Not Identical Twins

As I mentioned last week, I've been working on a larger knitting project for a few weeks, that wasn't ready to be revealed.  But it's now in the mail, so it's time to post!  A good friend of mine just had twins, and I decided to knit a few of the toys out of the book Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman.  The patterns are sooo cute, and it's a new book to me, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I picked the monkey (from the cover) and the penguin for their cuteness.  I thought they would be about the same size, although the finished size of the toys isn't mentioned in the book.

I did make some color decisions that were different from the book.  I went with a variegated brown yarn for the monkey, and decided to use white for the areas on him that should have been buff -- that way, I could use the same white from the penguin.  And I figured I would use yarn from my stash for the monkey's vest.  The scarf to go with it seemed like overkill.

As I got into the knitting, I realized that EVERYTHING was going to be knit flat and then sewn together.  I don't like sewing my knitting together very much, but I decided, at least the first time through, to just follow the directions as they were written.  That meant that, by the time I was done, I had a total of 15 different parts to sew together.

Yes, I laid him out like a skeleton from "Bones"

The body was done in three parts, and I still don't understand why you couldn't shape the front the same way the back was shaped.  The arms and legs were knit flat, separate from the hands and feet, when they could have been knit in the round with a color change, which would have made everyone's lives easier.  OK, just mine.  Oh, and I opted to just pick up stitches on either side of the head for the ears, instead of sewing them on, as suggested in the book.  Also, maybe it was because of the yarn I chose from my stash, but the first vest I knit was much, much too small, so I had to make it a few rows longer and almost twice as wide to fit him.  And for some reason, the front and back pieces of my head didn't match up, but I'm sure that was due to knitter error, not the pattern.  *wink*  To make things worse, there were very few sewing directions.  It just said "sew as shown in the photo," but with the photo monkey wearing both a scarf and a vest, you couldn't see how the arms and head went on at all!  Very frustrating for someone who hasn't sewn together a lot of toy parts before.  It took forever for me to sew everything up, and there was a delay as I ran out of polyfill part way through, but when all was said and done, here's how he looked:

A very tall monkey

The other pattern I picked was the penguin.  As soon as I started knitting, I realized they were not going to be anywhere near the same size.  But at least the penguin had a lot less pieces.

Penguin pieces

And, actually, there is one extra piece in that photo that didn't go into the penguin.  Can you see the shaping on the piece that looks like the right-hand body panel (yeah, I forgot I'd knit this "extra" piece and got confused as I was laying him out)?  That's the wing, as knit according to the pattern directions.  Again, the photo in the book has a black wing against a black body, so I have no idea what it was supposed to look like.  But the directions said to knit the wing in stocking stitch, which meant the whole thing just curled up into a tube!  I took it upon myself to knit them in seed stitch, which I think looked nice texturally.  I was surprised to discover that the body was just a front and a back panel.  Next time I make one of these, I plan on figuring out how to do 2 back body panels and a triangular base piece, so that he actually has a little tail.  Maybe I could turn the white belly, like I was turning a heel?  I don't know, I'd have to practice that one a little.  Also, the pattern called for knitting the monkey with doubled yarn, I assume so that the stuffing wouldn't show through when you stuffed him.  They didn't do the same for the penguin, and I kinda wished they had.  Again, I couldn't see how they had sewn on the wings, so I just sewed straight across the top, leaving them long and floppy.  I think they look sweet that way.  I also had trouble figuring out how to sew his head together so that it looked the same as in the book.  But here he is:

cute little penguin

Since I took both photos on our rolltop desk, you can compare the height of the cubbies to see how much smaller the penguin is than the monkey.  I feel bad for whichever twin gets the little guy -- these two are definitely not identical!  But hopefully, by the time they get big enough to decide whose is whose, whoever has the penguin will love him enough to make up for his smaller stature.  And in the meantime, I hope that the packages of onesies that went along with the gift will help out their mom and dad.  *smile*

Strawberry Reservoir

Last weekend, T and I took a drive with the dogs to a spot called Strawberry Reservoir, southeast of Heber, UT.  It's actually on the other side of the mountains we looked across the lake at during our wedding -- not a bad spot to be scouting out a campsite for our anniversary in June.
On the way up, the dogs were in their traditional positions in the car.

Cara on the console, eyebrows and ear-hair blowing
in the wind from the A/C

Diezel hogging the back seat

The views on the way there were gorgeous -- I think the scenery is definitely the best part of Utah.

We had to stop a few times to let the dogs sniff around and pee, which ended up both times in pulling goatshead burrs out of tender paws.  But we finally got to the spot T had found once before, while following bad GPS coordinates to a jobsite.  It was up above the lake, in a very pretty spot.

There were lots of aspens in the area, which are a favorite for arborglyphs (yes, that's the fancy archaeological name for stuff people have carved into a tree).  The oldest one I found wasn't even near the historical period, but I still enjoyed poking around and seeing who had left their marks.

Not that old, but from a long way away

Just a little older than me

Sweethearts

I don't even know if this is English, but I love the dinosaur!

The dogs ran around and played in/ate from leftover snowbanks sprinkled here and there in the woods, and we managed to keep Cara from rolling in the deer bits left at the campsite by hunters.  It was too early for spring leaves at that altitude, but as we drove back down and out, the willows were bright yellow and orange -- they were the only thing that was really colorful in the landscape.

And on the way home, the dogs took their traditional post-romp positions -- with Cara in the back seat using Diezel as her pillow.

Blurry, but cute

Grilled Artichokes

I have been working on a few knitting projects recently, but I can't reveal them yet.  So this week, I'd like to share my experiments with grilled artichokes.

I have been trying a lot of different grilled veggies over the past few years, starting with asparagus, then zucchini, corn, and even cauliflower.  And I love love love artichokes.  So the thought of grilling artichokes was too delicious to resist.

I read a whole bunch of recipes, and saw variations on a similar theme.  Most say to boil or steam the 'chokes first, then add seasoning, and then grill them briefly.  So I started by steaming my artichokes, like I always do.

To prep the artichokes, I cut off the tip of the artichoke with a sharp knife, snip off the tips of each of the leaves with scissors if they have thorns, trim off all but 1" of the stem, and then peel the outer skin off the remaining stem.  But then I take it a step further than most: I split my artichokes and remove the fuzzy choke before I start cooking them.  It's easy to do, saves me time later, and actually makes my 'chokes cook more quickly.  All you have to do is balance the artichoke on its trimmed top, and slice it in half from the stem all the way down.  Then, take a small spoon, and press the edge of the spoon right along the bottom edge of the fuzzy choke.

Use a spoon to press along the line between the fuzz and the artichoke heart

The fuzz will yield much more easily than the actual flesh of the artichoke, so with a little care you can easily scoop out all of the fuzz without removing the yummy heart.  Once the choke is out, I usually flip the spoon over, insert it between the leaves just above the point where the tips go from purple to white, and pull down, to remove the lowest layer of leaves.  I then run the 'choke under cool water to rinse out any remaining fuzz and loose lower leaves, and it seems to prevent further browning.  (I don't worry about a little bit of browning, but you can dip the cut side into lemon juice and water to stop it from browning if it bothers you.)

Scoop everything out, including the purple-tipped lowest leaves

I then take my halved, hollowed artichokes and put them into my steamer, stems-up, to cook.  In this condition, they only take about 12 minutes to steam, instead of the 20 minutes required for whole artichokes.

I prop them up, in the hopes that this will cook them more evenly,
but they usually fall over during cooking

Most of the recipes I had read called for brushing the cooled artichokes (which you need to cut in half and de-choke after the fact if you steamed them whole) with a combination of oil and seasonings, but one called for marinating the 'chokes overnight before grilling them.  I decided to go with the brush-on method first, since I had 4 artichokes to work with.

I combined a few tablespoons of oil, a teaspoon or so of lemon juice, a few tablespoons of chopped garlic, and maybe half a teaspoon of the garlic juice out of my pre-chopped garlic jar.  I brushed both sides of the artichokes with the mixture, including the inside of the hollow, sprinkled them with kosher salt flakes, and then put them on the grill, face-down, for a few minutes until they browned.  Then I turned them over, spooned the chopped garlic into the bases of the artichoke halves, and then gave them a few more minutes on the other side.  Oh yeah, and I was grilling mine alongside the steak I was having for dinner that night.  (T was working late, so I grilled his steak for him when he got home).

Bases filled with garlic bits

A delicious dinner

The resulting artichokes were a mixed success.  Because I just brushed the outside of the artichokes with the seasoning, the leaves themselves didn't get a whole lot of seasoning on them, especially once you got past the first few outer layers of leaves.  They were basically just plain, steamed artichoke leaves.  However, the interior leaves and the heart were absolutely delicious, since the hollow held a lot of the juice, and the grilled garlic bits were a delicious bonus.

So the text time around, I decided to try this marinated artichoke recipe.  I marinate most of my veggies in a combination of oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper, so this sounded like a pretty good mix.  Because I wasn't teaching last week, I used my usual technique to steam these first thing in the morning.  I threw them into a ice bath to cool them off quickly and stop them from cooking, and then put them into a Ziploc bag filled with the marinade.  I didn't have fresh ginger, so I added about 1 1/2 tsp. of ground ginger instead.  Then I let them soak all day in the fridge, flipping them once.

Steamed, marinated 'chokes

I drained them as best I could before throwing them on the grill, and used a similar cooking technique to the first time.  More of the marinade definitely dripped out on the grill, and I think it took them a tiny bit longer to cook because they were so much more juicy than the first time.  In this case, the flavor definitely penetrated much further into the artichokes, which was a good thing.  However, the ground ginger was a bit of a mistake -- I put in too much, meaning the ginger flavor was a little too strong, and worse, it made the marinade gritty.  So I would marinate them again to get the seasoning all the way through, but I would use the garlic-and-lemon seasoning next time around, or possibly my tried-and-true veggie marinade.

What other veggies do you grill, and how do you season them?

End of Term

Photo by MITCHELL

This week was the last week of classes this term.  My college is year-round, and we have four 12-week terms, usually with a week off between.  I had four classes this past term, with a total of 15 students by the time I was done (I lost three students in one class who all dropped out of school for different reasons and at different times).

Weeks 10 and 11 of the term, I was having a really hard time sleeping.  I would wake up several times a night, and sometimes have difficulty getting back to sleep, which is really not like me.  T was getting worried about me, it was that unusual.  It seemed like I was suffering from stress, but I couldn't figure out what that stress was all about.  Acute stress is obvious -- oh my god, that thing is looming, gotta get it done now!  But chronic stress is much sneakier -- something is bothering you, but it is at the back of your mind.  And even though you are thinking calmly about what to make for dinner or what you are watching in TV, some part of your brain is focused on it.  It causes your endocrine system to work overtime, so that you can feel your heart pounding while you are laying in bed thinking about nothing in particular.  And since I couldn't identify what exactly was lingering in the back of my mind, I couldn't do anything about it.

And then I turned in my grades for my first class on Tuesday afternoon, and everyone passed, and suddenly I was sleeping just fine.  So I guess I now know what the problem was.

When I was a TA in grad school, classes usually had 100+ students in them.  I may have recognized the names and even writing styles of most students, but I couldn't put faces to those names.  When I was an adjunct at a community college for a semester, I ended up with about 20 students, but I still only knew a little bit about the personal lives of one or two of them. 

But where I'm teaching now, with only a few students in each class, I know a lot more about them.  Especially the students that have takens Strategies with me -- it's a class where you definitely spend a lot of time talking about fears, challenges, strengths and weaknesses, past experiences and feelings.  And then I have had those same students in my Computer Apps class, and now again in Composition.  We've had a lot more time to get to know one another.

Another difference is the attendance policy at my school.  Unlike in my other classes, where as long as students turned in the assignments and took the tests they could come to class or not as they pleased, here I need to personally calls students every time they miss class.  To get full marks for Professionalism, which is part of their grade for each class, they can call me in advance to let me know they will be late or out that day.  So I know why they are missing class: they are working 2 full-time jobs and are only getting a few hours of sleep a night; they have been kicked out of their apartment, along with their partner and toddler, and are living at a homeless shelter until they can qualify for HUD housing; their partner has been in the hospital getting a kidney transplant and they are the only one in the family with a car to drive other family members to visit; their car won't start, and there is no public transportation near their home; they have been suffering from migraines all week and can't get out of bed.  I know what they are struggling with, and I hope that they can do what they need to in order to catch up.  So I encourage, I offer tutoring, I do everything I can to help them get their grades up.  But by week 10, it looked like 6 of my 15 students were likely to fail.

And then there are the weekly reports, where I tell my boss who is doing poorly and why.  So every Monday, I go through my grades, and see all the students who are struggling and try to explain why.  Sometimes I can write it off as a student who simply isn't trying, but more often, I see someone who is struggling, for good reason, and I wish that there was something I could do to help them out.  But it's their life, not mine, and they are the ones making all the decisions.

In the end, only three of my student's didn't pass their classes.  I wish it were zero, but I know I did everything in my power to help them succeed.

Part of me wishes I could take a step back, be less involved, be less emotionally invested, to just say, "If you don't do the work, you suffer the consequences, and that's that."  It would certainly make me sleep easier.  But I think I wouldn't be as good of a teacher if I approached my classes that way.  And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have students who have just failed my class go and change their schedule so they can take it again from me next term.  And I wouldn't be happy for the opportunity to teach them again, in the hopes that all those personal problems stop getting in the way so that they can succeed next time.