Currently: November 29, 2007 link

I have not done any crafting (aside from the knitting below) for what seems like a million years. I saw something in the December issue of Country Living however, that may boost me out of my slump:

Do you see the felt garland coiled up on the stool and on the stack of presents? I am in LOVE! I went to the source listing in the back of the magazine and to my delight I found out that they are from Uncommon Goods, one of my all-time favorite places. I hadn't been to their site for a long time and had sort of forgot about them. But I did find something there that I ordered ON THE SPOT:

A glass pickle. It should arrive early next week to join its brethren on the tree. By the way, I am putting together a Pickle Library for those of you who have mentioned to me that you would like to see my pickles so you do not buy me duplicates.

But back to the garlands...I love them so much I just might have to bust out my stash of roving and get to work. Maybe.

November 28, 2007 link

With all of the craziness of work and school I was feeling like I needed to do something to relax, so I decided to finally knit the Teva Durham Ballet Pullover I talked about waaaay back in April. The Miss M at Hey Lucy was kind enough to scan and send me the pattern from Interweave Knit. Here is my progress so far:

I am using Lion Brand Wool Ease only because I already happened to own five thousand skeins in this particular color, which, I have no idea how I ended up with all of them, but there you have it. I think they are breeding. I figure this will at least enable me to knit the sweater to see if I like it with sleeves (I have already knit the cap sleeved version, plus I have never knitted sleeves before) and I will probably knit it again in another yarn. That is my hope at least. What I really want, the sweater I really am aching to knit is something like this:

A slim-fitting raglan turtleneck. I cannot find a simple, straight forward pattern for this to save my life. Granted, I am not much of a knitter so I am sure there is something like this out there in the world I am totally missing. In the meantime, I have found The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater which is printed out and in my queue. It looks like too much thinking though; and she didn't give a turtleneck variation (just a v-neck and cardigan) but I think I can figure it out once I eventually get to that point. I love the Ballet Pullover patter because you knit it with HUGE needles and the yarn doubled up so it goes very quickly which is a perfect project for an impatient person like myself.

November 26, 2007 link

Finally a post that is NOT about mushrooms.

We had a great Turkey-day this year. J and I both agree that the food was the best so far. The star of the show was Duck, which, hello- is my new favorite bird:

This baby was brined using an Alton Brown recipe, and then our friend Les cooked the ducky from this recipe. The stuffing was also very good:

Stuffing balls? Yes! When I was searching for stuffings for duck, I found this recipe and I knew I had to try it. For desert this year I made a White Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake:

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I can assure you it was delicious. Then of course we also had Butternut Squash Lasagna, which, is totally one of my favorite Holiday dishes of all time. I have been indulging too much over this past week and I feel utterly gross. I wish I had another week off to recover!

November 15, 2007 link

I am OUT OF CONTROL:

Jeff was stacking firewood the other day and found a log with some FANTASTIC mushrooms growing out of its cracks and holes.

Aren't those fabulous? Well, I think they are fabulous. I love the shiny caps. These fellas are so tiny. Here is the log for scale:

Can you see the wee guys? They are directly beneath the wonderful fan of mushrooms. This is like an obsession now. I can't stop, and I don't want to! Intervention!

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November 8, 2007 link

Oh my God! Where the hell have I been?

It's pretty much been school:

Work, and Play:

Yes! Yet another mushroom coming out of the wood chip pile. I love these yellow ones.

What else? Mom came to visit for a week and we did a whole host of things that included Pike's Market, the Tacoma Glass Museum, and a couple of failed home improvement projects which I will discuss at a later date. All in all it was a great visit. While she was here we had a new cook top installed:

Our old one, and by old I mean original old, finally crapped out on us and there was just no way we could live any longer without a working cook top, especially since I cook so much.

So there it is, working away on some Beer Braised Beef Stew with Brussels Sprouts. Its shiny technological newness highlights the contrast between it and our icky countertops, ugly cupboards, and avocado green appliances. It's like a shiny pearl in an oyster of gross and I really wish I could re-do the whole kitchen. Let's not even get into the roof, the plumbing, the carpets, or the windows....One thing at a time I guess.

Jeff and I have both been working a lot lately and we are looking forward to the end of the grape harvest and the beginning of the Holiday Season with all of our friends and family. I can't wait to cook and eat, cook and eat, cook and eat! At least there is someone in the house whose groove has not been altered:

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