I know I promised you all my gingerbread cookie recipe, and I think about it every day, about 30 minutes after I post, so, here it is…

Margaret’s Gingerbread Cookies

1 1/2 cup shortening (Crisco, for people like Hayden that don’t know these things)

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cups molasses

Cream the above ingredients together, then add

4 1/2 cups flour, + or –

1 T + 1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger (be generous)

Notes- this makes a really soft, wettish dough. If you’re going to make the circular, sugar coated cookies, roll a rounded Tablespoon-Tablespoon and a half of dough into a ball, then coat in sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 375. I’ve found that no matter how long or short I bake them, they get crispy the first day, and are deliciously soft the next day. They’re great either way.

To make cookie cutter gingerbread cookies (really, really good ones), add an extra 1 to 1 1/2 cups flour. I don’t refrigerate the dough, but instead I use flour liberally on the counter top and top of the dough when rolling it out to avoid the sticking. Roll them out very thick, and cut. Baking is the same.

Yum, yum. If you remember from last year (and the year before, quite frankly), I like to make gingerbread turkey cookies on Thanksgiving.

Now, on to the VCC. After deciding that the filler panel couldn’t go through the armpit without making me look like I sagged to the floor, ahem, I spent a very long time staring in the mirror, pinning here and there, seaming bits and pieces, trying to decide what to do. After re-knitting almost the whole sweater this year, I am determined to wear it when I’m done, even if it’s a size Large, and my pregnant self is bigger than that.

I decided to just knit the filler panel to the armpit, and rapidly taper it down so the armhole remains it’s original size. It’s not great, but I can wear it. the sun isn’t up yet, so I don’t have a picture of the finished panel, but I have pictures from yesterday.

The first filler panel, which measured 41 inches, was intended to go up the sides, through the armpit, and down the sleeve. Once I realized that wouldn’t work, I had a lot of side panel left. The thought of ripping it was making me sick, mainly because I HATED knitting it. It seemed like a lot of wasted time, and since this would be the SECOND time this particular stretch of yarn had been blocked and frogged, I wasn’t ever going to knit it again. It was going in the trash.

Then I had a really cool thought.

I snipped. I unravelled, I picked up stitches, re-bound off, and I have a matching ear warmer/headband! Hot-dang! I’m quite pleased with that little bit of brilliance. I’m especially pleased that I thought of it before I ripped the whole thing out.

The second filler panel was 13 inches at the time, so I only had a little bit left to knit before seaming it it. And I didn’t block it. Leave me alone, I don’t care. It’s in the sweater, and it’s not coming out ’til I lose about 60 pounds.

Happy Friday. I’m off to help at the school all day, which always exhausts me. Today, we’re making a mosaic bench for the dinner auction.

UPDATE– Actually, I’m staying home. Veronica woke up sick, and my ankle is bothering me, not to mention I can barely move because I’m so tired anyway. So, Nate is going to go and make a mosaic bench. And he’s a saint.

The VCC will NOT win. It is giving me what-for, and I’m not gonna take it. The filler panel idea, while apparently imperfect, WILL prevail!

I’m having some trouble, can you tell? The problem is, I’m not sure exactly how to fix it. I’m seaming here, seaming there, staring at the mirror. Fortunately, I listened to my inner voice and stopped knitting on the second filler panel, so I could sew in the first one to see if it was even going to work. Now that I know it isn’t, I have saved myself about 25 inches of filler panel knitting that would have gone wasted. This is good.

I know I’m being somewhat cryptic, but trust me, the whole dilemma isn’t interesting enough for me to want to type out, or for you to want to read.

I finished the fingerless mitts yesterday, but didn’t get a picture before nightfall when my friend came to pick them up for her husband, so we had to take some flash pictures which always suck. My friend said that her husband is enjoying his hat, but is still very cold, so I’m glad I made the mitts. I hope they work out.

Nate had a good birthday yesterday. I think. It was really low-key, which is what he said he wanted. I have a hard time understanding that. I like the Big Bang birthdays, myself.

Here’s a picture of Nate, Olivia, and Veronica at our favorite Thai Food restaurant last night.

My little camera is so cool. It was really dark in there. The shutter speed registered at 1/3 of a second, with red “warning” lights flashing at me, and yet, I still got a decent picture.