On to New Projects

My cooking binge is over.
I made a lot of creative things last week even though I had some serious pain in my left shoulder.

A few months ago I went to the Asian market in Hagerstown, MD.  I bought some Phillipine pastries that were just delicious.  I wondered what the unusual filling was, and when I looked at the ingredient list, it said 'coconut string'.  Last week I went back to the market and found a jar of coconut string and decided to make my own pastries.

I used a regular sweet roll dough from the book 'The Bread Baker's Apprentice'.  It was a very soft dough and I knew it wasn't going to stand up to filling and rolling so I flattened pieces of dough and put them in muffin tins and put the coconut strings in the middle.  After pulling the dough over the filling, I added come crumb topping.  They came out great.

Then I made Chinese style dumplings.

And pasta with shrimp, fake crab, tomatoes and basil in a garlic, butter and white wine sauce.
That was yummy.

And now I'm tired of cooking and ready to go on to other things.

I think my shoulder problem
came from being so cold.  It was in the 40's here last week and I was freezing!  We are out of wood fior the woodstove and I hate to use fue oil with ther cost so high, so we suffered through.  When I get cold my muscles in the neck and shoulders are the first ones to get tight.  After several days, the pain began.

Yesterday was the first in a week that I felt like  could move my arm.  So at breakfast I drew out a design for a rug.  It's a big one, 42 x 52 inches.  That will give me something to work on for a good long while!  I put the grandmother rug away again.  I just couldn't get into it.  This one should use up lots of scraps with all the big flowers.

 

Since it was warmer and I seemed to thaw out.  Zip and I took a trip to Mannings in Eas Berlin for a yarn buying trip.  Recently I joined an online group called 'Dream Sweater' sponsored by Julie from the Knitting at Large blog.  Those of us who live close enough are going to get together in Frederick, MD about once a month and compare our progress and discuss problems.

Since I have always dreamed of making a sweater by designer Kaffe Fassett, that's going to be my project.  I bought this book back in the 1980's and had felt that all his designs were above and beyond my skill level.

     
 This is one of the easier sweaters in the book.  I plan to make a pullover sweater instead of a vest.

I had tried the intarsia type of color knitting years ago and it was a total disaster.  I'm hoping with the patience of advanced age (that's a JOKE!) and maybe more knitting skill, I'll be able to tackle this project.

Here's the yarn.

My little companions will be glad Mommy has lots of things to work on so they can sit close by and give advice.  And play in Mommy's stuff.

Izzy usually site nearby, quietly inconspicuous.  You can talk to her but she does not like a lot of handling.

Deiter loves being touched and played with.

But the play can get a little crazy!  He looks like the Goodyear blimp with legs!!!

If they get bored they can always fight over a box.

I took some pictures of pretty old homes in East Berlin.  I'll show them the next time.
Have a great weekend, everyone!