Almost a Year in Socks

I have surprisingly kept on track with the knitting goal I set at the beginning of the year. I'm currently working on October's pair, so I'm already ahead of schedule.

I already posted January's, so here are the rest:

February

March

April

Modeled by Arielle

May/June

July 

August

September

I have to confess that I cheated a bit in May and June with itty bitty socks. Below are my October socks. Just barely started, but it's unreal for me to be this ahead of schedule.  I hope I can keep it up - at least until the next project catches my eye.



Hawaiian Meatloaf

Before I sat down to enjoy my meatloaf the other night, some great news came my way.  My wonderfully talented daughter, Arielle, is on the Dean's List!  I'm so proud of her.  Her future is so bright.  It will be exciting to see where all this takes her.

So, before I start going on and on about my fabulous daughter, because I can go non-stop - yes, she's that awesome, here is my meatloaf recipe:

Hawaiian Meatloaf       

Combine all of these in a mixer.  (I like using a mixer because it mixes much better than using my hands):

1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 pound hamburger
1 egg
1/2 cup of canned crushed pineapple (save the juice for the sauce)
1 finely chopped onion
2 tsp pineapple juice (from can)
1 cup plain bread crumbs
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix until well blended.  Transfer to a metal loaf pan and cook for one hour at 350-degrees*.
Take out of oven and pour sauce over the top.


Sauce   

Combine in a saucepan:

2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup reserved pineapple juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic

Heat on medium low until thick and bubbly.  Pour over the meatloaf and put back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

I served this with mashed potatoes, gravy and corn on the cob.  Not our usual dinner, but this was sweet comfort food at its best. 


*I always put two pieces of bread, usually the ends because no one in my family eats them, underneath the meatloaf.  It soaks up all the grease.  Just remember to discard them before you serve the meatloaf.

Downhill

My year has not improved much. Without going into it too far - because most of it is not my story to tell- I am at my peak with disasters and medical emergencies.  The good news about being on the peak is there is only downhill ahead of me. Hopefully, it will be smooth and I won't land on my face.

A happy spot in these last few months, is Aslan.  My adopted 80-pound puppy.  I looked in every shelter and humane society for months to find the perfect dog. I finally found him at an Encinitas humane society.  I couldn't have asked for a better dog. He's gentle, patient and so snuggable despite his size. 

He's just perfect.  Aslan helps fill the house with laughter and love.

Since the last year has been dark and dreary, I spruced up the blog.  It needed some happy colors.  This is the same reason why my livingroom is now a bright purplish pink.  (Don't tell Doug it's pink. He's colorblind and thinks it's a dark purple.  Who am I to burst his paint bubble?)

 I'm off to experiment with combining three different Hawaiian Meatloaf recipes for dinner.  I'll post the finalized recipe. Something sweet yet comforting is what I need right now.

Isabelle is Three!!!!

Sad, but true - my baby girl turned three last week.

Isabelle went on many adventures last year and learn some new things, like:

• went camping at Salton Sea, Big Sur and Yellowstone
• learned how to ride a tricycle
• discovered rain won't melt her face off 
• went to Seattle
• started preschool
• lost a great-grandma, grandpa and beloved chihuahua
• learned how to cook scrambled eggs
• discovered she won't go down the bathtub drain
• sat still through a whole movie in the theater, Tangled
• learned her abc's

All she wanted for her birthday was "presents, pink balloons and cake with candles."  What was inside the presents didn't matter much. She was super excited about knee-high socks. 

Unfortunately, her dad was away on a business trip during her birthday, so we had a mini-birthday until he could join us a few days later. 

Fortunately, he was in Tempe, AZ and eating dinner with her big sister Arielle on her birthday.  They both joined us in singing Happy Birthday - on speaker phone - over a flaming cupcake.

Happy Third Birthday my little Isabelle!!!



Knitting Dreams

Sock of the Month Club

I have been dreaming of knitting since Christmas. It's bizarre, but there it is. I haven't been knitting much, but my yarn collection keeps growing. I have tons of sock yarn. So, I've decided to make my own sock of the month club. There is an awesome one online here, but it's a bit too pricey for me right now. Besides, I want to reduce my shelf and baskets full of yarn, not add to it.

January's sock is done and finished in January. Fancy that! Deadlines haven't worked well for me in my knitting past. This gives me hope.

I knitted my own pattern, which is pretty simple except I knitted from the toe up this time. It's my first time. Usually I knit from the cuff down, so I'm pretty pleased with myself. If only the socks ended the same in the patterned yarn. One has a blue edge and one has a purple. Still, they have character and they fit really nice.

My February socks aren't on the needles yet, but they will be tonight. I'm doing the Feather and Fan pattern from Socks, Socks, Socks.

Other Knitting Projects

There is just too many projects on my needles. Every size of needles are taken up with a project. It's so bad that if I want to start another project, I either have to put the needle hogging project on stitch holders (a total pain) or buy new needles.

My goal this year is to slowly free up my needles by finishing my projects. I say slowly because I need to concentrate on one at at time. Otherwise, I just do part of one like a crazed person until I get burned out - which I always do - and go to the next one.

In my office, I have a shelf filled with knitting projects in ziploc bags. I want my shelf back. I'm running out of space for my knitting books. I want to finish all of those before I buy more yarn. Chances of me not buying yarn anytime soon are pretty slim, but I'll try be strong.

I wasn't going to make any resolutions this year (except for getting rid of craptastic things), but it looks like I have a goal.

Fingers crossed

Craptastic

It's not my word, but it accurately describes last year for me. 

• It was craptastic to lose three members of my family
• It was craptastic to lose my dog
• It was craptastic to have my Jeep seriously break down - it will take months to fix
• It was craptastic the way that all of the above added up to a crazed disorganized unfocused emotionally messed up person - that was me

I was not only happy to see 2010 leave my life, but I kicked it hard on its way out the door (slammed and locked it tight).

My New Year's resolution is just to get the word "craptastic" out of my vocabulary.

Bring it on 2011!!