The Knitting Doctor

Behind Door #1

As you all can probably guess, I struggle mightily with the stash acquisition thing. I have bins and bins of yarn around here, as well as a couple of bins of fiber that can be spun into more yarn. Yet I found myself yesterday online, window shopping for more yarn. “Ooooohhh, Shiny!!”

Something made me close the browser window and step away from the computer. I keep talking about knitting from stash, but I never actually get around to doing it. So I decided to rummage around in the bins of yarn I already have. I decided on a novel approach, just pull out one box and see what’s in there. It’s sort of an archive of my yarn shopping for the past decade or so.

I decided to start with Box #1*. The numbered boxes are somewhat chronological, though not entirely, since I’ve reorganized the whole mess once or twice over the years. Here we go:

Want to see what’s in it?

That’s a sweater’s worth of nice oatmeal colored wool from Elann. John looked at that and called “mine”. I think he needs a Mr. Rogers cardigan, don’t you?

That’s a shawl’s worth of a really pretty lace mohair/viscose blend. There’s enough there for a Wing ‘o the Moth Shawl.

Next up is two colors of Inca Alpaca. There are 4 hanks of the brown, and 3 of the cream. I’m thinking scarves. They both would go with my winter coat.

Then there is enough of this Green Mountain Spinnery Silkspun for mittens. Bright purple mittens for me!

Last but not least, one lonely skein of something:

I think that’s a skein of that same oatmeal, but likely from a different dye lot. I actually did a swatch with this, but I think there is enough left for another pair of mitts.

So there you go, a blast from the past. I’m almost up to finishing something already on the needles, then I’m going to start one of these projects next. Let’s see how much of this box I can get through before I cave and buy more yarn!

*To put that in perspective, there are 20 numbered boxes in my closet. That doesn’t include the box of enough crayon colored Cotton Ease for several sweaters. And a miscellaneous box of Dale Baby Ull and Euroflax in a variety of colors. I clearly do not need more yarn, I just need to go shopping at home.

Happy Veterans Day!

A big thanks to all of our veterans, but especially to my very favorite soldier boy!

This was taken when John was in the Army in Vietnam.

Mending Day

Yesterday while I was sitting around here feeling sorry for myself (cue up the coughing, sneezing, wheezing, sniveling), I decided to finish some long overdue projects from the mending basket.

First up are buttons!

The buttons on this sweater have literally been hanging by threads for awhile, enough so that I haven’t been able to wear it. That’s just silly, so I got out needle and thread and shored them all up. Ready for winter!

Next, an ancient Rogue, with yarns coming loose at the neck.

I know I have another ball of this yarn around here someplace. I’ll be damned if I could find it though. While I was rummaging around in the billion baskets and boxes of crap, I found this.

My swatch! After some unraveling to get one continuous thread I was ready to go.

And fixed.

That reminds me, why haven’t I knit another one of these?? This was a terrific pattern that was a lot of fun to knit. It’s not like I don’t have yarn around here.

Last but not least, a couple of pairs of socks. They’ve been in the mending pile for awhile, both with very thin nearly gone heels.

I actually got as far as getting out the darning thingee and threading a needle before I came to my senses. All four heels were shot, with tiny little stitches all needing duplicate stitch to fix them. I could probably knit a half of a new sock before I finish this project.

Those are going to the trash. I’m thrifty but not crazy.

R.I.P. The red sock yarn is Opal, finished in 2006, so they’ve done their duty. The other pair is Wollmeise, from 2007. I wear my socks a lot, these have both been worn and washed hundreds of times.

Will is not impressed.

Project Update

Two posts in one month! Don’t anybody die of shock. For some inexplicable reason, I’ve had this whole week off, one of the side benefits of my very weird and erratic schedule. It’s a good thing too. I worked Friday and felt fine. Saturday I woke up with 6 days off ahead of me, lots of plans of what I was going to do with them, and a yucky case of the creeping crud.

I’ve managed to get a little knitting done, a bit of reorganizing in my office, and a lot of reading. And coughing. And sniveling. Sheesh I make a terrible patient.

Enough of that. On with the Project Update. With all that reorganizing, I think I actually found all the knitting projects on the needles. This is an embarrassingly boring list, as some of the projects have been on it for years. Here goes.

Sweaters first:

My Green Jeans Sweater, pattern is Corduroy, from A Fine Fleece. I am nearly done with one sleeve. According to Ravelry, I started this in May. That would be May 2012. I will finish this, yes I will.

John’s Old Friend sweater. Peace Fleece, plain drop shoulder, no shaping. Though I modified the neckline a bit. You can’t really tell from that, but the big piece is the back, I changed the neck shaping and did short row shaping for the shoulders. The original has a lower neckline that seems silly in a hefty wool sweater. It’s supposed to be warm, not leave your neck exposed. This one’s more recent, I started this in August of THIS year.

Then, the shawls. Both of these are dinosaurs. At least they are pretty dinosaurs.

Froot Loops Morning Glory, from Anne Hanson. First half done, second half well on the way. This isn’t difficult, though I do need to pay attention to the lace pattern. Vintage 2009, people. It’s about time I finished this.

Evenstar. Click on that. It really is very pretty. I just need to freaking finish it, but that beaded border is a bazillion repeats of the same really boring 20 rows, with the added fun of BEADS so I have to pay attention. Vintage 2010.

Then the little things. Sock, of course. I don’t think I ever did do a proper Finished Project post on the last sock. Lorna’s Laces yarn, Live Long and Prosper. Finished in October on vacation. Oh here they are.

Same old pattern, 72 stitch sock, size 2mm needles. These were knit on Pony Pearl double points.

Here are the new ones, started the same day those were finished.

They really are exactly that color. The yarn is Flying Sock, 100% Blue Face Leicester, color is Deep Ocean. Size 2.0 needles, same pattern as always, this time with a picot top. These are close enough to BLUE that I wanted them a bit girly so they didn’t disappear out of my sock drawer. You know how John is about BLUE. Those are Knitter’s Pride Karbonz needles (2mm), by the way. This is the first time I’ve used them, and I really like them. I have a set of the Blackthorn needles, which are similar except these have the shiny wickedly sharp tips.

Then for the semi-official UFOs.

This is the Pretty Thing cowl, in a deep reddish brown mink yarn. I need to pull this out of hibernation and finish it now that it’s cold outside. I might actually wear it. I have no idea why this became a UFO, since the yarn is divinely soft. The 16 inch short circular needles might be part of it. I really hate them. This is at least from this past year. I bought the yarn at Madrona in February of this year.

Last but not least:

Dog mittens! I know why I haven’t finished these. These were started for John, but they are way too small for him. They might even be too small for me. I suppose I should finish them and make them somebody’s Christmas present. Or maybe they would block a bit bigger for me.

That’s it. I’m not counting the big box of a billion tiny balls of sock yarn that at one time was going to be a Beekeeper’s Quilt. That is one of those “what the hell was I thinking” projects. I haven’t given up on it entirely, but I’m not taking it out to take a photo of it either. Those nearly forgotten projects take every opportunity to taunt you if you let them.

What about you? How many projects do you all have on the needles?

October Wrap Up

Oh dear, not again. Where were we? Oh, right, Canada. I’m not going to “wrap up” the whole trip for you, but we had a grand time. I’ll hit a few highlights. We saw an awful lot of eastern Canada thanks to the whirlwind trip that my husband planned. After a couple of fine days in Halifax (including a YARN shop–imagine that!), we went on to Prince Edward Island. No, we didn’t do the “Anne of Green Gables” tour. We did however discover that they signpost yarn shops on the highways there. And distilleries. That’s my kind of country.

As we were whizzing down the road on our way to the ferry, John suddenly swerved sharply to the left down a secondary road. He had seen a sign for “Yarn Shop” with an arrow pointing left. I have apparently trained him well. It was the Belfast Mini Mills, which was down a tiny gravel road. It’s really a sheep and goat farm, but they make yarn there and have a lovely shop. They also manufacture yarn processing equipment for other mills, all in a couple of tiny farm buildings. One of the owners was nice enough to give us a tour of the operation.

And yes I bought some yarn. How could I not, when everybody was so lovely?

After PEI, we spent most of the rest of the trip on Cape Breton Island. The annual Celtic Colours music festival started while we were there, and we caught a couple of days of that before heading back to the Halifax area and our last few nights before heading home.

I did buy some yarn, but it was all local stuff that I can’t get elsewhere. I’ve totally given up on the “no more yarn buying” idea, but I am trying to limit it to unusual fibers and yarn I can’t get at home. In Halifax, I bought some lovely Shetland fingering and laceweight from sheep raised in Nova Scotia. Oh, I suppose you want to see photos.

That lovely wool is from the Last Resort Farm, in Nova Scotia. The brown stuff is fingering weight, and that gorgeous grey is lace weight. If I wasn’t already sold on this after the first squish, this got me.

It makes me happy to know the names of the sheep!

I also bought some pretty sparkly sock (or scarf perhaps) yarn in Halifax. The shop that all this came from is the Loop Craft Cafe.

That yarn is hand dyed by Yvonne from Yvieknits. She’s from Ottawa. Click to see the sparkles!

Here’s what I got from Belfast Mini Mills. The red is sock yarn, the orchid colored stuff is silk lace.

What I did NOT get at the Belfast Mini Mills was the huge skein of laceweight qiviut. I was sorely tempted, but the credit card was already groaning a bit at all this loot.

Last but not least, one lonely skein of yarn from Baddeck, where we stayed on Cape Breton Island. The little yarn shop there was lovely, but mostly had pretty standard stuff. I searched and searched for something I couldn’t find elsewhere and came up with this.

I know, I know. Fleece Artist Sea Silk is available everywhere. Not this skein. The color is “Baadeck Sunset”, dyed especially for the shop*. Click on that if you don’t believe me.

All I can say, I’m glad there is no customs limit on how much yarn you can bring back into the USA.

That’s all for today. Next time, perhaps a Project Update!

*No, I have no idea why the town is named “Baddeck“, and the shop spells it “Baadeck”. One of the mysteries of life. It just makes me happy that a town this size has a yarn shop.

Oh Canada!

Yes, I think I’ve used that title before. Oh well. We’re still on vacation, but I thought I would show you just a few photos (if the wifi allows!). We had a couple of very nice days in Quebec City, then took the overnight train to Halifax, where we’ve spent the last few days.
Pretty flowers!

John posing with statues.

They make wine here!

A school in the little town of Lunenburg. This was the town public school, but it’s now closed. The building is up for sale. Anybody think this would make a fine yarn shop? Of course the top floor is haunted, but I don’t think ghosts knit, so we’d be OK.

More churches!

They make beer, too! A fine spot for knitting!

Sunshine! The Atlantic Ocean!

This is the Old Burial Ground in Halifax.

The lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove just outside Halifax.

Part of the Fairview Cemetery, where 121 of the victims of the sinking of the Titanic are buried. Many of them were never identified. It’s a very sobering place.

On a cheerier note, this guy was playing outside the lighthouse and let me get a photo.

He also was kind enough to stand still for the obligatory photo with the sock. I don’t think he even rolled his eyes.

And the answer to that old question “what do Scottish men wear under their kilts?” was answered at last:

Hand-knit socks, of course.

Where In The World…

Here are a couple of photos:

Any guesses? OK, here’s another clue:

Last but not least:

Oh, OK. We’re in eastern Canada for a couple of weeks. We started in Toronto visiting friends. Of course we had to go to Niagara Falls. We’re in Montreal now for a few days, then it’s on to Quebec City tomorrow, then the Maritimes. Posting from an iPad leaves something to be desired, but I’ll try to post a few photos along the way.

Oh Dear

Or,

I Guess I Forgot To Blog

I know, I know. I just might have hit a record here for longest stretch without a blog post. I may not have been blogging but I HAVE been knitting. Here’s some proof:

Old Friend, 2.0. There has been some progress since the last post. This is great mindless TV knitting.

Same socks. I’m still working on them, finally rounded the corner and heading for home. They really are that bright. And no, that’s still the first of the pair. This is also great mindless TV knitting. (Or mindless work meeting knitting.)

Now here’s something that hasn’t seen the light of day in a very long while.

That’s my Froot Loops Morning Glory stole. This is NOT mindless TV knitting. I hauled it out of the not-quite-forgotten pile and started working on it again today. It’s very nearly half done. I haven’t played with this in quite a while, since I had never even finished setting it up in Knit Companion on the iPad. I started this back in May of 2009, according to the blog that never lies. Who knows when I worked on it last*, but it hasn’t been since I put Knit Companion on the iPad, that’s certain. I finished setting it up this morning and discovered that this is MUCH easier with the KC app. Anne Hanson, the designer, writes up a very clear pattern, but this is a relatively fidgety pattern, especially in the biggest Morning Glory section, which is patterned lace on both sides, and the pattern repeat shifts to the right and left wildly. I might actually finish it now that I’ve got it set up in KC and can keep track of things.

And why am I working on Ancient Lace, when I have two perfectly good lace projects on the go already?

Here’s something you don’t see around here everyday:

I couldn’t wait for it to actually dry to take a decent photo. It’s DONE! And it’s LACE!

I’ll do a proper post once it’s dry and I can take a photo with some daylight, but that there is Seraphim, by Miriam Felton. I started that in January. Of THIS YEAR, people! Criminy. It only took me 9 months to knit something that’s largely stocking stitch.

That’s all for now. We might just be planning a vacation in the next few days, so I’ll save that up as a surprise for the next post.

*Once again, the blog comes in handy. Here you go. That bit of industriousness apparently didn’t last long.

Old Friend 2.0

Yes, it looked bigger before. Yes, I’ve knitted many more rows than this. Unfortunately, the gauge fairy didn’t let me know that I was delusional until I had knit the ribbing and another four inches of sweater.

Gauge off, rip. RIP.

Start over, hopefully this time on the right size needles. For the record, the ribbing this go-around is on 4.5mm, the main knitting will be on 5.0mm.

I’ll report back later as to how this all works out.

Totally Tubular!

Well crap. This is just what I needed, another project on the needles. You remember that purply-blue Peace Fleece from my last post, right? Well I really couldn’t control myself from casting on. There are all those Ravelry Peace Fleece group members that are doing their KAL, so I thought it would be unfriendly of me not to join in. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. That’s the ticket, I’m just being neighborly.

I started with an ordinary long tail cast on, didn’t like it, ripped out. I decided to figure out how to do a tubular cast on. There are apparently more ways to do this than you might imagine. June Hemmons Hiatt (Principles of Knitting) sort of lifts her nose up in the air and sniffs at all of them. It seems like a tubular cast on is not for good old June, despite the fact that she details about a gazillion different cast ons in her book. Out came the Vogue knitting book, and pretty soon I had it figured out. There is also a nice explanation on Knitty here.

Cast on half the stitches you need for your ribbing. You knit a few rows with a contrasting waste yarn. Please make sure that there is really a CONTRAST in your contrast yarn. You’ll see why later. Then you knit four more rows with your “real” yarn, ending with a knit row.

Now you start your ribbing on the “wrong” side. You purl one stitch off your needle, then dip down into that row of purple purl bumps, pick up that stitch, and knit it through the back of the loop. Click on the photos to make them bigger so you can see.

Keep going with knit one purl one until you are done. The last knit stitch is really just half of a purl bump at the very edge.

Now you can start your ribbing. Knit the knits, purl the purls, and then you are ready to snip out your waste yarn. Here is where you will be glad you started with a really contrasting yarn.

Really, click on that photo. You’ll be glad you did. Cutting your knitting! It’s wonderful! Try not to cut the “real” yarn stitches. That would really suck.

And you have a very nice edge for the bottom of your sweater! Please excuse my poor excuse for a manicure. Yes, I have been known to trim my fingernails with my knitting snips. What can I say, I’m more into function than beauty.

Back to studying!* I scheduled this week as an education week, so I’m home studying for hours a day. I’m just enough of a nerd that I actually find this enjoyable, though there are a few too many distractions around here for my own good. If I finish reading my cardiology module, I’ve promised myself a little knitting as a reward.

*And yes, that is iced tea up there. Even I am not delusional enough to think I can remember anything about valvular heart disease after a glass or two of wine.

Project Update!

Well, three of them, anyway. I’m only taking photos this morning of the things I’ve been working on in the past few days. The rest of them can sit over there in their little bags and be quiet. Have you ever been taunted by your knitting projects?

Here’s the first one.

That’s my Green Jeans sweater, a little blue today, apparently. We have no sun this morning, so photos were a bit challenging. As you can see, I’ve started the first sleeve. I have to tell you, I am not a big fan of this “sweater all in one piece” trend. Picking up the sleeves from the armhole and knitting towards the cuff is WAY more work in my opinion than just knitting the sleeve flat and sewing it in like a sensible person would do. On a positive note, I’m getting better at knitting with two circulars. Knitting this sucker on a short 16 inch circular lasted for about one row before I was ready to immolate the whole mess in the back yard.

Next up, the sock.

As you can see, Will is helping. This is Lorna’s Laces “Live Long & Prosper” sock yarn. It’s really more vivid than that photo shows. Again, no sun. Western Washington in July, what can I say. It’s all the way up to 59 degrees so far this morning. Woo hoo!

Last but not least, the lace bit.

This is Seraphim, and I’ve finally gotten past the plain stocking stitch part into the lace section. Will was quite interested. I turned away to transfer the photos to my computer and he tried to make this his cat bed. Thankfully I rescued it before he could dig it to shreds.

So what about all those other projects I’m not showing you? According to Ravelry, I have 8 projects on the go, including those three. So I did what any sensible person (there I go, being sensible again) would do.

Over on the Peace Fleece Ravelry group, they are about to start a sweater KAL. I have Peace Fleece in enough colors to make a half a dozen sweaters, and was going to make one for myself. John got this really sad look and looked longingly at the Peace Fleece stash, so the plan changed. This one will be for him. The color is Violet Vyehchyeerom*. The pattern is the Old Friend Pullover, and he heartily approves.

That’s what it looks like on the owner of Peace Fleece. Imagine it in purple, and with John’s head, and you’ve got it. It’s the ultimate “guy” sweater, though I plan on making one for me as well. It’s not like I don’t have the yarn around here.

I’ll leave you with one last photo. This is one John took earlier this week. Note that there was sunshine when he snapped this one.

*No, I have no idea how to pronounce that. If any of you speak Russian, chime in here.

Let’s Catch Up, Shall We?

Oh dear. Not again. I’m apparently hopeless at keeping this thing current. How about I just post a few more photos of our June trip to Montana? Some of them even have to do with knitting.

The car, ready to go. We’re light packers, what can I say? After we got all loaded up it dawned on us that we needed to pick up my sister Diane and her husband at the airport in Kalispell on the last leg of the trip out to our cabin. We hoped they were traveling light.

First stop, Spokane, at the historic Davenport Hotel.

Mr. Davenport interrupted his newspaper reading for a sock knitting lesson.

Our cabin on the river in Montana.

The family!

View across the river to Glacier National Park. It really sucked to have to look at that all week.

Polebridge Mercantile, a hopping place out in the middle of nowhere.

A nice little knitting spot.

Our Red Bus tour of Glacier.

There’s just nothing to say about that. We took about a million photos, and every view was spectacular. It’s just difficult to capture the magnificence of the park in photos.

I did find a few yarn shops along the way.

Some tough competition.

Just a little snow.

More crappy views.

Finished socks, just in time for Father’s Day.

I don’t really need to do a Finished Project post, do I? Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, color name A River Runs Through It. For John, same old pattern. I did a bit of modification around the ankle, doing the gusset decreases every third row for awhile so he can get them over his instep. I usually do my socks on 72 stitches, I did these on 76 stitches and they fit him perfectly.

Flute playing in a roadside campground! I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here, but I started taking flute lessons back in March. I used to play a million years ago, then it sort of fell by the wayside over the years. I bought a new flute in February, then found the Community Music Program at the University of Puget Sound here in Tacoma. I take a private lesson once a week, and yes, I did practice on the trip. I had to be a bit creative on the road trip back since playing in a hotel room probably would annoy people. We stopped at this campground which was totally deserted, and I practiced until the mosquitoes threatened to cart me off.

Enough for now. I’ll leave you with a photo of Lewey.

He wishes he could have gone along.

In Celebration…

We are close to the end of our lovely vacation. We spent last week in our little cabin on the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana. The deck of the cabin was about ten steps from the river, and directly across the river was the boundary for Glacier Park. It couldn’t have been a more lovely spot to spend the week with my two sisters and their husbands. I’ll get around to posting more photos later, but here is just one.

After we left the Glacier area yesterday, John and I headed home. We drove here from western Washington, and we’re taking a couple days to drive back home across northern Montana, Idaho, and Washington, just to see some parts of the states that we have never been to before. We stayed at the Lodge at Sandpoint last night, where that photo was taken, and had a great martini on the deck. In case you didn’t know, June 20th was National Martini Day. We did celebrate it properly on the correct date, but figured this was too beautiful a spot not to extend the celebration.

I did find some yarn shops, by the way. There was a nice shop in Kalispell, and another lovely little shop in Whitefish. There was one listed in Libby, but like a lot of storefronts in Libby, it was empty. There must not be many knitters there.

We’re headed back into Washington this morning, and then home tomorrow. I’ll post more photos later.

Montana!

This is going to be a very short post, since our internet access here is slowwwwww. We’re in a cabin outside Glacier Park for a week with my sisters and their spouses. It’s glorious, we’re having a blast, but the photos will mostly have to wait till later. Here’s one:

I did finish John’s socks the day we got here, just in time for Father’s Day. He put them right on and wore them for three days straight, so I think he likes them. I’ll post a photo later. That’s the new sock up there. It’s Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, the color name is Live Long & Prosper. It’s the colors of the Star Trek uniforms. What can I say, it amused the geek in me.

That’s all for now. The thing to do when the internet is slow is to take it as a sign and turn off the devices. I’ll post more photos when we get home.

Summer, Finally!

It took its sweet time getting here, but we finally have something resembling summer. It’s been in the mid to high 70’s the past few days, and not a drop of rain! Hooray!

In honor of the nice weather, I hauled the wheel out to the deck for a bit of spinning.

Yes, that’s plain white fiber. I bought pounds of plain white fiber in a couple of different wool varieties. This is Bluefaced Leicester. I intended to dye this using some of my plant dyes, but decided it’s less tricky to spin it first, then dye it. This is such nice stuff that it’s not boring at all to spin, even if it’s not dyed. I’m easily entertained.

Marilyn asked about my fried chicken recipe in the comments earlier this week. After I sent it to her, she suggested you all might like it, so here it is.

Lorette’s Fried Chicken

Chicken parts-make more than you think you’ll eat, people eat this like they haven’t had a meal in weeks.

Self rising flour, enough to dip your chicken. You really need the self rising kind to get a nice finish.

Add salt and pepper to taste to the flour.

Grate a bit of fresh nutmeg into the flour as well.

Mix the flour and seasonings all together and put in one dish.

In another dish pour buttermilk, enough to dip chicken pieces into.
Dip the chicken pieces in the flour mix, then the buttermilk, then back into the flour, coating well. Coat just enough to cook one batch at a time, if it sits too long it tends to get a bit soggy.

Set the coated chicken pieces on another plate or a big sheet pan and let sit for 15 minutes. The waiting period is essential as well to get that nice bubbly crispy coating.

This is pretty easy, though a bit messy. I use a huge cast iron deep skillet, and crisco to fry. Fill up the skillet about half full or a little less with the melted crisco, remember it can run over when you add the chicken. It can make a nasty kitchen fire if it runs over onto burners, so be careful. I have a fire extinguisher in my kitchen and know how to use it, but it would be the last resort, any food on the stove would be ruined, and it probably wouldn’t do the cooktop any good either. A box of baking soda can put out a grease fire in a pinch also. It’s best to not fill your pan too much, the melted fat should come up about half way or a little more on the chicken pieces. And don’t overheat your fat; if it starts to smoke turn off the heat, or you’ll risk a flare up and a fire.

I also cut up brown paper bags and cover the floor around the stovetop. Seriously, do this. It makes clean up easier.

Now fry your chicken. Heat the crisco, then add the chicken pieces, then cover and fry for 10 minutes covered. Adjust your heat so the oil is bubbling a bit but not so much that it’s bubbling out of the pan.

Uncover and cook another 25 minutes, turning once or maybe twice if needed to brown nicely. This is where you need your kitchen fan and a mesh fryer screen to keep the oil mostly contained.

When there is about 15 minutes left in the cooking time, coat your next batch of chicken so it’s ready to go when the first one is all cooked and crispy.

Drain the done chicken on brown paper bags. I usually cook several batches, it’s fine served at room temperature and terrific cold. It’s also really terrific leftover, skinned and cut up to make chicken salad.

Get somebody else to clean the cooktop if possible.

Go forth and make chicken!