Stupid February

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the month of February?  February has never been a good month for me and this year .... Well, this year, February simply sucks.  First, I had that stomach bug that lasted four or five days.  Then I got the cold/sinus thing which is still hanging around two weeks later.  And for the icing on the February cake, we've spent the last 36+ hours in the ER.  My husband had a bit of a health scare but after about 45 thousand tests/procedures and even more medicines, they hope to send him home shortly.  We're just waiting for the final approval from the doctor.

On a more positive note, the hubster will be fine, although we may end up divorced after all my future nagging about taking his health more seriously.  

And, I finished the Rambling Rows blanket.  That photo is the best I can do from ER.  I never got around to taking a photo of the finished blanket.  But yeah, I went with the icord border and am glad I did.  I don't know why I was dreading it so much.  The icord knitting went super fast - much, much faster than a garter border would have been.  After being on the To Knit list for four years, I'm pretty dang excited to be done with that blanket.  I even already got the loose ends woven in!

Maybe February doesn't suck so bad after all.

Cupcakes and Wine

I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day.  I got Mucinex and tissues.  I can't believe that less than a week after having that horrible stomach bug, I got the cold/sinus/flu bug.  Thankfully, the day before I got sick this time around, I'd accidentally bought myself cupcakes.

I didn't mean to buy so many.  I was at work and noticed the Key Lime cupcakes.  And the strawberry sounded good too but... Key Lime!  I grabbed a box and did a price check.  They were on a Buy One Get One type sale so... I went back and got the strawberry too.  But while I was grabbing the strawberry, I noticed the lemon.  I love lemon flavored deserts.  And if I was going to get key lime, strawberry and lemon, I had to get the fourth box so....  Now I have cupcakes!

What I don't have is wine bottles.

I saw this idea on Facebook.  I feel terrible that I'm not sharing the source but I guess the fever got to me and I didn't keep track of where it came from.  I just remember seeing it on Facebook.  Anyway.... I have a lot of those plants and am constantly rooting pieces of it and I absolutley love this idea!  The problem is, just a few weeks ago, I threw away over 20 empty wine bottles I'd been saving for a 'one of these days I'll make something with these'  type craft project.  Doh!  Oh well.  Guess I just need to drink more wine.  

Meanwhile, I've continued knitting on Rambling Rows.  I've made a little more progress since taking that photo.  I'm currently on block 52 out of 55.  I am so excited to get this baby finished.  It's only been four years in the making.  The problem is, once I'm 'finished,' I need to dig through the stash pile and find a skein or two to knit a border around it.  I'm torn between a garter border or an icord border.  I want the icord border but I'm having a hard time mentally facing that much icord. Not sure why - icord is pretty simple and would probably take less time than a garter border, but....

While I try to choose border styles, here's a picture of Hayden's Valentine's Day hair-do.

She had heart hair!  After the photo was taken, her mom even turned the heart red by rubbing red eyeshadow over it.  So stinking cute.

And now, I'm going to go finish my Mucinex, eat cupcakes and drink wine.

Happy knitting!

Sunday Supper - Spicy Bok choy

Well this isn't the best way to kick off the return of Sunday Suppers because I forgot to take a photo, but it was good and I want a record of what I did so I can make it again sometime soon so...

But first, a little backstory.  You know how I like to make a short story long. 😊

Last year, I decided to get healthy, or at least eat super healthy.  Well, super healthy compared to the way I'd been eating.  I sort of became one of those annoying people who talk about calories and fat grams and the number of carbs in foods.  I was annoying, but felt great!  Then I went to the doctor for my six month blood work and all my numbers came back even worse.  I pretty much said "'ef it" and went back to eating ice cream and potato chips.  

While my tastebuds may love chips and ice cream, my body doesn't.  I can tell a difference in how I feel, and even how my brain doesn't function as well on all the salt and sugar. So screw the bloodwork numbers.  I'm going to eat what physically makes me feel good.  I'm back to eating healthy foods.  Healthy foods plus a little more bread than I should probably have.  Whatever. 

Anyway, I'm trying to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. And I recently discovered bok choy.  I think in my two years cashiering at the grocery store, only three people have bought it, but one of those three was going on about how versatile it is and how good it is for you so... I've been experimenting with bok choy recipes.

My newest creation I'm calling Spicy Bok Choy.  I thought it was delicious, and super simple.  

Spicy Bok Choy

Mexican Chorizo
2 large carrots
1 large bunch of bok choy
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp olive oil

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add Chorio.  

Grate the carrots and add to pot.

Slice bok choy thinly and add to pot.

Add chicken broth and cover.

Stirring frequently, cook until bok choy is softened.

I'd never cooked with Chorizo before but yum!  It's another one of those things I kept seeing people buy, but I'd never tried.  I think I'll be adding it to a lot of dishes in the future.

It's raining. Again.

Goodness! It's been a wet winter.  Sadly, we've had no real snow, but we have had 9+ inches of rain since the first of December.  And it's raining again today.  Good grief!  I really shouldn't complain because we are now 'water front' rather than 'swamp mud' fronted. The view is definitely nicer.

Anyway...

I've been knitting.

After finishing the brown striped socks, I pulled Rambling Rows out of the UFO pile.  According to Ravelry, I started this Cottage Creations blanket in April, 2020.  I've knit a few of these blankets before and really like the pattern. It's super simple but the color changes keep you from getting bored, and best of all, the blocks are large-ish so there are only 100's of ends to weave in at the end instead of 1,000's.  

The blanket is made up of multiple sizes of mitered squares and rectangles, it's super easy to knit and it's a great way to use up leftover yarns.  For this version, I'm using fingering weight and it's going to be more of an oversized baby/lap blanket size.  I'm thinking seriously of knitting another (or maybe 3 more) and sewing them together to form a blanket big enough for a large bed.  But considering it's taken me four years to get this far.... probably not.  But on a positive note, I'm on block 47 out of 55.  Here's hoping I can stick with it and actually get it finished.  

I'm really enjoying this 'finishing' thing.  I finished the summer/4th of July diamond painting.  I'm not really into the shiny/sparkley way the finished pieces look (although I LOVE my sparkley snowflake coasters) but I do enjoy attaching the diamond dots to the backing.  It's so mindless and meditative.  I went a little crazy last summer and ordered multiple coaster sets and three large seasonal designs.  There's this one for summer, an autumn one with pumpkins, and a winter one with a snowman.  They're all the same size and the idea is to buy one frame that I can move the diamond paintings in and out of seasonally.  The goal is to finish one each quarter.  We'll see how that goes.

And, I finished the shawl.

I haven't blocked it and honestly, I may just skip that process entirely because the yarn is so soft and drapey as is.  I used almost 5 full skeins of Obsidian City Tweed and most of a skein of Snowbank.  I didn't use a pattern, it's just a simple triangular, bottom up, garter stitch shawl.  Easy peasy and now I have another item checked off the list and 6 skeins of yarn out of the stash pile.  Win/win.

Happy knitting!

Another Checkmark in the FO Column

Sorry this is a day late.  I've got the Norovirus and well, it was impossible to accomplish anything yesterday.  I don't remember ever being that sick before, but, the vomiting has stopped at least and I'm weighing 8 pounds less today than yesterday.  

Anyway...

I moved another project from the  WIP column to the FO column.

Actually, I'd finished the knitting weeks ago but the socks were still lounging around waiting to have the toes kitchnered.  I used Paton KroySocks in the Brownies colorway.  And no, they don't match perfectly but I don't care.  Thankfully, I've never needed my socks to be matchy-matchy.  It's a good thing because my feet are so big I have to use the whole skein.  I can't be wasting yardage trying to get the starting point to match.

I'm really enjoying this 'get everything finished' goal.  I thought I'd finish an old project, knit a new one, finish an old one, knit a new one... but it feels so good to get things finished and scratched off the list I just keep finishing things. Yay me!