Zwei

That's "zwei" as in two Sideways: after the original one was hijacked by a passionate admirer, I had to make a second hat for myself to keep.

The Hubs took the photo as we were walking to our favorite bakery Sunday morning, Clear Flour Bakery in Brookline.

The visit inspired me to bake ginger scones, and since our grocery store was out of candied ginger I used chocolate covered ginger pieces instead. The result: heavenly (even if a tad too brown).

I'm about to finish the EPS sweater! Stay tuned....

New York, New York

Today I was asked several times what I have planned for New Year's Eve. Nothing, I replied truthfully each time. Our Christmas vacation in New York City was so fantastic we forgot all about New Year's Eve.

Indeed, we had the most splendid time in the city. The Hubs has family just outside and we visit regularly, but to actually spend entire nights in NYC: a rare and awesome opportunity! (Back in the pre-Hubs days I used to go to the city and crash on various Columbia U grad student floors that I'd share with furry creatures and the occasional cockroach, but as marriage has made me a respectable woman my travel arrangements have become somewhat less adventurous but much more luxurious.) We were ecstatic to receive our friend's invitation to take over her apartment while she was traveling abroad, and to make the most of our time we spent several nights walking until the wee hours through the magical wonderland that is New York at Christmas time.

We ditched our high-brow museum plans on the 23rd and 24th and hiked around Central Park instead. The 23rd was bitterly cold, but stomping around the snow-covered park in brilliant sunlight was well worse a half-frozen nose (and half-frozen ears: can you believe I went to NYC without a hat?! Knitter's pride forbade to purchase one, but luckily my down coat has a hood). Christmas Eve we stood in line for an hour to make it to the St. Thomas Episcopal midnight mass; we were just two of the 1800+ people attending. I don't think we made it back to our digs before 3 am (I vaguely remember getting a ten-dollar hotdog at Rockefeller Plaza and a plastic cup of Sake, sold under the table by a crêpe baker: that was our Christmas Eve meal).

Christmas Day we spent with the Hubs' relatives: apart from terrific company we enjoyed a culinary feast that included pâté de campagne and foie gras, homemade in Southern France and shipped to the US by a cousin so many times removed from the Hubs that we don't even know her (?) name; a bûche de Noël made by the hostess, the French-born Mme B.; and more than one bottle of champagne. (And a tray of selected cheeses, Cornish game hens in orange reduction, Vermont ham, roasted vegetables, a very fancy mac & cheese for the youngsters... you get the idea.) Two days of gluttony with the family and then we returned to the city.

Rather than going to any Broadway or Off Broadway or even Off Off Broadway productions we watched three movies, two of which receive my thumbs up: Up in the Air is a deliciously entertaining movie; A Single Man is impossibly gorgeous and heart-breaking. The third film we watched is, in the words of one woman who left the theater 20 minutes into the film, more of a father's day than a holiday movie: The Road is not only depressing (which by itself would be quite alright) but the bloody scariest movie I've ever had to suffer through. There was a point where I, too, thought about leaving. Great movie, don't get me wrong, but absolutely terrifying.

Oh, and I knit a little here and there. Mainly on the bus to and from New York and in between episodes of overeating. I'm working on a plain, seamless round-and-round-and-round-we-go sweater for myself, following EZ's percentage system so that I finally learn something about sweater architecture.

The watch cap I made for the Hubs? My FIL saw it here and sent me the following email on Christmas: "Wow! Beautiful watch cap. Make mine a deep navy blue!" Since then I received orders for two more watch caps and a pair of the Fiddlehead mittens. That's on top of the scarf for the Hubs and a secret Christmas project that didn't get done in time (ouch). I should probably put my EZ sweater aside; then again, it's twelve months till next year Christmas... :)

Now I need to figure out what we're doing tomorrow night.. I don't want a repeat of two years ago, when we went to sleep at 10 pm. (Granted, we had just driven a ten ton moving truck from upstate New York to Boston, through a blizzard, mind you, and were somewhat exhausted.) What are you doing on New Year's Eve??

She Liked...

So, by the time I handed my friend the cowl, I had made up my mind to give her the Sideways Grande Cloche as well. 'Cause, when someone ecstatically screams at the sight of you, and it's neither your lovely smile nor general happiness to see you but the hat you're wearing that causes this crazy-happy behavior, and when, in addition, it only took you a couple of evenings to make said hat and you have plenty more yarn for a second one, well, then you gladly hand over the hat and make plans to knit another. Which is why my friend left the restaurant wearing cowl and hat:

I had a really great time last night. We (=the friend, Hubs & moi, and another couple [who don't appreciate hand-made stuff as much as music stuff, which is why they got music stuff]) went to my favorite Boston restaurant (which is actually in Brookline), the Washington Square Tavern, where the food and the service are so grand, it's worth waiting for one hour. Especially if waiting means hanging out at the bar and sampling the Tavern's fantastic beer selection (=the boys) or, in our case, tasting different wines and, as aperitif, sipping Kir Royale (so early 90s!). Should you ever make your way to Boston, do try the Tavern: the mussels are out of this world, so are the scallops, so are the risottos. My friend had the meatloaf, and while home-made meatloaf can be quite tasty [try Cook's Illustrated recipe for meatloaf: fantastic], restaurant meatloaf is usually pretty lame or outright awful. This one, however, was insanely good. Paired with the Zinfandel... Lawdy!!)

After last night's social and culinary extravaganza, today has been very homey: we cleaned, did the laundry, and went grocery shopping. I started the Hubs' watch cap, and here the only exciting news is that his preference changed from the "original Navy watch cap" (1x1 ribbing) to the "original WWII watch cap" (2x2 ribbing):

Two Thumbs Up!

I mean that quite literally:

I finished the second thumb this morning and washed and blocked both mittens in the evening. I'm hoping to start the lining on Friday. The second mitten (in the picture left) turned out slightly larger than the first one (oops); fortunately I wasn't planning on giving these away... You can tell from the right mitten that in the beginning I wasn't quite sure yet which color to knit with which hand, and I used my right hand for the contrast color (purple). Therefore the purple doesn't pop quite as much as it does in the left mitten. Oh well. I foresee many stranded knitting projects in the future and will have plenty of opportunity to improve!

My two thumbs also go up for this soup:

It's one of my potato soup variations. Our CSA box carries a lot of kale, and I started throwing kale into soups--totally tasty. Tonight's soup was a sweet potato and carrot soup to which I added pureed kale. It turned out really nicely, and since I didn't follow a recipe but made up my own I get to share it with you:

You'll need two to three small to medium sweet potatoes, two yellow onions, three to four medium to large carrots, a bunch of kale, half a bunch of parsley, pepper, salt, a pinch of nutmeg, and two tablespoons of butter. Cut the carrots and potatoes into thin slices; chop the onion. Melt the butter in a wide soup pot and add the carrots, potatoes, and onion. On medium heat and with the pot covered, cook the vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add 1.5 quarts of water (or try vegetable broth!) and 1.5 teaspoons of salt, bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes (partially covered). Then add the kale (make sure to clean and rip or cut it into smaller pieces) and simmer for another 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Then remove the largest chunks of kale and some liquid and puree the mixture in a blender. Return to pot, add fresh pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, and serve with a generous amount of chopped parsley!

(I've also tried to steam the kale, using the steaming liquid for the soup and adding the steamed kale right before serving: I think this might preserve more nutrients, although I'm not sure...)

Tomorrow the Hubs finally gets back from Ohio--what a relief!

Potato!

I realize I'm merely repeating what Stephanie has eloquently expressed on her blog: "the time change thing sucks" (that's a quote). I'm not pleased with it myself.

Today's been a gorgeous day, the fifth in a row. Perfect bicycling/jogging weather. Since I had some important stuff to do (writing an exam, getting an article in shape for submission, and preparing a talk) I gave myself an ultimatum: There would be no leaving the desk before I had checked off two of my three to-dos. I got down to business at 7 am, and by the time I was done at 5 pm, it was stinkin' dark outside. I've been fuming all evening about having missed a nice day outside. (Especially since I still don't have buttons for Heron. My LYS is a lovely twenty-minute bike-ride from here. Pfff.) I really dislike myself on days I don't get out at all.

The silver lining: dark and cold evenings call for soup, and I love both making and eating soup. Since our weekly CSA box includes an increasingly large amount of potatoes, I've been experimenting with different potato soups. Lemme tell you, tonight's "French Country Potato Soup" was super. Last week's garlic & potato and parsley & potato and potato & kale soups weren't bad, but the French soup trumped them all. (Luckily, the Hubs likes potato soup, too. We just subscribed to the winter CSA share, and I predict many potato dishes for the future.)

Off I go! (Still working on #3 of today's to do items.)

Third Clue, check!

The third clue for the September mystery sock got us around the heel.

It's a very pretty honeycomb heel, which I didn't know how to make before. The heel looked terribly small, but I learned from Ravelrers that this is a so-called French heel (can anyone confirm this?). In any event, it fits very nicely, so no complaints on my side.

The yarn is most pleasant to work with, and I'm hereby declaring it my favorite sock yarn (but I'm speaking with just five pairs of socks under my belt, having so far used Opal Hundertwasser, Fleece Artist BFL, Shibui, Malabrigo, and Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy. Really, what do I know?) Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Sock: get yourself some!

The yarn is soooooo soft, and sooooo wonderful to the touch, and I just want to squeeze it all the time. I'm almost looking forward to being just a little bit sick this winter, so I can stay in bed all day, wear those cashmere socks, and read mystery novels!

The tangled-mess-scenario from last weekend repeated itself last night, and this time I got the scissors and just untangled and rewound the entire skein and made two small balls of equal weight. Now I'm ready for the fourth clue. What could it be other than "continue in pattern until you hit the toes"? Dunno, but I won't, will not, absolutely not, continue knitting. I'm sure Nancy Bush has worked in some crazy pattern mix, just to throw off people who secretly continued knitting past this week's clue.

The news around the house? We're getting rid of TV! I never had TV until I met the Hubs, and the reason for not having a TV was that I was afraid I'd watch too much. And indeed, since I started knitting I also began to watch a lot of telly. Mostly junk, and most of the time I pay no attention to it whatsoever. The Hubs hardly ever watches with me and ends up in the other room doing other stuff (such as reading or work). I decided that spending parts of the evening in separate rooms is just totally wrong, and since Hubs is all for bringing down our TV/internet/phone bill (a bundled package deal), we're cutting our ties with the current provider and switch to a different company that offers phone and internet separate from cable TV. I have one more week to watch junk, and then it's all over! I'm totally excited. We're getting rid of the big ole telly box as well, since we usually watch DVDs on the computer anyway. This will free up a big part of our small living room, and we can move our dining table so that it fits more people. "Fitting more people" is becoming important: Monsieur is really getting into the cooking thing and wants to feed more people more often. This weekend he decided to try something from a cookbook he's never used before and picked a Finnish cookbook. He is buying lots of beets and potatoes today, but doubts that he'll find reindeer meat... I'll keep you posted!

Antennae!

Howdy! How was your weekend? I made my Hubs go gaga; what did you do?

Well, Hubs says I didn't actually push him over the edge, but surely I came close. This is what happened:

For the mystery socks I had wound one skein of yellow golden cashmere heaven, and to knit the socks two at a time I needed both ends of the yarn. This of course is a piece o' cake if you use a yarn swift and a ball winder. Not so if you wind by hand using the back of a chair, since you "lose" the inside end to the yarn you wind around it. So I wound the yarn around a toilet paper roll tube to maintain access to the inside end. So far quite clever, yes? As you can image, my ball of yarn looked fairly... well... un-pretty. But it served its purpose: I had two ends of yarn to work with, to knit two individual socks.

Then something strange happened last Saturday, and I refuse to recall what it was exactly. But somehow I ended up pulling a large part of the inside body out of the ball of yarn. I accidentally pulled a lot of the inside out! This left me with a huge mess of tangled yarn. I pulled and pushed and untangled and moved around and pulled some more, and I did all of those things for about an hour, but I just couldn't untangle the mess. So I got the scissors, thinking I must cut the yarn near the sock end, and again near the ball end, throw away the middle and tie together the two loose ends.

When Hubs saw me with the scissors, he did this manly thing where he felt challenged to save the world, one strand of yarn at a time. So he sat down and untangled the yarn. And he did so for a long, looooooog time. No scissors ever touched that yarn.

In the meantime I sat in the other room, undoing my shiny "Luxus" sweater to take care of the mess I had created by not watching my gauge. Something I hadn't quite considered: the yarn's a mohair blend. Ripping was painful and took a lot, a lot!, of time.

With all of Saturday's yarn frustration, I treated us to key lime bars on Sunday. They were yum. I made the crust using animals crackers.

And since I was feeling the yellow thing, I knit up a bit of the LaLana Wools Streakers! I got in Taos last spring (mostly white, with a bit of yellow here and there), and I came up with this:

The yellow turned especially pretty once I was ready to cast off, so I crocheted some antennae on top of it:

Unbelievable how quick a knit a hat is! This is my first hat, and I didn't even have a pattern to follow. (Not that this is an ingenious pattern, but I'm pretty happy that I got the measurements right the first time.)

Winter, Where Art Thou?*

*I take that back. Please, winter, stay away for a while, will ya? Send brother autumn first, pretty please.

Where's My Pic?

Many many many bloggers have loudly complained about Typepad over the past week and some even moved over to Wordpress; I use Blogger and am quite happy with it. However, Flickr is giving me a bit of a headache... Sometimes Flickr and Blogger don't communicate as well as they ought to, and photos just disappear. It's all fairly frustrating, and I wonder: are there alternatives to Flickr? Obviously there are. What I mean is: for quick blogging-with-photos, what are the alternatives? Any ideas, anyone?

Orlane, the textured shawl, has grown, but not to a size worth photographing. Two non-knitting pictures, then. We'll see how long before they disappear...

The cobbler was quite tasty. The peaches were so perfect, I think I would have preferred eating them raw. The "dinner party" was a success, though. It's always fun having people over.

It's getting cooler around here; the mornings are perfect for walks along the river. There's plenty pretty at the river.

Denial

I'm in denial about the "Luxus" sweater and started a new yet another project to distract myself: I'm making a second Textured Shawl (design by Orlane), this one in linen and for my friend Emma.

The yarn's completely weird; it's GGH's Safari Gold, which is a nylon/linen blend. It knits like string--the type of string used to secure a parcel, for instance. It's a very stringy yarn! It attracts dirt like crazy, but Emma lives in a spotless house, so I'm not worried about it. (Good thing I'm not keeping the shawl for myself; it would get dirty here in no time.)

And by "weird" I'm not saying I don't like it... it's just different. And it's in a pretty green, a very light green that sometimes looks grey.

I got the yarn in Germany at a sale; I bought three skeins for three euros. I hope three skeins is enough; if not, I'll finish the shawl with a grey border, since I have the same yarn in different colors.

Other than the second Orlane and no progress on Luxus... well, there's not much to report. The fall will be super-mega-extra-crazy busy. I thought that last spring was busy, but in retrospect, it was a breeze. Now the real craziness begins. I haven't been getting home before 8 pm, and since I usually collapse at around 10:30 pm, between making dinner and prepping for the next day and doing stuff around the house, I have about 30 minutes of knitting per evening. I'm not complaining, I'm just curbing your expectations for finished projects.

As for the long weekend ahead: well, I have to work. We opted out on the possibility to join friends for a weekend at the beach. Instead we will be entertaining tomorrow evening. Hubs invited a colleague of his, who's bringing his wife, and since Hubs planned the entire dinner menu already and is going to do most of the shopping this evening, I have little work to do. Apparently, I'm in charge of the salad and one side dish (recipe and ingredients for the latter will be provided; I don't even need to make a decision as to what veggie to prep). And Hubs asked me to make a peach cobbler. I tried one of the peaches he picked up at the Farmers' Market... and it was tasty! Yum yum.

On that note, enjoy your weekend!

Squash Stash

I sent Monsieur to the Farmers Market on his own, with instructions to bring back some zucchini for tonight. So he went to our very favorite Middle Earth organic farm stand at the Brookline market at Coolidge Corner. This is what he brought back:

"Some zucchini for tonight." He admitted he couldn't make up his mind and said it's like me and yarn. Can't say nuthin' against that, then. Cheers summer squash!

Butter stricken

Ever since Monsieur watched Julie & Julia, he's on a butter thing. We've always cooked with butter, but now we eat butter by the stick (almost). And since his is a bit of a scatter brain, last night Monsieur left the butter out. This is what I found this morning in the kitchen:

That's just to show you how hot's been here. Butter melted like this in six hours, over night? Crazy. There was a bit of a thunder storm this afternoon, with plenty of rain. But the rain almost immediately evaporated and left the streets steamy. Now it's a tad more humid than before.

Apart from the heat and buttery things, there's been knitting. Argosy is almost done:

And here are two WIPs to be blogged about in detail later:

(Doesn't this blue stuff look familiar? Yes, but no, but yes, but no!)

(Secret sweater project with delicious, yummy, buttery yarn.)