Monthly Archives: March 2020

Anxiety and Self Care

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It’s been a rough couple of weeks for everyone far and wide. I’m not going to take space here to regurgitate what is being blasted on every platform possible. What I will say is that my anxiety is very high. I am confident that this pandemic won’t last forever but the ramifications both socially and economically might last longer than we would like. And that bumps up against my anxiety triggers…..I’m an accountant after all. And it’s hard not to be worn down by the onslaught of information and empty store shelves.

I am washing my hands, talking to others support when I need it, and returning to my Midwestern roots and I’m cooking all the comfort foods I can think of. Last night I took some time to rest in bed with the following self care items:

They only thing missing was knitting friends. If anyone out there is similarly missing your knitting groups and friends please feel free to DM me. I’m always around my phone and more than happy to chat and share projects. We are a community and no one has to feel alone. Happy Knitting friends!

So Close To Bullseye

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My Bullseye Vanilla Socks are SUPER close to being done. I only need to put in one more afterthought heel.

I am pretty happy with how well I managed to plan the stripes and to get the socks to match. I did pull out some yarn to try and start at the same place. It’s not an absolute requirement for me in socks. But I do enjoy when they match.

I have cut in the space for the heel. I use the KirbyWirby afterthought heel with no waste yarn. It seems scary but it is really easy to do and doesn’t leave a hole at the corners. I can feel my mojo surging because I want a this finished socks SO BAD. The thought of new socks seems like the perfect balm to my soul right now.

Happy Knitting!!

Should Have Done This Sooner

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I have continued my carbohydrate craze this week and tried something new….pizza dough in my bread machine. And y’all…I should have done this sooner!

My mom got me this great book on bread machine bread. Its really comprehensive and has helped me make really successful bread. But that is all I have ever made.

Jellybean and I needed a project this week so we decided to make homemade pizza. I pulled out the book and used the machine to make one batch of regular crust and on batch of whole wheat crust. It was SOOO EASY. The machine does all the hard work and when it’s done you can cook it right away, store in the fridge for 24 hours or store in the freezer for 3 months.

As a working mom who handles most of the cooking I feel like this has opened up a whole new world for dinner options. My family gets home between 5 and 5:30 and everyone is hungry, especially the kids. I can’t take an hour to cook dinner or there will be meltdowns. It’s just how it is with our littles right now and I know it will change when they get older. But as it stand now, during the week I have to plan meals that can come together quickly.

So holy cow, I can make up dough the night before and put fresh rolls, homemade pizza or whatever else I can think of in the oven for a few minutes when I get home. This has kind of fired up my cooking mojo and maybe I can shake up our recipe rut a little this spring.

What is your favorite (and quick) thing to do with basic dough?

Stashing Down Scraps

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I am still riding the wave of accomplishment from finishing my scrappy DK Hibernation Throw last week. I was cleaning up the project bag it had been living in to put the needles and notions away and noticed how small the pile of scraps were at the bottom of the bag. When I started I had two gallon sized ziplock bags full of scraps and a CONE of undyed sock yarn. Now I’m left with two quart sized bags and one sandwich sized bag of scraps that don’t have a plan.

Now, full disclosures these are not all my scraps or mini skeins. I still have my mitred square memory blanket going. I “tossed the stash” so to speak and aired out that bag to make sure all my yarn was in good order. It’s safe to say I I have plenty to work with, lol.

I’m just the kind of knitter that gets a thrill from using up as much of every skein of yarn I possibly can. I like the idea of scrappy projects where I can remember all the cool things I made with the full skein. Its akin to checking completed items off a list for me.

I’m curious, are most knitters this way? Do you keep your scraps?

I Need To Level Up My Biscuits

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The kids requested biscuits and jelly with dinner this week. Now, normally as a working mom I grab a can of Pillsbury from the store and go to town. My kids eat them just fine. But I got a wild hair to make my own. I got out my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook and made Supreme Biscuits. They are kind of a mashup of baking powder biscuits and buttermilk biscuits.

They turned out fine and the flavor was good. But I really need to level up my biscuit skills. I forgot to put the cream of tartar in and I definitely rolled the dough to thin. My biscuits came out pretty short because of those two factors. I did manage to keep the butter cold and not overwork the dough so they were soft and flaky.

I’m kind of in carbohydrate phase right now and I think I may fire up another batch for some chicken and biscuits or biscuits and gravy…..yum! What is your favorite way to have biscuits?

Weekender On The Weekend

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As we slog through these last few confusing days of winter I find myself excited about Spring approaching in a few days. And in the spirit of spring cleaning (please ignore the not spring cleaned toys in the background) I found myself wanting to “clean up” my WIPs.

I pulled out my Weekender this past weekend and put a few rows on. I’m still slogging through the body but it makes for nice TV knitting with all the stockinette in the round. I have knit past my stitch markers for the purl details a few times. But those are easily fixed.

I’m not finding myself super engaged in this project so I don’t expect it to fly off the needles anytime soon. But I’m hoping this will be a slow and steady tortoise like project that I can enjoy next Fall maybe?

Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday: DK Hibernation Throw

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Spring is around the corner and I have a finished Hibernation Throw! Seems appropriate to be “coming out of hibernation” from winter and to have finished this project.

Pattern: Habitation Throw by Helen Stewart

Needles: US 10s

Yarn: Valley Yarns Franklin Natural coned sock yarn and all the fingering weight scraps from my stash

Mods: I modified this pattern for DK weight yarn (fingering held double) to make a scrappy marled version of this blanket.

This project just ticked all the boxes for me and I’m almost tempted to cast on another one! It was very to memorize and easy to read where I was when I put it down mid repeat. It used up a TON of scraps from my stash. When I weighed this behemoth it weighed 822 grams. Based on some maths I did based on the average sock yarn statistics….this blanket used rough 3,300 yards of yarn!

And I finished this in about a month and a half. That is lighting speed for me and a blanket. But I will fully admit that this became a knitting obsession and I didn’t really work on much else for that period. I did notice that when I was taking FO photos that my blanket is not perfectly square. I found that at multiple times I had to fudge my decreases on the last half because I didn’t have the right number of stitches. I’m pretty confident that this led to the last half being slightly bigger than the first half.

But I don’t care, I have a new snuggly blanket that is 100% mommy’s and no one else can use it without permission! Happy Knitting!!

Cast On: Dark Side Socks (Take Two)

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I was digging around in my craft room looking for some progress keepers and I came across a sock project bag that I had shoved to the back of a shelf. To my delight, I found that it contained my second pair of Knit Picks Felici socks in the Dark Side colorway.

I had knit up the first pair for my friend in Portland when I went to visit last November. And then in the chaos of the holidays these just got forgotten. The two small tubes both had toes knit into them so all they need are cuffs and heels. I decided to get these fired back up.

The stripes are in reverse order because of how I split the tubes (aka sock snakes) but I really don’t mind. I will just be happy to have a short-ish pair of socks to add to my drawer. Though I think I have wrapped my brain around how to avoid this in the future if I want.

I worked one evening on them and made some decent progress on the first cuff. Maybe these will be my spring time present to myself?

Happy Knitting!

Non Knitting Crafting

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I recently took a vacation day form work and sent the family to their respective schools, daycare, and work so that I could have a project day.

I did “adult” and run a few errands to pick up some birthday presents, get fixings for the Easter Bunny and did the normal bank, pharmacy, grocery store stops. BUT, when I got home I did some non-knitting crafting.

I caught up the notes in both kids baby books and added the missing photos. I am pretty sure I was 6 months behind on PB’s book and over a year behind on Jellybean’s. I’m not sure if either kid will every appreciate having a book. But I will be glad when I’m old and grey to flip back through and remember all the sweet and not so sweet moments.

I also took some time with the photos on my phone to get them sorted. I backed them up to my Shutterfly account and caught up the pages I’m missing for my electronic scrapbook pages. I use Project Life ap on my phone to make pages and just print 8×8 pages to keep in books. I’m easily 5 months behind on those. I grabbed a notebook and made a to-do list of the pages I was missing to help it feel less daunting.

At the end of the day I did not accomplish everything I wanted to do. But I made a sizeable dent and it feels good not to be drowning in so many “to-dos” that always seem to make the bottom of the priority list.

Happy Crafting!!

So Close To The End Of Hibernation

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You guys….my DK Hibernation Throw is sooooo close to being done. I’m definitely using up the smaller and smaller scrap balls now. And the rows are going much faster. Based on what I can cover up with while knitting, I think this should be a good one person lap throw.

It still feels a little “rustic” to the touch thanks to the Franklin Valley Yarns undyed sock yarn I’m holding double throughout. It might soften with washing but I’m not sure I want to wash the blanket right away. I know for a fact some of the yarns I used will bleed. And I sort of want it to be just so…at least until the first time my kids spill on it.

Happy Knitting!!