Happy Valentine's Day and Finished Knitted Waffle Hat

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Valentine's Day!  This weekend was fun celebrating my Mom's birthday.  I enjoyed spending a few days with my family and just chatting and spending time together.

I knitted a hat for my Mom in January as a gift for her birthday using the Bulky Waffle Hat pattern by Linda Suda. I loved this pattern and really like how the waffle pattern adds texture to the hat. To make the hat, I used the Patons Classic Wool Bulky yarn in the color green and size US 10 6 mm needles. I was happy she liked it!

My sister purchased a few of these helium balloons to put around the dining room to celebrate our Mom's birthday and the cats were very interested and scared of them. |It was entertaining to watch them inspect the balloons and the ribbon of the balloon. Roo (the ginger cat) was scared of the balloon and ran away from it when it got too close. Moo (black and white cat) was just interested and curious about the balloons, then eventually attacked the ribbon and was chewing on it.

Moo playing with the balloon

Roo investigating the balloon

I didn't get to reading that much this weekend as I had thought I am still reading Wild by Cheryl strayed. I will read more this week to finish it. Last week, I started listening to Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee on audiobook while I was knitting. I enjoyed reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when I was in high school, so I was interested in listening to the sequel. I really like it so far.

I usually make some cute hearts for the holiday and like to knit with pink around this time.  But this year, I decided to show you some of the hearts I knitted in past years and have also included the blog post links if you would like to make any of these and are interested in the patterns.

Valentine Heart Pouch: link to Knitted Valentine Heart Pouch

Valentine heart: link to Happy Valentine's Day

Some knitting stitches that are fun to learn and use in some Valentine's day projects that were featured in some Stitchy Saturday posts:

Learn to knit the lace hearts knit stitch pattern: link to the post: Stitchy Saturday: Lace Hearts Knit Stitch Pattern

Learn to knit the heart vine pattern: link to the post: Stitchy Saturday Heart Vine Lace Panel Stitch

Joining along this week with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday, and Small Things with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Thank you for visiting the blog and I hope that you enjoy the day with loved ones!

Have a good day!

Knitting Progress and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend I was mostly relaxing and had a couple of mornings of just watching HGTV and watching Flip or Flop Las Vegas and then Vintage Flip. Then the next morning I watched If I Stay, which was such a cute movie. I wasn't feeling well so I needed some rest and relaxation. I haven't done that in awhile, because most mornings I just take my smoothie to our computer room in our apartment and either job search or look at my blog or other's blogs right away. It was nice to just lounge around and watch the shows. They are so light and fun to watch and I will try to take some time now and then to have a lazy Saturday morning and watch these shows or in the evenings. During the week, I like to get on the job search right away so I start the day off motivated and get more accomplished.

This weekend was also good for knitting. I got a lot of knitting done on the fingerless mitts I am knitting for a customer using the Ribbed Fingerless Mitten pattern by Kathy North and also got some work done on knitting the Wool and the Gang Farrah Top. I was knitting the Wool and the Gang top a bit during This is Us on Sunday during the less intense and emotional parts. That show was so good and really sad and captured the emotions that Rebecca would be feeling perfectly. I am looking forward to watching tonight's episode too which sounds like it will be an equally emotional episode. I also watched the Superbowl on Sunday night and I was happy that the Philadelphia Eagles won for some bloggers I know who were rooting for them. I have been knitting the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top and concerned it will be short for my liking. I asked some ladies on Ravelry what I should do and got suggestions to go up a needle size or to add more yarn. I might frog it and go up a needle size, but just thinking of what I should do so I can wear it when it is finished.

I am still reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed and it has been a long time now reading this book. I think I will be finishing it soon and think that I have not been so motivated to read it. I think it is a big slow paced for me and I would like if more was happening to make me wonder what happens next, but so far I feel like it is all the same. I know it is a true story though, so they can't add any climatic events that did not happen just to spice it up a bit. Anyways I will be finishing it soon I hope. I am looking forward to my next read after I am finished this one which is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I received it for Christmas and I have heard wonderful things about it and can't wait to start it.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday tomorrow.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and hope you come back again soon!

Have a good day!

Baking Vegan Banana Bread From Oh She Glows

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I baked some vegan banana bread this week using the vegan banana bread recipe from Oh She Glows. It has been on my list of things to bake for a long time. I took a look at my overripe bananas on Tuesday morning and decided once and for all it was time to bake the bread. It was so delicious and I really enjoyed eating it all week with my coffee or tea in the afternoon. My boyfriend also really liked it and I also shared some with him.

I got all of my ingredients ready for a photo. All you will need for the recipe is:
Wet ingredients: bananas, almond milk, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, ground flax seeds.
Dry ingredients: rolled oats, flour (any kind you would like, gluten free, spelt flour etc. I used the regular kind), raw cane sugar/brown sugar ( or you can use coconut sugar), baking powder, baking soda, walnuts (for ontop of the banana bread).  Mix the wet ingredients first, then mix in the dry ingredients afterwards.

I won't be sharing the recipe on my blog, but you can find the full recipe from Oh She Glows here. I hope you enjoy trying it out and also browsing more of her wonderful vegan recipes. I can't wait to try out more of her recipes. I have her cookbook and have tried making some of her meals and really love them and I am making one tonight.

I have been knitting the front piece of the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top and also knitting another pair of Ribbed Fingerless Mitts, pattern by Kathy North, for a customer. I will keep on knitting these this weekend and be able to give them to her by next weekend. What will you be working on this weekend?

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope that you give this recipe a try, it was so delicious and I will be making a lot more of this banana bread for sure.

Have a great day!