Week 7 Year 7

 

Helllloooo my lovelies.  How nice to be here at my computer, typing a wrap up of my week.  I really look forward to Sundays and updating my blog.  My most fun though, is reading other peoples blogs and getting ideas from them.  You will see this happened this week as you read further on.

Let's see what I have done this week.

First up:

This baby blanket was completed by Grammie.  (My daughter in law's mother)  My Grand Daughter started this right after I taught her how to knit.  It has been languishing on her needles for about 3 years.  Grammie felt bad and said she would finish it.  I told her if she finished the body, I would crochet a cut little border on it.

Just a simple little shell stitch to finish it off and get it sent over to Hannah's House for a new baby.  I rewarded Grammie's work by giving her the Addi circular wooden needles I had bought for the Grand.  Grand has informed me she is no longer interested in knitting or crocheting.  This did not upset me as I was the same way when I was 12.  I am sure, some day she will pick it back up again, as we all did.  When she does, she will remember her grandmothers who taught her the art of fiber crafting.

Of course, I am working on this:

I have 8 more rows to do on this square and it will be completed.  I should have it done by Tuesday which will mean it takes 3 weeks of monogamous knitting to complete one square.

Just so you can kind of get an idea of the size of this square:

It is almost 24 inches square!  By the time I border it, the thing will be a good 48 to 50 inches square.  A nice sized throw to put on while watching TV.  This is the perfect project to watch TV with.  I do not even look at it other then to start a row.  I used to really dislike garter stitch, but now that I figured out I can watch TV or carry on a conversation while doing it................I am beginning to love it.  It is also nice in the fact, I can lay it down half way through a row and come back a bit later and not worry about where I am.

My hubby is helping to keep track of my progress too.  Each day he will say "that's still square one, right?"  Or he will ask me "how many more rows total before that square is done?"  Makes me kind of feel good that he is interested in this project.  I think one of the reasons is................he watched me as I frogged the squares out and knew how much it hurt hurt me to realize Daughter and I had totally messed up. I love my hubby!

Those are my only two items I have to show you.  Everything else is in hibernation until this blanket is done. Next week, I will have one finished and one being worked on.

I don't want you to think that I do nothing all day other than knit or crochet.  OH NO!  I have been keeping up with the laundry and house work too.  If you remember I have been into organizing and decluttering my house.  I really got into the organizing part this past week.  I attacked my freezer.  I hated trying to find anything in there.  Hubby thought the answer to keeping it all nice and neat was to put everything in plastic grocery bags and put it in the freezer.  Let me tell you....................those bags are slippery little boogers when frozen and they slide and the food falls out of them and it is a big mess.  I finally could not stand it any longer and I set out to organize my freezer and keep it that way for the foreseeable future.

This also keeps us from over buying foods when we have plenty of everything already. Once I got this completed, I knew exactly what we needed.........chicken thighs!  Now we can look at the grocery ads each week and find out what is on sale that we are lacking. Super easy.  I got the baskets from The Container Store (I love that place).  The labeling is just colored index cards that I attached using a hole punch and twist ties and my label maker. (Thanks Grammie for the idea)  Super easy to do.

I have also been trying super hard to make gluten free bread.  I have made 3 loaves that could have been used for door stops.  The flour we were using was a bean flour and the taste was also something we were not happy with.  We saw the nutritionist again this past week and informed her of our issues.  She suggested trying spelt flour.  While this is not totally gluten free, it is darn near.  Neither of us have a gluten allergy nor do we have celiac, therefore it is OK for us to use.  We stopped at Winco and picked up some of said flour as well as a few other non GMO and organic products and some fresh made almond butter (yum).  I came home and went onto the computer to find Spelt flour breads to make in the bread machine.  I found a honey spelt bread that sounded wonderful................Saturday morning I was reading through the recipe and BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE IT WAS.  The reason I was having major issues with my bread in the machine.  YEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!  If you don't bake breads, then you probably do not realize there are several types of yeast.  I had been using Active dry yeast.  I needed to be using BREAD MACHINE YEAST.  Totally different kind of action in that yeast.  I ran to WalMart right away and picked up the proper yeast as well as agave nectar (to replace the honey).  I started the bread as soon as I came home and POOF!  Perfect bread.  Extremely yummy too.......................sorry no photo as we have eaten quite a bit of it.  But next time I make a loaf, I promise to post a photo.  Next on the list to make is Spelt brownies.................I think I will be having some fun in the kitchen now.

OK, here is the part where I tell you about reading other people's blogs.  I read all of the blogs in our YOP group each week and I also follow most of the bloggers from that group by using Bloglovin. That way, when they blog throughout the week I read those posts too. Well, one of my dearest blogging buddies (Sandra AKA Sam) posted about some Christmas ornaments she wanted to purchase and make.  She was unable to find them locally and I suggested she look on Amazon to see if they had them.  Now, I don't know if she did that yet or not but.................I looked.  Yup, there were the ornaments.




Ugly Christmas sweater ornaments.  I love them.  It is a running joke in our family to always have at least one ugly Christmas sweater.  So what do I do?  I order them right away.  They will be delivered by the end of this month.  I am going to make them and give each of the Grands one of them for their tree.  

But wait...............................there's more........................

I found these on Amazon also.  I had to have them too.  They will also be made and sent to each of the Grands for Christmas.  I figured I would do one set for this year and one for next year.  I feel bad though.................I have 7 grands and there are only 6 ornaments.  Sounds bad huh.................well, there is one grand that we have lost all contact with in the past 2 years.  It is a long story and not something I really care to share.  Let's just say...........we love him and when he is ready to be back in our arms, they are ready and waiting for him.

So that is what I have done this week.  Today, we are being treated to a baseball game.  Doesn't sound like much of a treat until you find out we are going to be seating in one of their suites!  All you can eat food and soft drinks and water too.  There will be 19 of us and we all know each other from church.  What a fun time we will have.

Next week is crazy busy and I will be posting all about it throughout the week.  If you want to read about it, just sign up to follow me by email.  The sign up is on the top right portion of my blog.  Or use Bloglovin like I do.  So easy and new blog posts pop up there as they are published.

Until next time..............................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!