Where are all those American Jobs? Outsourced, of Course

A couple of days ago, I had to reschedule some flights due to an unexpected medical occurrence. Not to worry, United Airlines and Patel, answering the 1-800 number from out of this country, helped me reschedule. This two-way conversation consumed about half an hour, and only after he had to repeat most of what he said at least twice because of my difficulty in understanding his British/American/Indonesian accent.

After our transactions were concluded, Patel asked my level of business satisfaction, on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest level of satisfaction. It took me a split second to decide on the level "3"; an accurate and very generous response, I thought. Patel seemed very disappointed in that response, and you could almost hear his sigh of disappointment in only receiving a "3". He asked me why he had received this seemingly low number. I replied (likely in too much of an exasperated tone) that it was because our half hour conversation could have been transacted in about two or three minutes, if only I could have understood what he was trying to tell me in our lengthy discourse.

Poor Patel, I probably cost him a bonus that day because his customer satisfaction levels with United Airlines was less than exemplary.

Along the same lines, James Lileks tweeted this:

Therapy Dogs and Getting Ready for Dog Work

Just an update on Libby and her Therapy Dogs International visits: she has been awarded a new certificate for 250 completed "official" visits with clients requesting her pooch services of dog licks and cuddling.

This is her previous certificate.

Her "new" certificate is in the mail.

(See video on sidebar for Libby's Work Day)

Nostalgia in the Fall with Fidget Pie

Since my children were small, every autumn brought out the baker in me and the need to make fidget pie. 

This pattern of making a fidget pie with apples and potatoes first started when we lived in Michigan and the fall season brimmed with gorgeous pumpkins seen along the roadside.  Of course, apples and apple cider were in abundance, too.

Here is a scanned page of a fidget pie recipe that must be over thirty years old, and still resides in my jumbled hodgepodge of recipes that cannot be discarded:

My husband has played along with the "Season of Fidget Pie" each September, and made an excellent one last week.  He wrote the recipe and has pictures of his pie here.

The main ingredients are potatoes, apples, diced ham, onions, a bit of apple cider, and a buttery pie crust.  It was delicious!

Sunday's Thought

Love your neighbor as thyself.

Baby Blanket for Nephew Jackson

A new baby blanket for a new nephew!  Niece Erin is over the moon about becoming somebody's mom next month.

This is the front cover of the pamphlet where I found the pattern for this cozy item made for Baby Jackson:

Sandnes Lanett 9910 Baby 0-4 Pamphlet
(a paperback booklet from Norway)

Knit in mostly a multicolord heathered yarn, the details on the hearts did not pop out.  Instead, after knitting one lace repeat of the hearts at one end of the blanket, a light blue acrylic yarn was added to the interior of the piece, and another 80 rounds or so of the heather.  The major modifications to the original pattern were:

• 12 repeats of the ten stitch lace chart were used, with 120 stitches per row
• the blanket was made much larger by knitting more rows
• two of the chart patterns were substituted for a simpler design
• a contrasting lighter yarn was used for the inner part of the blanket
• acrylic yarns were used instead of the wools specified 
• an attached Icord bound off the two shorter edges
• a single crochet was added to bind off the longer edges

                                                   the chart:

some definition:

This is the completed blanket with specs that can be found here on Ravelry:

                                                         finished size: 35" x 41"

Hopefully, Jackson will drag around this easy-care blankie for several years to come.

Lace Shawl (Eliina): A Ravelry Favorite

Those knitting errors that caused me such grief (rows and rows of lace kntting that had to be ripped out):

Never fear, it is now completed:

It grew as it was knitted.  Finished size: 90" by 51".  Specs are here on Ravelry.

The Eliina Shawl is a free pattern download available by designer Lankakomero.  It is available here.

It will stay on a living room chair nearby the fireplace.  The Debbie Bliss cashmerino wool  that it was knit with will be comfy and soft as a throw this fall and winter.  (That cashmerino wool is often used in high-end baby accessories.)

Jell-O Mold with 10 Layers

This is from Craftzine, including the Jell-O mold picture.

How To Make Stuff - Ten Layer Jello from Rarebit Productions on Vimeo.


Wow.  If you thought the video was lengthy, think how long it would take to make this dessert.

Photographs at Summer's End

SIL Jack has some great pictures on his Flickr account.  He sent one on email yesterday, so I'll show it along with some others from our garden.  (Go here to see more of Jack's photographs.)

This is a volunteer sunflower growing alongside morning glories.

These morning glories are also volunteers from seeds sown several years ago.

Can you see the spider web to the right of the head of the plastic iguana below?

This summer, 12 yellow finches were eating from their feeder at the same time!  Below, four were caught on camera a bit later

It feels like autumn in Colorado, although we still have three weeks of summer left.

Ginger Crunch via Crafternoon Tea with GrannyG

A favorite podcast cached on my MP3 player is Crafternoon Tea with GrannyG. GrannyG is from New Zealand and has that unique accent which is so charming.  Just be aware that certain words she says are a bit of a puzzle until you begin to understand her patois. Case in point: she says "REED" and the word means the color red.

She is delightful and full of information.  Listening to her and a friend talk about an old time recipe for ginger crunch interested me enough to print out her recipe and give it a go. 

GrannyG's recipe can be found here.

Conversions: oven to 375 degrees F

Sugar for shortbread: 125 gm butter = 1/2 cup butter

Butter for Icing: 75 gm butter = 1/3 cup butter

Bron Marshall, another New Zealander who cooks and photographs, says of this nostalgic recipe:.

Ginger Crunch is a well loved slice found in most cafes, bakeries and tearooms around New Zealand. There are several versions and as many variations on different recipes, however here is my recipe, which I believe to be fairly true to ‘the original’.

Marshall's recipe can be accessed here.

GrannyG's Ginger Crunch cookies:

Glitter Graphics

A nice fall treat; they really are easy and tasty!

Sometimes a Mistake is Just a Mistake

Let's make this clear. Working on the Lovely Eliina Scarf (download from Ravelry available here), after hours and hours of knitting lace, it was wrong.  Bad knitter; poor follower of directions; incompetent reader, you fill in the blank... - but it was just WRONG.  What to do with this mass of yarn that was almost a finished shawl?  Continue on knitting, hoping the mistakes were not noticeable, or do the honorable thing and start over in knitting that lace edging?

Rip, tink, frog, whatever you want to call the tedious process, I took out 24 rows of lace knitting, with over 300 stitches in each lace row.  It was knit incorrectly

Was it g-d punishing me?  Was I supposed to take this injustice because I did not recycle that latest plastic milk jug, pushing it way down in the garbage can, hoping it would not be noticed by the neighborhood eco patrol?  Or was it payback because I spoke harshly to my cranky father?  Or because my telephone manners were poor when I did not identify myself when making that phone call a few weeks back?  Or am I just a totally bad person?

Sob...here is the lovely Eliina being ripped out, along with my aching heart:

Or could it just be a mistake, and life goes on?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Stay tuned for the latest assesment in a few weeks, hopefully after the Lovely Eliina is finished with the lace knit the way the designer intended.

Ink Jet Printer for Maps on a Tote Bag

Craftlit followers are going to London, Bath and Wales in October.  Being part of that entourage, I decide that a tote bag was needed.  To track our journey, I printed out Google maps on either side of a purchased tote to show the cities we will tour.

Included on the map are places visited and written about in the UK by Jane Austen, Louise May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley and others.  These are just some of the authors that Craftlit fans have been listening to over the past couple of years, and just a few of the cities referred to in the classics by these authors.

We are also planning on meeting up with other knitters in the UK at various pubs and yarn shops, whiling away our visiting time with our Craftlit neighbors across the pond.

Here is the website that helped me create injet printing of the maps on scrap fabric.

First, I Googled maps for London, ensuring our "home hotel", The Rembrandt, was the center of the map.  Then I took a screen shot of the map, downloaded it and placed a few titles on the maps.

Similarly, for the second map used on the reverse side of the tote, Wales in the UK was Googled, with the Cardiff Hyatt as our central point of departure for various tours.

This is what I came up with for each side of the tote:

Fabric was ironed, freezer paper adhered to the fabric, and then the fabric/freezer paper was fed into the ink jet printer.

Then the maps were printed out onto fabric adhered to the freezer paper.  After printing, the paper backing was ripped off and discarded.

After splitting open an inexpensive canvas tote bag, the fabric maps were sewn onto the outsides, secured with an applique edging over a corded ribbon for additional glitz.

Behind the map, a border of "foreign coin" fabric was used as a border for the map.  After sewing on the maps and borders and ribbon,  the tote was sewn back to its original shape.

Step One: Canvas tote scissored down the side

And the finished bag:

One side of the bag

Reverse Side

This will holds lots of fiber which I hope to purchase on tour of English and Welsh knitting shops.