Do You Know What Those Are?

  My mom and I tried out a new place that has soup dumplings.  Since neither of us was overly hungry we got an order of the pork soup dumplings and another dish to share.  I picked out the intestines over rice with egg and pork.  Our waitress asked if we knew what it was, and we assured her we did.  The cook who brought out our food looked shocked and asked if we really did order that dish because "usually only Asian people like it".  I thought it was all very funny, similar to when I order things with durian in them.  Both were really yummy, and I want to go back very soon.

  I ordered a bunch of pom poms.  I like the way they look on hats but don't like the price tag they usually come with or having to sew them on.  While scrolling through Instagram I saw a short video on how to use Pom Pom Buttons.  I did a search for some pom poms with elastic and found a lot of them for a good price on Amazon.  I got the more neutral ones because they will go with a larger range of yarns.  If I like these, I can always order some more exciting ones.

  I have been having a lot of fun designing doll clothes.  The crochet ones all turned out how I wanted them to, but the knitted ones aren't quite right.  I think I would have had to go down to a size 4 or 2 knitting needle, but I was excited to get started and could only find my size 6 needle.

 

  Bill has been in a cooking mood lately and we decided to bid farewell to 2022 with a deep-dish pizza similar to one you can find at Lou Malnati's Pizza.  The recipe told him to put salt in the sauce, but we think we are going to leave that out next time.  It was a pretty good way to end the year.

We Are Getting Closer to That End of The Year Push

Pattern: Witch Cats Hat by Christine de Savoie - Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways in 3114 Chamois (yellow) and 3372 Petal (pink) - Needle: US 8

  I only used part of the pattern for this hat.  The cat heads are mostly as they are written with a few plain rows added between the heads.  I sent Christine a message about how I think she has mixed up the row and stitch counts on the second and third charts.  She messaged me back saying that I was the first one to let her know that.

  I wish I knew what yarn this was, it was really nice to work with when making the worms.  Most of these worms were made when out at a bar, so hopefully I wasn't a bad influence on them.

Pattern: Cable Hat by Dora Stephensen - Yarn: Ella Rae Superwash in 35 Jade - Needle: US 4 and US 8

  The pattern is pretty fun.  There are some tricky bits to how it is written, but I got what she meant pretty easily.  She doesn't have any row numbers on the chart, so it's hard to tell what are just the plain set-up rows and where the repeat is.  Where the decreases start is clearly labeled though.

Pattern:  Not Quite Ribbed Hat - Yarn: Ella Rae Superwash in 35 Jade - Needle: US 8

  I had a fun idea for a series for my blog.  Even though I haven't even started with it yet, I've already thought of a way to expand the idea.  I'll give you a hint about it: it has to do with my complaints about yarn and pattern quality.  Some of it is already being more of a hassle than I thought, but I'm trying to work past that.

A Shane Update!

Yarns: Red Heart Pooling, Premier Just Yarn, Red Heart Eco, unknown grey yarn that I really like

  Shane had been to see a bunch of specialists, but they all agreed that surgery would be the easiest way to see what was going on in there.  He had it two days ago and now he's resting up and working on healing.

  While we were waiting for him to get his eye rummaged around in, another person was picking up a different patient.  The person was told to get the car and to pull up in front "like you own the place" and then they would bring her down.

  They found a bump, and some old blood under the retina from an abnormal blood vessel.  Dr. Chen thinks, to be on the safe side, that he should see a tumor specialist, but that will have to wait until he is healed from this ordeal.  The initial plan was to have him stay face down for a while, but since Dr. Chen had to add an air bubble to help some thinning, the plans were changed.  He gets to sit up and sleep on his side.  So far, he has been doing pretty good but gets tired easily.

  I don't know if everyone was starting to get bored with seeing me keep making the same few patterns again and again, so I'm continuing to mix it up.  I'm also trying to take more pictures of things that are in progress, so I don't feel like I have to wait until I finish something to start a blog post.

Bats, Furry Worms, and a Long Day

Pattern: Bat Hat by B.Hooked - Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways in 3114 Chamois (yellow) and 3372 Petal (pink) - Needle: US 8

   It might look like I made two hats with opposite coloring and the same pattern, but it's actually just one hat.  I tried my hand at colorwork double knitting again.  I spent the first part of the hat working it the hard way for me.  I forgot that I had gotten really good at using both hands to hold the yarns separately.  I hold the knit color in my left and the purl in my right.  It's easy for me because I can work continental knitting pretty well and then throw the purl like I normally would.  The wonky tension issues at the beginning aren't helped by the fact that even though they are the same yarn, the pink is a bit thinner.

  I really like the pattern and want to experiment with different ideas having to do with the double knitting.  One idea is to have half the hat have one color be the background and have the other half be inversed with a bat on each half.

  I'm back on the Worry Worm train.  It might be because I've done some fairly large projects recently, but I forgot how much I liked making them.

  I got another yarn from The Dollar Tree, some chenille yarn this time.  They are really soft and nice to touch.  The yarn wasn't hard to work with when doing the crochet part, but it kept wanting to come apart when I was trying to tie it at the end and weave in my ends.

  I've started another double knit hat.  I have enough yarn to have made another bat hat, but I wanted something with an easier chart this time.  I also wanted to try using a crochet cast on to see if that would help the bottom lay flatter instead of puffing out.  It worked better, but I think using a larger needle to cast onto would help even more.

  Now to get into the long day.  It's technically three days, but it feels like one long one.  On Friday Bill, Ryan, Shane, and I headed south to William & Mary college to see another Rocky Horror group.  Our friend Laila was the director of this show and we wanted to support her.  The show was a lot of fun and someone gave us a sealed bag of Insomniac cookies while we were hanging out afterwards.  Both Bill and I were tired, and we also both had to be up fairly early the next morning.  We got home about 4:35 am and though I got a bit of sleep in the car, it wasn't much.  I was then back up at 7:12 am to get ready to go into work.  My tire was low, so I refilled it in the rain.

  I didn't feel too bad at work, but definitely needed another nap before Heather and Jim's holiday party.  The party had a lot of good food and I got to meet new people and talk to some I haven't seen in a while.

  I had thought about possibly getting another nap in before our Rocky Horror show, but there wasn't enough time.  Shane and I helped Ryan get ready and we rocked out to Free Bird in the parking lot.  The show went well, and I think the audience had a lot of fun.  Bill and I didn't go to IHOP because we had to be up again before too long once again.

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  On the way out to the property we are considering getting, we had to try two gas stations.  Near the second gas station, near the Floor & Decor there was a mini car show.  I liked the color of the chartreuse one.

  We are looking at a vacation kind of house with a lot of forest around it.  The land used to be the water supply of Hopwood back in the day.  The house was very interesting.  They were a fan of carpet in bathrooms and sinks in every room, even the bedrooms.  There were 8 children, so a lot of rooms with connecting bathrooms.  There is even a rock feature in the living room with water around it.

Moooozzarell, Marilyn's Onion Soup, Martilyn’d Creamy Garlic Chop, and Ithaca Chai Pumpkin beer.

  After a small hike around the property we stopped by Marilyn's on Main for lunch.  If we do get the property, I think I'll want to come here fairly often.  The house is a little weird, but the forest was really pretty.  I did a check and there is a Hobby Lobby and a Michaels not too far from the house.  Next weekend Bill and my dad are going to check it out and see how he feels about it.