Happy Friday! We’re off to Las Vegas and Disneyland tomorrow!
Another week with no FO’s… but more stockings, a new project, tips for creating knit charts, some of my favorite scripture, Kent’s cooking, and a new book. Enjoy!
Finished Objects
None… again. Hopefully some projects will drop off the needles next week after my vacation!
WIP’s- Focus Projects
I’ve been putting an hour or so into my Christmas stockings each day. I love seeing the picture come to life with each chart. Colorwork is so satisfying! This week I made it through the trains on my Steamer Train stocking. This project won’t come with me to Las Vegas or California next week, but it will come home with me to Tennessee the week after.
With a new month comes a new #slaythestash2018 project. This time I pulled one of the oldest yarns in my stash. It’s a 100% silk ribbon I purchased sometime in high school. I have a very vague memory of being on a family vacation and my family kindly accepting my new hobby by stopping at a farm/yarn store. I had no clue what I was looking for and ended up buying these two little hanks. I’ve never known what to do with ribbon yarn.
The yarn is light as air, but tricky to knit. I wanted to make something special and delicate with these skeins. I decided I’d make a bralette! I wasn’t looking for a revealing pattern, just something simple and camisole-like. I just wanted the perfect little layer for wearing under t-shirts on a lazy day at home. Not snug enough to bind, but providing enough coverage that I could answer the door without crossing my arms over my chest. I found the Twins- Anna pattern in the deep archives of Knitty.com. So far so good! I’m making a few changes that I’ll be sure to highlight when I post my finished product.
Something New
My Float Tote pattern is set to release next week {now available!}, so I’ve begun working on a new pattern. This will be a pair of knitted socks with a texture pattern that requires a chart. Ah! Charts!
I’ve been making my own charts in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets for years. However, for a knitting pattern that I plan to publish… I needed to step up my game.
Can I just say, “Thank you, Craftsy.” A quick Google search on “how to make my own knitted charts” lead me to this Craftsy article. Included are five great sites for making knitted charts. Two of which look perfect for what I need.
What God’s Teaching Me
This week I found myself seeking peace and comfort. I start scrolling through my YouVersion Bible App at all the image quotes I had made with favorite verses. Each of these verses meant so much at the time. They were either extremely applicable to my life at the moment or they were so striking I just had to save them. Here are a few of those verses. I hope one stands out to you and helps get you through this season.
What We’re Cooking
Sunday we enjoyed the third meal from my freezer prep: Cheesy Tortellini with Ground Beef. It was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, it was yummy! It’s the kind of home-cooked comfort food you might crave at times. I think what turns me off this recipe is not the taste- it’s the expense of tortellini. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong aisle, but I can only find Buitoni tortellini, and that’s $7-9 a bag. The expense of the meal just doesn’t match the taste.
Remember the rubbery chicken from last week? I couldn’t stand to eat it or to let it go to waste. So I decided to form a rescue. First I picked off all the Tuscan toppings to eat on their own (mmm!). Then I warmed the chicken in the microwave long enough that I could shred it. I tossed them in a pan with some taco seasoning. Finally, I put them in the oven on top of tortillas and cheese. These came out muy bueno.
My husband, Kent, made a decision this week to try the Keto diet. This diet is heavy on protein, fat, and veggies and includes little to no carbohydrates. No sugar? No bread? Help!!!
It turned out to be a great thing for me though! Kent went off to the grocery store to buy food for his new meal plan. Then he cooked. And then I got to eat it! I present to you Kent’s cooking.
Above you’ll see broccoli with a creamy, cheese sauce and bacon paired with a grilled steak.
Kent is such a natural in the kitchen. He’s actually humming to himself and SMILING while he cooks. He either combined a few recipes or didn’t use one at all, and trusted instinct to make a good meal. Someone tell me why I’m the one that usually cooks?!
Above, Italian sausage with peppers and onions alongside haricots verts cooked in garlic.
I enjoyed playing sous chef so much. I loved that I didn’t have to think, just follow the directions my husband gave me. I’m also an excellent dishwasher, thank you very much. We played to our strengths and we had fun together in the kitchen! I hope we can continue working together once school starts back up.
What I’m Reading
After a few nights of browsing through my local library’s digital collection, I came across A Spool of Blue Thread. It caught my eye right away because of the loose connection thread has to yarn- of course! I’m only a little ways in, but it’s a cute book so far. It features a family with a slew of kids and real world problems.
I’ve been listening to Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. It’s much more technical than I remember. Have I gotten dumber since I listened to the book a couple years back? Probably! I still find the book fascinating. Any author of fiction novels will put their own spin on fact, but there’s an exorbitant amount of research that goes into science-fiction. Some truth is in there!
While I’ve enjoyed re-reading the book, I was so disappointed in the new movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I won’t spoil the plot, I promise. There were several elements that just didn’t work for me. One, it was cheesy… a common pitfall among sequels where the writers just tried too hard to be funny. Two, it was intense. There was too much “up” time {i.e. waiting anxiously while certain dinosaur attack is imminent} and not enough down-time to build the plot and characters. Three, even for a movie about dinosaurs there were too many unbelievable parts. The ending? Just… no.
Please, don’t make another movie Universal… oh wait this is a planned trilogy. Hopefully they can clean this movie up and make another great one (like with the first Jurassic World).