BF was traveling this weekend. I was home alone. Nothing scheduled. No responsibilities. Work is really hectic this week. So I think the timing was perfect. It was the calm in the storm. I watched Netflix. I did some focused knitting. I took some extra naps. It was pure heaven!
Secundogeniture is going to school at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He's part of the student leadership (of course) and is going on the Alternative Spring Break to help people in Houston recover from the damage of Hurricane Harvey. To that end, he and his crew are raising funds. You can read more about it on the official UAF Alternative Spring Break page HERE.
I figured that one of the ways I could help was by knitting polar bear hats that I designed. I'm going to knit anyway, so I might as well put my time and talents to use for a good cause. Here's a picture of some of the students participating in the Alternative Spring Break posing with the polar bear hats. UAF's mascot, by the way, is the Nanook, or polar bear.
If you'd like to donate to a good cause, and receive your very own polar bear hat - please leave a comment or email me with size and material (bright white are 100% acrylic and the natural are 100% wool).
And here's a side-by-side photo of the UAF Nanook mascot with Secundogeniture during Winterfest last month.
Go Nanooks!
Every year, for every gift giving event, I knit BF a pair of cashmere socks to keep his tootsies warm at night. They're made out of Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 6-ply for the sole purpose of wearing around the house, not for outside wear. They take me about 10-15 hours of dedicated knitting to complete.
Tonight I decided to pick up the bag of odds and ends of cashmere remnants from socks gone by to create a new pair of socks. I randomly selected the deep purple, cream, sage and gray yarns to create a hodgepodge striped sock. It's a great way to use up leftover yarn, because you would never want to let luxurious cashmere yarn go to waste.
So do I count the stitches? No, not really. There are probably about 5,000 stitches per sock or 10,000 per pair. Do you think that counts as my 10,000 steps for the day? My step counter thinks so.
No matter how you count it, it all adds up to love.
I'm on Instagram and have just learned how to use stories. Heaven help us!
Follow me at MajorKnitter on Instagram to see what I'm up to these days. I like the stories feature on Instagram because the pictures and videos are only available for 24 hours.
2018 is the year of health and fitness for me. In the past decade I let myself fall into some very unhealthy habits that caused me to lose sight of who I am and who I intend to be. So this year I have been focusing on my diet and exercise. I am loving it. In 40 days I have lost 12.6 lbs and 17 inches. I have retrained myself how to eat healthy. I feel great. For those of you who know me, you know I love to bake. I equated baking with love. I thought it was my love language. But it really wasn't. If you look at the sidebar to the right, you'll see my recipes. Most of them are sweets. But the truth is, I'm a sugar addict. So I've cut out sugar and am focusing on clean eating. Now you'll find many more recipes for clean eating! I'm going to start with one of my favorites. It falls into a few categories of my health - homemade, recycled, healthy. Here goes.
HOMEMADE VEGETABLE BROTH
When you're preparing vegetables for cooking, save the scraps. I especially like to save yellow onions and the skins, garlic and the skins, green onions, carrot peels, parsley, celery. I put them in a gallon freezer bag and freeze them until I'm ready to make broth. After about a week, I have more than enough to get a good broth going. I put all the scraps (plus 2 washed and quartered yellow onions) into a large stock pan and cover it with water.
Cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 60-90 minutes. Discard vegetables.
You'll be left with this gorgeous veggie broth. You can almost smell it in this picture!
Can according to the appropriate manufacturer's instructions or simply store in the refrigerator or freezer. Use this broth to make homemade soup, enhance your rice or quinoa recipe or to roast meats. You'll love the extra flavor and your body will enjoy the benefits of the added vitamins and minerals. Enjoy!
Change is Good
