am delusional. But I like my delusions, they make knitting more fun!