I think I'm done with the boring quickie socks with 2 strands of DK weight yarn. Most of my DK weight is gone and as you can see, I keep running out of colors while knitting the 8-hour socks.




I'm making the Cathedral Mittens which is a Lizbeth Upitis pattern from Homespun Handknit. I'm going to have to add some black and other colors to the cuff later as embroidery to make the colors work better. It has been years since I knit a slip stitch pattern but I'm amazed at how slowly it is going. I could have knit 3 color rows faster I think.

Peaches hopes everyone spends a relaxing weekend in their favorite box.
She is exhausted from a week spent napping, begging for more food, and tossing wastebaskets around loudly at 3 am.

Bewitching Gloves

A dark cave.
In the middle a cauldron boiling.
Thunder.
Enter the 3 witches.

So begins Act IV, Scene I from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Of course it is sunny and very hot here and nothing is cooking in my cauldron but here are my Halloween gloves with the chorus of the three witches on the gauntlet cuff.





I used Knitpicks' Palette: almost an entire skein of black, a small amount of white and less than 2 yards of red and orange. The cuffs use size 3mm dpns or circs and the hands and fingers use size 2.5 mm. The pattern is HERE.

I'm not quite sure what to knit next although my project to knit up all my DK weight yarn into thick socks continues. I hope some cold weather arrives soon to give me more knitting energy.

The gloves are finished and I'm just waiting until DH gets a chance to photograph them this weekend. I will put the pattern online at the Lulu store soon after.

Someone was thrilled to receive a package from Bunny Bytes this week. Here she is showing off some of her new chew toys. Rabbits need to chew and I need to do a better job of finding her things to chew. Otherwise she just uses my beloved cookbooks to exercise her teeth.

Last year I read about the 100 mile diet and was inspired to do a local Thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately I couldn't find enough local ingredients to do it. But inspired by the Eat Local Challenge blog, I tried again. To make my life a little easier I expanded my horizons farther than 100 miles and used some local items with non-local ingredients. Still it was more of a challenge than I expected. I usually serve a salad with dinner but I couldn't think of a way to do a salad dressing with local ingredients.

Flour Tortilla - New Mexico Tortilla Company in Santa Fe

Fresh Eggs with Beautiful Orange Yolks - Los Poblanos Organics in Albuquerque (our CSA/Organic Delivery Service)

Montelores Pinto Beans - Dove Creek, Colorado

Hatch Roasted Green Chiles filled with wonderful goat cheese from The Old Windmill Dairy, Moriarty, NM

Green Chile Roll from Fano Bakery in Albuquerque

Everything topped with salsa - orange tomatoes, onions, and garlic from Los Poblanos Organics and jalapenos from my friend Joelle's garden

Dear Elizabeth Zimmermann, what would we do without you!

I have had the flu for the last dew days, and between a pounding headache, an endless runny nose, bouts of coughing, and just feeling plain horrible, I almost did not knit.
Notice I said almost... Because what is better when one is sick than a little bit of thoughtless knitting. The doctor prescribed plenty of rest and a good Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater!
I followed the doctor's orders to the letter. I put my hands on some great 220 superwash, measured my oldest son, thought up a very simple pattern for the yoke, with the tiny bit of brain I had left, and voila.
The sweater is finished, I am almost completely back to normal, and I credit Elizabeth Zimmermann entirely for my prompt recovery!
If you have not knit this very simple yoke sweater yet, you can find it Knitting Without Tears, by Elizabeth Zimmermann.

I think I am going to make the gloves a bit longer so they almost reach my elbow. I have this silly idea I can finish both gloves this weekend. I know the second sock or mitten or glove always knits up in half the time but I am probably being unrealistic. I'm using Palette and first I need to see if I have another skein of black before I make them longer.

For Melinda and Janey, HERE's the Spin-Off sock book. All the socks in the booklet are knit in handspun and there is quite a variety. The Fireside sock pattern from the booklet, designed as a way to use up a bunch of handspun yarn, is my template for all my thick socks using 2-strands of DK weight yarn. The booklet is well worth the $9.95 price. The full title is Socks: A Special Publication for Knitters and Spinners edited by Rita Buchanan and Deborah Robson. HERE's a photo of the cover.

I just found out there were several errors in the heel of my free pattern for the Caledonia socks. I apologize to any of you who tried to knit the socks and had problems. I have fixed the errors so if you do plan to try these socks, please go and print out the revised version of the pattern.

Here are the Halloween gloves in progress (and badly in need of blocking). These are taking longer than I expected due to an incident involving a knife, an onion, and my finger. It really is tough to knit fast with a bandaid on your finger.

Not much else is going on here - I have 431 lbs of fresh tomatoes to deal with and I'm trying to plan an armoire for my yarn storage. DH has promised to make me whatever I like so I need to go look at photos of crafts rooms to get some ideas.

It is time to clip Peaches' claws but I can't find her anywhere. Where could she be? I don't suppose anyone out there has seen her??

I received a weird, long comment and Haloscan wouldn't let me delete it. This prompted me to completely change my blog template and lose all my old comments. I now have Blogger comments and they are moderated. The good news about the change is that my blog archives are back starting in January 2003. Please let me know if you have any problems reading the blog or posting a comment. I'm at nanetteblanchard (at) earthlink (dot) net.