I know, I have been non-existent here. I'm sorry. I've thought about blogging, then realize I really don't have much to say. I am going to try harder though.
We have had a lifestyle change at our house over the last two months. It's been hard, though not impossible. I don't remember if I said much when Kim went on an allergy friendly diet. She went gluten free, mostly dairy free, chicken egg free, and peanut free. There were some other things in there too, but these were the biggest ones. That was around Thanksgiving of 2009. She has done really well on this diet and rotating her foods through so she isn't eating the same thing every day. This last fall, the other three of us did an allergy panel as well and found that most of the same things we needed to avoid. Gluten, milk and chicken eggs. We did switch to duck eggs last year, mostly for Kim, but now two of us have found we can't tolerate them either. :( Eggs are such a great protein for us and this is hard to get rid of. If you look at any of the good breads that are out there in the gluten free world, there are eggs in them. We have been trying to make bread at home and just haven't gotten it right yet. Soon I hope. We really miss bread. Good protein breakfasts are hard now at our house since the eggs are out. Anyways, enough whining on that. I will try to post some recipes once in a while that we have found to be good. We did come up with the most awesome chocolate chip cookies that taste exactly like the ones we made before going gf. Today Kim is in the kitchen with some gf oats and I don't know what else. She's making something that I am sure will be tasty! She likes experimenting even if it fails.
On the knitting front, I've done quite a few things for the
BSD (Beaverton School District) Yarnfest. It goes to help out the 1600+ homeless kids in our school district.
I've also been working on several sweaters. My Traveling Sweater that I started in Ireland is still only about 1/2 way done. I've got 3 other sweaters on needles as well. 2 for me and 1 for Kim. One is actually a test knit that I am almost done with. Deadline is Tuesday and I have to sew the pockets on, weave in a few ends and block it. It is a hooded vest/cardi for
Knitquest. She has been designing a lot of sweaters lately and I love it!! Sam is a friend from the first year of BMFA Sock Camp. I joined a group on Ravelry called
12 in 2011. We are making our way through some of our stash, queue and patterns that we already have, so one of my sweaters in the February Lady Fitted Pullover for Kim. It is in an amazing green that will look good on her.
Other things I will be doing in regard to knitting, going to Stitches West in Santa Clara, California in February! I am taking three classes in hopes of preparing myself to do more tech editing of knitting patterns. Two of the classes are actually on tech editing and one is on designing your dream sweater. I actually have a drawing of a sweater I wanted to make several years ago and I think I have a picture of a sweater/vest that I saw in a store a couple of years ago. I am excited to go. I'm taking some extra time to spend before and after with my parents as well.
Oh, the other thing I am doing, I signed up for some writing classes through the Community Education at the local community college. Those start in about 10 days. I signed up for three classes, but they aren't all at the same time. They do overlap a few days on each one, but for the most part they will be by themselves. They are all online as well, so I don't have to commit to being "in" class every session.
Christmas 2010 of Kim and Lily. It almost matches last years picture.
Christmas 2009 Kim and Lily.
