[cooking] Date Pinwheel Cookies

This is the recipe I used.

I didn't have quite enough dates, so I supplemented with some raisins. I boiled them with water and sugar. Once that reduced, I blended it with pecans in a mini food processor until it was a nice spreadable paste. 

I rolled out the dough, spread the paste, rolled it up and left the log in the fridge for a couple days. I used a bench scrapper to do the slicing. 

I've never made these before and I'm really thrilled with how they turned out. They look so pretty and they taste amazing. AMAZING. One of my Top 5 favorite cookies now. I'm afraid I'll never try to make these cookies again because they came out so awesome this time, surely I won't be able to get it right a 2nd time and they'll always be a disappointing reminder of these perfect ones.

Gotta come up with couple more cookies. Chocolate something. And almond something. Then I can start bringing them to get-togethers and stuffing the neighbors' mailboxes.

[crafts] Christmas ornament

After seeing a picture online, I made a new ornament for the tree:

Die Hard is our favorite Christmas movie. It was easy enough to make this just from seeing an image: print out a wallet-sized image of McClane in the heating duct, measure size, cut card stock to dimensions, cover card stock with tin foil (shiny side out), tape it all together.

I love it!

[knitting] Slow socks

I've been taking my time, working on a pair of socks for myself:

The yarn is by Fiber Stash and the colorway is Tardis Blue. I am so in love with this pattern. It's free on Ravelry and called Lissajous Figures. Not sure what that meant so I googled it and Merriam-Webster says:

Definition of Lissajous figure 

: any of an infinite variety of curves formed by combining two mutually perpendicular simple harmonic motions, commonly exhibited by the oscilloscope, and used in studying frequency, amplitude, and phrase relations of harmonic variables

I can definitely see that happening as the pattern progresses and the paths of the twisted stitches cross or approach/repel.

I'm to the heel flap of the first sock and I started the cuff for the second last night. I'm working on two circular needles since DPNs weren't working (causing loose stitches between needles that interrupted the design). Maybe I'll learn magic loop. Maybe I'll learn two-at-a-time magic loop. Maybe over the Christmas vacation...

[cooking] Baking Weekend

Made some brownies this weekend:

I used this recipe, which is easy to mix by hand in one bowl. I baked the brownies in a 6-cup snowflake pan by Nordic Ware. I am a Nordic Ware devotee. I've used their pans for a butterfly cake, a castle, a house, all kinds of round bundts. I have a new yule log pan I want to try next. The results are always impressive- and it's just the pan that does all the work! The cast aluminium material is thick and heavy- it cooks really evenly. I've never floured the inside of the pans-  just spray with food release- and haven't had an issue with a cake sticking to the inside.

I'm going to start sewing some drawstring muslin bags to keep the pans in. They're starting to stack up in the cupboards and I want to keep the insides from scratching.

I started bringing together doughs for Christmas cookies. Some date/raisin pinwheels, benne wafers and these cran-orange icebox cookies:

Lastly, some pizza for the football game:

It's been very carb-y and sugar-y around the house...

[knitting] Handmade gifts

All the handmade Christmas gifts spread out before wrapping:

And one "Get off the table, Santana!" picture:

Might rummage around the stash a bit this weekend for a few more last minute gifts.

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TGIF. Going to do some baking this weekend- I have a couple new bundt pans I want to try out. Maybe start some Christmas cookies. Run errands around the Upper Valley. Lots of football will be on- Saturday NFL games start tomorrow.

I don't think it has gotten above freezing in two weeks. Last night I was huddled on the couch, under a blanket, wearing a cowl and wrapped in a large shawl, knit slippers on my feet, scootching the cats closer to me and thinking, "This must be what living in Siberia is like." And then I went to Instagram and started browsing Siberia/Russia images to make myself feel warmer.

[knitting] Simple Garter Stitch Slippers

Made a couple quick garter stitch slippers last weekend:

I've got to make a couple passes with a lint roller over these before wrapping. Penny's immediately on my lap as soon as I sit down to knit and our arrangement has been: you can sit here as long as you don't mind me draping yarn on you, resting my project on you, accidentally poking you with needles, dropping stitch markers on you and then feeling around your side, trying to get the stitch marker back, etc etc etc. No matter what I do, Penny puts up with it in order to stay on my lap. I will say that I sit cross-legged and make a nice, tight little hammock for her between my knees with a fleece blanket- it's pretty sweet. But it means her white fur gets into everything I'm making.

Anyway, the pattern is Simple Garter Stitch Slippers and it was a great stash project using leftover sock yarn, held double. I ran out of the green and had to finish the toes in solid black. 

[knitting] Birthday, I mean, Christmas socks

In mid/late November, I made three pairs of socks for Dollar's birthday. But I got a package of Army surplus socks at the Darn Tough sale and gave those to him for his birthday instead. (Which meant I could save the handknit worsted socks for Christmas!)

First pair:

Solid black. Used Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted- two balls (new). 

Next pair:

Patchwork using wool/acrylic leftovers from past socks like Lion Brand Wool Ease and Plymouth Encore.

Last pair:

I particularly love how this pair turned out. Still acrylic/wool but I alternated grey with a marl and the yarns really worked well together. Ran out of yarn at the end and had to do red toes.

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I did wind some sock yarn and start a pair of fingering-weight socks for myself. I think over the past two nights, I've only done 12 rounds. The progress is so slow and I couldn't be happier. It's very relaxing to (a) work on something for myself, and (b) not be thinking "OMG HURRY UP GET THIS DONE ASAP SO YOU CAN DO THE NEXT THING". It's sooooo nice. And the yarn I'm using is a delight. 

[knitting] Fingerless Mitts

I am way behind on pictures of all the quick holiday gifts I've been making. Some fingerless mitts:

Pattern is Easy Fingerless Mitts (Rav link). Good stash busting project. I dug around for some misc worsted-weight-looking yarn, without labels, leftovers from this and that. The pattern is worked from the cuff up and it's easy to have both mitts going at the same time (on two sets of DPNs), working from both ends of the ball to use up every last inch of yarn.

[quilting] Crumb Quilt Top Complete

Finished the little crumb quilt top last week:

Santana for scale:

This week, I've really got to sort out backing and binding fabric- and bring it to the quilt shop to be finished.

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Had a good weekend apart from a bit of food poisoning yesterday. I suspect it was a lemon meringue pie that I made- the filling didn't set up properly, so maybe it was undercooked eggs.

I was able to crank out a couple pairs of slippers this weekend and I'm ready to be done knitting for the holidays. I've been looking at three pretty skeins of sock yarns that I want to wind and knit into socks for myself. It feels like the temperature hasn't gotten above freezing for the past two weeks and I want some new bed socks.

I'm just going to make some hats for nephews and their girlfriends and maybe a few more small things... then it's just knitting for me!

[cooking] Challah

Made a challah loaf this week:

I used this recipe. I made it once in January of this year as part of King Arthur Flour's Bakealong. This month, braided bread is the challenge in the Cooking From Scratch group on Ravelry, so... challah back.

Baked:

I'm kind of in love with braided bread right now. My loaf is six stands and I'm thinking next time, I'll roll all the ends together to make one long strand and then finger crochet the dough into a wreath. That would be so cuuuuuute! 

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TGIF. I'm at a point in knitting where I'm done with everything on my To Do list. Got to focus on sewing quilt pieces now.

We have our first holiday party this Sunday with family. I'm planning on making a lemon meringue pie. I've never made one before but I'm sure it will be fiiiiiiiiiiiine. Probably.

[knitting] Green Cabled Hats

Made a trio of cabled hats:

All three are with worsted weight wool, US 7 needles and a cast on of 96 stitches. They start with k2p2 and move on to cable work. No patterns for the two on the left but the one on the right is the Allen Hat (rav link). 

Good stash-busting; I dug through the stash for misc green yarns. These will be gifts.

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Had an unexpected day off yesterday so I made some challah bread in the morning, finished up some knitting projects and took pictures, finished sewing the little crumb quilt top, went down to King Arthur Flour to make some cinnamon rolls for charity, came home and made cinnamon rolls for Dollar's band practice, cleaned out the fridge and threw away the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers (don't you judge me). It was a full day. 

[quilting] Crumb Quilting

Last week I was working on squares for a little quilt:

I'm working on a large quilt for a friend and I have tons of small, irregularly shaped scraps. I want to sew them together randomly to make "crumb" squares. I pulled out some other fabric from the stash to practice on. 

I sewed pieces together with no real plan in mind, I sliced and diced and sewed pieces together again:

The goal was to make 9.5 inch squares, like the two on the left in the above picture. 

I did get nine squares finished- but the last two have rather small sliver pieces along the edges- as I ran out of fabric and tried to add on thin pieces that I had cut away from other squares. In the end, there was more waste fabric than I would have liked and a lot of seams on the wrong side. But I'll add some sashing and (hopefully) bring it to the quilt shop this weekend. 

And now I have a better idea how to manage the small "crumbs" for the big quilt I'm working on.

[misc] Murderface Monday

You know it's cold out when the cats deign to touch one another while napping:

We ran all our errands on Saturday morning and brought home a Christmas tree. Decorated on Sunday during football commercial breaks.

I'm working on green skull caps with a skull stitch marker:

These hats will be for one group of band members. For the other group: fingerless mitts. Both projects are using up a lot of stash yarn, which is awesome. (My internal yarn-o-meter is creeping towards "IT'S OKAY TO BUY MORE YARN NOW" the more yarn I use up... but I'll wait until after the holidays are over.)

For local people, King Arthur Flour has posted their free Bake for Good classes. Sign up! The classes are fun and educational- and free!

I did hit the kimchi pretty hard this weekend. Hard not to do with yummy, fresh kimchi in the fridge. Feeling a little bad for Dollar, I made a big pot of beef stew yesterday.