WHERE SHOULD I START......?

....since I last wrote on Monday. How about Tuesday?

Tuesday was my knitting get together night. I really look forward to going to them. Imagine meeting in a bookstore and knitting. KNITTING and KNITTING BOOKS. How perfect can that be?
Shelagh gave a demonstration and instructions in how to do the Russian Join for those that didn't know how. AND, of course, there are photos of her doing that. Trust my handy dandy camera to know when it is needed. There is a link to the Russian Join on my sidebar. AND, of course, here are photos of some of the other gals Tuesday evening.


I didn't come home empty handed either. It seems I never do. I wonder who in the many many swaps I am in will get one of the magazines. The other will be mine. AND the book is mine all mine. I even have plans for several of the tea cozies and who they will be gifted to. There was something else purchased BUT I can't show a photo as that would give it away.

I did go to the doctor and had my head checked. I was told I could have a bruise on my skull. A hairline fracture and a subdural hematoma couldn't be felt. The twitching eye was another problem possibly but as the time is passing since I really banged my head the twitching of my left eye is slowly diminishing, I still think there was a correlation between the smacked head and the twitching eye. The area on my head is still sore especially if it is touched. I could feel a very small scab or something but I never got a goose egg and it never bled. I feel lucky that after hitting it so hard and almost loosing my balance, I didn't actually loose my balance and end up falling in my old fashion bathtub and knock the other side of my head.

Oh and on Thurday I mailed out my Monkey Sock Swap and my whoduknit Trick and Treat Swap.

Knitting Goodness

Thursday I received my second puffy from Susan L in the addictedtoknitdishcloth exchange where we send small exchanges to each other monthly for three months.
I received a lovely dishcloth she made with yarn I previously sent her in her first package. The pattern she chose is from the 365 Perpetual Calendar date October 24 called waves. I also received three packets of instant grits and four different teas. I have already had the first, a Jasmine Tea by Stash and it was yummy. Susan included some free patterns also.

Friday I received my third of four packages from Sharon in the yearly weluvknitting exchange. I received many items including three skeins of a wool blend yarn from Joanne's, a large cat calendar to hang on my wall and a mini size of the same to carry with me (sorry but I left it out of the photo). There was a fairy puzzle and some scrap book goodies but since I haven't opened the puzzle yet I don't know what they are. Sharon also send me Halloween candy (some wrapped to look like body parts but they sure tasted good) and some of it missed the photo but not my mouth. There were treats for my Solara to eat and play with.
I received a sewing tomato pin cushion with pins. Funny how I need these pins and good straight pins are very expensive. I told Paula she also needed pins when I was at her house last weekend. In the box were some Halloween spider tea lights, an autumn pumpkin candle in a tin, a board to put up and stick items in, and several postcards from Texas from when she visited family. I also got corn and soybeans but they were dried and dead. The last two items represented the part of the swap where she sends something from where she lives.
Here is a close up of the yarn I received from Sharon. I have been busy working on my Harvest Sock for my pal. I am knitting a Yukon Leaves pattern and here is a photo of how much I have completed so far. AND here is a close up of the sock leg. It is not a difficult pattern and reminds me a little of the monkey sock pattern. I hope my partner will like the pattern and the color choice and enjoy knitting the matching sock. I should have them competed soon and will then start the fun process of shopping for her. I have ideas. No hints.

I even have picked out my project for the whoduknit group October book Slipknot project. I have decided on what I will be making for Nancy who is part of the birthday club in the addictedtoknitdiscloth group. Her birthday is in December. I hope she likes it. I am ready to start on my Purl When Ready Socks. I even have decided on what is going in my SP 11 gift package #3. Oh and I have been slowly gathering goodies for my other swaps.

Friday I went out and delivered some Avon orders. I have only a few more to deliver. The weather wasn't that great yesterday either but I knew I needed to get it done and I waited until later in the afternoon when it had stopped raining. It may have been cool and drab out side but it was definitely not cool inside. Cooking soup certainly didn't help with the heat in my apartment. I had the window wide open. The radiators were blasting the heat as if the temperature was already 40 below zero outside. It really was a soup day even if was hot in the apartment. I made tomato hamburger macaroni cabbage soup based on my basic tomato macaroni soup. The recipe for the basic soup is below and you can adapt that to how you want.

Tomato Macaroni Soup

3 tbsp butter
2 large carrots “grated”
2 large onions diced
6 cups ripe tomatoes skinned and chopped
or
1 28 oz. can tomatoes diced (if whole need to break them up)
1 tbsp basil or to taste
oregano if desired to taste
¾ tsp sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
dill weed if desired
veggie or chicken bullions mixed with 6 cups water
(I have been known to use six packages of veggie powder and always more water since I tend to make a pasta dinner if I don’t add enough liquid)
¾ cup elbow macaroni*
OPTIONAL chick peas, hot sauce &/or even curry seasoning
(be creative and after you have made it once adapt it to your liking with other spices and veggies. I have even added some barley but then do add more broth.)

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven,
Add onions and carrots.
Cook till onions and carrots are soft.
Stir in tomatoes and seasonings.
Bring to a boil.
Simmer about 15 minutes.
Add broth mixture, hot sauce and bring to a boil.
Add macaroni.
Simmer until macaroni is cooked.

* If you add to much macaroni you will have a pasta dinner and not a soup.
**You may need to add more water.
*** You could even add hamburger and turn it into a hamburger soup.
The possibilities are endless. Believe me I know as I have had this recipe for years and have had it many different ways.

For the version I cooked yesterday I sautéed the onions and carrots in white cooking wine and the liquid from the onions. I did add hamburger and browned it with the carrots and onions. I also added a few shakes of hot sauce when I added the can of diced tomatoes. I used three of the double sized herb and garlic flavored bullion and I used nine cups of water. I added an entire small cabbage cut up. Then last minute I put a few spoons of pasta sauce in. I didn't have macaroni so I used penne pasta as that is all I had on hand. I even tossed in the remainder of a can of baked beans I had left after my dinner. So you see it is an all purpose type soup. It smells so good and tastes even better.

Genie came over last night while we gabbed and watched TV (Ghost Whisperer and Moonlight) she crocheted and I knitted on my Harvest Sock Pal's sock. We had some soup just to make sure it was tasty.

So now we are up to today. Today I cleaned the flatwear and draw in the kitchen, played on the computer and went out for dinner. My friend Lori picked me up and we went to Casa Grande to use up the last coupon for that restaurant in the 2007 Entertainment Guide. It gave us $17 off and we split the bill. We had the G-dfather pizza, the extra large hugh big giant size. Want to see it. Here it is. You can't see it clearly and need a larger closer up photo. I can accomodate that request. AND what we didn't finish we had the waiter divide it in half and took it home. I love left over pizza.

More knitting news
I have been accepted into The Hand Dyed Yarn Swap 2. This will be my third time dying yarn with Kool-Aid. I found a new swap the Winter Wonderland Coffee Swap. I have put the button and also a link on the side bar but sign ups aren't until Tuesday or Wednesday. It is by the same hostess who had the Fall Felted Bag Exchange and the Knit One Tea Too Color Swap. My questionnaire will be next in a seperate blog.

Last week I managed to share in some treasures that my friend Janice found. Look at the goodies and check out the prices for them. This first photo is of some Kid Mohair. There were five 20gram skeins in each package and I got two packages. They were $4.99/package of five.

This next photo is one of sock yarns. Now I must admit they were divided among two bags and the bags contained other different yarns (sayelles and fluffs) but the bags were again only $4.99 each. The top row of sock yarns in the photo are wool with some nylon and the top right also had a card with matching thread. The two bottom grey tweed sock yarns are a cotton blend. There were several balls of acrylic sock yarn and also several skeins of cotton that appear to be "Grace". All in all, I think it was a great bargain. Thanks Janice for finding it. This was not all she found. There was a rich blue mohair and I think an alpaca yarn but the color of that was just NOT me. Of course, there was yarn she kept for herself which was good it was in plastic or I may have drooled all over it.

Now before I close I want to thank you Andrea for your comment on why I couldn't get my photos uploaded. Here is what she found out and sent me

Blogger Status
Saturday, October 20, 2007

Blogger engineers are currently investigating problems with photo uploading, which is manifesting as the “bX-9pjt6o” error code when clicking on the image upload button.
Update, 9:00PM: This has been fixed. Photo uploading has resumed to normal operation.
Posted by Pete at 19:59 PDT

Closing with a photo of sleeping Solara. She is under my bed (a futon), lying on my linen which is in a zip up container where the zipper is broken. I have put a sheet over all the contents of the container as after I discovered this hiding spot I also discovered it was covered in cat fur. Now I only have to wash the top layer. I pulled it out enough to take the photo and I didn't even wake her when I pulled her out, took the photo and shoved her back under the bed.