I promised you a healthier recipe this week, and here it is. (I didn’t mean a healthier version of the Grilled Cheese, which some of you thought. There IS no healthy version of a grilled cheese sandwich. At least not one that tastes as good as last week’s recipe.) This soup recipe is delicious and easy to make, so a win/win all around. Sue in MT mentioned it in a Facebook comment and I asked her for the recipe. I love crockpot recipes and I love soup. This really hits the spot. (Thanks again for sharing it, Sue!)

Sue’s Potato Soup

3 cans of Swanson chicken broth
(I used the big 48 oz. box instead)
8 cups cubed potatoes, not peeled
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup carrots, sliced thin
(I used a bag of frozen carrots)
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine these ingredients and let cook in a crockpot on high for 6 hours. Then add:

1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 package (about 3 cups) of diced ham
Bacon bits to taste (if desired)

Cover and cook 1 more hour. Thicken slightly with flour.  Enjoy with crusty bread and a big salad.

Thanks for all of your comments on last week’s contest blog. You must like to talk about the Olympics, because a lot of you participated in the comments this month! We usually draw one winner per every 250 or so contest entries, so this month we used the random number generator to draw FIVE winners. On Monday, we’ll be sending a skein of Wollmeise to: Megan N. in CA, Nancy W. in OH, Marilyn P. in NC, Seanna Lea L. in MA, and Brenda M. in CA. Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks for participating in the contest.  We’ll have another one next month. In the meantime, make sure you’re a part of our Facebook Group, as we do 24 Quick Quizzes over there each month, too.

What is it about Curling? I missed watching that on TV and so many of you mentioned how much you like it. It sounds like THE mystery sport of the Olympics. It looks like it was invented in Scotland in the 1500′s, according to this article. The Biathlon is another thing that puzzles me. Who thought up that combination? (OK – I just Googled that, too. It was thought up as an exercise for Norwegian soldiers in the 1800′s. I think they need to do a program about the origins of all of these sports. Or have they mentioned bits and pieces and I was just too involved in my knitting to pay attention?)

Sheri IhavetoputmyknittingdownforLOST,too.Anyoneelse?

When we decided to look for retail space for Loopy back in 2007, I wanted it as close to home as possible. I knew we’d be spending a lot of hours there. We looked at places 10 minutes away, and 15 minutes away. We also looked at a place just down the street, about 4 minutes away. That was my top choice. Of course since it’s in a nicer area and in a nicer building, the rent was higher. But I decided that it was worth it, for the location. “I can walk to work!”  That’s what I told my family. They smiled at me indulgently because they knew that I probably wouldn’t. And they were right. I’ve done it a few times, but mostly I have a million reasons why I don’t. (Important reasons, like: “How will I get Starbucks?” or “I have too much stuff to take in/bring home.” or “That road is just too busy to walk on.” or “It’s much too cold/hot/rainy/snowy/windy/bright/dreary today. That was my favorite.) But I decided I’m done with all of the excuses. So today – on a bright, windy, -2 degrees windchill kind of a day, I started in on my “I walk to work” pledge. I’m ready. But I do reserve the right to drive on rainy days. There is a limit to my resolutions.

I took pictures to show you what a boring walk it is. And what a busy kind of street I have to walk on. And so you can see that there is really no reason for me not to walk to work.

Heading off of my front porch, jacket/scarf/mittens in place:

This is the most interesting part of the whole walk. Nice houses, cute dogs barking in the windows as I walk by, and moms walking their kids to the bus stop.

It’s about 2 blocks down the quiet street, to get to the busy street ahead.

Here is the direction I’d like to be heading. Starbucks is 2 blocks thataway.

But instead, I head thisaway, in the opposite direction, towards Loopy. The sidewalk here isn’t too bad. I wish I could knit and walk at the same time. And look, if you squint (or click on the photo to make it bigger) you can see that just after I turn onto this road and walk a half block, you can catch sight of the flagpole in our parking lot. Yes, that’s how close I am to Loopy. See the wooden fence past the lights? That’s the part I don’t like.

This part. Why didn’t they put the walking lane on the OTHER side of the metal guard rail? The speed limit is 45 and cars just whizz by. There are always people walking and jogging along here. In fact one time I was walking home, and heard a little voice in my left ear saying “excuse me – passing by”. I must’ve jumped a mile, straight up. The traffic is so loud that you don’t hear people jogging up behind you until they’re talking in your ear. Creepers.

Pretty soon I’m at our building. It took about 15 minutes to walk it.

We’re allllll the way down the hall at the end, but we take up about 2/3 of the right side of this building (on the first floor).

There. That wasn’t so bad. Time to see what today brings in Loopy Land.

The walk is about 1500 steps one way. Kind of a bummer to know that I’m only going to knock out about 3000 steps, round trip. Don’t people say that you should walk 10,000 steps in a day? (Do you?) I may need to walk home for lunch each day. Twice.

Sheri whonowhasanotherreasontoloverainydays…

Remember when I showed you that pretty Alchemy Juniper sock last week, knit up with a fun pattern out of Carol’s book (which I love)? At that point, I could’ve cast on the second sock and been done with a pair, OR I could’ve started a brand new sock with another line of yarn. Knowing me (as you do), which option do you think I chose? Right. I started a whole new sock. The result is this Madelinetosh Sock out of Plum Tree, which is one of the colors that I immediately pulled for my own stash when this shipment came in a couple of weeks ago. And because I needed a no-brainer pattern so that I could knit and watch the Olympics at the same time, I used that same Braided Gem pattern that I had used on the Alchemy. (See? I told I could’ve had the pair done. Single Socks are a choice, and I’m glad to make them.) I love how the colorway stripes – bigger stripes on the foot, where half of the sock is plain stockinette, and smaller stripes up the cuff, where the pattern goes all the way around. So fun.

We added new things to the site tonight – come take a look!  We put up:

Huckleberry Knits Willow (the BFL base. This is the colorway/line that I went on the hunt for at Sock Summit!  Here’s the sock that I knit with the Mercado colorway)
Hand Maiden Swiss Mountain Sea Sock (one of my very favorite yarn bases from them. So luscious!)
Numma Numma Toasty (Allen sent us a big order with all of our favorite colors)
Perchance to Knit (restocked the Midnight Rainbow/Harlot’s Peacock in small and large skeins)
Soak in the new “Unleash” scent (celebrating Ravlery)
Shibui Sock (re-stock)
Through the Loops patterns (new and re-stocked)

We’re already working on things for next week. I’m happy that one of the new accessory lines that I ordered at TNNA has arrived. You’ll love it. We’ll get it photo-ed and up for you next Monday.

I did my monthly “80+ lbs. of chocolate kisses” shopping at Sams today, and had no less than 9 people make comments about it as I wheeled the cart by them. Surely I’m not the only person at Sams who buys 24 of the 56 oz. packages of Hershey’s kisses at a time, right? FPS. I know there are a bunch of chocolate lovers out there.

Sheri happytosayIdon’teatanyofthem.BecauseifIeatONE,IhavetohaveTEN.
That’sjustthewayitgoes.

Have you ever tried the Grilled Cheese Sandwiches at Mimi’s Cafe? They’re the best. I am not a huge grilled cheese person, although that with a cup of tomato soup on a cold night is pretty perfect. But a friend of mine told me about the sandwiches at this restaurant and she was absolutely right – they are definitely amazing. A quick Google search produced some options for the recipe and I used them to come up with the version I like.  (The best part? The butter/parmesan crust that forms on the bread.)

Grilled 5-Cheese Sandwich*

12 slices of Texas Toast
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
2 rounded tsp. minced garlic (3-4 cloves)
Grated Parmesan (0r the Parmesan/Asiago mix)
6 slices of monterey jack cheese
6 slices of cheddar cheese
6 slices of swiss cheese
6 slices of mozzarella cheese

Cut the crusts off the bread. Mash the stick of butter with the garlic and mix well. Spread the butter mix on one side of each piece of bread. Sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese onto a flat plate and then lay each piece of bread on it (butter side down) so that the Parmesan sticks.

Place each piece of bread onto a griddle (or in a pan), butter/Paremesan side down. Add a slice of cheddar and swiss to one piece and a slice of monterey jack and mozzarella to the other piece. Let the bread brown and the cheese get melty, then add the two pieces together to make a sandwich. If you let the sandwich sit for a couple of minutes after you take it out of the griddle, the cheese will set a bit and make it easier to cut in half. Enjoy!

(*Note – I did not say this was a diet recipe. Next week I’ll share a slightly healthier recipe …)

Since so many of us are watching the Olympics, the contest this month is to tell me which sport makes you put down your knitting/crochet project and watch with 100% attention? It could be your favorite sport, it could be the one that makes you most nervous to watch, or it could be a sport you’re still trying to figure out. My favorite is the ice skating, but the sport that makes me put everything down is the downhill skiing. Flying down ice and snow on two little sticks? That’s nuts. Leave your answer in the comments and I’ll draw winners for skeins of Wollmeise next week!

Sheri didthisweekgoquickly,orisitjustme?
I’mgladit’stheweekend…

Shortly after I finished my first Mara Shawl (blogged about here), I picked out more Madelinetosh DK/Light Worsted (Thunderstorm) to make another one. My favorite thing about this shawl? Well first of all, it’s easy as pie. It’s one of those knits that you like to do when you have other things going on around you and can’t be watching charts or multiple-line patterns as you work. I might start a third one and keep it on hand for times like that. The other thing I like about it is the design. The pleated edging on the bottom is my favorite part. And last of all, it looks so darned cute when you put it on. (Thus the need for a few different colors in my wardrobe.)

Specs: I used a size 7 (US) needle on 32″ circulars. The pattern doesn’t specify exactly how many stitches to work up to, before starting in on the edging. It says “continue working rows 2 and 3 until shawl measures desired width across.” I hate directions like that. I want the designer to tell me exactly what they did, so that I can have mine turn out like the photo. (Or at least tell me what they did so that I can work to that point and then decide if I like the result, or need to keep knitting.) To make it easy, I just knit the body until I’ve used up the first skein of yarn. That’s about the right width. (One skein of Madtosh DK is 225 yds.) You’ll use the second and third skeins for the edging. Actually, I end up only using about half of the third skein, which leaves you enough leftover yarn to make a pair of Mom’s Cabled Mitts, if you were so inclined. (Note – Aurora Shawl pin by Annie Adams. Looks great on there, doesn’t it?)

Speaking of mindless knitting (like the Mara Shawl), I changed my mind about Olympic knitting. I watched people pick intricate, challenging, time-consuming projects for their Olympic knitting. I had finally decided on my First Quarter KAL project – the Hawthorne Vest from Black Water Abbey. (I’m knitting it in String Theory DK.) I thought I’d challenge myself to get it done during the Olympics. It’s not really a difficult pattern, but it has a lot of cables going on, all with seperate charts that combine together along the same row of knitting. It’s one of those projects where you really have to pay attention to what you’re doing. (Or at least I really have to pay attention to what I’m doing.) Why do people pick challenging projects for Olympic knitting? I’d rather be knitting a Mara Shawl, because I want to watch what’s going on on the television. It’s not like a movie, where you can listen and look up now and then, and get the gist of things. The Olympic events are ones that I want to really WATCH. So, I’m back to some fairly mindless knitting (socks) and am postponing the vest until after the Olympics, when I can knit and pay more attention.

Did you commit to an Olympic project? And do you find that knitting a challenging design is completely do-able for you? (And did you notice the great hats that the US team is wearing in many of the photos? Laura from PA alerted me to the fact that there is a free pattern on Ravelry for this hat. Helena Bristow decided that she’d rather figure up the pattern than shell out $65 to Ralph Lauren for the hat. Now you can make one, too!)

Sheri lookingforwardtoknittingtonight,but
somuchtodobeforeIcangohome!

I found it. The snow, that is. Apparently Iowa has been stockpiling it and preventing flow-through to Missouri. This is my friend Janice’s driveway in Cedar Falls. (Poor Steve. He has to get up early on the mornings that it snows, so that he has time to plow the driveway before heading off to work. But I think he secretly likes it.)  It was a fun weekend with friends and I ate too many cakeballs. Steve and Janice’s daughter K was home for the weekend. She’s the one that makes those amazing cakeballs and cupcakes. They’re addictive.

It was a no-mail Monday today in the States (Happy President’s Day to all of you!) so we couldn’t get any orders out. However, I have new things up on the website for you tonight. We just put up:

* The Knit Kit in Turquoise
* Dream in Color Knitosophy re-stock
* Dream in Color Starry re-stock
* ShibuiKnits Staccato line
* Crystal Palace Panda Cotton
* Crystal Palace Mini Mochi
* Marie Mayhew Patterns & Kits
* Lane Borgosesia Cashwool
* Trekking XXL
* Madelinetosh DK/Light Worsted  (Note – this was formerly known as their worsted weight. They have decided to call this a DK/Light Worsted and have invested in a new Worsted Weight called Vintage. We will have Vintage in stock in a few weeks! In the meantime, some of you will find that your gauge on this DK/Light Worsted works for many patterns calling for a worsted weight yarn. I find I knit this at 18 stitches per 4 inches on a U.S. 7 in garter stitch.)

Have you ever wondered about the different weights and measurements of yarn? Here is a great website for references. You can print out copies of the weights, knitting symbols, crochet symbols, knitting abbreviations, crochet abbreviations, needle/hook sizes, etc.

I decided to knit something during the Olympics, but I came to some conclusions about Olympic Knitting. I’ll share more about that on Wednesday. In the meantime, pop over to check out What’s New.

Sheri bigfatflakesofsnowarecomingdown,
butsinceit’sMissouri,theywon’tamounttomuch