Thrills, spills, adrenalin triggers

The car is again the focus. From a couple of days ago, blaring message on screen KEY FOB BATTERY LOW, and finding that I did have backup batteries from the last time I had the fun of changing the battery, to the solid hour spent prying apart the clamshell housing, to finding the parts which flew out in all directions, to finally getting the battery changed and the housing shut, at which point it proved I installed it right by going off in alarm mode... anyway the car's been making her in presence felt.

We've had a couple of bitterly cold nights, and since I had a doctor's appointment this morning, I went out early to warm up the car. Which wouldn't start.  Not enough time to review the charging instructions with my  battery jumper, I urgently called Handsome Son for a ride.  He was able to get here and I did make it, just, to the office.

I'm in the middle of a trial of a new rx, important to get there. However it's about blood pressure, and I mentioned to her that it might be high on account of the early morning shenanigans. It was. She declined to tell me the numbers. I rested, we did it again, it was down to just high, not four alarm high. Fine. New rx happening.

Home again, we tackled the dead battery situation, never had a Honda that failed to start before this one, grumble, grumble, and got it running. 

I supplied Handsome Son with a hot lunch before he had to go get on with his day. We commented that Gary must be away, or he'd have been running out, putting on his jacket, to supervise, or take over. 

So that was an exciting start. I did have a very pleasing earlier thing, though, before rashly thinking I could warm up the car. I learned a way to do a provisional cast-on for the Second Ministry Sock.

This is a technical knitting thing you need to do with a piece of waste yarn, to make comfortable toe-up socks without a hard ridge across the toes where you cast on.  

I've had varied success, usually not being able to unzip the prov.  cast on and having to unpick bit by bit. But this one worked! It's done by crocheting the base, but differently from the way I've crocheted it in the past.  Very pleased about this.

So though officially this is doing good work to help people, it's also a terrific learning curve, from reviewing   the whole sock making process, to this shining success with the cast on, to another new learning, Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff.

It's a special cast-off that makes it easy to get the sock on and off. A firm castoff can make it difficult to navigate your heel. This one looks nice and works a treat. I do want the recipient to be able to slip them on and off easily.

So here's today's peaceful happy valley activity.

The toe cap, see the crocheted tails at each end. Thats where I cast on, then you knit to the toe tip, then back again, on two needles. That's why the cast on thread seems to be in the middle of things. Up to this point, stockinette stitch is one row purl, one row plain. The shape is created by a series of short rows, clever stuff. 

Then you add in the third needle so as to work around all the stitches, and by magic, stockinette on three needles is done by plain knitting, no purling required.

So here, toe completed, we can get into random stripes, like the finished one. You see four needles, three needles holding stitches, one a working needle.

And here's the new sock with its partner, see the cast off, really happy find, good old Jeny.

If you think this is a lot of fuss over a sock, guilty as charged, but I'm easily pleased.

Happy Sock Day. Boo hiss to Honda day. It seems quite symmetrical  at this point.

All steamed up

About a couple of items. I did a bit of online research, the car maker being useless on this point, about my mysterious self-opening car windows.

My single window issue isn't the usual problem. Many people have found all their windows, including sunroof, wide open. 

One in a huge rainstorm, insurance company said no hope of avoiding rust and malfunction, several inches of water in the car, declared it totaled. And a lot of other sad accounts.

Turns out it's a feature of the fob. If you tap the door open function twice, the windows all open. It can happen if the fob's jostled in your pocket. One report was the family cat stepping on it, and the owner looked out to see all the windows opening. 

Honda offers no way to disable this useless "feature".  They don't even mention it in the fob instructions. What they call a feature others consider a design flaw.

Handsome Son had suggested that maybe I engaged just the rear window with my elbow, which I'll test, since the button's    very close. But since the windows won't open from the button unless the engine's running, I wonder. While I drive, my elbow's nowhere near the button. 

Anyway, high alert is the order of the day. Good thing I live in a quiet neighborhood where people are very unlikely to take advantage of an open car window. 

In other exciting news, I seem to have reverted to the food of childhood. First that pasta milk pudding recently, then barley pudding, and yesterday steamed pud.

Just got an urge. So I looked up a few sites for recipes and instructions. I vaguely remember my Mom doing this, using a pudding cloth and a steamer. 

My big pan is a steamer, too, with the second storey pierced pot sitting on it, the way I steam vegetables 

But what most of the sites called steaming was really a covered bowl standing in boiling water. No references to pudding cloths at all. So I thought I'd try it.

Recipe involved honey, sugar, butter, egg, flour, baking powder, promising mixture.

I put on the water to boil, wondering if I'd be waiting for it after assembling the bowl of pudding 

I needn't have worried. By the time I finally got the paper secured with string and the tinfoil over the lot, the water had been boiling merrily quite a while.

One host commented that getting the string on and knotted was the hardest part of the recipe. I even saw one chef channel where two people at once couldn't do it! The paper would jump away just as the string was being knotted or the  string would slide off after it was tightened. Over and over again.

Anyway, finally got it assembled.

Lid on, let it steam, they said, for twenty minutes. Which may have been a typo for sixty minutes, since that was the earliest it was edible 

It turned out of the bowl nicely, and

tasted fine. This was so filling it turned out to be two helpings. I dressed it with some of that barley milk, which had thickened to make a sauce, but which didn't look appetizing in a photo.

Verdict: this was far too much effort for a tiny result. Probably a lifetime supply of doing it. Unless I find pudding cloth instructions from some historical reenactment channel, anyway.

For now my inner child is satisfied. 

If you've been wondering, and I'm sure you've had little else to concern you, about my Sock Knitting Ministry, it hasn't yet got under way. 

I checked yesterday with the sister who was supposed to send yarn, and she'd been suddenly called out of town, just got back, will send yarn ASAP.  So my ministry will get started whenever it arrives. It's been over three weeks. I could have finished at least one pair, but oh well.

Happy Friday. I may not check in with my Zoom knitting group today since I have zero work on hand to do or show.

Happy Friday anyway, well, Saturday summer day to Kiwi and Oz friends.