Noro... YUM!

As soon as I saw b r o o k l y n t w e e d 's (I know it's not really his) Noro Stripe Scarf I was smitten, but kind of forgot about it because of all the other projects I had going on. Then The Harlot got on board, and I went, "Oh yea, I wanted to do that!" So I did, and am still doing it. The scarf is almost half done.



The mittens are a mitered variation on the theme (EZ's pattern in The Knitter's Almanac). This mitten is the second mitten I've knitted. Where is the first, you ask? Good question. I hated the color line up so much I frogged it. I rewound one ball the opposite direction in hopes of making it more pleasing... time will tell.



The hat hasn't been started, but it will soon. I have the yarn already.

My felted clogs are done. After three trips though the wash they're perfect! I lurve them and will only be taking them off to leave the house! Before felting they're rather unattractive.



But after felting all their floppy hideousness is GONE and they are transformed into warm, sturdy, beautiful clogs.



This is the first time I have had my children for more than five days in many months. They all came with me to the Annual Thanksgiving Feast at work (I made Lynne Rosetto Casper's Fast and Crisp Roast Turkey for the third year and it is a huge hit. I am a believer in brining a turkey, this one has quite a few extras in the brine, but the juicy flavorful bird after the roasting is worth it. If you do look at the recipe, it really does roast at 450 degrees for a fraction of the time it usually takes to roast a turkey.

On actual Thanksgiving I made another smaller bird for the four of us, and tired to duplicate my friend Becca's amazing sweet and savory dressing. After two more turkey based meals I made a huge vat of soup (with veggies roasted under the bird for that very purpose) and put it in the freezer. Maybe we'll be able to eat it in a week or two.

We went for a walk at Ayr Mount it's only about a mile from our house and the poet's walk is a nice path through the woods and by a pond and ends up at the house. The Kirkland house was built in 1815 and was the first in the federal style in the area. There are 265 acres and we've only seen a small portion of that so far, but since it's close and the Eno River flows through it I'm sure we'll go often.









One more day of knitting and leisure and then it's back to the regular grind!

Ring of Fire

Still churning out the knitting - I think the drop in temperature has been helpful - and am over three-quarters done on the Through the Loops Mystery Socks! It's a beautiful pattern, but the shapely cables make my ankles look disappointingly thick. Hence the photograph on the sock blocker! I have yet to get a picture that accurately shows the many shades of brown in the yarn.



I'm also working on the Noro Scarf (it's a Ravelry link) that will have matching mitered mittens and a hat. I have never made a "set" of matching anything other than socks and scarves and I figured why the hell not?

Morgan's Opal socks are finished - finally. I "finished" the first one when he wasn't here and when he got back from his dad's I had him try it on and it was definitely too short. I undid the end and lengthened it and now they are perfect. Bowen has outgrown last year's pair and has asked for another, with my production rate I asked him not to hold his breath!



I'm working on another fambly calendar to send to the Grandfolk and we decided to have some fun with light trails. Once we got the dog out of the room it went much better and with less danger of anyone catching on fire in the process. We're going to try again tomorrow night, it's pretty hard for the kids to hold still with the shutter open for any length of time, but they did pretty well. The fambly portrait known as The Ring of Fire:



Maybe by Saturday I'll have some new felted clogs finished! I had high hopes of making each of us a pair, but the large needle size wreaks havoc on my fingers and wrists. They are a pretty quick knit, though.

Ummm.... bread

I haven't been dyeing at all lately, but I've been knitting so much I'm going to have to back off because my hands are pretty sore. In addition to the knitting I've been baking quite a bit. Pumpkins are in season and my family loves pumpkin bread and pies. We've had four loaves of bread in the past couple weeks (and given two away) and there's still some pumpkin in the fridge. I also bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which came highly recommended by Susan Gibbs. She's right - it rocks! I've been baking bread since high school and have always loved it, but with all the other things I have to do in a day hasn't been possible to fit bread making into the schedule. WRONG! My new routine is to mix up a batch of wet dough on the weekends and then take a hunk out of the fridge when I get home from work and while supper is cooking, put that lovely loaf in the oven and presto - dinner and good bread are ready! I've made the basic broule and the bagels - both are delicious. The bagels are for the kids' lunches, although we did celebrate with them the morning after the election since they were shaped like an "O". If I end up roasting another pumpkin today I'm going to try the Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread. A mediocre shot of the yummy bagels is below (CFB's in the kitchen fixture with no natural light is my least favorite lighting situation).



I finally finished Foliage. I tried back in January and after frogging a couple of times figured my mind was not in the right place. It was this time! I decided to do a rolled brim since (thanks to the beauty of top down knitting) I could see after the three pattern repeats a rib pattern would have been down over my eyes!



Another FO, The Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf knit in the lovely Broken Yolks dyed by Sarah spun and cabled by me. I like the color shifts throughout. Morgan has his eye on this one.



It looks like it's going to be another lovely fall day, maybe perfect for more baking.