Sometimes Brown is Grey

Sometimes you set out to knit a brown sweater with a blue stripe for a four-year-old and miraculously find yourself holding a grey sweater with a blue stripe for a three-year-old. The truth is out. But no matter, I still love this sweater, thoroughly enjoyed making it, am so pleased I got to gift it, and (as usual) learned a ton in the process.

This is the second sweater I've made following Elizabeth Zimmerman's raglan technique found in Knitting without Tears. The first one was a success. My main mistake here was trying to surprise Peanut at Christmas. That meant making it without having him try it on during the process. And here I shake my head at myself. What was I thinking?! Next time, no knitted sweater surprises! I'm not entirely happy with how I planned the stripes either (not much at all). Better planning would have probably put the color jogs under the arm instead of up front. Next time, I also think I'll start the cuff a bit larger than Elizabeth recommends. Styles have changed just a wee bit since 1973 and I think a slightly wider sleeve with a nice snug k2p2 cuff to keep it out of the jam would be just fine.

There were a lot of things to love about this project. The pattern itself - the seamless raglan - is so fun to make that it's addictive. Once you get the arms joined and start decreasing, it's just too exciting to go to bed at a decent hour. This was also my first project with Garnstudio's new Big Merino. I like Garnstudio because they make a reasonably priced yarn and it doesn't pill. While we were in Chicago, I tried a couple of more economical wool yarns from the US (Knitpicks varieties and Cascade 220) and found that they all pilled like crazy. Not cool. My Garstudio Merino projects (including my favorite Peanut hat and a cutie vest) haven't pilled at all. They are also super soft and have great stitch definition. There are two downsides. The yarn can split while knitting and there aren't enough colors in the Big Merino. It's new this year, though, so I'll wait until next season and see what they do!

Here's a link to my Ravelry project page for knitters.

So yes, sometimes brown is grey and large is small, but knitting is always one of my favorite things to do!

Friday Moment

Inspired by Soulamama's {this moment}.

Sinterklaas 2012: Pakjesavond

Sinterklaas season ended tonight with "Present Evening" - my very literal translation of the Dutch name for 5 December. I've written about the Sinterklaas story before (in 2011 and 2008). It's a topic that keeps coming back for me. Nowaday, as a parent and not a cultural critic, Sinterklaas is starting to feel like fun little holiday.

It starts with Sinterklaas' arrival from Spain by boat in mid-November. While he is in Holland, children can "set" or put out their shoes at night and receive a small present in the morning. Each family develops their own traditions, but setting shoes on weekends and Wednesdays are a popular choice. When they set a shoe at night, children leave food for his horse - carrots, hay, water - and a gift for Sinterklaas - a drawing or a song - in exchange for their gift. In the morning, children wake up to find a small toy and a treat (mandarin, walnuts, cookies, candy, chocolate) in their shoe. They may also find evidence that Piets (Sinterklaas's helpers) have been to visit - the children's toys played with and left out or pepernoten cookies tossed around the room. Pepernoten (pepper nuts) are little spice cookies about the size of the tip of your thumb. Piets carry them by the bag full and give them to kids throughout the Sinterklaas season.

Present Evening is the climax of the Sinterklaas season. The story goes that it's Sinterklaas' birthday and he gives out presents. After the family finishes dinner, Piet will knock very loudly on the door and toss a handful of pepernoten into the room. He doesn't show himself, though, because he has too much work to do. By the time the children get to the open front door to look for him, he's gone. If they've been good, Piet will have left a bag of gifts behind. After that it's all fun and games unwrapping gifts, eating more pepernoten, and staying up too late. Peanut's school isn't starting until after lunch tomorrow morning so that kids can sleep in after their big night.

It's been interesting to observe how my own feelings about Sinterklaas have changed over the years. In the beginning I was shocked, then offended, and now I'm probably moving towards mildly amused. The Piets are actually called Zwarte Piets (Black Peters) and run around in black face (see those older posts for more). It's a challenge now to teach my children to use different terms when everyone around them happily talks about Zwarte Piets. But I also see how this is essentially a joyful, light-hearted holiday season that revolves around children and fun. I hope our little ones will have wonderful memories of Sinterklaas when they grow up. And that they will one day celebrate a Sinterklaas with Piets. Just Piet.

Thanksgiving in Holland 2012

A couple weeks ago, we hosted our 8th Annual Thanksgiving dinner. 31 adults and children shared a sit down dinner. The children outnumbered the adults. The food was awesome. Our potluck is a bit more involved, maybe more formal than a standard American potluck. Instead of a a buffet table, we have a seated dinner. Before that, three or four plated, passed hors d'oeuvres. This year, there was even a passed soup. Salads are assembled on site. Sides are passed from table to table. There were four pies and as many cheeses for dessert. Thanksgiving with our friends here in The Netherlands is nothing like the family Thanksgivings we had growing up. I loved that. I love this.

My job is mainly logistics. Um - chair? plates? forks? glasses? tables?! I take a lot of notes and keep them in my house binder for the following year. It includes a task calendar for the month before, week before, and day of. This year I added contact information for the butcher and the Gelderse Wijnbeurs as well as recipes that will return next year. All those notes keep me feeling a bit sane, or like sanity might be within reach.

I also cook a bit. I love pork, so we have Ribbe, Norwegian style pork belly. It's a two day process, prep the night before and then bake the day of. There are great instructions at My Little Norway. The plate under the meat is key. This dish is so good that should you accidentally have your pork ready two hours early (ahem), it will still be fabulous. A prep ahead Bourbon Gravy makes the perfect accompaniment and keeps kitchen time to a minimum when guests are waiting. A single recipe (no doubling) made more than enough for our entire group! This delicious Crispy Cream-Braised Potatoes and Fennel premiered this year. Cook the potatoes and fennel the day and pop everything in the oven just before dinner - easy peasy and yum.

Our standard dessert, the one we make every year and eat with lots and lots of whipped cream (remember this picture?), is Pumpkin Cheesecake. This recipe came into my family when I was in high school. It now holds prized place in our family cookbook and is a huge hit wherever it goes. I haven't been able to locate a copy on-line, so here it is for one and all.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

serves 12

crust (for springform pan)
1 1/4 cup (300 g) digestive cookies, crushed
2 Tbsp (30 g)butter, melted

filling
16 oz (450 g) cream cheese at room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup (225 g) sugar
1 can (425 g) pumpkin (you can also roast your own in the oven)
1/2 c (120 ml) amaretto
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

Makes one 28cm springform pan, one 30cm fluted dish, or two 9 inch pie pans

1. Mix melted butter into crushed cookies with a fork. The mixture should be damp but not sticky. Add butter if necessary.
2. Pat mixture into bottom and sides of oiled pan. The crust should come to the top edge of either a fluted dish or pie pan. It should be about 2 cm high in a spring form pan. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs, sugar, and cream cheese until smooth.
4. Add pumpkin and spices. Beat until well combined.
5. Pour filling into pan. The filling should be just shy of the top of the crust.
6. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Share and enjoy!

Sinterklaas Intocht

On Sunday afternoon, we met up with a some of Papa's university friends in Cuijk (about 25 minutes from Nijmegen) to wait for Sinterklaas. That's Sinterklaas, not Santa Claus. It doesn't matter that they call him St. Nikolas in the songs – everyone swears up and down to me that they are not the same. Sinterklaas, as you may remember, is a retired bishop of Turkey who lives in Spain and comes to the Netherlands by steam boat every November along with an extraordinary number of brightly dressed, dancing, comic friends – all of whom just happen to be black, as in black-face, afro wigs, red lipstick, lots of dancing. I'll just let that and my last post about Sinterklaas (three years ago!) speak for themselves.

It was a cold day, one of the first we've had this fall. There were plenty over the summer, but this was a cold fall day, so very different. They have a lot of fun with singing for Sinterklaas, singing louder, asking Piet where he is, and so forth. Three or four different boats came by before the real deal Sinterklaas steam boat arrived. There was heavy mist on Sunday, so the boats came out of the mist and disappeared back into it as they passed. It was exciting. Sinterklaas arrived officially in Dordrecht this year, but then visits a lot of cities in Holland. I love that he travels by boat. When he arrived, there was a lot of talk about weather and locks that he had to go through to get to Cuijk. The mayor was there, too!

Afterwards, we all went to a friend's house for hot cocoa, coffee, tea, pepernoten (hard spiced cookies – good stuff), and a lot of catching up. We haven't really seen all of these friends and all of the kids (so many!) together for a long time, so it was really nice. The holiday season has officially begun!

Mother's Day

There was a surprise on the camera last week. This grandma and Peanut are special buddies. They spent a lot of time together this spring, partly because grandma came to visit for six weeks. She took amazing care of our whole family and the dinner guests we invited as well.

This is my mama. She taught me to sew, crochet, and knit. She's a great cook. She's a fearless traveler. She's kind, generous, adventurous, and fun. She's also a bit wicked (that's a warning to those of you who really believe she never plays poker). She can talk to anyone and taught me that "the road is in your mouth," which means you can always ask if you need to know something. She is always there for me when I need it. That's now with kids and years ago when she flew to DC to take care of me when I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

I've taken her for granted too many times and am sure to do it again in the future. But today, for just a moment - thank you, mom. And by the way, aren't I lucky to have a reminder of her good looks at home every day?

Halloween

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it moved a few steps up the list after last night. We went out with Peanut and four other toddlers (plus their parents) for a wander down Harper Avenue here in Hyde Park. It is possible that half of the southside of Chicago also came by, because the street was packed! People put full effort into decorating and general preparation.

Mama didn't plan a costume this year, but a friend had an extra, so Peanut was Chicken Little. He's carrying a mama-made bag instead of a plastic pumpkin. I love how it matched his outfit. I didn't realize there's a Chicken Little movie until I saw the tag on the costume. Where have I been?

Peanut was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and the sudden realization that he was receiving candy - CANDY! It's his first exposure to the sweet stuff and he's a fan. We managed to keep consumption down to one little box of something gummy. He's also a beginner trick-or-treater, so he only collected four pieces total. They were enough to keep him fairly pre-occupied, though.

Trick-or-treating has changed since I was a kid. At all of the houses, people sat outside and handed out candy to lines of kids in costumes. I didn't hear any choruses of "trick-or-treat" and keeping the line moving efficiently seemed to be a priority. This might help explain why - it's a 2008 article in which a woman talks about distributing over 2,000 pieces of candy and running out before 8pm!

Iraqi Bundles of Love

One of the things I've been thinking about lately is the fact that I don't do as much giving back as I would like to. That means volunteering, donating, or generally supporting good people doing good things. One of my barriers if finding projects that I believe in. Imagine my happiness on finding this one yesterday.

It's a simple concept, put together a bundle of sewing supplies and send them to someone who needs them. Here's how the US Soldier who thought of the project describes it:

Iraqi Bundles of Love is a short-duration project, set to last about six weeks, originally intended to surge fabric and sewing (and knitting!) materials into the area around which I live in Iraq. It is timed to coincide with both Ramadan, and the departure of my units from Iraq. If you’re reading this, well — it’s kind of grown. It’s going to help a little bit more of northern Iraq than just the area around where I live.

After putting together my package this morning, I went to check his blog again in order to prepare this post. The pictures are so neat. There is a lot of enthusiasm for this project in the blogging sewing community. After looking at the pictures, I had a moment of guilt. My bundle is quite a bit smaller than the others - and the ribbons don't match. But you know what? I don't have loads and loads of fabric or ribbon. My bundle does, however, contain materials to make at least one piece of clothing: about 5 yards of cotton, thread, needles, pins, scissors, buttons, a zipper, and a couple other bits and bobs. So - it's going in the mail! Hope it makes someone happy.

Maybe one of you (or someone you know) will decide to send a package to! If you're in the Netherlands, the good news is that there's a Dutch mailing address for your package, too!

Holidays are coming!

So, here's a nifty Thanksgiving craft I won't be attempting. But I have noticed that the holiday decorations are going up around town and blog posts are starting to be about preparing gifts. Due to some recent changes in my life, there won't be a whole lot of crafting going on in the near future, but Thanksgiving in Haarlem will be celebrated - with the help of friends, of course!

Which reminds me... must start organizing!

As for adjusting to a new pattern in life, today's been action-filled already, and it's only 11:30! Let's just say that when an infant vomits, it's sad and a mess. When they vomit in their sling while you're wearing it with said infant lying down, it's a messy puddle being rapidly absorbed by crucial fabric soothing aid. One bath and two loads of laundry later, I think I'm going to go finish my now-ice-cold latte. Yum.