So far, this has been a nice, quiet week-no big surprises…until this morning. It seems that someone decided to siphon gas from my husband’s car during the night. Not enough to drain the entire tank, but it went from 3/4’s full to almost empty…overnight. We live on a main highway and our cars are parked outside…three cars about 30-40 feet from a main highway. Upon receiving my husband’s ‘alert’ call this morning, we checked the other two cars gas levels and found no change. When I began to think about the situation, my husband’s car would have been the easiest to do this/least likely to be seen from the road because his was ’sandwiched’ between my car and my son’s. Doesn’t give me a good feeling thinking there are people out there who lurk in the dark, seeking to do bad things. My husband’s response was: “Looks like it’s time to buy locking gas caps for the cars.” One more example of the effects of this current economy.
Other than that, it’s been a good week. Last night was my knit group and I was pleasantly surprised to find four new people who joined us, including a 9 year old girl and her Mom. This little lady can KNIT! While she was there she knit a watch band for her watch, snipped the yarns, promptly attached the watch face and wore it! Very clever! Next she began knitting a cover for her Mom’s cell phone…one very talented young knitter! Since we meet at Panera Bread, when I come in (a little early) there are usually other people sitting in the area we occupy and I have to wait until they are finished with their meals before re-arranging the tables and chairs (the management is SO good about not fussing when I do this!…I always make sure we put everything back at the end of the night, so their employees don’t have to.) While I was moving tables & chairs there were three women eating at a nearby table. I noticed, awhile later, that they were finished and standing/observing our group with smiles on their faces so I approached them. “Are any of you a knitter or crocheter?” I asked. Turns out 2 out of 3 were so I gave them our business card and website and asked them to join us in 2 weeks; you just never know! One lady who was new last night came because one of our members bumped into her in JoAnn’s craft store and invited her. It does my heart good to see my little group growing. Last night we had 15 people; if you went to our website:
http://knitting.meetup.com/1343
you’d see we actually have 49 people signed up, but many of them have never attended a group meeting.
Also on the Knit Scene, I braved it yesterday and bought ONE skein of sock yarn…with the 40% off coupon at JoAnn’s I only spent something like $3.47. My theory is: if I screw this up and decide that I really don’t like sock knitting, I’ll just give the yarn to one of the knit group ladies and be done with it! I came home and cast on the required stitches onto a circular needle then remembered WHY it is you actually DO need 4 double pointed needles instead…the circular one just won’t allow for the small size (unless you know how to do the “Magic Loop” method of sock knitting with circular needles…I don’t). I got out my trusty double points and tried the cast on. First you put the cast on stitches on one needle, then you move the stitches so that they are equally divided among 3 of the needles, then you join them forming a sort of triangle. Sounds good, right? Well…turns out it takes more skills trying to move those little tiny cast on stitches than I thought. I put them on, started moving them and thought: “There! Got 12 stitches on that needle! Time to put on the tip cover so I don’t lose them.” Got the tip cover on, only to discover that about 5-8 of the original cast on stitches on needle #1 had all fallen off! This happened about 3 times before I (a) got really frustrated (b) threw/placed the entire thing on the floor and (c) had to leave for knit group. Now, I hear what you’re probably thinking/saying: “Why didn’t you take it to Knit Group and ask for help?” (most people would do that…I’m one of the more independent/stubborn/shy people who don’t like to admit defeat…before I’ve even actually started! I’m bound and determined to give it another good try or two today and see what happens. I ‘did’, however, mention my plight to several of my knit group friends while they were merrily knitting away on THEIR socks and several said: “Bring them in! We’ll help you! I was like that when I started, too…but (insert a name) helped me and now I’m doing great! In fact I just learned the Magic Loop and I love it!” (go figure…sigh). We’ll see…that’s all I’m sayin’…………….sigh.
During the evening a friend mentioned that she’s throwing a Thank You luncheon for several of her friends/helpers and asked me what I’d suggest. After checking the date, it’s going to be in a month (Spring) and it’s for WOMEN, I suggested a light, sweet chicken salad on a lettuce leaf, croissants & butter, and some sort of a light, possibly whipped chocolate dessert. I checked out quite a few chicken salad recipes on Allrecipes.com and ended up with this combination for her:
- 2 (10 ounce) cans chicken chunks, drained
- 1 cup seedless green grapes, halved
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 1 (8 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
- 1/3 to 1/2 C. Miracle Whip (maybe more, depending on the
amount/texture you’d like)
OR– * 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
In a medium bowl, whip cream to soft peaks. Combine rest of ingredients with whipped cream. Chill.
(This would make enough for approximately 6 people; I’d probably double or triple it, depending on the number of people).
That’s about all that’s going on around here (me knitting/sewing squares, of course…but you already knew that, didn’t you!). The weather is typical Michigan/Spring: in the mid 40’s, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy but not a lot of rain. It lightly rained last night but today the sun’s out and it’s a lovely (albeit damp) day!
Have a great day…relax a little, smile a little, ENJOY YOUR DAY!
Hugs;
Pammie
(close up of the Teeny Beany Baby Rooster in the pocket)
