Dear Thanksgiving Turkey

Dear Thanksgiving Turkey.

I know it's not Thanksgiving here in the US for a couple of weeks yet, but I wanted to catch you while you still had some time left on this earth. Give you time to digest this news I am about to deliver to you.

O this is going to be hard.

You see, I've been a vegetarian for twenty years, but I think ducks to avoid flying rotten eggs that I am going back to eating....meat. Meat as in chicken and turkey. (The thought of bacon has always grossed me out.)

Please hear me out. I think that avoiding eating 20 Thanksgiving turkeys, and I am not even going to count the Christmas ones at my sister-in-law's house, should at least count for something, and buy me twenty minutes of your time...thank you.

Twenty years of being a vegetarian for political, animal rights, and dietary reasons is a tough thing to leave behind. Repeated reports of meat recalls and E. coli horror had me glad to be avoiding meat entirely. We raised our kids vegetarian too, even though we never "forbid" them to eat meat: if they wanted to try it, they could. When they had questions about the meat and seafood departments in the grocery store, we stood there and visited steaks, hot dogs, and lobster. But they never ended up trying it, until Tall Son went to college. He does have an occasional burger now.

Twenty years of having to explain to one's relatives the reasons why, and why I was doing that to my kids, we felt like oddballs for a very long time. We were labeled as birdfood eating crunchy granola types by some. We were told that we were going to be iron-deficient, emaciated, protein-lacking, miserable people. Honestly I have no idea how Tall Son got to be 6'2" and Crafty Girl at age 12 has caught up with me in height? There were years where we only saw the pediatrician at the annual check-up. Twenty years, and we were never miserable because of our diet. Never.

However. Things started to change for me a couple of years ago, when I found out that I have IBS (probably since childhood) and also a gluten sensitivity. There are 4 celiacs in my immediate family, so the odds are pretty good that I would have an issue there, too. 2006 was a very high stress year for me. Autoimmune disorders are sometimes triggered by stress.

Now my diet excluded wheat, rye, barley, oats, and cow's milk dairy. And still no meat and no seafood. I love my nut butters, and am OK with gluten free foods, and am just fine with goat's milk cheese. (Most of them I cannot afford, but that's another story.)

This spring, I was having more than the usual seasonal allergies, and I finally figured out that eating peanuts in any form makes my chest constrict. Not a fun experience. But I am happy to not eat peanuts. Being able to breathe is more important to me. Switching to almond butter or cashew butter is not an option, as they are made on the same equipment as the one used for peanutbutter.

After several months now of not eating meat, seafood, dairy, grains, and nuts, I started to gain weight in the weirdest way. Was it all the rice? Rice bread, rice crackers, rice cereal. While I was grateful to be eating something that didn't make me sick, I was getting sick of it.

Oh, and did I mention that if I have a full serving of carrot salad, or butternut squash, pumpkin pie, or any other deep yellow vegetabe, I get diarrhea? Did I tell you that eating most legumes has me blowing up like a hot air balloon, but without the exhilarating feeling of floating high in the air? I do love potatoes in all their myriad ways of preparation. I am fond of millet and quinoa. Corn, I am OK with, but it doesn't thrill me too much. I am never quite sure of its nutritional value, either.

I considered being a vegan, but that was an impossibility due to me being restricted in the nut department. I have since found some dry roasted almonds which are like manna to me, which cause no adverse reaction. I need to go purchase some good dairy free, non-grain sweetened dark chocolate to coat them in. A girl does deserve a treat every once in a while.

Always thankful for any kind of food that doesn't make me sick to my stomach, content with my choices, happy to have any food at all in the face of so many millions on this earth who never have enough...I had another piece of rice bread toast the other day with imitation cream cheese, and it suddenly hit me:

I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!

I am so so sorry. I realized that I was spending so incredibly much time thinking about what to eat that didn't make me ill or nauseous or bloated or kept me from breathing. I realized I was sick and tired of tofu and simply could not think of yet another way to prepare it. Already pouring soy milk (thank goodness for SILK!) over my corn chex, I knew I could easily overdo it with the soy protein and then where would I be. Trust me, I had explored many of the glutenfree, allergy free, vegan, vegetarian cookbooks. I knew what my options were.

I was also in the middle of reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, so that may have had something to do with my sudden change in attitude. Yes, I was supremely grateful for the food I had, but all that scrounging for protein was doing something to my psyche. I am glad I can literally just go to the store and find something to eat. (It means spending twice as much time there because I have to read labels all the time, but I've always been ready to do whatever it takes.) I know there are people right around me who have deadly deadly allergies to some of the most common foods. I can truly appreciate what they have to go through each and every day.

But I hit my very own personal wall. I started to fantasize about bratwurst. I know. 20 years. Wiped out. To take the edge off, I went to the market and got a 1/4 pound of all natural turkey breast, sliced thin, and it lasted me for two lunches. That was two weeks ago, and I have since had some tuna salad. (Dear husband and I actually put the occasional fish on the grill over the summer, but that was going to be it. Didn't want to bring that smell into the house.)

The biggest decision I made was that I want a Thanksgiving Turkey. I am going to find a free range one, because I refuse to eat something that had endured torture. Now I need to find a recipe, because I have no idea how to cook a turkey. I do want to do it justice and want it to come out right.

I guess basically I want to make sure that I can be grateful and mindful again of whatever I'm eating, and not spend all my time worrying, because that just seems wrong and serves nobody.

Dear Thanksgiving Turkey. Thanks for hearing me out. Now go live out your life with wild abandon.

important

I just couldn't go without letting you know one more important thing.

While I was away in Portland, my boss at Great Capers Cooking LLC was in a car accident and her kitchen has been idle. She is ok, but has cuts and bruises and whiplash. We have not been able to go to the Wednesday market in Troy and are not sure how soon we will be able to return.

Please send Lori some good thoughts and well wishes, so she may recuperate quickly and return to her usual self! If you leave comments here, I'll be sure to pass them along to her. Thank you so much.

s*** hits the fan

I had a nice litte post almost ready to go about some etsy goodies I got.

You all know I'm dyeing a truckload of yarn for the Sock Summit.

After what happened, I need a whole lot more of this:

I'll have to ask you to go to the other blog, since that covers my "professional life". Thank you for obliging me.

spring

This week, we had some uncommonly high temperatures around here. Tuesday we went all the way into the upper eighties! All my flowers suddenly started blooming at the same time.
Some of these tulips are usually more staggered, but they just had to come out and see what was going on.

I looked back at last year's pictures, and these Virginia Bluebells and my Bleeding Hearts are one month early.

Thank you to everyone who inquired, but I am feeling much better today. Whatever was bothering me must have finished blooming. I do wish we would get some decent rain though.

Have a good weekend! I am trying to finalize my book proposal, so you may or may not hear from me for a couple of days.

thank you!

Thank you everyone for the compliments on the yarn colors. I am hopeful that very soon, my handdyed yarn will be available online for purchase. Melanie and Alison of Dye-namics and I are trying to figure out a way. They are an established dye company with a website. Please check them out! I have had socks from their yarn for years and they are holding up much better than some of the Very Famous Brands.

Some of you inquired about my new job. My new boss, Lori, and I actually were co-workers for a while at the Honest Weight Food Co-op, then she cut back on her hours because she also had two small businesses she was running. One of which is a personal chef business. She has a professional kitchen, her business is expanding, she needs help....one day we got to talking. I needed better hours to be able to write my book. She could use my help. The rest is history. I am still a member of the co-op, putting in 3-4 hours a week, thus getting my 26% discount on groceries I buy there.

What can I say. It was a little serendipitous. She's a knitter and a spinner and a weaver.

Speaking of work, today I am actually home, simply trying to breathe. This sudden and intense onset of spring - summer, really - has made my seasonal allergies so much worse. I got new drugs yesterday, and an inhaler. The new drugs are knocking me out just a little, this post took me a very long time to write....I'll talk to you tomorrow.

hmm...

I am puzzled.

Evidently I had the wrong commenter yesterday when I notified the winners.

Would the real emcknits please step forward? I owe you some yarn....which I already gave away! But if you're willing to accept a different shade, then I could sleep better again at night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, please stop by the Mason-Dixon blog if you would. I had no idea what was going on when I wrote my "end of life" post this morning.



ETA: thank you emcknits for writing to me. I am so sorry about the mix-up! (One little letter in an ID was different. My fault for having the wrong name recognition.) I will mail your yarn out tomorrow.

in my wake

Last week, an elderly member of our church passed away, and I went to her funeral service on Saturday.

It got me thinking, like those kind of events tend to get you thinking. And I realized what I want my wake to look like. You guys have to PROMISE me that this is what you will do for me:

Come together and bring your knitting. Bring your knitting and your spinning and have yourselves a knit & chat, a good old fashioned stitch & bitch. Sit around like we always have, and talk about the kids and what it's like to have to care for one's elderly parents. Talk about your jobs and the upcoming vacation, if you're lucky enough to be able to go on one. Best of all, talk about yarn and knitting, patterns and stitch patterns and books about knitting. Bring in some new knitters, and guide them when they need it.

I will have already asked my loved ones to take what yarn and books they want, and pile the rest up for you. Since I already know right now that I will have yarn left over at the end of my life, I would like you all to sit around my stash for an afternoon and check it out. When it's time to go, I want you all to divy it up and take it home with you.

I won't be able to tell you what to do with the yarn, but my wish would be that you make something for yourself, and make something for my favorite charitable organization, Afghans for Afghans.

To my knitting lawyer friends: I had better put all this in writing, right? I don't think a blog counts as a legal document...

Until the day of the wake, let's knit on together.

Monday update

Go here to see a short animated knitted film. Very cleverly done.


In other news, Tall Son will be home from college Wednesday night, for Thanksgiving break. We are all looking forward to seeing him!

Crafty Girl got her first report card in middle school and got a 95.33 average. We took her out to lunch yesterday, and tomorrow morning I will be attending the honor roll breakfast.

I am knitting a thousand things at once right now...mostly gifts, but also trying to get ready for a couple of handcraft fairs in December. As soon as I know all the details re: time and venue, I will let you know. Meanwhile, you can go here to see what I am talking about!

Gotta go to work now, I'll talk to you all later! Have a great Monday.

let's play a game

It's Friday. Tall Son is coming home for an extended weekend, I want to show you some fall flowers from my yard, and I have been tagged by my friend Leah over at Our Yellow House.
I promise you, once you check out her blog, you will want to go back there again and again. You'll wish that you could just go to her yellow house and play with her beautiful children, partake in the delicious food, and be inspired by Leah's projects.


The game works like this:

1) Link to the person who tagged you

2) Mention the rules

3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself

4) Tag six other bloggers by linking to them

5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged


OK, so here goes. Six quirky boring facts about me.

One. Quirks? Me? I don't have quirks. I am a perfectly normal woman with NO quirks.

Two. I like to collect business cards. Museums, galleries, yarn shops, book stores, doctor's offices, next door neighbors. If you have a business card with your pertinent information on it like phone number and email, I would like your card.

Three. I read knitting patterns like other people read poetry or novels. I read poetry and novels, too, but I also love to read knitting patterns. Watch me sit there late at night pulling one more knitting book off the shelf and just go over one more sweater or cardigan pattern.

Four. I am a night owl.

Five. I like Indian food, Chinese food, Thai food, and my own home cooking. As long as it's gluten free and cow's milk dairy free. And vegetarian. Oh and I LOVE to feed other people. Love to cook for a crowd. Not sure if that's a quirk or a passion.

Six. Thanksgiving is my mostest most favorite holiday. Other than always getting together with dear friends, see number five.

I am tagging the following (and this is going to be very hard, choosing just 6 people):

Kristine

Melanie

Leslie

Vivian

Jody

magnusmog

OK and I just HAVE to tag Bonnie in Amherst. She put a German poem on her blog, and if that isn't serendipity, I don't know what is.

Have a good weekend!

this is where it gets complicated

Friday is here, and I am getting all nervous because I want to put up another post before the weekend. So when you all sit and sip your Saturday morning coffee going through the blogs (isn't that standard procedure?), knitting in hand, there's actually something new to read here.

You know me. I am a serious gal, usually struggling to see the humorous side of things. Growing up Lutheran and German, a sense of humor is not something I have in heaps. Consequently, when things pile up on my psyche, I am not one to laugh it off. I sit and mull, I get fatigued, I am sensitive to the most mundane disappointments. (Like when that very talented girl Sayesha Mercado got kicked off American Idol this week. Lump in my throat.) (Or like when John Edwards decided to side with Obama. Siding with a woman candidate was not the most comfortable thing to do, evidently. Boys will be boys, they stick together, taking just enough time out to give the woman a nice little pat on the back. Just before they point out that the glass ceiling really is still there, and she better go home now.)

Pair those news with the rising death toll in China after the earthquake. That has the tears rolling down my cheeks as I drive my kids to school in the morning. If anyone hears about an organization that will send knitted blankets and other items over there, be sure to let me know. I'm a mom and a knitter. My first instinct is to make a blanket.

The Myanmar cyclone catastrophe has me seriously wishing for the first time in my life that the people who are not letting aid in, would please be sent straight to hell. Enough said.

I am trying my darndest to do some knitting, even some designing again, but my energy is going elsewhere. Last week, I was hit by a full scale flashback memory to an emotionally abusive relationship I was in when I was young. A panic attack was narrowly averted. I have a good therapist and an even better husband. I am OK today, but it did take me a few days to get over it. (I had heard about a young woman at work who was moving out from her boyfriend's with her baby. To get away from him who does not treat her well. I gave them some dishes. And I just this morning decided to make that little one a blanket for his crib. I don't know what non-knitters do.)

On Wednesday, Crafty Girl and I had an appoinment with the pediatric gastroenterologist. While my daughter is tall, she is too skinny, not gaining enough, and some foods bother her stomach. There is a high incidence of Celiac disease in my family. Crafty Girl will have an endoscopy and get tested for a variety of things. I'll let you know when the appointment is.
We are hunting for a shrug pattern for her; she would like a little cover-up for her graduation dress. If you know of any good patterns that accomodate Rowan's all season cotton, 4.5 sts/in, and a tall eleven year-old, pop me a line.

Does that wrap it up? Not quite. I have to leave you with a silver lining kind of item.

I just this minute (and I am not making this up) received a phone call from a woman who is a handdyer and is represented by a yarn rep. They both want to meet with me. They want me to come up with designs for the yarn. I meet with them next Tuesday.

Just in time for me to get out of the house when the contractor's here to fix up our bathroom, to the tune of 3500 bucks.

hi!

Sorry for not posting...been busy with work and family home on spring break...also, there is SOME knitting going on, but not enough to show you.

The daffodils are up in the garden, but I am cheating and using a picture from last year. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone! Tall Son is due back from the Europe trip tomorrow night. They are having a great time.

piecing it

Some of the pieces are coming together.

Last night, after coming home from orchestra rehearsal, Tall Son and Dear Husband and I sat down together, and had yet another college talk...there had been a really good offer from the University of Rochester. All the colleges had responded, none had rejected him, two had waitlisted him. Two made good offers with a scholarship, and Rochester added a grant. After looking at the course offerings one more time, Tall Son made his decision to accept U of R.

Funny thing was, initially, we had only tagged along on the college visit. It was the time in November, when I took him and a friend on a little tour of Western NY schools, and his friend had an interview in Rochester. Lo and behold, I loved it there. I liked that place so much, I wanted to go back to college! But I was good, and did not say much, he liked them well enough to apply, and then we waited. They were the last place to respond.

It's nervewracking, I tell you. But when the acceptance letter came, he jumped for joy; when the financial package came, his parents jumped for joy. We can do this! Added bonus: he can take music lessons at the Eastman School of Music.

Then I got an important piece of mail yesterday. I received payment for my design submission from Donna Druchunas. It's official: two more of my designs are really really going to be in a book. I made a lace shell and a stole to go with it.
The working title is "The Knitting World of Dorothy Reade". I'll keep you updated as I find out more. I don't think it's going to press before late summer. The publisher is Nomad Press.


I have not done much knitting. Don't even ask about the Ski Lodge Scoop...it's done, but it needs armbands and a neckband. I simply have not had the sit-still to do it.

But something has been haunting me.

Noro Kureyon, and hexagons.

Norah Gaughan's hexagons from her book, Knitting Nature.

I figured these out from a coat pattern that uses them as an edging. I want to make an entire garment from them. They are all connected to each other as you go along. Knitted, not sewn. Each of them is about 4" across.

It'll take me years, but I don't care.

Some things are worth waiting for.