In which I share some kitchen escapades and knitting photos

It's been a delightful week for all sorts of things.  Chili, for one.  A nice pot of hearty chili with fresh cornbread is an excellent meal to warm the body and soul.  

The photo at left was taken of my kitchen countertop.  Yes, our house heat was on.  And yes, this is the actual temperature of that section of my kitchen.  I used to wonder about recipes that talked about 'room-temperature butter'.  Now I just ignore them, and put the butter on top of the stove get soft.  This is also the time of year when we cool things in the back room or front porch, rather than put them in the freezer or fridge for an hour to cool off.  It's faster and saves energy.

Then we have what looks like a science experiment.  I haven't been able to find much anything online about it, but this is what I found in my fridge one morning.  The night before (just ONE night -- not several months) I'd boiled some cubed white sweet potatoes and a carrot or two, then popped the liquid into a jar and stuck it in the fridge so I could use it in a soup.  Pot liquor, I think they called it in the old days.  I have no idea why it turned a lovely blue-green.  Today it's going into soup, and I wonder if it will color the soup.  If it does, I may well have a picture next week. Or not -- because next week, the sheetrockers are supposed to be here!  That means things will be topsy-turvy for a while.

Knitting content.  This week I made a pair of gloves for Filius, trying to replicate a pair from Feitelson's Art of Fair Isle Knitting, and forgot to switch the direction of the middle motif.  I *thought* I was switching it -- as the third row of parallelograms is going opposite the direction of the second row -- but that's not how one goes about changing the direction of the whole motif.  Argh.  I winged the pattern, and they came out a bit snug, but they are off at college with him and he likes them.  I brought his old pair home, reknit the thumbs, and now have a spare pair here. 

 

In other knitting, I made myself a pair of socks with some gifted yarn.  (Thanks, gifter!)  These came out wonderfully, using one of Wendy Johnson's toe-up gusset patterns and a garter-stitch rib pattern. 

 

Somewhere during last week, I came up with a handful of commissions and also ordered some Crushed Raspberry Frangipani to knit myself a Nattrojer Tunic.  That still left me with nothing to knit until the yarns and patterns arrive.  And that is a situation that, on a normal day, cannot be allowed to continue.  I dove into my stash and came up with some partial balls of Brigg's and Little's Heritage Yarn, stuck my nose into Latvian Mitten Designs by Erna Jansons, and came up with ...

Then I dove back into the stash, collected a skein of self-striping sock yarn, and made a Slouchy Socky Hat.  Then I dove back in again, collected my one remaining skein of self-striping sock yarn, and embarked on a baby hat.  After a a few hours of that, I realized that if I didn't get something else on the needles FAST, I would run out of knitting during the middle of a lecture that evening.  That's never a good thing. So I went up to the stash, decided to live dangerously, and embarked on mittens from Plate 48 of Latvian Mitten Designs.  We will see if the main color and most-used contrast color hold out.  If not ... Rachel, got any tan sportweight BSA leftovers?