Saturday Lunch

My lunch today: open-faced curried chickpea salad with mixed greens. I make my chickpea salad based on a curried chicken salad sandwich I once had at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville, Ky. This was about 2002, but that sandwich is still vivid in my memory!

My version: 1/2 cup of chickpeas, mashed up with a fork. Add 2 tablespoons of mayo/veganaise, 1/4 of a granny smith apple (chopped), 1 teaspoon each lemon juice and curry powder (or however much as you can stand - I like my curry flavor strong!), salt and pepper. Lots of variations on this, add whatever fruit you have on hand - I bet craisins would taste great. Also very good with cashews tossed in.

This plate clocks in at about 325 calories. Ideally, I do a 2(1)-3-4-5 break-up of calories, with two 100 calorie snacks, a 300 calorie breakfast, 400 at lunch, and 500 at supper. This lunch, plus the lighter breakfast I had (only about 210) means I will add in a treat - an afternoon latte, perhaps?

Anyway, this is a quick, easy lunch full of flavor and perfect for a Saturday!

Saturday

I love Saturday mornings. The husbeast often works weekends at the bike shop so these weekend mornings are truly my time. For the past few years I lived in St. Cloud I participated in a women's group that met every Saturday morning. Although I had some great friendships and often enjoyed our meetings, it just got to a point where it was no longer enjoyable. I felt like I was giving away more than I could replenish in myself. So I stopped going about 3 months ago and am so grateful for the extra hours in my weekend!

One thing many women seem to struggle with is saying no and balancing obligations with personal time. As a natural and professional caregiver, this is especially difficult as well as crucial for me. This definitely applies to my knitting. It seems like once people have seen my sweet little hand-knit baby sweaters, a common expectation is that I will knit a baby sweater for anyone and everyone. This seems like a pretty common complaint among knitters. I knit for fun, and I do love to see sweet little behbehs snuggled in wool. At the same time, I have to set limits on how much of my life I want to invest in each project. I'm certainly more than a masterpiece factory. I guess I'm writing this all down here to really remind myself that I have the right to set boundaries, and I don't have to feel guilty about that or fear others judging me for it. One of my "character defects" is definitely people-pleasing, as well as fearing the judgment of others. Like Sark says, "I have enough, I do enough, I am enough!"

So what's on the agenda for this Saturday? Things that make ME happy! I slept in (til 7:15, about as good as it gets for me) and drank coffee while hanging out with my husbeast until he went to work. I also reorganized  my sock yarn stash:

Knitpicks yarn to the left and center, 100g skeins in the center-right, and 50g skeins in the bottom right. My sweater-lot stash is on the shelf below.

Today also holds plans to buy buttons for this handspun baby sweater:

This was such a joy to knit. It's the February Baby Sweater from EZ, with stockinette instead of lace. The yarn is my handspun, superwash corriedale in "David's Gift" from Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club. I n-plied to preserve the color progression, and the knitting only took about 4 days. This is the 4th sweater in a serious of seasonal sweaters for the famous Baby A. Perfect! This is one baby I feel like I could knit for forever without getting tired of it! I'm working on a pair of knit baby leggings for him now, and really, really need to get started on his baby blanket - he's due in less than 3 months! Maybe I'll pop into the yarn store today as well :)

Off to enjoy my Saturday - enjoy yours as well!

June Sweater: Lodi + Mindfulness

I was absolutely thrilled with my 6th Sweater of 2011: the Lodi Cardigan. This sweater knit up in only 8 days and cost only $18, and most importantly, it looks fabulous!

I wouldn't have looked twice at this pattern if Kyia hadn't gotten me the issue of Knitscene it's in. Thanks, friend! The pattern is extremely simple, and would make an excellent first sweater. So, it's only a third of the way into the month and I'm already done! It would be a good idea to start a tougher sweater now with the extra time, like the Falling Stars Sweater. Maybe I'll swatch this weekend. Not sure if I want mine to be pullover or a cardigan?

 Yesterday I went to Fargo with my coworker Joelle for a really neat work training on Mindfulness and the 12 Steps. It inspired a lot of ideas for working with clients who struggle with being present in the moment with their discomfort, and have a history of turning to drugs, alcohol, and other compulsions for distance from their unpleasant emotions. The speaker was very engaging, and we spent time practicing meditation ourselves throughout the day. I was very pleased with the ease at which I was able to enter meditation, as last summer I really struggled to be mindfully present. I practice so much more non-judgmental acceptance of myself now. The neat thing about that is that the more I joyfully accept myself as exactly as I am in the moment, the more easily I am able to become my best self. Pretty Jedi.


I also had TONS of time to knit (about 13 hours including the travel) and got a lot accomplished. I finished another sweater for Baby A (his third one!) and also finished up these socks (previously featured in my Duluth post). The yarn is Claudia Handpaints sock in Teal Party, and the pattern is a top-down stockinette sock with a picot hem and two repeats of a 3-row Purl-YO-Purl pattern. A simple, decorative sock in a color I tend to wear often.



 This weekend, I plan to knit, knit, knit. Although I've been feeling guilt to spin more, my most recent spinning project is a real slog-along. We'll see what happens!

Project Spectrum June: Green

The Project Spectrum theme for June is GREEN. You know I am SO all about it! So I whipped up this quick Crumpet hat with a single skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool left over from Audrey in Unst (yay stashbusting!).

Don't look too closely. A wee bit blurry. But, it has leaves!

Yeah, I sure love those hipster hats. Not much need for it now - St. Cloud's old heat record for this day (92 degrees) was broken when we hit 99 today! And I worked 10.5 hours and went to a meeting. No pool for me tonight. Oh well.

I also finished my Lodi cardigan (my June sweater-of-the-month) and just need a minute to run to pick out buttons so I can photoshoot it. Lemme tell ya, it turned out phenomenally, took only 8 days, and I seriously think I need another one! Can't wait to show you!

Hayward

I went to Hayward, WI for Memorial Day and spent 4 days with assorted family members coming and going over the holiday weekend.

On my way there, I stopped in Spooner, WI at Northwind Book & Fiber to buy yarn (of course).I got some great Cascade Eco+ for another sweater, and it was priced much lower than my LYS. What a deal!

My Aunt Pam, my dad, cousin Gillian (not happy with her hand) and my famous Uncle Tom

My parents were there when I first got there, and my cousin Gillian came shortly after. Gillian grew up in the small town of Crookston. I moved there for my first year of college when Gillian was16 or so, and we have some pretty awesome memories of that time. She goes to school at UW-Stout now, and I don't get to see her often. It was awesome to see her at the cabin, and we had lots of adventures together.

Gillian is disappointed that she has not transformed into Brad Pitt as advertised.

Good thing this travel typewriter was $10 at the thrift store!

All weekend, my parents were super excited about all the garage sales they went to - they couldn't stop talking about them! My mom got a helmet and this hoodie and she wanted to wear them all the time :)

My dad and I

Me with my Auntie Pam

Gillian and my parents had to leave on Sunday, so I spent the rest of the day with my aunt and uncle, who are super amazing. They are really the reason I went to college. Unlike my mom, who just left me voicemails weeping about how she didn't know what would become of me if I didn't go to college, my aunt and uncle walked me through the specific steps and made the right introductions to get me into school. My aunt worked at U of MN-Crookston, which I had never heard of, and I was able to qualify for awesome scholarships with my test scores. She introduced me to my work-study boss and I earned an Americorps educational award. My uncle got me my first job at a treatment center/detox, which really changed my life by getting my foot into the amazing profession I practice today. They are so, totally, amazing.

Monday morning, I woke up at 7am due to crazy thunderstorms. My uncle, aunt, and I dragged in stuff from the deck - table saw, sofa, and chair cushions - and stacked them up. Coincidentally, in front of the door. That storm is not getting in, no way, no how!

Grr.

Brian and his cousin-in-law Gunner came up later that day to ride bike on Hayward's mountain bike trails. Brian was not impressed with the rainy weather.

Gunner was undaunted, and about 2 hours after the rain stopped, they hit the trails. They sounded like they had a good time, and Brian is really looking forward to our next trip to Hayward. 

I worked on my June sweater of the month, and am now almost done with the second sleeve. Pretty fast! It's the Lodi Sweater from the current summer issue of Knitscene.

Gunner headed out early Tuesday to get home to his family in Iowa. Brian and I stopped at The Angry Minnow in town before heading out. I got the awesome mushroom-wild rice vegetarian burger with sweet potato fries. It came as two cute little patties, so Brian and I each had one. Brian also had the perch fish sandwich with jalapeno coleslaw. Yum!

We had a great time, and the long weekend went so fast! We're planning to go up again in July, and I'm also trying to plan a knitter's retreat for my birthday in September. Big thanks to my aunt & uncle for sharing their cabin with us!

Happy Birthday, Catie!

My beautiful baby sister turned 20 yesterday! We celebrated Wednesday with a cake.

I don't know what all to say about my sister. We're 7 years apart and it seems like we have so little in common. I love her so much and yet I spend so little time with her, our lives have been and continue to be very different. It really feels like we grew up in different families. I was asked to leave home at 17, when she was only 10, and I wasn't welcome there for a number of years. I regret not being there for her more as she was growing up, and it sucks so much that I don't ask to be a bigger part of her life. A woman I know just lost her sister to cancer, and the way she talked about her relationship with her sister was so moving. I feel like if I lost my sister, I would be devastated because I didn't really get the opportunity to know her. At the same time, I don't know how to begin. One thing I know about Catie is that we both have those family traits of being stubborn, holding grudges, and being easily offended. Not great qualities to build a relationship on. I've been saying for years that maybe we'll be closer when we're older - well, now is that time. But where to begin?