Yarn Chicken & Firewhiskey

I'm back! No, the tweens didn't gobble me up, though they managed to do just that to pretty much everything else in the house. (Go them!)

The first ever Harry Potter Marathon at The Lookout was a success! Youngling was an excellent first time hostess (I didn't hear a single tween drama fest or fight breakout during the entire 10 hour event) and I set a new record for myself at how stealthily I could swap out savoury snacks every time a child tried to walk out of my kitchen carrying nothing but lollies and sweets. Oh there was Butterbeer and Firewhiskey (my own recipe) and a proper array of sugary confections that would make even Fred and George proud, but I did try to not send all the children back home at 8pm with nothing but sugar water for internal fluids. 

To recuperate from Tuesday I spent yesterday at my LYS. My reward for missing out on Knit Night in favour of supervising five tweens with more sugar in them than sense? I ended up being in the right place and the right time on Wednesday to receive a yarn gift. Look at that, pretty pretty pretty! It's Knit Picks Diadem in Emerald. I have visions of some sort of airy fluffy fairy lacey something or other. Just have to find the perfect pattern.

At the LYS I met up with my good friend Lisa and she showed me her newest cast-on (a pair of R2D2 inspired socks using the Sci-Fi sock pattern I used to make Liebling's Tron socks. Can we all just take a moment to comprehend that Lisa started learning to knit this year, did a lace hat for her first project and has now jumped right into colourwork socks for her first pair of socks? Also, Lisa tells me that she figured out how to tension both strands in her right hand all by her onesies while she was on a flight back from holiday...with no access to the internet... Need another moment to pick your jaw up off the floor? That's ok, I did too.

 

While Lisa knitted merrily along on her geeky socks I played yarn chicken. I know this is a thing that most fiber fiends are guilty of, but that doesn't stop me from being peeved at myself for getting into that endless loop of looking at my remaining yarn and thinking 'nope, it's too close to call'. I ended up in one such loop yesterday, trying to finish a pair of  mukluks for my father in law who will be visiting this weekend (we will just roll right past why I thought I should be able to finish ANYTHING in 48 hours for ANYONE during school holidays, shall we?) and I lost hard.

See that? I'd managed to talk myself into thinking that I would only need to knit the heels in a different colour. Not only that, I even shortened the legs by full arrow repeat, to try and save yarn and make it work. I still lost.

After having a bit of a grump over a nice cup of coffee, and a paw through the remaining blobs of worsted weight yarn I have in my stash, I managed to find a solution. New plan:

I hope I have enough yarn... FiL gets here tomorrow...I'm sure it's fine.

Today is another hangouot for the kiddos, so my lounge is again taken up by tweens, although not as many this time, and once again eating me out of house and home. This time there doesn't seem to be a need for me being on constant sugar watch, though. Apparently today is all about nachos with lots of red hot sauce, not brightly coloured lollies and sugary bevvies... I wonder if it's because today's pick doesn't glorify candy the way Harry Potter does, or if they all decided one day of a sugar coma was enough.

Also, I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently and noticed it has a heap of yarn-related goodies. I think I will be doing a Buffy Yarn Watch in the future. Until tomorrow, my lovelies, here's my recipe for tween-safe Firewhiskey.

I need to go make more nachos.

Firewhiskey  (for school-aged witches and wizards)

Apple Juice (1 cup/person)

Brown Sugar (1/2 tablespoon/person)

Cinnamon sticks (1 for every 2 people)

Clove studs (to taste)

Fresh ginger, peeled (to taste, for 5 girls I used a 2.5cm piece)

Chili Powder (the hot kind, if you live somewhere that sells any other version)

1. Combine all ingredients into an appropriately sized pot and bring to a simmer.

2. Simmer until all smells fragrant and the liquid is nice and hot. 

3. Strain into serving cups. Include a cinnamon stick for a straw if you have extra.

Enjoying the blog?     It takes a lot of caffeine and yarn to make this happen! ;)