BlogStalk: Fave invention of the 20th Century

When I saw this topic come up, my mind immediately went to cell phones and digital cameras. I use them every day and they are an intrinsic part of my life, but I would adapt to life without them. Humans are amazing in their ability to adapt to their situations. So I know I could live without cell phones and digital cameras.

Wanna know what I've decided I can't live without?



My old kitchen aid stand mixer. It was my Christmas present from the husband and I've only used it once. But I made a double batch of bread last night in 20 minutes (it's rising slowly in the fridge all day). That batch of bread normally takes me about 40 minutes to knead by hand, not to mention the time for shaping and mixing and trying to get it the right consistency. It's a K5A, so it doesn't have the same speed control as the newer ones, and it doesn't have the hokey plastic gear casing that the newer ones do. It's pure metal and weighs in at 31 pounds! And I'm in love. I don't think we'll be buying bread anymore. This is just way too easy and fun. I think I'm in love.

The other thing I'm very thankful for? Pain meds. I'm not entirely sure what I did to my back, but I aggravated a many year old back injury in the last few days and I can't hardly move. It's very difficult to dress when you can barely reach your feet without crying. So I'm popping pills every 4 - 5 hours and hoping it loosens up in the next couple of days. I may be spending all weekend in bed, though it was amazingly sore and stiff when I got up this morning, 10 times worse than when I went to bed. It's nearly as painful as when I first injured it, normally my flair ups are at about half the original pain. I think I really messed it up this time around. So if it's not remarkably better by Monday, I'm headed to the walk-in clinic to see if I can get the big girl drugs. For now, It's naproxen sodium, very careful bending, and homemade bread.

And we're back!

Christmas vacation went really well. I started a new knitting project, which we'll discuss after I take pictures! We had a lovely time visiting our families and made a bit of progress on the moving front. Looks like we're looking at 6-12 months here and then begin the annoying process of relocating. It gets harder to leave every time. We really miss our families. But I'll do a big post later tonight, Just wanted to say that I'm back!

Traveling?

Hotel Reservations is the new reservation site on the web. They have hotels, flights, vacation rentals, and car rentals. Everything you need to get from point A to point B and save money doing it! You can book online or over the phone and they even have group discount rates. Looks like the simplest way to save money while booking for a large group. They guarantee that their prices are the lowest on the net. If you have a destination in mind, you can narrow your search by dates, times, and locations. If you just want to set off on a driving destination, tell them how much time you want to spend in the car and where you're starting from, and they'll give you a selection of destinations, with estimated travel times and cost of hotels. They may not be as large as some of the other hotel discount sites, but they do have wonderful prices and seem to be really easy to navigate. Next time we travel, we'll be checking out Hotel Reservations first!


*this is a sponsored post*

Done!

I just finished the last exam of my Landscape Design Program. It was a 12-18 month home study program to give you the basics of landscape design, to understand the theories behind it, understand design principles, etc. Not a lot of the art/design aspect, but a lot of the business end of things. Which is what I wanted. And I'm done. One more payment to go, and I get the little piece of paper saying that I finally finished something. Now I have to find something new. I need to look into finishing my AS or BA online, don't have time or money to do a real classroom route right now. But I could finish the management degree online. It feels good to be done with something!

Winter is Officially Here

For so many people, winter is viewed as a time of rebuilding. They see the plants go dormant, the snow come down and blanket the plants as a protective covering, the shorter days, and they see life rebuilding and repairing itself in preparation for spring.
Myself, I see winter as a time of breaking. It's been this way for years for me. If I'm going to struggle and fight with something, I more than likely will be dealing with it in the winter. Being cooped up more, dealing with the shorter days, looking at the barren landscape. It all causes me to re-evaluate where I stand and to attempt to change the things bothering me. So often, this is the time that my fears and feelings of inadequacy come back to me. And it's the time of year that I feel like something inside of me is breaking. Not breaking to the point of no return, but breaking so that I can be rebuilt.

Yesterday was our pastor's final sermon before moving. He spoke about fear, about stepping out into the unknown. And as he spoke, I began to see the last few weeks for what they were. My own fight against the season of breaking. I fight it every year. I try to push through it by keeping myself busy. Believing that if I ignore it, I won't have to do it again. This year, it snuck up on me a little bit. I didn't prepare for it, I didn't see it coming. So when it came, I was knocked off my feet by it a little. Little by little, the restlessness moved back in and I started floundering.

I don't know how long it will take me to work through this. So today I decided I had to deal with it. I baked and cooked, did laundry, went through my knitting projects to reorganize them, and molded soap for Christmas. I feel hollow tonight. I can feel the breaking. I know where it's centered and I know I need to stop fighting it. But some days? Some days I just want to escape back to summer. This isn't easy. It's emotionally exhausting.

Ravelry is very good

Especially on the day the new http://www.knitty.com/ comes out. Why? Because it tells me I already have 6 items on the needles. Granted, I don't remember where one of them is in the mess I call home, but I have 6 in the works. None is above 60% completed right now. I can not, can not, can not cast on for a new project. But I so want to... So very very much.

I want to make a shrug for my doggie. She won't like it one bit, I don't think, but I just need to see her in it. Doesn't matter that she's 50 lbs and way above the sizes in the pattern, I just think she needs one.

And I love the socks. All the socks. I have lots of sock yarn too. But my socks in progress are the project I can't find. And I've loaned out my cable needle for them and haven't gotten it back yet. So do they really count? I just finished a pair of socks last night, of my own design, super secret project. I haven't decided yet how I'm publishing the design. Probably a free PDF linked through here and Ravelry. We'll see. May just decide to submit it someplace, which is why it's super secret right now. So I'm sockless at the moment. Does that mean I can cast on? No. It means I get my tush in gear and find the missing sock.

But the real project that's got me befuddled and wishing I could just cast it all aside? It's Jeanie. I'm in love with everything about this project. I am in a state of cable lust right now. Almost all my projects OTN are either cabled or lace and *sigh* I feel like I must have this shawl. I don't even like knitting rectangular stoles. Not at all. They bore me after about 10 inches. So Why, oh Why, does this project torment me so? It's all I can do not to buy yarn for it. I think it would be amazing out of the Habu 1/6 roving and we have a hank here at work that's just plain perfect. Almost exactly the yardage needed. But I can't... I really can't...

Well... Maybe I can. It will take a week to finish drying if I dye it tonight and if I wait till this weekend to dye it, it will take all next week to dry. That means that I have 2 weeks to get a couple things off the needles and cast on for this project. The baby hat will take another hour or two to finish. The rest? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll use this project as a reward for writing up the pattern for the previously mentioned socks. I'm such and ADD knitter. There must me something in the air, because I've noticed a lot of us have caught castonitis lately. But isn't it lovely?

Pretty Snow

IMG_1963
Originally uploaded by His_Mrs

It's snowing again this morning. It's so very pretty. We have around an inch of accumulation. Click over to my flickr to see more pictures.

Lots of snow...

Too bad I'm too old for a snow day. We've got at least half an inch of snow on the ground this morning and it's still coming down, pretty heavy too. It's sooooo pretty. I love the first good snow of the year. It doesn't usually come this early, but I'm not going to complain. I don't think I remember it snowing before Christmas at all since I moved here 5 years ago. And this is still November! I'll try to get pictures later. I woke up to all this lovely blue light streaming through the window and it was completely silent out. I love that about snow. It's completely quiet. So peaceful and beautiful. Snow makes me happy. It's my favorite part of winter. I hope we still get snow when we move.

In other news, knitting is coming along slowly. I need to take photos and update ravelry, which means I'll be updating here as well.

Yanked from someone...

Lets101 - Online Dating

BlogStalk: Breakfast

Steel Cut oatmeal, made with rice milk, molasses, brown sugar, and several spices. Yummy. I usually make a big pot on Sunday and then dish it up into single servings for the week ahead. It usually only ends up lasting 2 days though. I roughly follow Alton Brown's recipe, it's available on the Food Network Website, but I make it healthier, using rice milk instead of cream and molasses & brown sugar. Very Yummy and filling!

BlogStalk: Thanksgiving Edition

For Thanksgiving, it was myself, my husband, and a friend who couldn't make it to see his family for the holiday. Since no one should be alone for their first holiday without family, we made him come over. The husband played video games with him and I cooked. A lot.

We had duck:


The first time I've ever cooked a duck, first time I've ever tasted duck. It tasted just like the dark meat of the turkey to me, but then again, I only had 2 bites. The husband says it was quite good. Next year, it's vegetarian meatballs or loaf. No more poultry in this kitchen!

Sides #1:


Salad, salad dressing, and the roast tofu, that was cold by this time, but I didn't know that.

Sides #2:


Cranberry Sauce, From scratch!, dressing, green beans with lots of garlic, roast garlic mashed potatoes, and turkey gravy. The bread isn't pictured because it was a minor disaster and I didn't feel like showing you it's issues.

Garage Flooring

What does your garage floor look like? Is it beat up, dingy, oil stained, cracked? Or are you one of the lucky few who have taken the time to cover up the nasty concrete with something more appealing?
We don't have a garage anymore, but the garage in our old place was nasty. Someone had used it to spray paint car parts without putting down drop cloths. My old car leaked oil and radiator fluid. Despite my husband's efforts, it never came clean. The entire time that we lived there, my husband talked about how nice it would be to be able to cover the floor in some way.
When we move again, he's dictated that we will have a garage. And that garage will have some kind of garage flooring. This site has more options for covering up concrete than I've seen anywhere else! They have enough colors to go with any theme that you might have going on in your garage. Take a look!

Pumpkin Biscotti

Pumpkin Biscotti

• 5 cups White Flour
  
• 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp all spice
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
  

1 Preheat oven to 350 F.

2 In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients, including the spices. In a second bowl, mix the wet ingredients together until well combined. Mix the wet into the dry until well blended. Add chocolate chips or chopped chocolate and kneed until well combined. It should feel like a stiff biscuit dough. Chill for 30 minutes. Shape into 3 logs and place on a large baking sheet. I use silicon mats to bake them on.

3 Bake for 22-30 minutes, until the center is firm to the touch.

4 Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then using a serrated knife cut into 1 inch wide pieces. Turn the oven to 300 F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Cool completely. I like to cool them in the oven so that they harden up nicely. Store in an air-tight container.

Pina Collada Power Bread

This bread is so good, and healthy! Very low fat, high in grains. And yummy to boot!

Pina Collada Power Bread (12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 16 oz Yogurt - pineapple, pina collada, or coconut work best, but plain or vanilla would work as well. You may need additional sugar if you use plain, brown sugar would work best
  
• 1 small can (5 or 6 oz I think) Pineapple bits, drained, reserving liquid
  
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 tsp Coconut Extract
• 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 cups Rolled Oatmeal
• 1/4 cup Flax Seeds
• 1/4 cup Wheat Germ - toasted is best, but plain works as well, honey toasted would be lovely
  
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
  
• 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F and grease a 9 X 9 square pan.
   
2. In a food processor, pulse oatmeal until a coarse meal is formed. Add flax and wheat germ and pulse until combined. Add flour and pulse until combined. I do all this on the medium speed setting in the food processor.
3. Dump in the baking soda and the yogurt and pulse until combined. Stir in the pineapple bits, drained, 1/2 cup coconut shreds, vanilla, and coconut extract. Stir until just combined. If the mixture is too thick, add in the pineapple juice a bit at a time until the batter resembles muffin dough.
4. Pour dough into the square pan and smooth. Sprinkle remaining coconut over top of dough and gently press to adhere it to the top. This will toast as it bakes and let off such a yummy smell and taste.
5. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
   

Pay Day Loans

In general, I am not a fan of Pay Day Loans. I've heard of so many instances where people have gotten themselves into huge financial messes with them. But sometimes the situation just calls for some emergency money.

Faxless Payday Loans as well as cash advances are just 3 clicks away. Pay Day Loan Quotes has a calculator right on their front page, so that you can get an accurate picture of how much you will need to repay on your short term loan. Their lenders get back to you quickly and the money can be transfered into your account within 24 hours. There are several time lines and repayment options offered. It seems like a very simple website to navigate and all the information you need is presented in an easy to understand format.

I hope this is a service that we never have to use, but it's great to know that there are easy websites out there if something urgent comes up.

2 More FO's.

Cherie Amour from the newest knitty. I made this out of a double strand of Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool, Evergreen. Ravelry Link
A few mods here:

- Shortened bottom lace section by one
repeat, shortened ribbing by 3 rows,
increased upper lace section by one
repeat before splitting for
neckline. This made the ribbing fall
under the bust line instead of
creeping up.

- No ribbing at the end of sleeves.
This eleminates the belling out in
the original pattern. I just ended
with a WS row and then cast off.

- Sleeves done from top down. Picked
up stitches around arm hole and
worked down from there, decreasing
2 stitches (one on each side) just past the
elbow.

- I ended up seaming about 2 inches of
the v-neck together to help the
shoulders stay up. At full open, the
shoulders kept slipping off. This
helped to pull them in enough to
stay up.

2X2 Rib hat, no pattern. Made out of Baby Alpaca Brush by Plymouth. DH stole my main winter hat last weekend and I had to figure something out to keep my ears warm! This was an incredibly fast solution. One day, maybe 4 hours total start to finish.

Photo Dump - Knitting Content!

Small horse for my aunt. Will be sending this off this week. Made out of Eco-Wool. Ravelry Page.

Slippers for my grandma for Christmas. FiberTrends pattern. Ravelry Page.

Tweed Fetching. Made out of DB Donagal Luxury Tweed. Ravelry Page.

Shop display wrap. My own pattern. Silk Rhapsody & Silk Mohair Glitter by ArtYarns. No ravelry link at this time.

Enjoy :D

BlogStalk: 3 I love, 3 I hate

I love fall. I love everything about this season. The colors, the smells, the weather, the leaves, warm drinks, hand knits. All of it. It is my favorite season.

I love the beach. And the ocean. I love the sound. I love how calm it makes me. I miss it a lot up here. It's really quiet here compared to the coast.


I love nature. And photographing nature. It's pretty amazing what you can capture on a little screen if you try hard enough.

As for my hates, no pictures. I use the word hate a lot, but when I sit down and think about it, they're all more pet-peeves that true hate.
1. I can't stand people without common sense. I have no patience for them. If you're stupid enough to get yourself into the situation, there's probably not a lot I can do for you so don't ask.
2. I hate ants. One of the main reasons we moved was because of the ants in the foundation of our old duplex. It was nasty and disturbing. I think this is one of my only true "hates"
3. The other is earwigs. I have an intense, irrational fear of them stemming back to my insane mother who thought that shaping her children with fear was a good plan. Therefore, hate, loathe, and am terrified of earwigs.
4. Since that kind of goes with 3, I'm going to give you a bonus. I can't stand ironing. See my post from last Friday. Hate, Hate, Hate ironing. It makes my back and knees hurt, it makes the house smell like warm, moist cotton, and it's beyond boring. Oh yeah, and the humidity makes my hair frizz.

ChatterJam.com

Do you always have to be the first to know about a new product or service? Are you generally the first person you know to try something new? Have you ever heard of Word of Mouth Marketing?

ChatterJam.com is the new WOM marketing company on the block! They are focused on promoting brand new products and services throughout the Christian community. As a ChatterJam.com member, you get exclusive rights to free samples, trial offers of new services, and a large variety of networking tools. All they ask in return is that you generate positive buzz about the products or services that you are sampling. It is a great opportunity to be the first to know about all the hot new products coming out! There is no limit on the number of people who can join, so check out this great new opportunity today!

Christmas is right around the corner...

And if you're anything like me, you're starting to plan out gifts. I've been working on the knitting I'm doing for about a month, but I have a lot of family! I can't knit for everyone. And I'm always looking for little things to add to their gifts, knit or not. The only problem is trying to buy these gifts and still pay bills. Coupons can definitely help with that!

Coupon Chief has one of the largest selections of vendor coupons that I've seen! They have a great selection of Home Depot deals. My husband is addicted to this store! If I decide to buy him a new tool for Christmas, the free shipping or online clearance center could help me afford something really nice for him.

I'm always nervous about buying my MIL presents, but I know candles will always be a hit! I've never seenThe Candle Bay before, The Candle Bay deals are so great that I will need to look at it! I think I'd be able to find little gifts to fill out my packages here.

So as your planning out your holiday shopping, check out Coupon Chief and see if you can find a great deal to help save some money this season!

Long Week...

Ugh, It's been a loooong week. DH has been in TX all week for training and I've had to take care of the house and the dog all on my own. Combine that with my boss having a breakdown and only making it in one day so far this week and you've got one doozy of an overwhelming week. But DH is back tomorrow and that means I get to breathe again. And relax. And sleep. But before he gets home, I've got a buttload of work to do! Italics means it's done! Italics are good:D
Look at that! I finished everything but the tomatoes and ironing!

I need to unload and reload the dishwasher. Not sure if it will need to be run or not. Quite possibly.
I need to wash the dog and then clean the tub. And probably most of the bathroom.
I need to clean the rest of the junk out of the kitchen and off the counters.
I need to put away the laundry that I did last weekend.
I need to wash sheets and towels.
I need to iron from the last month's laundry. (I HATE to iron. HATE, Loathe, despise, get the picture?)
I need to do something with the 5 pound of apples spread throughout my kitchen before they go bad.
Ditto for the 3 pounds of green tomatoes.
I need to put together a menu and shopping list for the next 2 weeks.
I need to make the nutball dough for Saturday dinner so that it can chill overnight. (meatballs, but walnut based instead of meat based)
I need to sleep. A lot. I haven't slept well by myself this week. I'm just not used to it and it's been cold.
I need to take out all the trash in the house because when 1 can got full this week, I just started using another and now 2 out of the 3 are full and they need to go out to the big can because I can't let him know what kind of slob I am when he's not home.

I am two weeks behind on blogstalker and just can't seem to motivate myself to catch up. I have my pictures all taken and edited for my 3 things post. I just can't make myself write it up. And I don't have my pictures for the statue post because the camera is in TX with the husband.

And work sucks. I don't want to go in to why. But I'm completely overwhelmed and frustrated with my job. I want to like it. I do most of the time. But this week has just been too much. Too much. Thank goodness it's Friday.

sm00bs!

Sm00bs over at livejournal is the one who turned me on to the PayPerPost system. It's been really interesting to read all of her paid posts and learn about different sites. Here's an example of her work: http://sm00bs.livejournal.com/223238.html
Her posts are always concise and clear. She seems to really get a handle of what the advertiser is looking for and to put a great spin on it. I met her when she was pregnant with her daughter through a Secret Pal Exchange. It's been so much fun to watch her daughter grow up and to see her finding different ways to bring in money while still being able to stay home with her daughter. I hope that I will be able to do the same once we have children.

*This is a sponsered post by PayPerPost*

BlogStalking, Week3: From here to there

I'm way behind on this blogstalking thing. I'm hoping to get caught up within the next week. So here is my week three. For the most part, when I need to get somewhere, I go in my '02 Ford ranger. I love love love this car. We got it with just over 11,000 miles on it about a year and a half ago. We paid too much money for it, but it's a great truck. See:
Excuse the dust. I badly need to clean the interior of my truck. The outside looks pretty great right now. It's been raining off and on and that washes all the dust off and makes it nice and pretty.
More lip stuff in my truck. I really do think that I have a problem with this.
Think anyone could tell that I have a dog? There's a leash or two in there, a halti, and a water bottle and bowl. Oh yes, and my fantastic air freshner that smells like sandlewood. Yummy.

Week four will be up by the weekend and hopefully Next week will bring week 5. Or even this weekend. It's been... strange... around here. DH is out of town on a training trip all next week. It's the first time we've been apart overnight and I'm not looking forward to it at all. I think it will be nice to be able to clean without him critiquing how I do it. And to be able to go to bed whenever I want to (our house is under 600 sq feet, so sleeping while he's still up isn't much of an option). But I think the novelty will be gone by Tuesday and I'll start getting lonely. Very lonely.

Car Guy Garage

I've stumbled upon a website that my husband has fallen in lust with! CarGuyGarage is The Place to buy gifts for him . I pointed out these lifts to my DH about 5 minutes ago and he's still obsessing over them. Unfortunately, we don't have a garage right now. He's been looking at car storage sheds around town and he says that these are the best prices he's seen. We can't get it right now, but if we could, this would make a perfect Christmas gift for him. I'm going to have to browse through the site a little more closer to Christmas to see what I can find him. And they have an email coupon list! So if you sign up with them, they'll periodically send you coupons and exclusive sales. He's like a kid in a candy shop!

*This is a sponsored post by PayPerPost*

The big red thing that we will not speak of after today...

So I promised you pictures and content about the red thing that threatened my sanity last week. This is what the cursed red yarn turned into:
My boss loves it. She absolutely loves it. So I guess that this story ends well. I'm still mad at the yarn. And at the pattern designer. I went back to double check the pattern requirements. I would have been about 300 yards short of the total yardage for the pattern. But here were my mods: No collar, no belt, 5 inches less on body length, 2 inches less on each sleeve. That should have eliminated at least 300 yards, But no. Instead, I bought an extra hank of yarn that I will probably never use. But I already split it into two balls and used half of one of them, so no returning it. Pooh. All well. I never have to work with it again. That's my consolation prize.

But I promised you a picture. So I gave it to you. Enjoy.

PayPerPost Introduction

After seeing a friend of mine over on LiveJournal posting numerous posts about payperpost, I’ve decided to follow in her footsteps. PayPerPost is a blog advertising company that pays us to review various websites and help spread the word.

I'm learning about so many new companies by looking at all the opportunities I have through this site. I'm excited to get to share some of them with you.

Mainly, I'm doing this because we are desperately trying to pay off debt right now and this seemed like another way to add to our income that didn’t require selling our souls to an MLM. It is a great alternative to a second job. I’m at the computer anyway; why not make some money off of it? This means you guys will be seeing more posts! They ask that we keep the blogs at least 50% regular blog content – aka: not ads. So that means more pictures, more recipes, more life questions, and more general chatter from me!

I’m really hoping this turns out to be helpful to our finances. Our goal is to be able to get through the holidays with less debt, not more. So initially, my earnings will be going towards Christmas presents and towards our travel fund. Once the holidays are over, all my earnings are being dumped into our debt. If I want to go to school fall of ’09, we need to be out of this ridiculous credit card debt. September knocked us back some, DH’s car had some serious issues and it was the tail end of my summer paychecks at part time. Now that I’m back up at full time, I’m really hoping it will get easier. I understand that ad content may drive some readers away. I’m not happy about that, but I’m ok with it. I blog about knitting and food because I love it and I’ll keep writing about what I love. But we absolutely must have some more money coming in from somewhere and this is the perfect fit for right now.

It's COLD!

It is so cold out today. My outside thermostat says that it's 42, but I could see my breath when I took the dog out, so I'm kinda inclined not to believe it. I'm all wrapped up in my PNW shawl and am realizing how warm a shawl can keep you. So what do I do? Go stash diving to find another yarn to make a new shawl for this winter. I came up with a full pound of Weaver's Wool by Mountain Colors and the Shoalwater Shawl pattern by Fibertrends. I did this pattern once before and loved working on it, but I cut out too many repeats (to save yarn of course) and it turned out too small for daily use. So this time, I have a full 1400+ yards of yarn to play with, so I can make it as large as I want to. I think I'm going to do it in stockinette instead of garter, though. I liked doing it in garter, but I think I'll like the way it looks a little more in stockinette. And I'm going to do it a little more dense than the last one, light worsted on size 9's instead of 11's. I want this baby to be warm and snuggly for this winter. It's feeling like it's going to be a doozy of a cold one.
Our heater just kicked in, so while I'm defrosting before heading to work, I'll give you a WIP update!

Finished:

• Felted slippers (Christmas present) I've neglected to blog about these, post coming after I felt them.
• Stuffed Horse (Christmas Present) Also unblogged, pictures to come
• Jaywalkers in Tofutsies, I have to re-do the toe section on one, but they are essentially done
• The evil crocheted red thing that we spoke of last time. Pictures to come.
  

What I'm working on:

1. A warm, chunky sweater out of Elann's Peruvian Highland Chunky. I just have the neck to finish and one arm to go. I'll probably finish the neck this weekend and the arm next weekend. If all goes according to plan, that is.
2. DH's sweater out of cotton fleece. This sweater was a disaster the first time around, so I'm hoping the second time goes more smoothly. I'm just about 2 inches into a top-down raglan that I'm designing for him.
3. Worsted weight Jaywalkers, Christmas Present. I turned the first heel yesterday. These are my new travel project and are going so QUICK!
4. And now, the Shoalwater Shawl. Yummy, warm, soft, woolly goodness to be cast on today.
5. A felted cat as a work display. I have the two back legs to do and the tail, but I've stalled out on this. It's just painful to work on. The faux fur just makes things sticky and not stretchy and a little miserable. As long as I finish before Halloween, I should be ok.

Wow, 5 projects including my work related project. I'm doing good! Of course, most of what I've started recently wasn't even in the ravelry queue, it's just stuff that strikes me and I cast on for. Such is my life as an ADD knitter!

Cursed Yarn

Have you ever had cursed yarn? That yarn that just WILL NOT be made into a project, no matter how much you try to force it into a mold? I have been struggling with one of these yarns for almost a year and I think I'm at the point where I just can't look at it anymore. I don't even want to deal with frogging back the latest attempt. I just don't want to touch or look at this yarn anymore. It may just turn me off of Cascade 220 all together.



It all started innocently enough. My husband let me get the Rogue pattern after much waiting. I downloaded the pattern, printed it out, and started plotting. My Rogue wanted to be red. A deep, rich, crimson red. We had the perfect 220 color at the store and I thought it would make a fantastic Rogue. I knew I'd have to knit it a little looser than I like to knit my sweaters, but with all that cable work, looser is better, right? With this 220, the answer is WRONG. Looser means pills. As your knitting with the yarn. The finished part of the sweater was pilling as it sat on my lap and I worked on the remainder of the sweater. Shortly before dividing for the arm holes, I decided that this would not work. I couldn't wear a sweater that pilled this much. Rogue deserved better.



So I frogged nearly a month of work. I frogged my beautiful cables that I'd agonized over. I frogged the pocket that drove me nuts, trying to get it to seamlessly attach the way the pattern asked me to. I frogged it all. And the yarn sat in my stash for the next 6 months contemplating it's indiscretions.



I thought time was all it needed. I pulled it out from time to time to see if it was ready to be recreated. It stubbornly refused to tell me what it wanted to be. It didn't want to be felted (except into cat toys for my downstream SP), it didn't want to be a knit sweater, it didn't want to be a bag, it didn't want to be a hat, scarf or mittens. It wanted to be obnoxious, beautiful, and impossible to use.



3 weeks ago I found a crocheted trench coat pattern that I knew it could become. I powered through the back and the first front. It was cooperating! It could become this jacket.

I started on the second panel knowing I was going to be close on yarn. Very close. As written, I would be about 200 yards short of the pattern's required yarn. But the next size up was 3 inches larger in the chest and called for the same number of balls. And I was doing so many mods to cut down on yarn: I shortened it by 5 inches in length, wasn't going to do the stand-up collar or the belt, and my sleeves were going to be at least 2 inches shorter. I thought I would be ok. So into the second panel I go. The increases and decreases for waist shaping are giving me a few issues on this panel, but I figure it out and soldier through.

I end my panel with one remaining ball in the existing dyelot. 1 ball and 2 sleeves. Each front panel took about 1.5 balls. The back took about 3 balls. I was in deep doo for the sleeves. So I checked the store for the same dyelot - no go (the yarn was a year old, I wasn't expecting much). I put out my plea on various message boards. Not a nibble. So I decided that I'd be resourceful and make the new dyelot work.

Split the last ball of original and the ball of new dyelot and started the first sleeve with half a ball of the new. When it was getting low I slowly faded into the old dyelot so the sleeve would match at the seam. Problem #1: the new dyelot was considerably denser than the old. The gauge was the same, but the density of the fabric was considerably different. I decided to push forward anyway, I just wanted this thing DONE!

I was still very close on yarn, but now the sleeve cap shaping was looking... Odd... Short... Just not right. I normally do my sweaters in the round, either top down or bottom up, with raglan sleeves and wasn't quite sure if it was looking normal or not, since I have little to no experience in this area. So I took my sleeve, and I took my assembled back & front (joined only at the shoulder to make seaming the sleeves easier) and I laid them out in the way I assumed they went together.

Well that looked even more odd. So I waited for my crochet-guru boss to come in. I tell her the yarn is cursed and ask if she knows what's wrong with my sleeve cap.With the way she's looking at it, I know something is majorly screwy with it! She's trying not to laugh and manipulating the sleeve and sweater, trying to see how they'll go together. At this point, it's either laugh or cry, so I start laughing.

"Think we should have a long vest for display this winter?" I ask. She laughs, says that's a great idea and pulls out some faux fur to trim it with.

So now, what do I do to punish the sleeve? It needs an appropriate funeral so that I don't have to work with this yarn again! I'll put pictures up this weekend of the "vest." The fur turned out pretty cute, not something I normally do, but cute. Very much in my boss' style.

BlogStalking, Week 2: Purse Guts!

I'm gonna start off by saying that ya'all's comments on my previous post make me all warm and fuzzy. Thanks everyone! Just to answer a few questions, my dog is a Border Collie Mix, we're not sure with what but the suspicions are corgi and lab. The "bread" was biscotti for my downstream SP, orange chocolate biscotti. It was very yum. Thanks again for all the comments. I've tried to get around to each of you, but I'm sure I missed some of you. So I'm thanking you here!

Onto this week:
I don't really carry a purse. Usually, I carry an oversize bag with at least one project in it and enough stuff to get me though a boring day at work. I work at an LYS, so I tend to carry my full arsenol of crochet hooks and notions with me at all times. So, onto the pictures!

This is the overview of my bag, this week. I have many many bags. Too many. But this cheapo walmrt bag is one of my favorites. It has lots of pockets, but is big enough to hold everything! Including a sweater WIP if needed.

So, pocket #1 contains:
Crochet Hooks
Jaywalker #1
An oatmeal cookie (mid-afternoon snack, see previous recipe. Yum)

Pocket #2 Contains:
Notions
Sunglass Clip (but I'm not even wearing glasses today)
Lots of anti-cold supplements
Lip Stuff


Pocket #3 Contains:
Jawalker #2
Measuring Tape


Pocket #4 Contains:
Lots more lip stuff
Tide To Go Stick
Mints
Dental Appointment reminder card (For APRIL!)
Bug bite stick (because if there is a bug around, I will be bit)


And the big inside pocket:
Water Bottle
Wallet
Flash light
More mints
Book
Patterns
Hand lotion
Leatherman
More lip stuff
Eye drops


There you have it. My bag guts. This is a fairly tame day. I just switched over to this bag on Sunday. I try to change bags about every other week to keep the clutter down.

And guys, I think I officially have a lip stuff problem. I have that many in my bag and I still have another one in my pocket. Is there a support group for this kind of thing?

Thank You, SP!

I got my fantastic last SP package this last week. It was extremely fiber-liscious. And the reveal: My SP was Regmo! Thank you so much, hun! Your packages were amazing!
From top to bottom, we have:
Misti Alpaca Worsted, color #2030, a really pretty plum
Mirasol's Miski, 100% BABY LLAMA!!!, color #103, a lovely light purple
Mirasol's Sulka, Merino, Alpaca, & Silk, color #203, a deep wine color

These yarns are so yummy. I love the colors. I love the textures. This package was so fantastic to open. It is all so soft! Thank you, Regmo! I loved being spoiled by you!

Brrrr...

It's so cold! We've suddenly fallen into autumn, with no more warning than we went into spring. It was 47 outside and 64 inside this morning when I woke up. Talk about not wanting to get up! We're determined not to run the heater until the end of the month, so it may be time to pull up the space heaters. We've had the AC off since about the last week or two of August, so we're really trying to leave the heater off. The energy bill will reward us. Also, we're going to need to refill the oil before running the heater too much, and we really can't afford that at the moment. Hopefully next month, we can afford to refill the oil.
The forecast for this weekend says highs in the upper 70's, so I guess it's not time to put away summer clothes all together, but it is definitely time to pull out the sweaters and hand knit socks. I realized this morning that I need more pairs of socks! The last pair of Tofutsies that I finished are on display at the shop, so I can't wear them. One Jaywalker is done and I'm a little over 2 inches into the other one, I just need to focus my energies at it. I've stalled out on the lacy airy wrap sweater from fitted knits. It was all going swimmingly until I picked up the sleeve stitches. Now I'm about 3 rows down the sleeve and I don't like the join under the arm. It's got a lot of holes surrounding tight stiches. So I have to decide whether or not that will block out or if I want to rip it back and figure out how to make it go away. So it's on hold until I can deal with it. The crocheted jacket in the last post is coming along. I'm over halfway up the second front. Only problem is that I only have one more ball of yarn and two sleeves left to go. And the dye lot is over a year old. So I have to figure out how to incorporate a new dye lot into the old without it looking like I fudged it. I have an idea. I just don't want to execute it right now.
SO what did I do? I stared a new project. I'm making a little stuffed horse for my aunt for Christmas and I've promised Michelle to make up a new "shop cat." The horse only has 2 legs left, then I'll start the cat. Hopefully those fast projects will help me pull through on these others. And I must finish the 2 pairs of socks OTN.

BlogStalk, Week 1: Who Am I?

I Am:

A Wife
A Doggie Mom

A Knitter


A Spinner


A Dyer


A Crocheter


A Native Oregonian Transplanted in E Washington


A lover of nature


A Food Enthusiast, amateur cook, amateur baker


A Gardener & Plant Lover

Attempting to learn the intricate art of photography


I'm a 23 year old who's only beginning to find herself. I love to make lists and plans, but rarely do I follow through with them. Right now, my big goals are to pay off our debt, go back to school fall of 2009 and to buy a house. My big dream is to own my own nursery specializing in regional plants and flowers and to teach people how to respect the area that they live in by working within the local eco-system.

I want to grow into the woman that I see in my mind. She is a wife, a mother, a business owner, a boss, a friend. She is confident and self-aware. She has dirt under her nails and wakes up each morning ready to go live her dream. She is well respected and loved by those around her. She has made a difference in her community. She is powerful enough to take control of her life but wise enough to guide it down the right path.

I have a long journey ahead of me. But I think I'm finally on the right path.

Oatmeal Cookies

So... I have no photos of knitting because life is crazy. I'm back to full time at work so my mornings aren't my own any more. That means no early morning time for photos and blogging. And since we're FINALLY coming into fall (though you wouldn't know it from the daytime highs), the evenings are too shady to get good pictures.

So since I have no photos or interesting knitting stories, because my life is work for the next 6-8 months, you get my cookie recipe! I make these as snacks in the afternoon. Occasionally Steven will eat them for breakfast. They are incredibly filling. A little high in sugar to be "health food," but fairly healthy outside of that.

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups Brown Sugar (I usually use 1 cup brown and 1/2 cup white, you could also trade out that half a cup with molasses to add some iron to the cookies, or maple syrup, or honey, or... well, you get the idea!)
• 2 1/2 cups Oatmeal (not quick, just rolled)
• 4 cups Flour (I use 3 whole wheat and 1 AP white)
• 1 Tbs Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1-3 Tbs Cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/4 cup Canola Oil
• 3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
  
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1-2 cups assorted dried fruit and nuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Mix the dry ingredients, minus the fruit and nuts, until well blended. Stir in the wet ingredients then fold in the fruit and nuts.
3. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out the cookies and flatten onto a baking sheet. These cookies won't spread much in the oven, so flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.
4. Bake 10 - 12 minutes, until set.
5. Let cool 5 minutes on the sheets then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing.
6. These cookies keep about a week on the counter, sealed tightly. But they freeze beautifully! I tend to keep them individually packaged in the freezer for when I need them. They thaw in about 2 hours on the counter.
   

Wheelin' Walla Walla Weekend!

We've had a great weekend so far, and it's set to be even busier. We did the car show yesterday and will be going to a pooch pool party today. Along with normal weekend cleaning and cooking and shopping, it's been busy! Head over to my flickr account by clicking the above photo for more car show photos. Pool party photos will come later. Not much knitting to speak of right now. I will update that info tomorrow or the next day. Off to go grocery shopping!

FO: My So Called Scarf

It's Done!

Stats:
"My So Called Scarf"
1 Skein Manos Del Urugay, color #109
2 weeks, give or take

I love this scarf! The yarn is yummy. And the colors are so perfect!

Jaywalker #1 is done!

Yippee, 1 down, 1 to go. I made sure to take really clear notes so the second one turns out perfect. The toe is a little tight, I'm going to try blocking it first and may end up ripping back and adding a few rows. I'm not sure yet. But I looove them. This is such a fun pattern!