How I Made My 2nd Seed Stitch Blanket

Now if you remember from my last knitting post, I originally started knitting my first Seed Stitch blanket for my friend, Ms D, but decided to keep it for myself.  I promised to make her another one and this time, I wouldn't keep it.  I really love the seed stitch pattern and it's EASY to do, so I'm using the same pattern that I found on Yarnsinpirations website, but I casted on more stitches and used less balls of yarn.

Yarnspinpirations has free patterns, sells yarns, patterns, and other tools, and it's for knitters and crocheters.

However, I decided to not use the Bernat Mega Bulky yarn this time around since it turns out to be a thick, heavy blanket.  My mom and I returned to Michael's to look at yarn, but something with a lighter weight. I wanted something that was red, which is MS D's favourite colour, and a bit of other colours thrown in.  I found this really pretty coloured yarn by Lion's Pride (Lion Brand) Woolspun called Sparks Mix.  It has red, burgundy, black, pink, orange, and a bluish-grey.  This yarn is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, so it should help keep Ms D warm while working.  My mom took a piece of the yarn and tested it out on a needle to make sure for needle size.  I'm still not sure how to determine if one size of needle works best over another size.  Perhaps this comes with experience.  My mom said to use US Size 13/9 mm needles for this yarn, so that's what I bought.  I don't mess with The Boss.

It took me a couple of weeks to knit this blanket, which was maybe a few hours each or night or so.  Even though I casted on more stitches when I started to knit this blanket, it is shorter not as wide as my first blanket.  However, it is longer than the Mega Bulky Yarn blanket - 4 balls of woolspun was equivalent in length to 7 balls of mega bulky.

It kept me warm while I knitted. It's the perfect weight to wrap around your shoulders or to put over your legs.

I took it in to work and left it on and Ms. D's office chair.

Here are the details for the blanket:

The pattern: Yarnspirations' Bernat Seed Stitch Blanket

Boye Anodized Aluminum Circular Needles size US 13/9 mm - 36 in / 91.5 cm

Use 8 rolls of Lion Brand - Lion's Pride Woolspun:

• Sparks Mix pattern

Cast on 103 stitches:

1st row: K1, P1, repeat to end
2nd row: P1, K1 (seed stitch is you purl your knits and knit your purls)

Except in one case, because I estimated wrong, I start a new ball at an end instead of the middle.

Measures 38 inches X 48 inches

Pork Vegetable Stir-fry

Have a half our? Is so, then you can make a stirfry for supper.

Today was a long day and it took me forever to get home by public transit. I didn't feel like cooking supper and it would have been easy to cave and get takeout, but decided I would make supper. My goal was to make something healthy and fast.

Last night I took a package of 3 boneless pork chops out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for tonight's supper. There was no recipe in mind for supper.

As I started cooking the pork chops in the frying pan over medium heat, I went through my crisper and took out vegetables and started chopping. You can add any vegetables you want and as much as you want. Maybe add a little bit of broccoli, celery, and carrots in with your dog's supper. Add mushrooms and spinach close to the end of cooking. Because I wasn't thinking ahead I forgot to cut up an onion and crush garlic cloves for this dish, so it's always great to have onion powder and garlic powder on hand.

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless pork chops (or any meat or tofu)

• 1 large carrot, sliced

• 1 stalk of celery, sliced

• broccoli

• green beans, ends trimmed and cut into pieces

• 3 large white mushrooms, sliced

• 10 grape tomatoes, sliced in half

• 2 large handfuls of baby spinach, torn

• Ground black pepper

• Herbamare, sodium-free

• Paprika

• Crushed chili pepper flakes

• Onion powder, you can add chopped onion 

• Garlic powder, you can add crushed fresh garlic

• Added a bit of leftover vegetable broth

• Added a bit of light Tamari

I split this recipe in 2 dishes and saved one of them for a lunch. You could split it between more people if you add rice or cauliflower rice to the stirfry. I didn't feel like waiting for the rice to cook and didn't want to thaw frozen cauliflower rice. This was my lazy part of the meal preparation.

Enjoy! What's your favourite part of a stirfry?

I Knitted a Bernat Seed Stitch Blanket

Knitting! Oh My!

Completed Seed Stitch Lap Blanket

I have watched my mom knit my entire life.  In my lifetime, my mom has knitted numerous blankets, sweaters, baby items, doll clothes, socks, dish clothes, which are the best for doing dishes, and my very favourite, mittens.  My mom makes the best mittens that keep your hands toasty warm throughout the winter.  My stock is dwindling because I typically lose a mitt each year.  I used to joke about a creating a blog called "Have you seen my Soul Mitt?" with posts of the remaining mitts.  When I was 11 years old my mom tried teaching me how to knit a basic scarf. I couldn't do it.  Maybe I didn't have the patience back then, but since then I could not be bothered with knitting.  There was no interest in it.  None.  My close friends knit and have made me wonderful items: a skinny scarf, a couple of cowls, and a felted bowl.  A couple of friends even took knitting class and I still showed no interest in knitting.

That is until a year and a half ago when I asked my friend Nina if she wanted to take a learn to knit class with me.  We learned how to cast on stitches, do some rows of knit, do some rows of purls, then some rows of knit and purl.  I must admit that those two weeks of classes and in-between were hard and frustrating.  The yarn was beautiful but difficult for a beginner since it was thick/bulky at parts and then it would be super thin.  I liked the bulky part, however, the thin section of the yarn was hard to knit.  I would get frustrated when I counted my stitches after a row and realize I there were more stitches than what was casted on the needle.  How does that happen?  I finally completed my first knitted project after my mom showed me how to fix my mistakes, bind off, and sew the ends together.  Since then I have knitted 3-4 scarves using knit 2, purl 2 and have knitted 5 seed stitch cowls.

Now back to the topic of this post, a few of my friends/co-workers are always freezing at work.  They have sweaters, cuffets, an assortment of pashminas and they are still cold.  One coworkers has a blanket/shawl that her grandmother made her.  I looked at it and thought I could make something like this for Ms D and told her I would make her a blanket.  I perused free patterns to see what was available for my level of knitting and for something that looked nice.  I found a pattern to make a seed stitch lap blanket on Yarnsinpirations website.  Yarnspinpirations has free patterns, sells yarns, patterns, and other tools, and it's for knitters and crocheters.

However, I did not want to knit a blanket with that many colours.  My mom and I went to Michael's to look at yarn and originally, I wanted to get multi-coloured yarn that had the same thickness as the yarn in the pattern.  We couldn't find any and decided to use the Bernat Mega Chunky yarn that was used in the pattern.  I decided to use 3 colours for the blanket: Dark Grey Heather, Light Grey Heather, and Teal.  My mom told me to start and finish the blanket with the same colour.  She also told me to start a new colour on a new row, not in the middle when I was close to running out.  This is the first time I've knitted with more than one colour.  I used smaller needles than the pattern suggests.

This pattern, yarn and needles knitted (if that's the correct lingo - someone will correct me) up really fast.  It took me a week to knit it.  It's a heavy blanket and it will be fabulous when it's cold outside.

The beginning - starting to see the pattern

I have a confession.  As I started knitting, I really, really liked the pattern and colours and thought about keeping it for myself.  Half way through I decided to keep it.  Sorry Ms D!  I'm working on another blanket for you right now.

The moment I decided to keep it for myself.  So pretty!

My mom helped me with the loose ends where I started a new colour.  Thank you, Mom! You're the best!

Here are the details for the blanket:

The pattern: Yarnspirations' Bernat Seed Stitch Blanket

Boye Anodized Aluminum Circular Needles size US 19/15 mm - 29 in / 73.6 cm

Used 10 rolls of Bernat Mega Chunky yarn:

• 4 Dark Grey Heather
• 3 Light Grey Heather
• 3 Teal

Pattern:

1. Dark Grey Heather
2. Light Grey Heather
3. Teal
4. Dark Grey Heather
5. Light Grey Heather
6. Teal
7. Dark Grey Heather
8. Light Grey Heather
9. Teal
10. Dark Grey Heather

Cast on 67 stitches:
1st row: K1, P1, repeat to end
2nd row: P1, K1 (seed stitch is you purl your knits and knit your purls)
Change to new colour at end of row.

Another view of the finished Bernat Seed Stitch Blanket

Bucket List Item - Trying To Do The Splits

After sharing my bucket list on this blog, I've been asked what will I do first and to be honest with you, I wasn't too sure.  There are so many things to do and some things require money for which I have none at the moment.  After thinking about it for some time and seeing what wouldn't cost me anything, I decided do the splits again for my first task.

I used to be able to do the side splits (or straddle splits) when I was a kid and throughout my teen years, then something happened and I could no longer do the side splits.  Instead I was able to do a front split, that's where you have one leg forward and the other leg behind your torso.  Now it's been awhile since I was able to do either side or front splits and since I never specified what type of splits to complete for my bucket list, I decided to try and do the forward splits for this task.  They seem to be the easiest.

Yesterday, I was tried this tutorial split stretch workout for the first time.

Now this is where I am with my splits.  As you can see, I'm not too far off from doing them and with a little practice, I hope to be able to do them completely and soon.

 My little cheerleader is helping me in the second picture - she probably wanted to do a photobomb.

Bucket List

Lately, I have been seeing many blogs and articles on bucket lists. I've always had a list of things I would like to accomplish and thought I would finally share my Bucket List.

1. Get driver's license
2. Sail on a felucca down the Nile
3. Go to Egypt
4. See pyramids
5. Skydiving
6. Go to Meteora
7. Paraglide from Mont Blanc or higher
8. Try Zorbing
9. Hike TMB
10. Hike the Lycian Way
11. Try Diving - if you like it - get certificate
12. Backpack for at least a month by yourself
13. Hike Chilkoot Trail
14. Walk another long distance race/organization
15. Learn to ski Black Diamond trails
16. Visit Nahanni National Park and stalactite caves
17. Zipline in the Cloud Mountains - Costa Rica
18. African Safari 
19. Hike from Chamonix to Zermatt
20. Sail in the Mediterranean 
21. Learn how to make gelato in Italy
22. Visit a tea plantation 
23. Learn to really surf and surf the waves 
24. Yoga retreat
25. Write a book
26. Fall head over heels madly in love with someone
27. Learn photography for DSLR camera
28. Go to Bora Bora
29. Stay in a tree house
30. Attend Glastonbury/ Coachella
31. Participate in the Holi Festival 
32. Visit all 7 continents
33. Float in the Dead Sea
34. Do a road trip through Canada
35. Do a road trip through the States
36. Dog sledding in Alaska
37. Ride a Vespa
38. Be an extra in a movie or show
39. Take a photo everyday for a year
40. Watch the Winter Olympics in person
41. Travel somewhere new every year
42. Be more giving/caring
43. Spend 4-5 days in Brooklyn / NYC
44. Go to Brooklyn Flea Market
45. Sample food at the Smorgasbord in Brooklyn
46. Hike the Camino de Santiago
47. Take train to Churchill, Manitoba and see the polar bears
48. Go in a cave with stalactites / stalagmites
49. See all ISU Grand Prix figure skating events in one season
50. Go to ISU World Figure Skating Championship
51. Try heli-skiing
52. Take the Orient Express
53. Find something I truly love to do and that I'm good at
54. Swim in Quilotoa, Ecuador
55. Visit all the places I circled in my atlas as a kid
56. Go bungee jumping
57. Learn how to ride a camel on my own
58. Do the splits (I used to be able to do this)
59. Get married
60. Read at least a 100 books in a year
61. Attend an Grand Prix F1 race in Europe
62. Hike the Appalachian Trail
63. Learn to play chess
64. Play Jenga
65. Watch a sunrise and sunset in the same day
66. Be a tourist in my own city
67. Take a cooking class
68. Get my fortune read
69. Get a 2nd tattoo
70. Give up tea for a month
71. Research my family tree
72. Eat a meal at a renowned restaurant (I.e. Massing Bottura's Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy)
73. Learn to water ski or wakeboard
74. Go for a horseback ride in the woods
75. Do my genealogy 

Some bucket list (by others) items already done:

1. Took a surfing class
2.  Ride a cable car in San Francisco
3. Zipline in Costa Rica (short one)
4. Kayak in Belize
5. Go snorkeling
6. Swim with dolphins
7. Paraglide
8. Whale watching
9. Do a colour run
10. Ride a camel in the desert
11. Learn to glassblow