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A New Game

Posted on May 6, 2008 by auburnchick

The name of this game is “Can You Find the Chicken?”

Game Setup:

Take one large crockpot of cacciatore sauce and add four small chicken fillets, browned and cut up, to it. Cook all day on low. Place on the dinner table.

Object of the Game:

To be the first person to find a piece of chicken in all that sauce.

Ok. All kidding aside…well, no, not really. This was the game we played today, only it was for real.

“AuburnChick, you have lost your mind,” you’re probably shouting to the computer screen, right???

Yes, you’re probably right. Who can blame me. I’m responsible for feeding a crew of four…two of whom are picky, hungry teenagers. Last payday, I carefully planned our meals and bought groceries. Apparently I didn’t buy enough chicken, and I didn’t figure it out until last night when I pulled it out to defrost.

Mr. AuburnChick, to his discredit, refused to go to the grocery store, even though he took Little Ms. Chicklet to her soccer practice. I got stubborn and refused to leave the house. I was tired. So, nobody bought more chicken. I thought I could swing it. Little did I know.

This morning, I prepped my food, opening the sole package of chicken tenders. There were only four measly pieces of the stuff. I thought that I could slice them really thin, like I do to regular chicken breasts (do you ever do this to stretch a meal?).

Nope. I am AuburnChick, and nothing comes easy for me. Those babies were sliced so thinly that I could have read a book through them.

Grrr…

What am I going to do, I wondered? Well, I browned those pathetic pieces of meat and threw them in the large crockpot that I have, silently fuming at the other adult who lives in this house.

Later in the morning, he called me at work all chipper.

“Hi Mrs. AuburnChick…how’s work going today.”

“Grrr,” I growl at him. “Guess what game we’re playing at the dinner table tonight? Grrr”

The conversation was short, to say the least.

I must say that I firmly believe that God has granted special talents to moms. One of these is the ability to adapt, and this is just what I did.

On the way home from picking up the youngest Chick, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up more chicken. After dropping the boy off at swim practice (“Honey, try not to drown while I’m gone”), I ran home and fried the bejeepers out of that extra pack of chicken fillets. I wanted to add them to the pot, but I was afraid that they wouldn’t be cooked through all the way. Who cared what they looked like, as long as they sort of resembled chicken, thus making the game a bit easier. I mean, who likes to see kids cry? Not me…even though they regularly have me in tears. Revenge at the dinner table is a no-no in my book.

So, who won the game? Well, it was a tie, because we all found a piece, thanks to my quick thinking. Dinner was, in fact, delicious!

Tomorrow, we’re having Chicken Teriyaki. I have plenty of chicken, thinking ahead and buying extra today.

Now…I have to throw in a bit of knitting here…to be fair to my readers who do not care one iota about dinner table games…

Last night, I finished my second pair of Greenaway Fingerless Gloves. I made these for a co-worker who admired the pair I made a few weeks ago. The yarn is Alchemy Sanctuary. The color is Topaz. I hope she likes them.

I’m working on my second Monkey Sock, which has been patiently waiting for me to finish the other projects. I’m just about ready to start on the heel. Maybe I’ll have pictures tomorrow (after the chicken teriyaki!).

Filed under: Knitting, This-n-That | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

AuburnChick Finishes the Comfort Throw

Posted on May 4, 2008 by auburnchick

Phew! What a project!

I finally finished the comfort throw that I made for my daughter’s friend’s mom…the sweet lady who recently had surgery to remove part of her colon. Fortunately, the doctors only found cancer in one inch of the seven inches that was removed. Additionally, only one of the 15 lymph nodes tested came back positive for cancer. She’ll be starting chemotherapy in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, I’m hoping that she will enjoy the warmth of this throw.

I took the blanket outside for a photograph. Isn’t it funny how we “pose” our projects? Aspiring photographers is what we are!

For those of you who don’t read my blog often, I adapted this pattern from a cabled pillow pattern in this pamphlet, adding six garter rows at the top and bottom, along with a three stitch garter border at the end of each row:

The pattern calls for use of the Saxon Braid, which you can find on this site. It looks difficult, but it really wasn’t. Oh, sure, the rows were intense, and you really had to pay attention to the right side rows, but you were rewarded by the easier wrong side rows.

The blanket measures approximately 27″x 29″. When I sit with it on my lap, it covers my legs from hips to waist. I’m short petite. So is my friend, so I think this will be perfect…especially if she wants to carry it around the house.

I used, in total, about three skeins of I Love This Yarn, Dark Raspberry. I had purchased eight, so I’ll be returning four of them.

I doubled the yarn, working from two skeins at a time, so I have about 1/2 of two skeins left over. I also used size 15 needles except for the cast on and bind off, in which I used size 17 needles. My original intent had been to use the 17’s throughout, but the sheer size of the needles left my hands unhappy after casting on, and I also thought that my cables wouldn’t “pop” out as much with the larger needles.

I never understood what people meant when they said that a pattern was intuitive. Well, now I know. Making these cables was, truly, intuitive. I knew instantly when I had made a mistake. The cable work just seemed to flow fairly easily. I knew when I was supposed to C4B or T4F.

I only had to make one major tink, and that was when I stayed up really late one night, trying desperately to keep to my self-imposed schedule of one pattern repeat per day. Row 15 ate me alive that night. It’s very difficult to tink back cable work, but I did it…all the way back to row 14, where I found my mistake on the wrong side. Go figure. I fixed it, muddled through row 15, and put the blanket to bed for the night. Other than that, it flew off of my needles.

My next project will be the Greenaway Fingerless Gloves that I just love, love, love. If you’ve ever been intimidated by a project like this, DON’T be! The pattern is written very clearly, and the thumb gusset is so easy to do! The hardest part is getting the first row done, with the dpn’s. After that, you sail right through the project.

I’m going to make use the Topaz yarn (the one on the left…below) for my co-worker. I had ordered the yarn for her, as a surprise, and figured I would get to it “sometime.” Well, last week, I found out that her birthday is on the 12th, so I guess “sometime” means “right now.” Good for me. Monkey Sock #2 will have to wait just a bit longer.

Little Ms. Chickadee comes home today after a weekend of Olympic Development Program (ODP) tryouts for Florida. She made the team, which is wonderful after not being able to try out last year after her knee injury. She’s garnered the attention of a couple of the ODP coaches, some of whom coach at Florida colleges (think scholarship potential here). She will attend a couple of camps and hopefully progress to the regional tryouts in Alabama this summer. Here’s a site where you can read more about this program.

Little Mr. Chickadee and I spent a quiet weekend at home, tending to the dogs and rats and working our behinds off. He had a slew of chores to do, and I spent all of Saturday ironing Mr. AuburnChick’s massive pile of clothes. I have refused to iron anyone else’s clothes for the last couple of years. We all have hands…we can do our own. With him out of town with the Chicklet, I figured I would surprise him. I ironed for at least five hours. No kidding. I’m going to relax today.

I’ll publish pictures of the gloves. Maybe I’ll get them both done today!

Filed under: Knitting | Tagged: , , , , | 11 Comments »

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