Monthly Archives: November 2012

sickness/sweetness.

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This is what canceling office hours and taking a sick day looks like around here. (Also, whoa. WordPress has a brand new photo upload interface.)

Fixings for a magically soothing beverage.

Said beverage.

My classroom, empty before our final meeting of the semester on Wednesday morning. (I was assigned a particularly beautiful room this semester. Last spring, my class on nature occurred in a windowless room.)

A little bit of spinning. This is the second bobbin of Sprout singles. Not sure if I am going to ply this or leave it as singles.

Boh, being silly, and using my knitting as a pillow.

Pure sweetness. I’m feeling much better today, and Boh helped.

Aaaaand he’s snoring. Time to finish my cup of tea and get to bed!

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actual knitting content.

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On Saturday night, a couple hours after returning home, I went over to visit with my favorite greyhound and his people (who were kind enough to remind me to bring some knitting). We listened to an episode of This American Life, and I made a little bit of progress on the body of my Snowbird cardigan.

Remember this? The cold weather has me itching to knit cozy, cuddly accessories, so I dug out my Avery cowl and finished the first repeat. A couple more, and I’ll be able to wrap this around my neck. Twice.

I acquired some pink/purple cords, and I’m pretty sure these will help keep me happy this winter. I wear a lot of neutrals, so this bit of brightness should complement much of my wardrobe.

I snapped this shot on my way home after Thanksgiving. Snow was falling, and thick clouds were gathering over this silo. It will be December next week, and it’s time. I’m still getting used to bundling up! (Thank goodness for knitwear.)

And then there’s this guy. He’s been keeping me company on the couch these last few days. My mom was sick over Thanksgiving break, and on Sunday morning, I woke up with the first signs of the same thing: laryngitis and a chest cold. After overexerting myself yesterday, I decided to cancel everything today and focus on getting better. (And, I hope, writing at least a few pages of the diss chapter I’m working on.) I’m pretty sure I’ll be knitting a bit today too…

mishmash.

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How about another jumble of photos from the last week? I’m writing this from my parents’ kitchen table, mug of coffee in hand, Boh curled up on a blanket on the floor nearby, cardinals at the bird feeder. We’re gearing up to head back to the lake house, where there’s still a lot of work to do before we get to return here for Christmas. I didn’t even bring any knitting with me on this trip. Instead, I graded, and read, and caught up on my to-do list. Once I’m back home, I’m hoping to get some writing done. Let’s see what I photographed with my phone this week:

New shoes. Booties, even. I have some straight-leg skinny-ish jeans that don’t really work with my boots. Not skinny enough to wear boots over them, and not wide enough to comfortably get the boots under them. These were affordable (over at ideeli DOT com, which I’ve had some good luck with), and I liked the gray color. They look great with pants, but I’m not sure I really know how to wear them as booties. Like this, maybe? Thank you for any and all fashion advice.

Writing. With peanut butter popcorn.

Boh guards the popcorn.

Another Dutch baby pancake — I made this one before heading to campus early on Monday morning. I can’t believe how easy and tasty this is. (And I don’t want to know how not good for me it might be to start eating a plate-sized pancake every morning…)

J’s mitts in action! I snapped this photo after we had lunch together on Monday. Aren’t they terrific?!

Boh, in full-on charmer mode here at my parents’ house. I love how he’s got that circular dog bone on his arm.

And that’s what we’ve got. Happy weekend — and knitting — to you!

acceleration.

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It’s that time of the year and semester where everything is speeding up. I don’t think I’ve knit a stitch all week! (Well, that’s not entirely true. I did knit and then unknit a couple of stitches on J’s fingerless mitts to teach her how to make a thumb-hole.) There are two weeks of classes left, I’m scrambling to get a more complete draft of the first chapter of my dissertation together, Thanksgiving is approaching, I’ve been showing my home to potentially subletters (I’ll be out of town for a couple of months for research this winter), and basically, my head is spinning. I had to look at my phone to see what, if anything, I photographed this week, and here’s what I found:

Another dutch baby (why are they called that?) from Deb’s cookbook. Full disclosure: I just pulled another one out of the oven. I cannot wait to eat it.

J, working the thumb-hole on her first fingerless mitt!

Boh expressing…something.

I had nothing to do with the preparation of this incredibly delicious pumpkin-themed meal (pumpkin ravioli in sage-butter, pumpkin cheesecake for dessert). All I did was snap this action shot.

Out. Cold. Friday afternoon. This is how I felt yesterday afternoon, too. Hope you’ve got a wonderful weekend planned! More from us soon.

smitten.

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I’ve been drooling over Deb’s Smitten Kitchen Cookbook all week. On Saturday morning I made latkes and they were amazing. Best I’ve ever made. I particularly appreciate that Deb did not specify how many people this particular recipe serves, because I ate them all.

Today, I made my coffee and flipped through the book again. This dutch baby caught my eye. I’ve never made one before, but the results were picture-perfect. (And oh-so-tasty.)

And just now I mixed up a simple and yummy broccoli slaw to counter the decadence in my weekend food intake. I really think you might need this cookbook. (Full disclosure: Not only did I buy one for myself; after looking through mine, I also purchased three more as gifts for my mom, my chair, and a dear friend. All have birthdays in the first half of November.)

And, you know, because this is, at least in theory, a knitting blog, look — knitting! Those are not my hands; they are the hands of my dear friend J. She’s such a fast learner. After one evening of basic instruction in casting on, knitting, and purling, she practiced until she’d used up the partial ball of yarn I gave her. On Friday we went yarn shopping, and that evening, J. cast on her first project (on dpns, no less!), a pair of toasty fingerless mitts! Hooray!

breaking news.

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Nope, not the president’s reelection. Or any number of the meaningful choices made on Tuesday — including to send more women to Congress, to expand the privileges that come with marriage to more people who love each other. I’m totally psyched about those things. Lots of folks on the internet (well, the parts of the internet I frequent) have written smartly and thoughtfully about Tuesday’s events, so I’m focusing on savory leek bread pudding. Yep, you heard me. There were leeks at the farm this week (my second-last pick-up) and then I saw this recipe, so I made a special trip to the store yesterday. Yoga was canceled, so I had an evening to let things simmer on the stove and bake in the oven. Yum. I made this with whole milk instead of milk and cream, and I left out the chives in favor of more thyme. This is a wonderfully creamy, comforting meal. And this lucky Rooster is heating it up for breakfast right now.

Also, this. I do not get tired of Boh’s sweetness. I hope you’re not sick of it either.

More Snowbird, slowly but surely. Time to eat some leek bread pudding and get myself to the coffee shop to write. Happy Thursday!

forward.

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Forward, both for my Snowbird cardigan and hopefully, the nation. As I write this, I’m waiting for my friend M. (of Sexy Yoda fame) to pick me up so that we can go to our polling place to vote. I’m excited — 4 years ago I voted absentee, so I haven’t voted in-person since 2004, when I worked as an organizer for a non-partisan youth voting initiative. Today is the first time that most of the undergraduates at my university will get to participate in the electoral process. (Note that I did not say the democratic process, because I strongly believe that voting is one of many ways to participate in creating the democracy we want to live in.)

And now I’ve got some unrelated cuteness. Or maybe it could be related, if Boh were running for any sort of office.

Boh is a strong supporter of roasted cauliflower.

Also, handspun shawls. (I was using this one as a makeshift hot water bottle cover yesterday.)

And he yawns, just like everybody else. The sweetness. Happy Election Day, American readers! Please vote.

apple crisp.

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I love apple crisp season. You know what else I love? The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. If you’re a regular reader here at Chez Rooster, you already know that Deb and Smitten Kitchen are my go-to cooking resource on the interwebs. This cookbook is amazing, and totally worth the wait. I want to make (and eat) it all. The crisp part of the apple crisp I made (twice) comes from Deb’s apricot crisp recipe, and it is the best crisp topping I’ve ever prepared. I expect that lots of recipes from this book will find their way into my kitchen rotation. I’ll keep you posted as I cook from it.

And Snowbird is moving right along — I finished the second sleeve yesterday, and began working on the body. I’ve never knit a sweater that instructs you to knit the sleeves first, but it feels great to know that once the body is done, I’ll be pretty close to done knitting this sweater! I plan to alternate knitting with transcribing research photos this afternoon. (And tea-drinking.)

And then there’s this guy. I have no idea what he is doing with his tail in this picture, which is why I took it. This is how he was sitting on the couch when we came in from our walk. Now he’s snoring loudly, and I imagine he’ll be out cold for much of the middle of the day. Here’s to a cozy and productive weekend!