Crew Hats

With the holidays here I'm working on a lot of smallish projects: mittens, hats, cowls, etc. They're my standard instant-gratification knits, even given my usually severe case of second-mitten syndrome.

Pretty chipper for 6:00 am!

Last week, between two pairs of mittens, I whipped out some hats for Anna. Anna rows every afternoon and Saturdays starting at, really, the crack of dawn (good thing John likes the early morning because I'm just starting my coffee infusion when it's time to drive down the hill), and it gets pretty cold on the bay (at least until she starts really going, and then it's hot). These crew hats are super easy basic beanies knit in thick user-friendly yarn. In fact, the checkered one landed in the bay on its first outing and lived to tell the tale. I used Encore Chunky for both hats in black and a light yellow - not my favorite yarn, but these hats are probably destined to meet a bad end.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's Anna taking a pecan pie over to our next-door neighbors...I wish we could share with you, too! Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Care Package Knits

Just a quick post today - I mailed a care package off to Fiona this last week containing the multicolored scarf I finished last week, a brown cabbage rose scarf based on this design (and modified to be a little asymmetrical in the points) and a Noro striped scarf based on this. I think she's keeping the sideways striped one so the other one's for her Thanksgiving host, and the cabbage rose scarf is for her roommate.



I had to have cataract surgery this week (!!! Get your eyes checked! I'm not that old!) so I've been taking it easy and getting used to my new bionic eye. I'm still adapting to reading and looking at my computer screen and focusing properly, but knitting and TV are definitely doable so I'm entertained. And I can drive, so hurray for that. I'm more than halfway through a pair of mittens I started yesterday, so stay tuned for more knitting before our thoughts turn to Turkey Day cooking!

Tastes of Fall

Sweet potato biscuits. Need I say more? I need not. But I will: the cake recipe in that link is equally fantastic. And in fact, so far, every Dorie Greenspan recipe I've tried has been amazing. Some day I'll join the Tuesdays with Dorie movement, but for now, I'm just a happy visitor in her land of baked superbity.

A Multicolored Scarf

Last night I bound off a scarf made entirely of leftover scraps of worsted yarn. It's from this formula, which works for any kind of leftovers in any weight - pretty cool.



For mine, I cast on 240 sts of some nice charcoaly Noro Kureyon and then switched colors and yarns (mostly different remnants of Kureyon and Malabrigo worsted - the bright blue is some extremely wonderful Malabrigo silky merino) whenever I felt like it...I kept the ends all on one side and then worked them into the fringe so I wouldn't have to weave them in - let's hear it for not weaving in! I just made a half hitch to keep them in place and the added fringe anchors them well.



The pattern creates a pretty firm fabric, so I was a little afraid it would be sort of misshapen or scrunchy when it was done, but a nice bath in Eucalan relaxed the heck out of it and the finished dimensions are 7' without the fringe and about 6" wide. I considered pinning it out and hitting it with a little steam to make it a bit wider, but decided against it - I like it this way! Off it goes to Vermont, as a thank-you gift to the nice person who invited Fiona home for Thanksgiving!

Tarte

I had to go to the doctor today for my annual check-up, where I was made to step on a physician's scale. Fully clothed. With tennis shoes on. Those Nikes, they say they're light but I'm pretty sure they're a full five pounds.


I then came home and baked a pear tarte tatin, so I can have fruit for dessert like the French women do.

November in Paradise, 2008 Edition

Last year, I posted about November in Paradise, aka Windanseaville. This year we had a perfect Halloween weekend: warm on Friday into the evening, sunny on Saturday, and a little rain on Sunday just to make it cozy.



Mary was Cleopatra, as you can see. She's surely in denial about something. Probably homework. Anna was the grim reaper, but she was out the door so quickly in the morning that I couldn't even get my iphone out fast enough for a photo.

Saturday was lazy (at least, it was for me - Anna had rowing so she and John were up and down at the Bay by 6:00). We had lunch by the pool down at the beach...you can see the aftermath of the Halloween festivities and glut of candy here:



So Mary swam the afternoon away, and then Sunday I knitted and watched reruns of House. I hope to have some FOs pretty soon for your viewing pleasure.