Shalom

I finished my sweater!  It was a fairly straightforward pattern...I was able to keep my notes to just one page.

This is the first time I've pretty dramatically altered a pattern and I'm pleased by how it turned out.  This is how the completed sweater is supposed to look:

...and here's my finished sweater:

Sorry for the poor photos...it's just impossible to get good lighting inside our tiny apartment.  Really looking forward to moving into another light-filled house soon.  But back to the subject at hand...the original sweater was written for a 34" bust.  It was sleeveless and had just one button.  Relying on others' Ravelry notes, I upsized the sweater for a 36" bust, added arms, added buttonholes all the way down the front, and shortened those funny columns that you see around the yoke of the sweater.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, although I think the bulky weight of the yarn is a little bit unflattering as a fitted sweater.  In comparison, I knitted this sweater in bulky weight yarn last year, but it's too big now.  I wear it as a jacket over another sweater or shirt on cool days and it keeps me really warm.  It's bulky, but I guess that feels more comfortable in a jacket than in a single-layer sweater to me.

I like the neckline on this one.  It's really wide and I call it my "Jackie O" sweater.

Until we move this spring, my sewing machine has to stay packed away, but I continue to accumulate fabric for "someday."  I'm planning to make A LOT of A-line knee-length skirts this summer.  One skirt should take about 2.25 yards of fabric, so if I find a fabric that I really like, such as this scissors panel...

...or these quilt-esque squares...

...I buy in quantity for later.  I also buy collections that appeal to me, like this British line called Freya & Friends, based on a children's book.  I love the old-fashioned colors and the prints.

I love picking up vintage-y fat quarters...

...and yard+ quantities of fabric "singles" that really appeal to me, like strawberries...

...and fun flowers.

I've been a little fidgety, unable to sew, and have taken any opportunity to do a little needlework. Thankfully Todd gave me a chance this week when he decided to make a pot of tea in my KitchenAid mixer bowl (don't ask) and then take it to the living room, where he burned a hole in both my ottoman cover and the carpet.

I was really upset, because a custom ottoman cover will have to be ordered (eventually...it's a little low on the priority list).  I didn't want to stare at a burn hole for months, and covering it with a cloth napkin or other fabric would be an exercise in futility, since any movement would dislodge it.  I found some matching thread and cut a square of cream-colored felt.

Then I blanket-stitched the square into place.  It's not very tidy and it's just a temporary solution, but I felt pleased.

I did a little baking recently.  I'm always curious about the "BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER" claims bandied about on food blogs, and one that always seems to end up on that list is from Not Without Salt. I decided to make a double batch and roll them into logs.  Making chocolate cookies like this is easy because then you can just slice and bake when you're ready.

The cookies were really good and I'm going to try the recipe again with the cookies thick-sliced, not 1/4" thin like I sliced mine.  Having great cookie dough in the fridge was too much of a temptation for us, though.  We ended up slicing and eating so many that there wasn't enough left to give away, which is why I'd mixed them up to begin with!  Still, I'm glad to have another great chocolate chip cookie recipe in my arsenal. 

It's been too busy around here to do anything other than work, and I probably won't have a chance to check in here again until January.  Happy holidays and see you in the new year! 

owl fest and a not-quite vest

Ack!  Time goes by so quickly in December, and it's even busier than usual because we're relocating some of our business merchandise to a new facility.  Hiking and other leisure activities have taken a back seat to work.  However, an exception had to be made for my birthday, and we made the 75-minute trek to Eagle Creek last week.  I haven't made any secret about my love of Eagle Creek - it's my absolute favorite place to hike.  Look, they still had some pumpkins out!

A wintry mix dampened our clothing but not our spirits as we made a 4-mile trek around the reservoir.

So many dramatic red berries.

So many birds, too.  I spotted another downy woodpecker in the underbrush.

We saw many birds on the water. and lots of nests in the trees.

I didn't have my binoculars, so I'm not sure what kind of nests these were.  It reminded me a bit of the heron nests we saw around water in South Carolina. 

Eagle Creek has lots of bird feeders clustered around the Ornithology Center, and I loved watching the birds there.

I had some company!

After the hike and a quick lunch (and a couple hours of work that couldn't be postponed), we had healthy chocolate brownies with honey-sweetened cream cheese frosting.

YUM.  It was a great day!

I've been feverishly knitting a bulky-weight cardigan in my spare moments this month.  It's the first time I've felt pretty confident about the fit, because I've been able to try it on as I go (here it is, knitted top down, halfway done).

Now the body and one arm is completed.  One arm to go...then a quick blocking, buttons, and it's going to be ready to wear!  This is the first time I've heavily modified a sweater too, with the help of Ravelry.  The yoke is shortened, the back is lengthened, and arms are added.  It's gone really well so far.  Although it looks like a kind of odd open vest in the picture above, I'm hopeful that it's going to be a great sweater pretty soon.  Tabitha is keeping a close eye on my yarn balls...in between naps, that is!

Have a great week! 

still life

Eek!  It's been so busy with holidays and seeing friends and work that we've barely had any free time in the past week.  It's been cold, with some flurries, which Tabitha loves watching from her perch.  I think she has forgotten snow.

We only made it outside once last week.  We had a beautiful frost...

...and all the puddles from a recent rain were frozen over.

I can't believe how much bittersweet I saw growing wild in the woods.

Bittersweet is considered an invasive vine, although there's now an American cultivar that's much more tame.  The oriental version, seen here, spreads by underground runners.  Anyone who's done much gardening knows how impossible it is to eradicate plants which propagate that way.  They choke out native vegetation and can even topple trees by their weight.  Be careful, if you clip any to take home, that you don't spread any of the seeds!

It's amazing how much difference a few weeks makes in the late fall.  At the beginning of November, I was seeing a lot of another invasive plant, the bush honeysuckle.

The berries are gorgeous, but we couldn't help but notice that these small shrubs were absolutely everywhere in the woods.  They're another Asian import that was originally used for erosion control, like kudzu.  We've seen how that idea turned out!  Their shallow root system makes them much easier to control than bittersweet, at least.

Hopefully we can stop and take a break here in the next week.

This is such a busy time for us and I hate to miss outdoor time.

Have a great week! 

twice as ice

After six years of living in the south, you've never seen anyone more ready for some real winter weather.  You can imagine how I felt when I heard the brittle tapping of ice on the roof last week. 

Alas, it was gone within a few hours, but it was great to crunch through a field and admire the view.

Call me crazy, but I have missed these scenes:

There's a Danish word called hygge that translates roughly into "winter cozy and contentment."  It's apparently become a big deal in the U.S. lately, but I can safely say that I've been hygge-ing for as long as I can remember.  Flannel pjs and sheets, homemade quilts and hand-knitted sweaters, hot water bottles, winter baking (bread!), cozy fires, candles, seasonal fabrics, knitting in my lap...the colder it is outside, the more delightful it is to be inside.  Living in a three-season climate made me feel so out of sorts, so I am loving everything about the cold so far, being back home again in Indiana. 

After the ice melt, Borga was ready to get back to business.

I was pleased to spot this female downy woodpecker.  The males have a red patch on their heads, so it's easy to tell the difference.   See how she's using her tail to brace against the tree for support? 

Speaking of birds, I found an old warbling vireo nest on the same hike.

Warbling vireos are one of the many small, dull-colored birds that you probably haven't seen but have heard a thousand times in the woods.  "Fresh as apples and as sweet as apple blossoms comes that dear, homely song from the willows," said William Dawson, early ornithologist, while birder Pete Dunne had a more colorful observation:  "[It] sounds like a happy drunk making a conversational point at a party."  That makes me smile!

I also saw a fairly large tree burl.

This deformation is caused when the tree experiences some sort of stress...fungus, insect incursion, etc.  It doesn't really hurt the tree...I think it's rather like a scab.  They can take decades to reach their full size, and some are incredibly enormous...in coastal redwoods, burls can grow up to 26 feet!  Burl wood is prized for its odd, twisty patterns and has been made into jewelry, furniture, and sculpture. 

I'm seeing a lot more dried seed heads.  I think they're so pretty.

I love how I see something new on every hike.  We're headed out again in a few hours, to get in some miles before a big Thanksgiving meal with friends.

Have a great day!