Knitting ribbed hats is one of my favorite “no brainer” knitting projects. I really don’t have to think about what I’m doing, after all the rib stitch is just a combination of knits and purls, until you reach the desired knitted hat length. I have fun playing with a variety of ribbed stitch length, but my standard is usually k2, p2….
This hat is a fun project, love the orange color. It makes me think of autumn! Cool nights, soups and chunky chowders to warm the tummy as we sit near a warm fire.
Of course, I’m using my Hiya Hiya Steel Sharp circular needles. Once I went Hiya Hiya… I never looked back. 🙂 A few days ago, I ordered two more 16″ HiyaHiya Interchangeable Cable (small.) It seems, I’m always running out of 16″ cables so I felt it was high time I added more to my collection. The 16″ cables are great for small projects. For some reason, during the cooler months, I find myself knitting a lot more items using my 16″ interchangeable cables.
It’s been a very busy week but I’m hoping that I can finish knitting this hat sometime this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to squeeze in some time while my daughter is drawing, writing or reading.
Cool weather and a thick and chunky chowder seem to go nicely together. Earlier this week, I made two varieties; potato and fish.
My granite mortar and pestle was used to grind up the spices. I love the smell that permeates the air from a good old fashioned mortar and pestle grinding.
“You added celery!” my daughter squealed before she dug in… she loves celery! Regarding the chowders, I made plenty so that we could have leftovers and although I had intentions of freezing some of the chowder, that wasn’t about to happen since my daughter and father gobbled up both varieties. I sampled the potato chowder and I must admit it was quite good. With the fish chowder, It wasn’t swimming with fish, but I added enough to the dish that you weren’t hunting around for it. My daughter and father said that was delicious.
My daughter and I took our time to eat our chowder, savoring each bite while we read books in front of the wood stove.
One of the many things I love about my Lutheran church is how they seem to include so many things into their church home.
We have ministries that deal with the elderly, hospitalized, those suffering from addictions, homeless, people not having enough to eat, groups for children, teens, women, men, couples, ect., You name it, my Lutheran church seems to have that covered. This Sunday, there will be a special feature in our church services (we have three of them; one on Saturday and two on Sunday.) It’s time to Bless the Animals. In years prior, the animals were physically brought to the location but this year church members will submit their pets and the animals will be presented in a Power Point presentation. Naturally, I’m submitting pictures of Angel, Mr. Bentley, Gracie, Oreo… and my honeybees!
Well… our HP Photosmart printer has finally stopped working. It’s been acting odd for the past several weeks, but I just ignored that since there was no urgent need to replace the printer. Besides, if I really needed something printed, I could always use my Epson Photo Stylus R2400 Inkjet Printer, but that would be a last resort since that printer is used exclusively for printing high quality photos and that ink can get costly.
Fast forward until today…. pulling up my daughter’s homework online, it appears she has several projects within the next few weeks that will require a functioning printer. Armed with that knowledge, I knew it was high time that I got my “rear in gear” and purchase a suitable replacement.
I did a bit of research, and I do believe I have a winner… the Epson WorkForce WF-3540. And saw these features listed on its page.
World’s Fastest 2-sided printing
500-sheet paper capacity
40% lower printing costs vs color laser
Mobile device printing
3.5-Inch touchscreen with gesture navigation
Besides that it also scans and faxes. Since I’m an Amazon Prime member, the shipping is free and it should arrive this Thursday.
I’ll be sure to write a review after I’ve had it for a few months. When this arrives, one of the first things I’ll be printing, is a cable knit hat pattern.
This morning, I made a lovely vegetable juice with dark leafy greens and beets. I’m drinking it now…Â it’s so good!
It’s not sweet and I imagine many would turn there nose up at this drink, but I’m not most people. I must say, that I’ve been enjoying my non-sweet drinks for years.
Vegetable Juice: Greens & Beets
4 cups of kale
5 beets
3 celery stalks
2 carrots
2 lime
1/2 medium sized yellow onion
1 habanero pepper
This is not a sweet drink, in fact when I gave some to my father he drank it and let out a “WHOO!” just like a train whistle, but I told him if he slowly incorporated juices like this into his routine, he’d get to the point where he could drink them straight… just like me!
Some of the produce came from the garden, but the bulk of it came from a local farm. Saturday, my daughter and I went to the farm and I purchased a three dozen sweet corn, several beets, celery and a large amount of greens; collards and kale. The cart was overflowing and my bill was less than $23. I thought that was a great deal with the amount I purchased. Since it’s at a local farm, I know the freshness is much better than what I get from the local grocery store.
For your information…
Remember, if you consume beet juice your urine and/or bowel movements might turn red in color.
Earlier today, I had a chance to meet up with someone that I’ve admired via their blog for years. We met over lunch. While we’ve chatted for quite some time via email, phone, etc. and have planned to eventually meet in person since we are only a state away.
Ann’s Spinach Salad
Fresh baby spinach, mushrooms, red onions, toasted walnuts, smoky bacon, hard boiled egg & your choice of dressing. I told them to hold the bacon and they did.
This was a lot of salad for me and I could not finish all of it, it was good for restaurant food but I could not help compare it to what I get from my garden, stacked up against that it simple could not compete.
And I had this to drink…
Spooners Stout
A true Irish Ale for those of you who are brave enough to get into the darker beers. Spooners’ has a full roasted malt flavor and a perfect balance between the hops and malt. It’s smooth as silk going down and is sure to please. ABV = 4.5%
K had…
Grilled Portabella Panini
Roasted portabella mushroom with roasted red peppers, onions, tomatoes, basil pesto and provolone grilled with olive oil on fresh French bread.
K had this to drink
Daily Crisis Drink
Don’t let the name fool you. This beer is no mistake. A light copper colored ale with an intense hop nose and a distinct hop flavor with mild body and plenty of kick. For the true beer enthusiast this beer weighs in at 55 IBU’s. A great beer with lots of flavor. Named after our friends at the Daily Crisis Dairy Farm here in Baltimore County, Maryland.
ABV = 6.1%
Today’s meeting was a bit unexpected. We only decided on meeting yesterday. I will say,the time spent in person, like in our emails flew by quickly and before I knew it it was time to go. But before we left… we swapped gifts. I don’t think either of us knew the other had brought a gift for the other person.
While I was tempted to share some of the veggie egg rolls that I’d made yesterday, I refrained and instead gave K a copy of the Lutheran Book of Prayer that I love so much. The gift bag that I put the book in was a bit of a joke shared between us, and I crocheted the “tie” that I’d wrapped around the book. If I’d thought about it, I would have taken a picture before it was given away. The yarn used was some of my Malabrigo single ply yarn. The color is Amor Intenso.
What did K give me?
Raw honey
Well… I received two jars of raw honey from one of their beehives. If you look closely, the jar on the right includes the actual honeycomb! I noticed their honey is much lighter than honey I got from my own hive. Besides their garden, I wonder what other types of crops are around them. I’ll be sure to ask the next time we chat. With all this fragrantly delicious honey in our home, you’d think I’d dig right in… but I think we’ll hold off a bit before we do any taste testing. I’m in no rush to use the honey.
Shiitake mushrooms freshly harvested by K
And I also received some of K’s homegrown Shiitake mushrooms! Wow, I’m truly blessed to have someone share some of their homegrown items with me. Next time, I’ll be sure to gift K with some herbs.
Thanks K, I look forward to hanging out with you again.
The past few days Gracie, our lionhead rabbit, has been tired. I’m not surprised since she’s been partying through the night.
Thankfully… she’s starting to settle down at night, but judging from these pictures she still needs to catch up on her bunny sleep.
I must say it is cute to see her laying around the house. Most of the time, she’s hopping around our home with frequent stops to give me bunny kisses, before she moves on to explore whatever grabs her interest once again.
At times, I do wonder when she sleeps what does she dream about…
Perhaps she’s thinking of playing in a large grassy field, hopping around and binkying… stopping only to munch on grass. And perhaps when dreaming, she stops and gives us bunny kisses (that is if we make an appearance in her dreams.) 😉
