The turkey is in the brine.

Thanksgiving! Woo Hoo!

A smallish Thanksgiving here, Mitch & Jamie will be joining us . They'd ordinarily be celebrating with Mitch's mom Nancy who is still gallivanting around Europe. Nancy and Dan are in Prague at the moment, I believe. Hi Guys! Looking forward to seeing all the photos and hearing all the stories when you get home!

I follow the Cook's Illustrated butterflied roasted turkey recipe and for the first time I butterflied it myself. In the past I've gotten the butcher to do it but figured I'd give it a go. I waited til after dinner, all food was away, the sink and counter completely clean and clear. Anything that couldn't move was covered with a dishtowel, just in case I made a raw turkey mess. Sure enough, pulling out that plastic doo-hickey holding the legs together made juices fly. What is that thing for anyway? I cut it off the legs, but it still had enough mesh in the cavity to cause a mess. Hacking out the backbone was also challenge, but I did it inside the freshly scrubbed sink and all was well. Was glad I prepared and could clean it all up without worrying about the raw meat splashing on the satsumas or anything.

The Cambridge Jacket is knit! I had finished the shoulders with short rows leaving live stitches for a three needle bind off and it pretty much worked out. I wasn't really sure precisely how to do the short rows, so I just did a wrap & turn. What to do with the wraps during the bind off? I winged it and it looks OK, especially since there is ribbing on the shoulders which would camoflauge small bits of wonkyness. If anyone can tell me how I am supposed to do short row shoulder shaping, I'd appreciate it.

The Steek. I still don't have a sewing machine but the newest IK has an article about steeking which explains how to make a crochet reinforcement. It's taken me a couple days, but I did manage to finish crocheting the first side. Why a couple days? Well, the sweater is dark charcoal grey, the weather has been dark charcoal grey and my eyes ain't what they used to be. Now I have to find a zipper, figure out how to sew it in, then decide what to do about the collar. I like the photo in the IK (Summer 2006) with the stand up collar and the zipper going all the way up, but I know Franz would never want to wear it that way. So I plan to have the zipper only on the body and have the collar fold down.

I also did some Tartanning. The white looking contrast stripe didn't photograph well, it is actually sunshine yellow, much creamier than it looks.