Rip It Rip It

I started the Vlad shawl with the wild berry yarn...ripped it off of the needles, couldn't see the pattern.  I grabbed a yarn out of the stash and tried it out.  So far, so good.  I am on the last chart of the shawl.  So can't wait to see the end of this beast.  This yarn is the Witching Hour and it is a Super wash merino and tencel blend that is killer to knit with.  Love this yarn.  It also has great yardage....450 yards of yarn.  I still have a big chunk of yarn left on my skein.  This is one of my yarns that I had painted last year or the year before.  I can't keep up anymore.  Too many things on my plate and so many things happening with my life. 
 
Here is the great news...had my blood work done and it came back with me at the pre-diabetic stage.  Oh yes, I am one happy camper!  I was told to keep up what I am doing and I should be diabetes free in three months.  I have to drop my cholesterol 100 points..still on the fish pills and I need to lose more weight.  I am done 32 pounds already.  Woot!  Woot! 

Today I fell off of the diet when I hit the local chicken place to have some of their spicy chicken strips with some red beans and rice and a 1/4 of a biscuit.  It was fantastic and I enjoyed every single bit of it.  I went grocery shopping with my sister afterwards and I was drooling in the produce department.  I was looking at the fresh corn on the cob and all the veggies.  Oh, I am a fiend for fruits and veggies now.  I look at a greasy burger and I am just sickened by it.  It just doesn't appeal anymore.  I have lost my taste for milk chocolate...these days it is the dark chocolate that does it for me since it isn't sweet at all.  Put an almond in it and we are talking.  That works for me. 

My sister calls me the food police.  Okay, I admit it, I tend to lecture on the bad foods these days but, I am trying to curb this attitude.  I am trying.  I have found if I go to a burger place, I get the kids portion and it works out fine for me.  I am full.  Those junior burgers are a great invention, not too much bread, not too much meat, just right. 

Tonight I made meatballs with bulgur and pasta sauce with cauliflower with cheese.  It was really good.  I don't eat pasta anymore, it isn't worth the heartache and spiked blood sugar.  The bulgur works out nicely and a little bit goes a long way.  I cook it in the rice cooker or on the stove but, it is so simple.  It takes 1/2 a cup with 1 cup of broth or water to cook it.  Add in a little pat of butter for a bit of flavor and it is tasty.  It is also low glycemic and when you are trying to watch what you eat, it is wonderful for filling you up without killing any beta cells.  That 1/2 cup of bulgur comes out at about 2 to 3 cups of bulgur in the end.  I usually put it in my storage container and stick it in the fridge to have it later in the week.  I also like quinoa and bulgur together.  I know it sounds funky but, when you are limited in your foods...you will find out what you like and don't like.  I can live without freekeh....tasteless and expensive...do not waste your time.  Bulgur can be found at the grocery store as well as the quinoa.  I did buy some chia seeds...those things aren't cheap but, man you don't need much to put on your salad.  They are funky things but, tasty. 

I also have been dealing with figs...my fig tree is out of control.  I have to go out and pick figs daily since this thing is producing like crazy.  I have been making jelly out of the things.  I have sugar jelly and I have xyla jelly for me.  The hubby has the sugar jelly.  I have been sharing my jars of fig jelly with family members and friends.  I even have a list of people who want a jar or two.  One of them is in Brazil right now and she said they will be back in January of 2013 and she will get her jelly then. 

I also made some tuna salad last night, I boiled some eggs and when I went to put the celery in...out of celery, dang!  So, I looked in the fridge for the relish...out of the too.  I mixed it up with what I had, the boiled eggs, the tuna, the mayo, and the spicy brown mustard.  Tonight I added in the relish and tomorrow I will be adding the celery.  I love the freshness of the celery in my tuna salad...mmm.  It tastes pretty good so far but, it needs the celery for that freshness.  I can't wait, that is lunch tomorrow. 
 
We tried those miracle noodles and that is one item I will never buy again...the texture nearly had me gagging.  I can't deal with it.  I like glass noodles and someone said that they were like glass noodles...LIARS!  Those things are nothing like glass noodles.  I can't even begin to describe how disgusting they are.  Avoid them like the plague.  Not worth the stink, either.  If you can't handle a rotten fishy smell avoid them.  I packed them off to my niece. 

I had to buy a new bathroom scale because the cheapy one I had was a piece of junk and gave different weights each time we stepped on it.  It was never right so, I bought a medium priced one...there are some that are out of this world in price...it needs to be able to clean the house if it is over $100.  My new one was $50, more than I would have normally spent but, it had all the bells and whistles I was looking for, another $10 would have gotten me one that had more bells and whistles than I thought I needed.  This one tells body fat percentage and water percentages along with weight.  The thing is just crazy.  I should have never bought the thing with the body fat percentage...it pisses me off every morning because one day it says less and the next day, it is more.  Nothing like a scale that tells you all the hard work you have done swimming hasn't garnered a damn thing.  GRRRR!!  It is just frustrating.  So, I find myself ignoring the body fat percentage now...it was driving my blood pressure up and I don't want to be on those damn pills like everyone else in my family.  I don't want high blood pressure but, I figure as long as I need to drop 100 more points on my bad triglycerides, it isn't going to be a good blood pressure reading at all.  I took it this morning and it was okay.  I can live with okay for right now. 

Finishing up Projects and Starting New Ones

As a knitter, I always have something on my needles.  Well, I did it, I finished the strawberry margarita shawl but, it isn't blocked.  I started another shawl tonight, the Vlad shawl by Tammy Bailey.  The pattern is all charts so, if you haven't learned to knit by charts, this might be the perfect time for you to learn.  They are simple so, if you are scared to take that big step, consider trying it out with this shawl.  It is easy to follow and she gives concise directions on how to work each chart.  If you can knit a slip 1, k2tog, psso, then you are in business...in other words...slip 1 stitch, k two stitches together and pass the slipped stitch over the knit 2 together.  A double decrease has been formed by this one stitch.  Easy.  That is the most difficult stitch, in my opinion in the whole pattern and there is a double yarn over but, she does explain how to get past this. 
  The top photos show strawberry margarita in it's finished and unblocked state.  The bottom pics are of the start of Wild Berry Vlad.  The yarn is gothic looking.  I think it is appropriate for the project. 
  So far, I am on the second repeat of the body chart, it requires 7 repeats.  I hope to be able to work on it this weekend and then next week as well.  Then I have to decide which yarn I want to use to start the next project.  I have a stack of shawl patterns sitting on my kitchen table. 
 

Loads of Rain Means Lots of Knitting Time

We are currently under another flash flood watch.  It has been this way for several days but, I am not complaining because if you have ever been in a drought situation, you welcome rain no matter how much you get.  Okay so we have an over abundance right now but, I look at it this way...no watering and not having to fill the pool up because it is totally full, right to the rim. 

The shawl is almost done and I had to come up to my desk top to find new patterns to knit.  I found them and I am excited to get started on them. 

I was on KP the other day and noticed they are no longer a cheap yarn store, they are expensive.  Wow!  I will stick to my old stand bys should I need yarn which if you haven't noticed...I have way too much yarn and I am not buying any right now.  I am using stash yarn.  My desk is cluttered with it right now.  I have about 10 skeins sitting on my desk waiting for me to use it.  Most of it is sock yarn.  I am using the sock yarn for lace knitting.  It works out great.  I also have about 4 lace weights sitting on the desk waiting for me to use them. 

Today I am just beyond sleepy.  I think between the stress of a really horrible week and the hubby being out of town, it was too much for me.  It is just so hard to deal with it all these days.  I think the diabetes really complicates things for me.  If I am stressed, up goes the blood sugar.  It sucks. 

I am thankful that it is the weekend.  I have been waiting for this all week.  It means I can spend some much needed time with my hubby.  Even the dogs missed him, and the hound dog was pissed off at me while Gary was out of town.  When Gary came home, the dog was so happy.  He wanted to be my friend again.  He was a pouting dog for a while there.  Kids! 

I am going to finish off the strawberry margarita shawl and get it ready for the blocking board.  Then I am going to start the next one.  I can't decide which one to do next.  I am thinking Vlad by T. Bailey, I found it on Ravelry and it is a free one so, all the better.  I don't mind paying designers for their patterns but, face it, free is always better.  I am using my yarn, Wild Berry in Merino/silk sock yarn.  The patterns calls for 365 yards of the hated yarn.  It is the merino/cashmere/nylon stuff...it tangles like a bitch and I refuse to use it again.  I have one skein of it left in a plum color.  I look at it every now and then.  I have no idea what to do with it.  It is 500 yards of yarn.  It would be a shame to waste it.  Maybe I will use it.  One day when I am desperate for yarn, I will probably use it. 

This is wild berry and I think it will work out well with the gothic motif that Vlad has going for it.  I think it will be a very interesting knit.  It requires a 3.75 mm needle and it uses sock yarn so, I am hoping it will be fun.  If you want to knit along with me...go to Ravelry and find it in the patterns section under shawls/wraps.  You have to be able to read a knitting chart.  They are pretty easy if you know the icons for each stitch.  Get out your sticky notes to mark your place and charts are simple. 

Pictures of strawberry margarita will be on here when I finish blocking it.  It was a fun knit but, I am sick of it already.  It has been a long 3 weeks of knitting it. 

Feeling Lost Right Now

I went to pay for something on line and that is when I realized, my credit card wallet was gone.  I freaked out!  I have lost my checkbook before and managed to find it but, now this was another matter.  So, I had to call all of my credit card companies to let them know all of the cards are gone.  Thankfully, no one has decided to charge anything on the cards.  That is one good thing. 

I have no idea where I lost the card wallet.  I am just sick over it.  Completely sick.  I will no longer be using a separate card wallet for my items.  I will stick them back into the wallet where I know they will be somewhat safe. 
 
Sigh! 

On the knitting front, I am working diligently on the shawl, I have two more rows on the third lace chart and then I get to move on to the 4th chart of stockinette stitch.  I look forward to some boring bits for this shawl because it means I can sit and zone out.  I just have to knit a few increases and that is it. 

So far, the shawl is looking good.  I am excited about getting it finished so, I can do another summer flies in the larger cotton/wool yarn.  I have plans for that shawl.  :) 

Yesterday Gary and I made fig preserves.  We ended up with 12 half pints of the stuff.  The next batch is for xylitol fig preserves. 

Today I checked out my fig tree to see what was ripe and I only managed to get three off of the tree.  Tomorrow should yield more ripe fruit. 

New Stitch Markers

Now that the holiday has passed, I sat down today to work on new stitch markers for myself.  I always manage to lose the things.  This time around, I went bigger and hopefully easier to spot in my knitting bag.  I managed to find a holder for them as well. 

On another note...I was able to sit down finally last night and do some more work on the strawberry margarita shawl.  It is looking pretty wicked.  The hubby has said he loves the color combination that I had painted.  :)  Pictures will follow later when I have a chance to get more of it done.  I love the easy simplicity of this pattern.  It doesn't require much in the way of stitches, the most difficult one being the slip2, knit 1, pass the slip stitches over or sl2k1psso.  So easy.  It is self explanatory. 

After the strawberry margarita shawl is done, I have other items on the list to complete.  One more summer flies shawl.  By the way, the recipient loved hers.  She was ready to put that bad girl on.  I am so happy she loved it.  I hope she wears it on her vacation. 

It turned out really well and it was fun to knit.  I will gladly knit another one.  I would also do another Romanesque shawl.  I have the yarn picked out for it, too.  I have so much yarn around here that it isn't a problem at all. 

Starting today, my shop has one set of stitch markers.  If they sell, great, if not, then I won't be carrying them.  They are in the shop as a trial product.  I know a lot of other shops offer them but, they sell those crappy ring ones that snag work...that pisses me off so quickly along with those cheap cables that have that tool that twists onto the needles and it always drops off in the middle of a row, this is the number one reason why I buy the Addi turbo clicks.  I am a huge fan of those needles, they are worth every penny. 

Anyway, I make the wire loopy stitch markers, easy to make, and they work the best.  It makes knitting all that much quicker to flip them and slip them as I knit along. 

Strawberry Margarita Merino/Silk Sock Yarn becomes a Shawl

This is one of my hand painted yarns, Strawberry Margarita.  It is a merino/silk sock yarn that I painted last week.  I decided it needed to become something special and since I am so hooked on lace knitting, I decided it was going to become a shawl.  It is too pretty to be on feet but, as we all know...feet need something to pretty them up.  Generally, I would be knitting socks about now but, I don't want to. 

So, I decided to take a skein of my favorite sock yarn and make a shawl out of it.  I know some knitters would think...this won't work...oh yes it will.  If you find that lace weight yarn is too damn thin for you and you want to knit lace, try fingering weight, it will make a lovely shawl.  It won't be a huge shawl but, it will be perfect to wrap around your neck and keep your neck warm.  Not only will your neck be warm, no huge scarf to pack around, and it will be a gorgeous accessory that other ladies will want to know where you bought it.

I have knit myself and one of my sisters a mini shawl for the neck.  I have had more women stop me and ask where did I get it and where can they get one like it?  I explain patiently that I am a knitter and I made it myself.  Oh, is knitting hard, is usually the question I get.  No, it isn't hard, it just takes practice and it will change your life.  I would be lost without my knitting needles.  It keeps me sane and I am proud to show off my work to whomever wants to see it. 

The skein has 440 yards on it and my shawl pattern calls for 440 yards.  If I need more yarn, I will be getting out my dyes and painting another skein of this particular yarn.  Let's hope this one skein will do the trick.  The shawl is Romanesque by Emily Ross.  I found it on Ravelry, it was a purchase, this one isn't free like her Haruni shawl.  Haruni is a fun one to knit.  I did mine on a KAL.  One of the groups I belong to on there did it and well, I had the time.  Since I am no longer on there as much...just to peruse patterns or another place to peruse free patterns is Elann.  They have some killer patterns for shawls on there.  I love their program for yarn, spend a certain amount and you get a $50 credit.  That credit has come along when I needed something nice but, couldn't justify spending the cash right then.  I love their voucher program too.  If you buy a book, then you get vouchers and vouchers will take cash off of your grand total.  It is worth the avid knitter's time to sign up to be a customer with them.  Signing up is free. 

I am using a size 5 US Addi turbo click long shank lace needle.  I love the clicks, they beat those things that come undone in the middle of a row...hate those things.  I know, they aren't cheap needles but, if you knit as much as I do and you also knit professionally as I do...then spend the money, they are so worth it.  Ask for them for a special present, you won't be disappointed.  The best part about the Addi turbos...they last.  The cheapies wear out fairly quickly. 

Right now, we are dealing with extreme temps, the high today is 100F.  Miserable and then add in the Texas humidity and you have a new brand of hell.  Yep.  I get asked why would you be knitting with wool in the middle of summer?  Well, wool breathes and it is the best time to knit my Christmas presents.  This means I am done by the time it rolls around and I can have the time to decorate my home and take it easy. 

Next on my agenda is to pick up my home and get it ready for company hitting on Saturday.  We are having our annual swim party and this means I have friends and relatives invading.  My house is not ready.  I have to pick it up and organize it.  Organization is my big problem, I am not organized at all and I know this drives the hubby crazy.  I am going to try and get it all under control this week.  That is the number one goal.  I won't be posting, I will be cleaning. 

I hope everyone has a safe and very happy 4th of July.  God Bless America! 

The Silk Shawl

Here is the silk shawl on the blocking board.  I decided since the board was out, I might as well block this shawl.  Since the shawl is wet, the color is much more noticeable.  It is a lilac.  I have had so many people tell me that it looks like it is gray.  No, it is lilac, specifically the color is lilac steel.  I love the silk yarn.  One thing about it though, you have to be really good to work with it because it will fall off the needle as you are working with it.  It is extremely slippery but, it is worth working with since it creates utterly scrumptious lace.  I love the texture of it as well. 

This one was fun to knit.  I would highly recommend it.  It is an Evelyn Clark design and it was free.  It was one of the buffalo inspired knits.  She knit is with buffalo gold yarn and gold being the key word since that stuff is out of this world expensive.  I refuse to drop $60 on one skein of yarn.  I would be a dead woman if I even attempted it, my hubby wouldn't be happy.  I know better than to even do it.