I'm starting to feel human again. FINALLY. but, sitting on one's butt for 3 days does help get alot of holiday knitting done. I made some wristwarmers for a friend, which I failed to get a picture of before I sent them off. I made the London Beanie shown above, for my 18 year old nephew, but I love it and think I now need to knit one for myself. I used the 100% alpaca from knitpicks, I think it is called andean treasure? anyway, I love that stuff, it is so soft. I used mostly charcoal grey with just scrappy bits of other colors for the stripes.


I made another one for my 7 year old nephew, and also a pair of fingerless gloves. They are orange and blue, because that is what he asked for, and acrylic, because he loves mud!!!

In food news: Winter must officially be here. We have moved to the days of soup.

I love soup. I will happily make a big pot of soup and eat it for 4 or 5 days. Call me simple!

Minestrone, vegetable, tomato, roasted veggie, bean - so many choices! And with a few staples, and a crock pot, I can cook oodles of soup from what is in my freezer and pantry.

Today's soup:

- 1 bag roasted tomatoes, pulled from freezer.
- a couple of carrots from our csa - chopped
- an onion, chopped.
- many heads of garlic (we're sick, still - garlic is good for sick folks), chopped
- veggie broth, made from the peels/ends/innards of all the veggies I froze or used over the summer
- a big handful organic white beans from my local food coop
- sea salt, fresh black pepper, couple of bay leaves, loads of dried oregano, basil and sage from my garden

let simmer in crock pot until beans are soft. Yum.

I am so sick. I am currently drinking a cup of Irish Whiskey Tea (recipe here), so I will be asleep shortly. I hate sinus infections. hate, hate, hate them.

Until the tea works it's magic, I'll just do a bit of blogging.

The only good thing about being sick is that I get to 1) watch lots of movies, and 2)knit alot. Both are good things. Just lots more enjoyable when you DON'T feel like your head is going to explode.

Anyway, I finished my one row handspun scarf, knit from this amazing yarn. I LOVE THIS YARN. It is so soft and wonderful!!!


Also finished yet an other Manly Hat - this one for my brother. It's made from 2 strands of Knitpicks "elegance" yarn, in Coal, held together. The yarn is lovely - a silk, alpaca blend. It should be super-warm. I hope my brother likes it!

In other news: A few weeks ago, we bought the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day" book, and have been experimenting with their basic bread recipe - just trying to get the perfect white bread. I think we finally did it! Last night's loaf was darn near perfect. I must say, I LOVE this technique. You make a wet dough, and store it in a bucket in the fridge. Then, when you want a loaf of bread, you simply whack off a chunk of dough, let it rise a bit while the oven pre-heats, then toss the bread in. You have hot fresh homemade yeast bread in under an hour. PERFECT. I want to eat really good, local, homemade food - but not spend hours and hours doing it. Now I want to start experimenting with adding more whole grains to the recipe.

My friend Jill showed me this site, with extra ideas for using this book- I will be checking it out for inspiration! The author of that book has a wonderful baking blog too, which I also enjoy checking out.

Beautiful mohair locks are now up for sale in my etsy store!!!

Also - all you fantastically crafty herby folks, check out my friend tina's blog. She is doing a WONDERFUL series, where she puts one or two holiday crafts up each day. If you like making your own gifts, she's got some truly fantastic ideas there. enjoy!