This day last week was the annual cleaning-of-the-garlands day, the equivalent of a spa day for my faux greenery.

This takes place every year, a few days before I decorate for Thanksgiving. I pull the faux magnolia garlands out of their hidey hole and gather up all the faux greens scattered throughout the house. Then it's off to the bathtub, where each and every dusty leaf gets a good spray of warm water.

Next, they get a shake and are carried outside to spend the day drying on the patio tables before being returned to their respective homes.

It's so nice to have fresh, clean greenery ready for the holidays!

Just a little word of caution: not all faux greenery can handle a bath. They all get dirty and dusty as heck, but some simply aren't washable. Over the years, I've had to sacrifice some fairly nice pieces for the crime of being dusty and unable to withstand a good washing.

Consider this your permission to set aside the practical knitting for a little while and indulge in something festive. Whether it’s a snowflake-covered sweater, a little ornament, or the perfect Christmas stocking, it’s time to celebrate the season. After all, we knitters know that Christmas comes early when you’re making the gifts! From classic and elegant to whimsical and fun, here are the holiday designs that caught my eye and made my favorites list this year. 

Clicking on the links will take you directly to the pattern. Please note that designers can change the status of their patterns at any time, so a pattern that was free when I found it may later become a paid pattern. 

Elk Icelandic Sweater by Olga Begat

Advent Calendar Bags from HavrebarnaAS

Black Forest Cardigan by Cheryl Mokhtari

Molina by Isabell Kraemer

Kokomo Polo Jacket by Popknit

Christmas Star Mittens by Ann Charlotte Oberg

I had just enough leftover yarn to whip up two snowballs and turn them into a little woolly snowman. I used the two largest sizes in my pom pom maker set to create his body, braided a warm scarf from leftover needlepoint wool, and topped him off with a 3D-printed hat made by my grandson.

The weather has turned (at least it did for a week) and the other morning we woke up to a chilly 45 degrees. Brrr! But it was expected to reach a sunny 77 that afternoon, so we're holding off on turning on the heat for a few more weeks. Good thing, today it's supposed to reach 87!

The foody part of this post:

There are two kinds of husbands in the world: those who won’t go to Costco and those who will. My guy is the latter. Several years ago, I went on my own, and he had genuine hurt feelings about me going without him. I won’t do that again to my sweet guy, so now we’re a Costco shopping dream team, each with our own unique Costco superpowers.

My Costco superpower is simple: it’s saying no to everything that's not on the list. I’m a bit of a fun spoiler, true, but if not for this important skill of mine, we’d come home with bags and bags of fifty frozen burritos or potstickers, or cases of batteries, avocados, and chocolate caramel clusters. My skill keeps our household-supplies inventory from getting too unruly.

My husband’s superpower is choosing the best rotisserie chicken. He scans the lineup like a customs officer inspecting a row of passports at a high-security border crossing. He’s not just glancing; he’s laser-focused on spotting the single most perfect bird. And by perfect, I mean the largest.

This week, he picked a beaut. I swear it was double the normal size! Normally, I can easily make two or three dinners for two from one of their chickens, but this week’s bird gave us four dinners and several lunches, with bones left over for stock.

I’m quite proud of this feat, but I didn’t take pictures of everything because I had no idea I’d manage to turn it into a blog post. Still, here’s the lowdown.

The first night, I sliced the breast meat for dinner and served it with my frozen summer squash fritters and a salad. The remaining slices went into three sandwiches, which I quartered, wrapped, and tucked into the fridge for future lunches. My guy is beyond thrilled when he finds a ready made lunch in the fridge.

The rest of the chicken was either shredded or diced and set aside, and the bones went into the freezer for stock that I’ll make another day. I like to collect several chickens’ worth before I bother making stock.

The second night I made rice bowls served with a salsa/salad of diced red bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Wraps were on the menu for night three. I know it looks suspiciously like the dinner from the previous night, but this time, I zipped up the salsa with fresh garlic, grated ginger, and snipped chives, then added a splash of soy sauce. A few little tweaks, and dinner got a new personality. We even had three wraps leftover for lunch. Not bad for a dinner that was looking like a rerun!

Our last dinner, on day four, was chicken enchilada soup made with a quart of frozen chicken stock, the last of the diced chicken, a can of red enchilada sauce, taco seasoning to taste, and a can each of corn and black beans. I topped each serving with crushed tortilla chips, grated cheese, and diced tomato and avocado. This is one of our favorite no-effort soups!

And that’s how I made four dinners plus several lunches out of one Costco chicken. Not bad for $5!

I hope you enjoyed today's post and found it helpful and entertaining—I’d love to see you back again! I publish about once a week and would be honored if you subscribed to the Knitionary blog. Just click here to join, and new posts will be delivered straight to your inbox.

Subscribe for Weekly Posts

I promise never to sell your email address (I wouldn’t know how to do that even if I wanted to). While most posts are about knitting, I also share my love of gardening, crafting, and entertaining. From time to time, I use affiliate links to help offset the cost of running the blog. If you make a purchase through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you and I appreciate your support of my work.

Comments are always welcome—just scroll down to leave one. I reply to every comment right below yours. If you’d rather reach me privately, you can use the contact form on the right near the bottom of the site. 

Hello, friends! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been on the blog. A bout of illness—and all the busy-ness that comes after being down for a week—is the reason. But I’m very happy to be back, and I even have two sweaters to share: one for this week and another for next week.

It looks like I have a new Christmas tradition! For the last five years, I’ve been knitting one (and some years, two) sweaters in the fall to start wearing the day after Thanksgiving.  This year, I chose The Folk Art Sweater, with gorgeous Swedish Dala Horses marching across the yoke.

Have you decorated for fall yet? Or maybe the better question is, do you decorate for fall? My hand is definitely up for yes, although I like to keep it pretty simple. If I put everything out in mid-September, it has to stay around for two and a half months, and that's a long time to look at the same things! So for me, fall decorating needs to be minimal, but still pretty enough to make the house feel like fall has arrived.

This week I've been easing into the season in other ways, too. I cut some hydrangeas to dry, cleaned and organized the freezer—and then went to Costco and messed it all up again. Such is life.