At Last! Pictures!

I promised pictures of my current work and here they are...

Honestly, it reminds me of a neon rattlesnake skin.  I am using US 5 needles on this project with sock yarn.  Yep, sock yarn can be knit into lace.  If you really do want to get into lace but you are so unsure of working with lace weight yarn, then try out sock yarn before you take the plunge with the lace yarn. 

I myself love lace knitting.  I now know why my MIL is hooked on it and can't seem to get enough of it.  Since I have a major yarn stash of sock yarn, I am trying to use it up and this is one of many projects in the works for sock yarn other than...socks! 

Happy Easter Everyone!

I hope everyone has a truly beautiful and blessed Easter. 

I am headed to my sister's house with my food...it is bring what you want to eat day at her house.  It should be interesting.  I am taking a veggie tray, a sausage, and a truly decadent and gorgeous coconut cake.  I can't wait to have at the cake.  Yep, cake is my down fall. 

Right now, we have a baby turtle in the pool.  He is truly a cute little buddy.  When he sees me watching him, he dives deep.  When he thinks no one is around, he comes to the surface of the pool. 

I would include a picture of him but, my camera is not cooperating right now and the turtle isn't, either. 
 
If I can get close enough to take a picture, I will.  I also have to get a new sd card reader since the old one and my new computer do not like each other.  I found this out quite by accident when I was trying to upload my photos from my last DAR meeting. 

No idea what happened but, it won't work no matter what I have tried. 

I also have pictures of the scarf I am knitting on the camera and when I finally am able to upload the pics, I will show them off to everyone. 

My Car is Covered in Oak Pollen

Here we are at week 2 of the allergy crud.  I am still fighting it.  No fever at all, just the crud.  No antibiotics and no doctor trips.  Why, when there is nothing he can give me for it.  I have to rid myself of it.  If I can't get rid of the mucus on my own, then I will go and get the prednisone to dry it all up.  I am tired of it already. 
  I had one woman stop me and tell me that I need to quit smoking sooner or later.  I laughed and told her I have never smoked a day in my life, this is the pollen crud that I have been dealing with.  Everyone around here has it.  I go to the store and I hear the tell tale cough. 
  I am still working on the Raha scarf.  I know why I never knit the things anymore, boring!  It is driving me crazy.  I would rather work on something that keeps my interest not make me want to throw it down and work on something more challenging.  I am sticking to it since it will become someone's Christmas present.  Yeah, I am knitting those already.  Why not? 
  I have plans to knit another shawl or two in the near future.  I have yarn galore in that front, too. 
  I want to knit some hats and cowls for people.  Hats are easy 1 to 2 hour projects.  So simple and typically mindless.  I have several men in the family to knit hats for.  They love them and it doesn't take much to keep them happy. 
  After perusing my Clean Eating magazine, I am looking at trying several of the recipes.  I will have to get rid of a few carb laden items but, I am thinking what I will sub in will work.  If it calls for rice, I sub in either quinoa or bulgur.  I find that bulgur is my go to grain rather than the quinoa.  The quinoa is light and works for soups and other dishes but, I like the texture of the bulgur. 
 I have the omega-3 pasta that is actually lower carbs than regular pasta and that is a once a month or once every 2 months option, not an every day or every week. 
  Yes, I am still eating low carb and I can tell the difference.  I have lost weight, I am still in the current size that I had lost weight to get into but, I am working on getting into a smaller size for the year.   Hopefully, I will lose 2 sizes this year.  That would be so nice.  I would love to be back into my really cute clothes.  I will have to lose more than that should I want to get into my old Levis. 
  I usually have a yogurt for breakfast.  I eat the Greek Chobani and I love it.  The dogs love it, too.  They like to lick the container.  It works out  nicely for recycling purposes, the little one licks it clean, I pick it up, I put it in the recycling tub. 
  After this post, I plan to put on my compression shorts and ride my bike.  I won't be outside for this since it is FREAKING cold out there right now. I was hoping to be able to start swimming soon.  Uh, no.  Mother Nature has put a stop to that right away.  So, swimming will have to wait.  Darn.  Unless I can find my wet suit.  I have no idea where it went to. 
  I need to paint the Spring line up but, I don't want to do it right now. 

Fruit Stripe

I decided since I am pretty much not fit to do much of anything other than sleep and watch television, I might as well pass the time more constructively.  I am now knitting a scarf with my yarn, Fruit Stripe, it is a hand painted merino/nylon sock yarn.  I was leafing through Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush when I spotted Raha, it is a scarf pattern found on page 64.  I have sock yarn galore and it does call for it so, I found my Addi turbo lace needle case, I have the clicks, which if you can afford them, buy them, you will love them!  The pattern calls for US 4's.  I have no idea where my US 4's are right now and since I feel awful from the explosion of tree pollen, I do not want to go digging for the things.  I am using size US 5's. 
  It is working out nicely.  The pattern is simple lace.  If you can do k2tog, ssk, slip2, k1, p2sso, and yo, you are in business.  Simple really. 

  The yarn is actually darker than my computer shows it.  It is bright and vivid fluorescent colors.  I loved the Fruit Stripe gum as a child and well, I decided to paint those colors on this yarn.  This yarn is fantastic for lace projects, it stretches quite nicely when blocked. 
  I go to it now after completing a lace project with another skein of it.  It shows off the work great! 
 
Since I am sock yarn queen over here and have copious amounts of it in my stash, I thought why not make something other than socks and the fiasco of last night.  Not going to even go there with discussing that sock project.  Grr! 
 
I took a nap today and woke up feeling better but, the crud has gone to the lungs, which I knew it would do.  So, I am now nebulizing to keep it from getting worse.  If it doesn't clear up by next week, I will break down and go in for the prednisone. 

I have to get myself feeling better by Thursday since I have DAR that night.  It is our annual book drive for our schools that we service.  We have two that we donate books to each year.  Both are private schools and one is really huge while the other is very small and they love getting books from us.  We try to donate history books for the kids since History is very important and repeats itself. 

I need to go and get two more Easter presents before Thursday night's meeting.  I will be seeing my older sister and I want to get her two boys something for Easter.  I might have to go tomorrow and get their gift cards.  I have found out after trying to guess what these two would like that it is so much better to get them gift cards because they can go and get what they want with them.  They get excited when they get one.  Fine by me, it means I don't have to do anything special for them and get it wrong. 

I did buy a gift card for one of my great nephews and when he opened it, my niece said he was completely shocked and excited, he couldn't wait to go and get what he wanted!  Boys love them.  Girls are easy to shop for.  My niece is simple to please, she loves clothes and chocolate.  Just like her Auntie.  I love shoes, she does too.  She hasn't discovered purses, yet.  Give her time.  She is only 10. 

I miss her this week since I am out of commission and will hope to see her next week.  She cracks me up.  I look at her sometimes because she is a smaller version of my Mom.  I miss my Mom and then I look at my niece, who acts like Mom and it helps me feel better. 

Stupid Tree Pollen!

Right now I am dealing with crappy allergies.  My nose has been clogged and dripping for some time now and it is unbearable.  So, I have been fighting this crud and then the sore throat started on Sunday.  Misery! 
  I was not taking this lying down.  I decided to get out my whole arsenal of goodies to help me recover.  No fever whatsoever so, no antibiotics and I really don't want to head to the doctor for this since I have everything I need here. 
  I don't know about you but, when I get a cold or the allergies act up, I eat!  I eat everything in my path and yesterday was that day.  I was hungry all of the time.  I managed to slug down tea by the cupful.  I actually emptied 1 and 1/2 tea tins.  Today I will finish that 1/2 tin that is left and my darling hubby will be so happy.  He thinks I have way too much tea for one person.  It comes in handy this time of year.
  I woke up this morning and felt so much better.  I had to stop the sore throat last night, I dread them because they are usually horrible with me.  I grabbed my bottle of honey, the local stuff, and poured myself a tablespoon of it.  It stopped the horrible feeling as soon as it touched my throat.  I was so shocked! 
  I have been nebulizing to keep the crud out of the chest because if it gets into the chest, pneumonia, it is a given with me.  So, I am using my two solutions to stop the problem before it gets there.  I noticed this morning when I woke up, that my chest was starting to get that feeling.  I will be nebulizing today for sure.  I don't want pneumonia with the whole body hurting and the high fever.  Misery! 
  Hopefully today I will be able to get some cat naps in and the dogs will cooperate with me.  The two old boys sleep the day away as it is and the young dog doesn't really mind sleeping when the other two are down.  He is pretty good that way.  He is a monster most of the time but, he is sweet the other 1/4 of the time.  When  the sweetness is coming out, I never know. 
  I have even used one box of tissues up.  I am on my second and last box.  I might have to venture forth to the grocery store today to pick up some saline spray for my nose and the tissues.  I might even go and get some soup from the local place that does that kind of thing, they also do sandwiches which I can't do. 
  If I do have a sandwich, I have low calorie/carb bread here.  It is wonderful to be able to have that second slice of bread.  If you have never had to go without a slice of bread, you do not know what I am talking about.  It is terrible.  So, I found this bread and it works well for me since it has fiber, loads of fiber that I need. 
  Face it kids, fiber is your friend, it is mine!  It doesn't have to be yucky, there is some nice fiber out there these days.  Not the gloppy stuff that was only available until all he baby boomers got old.  They have improved it since the old days. 
  Another thing on my diet I can't live without is yogurt.  I love my yogurt for breakfast every morning.  It keeps me in balance.  My dogs lick out the container.  The Corgi's little jaw is perfect for sticking a yogurt container on as he packs it away.  He licks it clean and it is then ready for the recycling bin. 
  My recycling bin is freaking huge.  We have a new program that the trash company started and I have found out that I am recycling more than I used to.  I find that I throw less away and I recycle more.  It is strange how a massive recycling bin on wheels changed how I recycle. We used to have these smaller rectangle bins that we used.  I never recycled with those.  Now, I have a bin in the house that I use to dump into the huge bin on wheels.  I am amazed at how much I recycle now. 
 
 
 

Stay Away

I am watching the one thing I need to stay away from, QVC.  I love shopping here and then watching David makes me want to eat.  He hosts the best of the foods and well, I admit, I used to drool and order everything this man pitched until the diet changed.  Now, I am watching him thinking, why would I order that?  I wouldn't.  Although, the sugar free Junior's cheese cakes sampler....OMG!  To die for except for the lemon cake...ugh!  They taste fake. 
  I started a scarf and now I am not even interested in knitting it.  Maybe later in the week, I will sit down and work on it.  I love the yarn.  I am using my sparkly lace.  It is my favorite lace yarn to go to. 
  Last night we headed to the warehouse store and we were laughing about the 25 pound bag of confectioner's sugar.  Okay, we don't have a bakery so, we hope to never buy the bag.  We decided to go ahead and buy the membership to help us save some money on groceries.  Meat is cheaper at the place.  I was drooling in the steak department.  I had my hands on the turkey pastrami sandwich meat but the hubby pointed out that I have a hard time eating the deli meat that we have right now.  I only buy 1/4 pound since I am the only one eating it.  He doesn't do sandwiches like I do.  I have the low carb bread. 
  As I explained to the guy at the grocery store, it means a lot to me to be able to have 2 slices of bread versus one slice of bread.  Trust me, if you can't have two slices of bread, you have no idea how big of a deal it is to be able to have 2 slices of bread versus one.  I am so glad that there is the low carb bread. 
  This morning I decided to have myself a cup of decaf.  I have the single cup brewer and I admit, I am in love with their decaf hazelnut.  It is my favorite.  I have some other decaf flavors as well and I am trying to use them up so, I can go back to the name brand site and buy more of their coffee and their rooibos tea.  Love it. 
  I am trying to replace all of my plastic drinking bottles with glass.  I bought some recently and today I went ahead and made some green tea and added it to my glass bottle.  It was nice to have a cool green tea on hand in a glass bottle. 
  I am thinking of brewing more and pouring the tea into the bottles and refrigerating them so, when I want tea, I have it convenient in the fridge.  I drink my tea without any sugar or honey these days, diet changes.  I actually find tea much more refreshing without sugar. 
  I have been looking for a way to use my sock yarn.  I have a lot of sock yarn and well, I think I have come up with a new use for it.  I am going to make shrugs with sock yarn.  I have several nieces and I thought about it today, I can use sock yarn to knit them.  This means I can use up my yarn stash.  That is my goal right now.  I am trying to use up yarn.  I have so much yarn that I am storing it in several rooms.  I know, terrible but, true.  I have bought yarn since day one of knitting.  Now, I am not buying yarn at all.  I am trying to use the stash up. 
  I have had requests for blankets from family members but, right now...no.  I am not doing blankets.  I have other projects happening these days.  I like to make blankets during the winter since I can get warm while making them. 
  Now that Spring is around the corner, literally, I am working on smaller items and thinking of what to make with sock yarn.  I will be getting out the Barbara Walker Treasury, and seeing what kind of patterns I can come up with for my shrugs.  I have every single one of her books and if you can get them, buy them.  They are worth every single penny.  I have had my set for a couple of years.  My MIL just recently purchased her set.  She has been knitting way longer than I have.  She mentioned the store where she bought them wanted to buy her set back since they are super popular. 
  My set has sticky notes every where since I am mark what patterns I love and go from there.  They are well loved and used for many projects. 
 

Doing a Little Beading to Pass the Time

I have been working on beading necklaces. I do this for relaxation to pass the time.  I mostly give my creations away to family and friends for their birthday presents or holiday presents.  My sister tells me to sell them.  Etsy is way over crowded with people making and selling jewelry.  So, I am looking for a venue to sell my necklaces.  I have gotten several compliments on my necklaces but, when I tell people how much I want for them, then they get really cheap on me.  Beads aren't cheap.  I have to say that and I am making less than minimum wage when I make a necklace.  So, put that in your pipe and smoke it. 
  As a knitter, this is what I have gone through trying to sell my hand made items.  If you knit and make items, then you know exactly where I am coming from.  People want something for nothing.  Not going to happen.  If you want it, pay the price for it. 

This is today's creation.  I chose to use a heart as my pendant and since silver and white is one of my favorites to work with, I decided today instead of my usual flower pendant, I would use the heart.  I like how pretty it is.  This one is shorter than most of the necklaces that I make. 

Wintry Kisses Smoke Ring in Progress

 

I am knitting a smoke ring in one of my hand painted merino/silk sock yarns, it is called Wintry Kisses.  I am using a pattern by Wendy D. Johnson out of her book, Wendy Knits Lace.  I am knitting the light as a feather smoke ring on page 120. 

This is a great project to help me use up my stash of sock yarn.  The best part, it can be made with left over sock yarns.  This was a new skein.  I decided it would be pretty knit up in lace and I wasn't wrong.  I can't wait to block it to see how well it really shows off the pattern.  :) 

I am using a US 6 needle for this project.  Love those Addi click turbos.  Best knitting needles ever.  Well worth every single penny I spent on them.  I have the long tips for lace. 

One More Time

I have a new computer and I have grown my nails long so, I am dealing with issues that are just about to send me over the freaking edge.  I have tried to blog three times and yep, just when I am really getting into this post, the stupid thing disappears.  Grrr!!!  So, let me try this again. 

We went out to lunch to the fish place and I got the blackened redfish, green beans, and the onion rings.  Love their onion rings, they are fabulous.  They have a mean remoulade sauce that is so damn good.  I love dipping my onion rings in it.  So, on the way home, he asked me to stop at the grocery store since he needed a pain patch refill.  He hurt his back and is in pain.  So, he has been having me put those on him when he needs them.  He says it is helping. I can't deal with the smell of the things.  Ugh! 

I was driving and so, I headed to the store.  We also picked up the ribs that are still on sale.  We have no more room for anything else in either deep freeze.  The big stand alone one is full and the one that is on the refrigerator is packed as well.  If we try to stuff anything else in either one, it is going to start barfing meat at us. 
 
We picked up 6 items and it was $50.  I am not kidding.  Everything now is sticker shock.  It doesn't take much to drop $50.  Not at all.  I won't even start with the price of gas.  I only have a 13 gallon tank and when it takes me $40 to fill up, that is completely awful.  Hubby's car has a bigger tank and it is worse for him.  We drive my car mostly to leave the big V-6 at home.  I have a turbo 4 cylinder and it gets better gas mileage, or it would if I didn't have a lead foot.  I love going fast.  My car drives better the faster you go in it.  I love it. 

So, I asked hubby what we are going to do today.  He said, not a damn thing.  Okay, this means I get to do what I want.  My plans include working on the smoke ring.  I will have to take pictures of the first two I have done and the one that I am working on right now.  My goal is to use up sock yarn.  I have other projects in mind as well.  I have lace weight yarns waiting for me to use them.  I also have beads waiting on me.  I made a birthday present yesterday for one of my nieces.  I hope she will love it. 

Last night was girls night out at the bead store but, I didn't get to go.  No one was available to go with me.  I would have enjoyed it but, since I couldn't find any one with any cash or the time, I stayed home with my hubby.  Oh well, maybe next time.  It would have been fun to sit with other beaders and go a little bit wild.  :D

I made polenta lasagna last night and the hubby and the dogs loved it.  I am liking that recipe more and more, if you want it, it is on my other blog, it is in the list on the right side.  It is a little bit runny since it is lower carb and I try to use less of the polenta so, use a spoon instead of a spatula. 

Hubby bought me a new computer and he gets a discount since he works for a computer company.  I love the fact that this one was for me.  I guess since I bought him a really nice tablet for his Christmas present, he decided to get me a new computer.  I had bought him a Samsung 7 inch tablet, which after the reviews of 5 stars across the board, I knew it was the one to buy him.  He loves it and he can control the tv with it.  That is impressive.  I told him I wanted one and he bought me this instead, I am not complaining since it is what I wanted.  He told me to choose what I wanted and I chose this one.  I love it, it isn't too big and it isn't too small.  He had asked me if I wanted the 17 inch lap top.  That thing was huge!  No, I didn't need that big thing.  I chose the 15.5 screen.  It is plenty big. 

When we were in the store, I saw a product called, Horny Goat Weed.  I kid you not, I was cracking up laughing in the middle of the store.  It was in the men's section of supplements.  I wonder if it works?!  Can you imagine even buying it?  It might make a great gag gift for a man.  The name alone will make you snicker. 

I have to go to the pharmacy at some point and pick up my asthma meds. 

We have a rapist on the loose over here and he is violent.  Lovely.  He even attacked a woman in her garage with a chain.  What kills me the most, the news isn't even reporting it.  We would like to know about this nut case.  Several ladies are taking the concealed weapons course now, and plan to be armed to the teeth.  Can't say that I blame them.  I was looking for my knife.  I always packed a knife in my purse when I was single.  My sister tells me no more knife, pepper spray is the way to go.  Like hell, I want something to inflict some pain on my attacker!  One of my friends took the self defense course that the sheriff's department gives with the man in the Michelin tire suit.  She said it was a blast.  She said at first she didn't think she could beat the crap out of anyone but, then she said when she got to literally attack and beat the crap out of the guy, she enjoyed it.  I am going to have to suggest this to our chapter Regent and see what she says. 

Hubby is cooking supper tonight, he is making his Mojo chicken.  I found some Mojo sauce at wally world, it is by Goya foods.  I love Mojo chicken and ribs.  Fabulous!  We haven't had it on beef, yet.  It is supposed to be really good.  I just know I cooked last night on my night off so, he gets to deal with it tonight.  I get the weekends off, on cooking.  He usually takes me out some place and I cook the week nights.  I look forward to my weekends off.  :) 

One of my friends tells me her boyfriend does all of the cooking.  I told her to take that man out on the weekends to treat him.  He needs some time away from the stove.  He will love her more for it.  I know, I speak from experience. 

 

Still Knitting

I have taken a break from crochet.  I am back to knitting and right now I am working on using up some of the sock yarn stash to knit smoke rings.  If you have left over sock yarn and you don't know what to make, a quick smoke ring will use that left over yarn.  They are so easy to knit and if you can knit in the round, you are there.  Just choose your pattern and cast on with the appropriate amount of stitches and go wild. 

I cooked for my hubby last weekend.  I made homemade lasagna with polenta instead of noodles, then I made chicken Marsala, and then on Sunday I made smothered sirloin steak with onion gravy, it is an old family recipe that my Daddy always made for us but, he used chuck steak and to tell you how freaking mixed up our world is, chuck steak is more expensive than sirloin at the grocery store.  I have no idea why.  It is just messed up! 

If anyone needs seed beads, right now there is a killer sale on them at art beads.  They are on sale for $1.00.  I didn't need any so, I didn't buy any.  I know several knitters who love to use them with their knitting.  So, this is a great time for everyone to save. 

We hit a sale tonight on baby back pork ribs, I was at the grocery store earlier today and I picked up 2 and then tonight, we went together after he took me to dinner and we grabbed 2 more packages.  They are in the freezer.  We have to buy them as we can afford them.  Thank goodness that we have a freezer. 

I haven't even painted yarn in a while.  I don't even feel like working right now.

I am working out more and I actually look forward to it.  I rode my bike for 1 hour the other day and my left knee paid the price.  It hurts.  So, I might have to decrease the work out time and go back to 45 minutes per day. 

My doctor wants me to do 1 hour per day since I gained 13 pounds from the holidays. Ugh!  So, I am trying to be good over here and I love my carbs so, this is painful for me.  I am to the point where I buy my potato chips in portion controlled sizes. Yeah, they aren't supposed to be on my diet but, I did find a brand that is 11 grams of carbs.  I have them with my sandwich.  I have the low carb bread. 

We planted the garden again this year.  My veggies are coming up nicely and the hubby has planted tomatoes and since we are supposed to have a freeze tomorrow night.  Great!  We will be covering those tomatoes so, they don't die.  We cleaned out the back bed behind the pool and pulled out the roses from hell and assorted scrub.  The roses from hell are the damask roses.  I had planted one 1 bush and it suckered and turned into 8 bushes.  The thorns on those things were long and needle like.  Okay so, it was a beautiful rose and it smelled divine but, it was awful at the end.  We decided that since produce is out of this world in price, we would grow our own.  I love gardening.  It is so amazing.  Not only does it feel good to grow my own produce but, it is relaxing.  :)