ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF ANOTHER
Just because things are a bit in the air here at String Central right now, doesn’t mean that our dedication to Relentless Forward Progress has been put aside. There are things to do, things to make, and accomplishments waiting to be notched and acknowledged.
First, we did have a wonderful weekend of low key celebration here. The Resident Male (and Executive Chef) outdid himself. He did homemade gravlax (the Jacques Pepin overnight cure version); grilled boneless lamb with garlic and rosemary; and roasted cauliflower and red onions. I pulled my weight by baking four small chocolate pound cakes, one of which we split for dessert, stowing the other three in the freezer for future treats. But I have promised to detail my adventures in low carb baking, so I will elaborate here a bit.
Low Carb Chocolate Pound Cake
I started with this recipe – Keto Chocolate Pound Cake, from the All Day I Dream About Food blog site. The thing was pretty straightforward if you happen to have the ingredients in the house, which we did. Note that this recipe uses almond flour, monkfruit-based brown sugar substitute, butter, baking powder, eggs and sour cream in addition to the items mentioned below in my summary of deviations.
First change, instead of one standard size loaf pan, I used this one – a four mini-loaf thing I got years ago when I was a regular contributor to school-based fundraising bake sales. It takes a standard size loaf cake recipe and turns it into four more saleable and storage friendly smaller units.
I am pretty sure I found this pan in a yard sale, but I do see them sold in cooking supply and on line sources. And yes, I buttered each little loaf hole and lined it with a piece of buttered baking parchment to make removal easier. From prior experience I know that this pan in my convection oven bakes faster than a full depth loaf pan. To compensate I did my bake at the recommended temperature, but only for 50 minutes – not the 60 to 75 cited in the recipe. I tested the cake with a skewer for doneness.
Second, and this is a personal preference – I detest coffee flavor in my chocolate. The recipe calls for two kinds of cocoa – regular and “black”, chocolate flavor whey protein powder, plus espresso powder and a quarter cup of room temperature, strong coffee. We had the whey powder on hand, no problem. I used just one kind of cocoa, combining the specified quantities for both together – a Dutch Process, known for its deeper/stronger chocolate flavor, and the only one on my pantry shelf right now. I skipped the espresso powder, and in place of the coffee (clearly needed to hydrate the rather thick batter) I used the same quantity of very strongly brewed unsweetened black Assam tea, also cooled to room temperature.
Third, I tossed two large handfuls of coarsely chopped toasted pecans into the batter before spooning it into the pan.
Fourth, I omitted the chocolate ganache glaze entirely. I knew I would be freezing the three extra cakes, and I know from experience that ganache can get chalky when that happens. Given that the four little loafs were moist and tender, and we would be eating one right away, I didn’t see the need. I can always whip up a little bit of glaze when we defrost a survivor if I think the extra moisture is needed.
Here is the end result. A definite do-again. Moist, dense without being heavy, with a deep cocoa flavor. The toasted pecan bits were a welcome addition for both flavor and texture. Each little cake makes two very generous portions. Perhaps next time I will also add a handful of zero-sugar chocolate chips. But that would be truly decadent. Based on this result as opposed to many truly dismal Keto baking experiences I have had, I may explore the site of origin to see what else is up there.
Booties
I had a special request to knit some booties for a the sister of a friend of a family member – the first of that particular friend circle to have a baby. My favorite bootie pattern is a quick knit. I can do a pair in about four hours, so why not.
These are from the same pattern I used easily thirty times over a few decades to make items for my own spawn, plus baby gifts for friends, family, and co-workers. The original pattern was posted by Ann Kreckel in 1995, to the ancient email based KnitList mailing list back in the days when the Internet was still climbing out of primordial seas. It can still be found via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine utility – Click here to retrieve it.
In the past I’ve posted a mini-tutorial on making these, and invented and shared a hat to match.
Reading over the instructions it occurs to me that even with my mini-tutorial many knitters today might have a problem following the pattern as Ann originally shared it. Not that there are mistakes, but I do note that the level of comfort with written instructions in the general knitting community has declined sharply in the video era; and the terms and logic of the thing might challenge a newer knitter. I think I could make the pattern more accessible with a simple re-write and merge with my mini-tutorial. But it’s not my design, so I am not comfortable just doing so.
I have tried tracking down Ann to ask about updating and hosting her pattern as a free offering, but so far I haven’t gotten a response. If any of the old KnitList gang reads this and knows how to find her, please pass along my sincere wishes for happiness and health, and my request for pattern editing and republication permission.
Socks
Hating to just sit there, no matter where I am, over the past two weeks at home, waiting in doctors’ offices, and after my last procedure I kept busy knitting a pair of socks. They are going to be a present for someone who went above and beyond during a regional emergency – not to aid me, but to help someone near and dear. I won’t spill the beans because there is a remote chance that they might see this post. But I did do a whole pair, start to finish, and will be casting on for another before the coming hospital sojourn. Sanity before all other things, and keeping busy keeps me sane.
Stitching – Playing with Faux Buratto
Another bit of sanity-preservation. I wanted a stitching project to bring with me, too. Something small, easy to see, and easy both to follow and to stitch. Something I can slap in a small hoop and support with minimal kit. Yet something that holds interest, and would be enough of a challenge to tempt me to curious activity. I have teased this on Facebook, but here is the full story.
A while back I -lucked into a curious bit of textile. A sieving/bundling cloth used in traditional Korean kitchens as part of food preparation. HMart had it on a rack in the housewares section, and I noticed the weave immediately. I did a blog post on the discovery a while back,
I want to try out a few designs on this cloth. The first step of course was to establish a normed edge. Like most textiles the retail cut rarely aligns with the weave structure, so I basted the largest possible rectangle I could, and added guidelines for vertical and horizontal centers. Then I just started in on an outline. I’m keying off the use of deep red and yellow-gold in a couple of museum artifacts. I’m going to try out establishing my outline for this strip and then do one of several possible fill methods. This style is later 1500s into the 1600s. Then I will try one of the monochrome type designs. from the earlier half of the 1500s. After that probably another multicolor but using a different scale and fill style. It’s a small cloth and there isn’t room for a ton of strips on it, but I will use the available real estate to best advantage, picking on the fly as I usually do.
What you see here so far is simple uncounted basting in blue, marking out margins and centers. Those skew cut edges and the amount of area wasted does annoy me a bit, but this piece of cloth was never intended for the purpose to which I am putting it. Just above the center line you can see my start – double running in crimson faux silk (rayon). The design is already 100% established and from this point I can go left and right “off book” just by copying what I’ve already laid down. And I will have T2CM with me, electronically, just in case.
General Health Status Update
Yes, I know I alarmed a lot of you yesterday, for which I deeply apologize. But obfuscation has never been my strong suit. To clarify at this moment, aside from the facial numbness that triggered the hunt for the Danger Lentil, I feel pretty good. I have bounced back from the prior biopsy with no ill effects. I am back to my regular exercise routine. I am pretty much day-to-day advancing the new normal as I have been for many months now. Stamina is excellent, and I have no problems sleeping or eating. I have no headaches, nor blurred vision, auditory or balance problems. In general given my past year’s journey I am in excellent health.
I have every confidence that the team will figure out what’s going on, and that a treatment plan will be devised AND that I will weather that, too. So I do thank you for your words of support and comfort. I have both battle fury and the strength to put it to best employ. Know I keep all of you in my thoughts, and I do appreciate that you are thinking of me, too.
CHARGING AHEAD ON MULTIPLE FRONTS
We are making headway here!
First, as I announced on FaceBook, I have completed radiation therapy. Minimal side effects to report even at conclusion of the course. We are now taking a bit of ease to recuperate both from the therapy itself, and having to drive out in the pre-dawn hours for 6:45 am appointments. 40 days of that doesn’t sound too bad when compared to the decades over which we left early as commuters, but once you are no longer used to being part of the Dawn Patrol, it becomes a lot harder.
Special thanks to the radiation crew Mass General Hospital, who greeted me every morning with good humor, efficiency, and a steady tolerance for my unorthodox music requests. I suspect that at least one of them has signed on to read here at String because of a mutual interest in knitting. If so, please pass the word back to the whole gang.
Second, my Italian multicolor piece is zipping along. I’m almost at the halfway point for the outer rim.
I’m 99% sure I will meet my horizontal centerline spot on in terms of thread count. I adjusted the total width to ensure that my corners are identical. There is one tiny mistake I need to go back and fix, but it is not something that has an effect on band width or repeat cycle. I could leave it, but I won’t.
And as you can see I am also making rapid progress on the frog hats – my third front of advance. Frog Hat #1 is now well underway. I admit that aside from the initial cast-on number I have not paid much attention to the general pattern I am using as my source. I’ve used a different cast-on, swapped in K2P2 ribbing for the original K1P1, and arranged the thing so that when the brim is folded, the more attractive side of my cast-on is on the outside of the hat. And yes, I’m working in the round on two circular needles.
Next comes hat depth and the decreases. I want the hat to fit rather sleekly rather than being full and floppy, so I will probably go short on the total depth compared to the written instructions. We’ll see if I follow the pattern’s decrease or if I end up opting for something more rounded.
My goal is to work the boring hat portion of at least four of the batch of hats I intend to make. Once those are complete I will make the eyeballs and eyelids, then finish off by sewing the eye units onto the hat bodies. Given quick progress on first hat (and that done while I still carved out time to embroider), I do hope to complete the minimum of the hard-promised four by the new year. The others are optional and will depend on available yarn, time, and my own rather spotty attention span.
I leave you with a repeat of the somewhat disheveled, early morning bell-ringing photo I posted on FB to celebrate my liberation from therapy. And yes – my last day’s music request was the 1812 Overture. You can’t celebrate an Independence Day in Boston without it. Especially because the MGH hospital complex is close by the river, and on upper floors commands a lovely view of the Esplanade where the annual 4 July celebration takes place.
PROGRESS ON A WEALTH OF FRONTS
It’s been half a month since the last post, and all sorts of things have happened.
First, I’ve finished the wildly intricate interlace panel on my current sampler.
Second, as I was doing so I found an error in my chart for it as it appeared in the original edition of The New Carolingian Modelbook. The error was a minor one, a copyists/flip and mirror problem with two side by side crossings. It’s my guess that no one has attempted this particular design before, otherwise they would have either contacted me about it, or trumpeted my incompetence on social media. So of course I had to correct the problem. For a legible copy of the correction, including the original TNCM source attribution, and two chart versions – one for the border as shown, and one for a wider border or all-over design, please click here download a PDF file.
I have also been able to draft out a couple of tribute specific bands for this sampler, referencing the in-process novel Forlorn Toys in specific. They will be coming up after I finish the latest leafy strip. So stay tuned!
In other news, at long last, the Victoria and Albert Museum has updated all of the pages for the individual contributors under the Unstitched Coif Project. Again thanks to Fearless Leader Toni Buckby! My page can be found here, and has both the essay I did to accompany my work, plus ultra high resolution ZOOMABLE photographs of the back and front of the piece. For some reason the museum chose to lead with the photo of the backs of all of the pieces.
And for those of you who have asked about my personal health odyssey – I am improving. I’m in the middle of graduating from walker to cane. I can get around well with the cane, but I am still shaky with it over uneven terrain, so I mostly stick to it indoors, and continue to rack up practice distance. I have also been able to sit longer, as my stitching and blogging progress demonstrate.
There are still some hurdles to go, including a stint of proactive/preventive radiation to minimize any chance of chordoma recurrence, but I will take that in stride like all the rest. In the mean time, I’m feeling further along to being my old self than I have in months. No doubt due to the incessant care, coaching, and excellent cooking of my Resident Male.
AND FROM THE FLIP SIDE
Here I am. A bit less than I was, in terms of body parts, weight, and height, but overall what remains is whole and mostly functional.
I am not going to go into the all the details, but I will say that I am incredibly lucky. So many things can go wrong during and after a 12-hour surgical procedure that involves many tricky bits near major nerve centers. But I am happy to say that my chordoma tumor was removed successfully, along with my coccyx and more than half of my sacrum. I will have to have a deep survey next month for surety, then be on lifelong watch to make sure it doesn’t recur, but for now at least I am cancer-free.
The surgical team was able to avoid some nerve damage, and to install a rather elaborate truss system to support my spine and hold my pelvis together. Those two things let me walk again, and even climb stairs – things I had hoped to be able to do, but realistically was accepting that I might not. I’m wobbly with a walker, and need a spotter on the stairs, but each day brings new strength as I exercise and practice. I am hoping that by the holiday season I will be off the walker and on a cane, headed to unassisted ambling.
The one area that is lagging behind is sitting. As you would expect, with that much alteration to my fundament, sitting would pose challenges. So far I am able to sit on a special cushion for about 4-5 minutes. I continue to train for improvement.
Weight is an expected loss during cancer treatment, and that did happen. But height? In my case because my lower spine was amended, a certain degree of shrinkage has occurred. I used to be 5’8″. I’m now 5’7″. So it goes.
And as you can tell by the presence of this update, I have computer access again. I’m using it as an inducement to get out of bed and stand, above and beyond the various exercise routines recommended by my physical therapist. Time however is limited. I can do a couple of short sessions a day, but no more. That means posts here will continue to be few and far between, and that no substantive work will be happening on The Third Carolingian Modelbook, or on corrections to Ensamplario Atlantio III (or for that matter EnsAtl IV).
I can however stitch again. I can do it laying in bed, sort of. Like the computer work, sessions are limited by endurance, so progress is slow. But there has been progress.
Compared to the last post, the dragon square is finished, and I’ve begun the voiding on the top strip. Nice and mindless, simple work.
So there it is. I’m still here, slowly recuperating. I do thank my spawn, siblings, mom, inlaws, and everyone else who sent encouraging notes, showed off their work from my designs, phoned, sent gifts, memes and silly bits to cheer me up, or visited. Your sharing buoyed me through a very challenging two months.
I also want to thank my surgical team, attending specialists, nursing staff, therapy staff, cleanliness/safety staff, and everyone else I interacted with at Rhode Island/Brown University Hospital, and in Newport Hospital’s Vanderbilt Rehab wing. That I write this at all is testament to the quality of their handiwork and care.
And it goes without saying that he who is precious to me – my Resident Male – deserves major thanks for his constant presence and support, gentle nursing, firm coaching, and patience. He drove hundreds of miles back and forth to Rhode Island between 17 March and 29 April, and has catered to my every petulant wish since returning home.
Stay tuned. I intend to keep these posts coming, and pivot away from tedious health updates back to the needle arts.
SEE YOU ON THE FLIP SIDE
That time has come. Tomorrow is the beginning of The Great Eviction, in which my invader and I will be separated. I am ready, packed, prepped, and armed with great ferocity and the single minded determination to overcome, outlast, and outwit my adversary and come back as unchanged as possible (except for the obligate scars, of course).
I’ve marked my level of optimism on my latest sampler. I haven’t mentioned progress in a while, but it quickly became my Emotional Support Embroidery after receiving my diagnosis last month. Not ironed, but as a WIP, it’s too early to think about doing that.
Yes, it’s still unfinished. I’ll do some more on it later today of course, but I won’t be done. That’s on purpose. I have every intention of future completion. And note the victory wreaths on the top as-yet-to-be-background-stitched strip. That strip is also deliberately placed skew to the centering of the rest of the sampler. My life has been tilted akilter, so this bit is, too.
I’d also like to everyone for the unexpected outpouring of support. I am overwhelmed by the vast number and generous sentiment of the comments here, on various social media platforms, and sent to me personally by direct message and email. I had no idea I had reached so many people around the globe. I am not a spiritual person, but I can say that if Providence can be petitioned, perhaps the wide ecumenical spread and volume of promised prayers in every major worldwide religion (and many of the less well known ones) will tilt the odds even more in my favor.
See you soon!
-Kim
SERIOUSLY, FOLKS…
This is post that’s not easy to write.
Some of you have wondered about my rush to release both Ensamplario Atlantio III, and the single-download edition of my Epic Fandom Stitch-Along. And there may be more coming out in the next few days. There is a reason.
In gamer’s parlance, sadly I’ve rolled a 5. Not a 1, thank heavens, but nothing good.
I join the legion of folks who have been handed a surprise cancer diagnosis. In my case it’s another over-engineered and uncommon Salazar project – not breast, lung, or any of the usual suspects. I’ve got a chordoma – an exceedingly rare form of bone cancer that’s eating my tailbone (coccyx) and the area immediately above.
The bad news is that I’ve been subject to this invader for a while, with the symptoms it generated being masked by the all too normal day to day annoyances many post-menopausal women have, most notably lingering lower back pain. (Side hint – if you have pain that the oft resorted to palliative modalities like physical therapy and medication don’t address, insist LOUDLY that your doctor engage diagnostic mode. I it would have been better off had I done that earlier.)
The good news is that while my growth is large, it’s contained, has not spread, and is operable. I will be headed to the hospital later in March to have at it. Best outcome is that I although I will be physically diminished, I will regain basic mobility. With healing I should be able to sit, stand, walk, and climb stairs. Some bodily functions and systems will also be compromised, but nothing that modern medical technology cannot address.
I choose to fight, and fight hard. I will not let this thing daunt me. I will pass through, and emerge much as I am now, although I will be moving more slowly, and with more care.
What can you do to help? There’s not much, but I know I will appreciate your companionship, dark humor, and distraction as I move through post-op and rehab. I will especially enjoy seeing what you’ve been up to playing with my knitting and stitching “pattern children.”
I know folk feel awkward at times like this, but please don’t be shy about contacting me. I might not answer right away (especially in the weeks just before, during and immediately after the procedure), but your notes, memes, embroidery/knitting/crochet/other hobby pix, and assorted shenanigans will brighten my day. One thing though, please don’t send flowers. The sentiment is deeply appreciated, but they make me sneeze.
Oh, and look out for Fernando (aka, The Resident Male). He’s going to be especially grumpy.
I leave you with a thought from the science fiction TV show Babylon 5, from the character Ranger Marcus Cole:
“I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?’ So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.”
String-Or-Nothing 