It's so hard to keep things secret sometimes!!!

With the secret knitting mission taking place, I cannot really speak much of it here. This does not mean there are not other, non-secret project related knitting things to speak of.

First, this year for a holiday gift, I am so hoping to find from a certain Nature Boy a set of double pointed wooden knitting needles set that I pointed out. I am now hoping I pointed to them with a certain decisiveness, the kind of pointing where someone knows someone else means business.

Secondly, the new knitty came up as I'm sure all you knitty-head readers already know. I now have even more projects-to-be sitting in my brain, stirring things up. Thank goodness we never have run out of anything else to make, what a boring world this would be.

Here are the new contenders:
SURFACE
Knitty: Surface - Winter 2008
PLAITED POINTS
Knitty: Plaited Points - Winter 2008
and SOCKTOPUS
Knitty: Socktopus - Winter 2008
I also love the Latvian vest but Nature Boy would not wear such fun things.

Finally, I have of course begun the Holiday Baking. I made my vegan cut-out sugar cookies Saturday and Nature Boy saved the day by running to the store for some colored vegan decorating sugar. My India Tree red food coloring was making my sugar brown, not red, as after a year I guess it goes bad. Funny how Kay's food coloring would last for years. I guess that's one good thing about the preservatives! Anyhow, I baked them and froze them before taking any photos.


I did remember the camera when I was baking the Kolacky. Kay always made them every year and they are a very traditional slavic cookie. My recipe is based on the Chzech version (I think the Polish recipes sometimes use sour cream instead of cream cheese). I veganized me recipe and they are SO easy and SO yummy! I ran out of apricot preserves (the only filling Kay ever used) but luckily had a jar of unopened seedless raspberry preserves on hand so half are raspberry. The apricot remain my #1 though! Here's the recipe:
1/2 cup vegan butter, room temp.
1 8-oz package plain Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese" also room temp.
1 cup flour
2 small jars fruit preserves

Beat the fake butter and cream cheese; mix in the flour. Using your hands, knead dough gently into a ball, divide into 4 equal balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (maybe 30 mins).

Preheat oven to 375 F. Rough out one ball of dough on well-floured board until 1/8 inch or so thickness. I cut mine with a pastry cutter (knife works fine though) into equal size sqaures. Drop about 1 tsp. fruit in the middle of each square, then fold two opposite corners diagonally across and pinch the corners together, then fold them over to one side and pinch into the cookie's body to seal them up. Bake about 12 minutes give or take until lightly browned; remove from baking sheet and cool on cooling racks. Makes 4-6 dozen depending on the size of your cookies.

Knitting War

I started a new job today! I have not said much about why I left my last job because I did not want to say horrible terrible things about the company I used to work for and at the time that's what I would have done. It's been a rough month of job-seeking, interviewing and waiting and I feel so much better than I have in a long time! Here are things that are good about my new path:
1. I get to wear jeans for the next two weeks as part of a fund-raising drive! You pay $10 for two weeks and no business casual wear--hooray! This also means I work for an agency that CARES ABOUT THE COMMUNUITY AT LARGE!
2. I don't mop floors, scrub bathrooms, clean exam rooms, dust shelves, water dangerous man-eating geckos, hose off urine and/or feces soaked rugs in the back yard while wasps sting me, have angry people yell at me on the phone for things beyond my control like the fact that we don't have a doctor on duty or fear my employer and his ever-changing and unpredictable moods.
3. I don't have to worry about getting hit with clothes pins or clipboards as they fly from an employer's hand...
4. I don't have to work 12 to 14 hour days.
5. I am allowed to eat at my desk!
6. I use a near-paperless system that is environmentally friendly!
7. I am paid the same amount of money as before and don't have high anxiety.
8. I am treated with respect and dignity and worth!
9. Any work on weekends is OVERTIME and I have a set M-F schedule and can see Nature Boy every day before 10PM!
10. My employer appears to be emotionally and mentally stable!!!

OK--so on the knitting front, the knit goes on, but it's a Secret Mission with the Allied Forces of Knitting. I am knitting in foxholes, knitting in mess tents, knitting in my Jeep on the fozen tundra of Pennsylvania before dawn, knitting in the dark as the enemy passes by. I am taking chances with this knitting, to free all the Holiday Projects that are being assuaged and fired upon by those that do not believe. I cannot risk this mission with pictures now but we are collecting the evidence and after the eventual release of the Holiday Projects, the goodness of humaniity will be brought to light. The knitting war wages onward!

Pair O'Sox is Actually a Pair!

I finally finished my Pair O'Sox this past weekend! What, you don't believe me? See for yourself!


With Thanksgiving finished, the Knitsburgh area is aflurry with Yuletide preparations. Nature Boy put up some lights outside and the stockings were hung by the fire. We only need to get the tree up and we are set!

I am of course in the middle of making some Super Secret Suprises that cannot be discussed here for fear of someone snooping and knowing what is in store for them soon. So if you came here to be sneaky, ha! Your plan has been foiled, now go back to work.

I am still looking for work. I am interviewing and posting my resume and even took an application into a buisness who was unfortunately not even hiring. This is not the best time in United States of America to be unemployed, apparently. I am trying to keep my chin up but some days it's just not possible. What does one do in those moments?

One has a photo shoot with one's cats, of course! Here are just a few shots from the shoot, trust me I have about sixty total pics. Furry photo shoots make the day a tad bit brighter. Seriously, try it, you'll see!

Pin-up Girl

So I got this quiz from Spirit Witch:

You Are Bettie Page

Girl next door with a wild streak You're a famous beauty - with unique look And the people like you are cultish about it

What Famous Pinup Are You?

Who knew how sexy and cultish I could be??? Who knows who you will be--go take it and let me know, especially if you are looking for something to do cause you are bored.