Seriously?????

Ok.  Deep breath.  Remember that last post where things were going along swimmingly after not doing so for a few days?  Remember how I was going to start my Flyingdales that night? Well......

I got out my yarn and my pattern and grudgingly happily like no other knitters every knitter I know, did a guage swatch.  And it was too small.  So I went up a needle size.  And it was still to small.  So I went up another needle size.  And it was still to small. (Doesn't this sound like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and how he was still hungry???)  Then I didn't like that the fabric was getting so loose, and resigned myself to the fact that my yarn was in fact worsted weight and not heavy worsted as the pattern called for.  My yarn label did not specify this, by the way.  It simply had the yardage and the ounces, which I figured out to be about worsted weight but thought it would still work for this pattern.  It didn't.  So, I looked though my new A Fine Fleece book and found some other patterns that I liked.  And did some guage swatches.  They just didn't work.  Seriously????  After all my searching and planning and waiting????  Here is my 10 mile long gauge swatch:

 So I was back to the drawing board and searched Ravelry again.  Through 30 pages of potential worsted weight cardigan patterns.  I found the Bloody Mary cardigan and swatched for that. The swatches for that are actually at the top of the picture above, since I didn't keep track of the sections I knitted below it with the same size needles and had to re-knit them.  Another winner move.  But, things were looking up and I almost had guage with a size 7 needle and did have gauge with a size 8 needle.  Hooray! 

I was getting ready to go ahead and cast on with the size 8 needle, and that little annoying voice in the back of my head said, "You better wash that swatch.  If you are getting guage with a size 8, it's going to get bigger after you wash it. Remember that huge sweater you made that you love but is really way too big for you?  It's because you didn't do a swatch, started knitting the sweater, measured the guage a few inches in, and it was already too big, and you kept knitting anyway, then when you washed it, it became ginormous. So, really, you better wash it."
So......

....I washed it. And the voice was right.  Once I washed it, the guage with the size 7 needle was now perfect and the size 8 was too big.  Now that I have all this definitive proof about the merits of swatching, I'm still probably not going to swatch often going to swatch all the time.

And now, I'm almost done with the 5 1/2 inches of 2 X 2 ribbing at the bottom on the back:

Here are some pictures from the Ravelry page:

In case you were wondering, the name is based on a cocktail.  The designer named a lot of her patterns after cocktails.  There is a cute one called Vodka Lemonade.  She is also the same designer of my Cranberry Capelet.  I like her stuff.

So, I promised you two easy as pie recipes.  By the way, I have no idea why they say "easy as pie".  I do not think  pie is easy to make.  Probably because I don't like it.

Recipe #1:
My mom passed along this one through the Facebook.
A 45 Second Oatmeal Cookie!  It is from The Wellness Maven blog, who go it from the Carrots 'N Cake blog who created it and calls it the 3 Minute Oatmeal Cookie.
It's a little tiny recipe that makes a healthy cookiesand is really quick to put together and cook in the microwave.

1/4 cup oats

1/8 cup liquid egg whites

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp raisins

Cinnamon to taste

Mix everything together, put in a microwave safe bowl, flatten the mixture to the bottom of the bowl and microwave for 45 seconds.  I used chocolate chips instead of raisins.  Mmmmmm.

Before cooking

After cooking

Since these are healthy, they are not the most amazing cookie you've ever had.   A little tough/chewy.  BUT, it's a darn good alternative to a whole package of oreos.  Or jelly beans.  Or peeps.  The few chocolate chips are just the thing it needs.

Recipe #2:
Crock Pot Chicken and Stuffing

• 1 lb. chicken breasts
• 6 oz box of Stove Top Stuffing
• 1 10oz can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Put chicken in the crock pot.  Put dry stuffing mix on top. Mix soup and sour cream (I used half and half since I didn't have sour cream) and pour over the stuffing.  Cook on low for 4 hours.

I know, doesn't look like much.  But it's yummy!

So easy and really yummy.  I love my crock pot.

I also promised you a book review!
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: This was the 850 page book I started a couple of weeks ago.  I think it took me about a week and a half to read. It was good!  Not over-the-top good, but very entertaining and it kept me engaged.  I had seen some conflicting reviews on Goodreads but overall the reviews were positive.  I had been under the impression that this was an historical fiction book and quickly realized that it's a romance as well.  The story takes place in post WWII Scotland.  Claire, a former army nurse, is on a second honeymoon with her husband, when she visits a Stonehenge-type ruin and falls through a crack in one of the stones.... into the year 1743.  So now, she has a life and a husband in one century and a romance with a clansman in another century.  The storyline was engaging, with clan border wars, Claire needing to adapt to a much more primitive way of life, and her struggle to come to terms with this new romance.  In a way, it reminded me of a soap opera.... can't stop watching, wanting to know what happens next, and romance.  In case you need to be warned, there are some pretty graphic love scenes.  But they don't take over the whole book.  And also some graphic descriptions of torture and injuries -- I had to cover my eyes for some of those. 

This is the first in a series of several books and I will likely read the next one some day.  It would be a good beach read.

Whew.  That's it.  I'm off to work on Bloody Mary.  (Ugh- doesn't that sound awful?)