Cooking & Knitting

 To make up for two nights of parent-teacher conferences, I have the day off, so I am alternating between cooking and knitting. 

I'm doing a socially distant potluck with friends. We are each going to make a couple dishes and package them up for the six participating households. Then we'll meet at the Arboretum, exchange food, take a walk, and regather later via Zoom to eat. I think it will be fun. 

I started a pair of mittens for my daughter, but the cuff turned out horribly large. I should have read the Ravelry comments first because there are some issues with the pattern. Besides, I don't enjoy doing corrugated rib. I'm very slow at it.

So I frogged the mitten and chose a simple slip-stitch pattern. Now I'm flying along.

This very warm and squishy, so I think it'll work.

As always, Kola keeps us smiling. Apparently she wants to quilt:

Wishing you all the happiest and safest of Thanksgivings!

And Yet Life Goes On

I am still reeling from the mass shooting at my former workplace, the Capital Gazette in Annapolis. Last night, I dreamed about a shooting happening at my school.

How did I manage to choose two professions that are low paid and attract mass murderers? Don't take career advice from me!

But life does indeed go on, and that is a good thing. It is 96 degrees here, with a heat index of 117! We actually ran our stand-alone air conditioner for a while. It works, but it is incredibly noisy!

I can walk in the mornings, but it's good weather for sitting under a fan and knitting. I pulled out these mother-daughter mittens that I started in 2007!

And I finished them! 

The pattern is from the book Kristin Knits by Kristin Nicholas. The yarn is her Julia yarn, which hasn't been made for years. That is a shame because it is a beautiful yarn and a pleasure to work with.

The lesson I have learned from this project is to never embroider mittens. It is really, really hard to start and end threads in a narrow tube shape!

Now they go into the gift box until an appopriate mother-daughter pair needs a gift.

Still Chugging Along

I'm mostly working on the same projects I was last week. I finished the hand of my first-ever mitten design:
As you can see, the top is way too pointy so I'll need to rip that back. I've done this type of thumb before, so I'm almost ready to knit the first "real" model. I'm excited about that.

Monday night was the Madison Knitting Guild, and the president announced that we are up to 637 members. Pretty amazing, huh? Yes, I realize how lucky I am! The speaker is a national Knitting Guild master knitter, and she talked about the process. It involves knitting a lot of swatches and a few garments. Her Aran-style sweater is amazing:

The process sounds interesting and worthwhile. I don't see myself doing it because there is much that I want to knit that I think I'd get frustrated spending my knitting time on swatches.

I'm trying to get through Outline, and I am about to admit defeat. The writing is beautiful and the level of detail is impressive, but the story is totally lost -- to me, at least. 

I'm joining up with Ginny today for Small Things.

Designing Woman

I've been back to school for two days, and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. So much paperwork! At least I know I'm know alone. NPR ran a story late last year about how special ed teachers all over the country are buried in paperwork -- and leaving the field at an alarming rate.

Nonetheless, knitting goes on! I've become quite enamored of knitting mittens -- so much so that I decided I had to try my hand at designing some. It's not that there aren't gorgeous patterns out there, but I wanted to create a design that had all my favorite elements.

This is as far as I've gotten. If you look closely, you'll notice some errors. That's OK, this is an experiment. I'm using Briggs and Little Regal, which is perfect for mittens. It's rustic, but I like the way it feels on my hands.

I'm reading Outline, a novel by Rachel Cusk. It turned up on a good number of the best-books-of-2015 lists. I've just started it, but I can say already that the writing is gorgeous. The structure is somewhat experimental and I'm interested in seeing if it works. You learn about the narrator by reading a serious of conversations she has with others.

 

I'll be joining up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Still Isn't Looking Like Christmas

The plan, back in September, was to go cross country skiing over winter break. Alas, neither weather not climate was on our side. Instead some friends and I went hiking at the Horicon Marsh.

Pretty, yes, but not as pretty as snow-covered pines!

But at least it was cold enough for me to wear my Meta Mittens!

And I stand corrected by Judy: This is NOT a free pattern. Nope, I paid for it. And it was totally worth it!

She Said Sheepishly

I should be using all my knitting time to work on gifts, but I just can't resist a little selfish (and sheepish!) knitting:

This is the first of my Meta Mittens, a free pattern by  Elizabeth Wolden. Isn't that sheep just adorable? It's a pretty easy Fair Isle pattern, and so far I haven't had any problems. I'm using Regal yarn by Briggs & Little. It's a rustic yarn, not terribly soft, but I used it on my Spruce Tree Mittens and I really like the feel of it on my hands.

I don't have a picture of it, but I'm reading American Innovations, a short story collection by Rivka Galchen. I loved the first story. It's is compulsively readable, draws you into the head of a woman who isn't completely stable, and has a twist at the end. I hope the rest of the stories are as good.

I'm joining up with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Here's Where It Gets Hard

I have made enough progress on my Spruce Tree Norwegian Mittens that it's time to employ EZ's "mitten trick." I am nervous about this. I thought about using the thumb gusset method that I'm comfortable with, but I couldn't figure out how to mesh that with the pattern. So here I am:

I'm determined to do it today, before my first full week of work.

Am I the only one who finds thumbs challenging? The hardest part for me is the very last piece, where you pick up stitches in one form or another to knit the thumb. I am especially nervous about doing it on this new type (to me) of thumb.

Speaking of the end of summer vacation, The New York Times had an interesting column about vacations last week. Studies find that people get the most pleasure out of planning a trip, but that trips that have jam-packed itineraries do not give people happiness.

The shoreline at Ephraim, Wis., in Door County.

However, people do feel happy after slow-paced, relaxing trips. I have to say that I do not like feeling rushed ever, especially on vacation! No wonder Keith and I love our trips to Door County, where we just do what we feel like doing.

You can read the whole column here.

I hope you have have whatever kind of weekend you like best!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well, it's the very last day of winter break. It's cold and snowy here, which is just fine with me. I was hoping to have a pajama day and just laze around.

It's been a good break, especially since my daughter was home for all of it. I've also enjoyed spending time with friends. I even worked for a few hours yesterday! That will make my week start out a little smoother.

During the school year, I can get pretty casual about cooking. But in Rachel's honor, I did quite a bit of cooking over the last couple of weeks. I made one of my all-time favorites from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Baked Squash Galette with Carmelized Onions.  You can't possibly go wrong with butternut squash, Vidalia onions, and Fontina cheese:

My knitting has been random. I've been hopping from one project to another. My first-ever charity knitting is going well:

These are mittens for children ages 6 to 8, which I will be mailing to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, one of the poorest areas in the country. There is a Ravelry group here.  The pattern is my variation on the Ann Budd mitten pattern. I need to get it written up before I forget it, so I'll post it eventually.

I hope you have a relaxing Sunday and are ready for Monday, whether that means work or not.

FO Friday: Mittens

I finished these Meeting St. Mittens in record time: two weeks!

I used Berroco Sox yarn. I had read on Ravelry that this yarn is a bit thin for a sock yarn, and I would agree with that assessment, but it worked out fine for this pattern I made one major adjustment: It looked like the mittens might be too long for me, so I cast off with 24 stitches left and joined them with the kitchner stitch. I think they look better without such a pointy top.

There is something so addictive about this pattern. I have already started the next pair -- using a different yarn with different colors.

Sometimes It Just Works

I am so happy with the way this mitten is turning out:

Self-striping yarn can create amazing and surprising things. These two skeins of Berroco sock yarn look like they would clash, but I am loving the way the colors are working together. I should add that at one point I had to cut one of the strands because they both were the same shade of green, so I would have lost the pattern to an awkward green patch.

The pattern is Meeting St. Mittens from a Berroco booklet titled, "Sock Star." I don't really like any of the other patterns, but it was worth to price for this pattern along. I suspect I'll be making more pairs.

I'm still a bit under the weather, but after missing all the fun last weekend, I'm enjoying this one if it kills me! Went to a party at a friend's house last night, and tonight I'll be eating dinner in another friend's Sukkah. My friend Lisa has some photos in a show, and I'm going to the opening reception on Sunday.

I hope you are having some fun this weekend!

WIP: Any Minute Now

This is what I'm doing tonight:

I've eyed this pattern booklet for months, and it went on sale the other day. I figure that was fate talking to me.  I love patterns that combine random-seeming yarns. And I love mittens.

I am hoping to improve my fair-isle knitting skills. Even though I have done a pair of salt-n-pepper mittens, I'm still very slow and awkward.

We'll have to see how that goes.

Suddenly It's Winter

Less than a week ago, it was sweater weather. Then the overnight temperatures plunged to 7 degrees (-14 degrees celsius) this past weekend and this morning we woke up to snow. Fortunately, I love cold crisp days, especially when the sky is blue, as it was today.

I also love getting to wear my hand-knits. I pulled out these mittens over the weekend:

They are from Robin Hansen's book, Favorite Mittens. They are actually quite homely, at least as I knit them, but they are so warm. They taught me why Fair Isle is more than decorative.