It snowed yesterday, which was lots of fun. There was more of it than the snow we got early in February, but it was really drifty, so the sidewalks were actually clearer than they were last month. Unfortunately, the snow drifted right up on out steps, which no one has shoveled yet. I went sledding with friends in the Clark Park bowl, a great park five blocks from where I live. The "bowl" (which usually has dogs running around it and occasionally has kids soccer games, performances of Shakespeare, and, last summer, a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra) is in the south part of the park, and used to be a mill pond. It's great for sledding, especially if you get there early enough that the snow isn't worn down. I used my blue saucer, which is almost impossible to steer, but it's really fast and I got it for $4 at Target.


moar snowy pictures!

Then we went over to Arin's house, where we ate chili and cornbread and meringues and poundcake and played Celebrity, which seems to be the current popular West Philly game. So all in all, it was a pretty good day.

In knitting news, I found this sweater pattern that I really really want to make: owls. Upon consulting others, I've decided that it is cute, but not ridiculously so. I even have yarn I could use for it. And it looks like it could go pretty fast. But I'm 95% finished another sweater, and I'm trying to convince myself that I should really finish that sweater first, so I can wear it while it's still cold. I am not confident in my willpower.

And a question for you, f-list: where do you go for icons? I've been feeling rather fangirlish recently, and I don't have any good icons.

Also, have any of you made meringues using a blender instead of a mixer? I wonder if this can be done...

Also also, have any of you heard the new Decemberists song - The Rake's Song? I think it's the most disturbing-yet-enjoyable song I've ever heard. XPN has been playing it a lot. I really want to see them live when they come here in June.

I finished another pair of socks!  These are by far my favorite pair that I've knitted, and in the top 10 of things that I've made.
Behold:



Pattern: Monkey Socks
Yarn: KnitPicks Bare Superwash Merino / Nylon fingering weight (dyed by me with Kool-aid and food coloring!)
Needles: size 1 dpns

I made the toes anatomically correct , which makes them really comfortable.  But that also means that there's a right sock and a left sock.  I'm a little concerned that they will wear out faster (I have pronated feet, or whatever the other one is.  My shoes wear out unevenly in any case.)
I'm super proud of these socks, and I've been working on them on and off since July.  I want to get some pretty shoes to show them off in.

Now I just have to get everything together to knit Christmas presents for the family.  I probably should have started earlier instead of knitting socks and sweaters for myself, huh?


Also, we saw Twilight on Saturday, and it was both awesome and terrible (but usually in hilarious ways.)  I'm trying to organize my thoughts about it.  The sparkle effect was definitely a letdown, but the twinkling wind-chime noise almost made up for it.  I sort of want to see it again, just so I can yell things at the screen.  Any takers?    

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone!

I actually forgot about it up until 5 minutes ago, so I'm not wearing my proper t-shirt.  But by a happy coincidence, tonight PhillyCarShare is having this big drive-in movie thing on top of the South Street Whole Foods where they are showing .... The Princess Bride.  They are also showing Cars, but there's no pirates in that (well, none that I know of), so that's not a coincidence. 

PhillyCarShare has been putting on "drive -in" movies at parks around the city all summer (last week I saw Spaceballs.)  Since PhillyCarShare is (mostly) for people without cars of their own, you don't sit in a car to see the movie, it's more of a lawn chair drive-in.  But tonight there are supposed to be a bunch of convertibles up on the roof of the Whole Foods parking garage, so it will be like real drive-in.  Well, the sitting in cars part, not the actually driving in part.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it.  Any excuse to watch The Princess Bride again is good enough for me!

I know it's not quite the equinox, but it really feels like autumn has come here.  It's been in the high 60s / low 70s for the past few days - breezy and crisp.  It's what I think of as perfect early fall weather - great for being outside (on bike or foot).  But it what is really has me wanting to do is cook, and bake in particular.  Part of it is that now that it's cooler, it's ok to use the oven again without making our tiny apartment into a furnace.  But part of it is that fall is the harvest, and there's so much beautiful food at the farmers market that's a few blocks away.
Yesterday and today I've been on a cooking frenzy - I have bread baking right now.  Yesterday I made coffee cake and biscuits and some amazing veggie pizza.  Here's the pizza (before I put cheese on top and baked it):

 

So the topping is onion, garlic, oregano, and basil sauteed with zucchini and green pepper from the farmers market.  And a yellow tomato, which I like better than red, and some mozzarella.  It's basically the same topping as the Polenta Pie from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood cookbook.  The crust is also Mollie Katzen's (Still Life with Menu), except I added some whole wheat flour and cornmeal.  The tomato made the pizza sort of juicy, but the crust cooked up well, and the pizza just tasted fantastic.  It's the best pizza I've ever made.  For real. 

In two weeks, I'm going apple picking with some friends.  I'm really looking forward to it, and to making pie/cake/crisp with all the apples I get.  Fall is good.

I'm still waiting for my undyed sock yarn to arrive (I suspect it got lost in the mail), so I bought some off-white wool yesterday to practice on.  I also bought some white cotton yarn to dye since I'm going to be leading tie-dyeing at a camp next week anyway.  Last night, I tried dyeing a little bit of yarn, just to see how it would work.   Here's how it came out:



This morning, when it was dry, I knit it up:




I like it a lot!  I dyed it with McCormick food coloring, mixed into 4 colors - yellow, yellow with a couple drops of red, yellow with several drops of red, and red with a couple drops of yellow.  The yarn is Patons Classic Wool in Winter White (which is a warm, off-white color).

I'm not sure how well the dye set.  I thought I had rinsed it out well, but there was a stain on the towel that I dried it on.  I put vinegar in the soaking water, and in the dye, and I microwaved the dyed yarn.  Maybe I didn't heat it for long enough - I stopped because the puddle of dye in the bottom in the bowl was boiling.  I'm planning on dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid next.

 I really want to knit a pair of Fawkes socks, and I think these colors are going to be perfect for it!  I wanted to knit those socks with these colors, but so much of the yarn I've found online knits up in stripes.   So if I can manage to dye sock yarn in these colors, keeping each color only a couple inches long, I'll be set!  

So on my iGoogle, I get a "How To of the Day".  Usually it's stuff I don't have any use for, like "How to Address British Royalty and Aristocracy in Person" or "How to Plan a Wedding in under Two Weeks" (well, maybe that last one could be useful...)  But a while ago, there was one so great that I bookmarked it.  I finally got around to trying it today - "How to Expand Ivory Soap".  Admittedly, it's written like a cross between a soap ad and a preschool lesson plan (complete with prompts - how does it feel, etc.), but it was actually pretty fun.  It doesn't at all come out like I expected it to.  It really does feel like cotton ball.  You can also make little sculptures with it, or put it into a mold.

You know you want to try this now.

On Sunday, I finished my second pair of socks ever.  I'm excited.  The first sock of this pair had been languishing for a couple of years since I thought it was too small for me.  But I kept trying it on "just to see if it really didn't fit", and I guess I stretched it out enough so that now it fits.  It's pretty snug, but it's not cutting off my circulation or anything. 
Here they are:


Pattern: the one on the Lion Brand Magic Stripes ball, only with 2x2 rib for the cuff
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Rhapsody
Needles: size 2 dpns

I ordered some more sock yarn from Knit Picks, and now I'm just waiting for it to arrive.  I bought some of this to make Jaywalkers, and some natural yarn to dye with Kool-Aid and / or food coloring.  Plus the order includes an Options needle set that someone was going to get me for Christmas, but he got lazy.  I can't wait for it to arrive!  

Yesterday, the rest of the peaches I bought at the farmer's market were ripe. And since it wasn't too hot, I decided to make a peach-cherry crisp. Here's what it looked like:



It tasted really good, too.  It was out of the oven by one, and half eaten by six o'clock.

Peach-Cherry Crisp
Filling:
4 c peeled, sliced peaches (use local ones if you can find them)
2 c pitted, cherries (I used the frozen ones from Trader Joe's - defrost them first!)
up to 1/4 c white sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 T lemon juice

Topping:
1 c rolled oats
1/2 c flour
1/4 c born sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/3 c melted butter
1/2 c chopped almonds (you can do this in a food processor or blender)

1) preheat oven to 375° F
2) combine filling ingredients in a large bowl, then put into an 8" square pan
3) mix topping ingredients in a medium sized bowl, then distribute over the top of the fruit & pat down
4) bake for 30-40 minute, or until the top has browned and the filling is bubbling

Let it cool some before you try and eat it.  It's great with vanilla ice cream!

So, I've been thinking about getting a new blog (or journal!) for a while now.  I want a place to write about the things I'm making, things that I find and are amazingly wonderful (like Potter Puppet Pals), and ideas that I get.  Something along those lines, anyway.  I was going to revive my old blogspot page, but since I have friends on LJ, I thought I might as well start new over here.  Including having a really bright orange theme, which is really not my color, but it's the only pretty one I could find.

So hi, Friends-o-mine that are reading this and saying "hey, I know her in real life".  You guys are great, and I might knit you something sometime if I think you'll wear it.   Or if you send me yarn.