Knitting In The Big Freeze & A Recipe Experiment

Okay so we actually live down south and it’s actually 40 degrees Fahrenheit here so no actual big freeze… but it sure feels like a big freeze.

Welcome back to the blog! Today is January the 5^th so we’re three blogs into the New Year! It’s pretty cold outside, which is a definite difference from the cozy warm temperatures over Christmas. (I actually preferred the warm Christmas.) I can actually see my breath when I breathe outside, which while it looks cool definitely tells me it's getting too cold for me, haha. I prefer the warmth.

I’ve been knitting away at my cable beanie and I officially have the body finished on it!

Now the pattern said to do 4 cable repeats but I decided to stop after the 2^nd repeat, which makes three cable rows total on this hat. If I kept going on the body it would have been too big for my head once again. At least that’s what Mum and I figured when we put the unfinished project on my head. Now you won’t be able to see it today, due to editing and other technical walls I have to overcome but I actually recorded a new ZAK Knits Episode featuring this cable beanie! I did a couple of cable sections on this hat to show off the hat in general and how to do cable. Hopefully for new knitters it’ll show how simple and easy cable knitting really is and will encourage you to have a go yourself.

This is probably one of, if not my most favorite knitting pattern I’ve done yet. Cable is really fun and easy once you get used to it, which didn’t take me long at all. The pattern is by Splendor Knitting (By Designer Homera Luna) and the pattern itself is called The Natural. You can check it out on Ravelry and also check out my project page on Ravelry!

Also check out the ZAK Knits playlist on my YouTube channel! I already have two knitting videos up showcasing my round dishcloth and my socks.

I may actually have this hat done over the weekend because all I gotta do now is the crown. My head will be protected from the sudden onslaught of cold soon enough.

Another smallish knitting product I’ve been working on is another earpud pouch. Reason for this is over Christmas I got these pretty awesome apple earbuds.

This is my first time owning a pair like this and it allows you to change the volume of your music, pause and play your music and even switch tracks by double clicking the play button on this little control panel on the right ear. So yeah these headsets are pretty awesome but I need a good place to store them so I’m making this earbud pouch. I had made one before but this new one is going to be a bit bigger.

The needles I’m using for this project are US 2 (2.75 MM) Red Lace Stainless Steel needles from ChiaoGoo. The cord is a lot more ridged then cords I’ve used previously but as my project grows I tend to not notice it. The needles are metal but either I’ve gotten more careful or my stitches aren’t slipping very easily on these needles compared to some metal needles.

That’s it for knitting for now but I got some new projects I want to start soon, especially with my cable beanie project coming to a close soon.

So out on a trip with my family (The same trip we took down to Cypress Black Bayou on Wednesday’s Blog.) I came across this awesome Volkswagen Beetle that I just had to show on the blog here real quick.

This Beetle has been custom painted to look just like Herbie the Love Bug! Of course this is a much newer VW Beetle compared to the original 1963 model used for Herbie but it looks so awesome regardless that I had to snap some photos of it. If you don't know who Herbie is he's a 1963 VW Beetle Racecar with a mind of his own. He first was featured in the awesome 1968 comedy classic movie The Love Bug and continued to get multiple sequels. Even making a return for the 2005 movie Herbie Fully Loaded. They're pretty fun movies so check them out on iTunes!

Switching subjects again we took on a brand new food challenge in the form of this recipe we found on a tin label. The recipe was for a Skillet Pork Chop Dinner with Tomato Red Sauce. So Mum has got this habit of trying to follow the recipe but she always ends up adding or removing certain parts, she’s not a big fan of following the recipes to a point but that’s what I love about Mum’s cooking. Her meals always end up being better than the original recipe. Another plus is that her meals always end up a surprise, a good surprise as the meals always end up tasting delicious. Though Mum never writes down her meals so re-creating her masterpieces can be a bit tough.

Basically this meal consists of Pork chops, of course, tomato sauce, diced tomato, red potatoes and some Italian/various seasonings. We’ve never had pork chops or pork in general with a red sauce before and actually we’ve never had red potatoes in something like this either so it was a completely new experience.

We cooked the pork chops until they were brown.

While Annie started chopping up some onions, garlic and green peppers.

Once the Pork chops were browned off and the onions and green peppers were we added everything in.

The potatoes went in at the same time as well, we didn’t actually boil them like we normally do we just put them straight into the sauce.

After steaming some veggies on the side and finishing up the sauce we dished it all up.

You know what? It actually came out pretty good in my opinion. I wasn’t sure how pork would taste with a tomato sauce but it all tasted great. The potatoes were slightly firm but cooked, not too mushy. So I think we can safely say this was a success. Also I never realized how good cabbage goes with tomato sauce too. I also noticed how this was a very orangey meal when putting these photos together, haha.

This would totally be a do again meal but we’ve been thinking of variations that we can do with this meal as well. I mean we could add in pasta to the sauce instead of potatoes or even rice. Maybe we could even add in the cabbage directly into the sauce too. This seems like a kind of meal we can play around with and try new combinations with.

Before I end a blog I have an update for our Re-Growing a Lettuce Challenge!

It’s been 5 days now since we began re-growing this lettuce stem in a shot glass of water. We started this challenge on Monday the 2^nd of January and you can view the first Lettuce Challenge update on Wednesday’s Blog. I took this photo January the 5^th, which is the same day I’m writing this blog on. I had no idea if it would do anything but surprisingly it’s growing! At a pretty fast pace too. This is one of Mum’s crazy ideas and because it was Mum’s crazy idea it’s actually working. Stay tuned I’ll be keeping you guys updated on our Re-Growing a Lettuce Challenge!

We’ve come to the end of the blog again for the day, thanks for reading! Uh I’ve actually not gotten around to doing anymore Mario Maker stuff and some of you are probably wondering where that is. With the Holidays and Pokémon Sun taking up a lot of my Video Game time I haven’t done much Mario Maker stuff but I plan on doing level features again starting next week so stay tuned! I’m also working hard on the next ZAK Knits Episode so be sure to keep an eye out, I’ll definitely let you know when it’s up. I have a brand new set up and I think you’ll like it.

Be sure to check me out on Instagram and check out my Youtube Channel where I post all sorts of videos from Travel Videos, Knitting, Pokemon and more! Also check me out on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat as ZAKManK, and of course Ravelry!

See you on Monday!