Posted in Crochet

Creative Catch Up

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Against my better judgment, I started a 2025 Temperature blanket. I decided to do monthly granny squares instead of daily. Each month is one huge granny square and at the end of the year, I will join them all together to create one blanket. I have to say, I’m not as vested in this project as I hoped to be. I started it because “everyone was doing it” and I wanted to be counted among them. However, I made two major mistakes and have lost passion for it.

The first mistake is my color scheme. I loved the colors scheme I choose (color chart #3 found here on Kylee’s website) but I foolishly inverted them from their original order.  So my warmer months are actually much darker colors than the cooler months. I also decided to use the average daily temperature instead of a high or low temperature. This has resulted in much fewer color changes so it’s not nearly as colorful as I hoped. I’m still going to finish it but it’s not a project I have any passion for.

These are the winter colors for my 2025 Temperature Blanket

I also bought a pattern from Mel’s Homemade Craft called The 9 Square Granny Throw. Using Lion Brand yarn and the colors suggested in the pattern, this blanket worked up and was completed in a very short amount of time. As in under two weeks! That’s a first for me but I love how thick and squishy it is and I love the colors!

After that, I knew I needed to pick a WIP and complete it. Last year, after falling in love with Caron’s Simply Soft yarn, I bought a bunch in blues and silvers and began creating a rectangular granny square blanket. This was one big square instead of several small ones joined. My older daughter’s boyfriend has a mother who is very thoughtful. Each year, she helps him pick our cards and gifts for me for my birthday, Christmas and Mother’s Day. Shelby wanted to honor that with something homemade and after I found out her favorite color is blue, I designed this blanket.

Then it got put on the top shelf in favor of other projects. So once my 9 Square Granny was complete, I pulled this out and decided to get moving. I played with the colors going in and out instead of repeating and completed it with a simple single crochet border once around. Shelby shipped it and the feedback has been very lovely!

Since then, I’ve made a handful of dishcloths for Emilie at her request. I have a TON of cotton yarn that needs to get used up. I love making small projects like dishcloths and the like but for some reason, working with cotton yarn is not my favorite. It makes my hands tired. I also started a simple double crochet throw with this beautiful Red Heart Bitty Stripes yarn in Mermaid.

Still wanting to document the temperatures for 2025, I bought an embroidery pattern of a tree. Each leaf represents one day of the year. It’s a much smaller project and one I can catch up on easily. I also already had a whole bunch of thread gifted to me two Christmases ago that haven’t been touched so now I’m able to use some of that for this project.

In addition, I did a yarn re-organization which you can read about here.

So, I have been creating and it’s been so great! I have a ton of ideas including a yarn/fabric book for Sophia and tummy time blanket for her (and those who will come after her).

Happy creating!

Posted in Moments and Musings

Vikki’s Beef Stew

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

I am not a writer of recipes. I rarely create anything new. That’s because I’m a process-driven person and prefer to always have a process, or in the case of cooking, a recipe to follow. I didn’t grow up with women who were great cooks either who could teach me. My aunt and mom cooked to feed their family in the best way they could afford. Both grew up in the ‘meat and potatoes’ era where food choices weren’t abundant.

When I got married, I wasn’t really allowed a budget that allow me to do anything much beyond Hamburger Helper, tuna casserole and the occasional shredded beef. Sometimes, the beef would work out and sometimes it wouldn’t. I never researched why.

When I got divorced, my girls and I moved in with my mom who still hadn’t really refined her cooking skills. She did her best though with a picky meat eater for a daughter and the ever changing tastes of two young children. She tried different recipes. She adapted when my older daughter wanted to be a vegetarian. She got creative when my younger daughter would only eat her vegetables smothered in gravy. Most of all, she fought to put to memory who liked what and how they liked it cooked. We weren’t easy on her at all but we were always very grateful for the food she put on our table each night.

The one appliance I introduced to my mom was the wonder of the crockpot. Pretty much, anything I put in my crockpot is magic. Chicken with Italian dressing, chicken with my mom’s pasta sauce, applesauce….it always was a hit.

Except for beef. That still was a hit or miss and neither Mom nor myself could figure out why. Then one night, I was watching Ralph Fiennes’ version of Wuthering Heights. There’s a scene were he’s eating stew of some sort and the gravy was super thick on his fingers and on the bread and my mouth just watered.

Up until this time, we’d been making beef stew with a broth and I couldn’t figure out how to obtain that rich, thick beef gravy-like consistency. It was nothing short of beef soup. No one told me about cornstarch. So off to the store I went in search of the perfect beef stew ingredients. I bought our usual beef cubes, baby carrots and potatoes, an onion and some minced garlic. Only this time, instead of getting beef broth, I bought a jar of beef gravy.

We got home, put it all in the crockpot but my Mom was still concerned about the seasoning. We went on a treasure hunt throughout our kitchen for that perfect beef stew flavor. We found it in the form of soy sauce. I looked at Mom and she shrugged her shoulders.

“Why not?” she said, and proceeded to give our stew a good five to six shakes. We put the lid on the crockpot, turned it on and waited 8 hours.

It was THE BEST beef stew ever! The meat was tender, the veggies were soft but not mushy. And the gravy was divine!! Of course, I’d had successes before so I wasn’t sure if this was a fluke or not. A few weeks later, we made beef stew for the family. Again, she gave it 5-6 hard shakes with the soy sauce and magic again!

So, I’m no recipe writer. I don’t know anything about food except that I like to eat it. But here’s my easy version of beef stew as enjoyed by my family. I hope you like it.

Vikki’s Beef Stew

  • lean beef stew meat, 2 lbs
  • frozen pearl onions, 12 oz pkg
  • minced garlic, 2-3 teaspoons (we like garlic in our family)
  • baby peeled carrots, 1lb
  • red or yellow baby potatoes, 1.5lb bag
  • 1 jar of Heinz beef gravy, 18 oz
  • soy sauce (for best results, don’t use the low sodium), 5-6 shakes

This is super easy. No chopping of vegetables is necessary. Simply dump this all into a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with a crusty bread and a side salad for added veggies, if you’d like. You can also add more vegetables to the stew, if you’d like. I like the simplicity of this so I choose not to.

Unfortunately, I’m not able to provide measurements, calories, etc….this feeds my family of 4 adults usually with a little leftover for a lunch or two. This also freezes very well.

Posted in Crochet

The Great Yarn Reorganization of 2025

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

I’ve never bought yarn without a purpose in mind. My creative flow is get an idea (or buy a pattern), buy the yarn and complete the project. Every skein had a purpose.

Then Joann Fabrics announced it was closing its doors.

Like so many, I was devastated. If I’m being honest, I didn’t go into the stores that often. When we lived up in Grayslake, my girls and I would go to the location in the area. But since moving to Orland Park, I only went into the store here once and it was so dirty, I left really upset. But I did shop a lot online! Boxes upon boxes, each for a specific purpose, were delivered.

It was my daughter, a baker and creative person herself, who told me she’d visited the store by her home and the deals were unreal. Still, I decided not to as I had patterns waiting to be worked up and didn’t think I could house anymore.

I was wrong. She convinced me to go and “just buy the yarn. Buy all the yarn.” So I did. I filled two shopping carts and collectively came home with more than 10 bags full of yarn. No patterns. No Pinterest ideas. No Instagram ideas. Just me, my own creativity and my pocketbook (which did sputter on each trip).

All this yarn was so beautiful! So many ideas! But I needed a place to put them all. I already had laundry baskets, two bins under my bed and 4 bins in the storage room full of yarn. I also had all this.

Add the Joann hauls and you get something close to this….(and that wasn’t even all of it)

So, I spoke with others who live with me about this situation and came up with a solution. We have a loft. While it’s furnished, there was a whole wall that was empty. We filled that empty space first with shelves I bought from Walmart. They’re the Furinno Turn-N-Tube shelves. I love these shelves. They’re a quality product at a decent price and they were perfect for what we needed.

So first we filled the space with shelves. Then we filled the shelves with yarn. All my yarn and all in one space. I couldn’t be more happy with the end result! And having it all organized helps my creativity even more. I can see all my colors at the same time, choose what I want for what project and plan, plan, plan for the rest. I also loved how cozy it made our loft.

The moral to the story is when in doubt, just buy the yarn!

Posted in Moments and Musings

The Five Unexpected Gifts of Becoming ‘Grandma’

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

A few weeks ago, I announced the birth of my new granddaughter, Sophia. What a little bean she is! We’re completely in love with her, as you can imagine.

Becoming a grandmother—it’s still strange to even say it—has been both beautiful and unexpected. I never had a clear picture of what I thought it would feel like. We go from season to season in life, and while I knew this one was coming, I didn’t expect it to arrive wrapped in so many unanticipated emotions and thoughts.

I know it’s normal. Change is as inevitable as the sun rising and setting. I’ve raised two daughters; I’m a mother—and I still don’t entirely know what that means, even though they’re grown. Sometimes I still feel like a kid myself, even in this 56-year-old body with all its menopause weirdness.

But being a grandmother? That’s something different. I always imagined it as a place of honor in my daughter’s life, yet that’s not exactly how it feels. I’m not sure what I expected, but what I’ve experienced has been beautifully strange. So here are my top five “unexpectedlys.”

Unexpectedly Different

Growing up, the word grandmother was spoken in one of two tones: a quiet, reverent one for the matriarch who ruled my aunt’s house from the kitchen table with her Solitaire cards and Jeopardy, or a whimsical one for the Italian woman upstairs who yelled at my dad and bought our affection with candy from her underwear drawer.

I feel neither regal nor whimsical. I feel pure, unfiltered joy. That’s it. And it surprises me every time.

Unexpectedly Wealthy

Financially wealthy? Absolutely not. 😄
But suddenly I feel this deep desire to help—to ease the burden of the endless list of baby expenses. No one prepares you for that part, and my daughter and son-in-law are in the “shock and awe” phase even though they prepared well.

I find myself tossing diapers and formula into my cart and then reminding myself (more than once) that my son-in-law is a fantastic provider and my daughter is wise and frugal… which means I can put the diapers back, slowly back away from the formula, and return that money to my retirement fund. 😄

Unexpectedly Energetic

I am a proud couch-dwelling homebody. My life, my job, my cozy hobbies—crochet, embroidery, reading—they all happen from the comfort of my favorite spot.

I’m healthy, but as my older daughter insists, I am fluffy, not fat. And yes, I could stand to lose more than a few pounds. When I first learned Sophia was coming, I got motivated… then unmotivated… then re-motivated… and then my birthday happened, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas. You know how it goes.

But now she’s here. I’ve held her. I’ve seen her tiny face. And suddenly living a healthier life doesn’t feel optional—it feels necessary. For me, yes, but also for her. I want to be the grandma who rides bikes, plays on the floor, takes long walks, goes exploring. I can’t do those things for long stretches right now, but Sophia has become the best unexpected motivator I could have ever asked for.

Unexpectedly Prayerful

There’s so much facing kids today. Even more facing parents trying to raise a godly child. Social media can be brutal—post one picture of your baby and complete strangers feel entitled to tear you apart. And women… we can be the worst to each other. “Women empowering women” is sometimes more slogan than truth.

As my daughter grew up, she lived out her faith boldly, especially in high school, and she paid a lonely price for it. But she never wavered. And God blessed her with a husband who won’t waver either. Together, they’ll be a strong, steady, Christ-centered force in Sophia’s life.

My role is to pray for them—and it is both my job and my privilege. They will need it.

Unexpectedly Hopeful

I feel a kind of hope I’ve never felt before. I’ve visited Sophia twice, and each time I take a thousand pictures. My daughter sends me pictures constantly, and I look at them several times a day.

I think about who Sophia will be. What she’ll love. What I’ll get to teach her. What she might teach me.
I hope she likes me.
I hope I’m enough.
I hope I can pass down the wisdom my own sweet mother gave me.
I hope that even though I live three hours away, she always feels me near.

I hope, I hope, I hope.

Pam Brown once wrote, “Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you’re just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric.” It’s true! I hold a kind of wisdom my daughter doesn’t have, simply because of the era I lived through. I remember phones attached to the wall, VCRs costing $700, VHS tapes over $100. (I saved $80 for my first Duran Duran video—an eternity of babysitting money.) I remember libraries before the internet.

A whole age of technology unfolded while I grew up. I’ll be able to tell Sophia all about it. And then I’ll teach her the simple things too—the joy of a blooming flower, the beauty in a piece of classical music, the deep appreciation for everything God gives us to enjoy.

This feels like the best season of my life—one I’ve been preparing for without even knowing it.And now it’s here.
And it’s wonderful.

Posted in Moments and Musings

February 2025

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

When I started out with this idea of posting a monthly life update, I didn’t mean to be so inconsistent. However, here I am, almost four months later, and just now finding time to write again.

I’m not going to try to backtrack too much. My family enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving and a quiet, comfortable Christmas. 2024 ended with a bang as I was involved in my first car wreck since my early twenties. I spent most of January dealing with the fall out of that.

God is so very faithful! Even when we are not. I still feel so undeserving of his total provision and yet, this car accident is proof of that very thing. Provision! I spoke it out immediately. I believed it immediately. God has surpassed by expectations.

And He’s not done yet! There is still more to come!!

At the beginning of February, I held a baby shower for my baby girl and her husband. My home filled to overflowing with so many folks who came out to celebrate. Of course, my anxiety and perfectionism kicked in causing me several panicky moments. (Oh, when will I ever learn!) My sister and niece came up from Tennessee and it was such a blessing to have them here! I love it when we can be together!

Emilie and Ben were blessed multiple times over with so many gifts. My sister, who has organized corporate parties, helped me with the food. My stepmom brought a lovely fruit tray, and we had perfect weather. What a wonderful day for them!

We finally got some winter weather in the form of about 4 inches of snow and a couple ice “events”. I love snow but I love it most on the weekends when I don’t have to go out anywhere. As a Midwest girl, born and raised, I know how to drive in the snow and I’m not afraid. However, I don’t like others who drive in any bad weather like they’re in a hurry to meet Jesus. It doesn’t help that I’m also still suffering from some residual trauma from my accident so driving has its challenging moments on dry pavement, let alone in slippery conditions.  

I purchased a new car – I had to, really, as my other car was totaled. But I’m loving my new car, and I plan to pay her off and drive her until bits and pieces are falling out behind me. She’s a 2022 Hyundai Sonata and she’s a comfort car! Definitely one of the most luxurious cars I’ve ever owned so I’m very happy with her. Again, God’s perfect provision!

On a financial note, I’ve waged war against my debt. I don’t have a lot of it but what I do have, I’ve decided to put as much as I can towards getting it paid off. I’ve been using Dave Ramsey’s snowball method and already have paid off 2 credit cards! I have one more to go and then a small personal loan (I know, it’s a complete no-no!). Money has been on my mind lately as I’ve put some big goals into place. While praying about it, I felt God challenge me to go big in my giving and go even bigger in my faith.

So, God told me to ask BIG. And I did. I’m 56 years old. I want to retire when I’m supposed to and when I do, I want the house that I just bought last year to be completely paid off. I want to own nothing to no one. No house mortgage. No car payment. I want to be completely debt free by the time I retire.

Creatively, I struggled just a wee bit. I have way too many incomplete projects and more ideas and plans than I can shake a stick at. I also have a deficit of knowledge where some much-needed technology is concerned (like Procreate and learning to read crochet patterns). I allowed it to all bash me about mentally and put me in a bit of a funk. So, I took a weekend off from crafting, put my phone down (no Pinterest) and did some reading. I haven’t spent a weekend with a book in a really long time. It felt really good to get back into the old groove and even better not having a crochet needle in my hand, if only for a little while.

I read The Crow Trap, which is the first of the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves. It’s a long read as Ann doesn’t rush when introducing her characters. In fact, the character of Vera Stanhope isn’t fully realized until you’re almost halfway through the book. It was very good and, after finishing that, quickly picked up the next one in the series called Telling Tales. Again, it didn’t take me long to get through it. All in all, I was pleased to have my reading mojo back.

I can’t tell what helped me creatively more, reading or not spinning through Pinterest. I think I might give myself a social media break for lent and just refocus a bit. More God. More Word. More ideas. More finishing what I started. That’s a big goal for me for 2025. I don’t mind having a few projects going at once, but I have many more than that at the moment and it’s starting to grate against my anxiety. Too many tabs are open and I need to close a few.

After another long really cold snap, we’re finally warming up. It’s giving me Spring vibes in a huge way. This is the time of year when I count down to when the clocks turn back, and I wait for the snow to melt, revealing an ugly brown carpet of mud and dead grass. Spring is an ugly time of year as far as I’m concerned. However, I’m ready to put away the heavy coats, scarves, hats and gloves in favor of rain jackets, umbrellas and Wellingtons. It’s time to come out of hibernation, get out in the sunshine and take some walks. Already, I’ve noticed new blooms on the trees and increased birdsong. I can’t wait to sit outside and soak it all up.

February ended on a super high note! And you can read all about it here! I’m absolutely in love! God is so very good. And this next season of my life is about to be the best yet!

Photo courtesy of Glen Carrie via Unsplash.com