Knitting Has Happened!

This post is a little delayed (I've been a bad blogger (and knitter!) lately, but I'm trying to catch up) but I've finished sock pair number 22 for the year!

This pair was made as a birthday present for my aunt's eightieth birthday - eighty years old definitely deserves hand knit socks!

I think they were a success!

Cidering (Part Two of ??)

Woodchuck Private Reserve Pumpkin Cider
3.5 out of 5

It smells like apple candy but with a little extra. The taste is kinda different - apple, yes, but there's the extra in there that is obviously gourd. I was expecting more pumpkin pie with sweetness and spices but this is really more straight raw pumpkin. It does add a nice depth of flavor which I am finding I like in ciders but I'm just not sure if I'm a pumpkin girl. As it warms, I get a sweet vanilla note and I quite like that. I think I might have to try the second bottle closer to room temperature to see how I like that.

Woodchuck Cellar Series Mint
3 out of 5

The smell is champagne and mild feet. I don't think I get mint on there other than a note that transforms apples into champagne. It smells very dry.

The taste is very bright and, yes, there is mint. It's sweet but not over powering and gives a nice tingle on my tongue. This does hit the sparkling white grape juice note more than apple cider but I do like it, especially the sweet yet slightly earthy mint at the end.

It's not my favorite cider but I approve of its uniqueness. I prob like the cheese flavored cider more but this is similar in style/sweetness/lightness to the Crispin so yeah, I like it well enough.

Magner's Irish Cider Original
2 out of 5

This one smells of apple, good funk, crackers and some fermented fruit that isn't apple. Almost a prickly pear.

Taste is interesting. It makes me think of rotten rubber band fruit. There's something in the aftertaste - it's so fruity and sour - that all I can think of is rotten fruit. Which is a shame because the first part of the taste seems like it would be a good beer substitute as it isn't overwhelmingly fruity or wine cooler, but rather something with a little funk and personality.

Great potential, but disappointingly not for me.

Angry Orchard Hard Cider Apple Ginger
4.5 out of 5

The smell is very sweet and apple-y, like candy. It's very nice. Candy sweet can have its place.

The taste is interesting. It very apple-y on the front end and very ginger-ale on the back end. The ginger gives it a nice balance to the sweetness of the apple so it's not just candy sweet. It also gives the flavor just enough earthy funk to make it super tasty.

This one is one of my mom's favorites and I can totally see why. Nice flavor, great balance. This is up there with the Woodchuck Belgium for me. Definitely going to have to buy more of this.

Thanksgiving Means...

It's time to decorate for Christmas!

Of course, not everyone can wait until after Thanksgiving. We saw this guy last weekend; apparently he wanted to get a jump on his Christmas decorating.

I Win!

Dan and I have NHL Center Ice, so we end up seeing a lot of commercials for St. Louis and southern California while we watch our teams' games. A season or two ago, the California station played this particular casino commercial a lot.

Please play the commercial for theme music while reading the rest of this post. Because apparently, that song fits my yarn experiences this month.

I have won two yarn prizes! The first one was a random drawing for those in my 12 Socks in 2014 sock group that completed socks in October. For that, I won this delightful pink bamboo and wool sock yarn, which I can't wait to try out!

Then last week, I won a prize package in a drawing for participants of October's DFW Yarn Crawl. I won a ton of yarn - 10 skeins of an aran superwash wool and two skeins of a lace merino and silk wool. And, if that weren't enough, the prize also included a lovely wooden crochet hook!

  

Of course, now I have to find a place to put all that yarn! I am going to need to rearrange my craft cabinet to free up an extra shelf for yarn! (Not that I'm complaining, of course. Because yarn!)

Yay for yarn winning!

HUUUUGE!

It's no secret that I love Le Creuset enameled cast iron. All the joy of cooking with heat-retaining cast iron, none of the worry about tomato-based recipes killing the seasoning. I am particularly in love with their round French ovens - they are my go-to pots and I have a fair number of them. My favorite one has always been what we called "the big orange pot". It's a nine quart pot (the #30 size, for those non-quart people) that has pretty much been my daily-use pot ever since we bought it. It spends more time on my stove or drying on the counter than it does put up in its cabinet. There's only one problem with it - when we make soup we get really close to boiling it over.

So last weekend, we happened to be near a Le Creuset outlet. And that outlet happened to be having a sale. You see where this is going? Yeah, we bought a new "big" pot. How big? Well, here it is next to our previous big-boy, the 9 quart.

The new pot is a whopping 13 quarts (#34!). It's HUGE. And heavy. It barely fits in the sink for washing. And I love it. In the first two days we owned it, we used it twice, once for a triple recipe of applesauce (we had a ton of apples) and once for soup. Fabulous.

Of course, I don't think it will replace my beloved orange pot for daily use. But it will be our go-to soup pot, which is the whole point of it.

Part of me knows how ridiculous it was that we got this pot - I mean, it's HUGE and nothing Le Creuset is cheap. That being said, don't think we actually paid anywhere near full price for this. I've wanted this pot for ages but could not justify paying what it sells for. But knock a couple hundred off the price? Yes please!

And now I must return to the kitchen to pet it and tell it how fabulous it is.

Try, Trying, Tried

Has anyone read A Clockwork Orange? Because I tried to start reading it last night and couldn't get past page one. Rassoodocks, mesto, skorry, veshches, moloko, vellocet, synthemesc, drencrom, mozg, peet... Seriously? I get made up words, especially when you have a dystopian or post-apocolyptic or in-some-way-massively-different world to create but your readers also have to understand a little bit about what you are trying to say.

I tried reading page one three times and even tried out page two before I realized I couldn't as I was completely distracted by the words I didn't understand.

Does it get better or should I just give up now?

Book 13: What Just Happened Here?

It's been established that I like weird books. And apparently when it comes to Japanese fiction, I like violent books. (I'm not really sure why I keep reading Japanese fiction where people are killed. Maybe that's just a lot of the Japanese fiction that gets translated into English?)

Basically people who love horror movies are people with boring lives. They want to be stimulated, and they need to reassure themselves, because when a really scary movie is over, you’re reassured to see that you’re still alive and the world still exists as it did before.

Earlier this year, I read a book by Ryu Murakami that started with a random murder and ended with the firebombing of a Tokyo suburb. It was weird and oddly entrancing, so I decided to read something else by him. I picked In the Miso Soup.

I'm not really sure if I can explain this book. Basically, a Japanese tour guide is hired to show an American around the seedy side of Tokyo's nightlife. The American ends up being a serial killer.

“He’s checking out a Print Club booth.”
“A what?”
“You know, that machine that takes photos of you and then prints them out on cute little stickers. I don’t think he knows how it works. He’s watching a group of girls posing for a picture.”
“I think you’re probably all right, then, Kenji. I can’t imagine a murderer making Print Club photos of himself.”
I’m not sure why, but that seemed to make sense.

It's a horrifically violent book. Do not read while eating. Most of it isn't gory, but there is one (long) scene that... You know, I have a strong stomach but I'm glad I didn't hit that part while I was eating lunch. For some reason, it was particularly gruesome.

Frank sighed as though bored and cut off his other ear as well. It fell to the floor soundlessly, like a slice of fishcake or something, and lay there among the loose strands of hair and cigarette ashes.

And that doesn't even get into the really icky parts. (Let's not discuss a man's face begin set on fire.) One disadvantage of particularly evocative writing style, I suppose?

But even before the real violence sets in, it's just such a weird book. There's something about the writing style - it really sucked me in even though I'm pretty sure I had a shocked-to-horrified expression on my face while reading 90% of this book.

On a larger scale, it touches on the issues of loneliness, the disconnect of younger generations (compared to post-WW2 folks; this isn't a teenagers-are-the-bane-of-our-society type book), cultural differences, who's to blame for society's issues... It's not exactly the most flattering towards Americans, but then it isn't exactly a glowing review of the Japanese either. Murakami is critical of everyone, apparently.

What’s good about Americans, if I can generalize a little, is that they have a kind of openhearted innocence. And what’s not so good is that they can’t imagine any world outside the States, or any value system different from their own. The Japanese have a similar defect, but Americans are even worse about trying to force others to do whatever they themselves believe to be right.

So yeah, this all probably really says nothing concrete about this book, but it's just weird. Did I like it? Yes, in a horrifying sort of way. The underlying issues were really interesting to think on and the actual plot was engaging in a rubbernecking-at-a-horrible-car-accident kind of way. I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone because if someone actually read it, they might think I had massive mental problems, but yeah, really fascinating read. I'm definitely going to have to read more Ryu Murakami books. Once I recover from this one.

Things Have [Not] Happened

Okay, so I've fallen a bit off of the face of the earth the past few weeks. Mostly, I was sick. I ended up with a cold which I thought I got over really quickly until it came back a couple of days later. But now I'm finally over it and have been since this weekend. So yay!

Of course, two weeks being sick, you'd think I'd at least have some new knitting to share but not so much. I was so miserably sick that I didn't even have the oomph to knit. Now that I'm feeling better, though, I've started on pair number 29 for the year.

This one is a pair for Dan, the lucky duck. I just started it last night and got in a good chunk of knitting it so I've gotten quite far. Of course, I haven't even started on the second sock yet so I have quite a ways to go. And hopefully these socks will be at least occasionally interrupted by my next project - a sweater for me! I've got to swatch and do a lot of math for that one though, so I've been putting it off because I'm lazy.

In other news, it actually snowed here a few nights ago. Just a light dusting, but still. Crazy. Especially in November! Shoot, we just turned our heat on about two weeks ago. But it turned cold quickly - one week after turning the heat on, we had to put the heated mattress pad on the bed. (Best. Thing. Ever. Seriously. Electric blanket fan? Get an electric mattress pad. It's so much better. I can wear my non-winter pajamas to bed comfortably even though we let the house get in the 60s at night.)

This week so far has been a catch up week. My house is still a mess (two weeks of not cleaning, bleck) but laundry is all caught up (in one day! My new washer/dryer set is fantastic and HOLDS SO MUCH) and now I'm working on getting actual food stocked in the fridge instead of just the ingredients for food. At some point, I'm going to make some applesauce, too, as we have a ton of apples. Gotta do something with them.

If the weather stays this cold all winter, I fully plan to knit and hibernate. Who knows how many pair of socks I'll get up to before the year is done!

More Socks!

Pair number 21 for the year! This time, they are even taller - with calf shaping and everything!

The calf shaping was based on a template I made of my leg measurements. Because I am that ridiculous. It worked great thought! Perfectly fitted knee-highs!

Up next? Socks for Dan and a sweater for me!

Book 12

I just finished my twelfth book for this year, The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde. Normally, I devour Fforde books, but not this one, at least not at first. That was totally my fault though, not the book's.

If you think fourteen is too young to be driving, think again. The Kingdom of Snodd grants driving licences on the basis of responsibility, not age, something that can frustrate forty-something blokes no end when they fail their responsibility test for the umpteenth time.

Lately, I've just been rather fidgety - I feel like I'm so close to normalcy (or my new approximation of it) but I keep getting little setbacks. So I'm just constantly feeling a bit distracted, like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. It makes it hard to sit down and focus on something like a book with plot.

...we stopped for a moment to stretch our legs, change drivers and make a short devotion at the shrine dedicated to the once popular but now little known St Aosbczkcs, the patron saint of fading relevance.

I don't enjoy this YA series from Fforde as much as his other stories, but I still do like it quite a bit. The humor is just as random and satirical as his adult fiction (there has to be another way to phrase that... it's not "adult" like an adult movie, just not YA), but it's not quite as smart. (Or else it is too smart and over my head so far that I don't even know I'm missing something. Always a possibility.)

Ralph said he’d not come either, as he had a peculiar allergy to ‘anything without legs, such as cats.’
‘Cats have legs,’ said the Princess.
‘They do, don’t they?’ agreed Ralph in a confused manner, but declined to join us anyway.

Once I finally forced myself to focus, I read this in about two days. And now I have to wait until next year for the next one to come out!

‘But listen,’ I said as the sandwiches arrived, ‘you don’t know the first thing about ironing. Hardly anyone does. The Guild of Master Ironers keep that secret arcane knowledge well guarded.’

Normally I detest cliffhanger books (which this sort of is). I've stopped reading an author I enjoyed just because of a cliffhanger book ending. It's a big hate. But I don't have a problem with how Fforde does his. The main plot story lines from the book are all nicely tied up and then, right before the end, something new is introduced. (Yes, there was foreshadowing, but it wasn't what the book was about so I didn't care that it wasn't unresolved). So even though there's a big issue hanging out there, it just means you know what you'll be getting in the next book - the current book doesn't feel unfinished. It's that unfinished, that-book-was-pointless feeling that I hate.

Though I also really don't like finally getting into something and then finishing it and begin left at a loss. Fforde needs to publish another book. I need something fun to read!

Part One Done!

I mentioned it before, but last week I finished my qiviut cowl. Now, celebrate! Because it is all blocked so it is officially finished!

I thought I had tons more to go because I had tons more yarn, but turns out it was very close to the length I wanted, so my one week sock-less knitting finished this puppy off. It was even blocking one day before my self-imposed deadline. Win all over the place!

Of course, I was sick last week (head cold) so I just let the cowl lay on my blocking mat well after it was dry, but I'm feeling better so I took (crappy) pictures and it is now officially done!

Since I do have a lot of yarn left, I have plans to make a matching hat. I have to do math for that first, though, so I'm working on socks right now. Here's a glimpse of my current project.

So yeah, gonna finish these socks, probably make some more socks and maybe a sweater, then I will work on the matching hat.

Yay for completed project-that-isn't-socks!

Just A Little Too Long

Embargo Over!

It is time for socks!

Or at least things that will be socks after twenty five hours or so of work.

The Smartest Thing I've (Accidentally) Done

My one week sock-knitting hiatus has been successful! I mean, I haven't actually made it a week yet, but that's not what I mean. The main purpose of denying myself sock knitting was to work on my qiviut cowl. And guess what? It's blocking right now! Yay!

Last night was the most challenging part of the whole project: grafting the two sides together. I've grafted stockinette before, but never lace. So yeah, I was ridiculously worked up about it. So I put in a lifeline in both sides before grafting. The purpose was to be able to easily pick the stitches back up if (and when) the grafting went horribly wrong. But the end result was that, once the sides had been grafted together, the grafted row was perfectly highlighted so it was super cake to go back and straighten up the tension. Unintentionally brilliant.

So now my cowl is all finished and blocking and I have enough leftover yarn to make a matching hat (which will require some math so I'll get started on it later). And since my cowl is all done, I can lift the sock knitting embargo! Tomorrow, I'm going to ball some yarn! Whoo!!

Day 3: Weakness

Well, I haven't caved yet on my one-week-with-no-sock-knitting plan, but I skirted the line a bit today. I pulled out some sock yarn that I want to knit with next and went through my yarn cabinet to select matching yarn for contrasting heels. That's not against the letter of the law, but perhaps it's against the spirit.

Dan says I won't make it a week... and he's probably right.

On the plus side, I'm getting slow but steady progress on my cowl. I think I'm close to finishing it but I'll end up having so much yarn leftover that I think I'm going to make a matching hat.

This Is Harder Than I Thought

Since finishing my last pair of socks, I told myself that I really needed to work on my cowl for a bit. So I resolved not to do anything sock-knitting related for one week and focus on my cowl.

Today is Day 2 and I'm already sad I don't have socks to work on.

Apparently socks are my ultimate comfort knitting. So on days like today that I feel a bit under the weather, I crave socks.

I'm hoping by confessing to my resolution in a public location, I will have the strength to stick to it.

We shall see!

Visitor

I had almost forgotten since it's been kind of busy lately, but last week I ran in to an interesting visitor: a walking stick.

Pretty wacky little thing, isn't it? He was remarkably patient with my picture taking, though at one point when I got a little close, I'm pretty sure he waved his little antenna in warning that he was going to eat me.

The Most Fabulous Socks Ever

I just finished another pair of socks! I'm probably more in love with these socks than any other pair I've finished, which is saying quite a lot! But I can't help it - they are fabulous!

The stitch pattern I used was a neat little kind of fluctuating rib/basket stitch that really managed to keep my attention - five rows of 4/2 and five rows of 2/4 separated by a round of knit. A few times I almost missed the round of knit but otherwise, something about this was just really engaging for me. I had to pay enough attention to know when it was time to switch between two different rib sections but at the same time, five repeating rounds was long enough that I didn't have to give huge, massive attention. The perfect combination of interesting enough not to be boring but not so interesting I couldn't watch something distracting on TV.

Not only were these fun to knit, I love how they turned out. The yarn is that pink confetti birthday cake yarn I've mentioned before and the colors are just completely fabulous. And the crazy vibrant colors just worked so well with the pattern. LOVE IT. And since they were turning out so wonderfully, I wanted to use ever bit of yarn I could. Therefore, these are about four inches taller than my typical socks. To keep them from getting too tight as they moved up my leg, I switched to a larger needle size about half way up the leg and it worked great. And I ended up with about two yards of yarn left, so I'd say mission accomplished!

And for those of you following along at home, these are number 20 for the year!

Next up? Well, I really need to work on my lace cowl. It's been languishing in my knitting bowl. Poor cowl. Hopefully I can get some work on it done before I am distracted once again by socks.

Drive-By Update

Just to close out an issue I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: earlier this week Emmett went back to the vet for a check up and he was given an official clean bill of health. No more UTI for the Emmett!

On the same trip, we also took Happy in for her annual exam and shots and we got more good news for her. All of her blood work looks good and her renal values are holding steady, which means her chronic kidney issues are being well-managed.

Good news all around!

New Toys!

Last weekend, my lovely new washer and dryer were delivered!

I've been spending some quality laundry time getting to know them and ultimately, they are fabulous. I'm still getting to know the dryer a bit (my old dryer was so particular that I'm having to unlearn all the little tricks I've come up with to get the clothes to come out happy) but I'm kind of floored at the washer. It has really brought home how horrid my last one was. Everything is now feeling so clean!

And, in more good news, I've learned how to felt in a front loader! Lots of knitters will tell you it isn't possible, but it so is, proven by the fact that Dan now has slippers that fit him!

I'm very pleased by this whole thing. I mean, no one wants to have a major appliance break, but it was ultimately a great chance to get new and shiny lovelies since Dan and I are really too cheap to go out and buy something so expensive when we have a working version at home. So yay for new appliances!

Now if I can just convince the oven to break...

Cidering (Part One of ??)

It's a bit ironic that I've had to go gluten free after I was just starting to get into beer. Even more so considering that my favorite types of beers ended up being wheat beers. Yes, irony abounds.

Since I had gotten to enjoy having a beer every so often and now I can't have any of my favorites, Dan and I have decided to find new gluten-free favorites. While that means I'll be trying some gluten free beers, I'm doubtful I'll have too much luck (as I didn't have much luck with beers in general - it takes a special beer for me to love it). So I wanted to try some ciders, too.

And thus begins our quest!

Woodchuck Private Reserve Belgian White
5 out of 5

We really started this quest of with a bang; this was the first cider we tried and it is fabulous.

It's apple-sweet with a tingle of tartness and a citrusy herbal note on the back end (from the added coriander and orange peel) that isn't strong but gives a great depth of flavor. This earthiness keeps it from being overly sweet, too. There's a hint of a wet white wine sweetness, like a muscadine or dessert wine, that can build to a bit of a tart apple aftertaste at times, but that's not unpleasant.

I like this one so much, the next time we saw it in the store, we bought a six pack.

Crispin Natural Hard Cider Original
4 out of 5

The taste isn't near as sweet as I thought it would be based on the smell, which is very green apple sour candy. The taste is more like that dark apple flavor in warmed apple juice. There's a touch of dryness and a hint of tart but nothing that builds to stickiness. It has a fairly clean aftertaste with an aftertaste of green apple peel.

This one is not as fabulous as the first cider we tried, but still very good and I'd have no problem drinking it. It does strike me more as a wine or wine cooler replacement than beer replacement because of the strong apple smell and lack of mustier notes.

Tieton Cider Works Barrel Aged Cidermaker's Reserve
2 out of 5

Well, there goes my theory that I am just a whole lot less picky with ciders than I am with beers.

This one smells like white wine with occasional notes of feet. The taste is very much white wine, though overall it is rather mild. And rather sour. There's no real apple taste except at the very end and then it is more of a dried or old apple note that alternates with a tart white grape taste. And the aftertaste tastes a bit like mayonnaise and it leaves a thick body-odor note on my tongue.

I can't say that I like this one too much. Feet, mayonnaise and body odor? No thank you.

Woodchuck Farmhouse Select Hard Cider Original 91
4.5 out of 5

This one is very wet-wine with a strong apple candy note. There's something really different at the end of the aftertaste. Brussels sprouts? Cabbage? Fish? It's even in the smell - kind of lemony/sour but not. I couldn't figure it out but Dan got it: stinky cheese! (He votes blue cheese but I think it's more Brie.)

Yeah, it's pretty funky, but honestly, I kind of love it. There's even a bit of something in there occasionally that makes me think of Ritz crackers. Wild!

Of course, while I think it's really tasty (proven by the fact that I ended up drinking most of the bottle that Dan and I were sharing), the uniqueness of it (cheese!) does mean that this one isn't a daily drinker. Definitely a special occasion thing.

So there we go! Four ciders down, lots more to go! So far, I'm starting to detect a pattern: I like Woodchuck ciders. The two I've tried both have a heavier note that reminds me of my beloved wheat beers. We've got a few more offerings from them (including a pumpkin cider) so we'll see if that trend holds true.

I have no idea how many parts of my cidering quest there will be but I imagine quite a few as we are have a lot of different ciders. I'm really enjoying the process so far (but have learned that the big bottles are limited to the weekend!)

Yay for ciders!

Why Dan Deserves All The Socks

He wears them to work!

It's Dead, Jim

Sunday I started felting a pair of slippers I made for Dan. They were going a little slower than I wanted, so I figured I'd drain the old water and add in some new hotter water. I put the washer on the spin cycle to get rid of the old water and it started to do its thing. Then a weird chunking sound started and, long story short, now my washer does nothing but hum.

Sunday went from a nice, lazy day to "Let's go shopping!" and now I am getting a new washer dryer set delivered on Saturday. Yay!

I've never owned a new washer (or dryer) before, much less a matching washer dryer set. The washer that just died on us was a hand-me-down we got before we even got married - and we've been married 12 years!

With that being the standard I was used to, pretty much anything would have been an upgrade. But you know us. We like nice things. So the washer I'm getting is kind of stupidly advanced. It can even download washing programs from an NFC-enabled phone. Ridiculous, right? Yes. It is. Of course, my phone doesn't have NFC, so that capability isn't something I will really worry about (once I borrow Dan's phone to download the hand wash wool cycle to it). But if this washer lasts near as long as our last one did, I'm sure I'll eventually learn to use all its bells and whistles.

First step: learning how to felt in a front loading machine so I can finish Dan's slippers!

More Dan Socks

Dan has made out like a proverbial bandit this month in terms of socks. He's gotten two pair!

I started to knit up a pair of socks not intended for him, but the colors were just so Dan-appropriate, I decided he would get them.

They photograph a little more red than they actually are - there's a very fall feeling about the color of these socks. Lots of pumpkin orange and muted fall foliage colors.

Of course, with these socks going to Dan, plus a some slippers (more on that later), the last three projects I've done have been for someone else. Can't have that! So yeah, I've cast on for some socks for me. The yarn I'm using makes me think that a pink confetti cake has exploded.

Isn't it delightful? I just have one toe worked up and it's knitting up obnoxiously colorful, all on a base of pink. No way are these going to Dan!

Anyway, this second pair of Dan-socks makes 19 feet-things for the year (17 specifically sock). Go me!

Shame

I should have mentioned in my earlier post...

45.4 miles.

I realize the absurdity. I might have a problem.

(A wondrous, wondrous problem.)

Bad Picture, Not Bad News

Yesterday, two of the herd went to the vet. We were worried that Emmett had a urinary tract infection and Cocoa needed to have some blood work done to check the status of her (previously iffy) kidney levels.

Neither kitty was happy with this trip.

Yes, it's a horrible picture but it just defined the trip too much not to share. Cocoa yowled approximately every second and a half (not an exaggeration) for the whole 40 minute trip and Emmett did his best to become invisible underneath the towel in the kennel.

The end result of the vet visit (aside from a bit of a yowl-induced headache) wasn't too horrible. Emmett did have a urinary tract infection but he's been dosed with an antibiotic so that should take care if it. I'd prefer he not be sick at all, but at least a UTI is better than the bladder stones Chloe once had (and had to get surgically removed). And in better news, Cocoa's was given a very positive thumbs up on all of her tests.

Emmett will have to go in for a recheck in a couple of weeks but at least his hiding isn't like icepicks in my ears.

Snackies

Disgruntled Grooming

Studying Works!

I had my six month check up yesterday. I can hardly believe it has been six months since I was diagnosed with celiac. Sometimes it feels like just a month or two and sometimes it feels like a decade. But yes, six month check up! The main purpose of which was to re-run my blood work and see how things are going. The short answer: very good.

The slightly longer answer has three parts to it. Part one: I am no longer anemic! I'm hitting "normal" by the barest of margins but the fact that my RBC increased at all means that I'm starting to absorb better which means my intestines are healing. And what makes it even more awesome is that I'm not even taking iron supplements. (There was no real use in taking any supplements if I was too damaged to actually absorb them and now that I can absorb them, it looks like I won't be needing them. Yay!)

Part two and part three of the blood test news are my tt IgA and tt IgG numbers. Both are used to diagnose celiac disease so these are pretty important numbers to watch. As the doctor explained it to me, IgA is a more acute measurement that basically tells us how I am doing on my gluten-free-ness. Anything under a four is a negative and, in my initial blood tests, I was at >100. I'm now at three. Yay!

IgG is more of a chronic measurement of celiac disease. Anything greater than five is a positive and my initial blood test had me at 320. Current I'm at 12. And, okay, it's still positive, which you would think would be bad, but it's not. Because not only have I had a huge drop (showing things are improving), it means that celiac is the most likely cause of the problems I'm still experiencing. Basically, if my IgG was negative but I was still dealing with all this pain and swelling, etc, we'd have to start looking for other problems. But since it is positive, chances are good it is all still celiac-related. And if I had a 300+ point drop in six months (with at least one accidental glutening in that time), dropping another few points and getting rid of my remaining issues seems just around the corner!

And yeah, I am still having problems. Joint pain in my hands and feet (though it has shifted to more swelling and feeling sprained/sore and less arthritis gritty and stabby, so yay?) and some issues with some (non-gluten-containing) foods (apparently I can eat potatoes find but potato chips try to kill me - what's up with that?) and having that going on can totally sap my energy (and mood!) sometimes. But even with all the ups and downs, the general trajectory is up. Hopefully by the time I hit my one year check up, all this will be a distant memory. The doctor did make a point that I would never be normal again but I should be able to get to feeling normal. And really? That's all I want.

10!

Bitty is ten years old today!

Happy birthday, Bitty!

Maybe I Should Stop Buying Yarn...

On second thought, no. I just need to knit faster.

18!

Yes, I've knit more socks! This time, Dan is the (hopefully) happy recipient.

That makes a total of 18 pairs of feet-things that I've knit this year! (Sixteen pairs specifically of socks. Two pairs of slippers.) I honestly can't believe I've managed to make so many! When I signed up for my 12 socks in 2014 Ravelry group, I had hoped I'd finish the challenge with a month or two left of leeway. Now I'm wondering: can I double it to make 24? I'm thinking yes!

And, while the picture doesn't show it, these socks are yet another pair with anatomical toes. Yes, anatomical Dan toe socks! Made to exactly match his darling little piggies. Honestly, his toes were easier to shape than mine were so if he decides he likes them, I won't have a problem doing others like this for him.

Next up, I really need to work on my qiviut cowl for a bit. And yeah, then I'll probably make some more socks. Gotta make it to 24!

For Reference

English muffin #3 was good but Dan and I both agreed that it was a bit egg-y and that English muffin #2 was the best. I'm a bit curious as to if I can improve #2 - give it a little less dry/crumbly texture - so I might play with that recipe some.

Just in case anyone ever wants to make a grain-free, single-serve English muffin.

I Made Bread!

After a bit of a hiccup, I am back on the upswing health-wise. I'm still not dietarily adventurous by any stretch of the imagination, but it works for me and I'm happy so it's all good.

The past few days, though I have been missing bready things. The last bread-ish thing I had was... in July? Since then, nada. So I decided to change that.

I made an English muffin! Ironically, in my gluten-days, I was not overly fond of English muffins. However I've found several recipes for completely grain-free, single serving English muffins, so I thought I'd give it a go. (I'm gathering my nerve to make a loaf of grain-free bread, in case you are wondering).

Today was actually English muffin experiment number two, using the second of three recipes I've found that look interesting and are different enough to give different results. (Yesterday's was this one made of coconut flour. It was good but had the distinct tangy aftertaste of something predominately coconut flour. Today's recipe was this one, which was mostly almond flour and tasted very good, not only for something paleo, but for something gluten-free and maybe even compared to "normal" bread! Next up, I want to try this one which has psyllium husks, an ingredient that (in my limited gluten-free baking experience) really helps give a springy texture to gluten-free bread.) If the third recipe doesn't turn out, I think I'd be quite happy with today's formulation. Dan had a sample and said it tasted like a sweet multi-grain English muffin. I find that totally acceptable!

Once I get brave(r), I plan on busting out the bread machine again and see what I can come up with that is edible. The past two days have given me some level of confidence that this is an attainable goal!

(And yes, I know, my egg is ugly. I had the pan too hot when I put the egg in so it ended up a bit unhappy on the edges. Tasted good though.)

It's No Gidgie Moth, But...

More weird nature at our house today! This time it was a Pandora Sphinx Moth.

We figure this is a female as they are supposed to be the larger of the two sexes for this moth and this one is quite large. All spread out it would probably have a 4-5" wingspan. Yeah. BIG.

It apparently decided that the back wall of our porch was a good place to sleep today away. Once dusk comes, I doubt it will hang around any longer, but I'm quite glad that it decided to stop by. It strikes me as the type of wild looking moth we'd only come across in a zoo (though apparently these moths are quite common, just not so much in this area.) And if it had been in actual nature, Dan questions if we ever would have seen it. If it had been sleeping in a tree, I think it would have been very hard to spot.