Tag Archives: knitting

FO: nanny’s mittens.

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These little mittens have a big story. Long-time readers may remember when my grandmother, Nanny, gave me all sorts of old patterns and yarn. I donated the yarn and kept the patterns, along with a small ziplock bag with these mittens inside. They were finished, except for the thumb of the second mitten. (And there was a third, which looks to me like something went a bit awry with the beginnings of the thumb.)

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It didn’t take much to improvise a thumb for the second mitten, and now I’ve got a pair. I’m extra excited about this because there’s a great-grandchild in our family now, and this will be her first Christmas. I’m planning to take these mittens to show Nanny, and to remind her that she did most of the knitting, and to ask her if she wants to be part of my surprise: we’ll wrap them up and give them to our family’s newest addition, my cousin’s 11 month-old daughter. The mittens will be a bit too big for her this year, but I’m not sure Nanny will be quite as lucid next Christmas. Sewn, knitted, and crafted gifts from her were always a big part of our family Christmas celebrations when I was little, and I love the idea that there will be something made by her hands under this year’s tree.

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And there’s this guy, holding onto his favorite bone. It has nothing to do with the mittens, but I had to share.

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View from the porch, sometime last week.

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Homemade hummus with toast.

Stay tuned for more holiday knitting…if I finish it in time!

FO: cider press hat.

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Here are a couple of pictures from that walk I told you we took on Sunday.

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I wore my new hat. (I’m much happier with it than I appear to be in this picture. This is clearly me focusing too much on keeping my eyes open.)

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I cast on the hat from the Cider Press Set, an Amy Christoffers hat and mitts pattern pair that I purchased a few weeks ago when they were on sale. This ribbed and waffled combination is awesome: squishy, stretchy, and oh-so-warm.

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Also, totally addicting to knit. I made this hat out of most of a skein of Berocco Ultra Alpaca, and I love it. Good thing this color has my brother written all over it, or I’d keep it too! (I might make one for me out of handspun.) I used US 4 and US 6 needles because I couldn’t find my 3s and 5s.

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Hooray for last minute (and late-night) Christmas knitting. I’m so excited to send this, along with the rest of his present, to my brother, who has to stay in Colorado for the holidays.

another -itis.

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Yep. Startitis. Does codeine cough syrup cause that?

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Excuse the terrible picture of this finished Snow Cowl. J., of new-knitter/fingerless-mitt fame ’round these parts knit one of these and I loved how squishy it was. And then I was organizing my stash and came upon two balls of Malabrigo Gruesa, already wound, that I’d planned to turn into an Urchin so very long ago. This was a fast and super satisfying knit. It’s blocking now on the dining room table, so I’ll snap a better picture or two once it is dry.

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I began and finished this Early Morning Beret yesterday. (Excuse my bleary-eyed state in that photo — I finished the beret while I was waiting to take one more dose of cough syrup before bedtime.) I knit it out of some absolutely swoonworthy Fibre Company Knightsbridge (70/30 alpaca/merino, now discontinued) that I acquired when I was first accumulating a stash. I started knitting this as a gift, but I’m keeping it. I’ve got enough yarn to knit another, or I might knit myself some matching fingerless mitts.

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And here’s Boh, helping with yarn organization.

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And helping some more. (Keeping me warm?)

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More helping? This dog has been nothing but sweet to me while I’ve been feeling lousy. Today I took him on a special walk to say thank you. More on that soon!

bristol boom.

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I cast on a new project yesterday: the Bristol Hat, by Amy Christoffers. There was a pattern sale last week, and I love the understated chevron-y goodness of this hat. The friend who is the fastest and most excellent new knitter ever, J.,  invited me over yesterday afternoon, and we enjoyed wine, cheese, pears, and knitting. I wanted to knit on something I could pay a little less attention to than the Avery cowl, so I grabbed this pattern off of my desk and went scavenging for yarn. I came up with this skein of Fiesta Baby Boom, which I bought years ago fully intending to knit it into man socks. That’s not happening, but this hat is! (Boom.)

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We got this dusting of snow on the final evening of November. It had melted by the time the sun went down.

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All of this cold weather makes me want to snuggle with handknits. (And Boh. More on that below.) I want to cast on ten new squishy warm things to wrap around myself. But I’m practicing restraint. For now.

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Apparently this weather also makes me want to wear all of my clothes at once. Snapped this when I realized I was wearing a t-shirt, a button-down, and two wool sweaters. In the house. Soon I’ll adjust to the colder temps, or at least I hope I will!

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Yesterday I made another Smitten Kitchen dutch baby pancake. And it was every bit as delicious as the first one. And the one after that, and the one after that…

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And here’s Boh’s contribution to today’s post. Sweet, sweet dog. Thanks, everyone, for sending healthy thoughts in my direction. I’m feeling much better; only the cough has lingered, and hopefully that will be on its way soon as well! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Boh and I have plans to curl up with some knitting and a movie tonight. (I do love teaching, but a Sunday evening without a Monday morning class to prep is so very nice. Hooray for study period!)

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…

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!

five (oops).

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My fifth blogiversary was a couple of weeks ago, and I was out of town and totally forgot to post. This space continues to mean so much to me — it is a place to document my world and connect with folks who care about similar things (knitting, spinning, cooking, outdoor frolicking, sweet and wrinkly dogs…) as well as an opportunity to write something, and often to get unstuck (in lots of ways). I like having this record of sorts. I’m a historian, so I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, but perhaps because my academic life, though punctuated with deadlines, has reached the stage where I’m working on a Really Big Project, I particularly value this alternate way of documenting some of the other pieces of my life here in the blogosphere. Thanks for being here — for reading, for commenting, and for blogging! Now, about those socks.

Yesterday marked the ceremonial(?) putting on of the handknit socks — the first time this fall! (These happen to be handspun as well.) We’re expecting a solid seven days of rain from the storms converging on the East Coast this week, and last night, as I was leaving the house, it was just beginning to drizzle. These kept me cozy all evening. Are you wondering what’s under that foil?

Deb’s Apple Mosaic Tart with Salted Caramel. You should add puff pastry to your grocery list. Seriously. This tart was so easy that I felt guilty bringing it over to the home of D and T, even though T had seen it on Deb’s blog and requested it. (It felt sort of like microwaving my dinner might feel. You know, if I had a microwave.) These are the basic steps: put puff pastry in pan, add apples, top with sugar and butter, bake. While baking, melt sugar, add a few things, and brush the caramel over the top of the tart. And it is SO GOOD. And pretty. And because my apples were huge and a little soft, I didn’t make the spiral that Deb made. Still tasty, still pretty.

Here’s a snapshot from Friday’s Yoda Thorpe fitting. M brought over some gardening wire for the ears, and we added the appropriate level of wrinkling. I’m hoping to get a picture of M’s Sexy Yoda costume to share with you!

I’ll wrap up today with some sweetness. Boh has conjunctivitis, so he’s been extra cuddly. (Except when I put his eye drops in three times a day. Poor dog.) Yesterday he napped while I graded.

Good thing I’m right-handed! We have a few more papers to work on together today.

These are my favorite trees on campus. There’s something about the golden shade of fall leaves that looks extra brilliant on dreary days. At least I have these trees to look forward during this week of rain ahead. I hope everyone in the path of the Frankenstorm stays safe, warm, and dry.