Saturday, December 13, 2008


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.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008


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.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

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!