Whoopie Pies and Roach Demise

Happy Halloween!  Our pets were the only ones who dressed up around here. 

I don't think they liked it very much!

Colder weather, so I've turned my attention to knitting.  Five years ago, I purchased a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and I've had a pretty long history with that solitary skein.  In 2011, I made a pair of fingerless gloves from it. 

A simple cable, stockinette to show off the variegated colors, and two lace leaves on either side of the thumb gusset.  They were my favorite!  Sadly, I misplaced them. 

I had enough yarn left to make socks this year:

I had more yarn left (the skeins are very generous!), so I made another pair of fingerless gloves last week.  I picked something quick and simple.  Ribbing for the wrist and palm, basic thumb gusset, and a series of twisted cables for the back of the hand.

Note:  it's extraordinarily difficult to photograph your own hand with the other!  Anyway, these are soft and warm, and I've been wearing them every day.  I *still* have more yarn left from the skein, maybe even enough for another pair!

I've been baking, baking, baking.  Lots of cookies.  Chocolate chip peanut butter...

Brown sugar cinnamon chip...

...and chocolate whoopie pies with vanilla buttercream.

The whoopie pies were fine, but I absolutely loved both varieties of cookies (recipes found here and here, the latter modified to omit the frosting and add cinnamon chips).  They both used melted instead of room-temperature butter and it made the cookies delightfully rich and soft.   So good.  I highly recommend trying them.

Knitting, baking, and I've been keeping an eye on the wildlife, too.  Suddenly, birds are everywhere.  Mockingbirds, cardinals, tufted titmice, bluebirds, catbirds, and oh, so many varieties of woodpeckers! 

It's not just the birds that are suddenly coming around.

You can call them palmetto bugs, water bugs, or wood roaches, but I consider them just plain cockroaches.  I try to appreciate all insects, but I'm utterly repulsed by these.  They're about 2" long and I start seeing them - inside and out - in the fall.  We live in the south, on water, by woods, so we're basically out of luck for avoiding these creatures!  Most people here seem to have them.  I just try to keep everything very clean and keep traps out.  Thankfully, I usually only see one once every week or so, and I don't seem to see them much after we regularly get down to below-freezing temperatures.  And hey, whenever I do see one and complain to Todd, he gets to sing his 'roach song', which I think he greatly enjoys doing (song here).  So win-win? 

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the beautiful late-fall weather.  Have a great week!