Lovely healthy tank!

We’ve got youngin’s in our “pond”! I thought I saw a little squirt scooting away into the depths a week ago but wasn’t able to confirm it until today when I saw them at the surface soaking up the sun. This is a first! We have not one but TWO baby goldies! Home grown babies! Given their size, these have to be last year’s babies.

One has a gold head and black body, the other is all black. It’ll take a bit to get a decent picture as they’re understandably a bit skittish. They’re a bit over 1″ long and they’ve managed to avoid being food to this point. They’re now big enough to reliably survive.

Wadly brought home the big robust duck weed in the pond. It’s big and tough enough it’s not being devoured by the fish so all is good! It’s a lovely addition. I’m hoping I can manage to winter it over.

I was having trouble finding something to screen the biofilter tank so the hydroton stays in the biofilter and doesn’t plug the screen. You’ll laugh when I tell you what I ended up using . . . and it’s working spectacularly well. I bought a $9 plastic urinal. The neck of the urinal is the perfect size to fit over the outlet of the biofilter. It came with all sorts of extra parts to make it male and female friendly. I chucked all those unnecessary bits and cut fat slots in the body, covered it with plastic netting, the kind that organic ginger root comes in and it has worked flawlessly for months. I’d love it if it were black instead of white but I’ll take what I can get.

I still need to plumb the willow tank inlet with a through hull so the hose doesn’t have to go over the top edge of the tank. Baby steps.

Healthy tank!

2025 Biofilter

Each year we develop a biofilter that will work its magic and keep our fish healthy.  No ick, no fin rot, nothing that will compromise the health of our ickthy fellows.

This year’s biofilter is a bit different. Our local pond shop, the one I’ve used for the last decade to supply me with seasonal starts, has closed. I’m in mourning. I love shopping locally and this particular pond plant shop was stellar. Locally I can look at what’s available and see in real time the size/color/spread . . . and that’s no longer available. The other generalist local shops don’t have anything but a very limited selections. Yeah, still in mourning.

Wadly brought home cotton grass and an iris (unfortunately, it’s yellow 🙁 ). That works . . . sort of. The iris pot spent the off season laid on it’s side and for this growing season is growing at 90º to the surface of the pot. Ugh. I can fix this over the winter but for now I’m stuck with laying the pot on its side to keep the plant happy. Bad vendor, bad vendor!

I couldn’t find pennywort locally so I bought from an online vendor. It was a bit pricey but I’m happy with what I received, three plants for $47. I can live with that. I’ll make sure to winter it over so I don’t have to do a repeat purchase. Everything considered, I’m pleased with the vendor.

I did a complete corkscrew willow butchery. I needed less willow. I cut off a major branch for the 55 gallon drum filter. I planted out the parent plant, reconfigured the 55 gallon drum filter (the weak part of last year’s system) and moved on. Overall I’m pretty happy. Watching all the plants flesh out with the fish living their healthiest life is the end goal.

2025 biofilter

The Bra Stuff

I’m still working on knitting (for me) the perfect bra. I have over a dozen bras I’ve knitted toward that effort, all saved to document the progression of ideas, everything from strap width to fastening methods. It’s been a heck of a journey and it doesn’t appear to be over yet.

Each time I think I might be getting close to the ideal design I learn something new. At that point I inevitably back up a bit to catch the flaw. The process in and of itself is a challenge with many opportunities for improvement ideas to go streaking through in their naked glory. I knit and frog and knit and frog and knit and . . . uh . . . well . . . you get the idea. The last iteration I knit was partially frogged at least six times. ONE iteration, six partial frogs. Now multiply that by in excess of a dozen iteration. If I didn’t find problem solving quite so fascinating I would have quit already . . . uh . . . except for the need of a really well fitting bra, comfortable, supportive, comfortable . . . something EVERY woman craves.

Each iteration (design alteration) shows me the weakness in the updated design. This latest iteration fail was the simple use of ribbing instead of icord. Yup. Whole bra, one glaringly obvious flaw which highlighted itself in a total fail. No, the bra should NOT do that. It’s a “change one thing, effect EVERYTHING else” world. Not kidding.

It’s the journey, not the destination, right?

I’m living that.

Cheater Chicken Soup

This is a smarter not harder recipe.

Put a bit of water in your Instant Pot. Not much, about 1/2″. I’m using my small Instant Pot as I’m doing chicken soup just for me so only one chicken hindquarter. Place the chicken hindquarter skin side up.

Sprinkle with poultry seasoning, salt and powdered onion. Set the pressure cook timer for 20 minutes.

While that’s doing it’s thing, sautee a carrot, some halved broccoli florets and a bit of fresh cabbage in 2-3 tbsp butter. Don’t scrimp here, butter is awesome flavor. Add some bone broth (1/2c). At this point your Instant Pot chicken should be done. Add the broth and the rough chopped deboned chicken (including the skin).

Cover and let simmer for a little bit.

There ya go, awesome fast easy keto chicken soup.

Personal Pan Pizza Rocks!

I’ve got a new fave . . . and it’s both keto friendly and absolutely delicious.

On YouTube is a video on spaghetti squash pizza bowls. That’s where it all started. The idea was really good . . . but was lacking. It was fussy to fix and fussy to eat . . . not my cup of tea. After fixing it twice I abandoned it and went another way.

The spaghetti squash as a crust ingredient is unparalleled for those of us who can’t do grains. Yes, I eat it with a fork but . . . it’s still an awesome pizza. The flavor of the sketti squash compliments the pizza ingredients in a really lovely way, something that nothing else I’ve tried can do.

Here’s what I did.

Wash then slice the spaghetti squash lengthwise into 3 or 4 equal pieces. Scoop out the guts and salt and pepper the flesh side of the squash. Place it flesh side down (skin side up) on a rack and bake it at 350º for an hour and 15 minutes. Don’t undercook it or it will hang onto the skin.

Scrape the squash out of the skins. This squash is very moist. The more moisture you can remove the better. What works best (but is really time consuming) is to freeze it. Once it thaws put it in a strainer and let the excess moisture drain off. Save the liquid as it makes great broth for soups and gravies.

Place the squash into a big bowl. I use my KitchenAid mixer bowl because I can automate the mixing and save my arm.

Add an equal amount of cheese. My favorite is pepperjack. For Wadly I use mozza as he’s very un-spicy. Add egg white protein. I added about half a cup per sketti squash. That’s what felt right to me so that’s what I did.

Mix thoroughly. This is your pizza dough mix. It’s very unlike pizza dough (more moisture) and it requires a different method of handling. I use 8″ round parchment papers. I create a 6″ pizza crust on the parchment paper using a big spoon. I create a ridge around the outside to hold the stuff in though this isn’t really necessary. Dock the dough or not as suits you. It will puff up as it bakes so be aware of that. Cover in a light layer of grated parmesan. Bake at 350º for 20 minutes.

To prepare the pizza, brush the baked crust with oil. I use home made garlic/onion oil. Cover with pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. My favorites are home made Italian sausage, sliced olives, peppers (bell, usually green and orange), onion, sliced or diced mushrooms (shiitake) and grated pepperjack cheese. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes.

I really do love this pizza.  Everything in it makes my body happy. I hope it does the same for you.

 

Apparently other peoples’ idea on what should go on pizza and my concept of what a pizza should contain don’t match. I grew up on Pizza Hut. I think that’s what set my standard.

 

Chicken Something

Some days I just can’t. Today is a fish day. I’m hurting so bad I am medicating/staying distracting/using the hot tub – turned up to 11. If you don’t know what “turned up to 11″ means just move on.

So, dinner. Some days I just can’t. It’s a good thing Wadly likes having an excuse to eat hot dogs. He doesn’t get them often so he relishes those days. Usually I’m stuffing him with good stuff. Today is one of those days. This meal is so simple I can do it on a hurting day.

We have an elderly cat who is beyond being a fussy eater. She doesn’t like eating something more than two or three meals in a row and she eats tiny meals six+ times a day. She does not get dry food. She pukes it up with flare, usually on someone’s pillow or exactly where they’re going to step bare footed. Yeah, that’s our girl. So, I grind food for her often. When I do chicken . . . I buy 10lb bags of chicken hindquarters for less than $0.90 cents a pound . . . I put the skin, bones, etc. in a snack bag and stick those into a gallon ziplock in the fridge. When I get lots of them I pressure cook them with an extra thigh or three to add extra meat, seasoning with poultry seasoning, leeks and salt.

So I did that yesterday then separated the non-meat soft tissue bits and small bones for the dogs, chucked the bigger leg bones into the trash and put the chicken meat and broth into the fridge for . . . chicken something. I really don’t know what else to call it. Chicken cabbage stew? Maybe that.

This is SO fast and simple. Sautee in butter . . . thin leek slices (1/8″ or less), bell pepper slices (I used green and . . . orange? I think the not-green color Wadly got last is orange) and 1/4″ strips of cabbage (cut into 4” lengths). Once the veges are al dente add the chicken and broth. Simmer on low. I think the prep time on this (not the chicken pressure cook/separate bones bit) was less than ten minutes. Truly that fast. It took more time to take things out and put them away than it did to make it.

Truly, it was really good. I’ll do this again.

 

New Treat!

It’s hard to come up with a treat that works for me. I’ve got a new one I think is going to work.

1 egg, 1 tbsp coconut flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/3 cup Rebel Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Mix, dump into a ramakin and microwave for 90 seconds.

Add butter to the top when it’s done (lacks fat) and it’s pretty darned good and fast to make.

Not a Helix

A friend said my helix sweaters would be better if the stripes were vertical. Anyone who knits helix knows it works because it’s knit in a spiral. The bottom of the sweater in vertical stripes can’t be a helix. Doing the entire bottom of a sweater in intarsia is just not gonna happen. Doing the amount in Better Banner was plenty! Admittedly, it’s one of the prettiest, most elegant sweaters I’ve knit so far but still . . . not happening.

I thought I’d try knitting up a piece with horizontal stripes, turning it 90° and kitchenering it on. Eh, worth a try . . . but no.

The base of the vneck came out particularly lovely which always pleases me and the striped bit was interesting to knit but I wouldn’t want to do a ton of it. Picking up edge stitches wasn’t an issue but the color bars that show up where the picked up stitches are doesn’t please me at all. Ugh. To fix it I’d have to do intarsia in the base color before picking up edge stitches. Doable but the second and less obvious problem is the dimension of the stitches. On this particular knit using a US4, the SPI is 6.8333, the RPI is 9.

In joining the horizontal to the vertical means the vertical stands out proud instead of laying flat and smooth due to the mismatch in row/stitch gauge.
There are two solutions to this problem. I either need to use a smaller yarn/smaller needle to get row gauge on the bottom to match stitch gauge on the top or I need to use a smaller needle (2 sizes at least) with the existing yarn to get the current yarn’s adjusted row gauge to match the upper’s stitch gauge.
I am not going to knit BP on a US2. Not happening. I’m also not going to reknit the already perfectly lovely top. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Time for a rethink.

I have LOTS of short lengths of Rainbow Bamboo from frogging the two test collars for Better Banner. I have LOTS of short length of Bamboo Pop from all sorts of projects. I could do short horizontal stripes of one or two stitch intarsia stripes. I like this plan a lot. I still get my vertical stripes, I get to use up a lot of short lengths of yarn and it would be pretty without being a repeat of better banner. I could also do vertical intarsia stripes of different widths including some with variegated yarn. I could do a vertical repeat of Relationships matching a color in the variegated to the bordering colors. I have options! I never know quite what I’m going to do until I dive in.

 

Better Banner Update

The finished cuff!

I’ve been working semi-diligently on Better Banner. I went through a spate of problems with my neck while working the intarsia on the first sleeve which shunted me off to less physically stressful projects but . . . I’m back! One cuff is done (and lovely) and the second is in the works. I’m working on it a bit every day and expect to be done some time in the next two weeks.

Helix Sunset

This was a tough one. I tried a lot of things that didn’t make me happy before hitting on something that worked for me. Here are the attempts with comments on why they failed to pass muster.

This is the end result. It’s beautiful.

Helix reworked

FrontI’m liking this . . . a lot. I keep wanting to pet it which is a really good sign. Having the back and sleeve caps being different than the yoke is really pleasing.

From here success is what I do next. I’m going to try swapping out one of the variegateds I’m using for the yoke with BP Frosty Morning. It may not work but I won’t know until I try. It *might* be the perfect transition.

I’ve started a mosaic cloud on the back. I still don’t know if that’s going to work. So far I’m okay with it. I need to stop the Shoreline (gray) before it starts to get stripy. Once that happens I may split the Shoreline in half and use it just for the sleeves. Stripes would work there.

Back

New Helix Top

New startI’m trying something different for the top of helix. I’m still doing a sunset but . . . different. I’m not a fan of repeating stuff. I don’t learn new stuff that way other than been there, done that.
The edging is a mostly pink orange, like a pale sherbet. It blends pretty well with the yarns I’m using for the shoulder. The start of the shoulder is two rows of Bamboo Pop Blueberry Swirl and two rows of BP Khaki Girl. Instead of breaking the yarn I’m trapping them with the front edging yarn.
I don’t intend for this to go too far . . . to the end of the sleeve cap shaping, I think. I think I want to use a different (solid?) yarn for the sleeves. I haven’t tried this before so it should be interesting. Maybe a dark navy. BP Anchor maybe though I’ll have to get more. Or one of the grays I used for the body helix.

It’s another NO

AnotherNoYeah, this is not working. The helix bottom is brilliant and deserves a much better top than this. I realized that (or finally accepted that) when I got the helix bit done and couldn’t figure out what to do with the sleeves. So, time to innovate!

Rather than frog the whole thing I’ll separate it at the start of the helix or at the underarm (probably there as it gives me the most flexibility) and frog the top. I can use some of the Shoreline, maybe a bit of the dark blue, add more color, change out the gray I used for the edging and pattern the top after a shrug I made for my sister. Then it’s just Kitchener the two parts together and I’ve got a totally different sweater.

I thought about just separating them at the helix but I’m not happy enough with the top to try add a different bottom to it. And yes, I’ve Kitchenered a sweater together before. It’s only ever scary the first time.Sunset shrug

Sunset on the farm mosaic

Helix, the reknit

I frogged my first attempt all the way back. The test fit SUCKED. Totally. The shoulders were too pointy.

In the first round of knitting I got the neckline totally done and realized it would look SO much better if I used a solid color for the back neck and front facings. I sorted colors and picked the closest blue and the closest gray and started reknitting. I got about four rows into adding Shoreline and realized I was making a mistake. I should save the Shoreline so I can knit seamlessly from it into the helix . . . or as close as I can get. So, gray caston, blue shoulders transitioning into Shoreline as soon as the shoulders were built.

The reknitI’m questioning some of my yarn choices, one of which is the yarn I used for the neck facing but not to the point I’m willing to frog this. All in all I’m fairly happy. I’m using only short repeat variegateds for the scrappy line of the helix and I’m really liking the effect. I think I have enough variety to finish a shorty without repeating a variegated or using a solid. I think I have enough of the neck edging color for sleeve and body hems. One of the variegateds is the very very very last bit of BP On Parade, now discontinued. I wish I could find more of it. It’s SO useful.

The shoulder is conti-rag with a 12 stitch separation from the shoulder line and a 17 stitch drop for the front. Numbers-wise I’m extremely pleased. All the bits ended relatively together. The vee ends really close to the Point C horizontal line. I think the bust dart line is a little high but it doesn’t stand out much. It gives me the extra volume in front which is really all I need. Plus the difference between “I’m wearing a bra” versus au natural is ridiculous so it’s moot point.
If you’re wondering why there are beads at the center back I have a good reason. if I have to dress in the dark I can tell by feel which bit of the sweater is the back. All the sweaters I make for me have short row of beads,

Things I learned . . . the stitch pick up for the front facing has a new easy and intuitive technique. The other thing is just too complicated to explain outside a video.
I’ve been contemplating entering our local fair for the LAP award. I’m thinking something like this would be a worthy contender. I also have sweater’s worth of Great Barrier Reef’s Wine Bay, a really long repeat variegated (a blue based red version of Shoreline) and this is giving me ideas on how to use it without knitting a whole sweater out of it.

Uh, this is NOT working

Ugh, just ughWell, this devolved fast. It went from pretty to dull due to wrong followup yarn choices.
It’s so blah I’m going to frog it back to the end of the Shoreline and go a different direction.
I’m going to dig into my bin again and see if I can something different for the light and pull one of my Rainbow Bamboo bright blues for the dark. This is so blah I’m in a continual wince.

Chaos Inspiration

Helix from ChaosIn knitting Chaos I did a three yarn helix sleeve incorporating two of the grays in the body and my bag of scrap yarn, a result I found truly fascinating. This is something I want to run with . . . and so it begins.

I’ve got some leftover Great Barrier Reef Shoreline(?, questioning the name not the brand), about half a cake, that would make a lovely start, so gray for one helix yarn, blue for another and my scrap bag bits for the third. (Before I start the helix bit I think I need to organize my scrappies and know the sequence ahead of time so the scrappy choices truly transition into each other.)

The seedSo here’s the plan. Start with Shoreline (off white, gray, blue). Once I’m working in the round, start the helix using with light gray, scrappy, light blue. Next transition switch to slightly darker gray and slightly darker blue, continue the scrappy. Repeat two more times, should be at hem of sweater. That’s the plan.

The progress

This is where I am (back of the sweater). If you can’t tell at a glance it’s conti-rag with sleeve cap short rows. See how the short rows level out the sleeve stripes! It’s so pretty I couldn’t resist sharing. I need to get to the bottom of the vee neck before starting the helix (working in the round) and I’m about 12 rows from there . . . uh . . . maybe. I’m out of the Great Barrier Reef Shoreline(?) and will have to switch to a starter blue or a starter gray (lightest colors) to push on into the round. I may do a series of three row stripe of light blue/light gray to finish up the yoke and transition into the helix, a pure knit-from-the-hip decision.
Regardless, I love this yarn and I’m delighted to be using up the last bit of the sweater lot of Shoreline I purchased.

Better Banner Reknit

Better Banner ReknitI’ve got the conti-rag shoulder finished and the banner reknit. It’s got two major errors but I can live with them. I’m moderately happy. At first I though the lack of sleeve cap short rows was an oops but since starting another conti-rag sweater I think this was a lucky miss. It causes a bit of a kink in the banner which isn’t ideal but adding short rows to the sleeve cap makes the shoulders too pointy. All in all though, color me happy. I’ve worked in all the ends.

The sleeve cuffs and sweater hem will both have the same pattern as the collar. It’s going to be a pretty sweater.

Better Banner Update

Bamboo Pop Better BannerAll the reknitting is done and I’m past the sleeve separation. All in all I’m really pleased. The photo reads gray and the brights are subdued. The actual sweater is a gorgeous ink navy. Once I get a sunny day I’ll get a better pic.

The intarsia is ~2/3 done. I’ve separated the sleeves. Since taking the progress pic I’ve done the underarm caston. Next is test fit.

Once past the test fit I’ll work in the ends of the finished bits which will tidy things up before continuing to knit.

Frogged!

Better Banner’s been frogged back to the collar. Tomorrow I’ll start the reconstruction using conti-raglan instead of conti-something. I’ve got a couple balls of the frogged yarn that need to be unkinked as well as all the short pieces of brights used for the banner. I’ll spritz and bag them tonight. They’ll have a chance to relax sitting on a rack by the wood stove when Wadly starts a fire in the morning.

The period of chaos has ended

Est finiIt’s done, I’m happy. There are a few things I would do differently if I did a repeat.

  • Move the decrease line for the sleeve wedge two stitches farther away from the colored bit.
  • Decrease the body wedge width to one third of the current width.
  • Start the sleeve wedge sooner.
  • Change the straight line of the sleeve wedge to match the decrease line of the sleeve.

Overall I’m really happy with the stuff I learned.

The streamlined conti-something shoulder came out really nicely. I’ve embraced Åsa Tricosa’s Ziggurat philosophy and am no longer breaking my yarn between elements. I’ve also eliminated the closing row which tightens up my conti-something shoulder.

The helixed sleeve rocks. Two solids (dark and light gray) and a variety of solid and variegated scraps makes a really interesting sleeve. Each of the scraps circles the sleeve three times. It’s a striped sleeve without screaming “STRIPED SLEEVE”. I’m really tempted to use this technique with some ombre yarn I’ve had hanging around for quite a while.

The sleeve wedge took ~9 starts before I had something I was happy with. I cycled between messy and ugly before it finally settled out. I’m going to use this single stitch color column technique for a different banner sweater idea. Someday. Maybe.

From Palette Cleanser to Chaos

With Better Banner awaiting a significant frog, I needed a break. With lots of left over bits, balls and skeins it was time for something scrappy. I love from the hip scrappy. It’s my favorite style of sweater to knit. I can grab yarn and do whatever feels happy.

This project is exceeding expectations. For a scrappy palette cleanser it’s come out better than I ever imagined it would. I love projects where I learn something. On this one, so far, the count is at two with (hopefully) another to follow. One, I made a significant improvement to my conti-something shoulder and two, the three-yarn helix will now forever be the base I use for gradients.

I started this project with no plan. I had a sweater’s worth of partial balls in various shades of gray (Hobbii’s Rainbow Bamboo) and a gallon ziplock full of DK weight bamboo/cotton thumb skeins from a variety of manufacturers.

At this point I have one sleeve left to knit. I’m planning a wedge to match the side wedge starting from the elbow in vertical stripes (intarsia) in a twisted echo of the first sleeve. Joy!

Weird but tasty

Instead of an omelet this morning I did a weird no-idea-what-to-call-it thing with all the same ingredients. It was good, dare I say better than my normal omelet.

I mixed uncooked shrimp, an egg and a couple handfuls of mozzarella cheese in my little food processor then I spread it over sauteed peppers, onions and mushroom. I covered it and cooked it on low until it was done. Diced tomato on top and it was awesome!

Next time I’ll stir the sauteed veges into the mix before cooking. It was fast, easy and little effort.

Deep fried fish

I haven’t had battered fish in . . . well . . . it feels like forever. Once I understood I’m a celiac a lot of things vanished off my menu. When Wadly was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic even more things vanished off our menu. The result is way better health but it’s a change that takes time to incorporate. We started out feeling we couldn’t eat anything and found out we can eat really awesome stuff.

So . . . fried fish. I have always loved deep fried fish. Everything I’ve tried since switching to celiac/keto has been a huge disappointment . . . until . . .

The world of keto advocates is awesome. People are trying things and sharing and it benefits us all. One of the outstanding contributions is a recipe for battered fried fish. It. Is. AWESOME.

  • 2/3 cup almond flour. Don’t substitute with anything else. I was low on almond flour and tried to substitute something else to fill out the recipe . . . just don’t.
  • 1/4 cup protein powder. The recipe I followed recommended whey protein powder. I don’t have it so I used egg protein powder instead. It worked just fine.
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all that together . . . add

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 to 1/3 cup of one of the following – sparking mineral water or club soda. The original recipe says sparking mineral water. Don’t have that, used club soda and it works fine. Anything carbonated is apparently the thing, sparking water, club soda, tonic water . . . Although the original recipe said 1/2 to 1/3 I’ve never needed anything beyond 1/2 cup. YMMV

Mix all the dry stuff, add the wet stuff, mix well and let it rest for 10 minutes so the almond flour can soak up all the moisture it can.

Fish – I used Pacific cod (my favorite white fish) but any white fish will do. Pacific cod or orange roughy will be the tastiest. Walmart has a nice frozen pacific cod. If you’re using frozen fish defrost and remove all the extra moisture before dipping in the batter. I pressed it between paper towels to remove the excess moisture.

Deep fry (I use home made garlic oil, original recipe says avocado oil) at 355º until golden brown. Cool to edible on a layer of paper towels. Save the oil for the next time you deep fry fish.

Not kidding, this is awesome! I’ve had it three times so far and it rocks! I’m eating battered fried fish again! Woot!

 

Knitting Haitus

I’m five days into a sprained forefinger on my left hand. It’s a slowly healing ouch and I am SO missing my knitting. I’m about 1/5th through the palette cleanser. I’ll frog Better Banner while I’m waiting for things to improve to the point I can knit again.

I’m all prepped and ready to start my bra logic video. I’ve got my original patterns, hardware and all the example bras collected up. I’m ready!

I’d love to do it today but I need one more day to finish up the quilt blocks for a scrappy top before I can dive in.

Wadly gets his new garden tractor with mower tomorrow. Over the next couple days I am sure he’ll be out mowing and playing with it. Maybe then.