Chase the Chill Features Fissure

Back in June, I managed to corral the Professor, both twins, and Sadie the dog to go to Assiniboine Park for a few minutes on a Saturday afternoon.  I am usually spending time with my family and going to services on Saturdays when we can pull it off, but that day--It was a chance to support Knit In Public Day --which is hosted locally by Chase the Chill, a Winnipeg knitting charity which I think is fantastic.  Chase the Chill provides handknit scarves to Winnipeggers in need, once a year.  All  year long, people knit for Chase the Chill's annual event.  It happens in early December, when it is already plenty cold here.

It's simple.  The folks who run it go out with some helpers, and tie all those handknit scarves all over the trees in one downtown park with notes.  The notes say who knit the scarves, and invite people to take and wear the scarves to stay warm. 

Today I looked up Chase the Chill's twitter feed, because one of its organizers was the very first person to purchase Fissure.  Thank you, Val!  What I discovered on the twitter feed made me feel even more connected...

See this photo?  It topped the post for WorldWide Knit in Public Day 2018 for Chase the Chill in Winnipeg.  (See anything familiar?!)  Those are my hands, knitting the sample for Fissure.  Seconds before and after this shot, everyone was passing around the yarn label and fondling the yak. :)

Thanks for coming out to #wwkipday2018 !
“I can knit. I knit all year, day in, day out. It is my passion, and I rarely knit the same thing twice the same way.” ~ Elizabeth Zimmermann #chasethechillinwinnipeg#chasethechill #WWKIP2018 pic.twitter.com/jTNPCqvrGi

— Chase the Chill (@CTCwpg) June 9, 2018

Today, I discovered this on their twitter feed:

Fissure is a lovely new shawl pattern from local knitwear designer Joanne Seiff! What would you knit it with? https://t.co/iY8AOPkoYH

— Chase the Chill (@CTCwpg) July 15, 2018

Thanks so much to Chase the Chill for connecting with local designers--and featuring us!  I so appreciate it...and of course, I appreciate what you do all year as you knit for cold Winnipeggers, too.

Gigadistal is live! and on sale!

Gigadistal is now live!  A new pattern!  Hurray!

And...it's on sale for 50% off. It's $2.50 US until June 28th at midnight.  There's no coupon needed--please take advantage of the sale.

This is a great stashbuster.  I used two yarns: a silk boucle and a dk weight Merino...and knit myself a great transitional piece for all that Manitoba weather we have here. :)  Here are some details about my project...but yours will likely look different, and that is great.

In June, we celebrate three family birthdays and our anniversary.  We've also had one abbreviated trip to the Rockies, one mom at home alone with twins and 2 dogs, 3 medical appointments and one ambulance/emergency room visit so far this month.

 (Everyone is ok now.  We're good...just medically active.  I promise.  It's a story for another time.)

So, I needed a little pick-me-up.  We had a photo shoot.  I had helpers.

Please come check it out! 

Passover snapshots

The last few weeks have been a real blur.  Two weeks without preschool, a major Jewish holiday, a really helpful and valued visit from Didi and Bop (grandparents) and a few medical issues, too.  Here's a shot of our table, all set up for the first Passover seder.  This year, we hosted two seders.  They were not big or lavish, and it certainly was a lot of work!  However, both of my boys had a fabulous time.  They recited the four questions and were fabulous participants.  They loved the seders and were truly disappointed when the first two nights were over.

I have a love-hate relationship with Passover, but here's a link to my Jewish Post & News column about that:
Culture Clash, Pesach, and Why We Do It

Note: Yes, there are two cups on our seder plate.  They are both Elijah's Cups because both boys made one at preschool.  There's only supposed to be one cup, but I have twins.  Oh well.  Maybe next year one will be for Miriam instead!

Didi and Bop came to visit and brought lots of beautiful handmade gifts.  Didi wove me a new shawl for winter out of some of my handspun.  (I spun it and gave it to her so long ago that I cannot remember it...but then, I don't sleep much since having twins and can't remember anything anyway!)  She used her triangle loom--I love these shawls, this is my second. I aired it out on the porch in the sunshine.  Warm sunny days are such a novel thing right now that everyone has to be photographed and enjoyed...

We had lots of fun outings, good food, and playtime with grandparents, and both boys were thrilled.  Having the extra adults around has been very helpful for us, too!  We will miss you, Didi Bop!



Over the last few weeks we've had a bunch of medical stuff, and it has reminded me of the respite we had this winter.  (thank goodness for breaks in this stuff, it is stressful.)  The good news is that everything is fine.  I've had a couple of growths removed from my arm--resulting in a pretty big Frankenstein scar that the boys remain vigilant about.  Sally the dog has now racked up about $2000 in vet bills--she also had a growth removed, plus what seems like an ear infection.   She is doing ok, but it is a little reminder that our dogs are getting older.  We need to take care of them now; they take very good care of us.

Finally one of our twins had a minor surgery.  He is doing very well and started right back at preschool this week.  Hurray!

Last but not least, I came across a couple of really good articles on parenting.  One is about twins, and while our situation was not so severe and our twins were not born premature, it expresses a lot of the struggles that we have faced...and it is a beautiful piece of writing that includes bugs, the professor's favorite, so here it is:
The Loveliness of Ladybugs

Here's the second.  This is a very good analysis piece about mothering and its depiction in the media.  It's particularly relevant to me because many people have urged me to write more about my experiences.  Yet, when I do, I can't get anyone to publish it.  It seems as though nobody actually wants to hear about the real nitty gritty when it comes to any difficulties in twin parenting.  This article indicates that I am really not alone...and again, it's a good read.
Glass Half Full

Hope you are enjoying sunshine and some signs of spring!

Distal: again?!

 
 The temperature dropped.
The sun sparkled off the snow.
I raced outside to take better photos of my handspun shawl...
Distal.

 About 14 photos later, my camera stopped working.

It was too cold!

(my hands, without mitts, got a little cracked, too.)

So here it is, about -14C (9F), warmed up from -21C this morning.

 Look---there I am, shooting the photo!

Happy Hanukah!
Stay warm. :)

PS: Last night was the first night of Hanukah.  Not only did our twins sing the blessings (first time!) but they sang two songs that they learned at school, too.  It was great!  Almost as great as the wooden train set they got as a present...but not quite...

PPS: And the takeout fish & chips (fried in oil) was pretty good, too.  That was Mommy's gift!

Distal: A Shawl for Winter

dis·tal

ˈdistl/

adjective

Anatomy

adjective: distal

1. situated away from the center of the body or from the point of attachment.

   "the distal end of the tibia"

A while back, my professor was doing some research concerning the distal-less gene in butterflies and moths.  I must have proofread a paper draft or attended a lecture...but in any event, I learned a new word. (definition above)

About a week and a half ago, I picked up some lovely Létt-Lopi yarn that I bought last winter at a yarn fire sale. ($1 a ball!)  I had three skeins in the same color and dyelot.  I also had an idea in mind.  My mom wove me a wonderful shawl out of my handspun brown wool yarn several years ago.  She wove it on a triangle loom from Hillcreek fiber studio.  I've worn it to death and it is beginning to pill and show its age.

I wanted a handknit version--and I started knitting. Maybe 10 hours later, I had a shawl.  It was stunningly fast for me, given the twin lifestyle around here.

Here's the result.  I cast on Monday and I bound off on Friday.  It was blocked and ready to go by the middle of the weekend, and the pattern practically wrote itself.  My lovely tech editor, Donna, reviewed it at the speed of light.

 

I present: Distal -- a shawl for wintertime...#10(6mm) needles, about 327 yards of Aran weight yarn, and only a few hours of knitting...a perfect combination for this time of year.  Published on Ravelry yesterday; wore it on my dog walk at 7pm this morning.  Knit fast!  Stay warm!

 

Settling in--and a whole grain bread recipe

Well, we're settling in here for the long (LONG...did I say long?) winter season.  I think I'm still not over last year's winter, it was the worst in 118 years of recorded temperatures in Winnipeg.

 It was -11F (-23C) when I last looked at the temperature this morning, with a windchill of -25F (-31C).  Last night, as our professor was driving home through rush hour, we had a little snowfall.  Only around 2 cm, less than an inch, but enough to make driving home in the dark more of an adventure.

This morning as we got the boys out to the car for preschool, one of the dudes insisted on playing with snow with his mitts on.  I just instituted the "double mitts" one needs for this weather (one handknit mitt inside of another one, on each hand) and of course, they aren't used to getting them on and off.  Imagine wearing a coat with a liner--you put the whole thing on at once and do not peel off the liner each time...there, that's a double mitt!  Of course, said twin has not learned yet that snow play will make your hand colder, particularly if your mitt comes off. (insert kid screaming "PUT MY MITT BACK ON! Help me with my mitt! COLD! COLD!" for the third time, which means a parent has to take her mitt off to fix the problem again.) Sigh.  It's a learning process.

A while back I promised my bread machine whole grain bread recipe.  I'll offer it (with variation) below.  My whole thrust is to produce a healthy homemade bread without extraneous preservatives or other "stuff" in it--and have it be as time efficient as possible, so I can manage to make it consistently as our "house bread."  Making homemade bread tastes better, saves lots of money, and is probably better for you, but it does take time.  This new bread machine system takes all the joy of hand kneading and "making the bread" away, which I miss, but it reaches all the other goals, so for now, it's the machine..

Whole Wheat/Whole Grain (mostly) bread in the bread machine (2 lb loaf)

Put the ingredients into the bread machine pan in this order:
1 2/3 cup water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups white flour
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour *** (see below for variation)
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

Use the whole wheat setting (#2 on my bread machine and it takes 3 hrs and 45 min)
Set it on Medium crust

NOTES: If you like a really crusty loaf, set it on Dark crust, and if that is not crusty enough, preheat your oven (Convection Oven, if you have it) at 425F.  When the bread comes out of the bread machine, pop it out onto a cookie sheet and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.

VARIATION FOR 3 YEAR OLDS! 
The above recipe was "too dark" and "too crusty" to be really popular among twins in our household, despite the white flour.  I was annoyed; the grown-ups liked it!  Here's the variation--still lots of whole grain, still good for you.
Whole Wheat/Whole Grain (mostly) bread in the bread machine (2 lb loaf)

Put the ingredients into the bread machine pan in this order:
1 2/3 cup water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour *** (note variation)
1/2 cup spelt flour***
1/4 cup quick oats***
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

Use the whole wheat setting (#2 on my bread machine and it takes 3 hrs and 45 min)
Set it on Medium crust (skip the oven step mentioned above)

---I'm still having some tummy problems, so I mostly eat spelt bread, which I make differently.  I will save that recipe for another time. 

Anyway, after having some fresh warm bread, I've been curling up to knit.  I started a new shawl-scarf thing for myself on Monday, and I'm finding the designing to be addictive.  Here's a taste with this night time photo...I knit before bed.  (I hope a new design will be coming soon.)