Monthly Archives: January 2012

The Designing Day

Join Patternfish and HeartStrings in Supporting WomenHeart

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So many exciting things are happening and I am bubbling over to tell you. Please share my excitement about 3 wonderful things going on with Patternfish.

Firstly, I am honored and excited to be the Designer of the Month at Patternfish for January. Doing the interview was a real treat. The folks at Patternfish are great to work with. Thanks especially to Gayle, the Patternfish newsletter editor and esteemed Ambassador, for the great intro to the Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer Designer of the Month article in the Patternfish newsletter.

Here is an outline of the questions I answer in my designer interview (just to give you a tease so that you’ll be enticed to read the full article, lol):

  • What is your design process?
  • What inspires you? What are you passionate about?
  • Which is your favourite design?
  • Which is your customers’ favourite design?
  • When did you start knitting and who taught you?
  • When did you start designing and what was the first design that you created? Which is the first that you sold?
  • Where have your designs appeared?
  • Where do you think you and your business will be in 10 years?
  • How do you feel about the “business” side of being a successful designer?
  • In what ways do you spend your time that would surprise people?
  • How did you come to list your patterns with Patternfish?

Of course, I knew about the interview because we had pre-planned that. Then on the day the newsletter was sent out, Gayle totally surprised me by having picked my Technique Teddy Bear pattern as one of her two Editor’s Choices for this month. Who can’t resist a little teddy? But I think her write-up really brings this little pattern into the limelight.

Technique Teddy Bears
Technique Teddy Bears

And that is not all! Patternfish also launched a monthly charitable support initiative starting this month where the Designer of the Month picks a favorite charity and to which Patternfish will make a contribution. And I am the first to help kick off this initiative by choosing WomenHeart, the lifeblood organization devoted to improving the quality of life and the healthcare of women living with heart disease.

Patternfish will be donating $1.00 for each Thinking of You Scarf pattern sold during January to WomenHeart and I will match that dollar for dollar.

Thinking of You Scarf
Thinking of You Scarf
WomenHeart is devoted to improving the quality of life and healthcare for women living with heart disease. Through their coalition of national organizations and community-based support networks, they offer comprehensive services to women with heart disease and empower all women to take charge of their heart health. Through their advocacy efforts, all women receive early detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of their heart disease.

KNIT RED, the HeartScarves Project, is one of the program initiatives under the WomenHeart organization. I think HeartScarves will be of particular interest to knitters and crocheters. HeartScarves delivers handmade, red scarves to women undergoing cardiac procedures. Symbolizing the lifelines of caring and support that exists among us, each red scarf is meant to offer comfort, support, and encouragement for a woman with heart disease and become a part of her healing journey. Recipients of the scarves feel the love and attention that go into the production of hand-made items.

I first learned about WomenHeart through the KNIT RED HeartScarves program created in 2005 by women heart disease survivors. Having lost my own mother too early in her life to heart disease, I gladly became involved in contributing handknit red scarves, and also accepted their request to design a special scarf to help bring awareness to the initiative. That is how the HeartStrings Thinking of You Scarf pattern came about.

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Promotions at HSFA

Save the calories: sweet candy-themed socks patterns to knit

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I over-indulged a bit for the holidays and the scale is starting to complain. What else is new? LOL

Besides my resolutions to exercise, I know that keeping my hands busy with knitting can help. What do you do to keep in shape after the holidays?

One thing to keep your hands off food is the offer at the HeartStrings Downloadable Patterns Store at Ravelry for some no-calorie eye candy and 10% off any of these candy-themed sock patterns. Enter Coupon Code SWEETS at Ravelry check-out. Valid through January 31, 2012 and only at Ravelry.

Save the calories: sweet candy-themed socks patterns to knit

Please feel free to share this coupon wherever you hang out with knitters: on Ravelry, on Facebook, Tweet it, with your knitting groups, etc. I appreciate you introducing your friends to HeartStrings and spreading the word.

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Cooking

Grilled Chicken Hot Wings

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Although I have done several blog posts in the last year around the theme of “Meatless Doesn’t Have to be Tasteless”, I don’t want you to leave you with the impression that I have anything against meat — I don’t. I just wanted share with you some of my findings for ways that one can have tasty dishes without meat.

I still do enjoy occasional meat dishes, though. And for tailgating, whether it is for upcoming play-off football games or Mardi Gras parades, chicken Hot Wings are a tasty and welcome treat for everyone.

Tail gating for a Mardi Gras parade with hot wings
Tail gating for a Mardi Gras parade - my man-friend John (left) and son Tommy (right)

You can refer to a recipe I tried here at the Weber Grill site while I take you on a photo tour of the cooking steps.

The spices and minced chipotle peppers in adobe sauce to mix to make the paste:

The ingredients for the marinade paste
The ingredients for the marinade paste

Waste not – Want not. These are the wing joint tips that I cut off and have started to cook for a chicken broth I will use as soup base later in the week.

Don't throw away the wing tips! Cook them to make broth for another time.
Don't throw away the tips of the chicken wings! Cook them to make broth for another time.

The paste is smeared onto the remaining wing joints and left to marinate in the frig for a while.

Marinating the wing joints
Marinating the wing joints

The wing pieces are set onto the grill to be cooked. (lighting is obviously different between indoors and later at night outdoors under the patio lighting). I realized after putting these onto the grill that I had overlooked the part in the recipe about wiping off the extra paste before putting onto the grill. Oh well … and I even scraped out the extra remnants of paste from the bowl and had spread it on the piece parts because I thought all that good paste should not be wasted. ha! ha! So, extra hot can’t be bad, right?

Starting to grill the Hot Wings
Starting to grill the Hot Wings

Here are the wings after cooking ’til nearly done, then tossed into the hot sauce, then put on grill again. One thing to remember … after tossing the nearly cooked wings in the bowl with the hot sauce, DO NOT just dump the bowl to save time in getting the chicken quickly onto the grill again. The oil in the hot sauce mixture flared up and I thought I was going to have burned hair on my head!! Fortunately, I guess my reflexes were good enough, or maybe just some good angel was watching over me. No singed hair and all is well.

Hot Wings are nearing completion
Hot Wings are nearing completion. Don't they look good?!

Finished and ready to eat (lighting is under the kitchen fluorescents again). The recipe included a blue cheese dressing which of course I enjoyed some with the 4 wing joints I taste-tasted (yah, I know I could have just eaten one, but I had to be sure, lol). Obviously I have plenty more left (20 if I am counting correctly) for sharing.

Do you have a favorite Hot Wings recipe?

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