Long time no see

So it has been awhile since I posted last. Things have been a bit crazy. My grandma was in and out of the hospital over a three week period. They kept sending her home and telling her she had inflamed ribs. Turned out she experienced some very severe side effects due to some meds she was on. She is finally on the mend so things are getting back to normal.

On the knitting front I'm almost done with Porom. No pictures to post. I got home late and it was already dark out. I hate to take pictures with my flash. Since I don't have any knitting to share instead I will share one of my favorite recipes.



Turkey Meatloaf

2 packages of ground turkey breast
3/4 cup instant oatmeal
2 eggs
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
basil
cilantro

For the herbs I go to Trader Joes. They have basil and cilantro, in the freezer section, that are frozen into little cubes. You could definitely use fresh basil and cilantro if you prefer. For me the frozen cubes are more convenient. If I buy fresh basil I end up having to through some of it out because I can't use it up before it goes bad.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Thaw and drain the spinach. In a large bowl combine all your ingredients. I mix everything together will my hands (cleand hands LOL!!!) and place in a loaf pan. Cook at 375 for 50 - 60 minutes or until it's no longer pink in the center.

I love how moist and yummy the meatloaf comes out. It's great warm or as a cold meatloaf sandwich. I'm lucky to have leftovers for the next day. My husband practically eats half the meatloaf himself.

For a little twist you could also add some salsa to change it up a bit.

For me.......

It has been a very busy two weeks. I am hoping things will slow down so I can get back to knitting and blog reading. I did find the time to do some shopping with my Birthday money. I have always wanted a dress form to use when sewing or when I am designing a pattern. I splurged and bought the lady valet dress form. Isn't she pretty!!!

She is in route all the way from the UK. I couldn't find any US stores that carried this type of dress form. The stand is wood, which is what I wanted. The best part is the form is adjustable so I can alter it to my exact measurement. It should be arriving this week.

On the knitting front I am still working on my February Lady sweater and I have two new projects that I think I may be knitting for Christmas gifts.

Brooklyntweed just came out with two beautiful hat patterns. The first is a cable hat called Habitat. I have a couple of men that I think will love this hat. The second is for the ladies and is called Porom. I have yarn in my stash for both hats but I may need to purchase some more.

I love quick knits for Christmas gifts. Can you believe that there is only 95 days, 12 hours, 52 minutes and 47 seconds left til Christmas. But who is counting. LOL !!!!

And the winners are.....

Thank you to everyone that joined the blogiversary contest. I really enjoyed reading your blogs and getting to know more about each one of you. I know you are waiting to find out who won the goodies so the winners are:

Lornas's Lace Shepherd Worsted goes to Judy

Regia Canadian Color sock yarn goes to Erin

Noro Kureyon goes to Evergreen Knits

Send me your info ladies so I can get these in the mail to you.

Congratulations!!!!!

Blogiversary Contest

It's been a year since I started blogging. I have met so many wonderful people through my blog and made some great friends. I wanted to do some type of contest but have been too busy to think of anything creative. So leave a comment from now until Wednesday September 17th and you will be entered to win 1 of 3 prizes.

First is Lorna's Lace Shepherd Worsted in colorway Embers (2 skeins - 225 yards each).

Second is Regia Canadian Color. This is one of my favorite self striping sock yarns. I don't think you can get this anymore. When I found it I bought 10 skeins. You know I love sock yarn.

Last is 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon color 139. The colors are purple, pink, teal, blue, green and rust.

Goodluck and thanks for reading!!!!!

Number crunching

I have been working on finishing the pattern for Violet. As you can see I have been crunching numbers trying to size the pattern up. Math isn't my strong point so I'm checking and rechecking my numbers. Then when I was almost done I decided that I should make the pattern

available for multiple gauges. Which means more number crunching this weekend and then off to have it editted and test knit.

Guess what came in the mail last week? Custom Knits!!!!! Yes, I got two copies. I was soooo excited about it coming out that I didn't realize that I paid for and pre-ordered two copies.

There are a lot of really great designs. The best part is Wendy tells you how to alter each design to make it your own. I love the design above but I'm not much into belly showing shirts so I would customize the pattern to make it long enough to cover my stomach.

I absolutely love this hat. I usually don't wear hats but I might make an exception for this one. I think this would make a quick and beautiful Christmas gift. Yes there is only 116 days til Christmas. OMG!!!!

I love this top. Too bad summer is almost over. I will definitely be adding this to my future project queue.

If I didn't have so many UFO's I would cast on for this gorgeous number. I'm drawn to the green. There is another picture of this same sweater in a dark tealy blue with no shirt beneath it. Seems like a very versatile knit.

Too many beautiful designs. The book is also a great read. I haven't had a chance yet to read it cover to cover but I plan on doing it soon. Wendy is very talented.

I know that I have way too many projects going on around here but I decided to join a sew-a-long for the Amy Butler Weekender bag. You guessed it there is a group on Ravelry called Amy Butler Lovers. I ordered the material over a year ago.

I haven't sewn in awhile so this should be interesting. The hubby will be happy because he bought me a sewing machine over 5 years ago and I never used it. I had good intentions but I never broke it out to sew. I'm excited because Amy Butler's fabrics and patterns are gorgeous. My friend Michelle has made many of her bags and she says the patterns are easy. Check out Michelle's beautiful bags here and here.

I promised to post some pictures of my Namaste Newport bag in peacock. The color in the pictures is pretty accurate. It is not the bright teal color that it appears on some of the on-line stores.

The yarn in front of the bag is knit picks yarn in various shades of blue. I love this bag and the color is just beautiful.

Off to finish crunching my numbers. Have a great long Labor Day weekend!!!!!

Glad to be home

My trip to Colorado was nice but I'm glad to be home. It was a busy trip. Most of my time was spent working and going out to dinner with co-workers. I did manage to slip away to do some shopping. My first stop was the Knitters Kove in Colorado Springs. I found them through ravelry there is a knitters kove group.

I wasn't shopping for anything specific, I just wanted to browse and see what they had. It's not a really big shop but they did have quite a big selection of yarn. I bought some Pagewood Farm hand dyed sock yarn Yukon in colorway new horizon. It's 70% merino, 20% bamboo and 10% nylon. I couldn't resist the color. I also picked up a hair pin lace loom. I've always wanted to learn how to do hair pin lace to make this skirt. I also picked up some stitch markers and some double points. I don't know what happens to all my stitch markers they keep disappearing. I planed on stopping at Posh Yarns in Denver but I never got a chance.

Colorado Springs is beautiful. This is the view looking out my hotel window. It took me a little while to get use to the dry Colorado air. I'm use to the high and I mean high humidity that we have in Ohio. The best part about the dry air was no frizzy hair.

I did take some knitting with me but I really only got to knit on the plane. I started the February Sweater (ravelry link). I knit quite a bit on the flight to Denver but ended up ripping most of it because I didn't like the way my one row button hole looked. I decided to use this version of the one row button hole.

I'm using Dream into Color Classy in November Muse. The color reminds me of the fall leaves. I can't wait to get to the gull lace portion. Off to relax and knit.

What to Pack?

I'm headed to Colorado Springs today for work. I had to get up early today to pack because I spent yesterday cleaning out my flower beds and deciding what projects I wanted to take with me. At least my priorities are straight. So I decided I'm going to take the February Lady Sweater (ravelry link) for my airplane knitting. I'm using Dream into Color Classy in November Muse. I actually don't have enough yarn to complete the sweater so I'm going to need to order more. I only have two hanks and I think it's going to take about 3.5 hanks.

I'm also taking Violet. It's my own design which I will make available both on my blog and on Ravelry. Here is a little peak on what it looks like. I've been trying to get this pattern written up for way to long (since January). I've also got the name of a couple of local Colorado Springs yarn shops. I'm hoping that I will have enough time to stop and check them out. The hotel has free internet so I'll see if I can get a post or two in.