14 Shades of Green

Christina, a lovely knitting designer who has a blog called "A Knitter's Life" recently posted a tutorial for making your own rolags for spinning. She purchased a group of merino wool roving samples from "Mohair and More". Christina chose to make her rolags in shades of red. After I watched Christina whip up a couple of rolags I ordered some merino in 14 Shades of Green. With a very small investment, I made enough rolags to keep me busy for days. I would guess my yarn is considered "woolen" spun since none of the fibers are going in the same direction until I twist them together. Whatever, it works and I'm having a great time spinning away!

This Homebody Needs to Knit Zombody Socks

I've long admired the Desert Vista Dyeworks "Zombie" colorway sock yarn. To be honest, some of the colors were a little too wild for this 62 year old gram. However, when "Just One More Row" podcast hosts, Brittany and Dana of (Unwind Yarn Company) hosted a contest to name a Zombie colorway, I jumped right in - and my suggested colorway was one of the winners!  Susan of Desert Vista just messaged me to let me know that my skein of yarn is on its way. How exciting! And I love her interpretation of my suggestion. It's so pretty in the pictures on her website. Now I need to start (and finish) my first pair of socks. I've started but always got discouraged when it came to picking up for the gusset. I'm going to use Susan B. Anderson's recipe for socks and they will get finished or zombody's going to be embarrassed.

March 5, 2015

Today is more snow, snow, SNOW! Sorry, I don't usually use four letter words. I'm home working on the baby sweater. Trying not to drop the sweater in favor of some comfort spinning. I skeined up some Into the Whirled "As You Wish", a merino and silk blend braid of roving I bought at Rhinebeck in October. It ended up in my basket of homespun while I work on the rest of the braid. The basket is getting full as I've never knitted with my own yarn I think I'll save that for warmer weather and small projects.

I had my Ninja out for a lunchtime blueberry protein smoothie. I've had such a chocolate craving. Don't know what that's about but I decided to try to come up with a chocolate pudding using chia seeds, almond coconut milk and stevia. I'll post the recipe after I perfect it. I love my Ninja. It works so much better than my blender and it's smaller than a food processor and I can't recommend it highly enough.

March 4, 2015

Today, I'm working on a cardigan for a little guy who's due in May. It's a simple raglan style sweater that I'm knitting in worsted weight O-Wool yarn - 50% organic cotton blended with 50% organic wool in the color "Jade". It looks gray but it's actually a light green. I'm using a yarn, called "Balance" because I know that organic is important to the new mom. As my daughter would say, she's even "crunchier" than I am, as in granola crunch. It's a bit rustic looking and that causes the stitches to look somewhat irregular to me. And, although I went down a needle size for the ribbed cuffs, I kind of wish I'd gone down more. The fabric this yarn is making is not springy at all and doesn't show how regular my tension usually is. It will probably look better after it's had a soak and blocking.
I'm roasting an organic chicken at the moment and the fragrance is wafting through the house. I stuffed the cavity with onions and garlic, gave it a rub down with olive oil and salted and peppered it well. I'm going to serve it with asparagus (which only I will enjoy), a salad and probably some rice pilaf for hubs. As I write, I'm enjoying a light beer with 2.6 carbs. That would all be good except that this afternoon I was craving chocolate and neglected to buy any when I was out yesterday. So I did have a chocolate covered mini banana for 130 calories that I didn't need. Heaven knows how many carbs since I threw the box out. I've had my handful of raw almonds for the day. If I stay the course for the rest of the day I'll be okay. I guess. Some kind of ice cold rain snow coming late tonight. Wait, now the weather bunny says 3-5 inches with Arctic cold returning, . Brrrr.... Baby's going to need this sweater next fall when we head back into the cold.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Home + Body = Homebody

A day doesn't go by that I don't pick up my knitting needles and work on a project. It's comforting and relaxing if it's simple stockinette or garter stitch. Lace knitting - not so much. Love the look but sometimes it's more of a challenge than I'm up to. Hence the name, Homebody Knits. I admit to being a homebody and have been one all my life. There is no place like it and nothing (barring my family and little dog) makes me happier than the sight of my own front door. I love to travel but just before I round the last corner before my street sign appears, I say a little prayer that the house is still standing. Crazy, I know, but that's how it is. In addition to knitting, I plant a small garden, write a bit, cook most every meal and bake a little. Tonight I was supposed to attend my first rug hooking class but, no surprise to anyone who lives in the northeast United States, the class was cancelled due to expected snow and ice. It's been a very cold, snowy winter and it's not over yet. 

Now, the "Body" part of homebody. I'm collecting social security and I admit that I still have "body issues". I know I'm not alone but I wish I'd just get over it. Prior to Christmas, I was exercising 3 times a week and losing weight slowly following a low carbohydrate, high fat diet lifestyle regime whatever. I came down with a bug in January that took most of the month to shake and then had some elective surgery in February. So basically, I've been off my game for two months. But I'm determined to get to a comfortable weight and fitness level and most of all, accept my body shape, type and size and do it soon. Following the low carb program I did see a substantial drop in my triglycerides in the first 5 months. To get to where I am, I've been preparing boring meals that allowed me to substitute extra vegetables for the starches I was preparing for my husband. There's got to be a better way and I'm determined to come up with some recipes that will satisfy both of us. He says he likes my cooking and his weight is perfect - he has no complaints. I just feel that if I'm going to eat this way (which I really believe is healthier than the standard American diet) I'd like to get more creative in my meal planning. I'll be testing and posting any interesting recipes I come up with here.

Lastly, I'm going to try to post daily, if I can. I'm finding that I'm losing track of not just days, but months and years. I'm enjoying this part of my life so much that I want it to slow down. I feel like I was just dreading winter when suddenly, I was smack dab in the midst of it. I'm trying not to hurry my life along, just because I do hate the cold and the snow. That's simply no excuse for not savoring every day.