Boo!

In both senses of the word. Boo! – it’s Halloween! And also, Boo! -- I haven’t posted to my blog in for-freakin’-ever.

This morning, Jeff and I celebrated Halloween by baking oatmeal in pumpkins. Such a cool idea. We used this recipe from Baking With My Kid. I think I saw this originally on Boing Boing. It was fairly easy to make. I love carving pumpkins, but hate dealing with all the mess. This is a great way to get your carve on, and then eat the results! The only thing I wish we’d done differently was perhaps to bake it just a bit longer. I would recommend getting smaller pumpkins. Our oatmeal mixture didn’t nearly fill the pumpkins as much as I thought they should. And we should have halved the recipe. One pumpkin is plenty for two. But we baked two, and now I have a couple of breakfasts all set for next week. I can definitely recommend giving this a try, especially if you’re an oatmeal freak like me.

The Tamarix Quilt is resting peacefully right now. I haven’t touched it in three weeks. Things got a bit intense, and we both decided we need our space. I’ll get back to it soon. In the meantime, I picked up my Oliver Socks and got back to them. This weekend I finished the heel flap, turned the heel and am almost up to the toe decreases. I really like the cool traveling decrease pattern that comes to a point at the base of the toes. I’ll do a modeling shot later. It’s been a while since I’ve worked on socks, and they’re just the thing to get me back to knitting. I got a lot done this weekend at both of my knitting groups – I think I may be back on track. I’ll try to get back on track with blogging, too.

In the Hood

Today, I rode my bike to my knitting group in this glorious weather we’ve been having. Riding was a little dicey. A rather large music festival is taking place about a mile from my house, and cars and pedestrians are everywhere, despite the “No Event Parking in Neighborhood” signs posted at the end of every block.

While chatting along with my Saturday morning knitters, I accidentally attached a side that I wasn’t supposed to. I forgot that that the first square on a new row should only attach along half of the cast on. I was just so used to attaching on a side that I did it without thinking. This basically attached my new square to the row below along two edges, forming a cup. Someone suggested that this reminded them of those little hooded baby bath towels. Well, that’s all it took for things to devolve into silliness. Snowden texted me this picture from her camera, for which I’m grateful. I know there are others out there.

I’ll post updates if they appear. UPDATE: This one has reared it’s be-blanketed head – thanks Steph!

Not much happened knit-wise this week. Essentially, I’ve done half a square on the blanket since I checked in last week. The next week or so will be very busy with the meeting I’m helping to host, but I’ll try to squeeze in some knitting when I can. My fellow knitters have threatened to come knit at the hotel where my meeting is being held, just to rattle my nerves. I bet they’ll do it. On the upside, they might get to meet some of the other knitters I know, and that could only be a good thing.

I’m thinking of giving the blanket a bit of a rest and getting cracking on some socks. I restarted the Oliver socks over a month ago, getting the first one down to the heel. But they’ve been languishing while I work on the blanket. Maybe if I blog about them and get a project on them started in Ravelry, I might get them done.

As the Days Dwindle Down

I used to post on days other than weekends. Really, I did. But not lately. I suppose it’s when I have the time. And, as the days dwindle down (as the song says), it’s easier to take pictures on weekends than in the evenings during the week.

Yesterday, knitting friends and I spent a glorious morning knitting outdoors. It’s only just now gotten to where it’s consistently comfortable to do so of a morning. Yummy scones (ginger!), good coffee, and lots of laughs. Snowden had some of Brooklyn Tweed’s new Shelter in the colorway Tent.  I, of course, loved the color. Um, it’s kind of green. It looks like it will knit up beautifully and wear well. It does seem a tad on the scratchy side, so probably not appropriate for next-to-the-skin stuff (like Snowden’s awesomely beautiful Cecily Camisole, which was modeled for us). It is kind of cool that one of the nine physical retail stores chosen to sell this yarn is right here in Austin.

The grass has finally slowed down enough that I think I can get away without mowing and doing other yard work this weekend, so I spent much of the morning and early afternoon outdoors working on the Tamarix Quilt and catching up on podcasts. I’ve finished 60 squares and with the center motif finished (center left in photo), I feel like I’ve hit a milestone. I’m going to try and get as much as I can done in the next week or so before a big professional meeting that’s being hosted here in Austin. Although I’ll be busy, one of the great things about this meeting is that there are usually several knitters in attendance. I’m looking forward to seeing them!