Month: November 2015

Knitting faster… or trying to

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So, I am trying to learn how to knit faster. The super-long scarf I am knitting for my boyfriend has finally driven me to it. Yup, this is the scarf that makes you want to learn how to knit faster LOL! I throw my yarn, completely taking my right hand off the needle to do so, and it slows me down considerably. This is how most of us learn, before eventually migrating to a more efficient style.  So 34 stitches by 288 rows later, I am resigned:  I must change my technique.

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I found this video https://youtu.be/eSqPYt4EReA  by Felicia from The Craft Sessions, which demonstrates 4 different methods. I’m quite fascinated by Lever Knitting/Irish Cottage Knitting and I definitely intend to give that a go, but I’ve started with Continental Knitting, which should speed up both knit and purl stitches. You can see my attempt above… lots of mistakes in those first few rows. Unfortunately, I am not finding it particularly intuitive. Once I get the hang of it, I’m off to a brisk pace, but the next day I can’t seem to remember how to wind the yarn around the righthand needle and I have to look up a video again. Ugh, frustrating, because it’s not a difficult style to learn at all! I’m almost finished my boyfriend’s scarf, so I’m certainly not going to mess with the gauge by changing knitting styles on that project, but I do want to pick up the pace, so that I can make more things 🙂

Fried Plantain

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I’ve been trying out quite a few Caribbean dishes because I have a family get-together coming up and I’d like to make some dishes that they like. So, this is my first time making fried plantain, and it turned out pretty well.

It’s really easy, actually. You just need some ripe plantain – i.e black skin and flesh firm and pinkish-yellow.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Peel the plantain, then cut it into into ½ inch slices on the diagonal. (On the diagonal is a presentation thing. I just cut regular slices above, however, if this was being served in a restaurant, the plantain would have been cut on the diagonal).

Fry in oil until brown and caramelized on each side.

And that’s it! See? Easy 🙂

I added some sautéed onions that I’d fried up beforehand, but this is optional because the plantain is delicious on it’s own.  As you can see, some of my slices are a little overdone. I fried a lot of slices at once, so I lost track of which ones hadn’t been flipped, but it truly didn’t take anything away from the sweet rich taste of the plantain.  It’s very hard to go wrong here… and the result is mmmmm, heaven 🙂

All Hallow’s Eve 2015

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In all, we only got about a dozen trick-or-treaters at our door last night, and another friend said they only got 8. And driving home from the stores at dusk, which is when you expect to see the wee ones out with their parents, the streets were empty except for the odd pair of teenagers. Is Halloween just not that popular anymore?

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Maybe it’s the rise in popularity of organized festivities like haunted houses. LaRonde, Montreal’s Six Flags amusement park, was a very popular choice last night. Their Fright Fest  https://frightfest.sixflags.com/laronde-en/frights/ featured 6 haunted houses, access to the rides, and park employees running around in ghoulish costumes ready to terrify you at every turn. My boyfriend took the kids last weekend, and a chainsaw-brandishing employee (chainsaw minus the chain) had my 9-year-old stepdaughter suitably petrified lol. That’s where she was with her mom last night, and apparently, it was so packed it took an hour just to get out of the parking lot.  Maybe that’s where all the trick-or-treaters were…

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This year’s pumpkin was designed by my 13-year-old stepson. It’s pokemon-inspired and suitably frightening, I think 😉