Daniel decided he wanted to be chamo man for Halloween. He doesn’t really do trick-or-treating any more but they do dress up at school. We spent much of Friday afternoon searching these stores for matching chamo shirt and pants and after many false starts finally found some desert chamo items that would do. A chamo belt was also acquired as well as a dog tags from the costume store. We had to sort of wing it on the face paint but managed to get gold, grey and brown at the costume store as well. He doctored the dog tags in art metals class so that they now look quite realistic. He asked me to get him up early this morning and apply paint. I’m not sure I like the final effect but he seemed happy enough with it.
The local market has quite a lot of local produce this month and yesterday the beets were calling my name. I picked some up while I shopped for dinner and made myself a quick lunch. I simmered the beet roots in salted water for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile I sauted a bit of sliced garlic with the beet greens, a handful of dried cranberries and some pine nuts. When the roots were tender I peeled and chopped those and added them to the pan as well. It made for a quick and light lunch. Yum! Last but not least, I’ve been working on a Koigu version of the Orange Twist sock to verify my scribble-scratch notes. The twist is even more pronounced and the heel is even nicer with the shorter stretches of color you get in Koigu KPPPM.
With a little daylight after Saturday’s deluge and some help from Jason on the photography, I managed to get a picture of me with the scarf on. It matches my new boots and my favorite light sweater perfectly. My winter coat is pretty similar to the color of the chair I’m sitting on so it goes nicely with that as well. Makes me wonder if Ingrid went back in the archives and found the photo of the boots so well does the scarf match. Pretty swift, eh? It was the perfect thing yesterday morning at knitting when it was a little cool but not cool enough to wear a jacket. We passed it around where it was much admired and all agree the fringe and beading are just right.
There was also some baking going on. Jason was going on about cupcakes but I have planned to do in a few weeks so I wanted something different. Then I got an e-mail from Fine Cooking with a recipe for pecan squares and that seemed just the thing.
The forecast for yesterday was very blustery wet weather so I thought I’d do a little baking for breakfast to get everyone off to a toasty warm start for the day. This spice cake is very lightly sweet so if you’re after something sweeter then you might want to add some frosting.
Vermont Spice Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature 1/2 cup maple syrup 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 tablespoon molasses 1 cup walnut pieces
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Butter a 9-inch round baking pan with removable bottom.
In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter with the molasses 2 or 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated. In a small bowl, mix together remaining liquid ingredients and add to the butter mixture alternatley with the dry ingredients beating well after each addition. Transfer mixture to the baking pan and top with walnuts. Bake 35 minutes at 400 F. Cool ten minutes on a wire rack in the pan before serving.
My ISE3 package has arrived. I wasn’t worried because Ingrid sent notes from time to time so I knew she was planning and working. We exchanged e-mails, I took a photo of the scarves I owned, described the coat I most often wear in the winter and then she had some cashmere yarn dyed especially for me by the talented Nic.
I really love the colors and the stitch pattern is truly beautiful. This is such a fine gauge that I am amazed she finished in time it must have taken hours and hours to knit. The beaded fringe is the perfect complement and I can’t wait to wear the scarf. It’s recently turned quite chilly in the mornings so Ingrid, your timing is perfect. Thanks so much! Also included in my package was a bar of chocolate with black pepper and a bar of chocolate with orange and spices. Those are right up my alley and different enough that the boys in the house won’t snarf them when I’m not looking. There were some really neat little cookbooks (she’s obviously been paying attention, you can never go wrong with a cookbook for me) and some fabulous Fleece Artist sock yarn. I’ve not yet tried that kind so I’m really looking forward to seeing how it knits up. Ingrid, you’ve truly gone above and beyond the call of duty!
We had quite an amazing sky Wednesday just before dusk and some noise outside caused me to peek through the window and see it. I grabbed my camera and managed a snap or two before the light changed.
I spent yesterday afternoon preparing a package for mailing. Not feeling there was quite enough to included I grabbed Kokoro no Te and decided on this little persimmon pincushion to add.
We also had our first meal using our newly acquired pork. This is sausage and potatoes, something we make fairly often. Brown the sausage with some onions on the stovetop. Add chopped potatoes, cover, and bake at 400 F for about 30 minutes. Add to the pan whatever veggies you’d like, in this case I added mushrooms, green and yellow bell peppers, and local carrots. Bake a further 15 or 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Sometimes I add leftover wine to the pan just before the potatoes and sometimes I add a bit of balsamic vinegar or chicken broth. You may also need salt if your sausage is not heavily spiced.
The Relay Raindrops socks are finished. This is the Fibertrends Raindrops pattern knit with size 1 1/2 Brittany DPNs and an eye-of-partridge heel substituted for the slip-stitch heel. I used a custom-dyed yarn from Yarntini which she whipped up in record time for me, thanks Jessie!
These socks were a breeze to knit. The pattern is quite easy to memorize. I kept thinking how great they’d be in red and white like cat in the hat socks.
Yesterday I forgot to mention the quick and easy dinner we had after we got home with our freezer chests full of pork. I thawed out some puff pastry and topped it with sun-dried tomatoes, slivers of prosciutto, and slices of fontina then baked at 400 F for 20 minutes. A green salad on the side and a glass of white wine completed the meal. Doesn’t get much easier than that!
Last fall Jason and I went leaf peeping and made our way about as far north as Montpelier VT. When I posted about this on the blog there was a comment from Walter that we probably drove right by his farm. At that time I began reading his blog and was fascinated by stories of how he trains his dogs, how he constructs housing for his farm animals, what he feeds them and how things change season by season.
After about six months I realized that you can buy one of those pigs should you so desire. I did. I made arrangements and began sending checks the culmination of which was a trip yesterday to pick up said pig, now butchered and waiting in the cooler for us. Jason took the day off, we borrowed some coolers and off we went through the beautiful late fall landscape. It was rainy most of the way so we didn’t stop for pictures but I caught the clouds kissing the White Mountains
with a dusting of snow as we passed through Franconia Notch State Park on the way home. We arrived at the butcher to learn we were picking up 173 pounds of pork and bones. I see lots of yummy stock and inners in our future!
Here’s the beginning of the sleeve for Arrows. I’d completely forgotten about doing two round things on circs so I could indeed do two at once but I think that’s a bit too challenging for me on my very first Fair Isle sweater so I’ll be content to do one. I’ve also not got more than one ball of anything and I know I don’t want to knit from both ends of the ball as my knitting gets really twisty and that would make me crazy. I’ll keep it in mind for future sweaters where it might work though, glad you all mentioned it! The sleeves will progress fairly slowly as I do really need to pay attention when I’m knitting them to be sure I do my increases every 3rd row. Once I get past that point it’ll be mindless again. This first sleeve now is about 1/3 of the way through the increase section and then it’ll be straight knitting from there.
Several folks asked what I bought at Rhinebeck. I bought a sheepskin from Wooly Hill Farm, 2 pounds of natural white merino, 1 pound of the silver and black alpaca/silk blend and 5 pairs of clasps for the Arrows sweater. My goals were fairly simple- talk to the lady at Shelridge farm about Arrows and see if more yarn was possible in case I run out and search for a good price on some natural white wool for spinning. I was hoping for 2 pounds of white and a pound of black but I didn’t see black. I came away quite happy with my purchases. I’m planning to spin the silk/alpaca for scarves for Jason and me, possibly hats or gloves as well if there’s enough.
In addition, yesterday was "Croptoberfest" or whatever it’s being called now and I spent much of the day getting started on an album of pictures from the Colorado vacation this summer. Boy it was a busy weekend!
I kid you not, this was our transportation to Rhinebeck! Last year was my first visit to the festival and I thought, "What could ever top this?" So this year was clearly over the top. Fiber friends are just the best!
We had amazing views and a beatifully smooth ride all the way there. It took a little over an hour compared to about a 4-hour drive last year. I always like to get a window seat when I fly and the windows on this little craft aim to please. Everyone had a window seat and wow, it was all window and all view. The fall color really popped as we headed South.
We had a good wander around and I visited the nice lady at the Shelridge Farms
booth to chat about Arrows. She said not to worry a bit, if I run short of yarn she’ll happily send out whatever colors I need. I bought the clasps that she had on her display model and went on my way greatly relieved. The biggest draw for us seemed to be the sheepskins and not a one of us escaped with out purchasing at least one.
Brad, the pilot, hung out with us for the day and was coerced into touching yarn, roving and sheepskins. The poor fellow even let us talk him into trying out a drop spindle.
Our flight home was over too soon but Jason and Chris were waiting at the airport for us and Chris was then whisked away to be dropped at Northampton for a short ride back to school with a friend. I know he enjoyed the special opportunity and we were greatly relieved to skip the 3-hour drive to drop him back at the dorms.
Daniel decided he wanted to be chamo man for Halloween. He doesn’t really do trick-or-treating any more but they do dress up at school. We spent much of Friday afternoon searching these stores for matching chamo shirt and pants and after many false starts finally found some desert chamo items that would do. A chamo belt was also acquired as well as a dog tags from the costume store. We had to sort of wing it on the face paint but managed to get gold, grey and brown at the costume store as well. He doctored the dog tags in art metals class so that they now look quite realistic. He asked me to get him up early this morning and apply paint. I’m not sure I like the final effect but he seemed happy enough with it. 
Last but not least, I’ve been working on a Koigu version of the Orange Twist sock to verify my scribble-scratch notes. The twist is even more pronounced and the heel is even nicer with the shorter stretches of color you get in Koigu KPPPM. 
