Moonlight Serenade

I'd like you to meet....

2009-06-23T10:26:00.005-04:00

Sheldon. I finished knitting him at the ND retreat this weekend. He's a gift for Dawson. I liked him so much though that I'm going to make myself one.

and the Daylily Scarf.

Thanks Marci for the idea on the name.

PS. We had an awesome time at the ND retreat this last weekend. Thanks to Janet for all her work on gather such awesome goody bags and door prizes. And to Chris, Vicki and Elizabeth for organizing and planning the classes.

Sheldon's Going to Retreat

2009-06-18T09:22:00.005-04:00

I finished knitting all of Sheldon's parts last night and started the assembly process. I stopped just short of doing the icord edging to attach the shell to the shell breastplate last night before heading to bed. I also realized, as I was assembling, that I knitted the breastplate out of the wrong yarn, but I figure Baby Dawson won't know the difference, so whatever.

I'm planning to have him done this week. I had planned to finish him last Sunday while at work, but as I was taking a steak out of the oven for my Sunday dinner, I hit the back of my hand against the oven door and burned it. Of course it was the right one and I'm right handed, so every time I curled my hand it throbbed. No knitting for me. :o( I have a mark on the back of my ring finger from the big knuckle down to the fist knuckle about 1/2 inch wide. Luckily I work right down the hall from the urgent care facility. One of the nurses kindly gave me a bit of silvadeen (sp?) burn cream. I applied that for 2 days and then it was fine. The area where it blistered still hurts just a little if I bump it, but otherwise, it feels fine. And more importantly, I can knit again.

This weekend my Frog Pond Knitting Group is having another Day Retreat. You may remember, that we had one back in January. Treking across the Notre Dame campus in the snow and cold was not fun, but we had a great time once we were inside and the layers were all pealed off. Elizabeth S. is going to be teaching a top down sweater. She has put so much time into designing the sweater. Since there were so many semi-newbie knitters interested, she decided not to do a raglan sleaves. I want to make one (baby sized) but I have so many other projects on the needles right now that I think I will just take notes and work on that later. For when Dawson is just a bit bigger and isn't growing out of things every couple of weeks.

Vicki may be doing a Ravelry demo. She emailed the group to find out if there was any interest, but no one replied back, so she was planning to nix it. I'm one of the guilty ones who didn't reply. However I honestly missed the email. I emailed her this morning and told her that a couple of people were still planning on bringing their laptops just in case. I hope we can still have it.

And of course we get to have that yummy Notre Dame Dining Hall food. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that either. Their food is so good and there is so many varieties that if you come away hungry, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Sewing and Knitting News

2009-06-10T09:23:00.014-04:00

I mentioned a couple of entries ago that I had been working on a quilt pattern called "Oceans." Well, a funny thing happened while I was chain sewing triangles on to a bunch of squares. There were a LOT of pieces. As the chain got bigger and spilled over onto the floor, it would normally form a huge pile of fabric. However it was so weird, because it formed a circle and kept going around and around. I just had to take a picture.

It's that that hilarious?!?

I also sewed some knitting needle cases. One for my DPNs and one for stray Circular needles that I have.

The only problem with the DPN case, is that it is not big enough. After putting my metal needles in this, I realized I have a lot more bamboo or wooden ones that need a home too. So I need to make another one. Maybe I'll keep all the metal needles in one pouch and the bamboo ones in another? hmm...
My knitting pal Kelly, asked me about making the circular needle case. She saw one and drew me a picture. This is the prototype, because I want to put a flap on it like the DPN case, so that the needles don't fall out of the top. I was using scrap fabrics and while I really like the colors of the DPN case, this one is just a tad gaudy I think.

On the knitting front, I finished my ruffled scarf that I was designing. I need to block it yet. I want to get that done before my knitting retreat, so I can show it off. I made a few changes to the pattern (replaced some K2tog's with SSK's) and figured out how to create a chart from my notes. I plan on re-knitting it from some yarn I bought at Lorna's Laces in Chicago. I think the yarn I used for the original one (Caron Spa Bamboo) is more a DK/Worsted weight, so I'm going to have to adjust my needle size I think, which means doing one of those dreaded guage swatches. Yuck! I'll post a picture of the original one once I have it blocked.

I joined a KAL (knit-a-long) on Ravelry. We are not all doing the same pattern, but just something "babyish" except for those who have done a boatload of baby stuff already. They are doing whatever they want. We're pretty lax about it. Just so that we are all doing something 'together'. I'm knitting Sheldon the Turtle. He is so cute! I have his body, 2 legs and part of his shell done.

I wanna keep him! I wanna keep him! I wanna keep him! But I can't. He is being made for Baby Dawson, so I have give him away. But Dawson's only 6 weeks old he and won't knot the difference right? Right?? Oh OK, I'll give him to Dawson and make another one for myself.

Oh, I almost forgot! My Color Swap partner (Rebecca in NC) got her stuff, so I can now post a picture of the package I sent to her.

And here is the one I got from Susan in FL.

I just love the Alpaca neck warmer! I can't wait for fall/winter, so I can wear it. The Cookie A. Sock Innovation book is wonderful. There are so many that I want to make. The Twizzler's barely lasted long enough for me to take the picture. I had to pace myself on the Chocolate covered coffee beans though, because they pack a caffeine punch.

Poor Lonely Blog

2009-06-09T12:53:00.002-04:00

Dear Blog,

I want you to know that I have not abandoned you. I know it may feel otherwise, but it is just not true. I keep getting great ideas about topics I could share with you, however I just never seem to follow through on it. I've noticed that I have been avoiding you ever since I linked you up with my facebook page. I've been feeling a little inhibited by the fact that so many more people have access to my thoughts. So it's not you, it's me.

Your's Truly,
Sandy

Hello Again

2009-05-21T16:29:00.004-04:00

I know it's been awhile since I've talked to y'all. The last month has been a bit of a pisser. I'm not going to go into it right now as I'm in a good mood. I may tell you about it later.

Anyway, I've been working on a quilt (started at retreat). I have 26 blocks done and oh only 118 to go. However I do have most of the stuff sewed together to make 39 more. Then I have to cut more fabric. Here's a sneak peak:

And I decided to try my hand at designing lace. Don't get too excited, it only a scarf, but I thing it's turning out rather nice.

Ok, please disregard the double chin, it's hard to take a picture of yourself without getting either that or a boob shot. Least I'm not flashing anyone.

Have a nice Memorial Day weekend!

Awesome News!!!

2009-04-23T15:44:00.003-04:00

I have 2 good bits of news to share.

First:
Baby Dawson Jeffery G. was born last night at 8:17 pm in Indianapolis. He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 lbs. 10 ozs. Teresa (Mom) is doing great and Mark (Dad) did well through the delivery except for near the end. I'm told he almost passed out and was woozy enough that they didn't let him cut the cord. Oh well, this is his first, I think we can let him off the hook on that one.

Second:
My car is fixed. I get it back tomorrow. (could actually get it today, but I have to be to the 2nd job by 5:30 so I figured I'd just wait.) The good news is that it was not the transmission. A mouse built a nest in my engine and chewed the electrical wiring harness connected to the transmission. YEAH!!

Highs and Lows

2009-04-21T10:09:00.007-04:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I had an awesome weekend. It was that time of year again: Spring Quilt Retreat. And the weather was the best it has been so far this year: in the low 70's! Mind blowing right.

The plan was for several of us quilters to meet up at Camp Freidenswald around 11 am and then carpool to Shipshewanna (a.k.a. quilt shop nirvana). So, I got up early Friday morning, finished gathering my supplies, cloths, bedding, packed the car and left town around 8:30 am. Camp Freidenswald is only 1/2 hour from my house near Union, MI however, I decided I would take a slight detour to Calico Point in Wakarusa, IN first. I was looking for several fabrics for 2 different projects and her prices are right up my alley; usually between $4.50-$6.99 for quality name brand fabrics like Northcott, Hoffman, Clothworks, Batiks. While I like the fabric stores in Shipshewanna (Lolly's and Yoders) and they have a lot better selection because they are bigger, I would rather spend less for my fabric. I ended up getting 6 different fabrics totalling 8 yards for $50. That's at least $20 cheaper than what I would have spent in Shipshe. Then I headed back north to meet up with everyone at the Camp.

After dropping off our food and several items to make room in Lu's van for everyone (Elaine, Ruth, Sarah and myself), we were on our way. It was so much fun. Our first stop was at Lolly's Fabric Store. Talk about fabric overload! I hit the basement first, where they have the discounted fabrics. I found a pink flowered fabric to go along with one of my projects. Then it was back upstairs to the regular show room to browse. I couldn't believe how busy the store was, but then I thought 'look how awesome the weather was, of course people would be out and about'. That of course was one reason, however there was also a quilt retreat going on in Shipshe, another quilt guild was meeting up there, plus several people had stopped by on their way to the Chicago International Quilt Show. Of course they were from Wisconsin, so I'm not too sure how Shipshewanna, IN was on their way to Chicago, IL? But hey it's their story and they can justify it any way they want right!?! I also spoke to several women from Toronto, who were in town for the Retreat. Actually, they were oohing and aahing over a sample quilt that was hanging up near the fabric table. I made the mistake of stopping to see what had caught their attention and fell in love!! It was a braided quilt made from one of those jelly roll things. I have been wanting to purchase one, but never quite found one that just jumped up and shouted 'BUY ME!' Well that one did. It was an oriental jelly roll in blues, greens and browns. But not just any blue, kind of a mix between teal and aqua. Oh it was lovely. Of course then I had to have coordinating fabric to go with it, because it was just such an odd fabric color that it would be hard to match at a later date. You know I'm right!?! Also, the jelly roll wasn't marked, so I wasn't sure who the manufacturer was. When I asked, I found out that Lolly's employs a women full time to make their own jelly rolls and other fabric kits. The pattern they used was the Friendship Braid. It was in a book they had for sale next to the sample. The patterns in the book were all geared towards using jelly rolls (sorry can't remember the name). Since I liked quite a few of the patterns, I decided to buy it also. Not mentioning any numbers, but lets just say I did my part to stimulate the economy this weekend.

Midway through our trek around Lolly's, Kathy showed up. She moved to Oottlewah, Tennessee last year, but came back up to visit for retreat. I've driven to Lafayette, IN for a retreat, which is 2 hours away, but she drove 10 hours to get to ours. Well she spent several days in Indy visiting her nephew Baby Jack before she came up to retreat, but still that's 3 hours away. Anyway, it was really nice to see her.

From Lolly's, we headed to the Blue Gate Restaurant to meet up with Cheryl and have lunch. I had never been there, but was warned to leave room for PIE. The Blue Gate is Amish run and has excellent food and AWESOME pies. I had a half chicken salad sandwich, potato soup and strawberry rhubarb pie. One of my favorites! Was a little on the sweet side, I like mine tart, but was still very good. Oh and lest I forget, the waitress brought out a loaf of bread and on the table was a container of home-made apple butter (Yum) and home-made peanut butter. I had never had the peanut butter, but I was urged to try it because it was supposedly very good. Personally I was looking forward to the apple butter, because I hadn't had it in so long. Little did I know that the home-made peanut butter would taste like... like... like... Jeez, I can't even think of a word to describe it, other than to say it was VERY Good. And that doesn't seem adequate. Smooth. Creamy. YUM. Oh man was it good. They had some for sale in their bakery, so I purchased a small container to bring home. And I'm not sharing! It's all MINE.

After lunch, we headed for Yoders Department Store for more fabric shopping. After the damage I did at Lolly's I feeling a little more picky. I actually didn't find a thing to buy. Who hoo the wallet was a bit exhausted anyway. From there, we decided to make our way back to Camp via Middlebury. I wanted to stop at the cheese factory from some fresh cheese curds. To my disappointment, they no longer sold the cheese curds. Boo! I loved the way the fresh curds would squeak against your teeth when you chewed them. Elaine asked Lu to stop at Gohn's Deparment store in downtown Middlebury, where they sell...you guessed it more fabric plus Amish cloths. They actually make the clothes upstairs and sometimes you can hear the machines going. A couple of bolts of fabric fell off the shelf as I walked by and I had no choice but to pick them up and take them along with me. :o) I just hate it when fabric gets a mind of its own and does that. Don't you?

I was so exhausted by all the shopping that I didn't actually do any sewing on Friday night. I just visited with friends and checked out their projects. Really, I just wasn't in the mood to work on the baby quilt project that I had planned to work on. On Saturday, I started cutting out my Oceans quilt. It was a free pattern sent out by McCalls Quilting Magazine when they were trying to get you to buy their magazine. I have a white-on-white background, 8 different Batik Type fabrics in lime, blue, fuchsia, orange, aqua, peach, purple, yellow/green and a dark lime Sea Turtle Batik that gets fussy cut and appliqued between the blocks. I purchased the Batik Type fabric from Hobby Lobby, but the funny thing is that they are 100% cotton handkerchiefs and they were on sale for 99 cents each, oh about 5 years ago. They are 20" squares, which calculates out to roughly the size of a fat quarter. At first I was going to use Thangles to make all the triangles, but after careful consideration, I thought I would just cut them out using my Easy Angle Triangular Ruler. More precise with less wastage. I wanted to make sure I had enough. I did, but just barely. Not a lot of room for error, so I'm glad I was careful cutting. The only downside to this method is that I need 728 colored 2.5" triangles, just as many white one and 104 6.5" white triangles and 13 from each of the 8 colors. That's a lot of cutting. I didn't get them all cut out, but at least half. I also got 4 blocks finished. Only 140 more to go!

OK, those were the highs for the weekend. Now comes the lows.

I had to work on Sunday, so I had to leave retreat early in order to get there on time. I did a little sewing and piecing, then packed up and headed out. I did not get too far, before I realized there was something wrong with my car. The transmission would not shift gears. Freak out time! I was a mile or so down the road. So I stopped, put the car in reverse and backup down the road back to the camp. I didn't really want to wait on the side of the road. I called my Dad, then called work to let them know I would be late. Once we figured out what to do about my car, my Mom was going to let me borrow her car so I could get to work. Dad gets to the camp (thank god they only lived 30 minutes away!) drives my car down the road and back. The @#$@ was shifting fine he said, only there was a blinking indicator light on the dash. OK that hadn't been on when I drove it. I got out the book and looked up the light. It was for 'Transaxle Error" and read "Car may be experiencing trouble shifting gears (Duh). Please see a service tech immediately." I turn off the car, so we can all go inside the camp facilities to wash our hands and use the bathroom. (Why is it that after standing in the cold you always have to pee?) Anyway, then we all get in our respective cars Me, Mom, then Dad bringing up the rear and drive back to my house. Once again, the car would not shift gears and to top it of the speedometer wasn't working either. The indicator light had gone off also. What is it about our Dad's or men in general that make the car work for them when it won't work for us??? I'm really curious, does anyone know this? I pull over, discuss the situation with Dad and decide to drive home in first gear going what 15 mph the whole way. Crap! But about 5-10 miles down the road, the Transaxle Indicator light pops on and Wow the car actually starts shifting again. Yeah I actually got to accelerate. Of course since the speedometer wasn't working I wasn't sure how fast I was going, but hey I know it was faster than 15 mph and less than 60 mph. I got to work just shy of 2 hours late and was pretty much bummed the rest of the day.

I took my car into the shop on Monday morning and they are looking it over. I got a call this morning that some critter had made a nest in my engine and chewed the hell out of one of the wiring harnesses. Bob the Tech was a little embarrassed when I told I loved him after he told me it looked like my transmission was OK. They'll know for sure one the wiring harness is repaired and they can clear the computer codes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In a Fog

2009-04-15T08:46:00.002-04:00

I am so tired today. I woke up this morning at 3am then tossed and turned until the alarm when off. I seriously considered taking a sleeping pill, but figured it was too late (?early) to take one. I probably would have slept through the alarm.

Quilt Retreat! Quilt Retreat! QUILT RETREAT!

2009-04-14T12:51:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again. Spring quilt retreat is this weekend. I've already been digging through patterns and my stash to see what interesting new items I can make.

Also, I'm riding an a bit of a sugar buzzzzzz right now. Love those hard candy coated easter eggs. You know the ones they call "hiding" eggs, because they are individually wrapped and when you crunch into them there is white marshmallowy stuff inside. I think I've eaten about 8 of them today. Actually is was more like those 8 were eaten in the last 2 hours) Yummy Yummy SUGAR.

Pictures

2009-04-09T14:38:00.005-04:00

Here are the promised pictures of my Tomato Sweater and my Celtic Vest.

I just finished this last night at 12 am, so it has not been blocked yet. It will be a little longer once it is.

They both turned out really nice if I do say so myself.

Monday Weigh In & Stuff

2009-04-06T09:06:00.004-04:00

Jeez, I can't believe I haven't done any blogging since St. Patricks day! I thought for sure I had, because lots of things have been going on. I guess "thinking" about blogging a topic doesn't actually count. My knitting friends pointed this out last week. Yep, I said last week and I still didn't get a blog entry in until today.

Ok, first things first then I'll update you on what's been happening. Today is Monday weigh-in and the good news is that I lost 3 lbs this week. Woohoo! That brings my total to 5.6lbs. I'm totally amazed by this since I wasn't able to get to exercise class last week. I threw my back out somehow and was NOT feeling well at all. I couldn't move my neck and I had such a headache. It just made concentrating so hard. I went to the Chiropracter everyday last week and now I'm feeling better. Although last night when I got home from work, it was hurting again and the headache was back. But not as badly as before.

On the knitting front, several exciting things have occured.
1) I took a trip to Indianapolis over the weekend of March 20-22 to visit Teresa. Actually 4 of us went down to attend her baby shower. When I mentioned to a knitting friend that I was going to Indy for the weekend she exclaimed "Are you going for the big sale?" To which I promptly replied "What big sale?" Well Mass Ave Knits was having their annual classroom sale. All the yarn was $1 per skein (yes I said ONE DOLLAR) or you could fill a Mass Ave Backpack for $25. Well, since I WAS going to be in the area anyway, I did a mapquest search to see where they were in relationship to my friends house. Imagine my surpise when it said it was only a 17 minute drive. ROAD TRIP!! So we got up early Saturday morning, which was not too easy for me as I think I had food poisoning the day before. Yacked twice on the trip to Teresa's house. Of course it didn't start until I got to Carmel, IN so I couldn't really turn around and go home at that point. Besides, I had a passenger that was so looking forward to visiting Teresa. Leslie had never been to Teresa's new house and was excited about the weekend away. Sorry, back to the yarn. After standing in line outside the shop for awhile in the cold, we were usherred in to the classroom. At first I was a little disapointed, because all I saw was novelty yarn. You know stuff like fun fur, that bobbley yarn and ribbon yarn. But after circulating around a bit, I did find some cotton blend yarns. And you know, if you collapse the cardboard inserts on certain skeins, you can fit 41 skeins of yarn into your backpack; 20 Sonrisa by Katia all in one color (cotton/poly/nylon with a cardboard insert), 13 Cotton Twist by Berroco in various colors (cotton/rayon) and 8 Nostalgia by Berroco in 2 colors (cotton/acrylic). What a haul! I looked up the yarn on-line to see what they had been selling for and wow! The Katia had retailed for $7/skein and I got 20. That was worth the trip right there. I got $265 worth of yarn, for $25! Teresa's Mom and SIL got some yarn also. We were the only knitters/crocheters in the group.

2. I finished my Tomato Sweater!!! Mine is in Bubble Gum Pink. I was planning on wearing it this week, but with the temps dropping back down into the 30's and the snow flying around, I think not as it is short sleaved. Brrr!

3. I finished knitting the Celtic Vest. However, when I tried it on, it's a little tight around the middle, so I'm going to pick-out the cast-off edge on both sides and extend it a bit.

4. I finished another Temple Guardian applique' block. I now have 5 done, 4 to go. Yeah I've passed the half way point. The head of #6 is done. I'm planning on getting the last 4 blocks done this summer, so I can get it pieced by this fall. If I knuckled under, I could get all 4 done before summer, but that would mean no knitting, and I'm just not prepared to do that right now. I never realized how addictive knitting could be!

Yeah I know, where are the pictures?? I havent' gotten around to taking any yet. But I will soon.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Do you have your green on today? Pinch Pinch

Quilting Projects

2009-03-16T13:29:00.009-04:00

So, since I was forced to take time off from knitting to baby the tennis elbow, I have been doing some extra sewing.

1. I finished another of my Siamese Cat applique blocks from my Temple Guardians BOM quilt. I have 4 done now. 5 more to finish although I am about 80% done on #5.

2. I mentioned a couple of entries ago, that my Quilt Guild is doing a Challenge for our March Meeting. It is called the Paint Chip Challenge. What you do is take your initials and find 3 paint chip colors that start with the first letter of your initial. Then use those colors plus a background color if you want to make a quilted project. It can be any size or shape. My colors are: Stoney Fields (Taupe), Alpaca (Cream) and Magma (Black).

The snafu I ran into when piecing (mentioned in previous post) was that I didn't have enough fabrics to finish the ribbon pieced border. I was one repeat short on each side. So instead I added a blank section in the middle of each long side. Since it was kind of plain, I designed an embroidered motif based on the border fabric. Here is a close up of that:

3. Many moons ago ;o) I purchased some Fancy Cat Fabric by Loralie Harris. I had no plans for it, but I love cats and couldn't resist it.

Well while at a LQS in Kalamazoo, I saw that they had embroidery patterns for the cats to be done all in black. I thought it was beautiful and decided I must make a quilt using those embroidered cats. To my dismay and sadness, they were only available for use in Embroidery Machines! I was soo disappointed, however after much thinking, I decided that if I put the fabric on the copy machine and enlarged the cats, I could make my own embroidery patterns. So that is what I did. I think there are 15 different cats. I have the first two done.

I wasn't sure I would like embroidering, but so far it's been pretty relaxing.

Weightloss Challenge a.k.a. Looser Monday

2009-03-16T13:18:00.002-04:00

I am down 1 lb this week. Not great, but better than I thought after the munch fest I had this weekend. I tried to munch on good things, like an apple, south beach bar or WW Pumpkin Muffins (recipe to follow) and drink a lot of water/iced tea, but it still felt like I ate too many snackies. I was stuck at work all weekend and you just never know what the workload will be.

Here is the recipe for the Weight Watcher Pumpkin Muffins. They are supposed to be 1 pt each. Not sure how that corresponds to calories as I didn't take the time to figure it out.

1 Spice Cake Mix
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
1/2 cup of water

Mix ingredients. Spoon it into a regular sized muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

A co-worker brought these in and they were super moist and super yummy, so I begged for the recipe, as I LOVE anything that has pumpkin in it. Enjoy.

Monday Weigh-In

2009-03-09T09:22:00.003-04:00

Ok, to be honest, I was a very bad girl on Friday night. I went out with a couple of friends to the Fiddlers Hearth to celebrate Kathy's 1 year anniversary of her brain surgery. And while I would recommend that anyone who goes there gets the Irish Car Bomb for dessert because it was sooo delicious, it was soo not on the diet.

That being said, I got on the scales this morning and was amazed to see that I had only gained 1 lb. I ate sensibly the rest of the weekend and also did some extra exercises to try to burn it off the car bomb, so apparently they worked a bit.

No Pain, No Gain

2009-03-05T09:44:00.003-05:00

Or so they say. In this instance, it should be no pain, no loss. Of course that doesn't rhyme, but who cares right?

Anyway the point to this train of thought is that I worked out last night. I am amazed at how puny I felt when lifting weights. Of course I haven't exercised in over a year. In last nights class, the instructor had us doing a lot of arm/shoulder exercises, squats, and crunches. With the arm exercises, I started out with 5 lbs, dropped to 3, dropped to 2 and finally had to go to no weights. But I felt really good afterwords. Although, my muscles were kind of quivering like jello and it felt kind of weird.

I am sore this morning and just a bit tired. But it felt good to exercise again. The hardest part is sitting down and then getting back up again.

The Exercise Place Got Lost!

2009-03-03T09:53:00.006-05:00

I drove out to the west side of town last night (slightly scary) to try out a new workout place that a friend told me about. It's called The Fit Club. Well anyway I couldn't find it. Of course I printed out the class schedule from their website, but didn't have it with me. I drove back and forth on S.R. 2 from Krogers out past the bypass and couldn't find it. So when I came to work this I checked out their website again. It's located on the west side of the bypass, but I turned back too soon. If I had driven another 1/2 mile, I would have seen it on the right side of the road. The next boot camp class is on Wednesday, so I'll head back out there before knit and try it out.

To be truthful, I really needed the workout last night too. I had a bad weekend. I went to the Quilting Day Camp at Barb's. I was doing OK staying away from the snacks (I brought some of my own) UNTIL.... Until I stumbled across the Rice Krispie Treats. Oonly they weren't made with rice krispies they were made with Fruity Pebbles cereal. OMG they were so good and so bad for me I know. So I majorly crashed and burned that day. But I did much better on Saturday. I brought a salad with me and ate it when I got there around. So I wasn't hungry for snacks. I got back on track food wise yesterday.

I am planning on changing my weigh in days to Monday instead of Thursday. It's hard to remember to do it in the middle of the week. So I won't be weighing in again until 3/9. Bonus is I get a couple extra days to make of for those RC Treats.

Speaking of the Quilting Day Camp, I finished a small wallhanging while there. I had one of those Moda 5" Charm square Packs that has been vegatating at my house for a couple of years. I never could figure out what I wanted to do with it. My friend Patsy found a pattern from Marcus Brothers. It used the Aunt Gracie Charm pack, but I like the layout so I used that one. My charm pack had lots of bright colors in it, like pink, purple, yellow, orange, blue and LIME. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will.

My Quilt Guild is doing a Challenge for our March Meeting. It is called the Paint Chip Challenge. What you do is take your initials and find 3 paint chip colors that start with the first letter of your initial. Then use those colors plus a background color if you want to make a quilted project. It can be any size or shape. It's supposed to be completely done and quilted by the March meeting which is on 3/12. I almost had mine done on Saturday, but ran into a snafu. I didn't have enough fabric to finish the pieced border that I had planned. I was using up some Michael Miller Zephyr scraps I got from my friend Patsy. Another quilter Helen and I played around with it and think we have a plausible solution. Not sure how it will look. If I had not waited until the last minute, I could have ordered more fabric from Hancocks of Paducah, but since I'm a great procrastinator, I just have to deal with it. I think someone said Stitch in Time has a lot of Fairy Frost fabric, so I might go see if I can get a bit more of that to add to what I have. I am hoping to get it finished on Saturday and work on the binding on Sunday at work.

On the knitting front, I got the neck ribbing finished on my Tomato Sweater. I have to finish the arms, but I'm taking a week off to rest the elbow. Stupid Tennis Elbow! I don't even know how to play tennis. :oP I not sure yet if I want to make long sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. I'm waffeling, but it will probably be 3/4's.

First Week on the Diet

2009-02-26T10:36:00.004-05:00

First off, I hate calling it a 'Diet'. It has such a negative feel to it. So maybe I'll call it an 'exercise plan' instead. Exercising is part of it. Yes, that's what I'll do.

I jumped on the scale this morning for my weekly weigh-in. This is my first week on the new exercise plan. I didn't think I was going to have anything to report, as I got an error message. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought "What the .....?" I got off, let it shut itself off and tried a second time. Got the same thing. The scale is digital and apparently needs a new battery. I tried it a 3rd time after my shower and finally got a reading. I am down 2.8 lbs for my first week.

Last night I met up with Anita O. at knit night. We are planning on being partners as we both have a little weight to loose and it is sooo much easier to have a partner. I took my books along that I follow, specifying that she didn't have to follow the same ones. We had a great conversation where she made it clear if this diet book required her to give up her morning coffee with creamer, she just wasn't going to follow it? LOL I assured her she didn't have to. If you have to say "I can never have this again" your not likely to commit to the diet anyway. We are going to report into each other every 2 weeks. Of course if we have stuff to share in the mean time, we will definitely be in contact. Although I forgot to give her my phone number, I will be sending it to her.

On the knitting front, I got all of my stitches picked up around the neckline of my Tomato Sweater. I was a little thrown on how to evenly space them. Talked it over with Kathi at work and realized I had to do the ratio thing. I haven't thought about ratios in almost 20 years. Couldn't really remember how to do it. But since she has high school kids, she reminded me. So here is how I figured it: (not sure if it is the correct way to calculate it, but it came out)

I had 40 stitches to pick up and I have 55 stockinette rows. Divide both numbers by 10 and you get a ratio of 4 to 5.5. So for every 5.5 rows of stockinette, I have to pick up 4 stitches. To make it an even number and easier to fiddle with I multiplied both numbers by 2 to get a ratio of 8 stitches for every 11 rows. Since I'm a visual person, I drew a graph with 11 boxes and played around with where to 'skip' 3 rows that would make it look even. I came up with this: KSKKSKKKSKK Repeat. K= pick up/knit stitch & S=skipped row. It worked perfectly on the first side of the neckline, but I had to fudge it a bit on the second side. Might have been because I was doing this a knit night and trying to do this plus follow several conversations at the same time. I then got 1 row of ribbing done before we had to leave. I'm planning on taking a couple days off from knitting as I am going to a quilting thing this weekend, but I can't wait to get it done and be able to wear it!

Weight Loss Update

2009-02-25T11:11:00.003-05:00

I have a couple of observations from my first week back on the diet.

1) Since I have been eating better I am not feeling totally exhausted by the end of the day. I haven't fallen asleep on the sofa once this last week.

2) Eating better foods has sparked my interest in cooking again. I have not been in a cooking mood, because all I was cooking was unhealthy junk food. I broiled a nice steak the other night with a small baked sweet potato and salad with romaine, spinach, tomato, a little cheese.

I have held off on renewing my membership to Fitness USA, because I just don't enjoy going there. So I stopped off at another one called Lakeland Athletic Club, but it wasn't what I was looking for either. I have admitted that I don't do well by myself. Both of these facilities operate basically the same. You are given a list of exercises and you do those on your own, unless you have a friend join with you. I do better with classes, but the only ones these places have are aerobics. On Friday, I'm going to try out another facility out by the bypass called The Fit Club. Sounds promising. They don't have machines, they just do free weights and classes. The first class is free, so you can try them out. Then it's either $6/class or you can get a punch card for $45 which is good for 10 classes. Will let you know what I find out.

In the mean time, I'm going to be doing some of the weights from The Cardio Free Diet Book and from a new book that I got last night at Borders. It is geared towards women and is called "101 ways to work out with weights" by Cindy Whitmarsh.

Tomorrow is weigh in day, so I'll let you know how I've done this week.

Minor Success!

2009-02-25T09:46:00.003-05:00

I finished binding off the ribbing on my Tomato Sweater last night. I tried it on and it FITS!!!! IT FITS! IT FITS!

Can you tell I'm excited. The first piece of clothing I knitted was a vest and it was too small. Then I made the Friendship Jacket and it was a little too big. Then I tried the Asymmetrical Shrug, which was a total disaster. The right sleeve was knit flat and then seamed and the left one was was knit in the round, which resulted in one being too loose and the other too tight and too short. It's still waiting to be frogged. I couldn't even look at it.

So you see, I haven't had much success in knitting anything that fits; other than socks. That definitely explains my joy.

Now all I have to do is finish the sleeves and the ribbing around the neck and it will be completely done. I really like top/down sweaters. I can't wait to get it done and wear it. At this rate I may have it done by Easter. Keep you fingers crossed.

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! :o)

Pink Tomato Sweater

2009-02-24T09:56:00.006-05:00

I finished the ribbing on the bottom of my sweater last night. I didn't bind off, because this is my first top down sweater and I wasn't sure what the best way to bind off ribbing was. I thought about calling one of my Elisabeth S. but by the time I did, it was after 10pm. I thought it was bind off "in pattern," but although I looked through a couple of my books, I didn't find anything. So I decided to wait until I could ask Kathi at work. She told me that is exactly what I'm supposed to do. So at lunch today I will be binding off the bottom edge on my sweater. I'm deliberating on whether to start the neck ribbing next or pick up one of the sleeves and knit that. If I had 2 sets of Size 10 knitting needles I could do both. Hmmm Think a trip to Hobby Lobby is now in the works. If I have them both going, then when I'm tired of ribbing (because let's face it, its BORING) then I could switch to the sleeve for a break.

I've been doing so much knitting on the Tomato Sweater and the Celtic Vest the last couple of weeks, because I want to get them DONE. Any way, I notice my elbow is starting to act up again. This time it's the left one. So I'm planning to take tonight off knitting and do some applique on my Temple Guardians blocks. I have 2 done for sure and half of the 4th one done. There are 9 blocks altogether.

I know I should take longer off and I will as I am going to a quilting "day camp" this weekend. Barb D. is opening up her office on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yeah quilting marathon. Now I just have to figure out what to sew on; UFO or new project??????

Eggrolls and Coconut Chicken Soup

2009-02-22T13:05:00.006-05:00

On Friday, I drove over to my friend Lily's house. Where she taught me how to make authentic Thai Eggrolls and Coconut Chicken Soup. It had so much fun and it turned out to be a lot easier that I expected.

I took lots of notes and photos. Those I will upload later.

Basic Eggroll Recipe by Lily Davis.
8 cups finely shredded cabbage
4 cups shredded carrots
8 cups cooked rice noodles, cut into 2"-3" lengths
1 cup sugar
3-4 tsp salt
liberal amounts of black pepper
3 packages of eggroll wrappers (we only used about 2 1/2 pkgs)

Mix the all your filling ingredients together and let them set to marinate. Lily said the longer you let them set the better the flavor will be, but we on a time limit, so ours only set for 1/2 hour or so. Next, you have to get all the liquid out of the filing mixture. Take a cotton towl and lay it in the sink. Put a double handful of the filling mixture on it, wrap it up and begin squeezing all the moisture out. This step is important otherwise your wrappers will get soggy. Repeat until you until you are done.

Lay out the eggroll wrapper on the diagonal. Place a pile of the filling in that corner. Pull the point up and over the filling. Keep it tight. Roll the eggroll to the center of the wrapper. Then fold in each side corner. However at this point you want to pull them in enough and at an angle the last point is slightly skinnier that the eggroll itself. It won't absorb as much oil that way. Repeat, Deep fry and enjoy!

Edited 2/24/09: I found a blog mentioning baked egg rolls and I plan I trying that on the 10 I have in the freezer. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Cook 6-7 minutes on each side until they are brown and crisp.

Coconut Chicken Soup by Lily Davis:
1 can coconut milk
1 can water
2 cans mushrooms or fresh if you prefer
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Lime Leaf: 2-3 if fresh or 3-5 if frozen
6-8" piece of lemon grass cut on the diagonal
3 Red Thai peppers
1/2 cup sugar
fish sauce (2-3 Tbsp/ to taste)
Juice of 1 Lime
Cilantro

Mix coconut milk, water, pepper, lime leaf, lemon grass, sugar in a pan over medium heat. Be careful, coconut milk can skald just like regular milk. Once it is hot, add chicken and fish sauce. Simmer to cook the chicken and bring out the flavor of the lime leaf and lemongrass. Add the mushrooms, simmer a little longer. Once you turn off the heat, add the lime juice. Adding it while cooking will make it bitter. Serve with cilantro on top.
NOTE: I found a recipe in my Everything Thai cookbook for this also, however it adds red curry powder or paste. I think the Cambodian Thai restaurant that I go to does this and it is very good.

Eggroll dipping sauce:
Ok, we didn't make this, but Lily told me what was in it and I tried to make it at home. Mine tastes good, but isn't as thick as Lily's. So I think I added too much water.

Chili peppers, simple syrup (water/sugar), garlic and white vinegar.

These all tasted very good and I hope you try one.

Winter is Back!

2009-02-19T10:48:00.003-05:00

I woke up this morning to 4 new inches of snow. I actually had to wear my boots to work again. And the latch on my car door was stuck in the open position, so it would stay closed. This has happened before in cold weather, but it didn't happened when we were have the sub-zero temps, so I wasn't expecting it. I sprayed WD40 in the latch mechanism and connected a bungy cord around the handle and over to the passenger seat. As soon as the car warmed up (about half way to work) I tried shutting the door again and it finally caught. What a pain though.

Sheesh I was so hoping the snow was over with.

New Topic: I have decided that I need to get back on my exercise program. I kind of petered out over the last year. I did so great last year. I lost 30 lbs and over 27 inches. I was working with a group (B100 fit club) sponsored by the local country radio station. But once that ended I lost my momentum. I work better with a group then I do by myself. With the group, I am held accountable if you know what I mean. By myself, I'm not accountable to anyone but myself, so if I don't exercise no one knows. Well, I've fallen back into the same routine as before I lost the weight and gained back about 15lbs. I go home tired and nap on the damn couch. Then I can't sleep when it's time for bed, stay up late and wake up tired again. It's a vicious circle.

I also donated blood last month and got a new reading (non-fasting [NF] of course) on my Cholesterol In January 08 when I lost all the weight, my NF Cholesterol total was 132. So that has definitely gone up. And I pretty positive that means my Triglycerides have gone up too, which was one of the reasons I had originally started my exercise program.

I am determined to do something. So I dug out the book "The Cardio-Free Diet" that we were using with the B-100 Fit Club. And I am re-starting my exercise program. I know when I mention the book on my blog, that the author Jim Karas will get dinged on his blog. I'm kind of embarrassed for him to read this, because I was doing so well before.

I'll keep you all posted with my results.

Color Swap #2

2009-02-17T10:05:00.004-05:00

Last Friday was a really trying day. I stopped off the post office to ship my Color Swap package out to my Swapee. Then headed out of town for a funeral. When I got back home that night I was totally surprised to see that I had a package sitting on my porch. It was my package from my swap partner. If that's not Karma I don't know what is.

And it was such an awesome package from Mary a.k.a (Silverbirks) too. It was just what I needed after a long day. I had only stopped at the house to drop off some food and then I was heading for the Red Purl which has open knit nights on Friday night. So I took the package with me and opened it there.

I liked the blue tissue paper so much I kept it and am going to re-use it for packages. Just a perfect color.

I will tell you that I loved all my blue goodies. I especially love the felted bowls/scissor case and the Fleece Artist Somoko sock yarn. Mary was worried that it wasn’t as blue as it looked on-line, but Mary you don’t have to worry. It is great; dark navy blue, green and purple. I can’t wait to make the Cherry Swirl Socks that came with it. Everyone at the Red Purl was drooling over it too. I also got the leftover yarn from the bowls, a skein cotton yarn to make dishcloths, buttons, beads, notepads, scissors, quilting highlighter tape, Wintergreen Altoids, Nestle Crispe Bar, Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Carmet bar and Oreo Cakesters. If you haven’t tried the Cakesters, you must. I love them, but try not to buy them because I know I would eat the whole box. Oh I almost forget, She included dried blueberries, which I had never tried had before. They are good too. Once you start eating them you just can’t stop. And then they are gone.

Here's a close-up of the Fleece Artist yarn. I am currently working on a vest and sweater, then I have a baby sweater to work on, but once those are done, I AM working on these socks. I just can't wait.

And here is the close-up of the bowls. I'm planning to use one of them to keep my keys in, because I am always laying them down and then forgetting where they are.

Thank you Mary!!

And here is a view of the package I sent. I can't tell you who it went to thought, because it takes 6-10 days to get there.

Books

2009-02-12T19:36:00.006-05:00

I went to the library last night before you guys left me books to check on and picked up 3.

Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb - Futuristic Cop murder mystery. I LOVE this series and have been waiting to get this one.

Velocity by Dean Koontz - A guy gets a note to do something or a young school teacher will be killed. The cops think it's a hoax, so he does nothing and the woman is brutally murdered. Sounds kind of interesting.

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky - One sister has a heart attack and is in a coma.... I've read a couple of Delinsky's books before and thought what the heck.

Thanks for the book suggestions. I will look into them during my next trip to the library. The medical thriller sounds good. I've heard that Robin Cook was good, but never tried any. Tess Gerritsen writes some good ones too. Harvest was excellent. And I've heard several knitting friends discussing "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", I just can never remember the title. Now I have it written down. :o)

On the knitting front, I started my Celtic Vest again; my third attempt. The first time I accidentally felted it. BooHoo! The second time, the colors just didn't come out right, they kept pooling when I didn't want them to. So this time I have a lovely lavendar/green/aqua yarn that I got at Lorna's in Chicago paired with a solid aqua. I only have 10 rows done, but it is looking great!

I've also been working on my Tomato Sweater; in Pink/White. It's knitted top down and I have it knitted down to the decreased just below the bust line. I tried it on before I started the decreases and it was a little loose, but I don't think it was too terrible. I tend to where my clothes loose anyway. I don't like clothes the cling to you. I have 5 skeins of the pink cotton ease and I'm hoping that is enough to make the sleeves 3/4 instead of caps. I'm really liking the feel of the Cotton Ease yarn.