The Chronicles of the Sweet Potato Garland - Part II

When we last heard from our over-reaching OCD/perfectionist heroine she was questioning whether or not the crochet thread she purchased work work for stringing the sweet potato garland.  Let's see, shall we?

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 1:23 p.m. - Everyone is busy preparing for Thanksgiving I see!  I'm doing what I can today but also doing other stuff ... like trying to make this @&*!#* garland!

I picked out the 3 biggest yams & then, pathetic perfectionist that I am, marked lines to indicate where each quarter inch was so I could cut them evenly.  Then I got out my knife.  Yams are HARD!  Also, the knife doesn't cut straight through, it always seems to go at a bit of an angle as you cut down so  lot of the pieces had a thicker end & a thinner end until I adjusted my cutting for this.  Then I quartered the slice, tossing the slices which were way too thin.  (Incidentally, after a while I just decided to eyeball the quarter inch since I couldn't find the lines I had made.  Worked very well.)

I made the coffee mixture & then the spice mixture ... a small container of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, & cinnamon.  First off, since no one answered my question as to whether or not I could use crochet thread instead of kite string or some other kind of string, I went ahead & decided to throw caution to the wind & used it anyway.  I cut off a good sized piece (enough to make a 3' garland with added length in case I needed it) & dyed it in the coffee mixture ... hung that up to dry.  It dried pretty quick.  Found a needle with a big eye & got started.  

Took a piece of yam, dipped it in the coffee mixture, & then covered it with the spice mixture.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  Did about 6-8 pieces of yam this way & then started threading it onto the crochet thread.  Noticed that some of the spice mixture would fall off here & there while threading the pieces.  Grrr!  Got about half the garland strung (a long & messy process).  As I was going along, I saw that in no way did I have enough of the spice mixture.  I also saw that my fingers & fingernails were getting coffee stained from the continuous dipping!  I scrubbed my hands with Soft Scrub with Bleach & then drove 26 miles round trip ... in the rain ... to go to the grocery store to get more spices.  Bought 3 containers of each just to make sure I'd have enough.  

Arrived home, put on some gloves & continued dipping, covering, & stringing.  Got done with a bit of thread to spare but that's good ... will be able to knot it & make a loop after everything is dry.  Preheated my oven to 170, covered my largest cookie sheet with foil, got out my one & only drying rack, & proceeded to snake the garland around it.  The term "Too much garland, not enough rack" says it all.  I ended up snaking 2 parts of the garland on top of each other so hopefully that isn't going to cause problems.  The garland is now drying in the oven.  

I then cleaned up the kitchen ... no small task after the mess of making the garland ... & now here I am.  I can't say this was "fun" but I hope it was worth it!

Blessings,

Shirlee

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 1:23 p.m. - Gardengal ... no need to apologize for anything!  I know everyone has been busy today with one thing or another but I just had to forge ahead with this!  Those yams were burning a hole in the counter ... lol!  John & I just got back from going out to see a movie ... a not-too-often thing.  The garland has been in the oven for about 6 hours now.  When we walked into the house it smelled sooooooo good!  The garland is nowhere near ready.  I think I'm going to have to leave it in there for longer than 8 hours ... 8 hours PLUS overnight.  Doesn't even show a sign of shrinking yet.  I just used the yams.  I will make the cranberry one separately.

Blessings,

Shirlee

Continued in

The Chronicles of the Sweet Potato Garland

Part III