Over the weekend it got chilly, and it was 41 when I woke up this morning!  The weather people promise it will warm up again, but I don't really mind the crispness in the air - I like autumn.  Last night I made bread again:

I love when it comes out this perfectly (hint: it doesn't always - last time was tasty but it was also only half this size and a bit dense)  I used the aramanth again - the flavor is wonderful.

I also made a delicious dish that I'm calling (from now on) VT harvest curry.  The original recipe is called Country Captain in the newer Joy of Cooking model, and while I'm sure that version is quite tasty I've never made it.  The recipe calls for a lot of different ingredients and spices (raisins, onion, garlic, tomatoes, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar, etc...)  Which all get simmered together.  Reading through the list I realized that everything except the tomatoes was already in a jar of my chutney.  So rather then all that crazy chopping, simmering, and stirring my version goes something along the lines of "Brown chicken, dump in jar of chutney and chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned) simmer just until soft"  It's so quick and so delicious.  The original recipe also doesn't have apples in it, which is a huge oversight in my opinion, because my way is great!  We ate it too quickly for me to take a picture.

I "finished" Neil's sweater a second time.  And for a second time I got to the end and realized I'd screwed up the neck shaping.  Last time I didn't decrease enough, this time I decreased too much, too quickly.  I'm going to have to rip it out again.  I'm trying to resist the urge to stuff it back into the closet.  I know Neil really wants to actually wear it this season...

Monday again already, how'd that happen?  We had a great, spring like week,.  It's been warm and Neil and I have spent a lot of time playing outside.  Neil's been doing some great (and some necessary) landscaping projects and I've been helping, and/or goofing off outside.  Then on sunday morning we woke up to 15F weather and 4 inches of new snow.  Ugh.  It looks like winter is back for at least another week. 

I've been so busy playing outside that I just haven't been knitting as much.  I also had a horrible accident with a pair of socks.  I have half as much yarn as I thought I did.  I'm trying not to be bitter, but I had to rip out a half finished sock.  Frogging a project is much easier when the mistake is my fault.  So while I try to overcome the emotional setback I've been knitting little squares.  Little squares are so small there's really no danger of running out of yarn.

I’m always saving my sock yarn scraps. Bits leftover from sock projects that are too small to make anything useful, but too pretty to throw away.

And the other day I came across the scrap sock yarn blanket. At the time I thought it was cool, but I clearly don’t have enough sock yarn scraps yet. Then I learned that several people have made these blankets just by asking other knitters in ravelry for extra sock yarn scraps.

This weekend I thought I’d just give it a try, and see how I liked knitting little squares.
I picked my favorite scrap, and knit a square. I didn’t like the garter stitch square, so I went with stockinette:

I liked it. Even better?

I have enough scrap for two squares in this color.

I knit another:

Still fun, so I knit a few more:

I really liked seeing how the colors played in the tiny little squares.

I raided my stash for bits of sock yarns that I haven’t knit socks with yet:

(I better not run out of yarn when I’m knitting socks with these later, or I’ll be cranky with myself)

And I just kept going:

It turns out knitting tiny squares is kind of addictive.  They're instant gratification knitting.
I didn’t knit all weekend, but all the knitting I did was just little squares.  All stockinette, all on US 2 needles.  I've got a lot of scrap sock yarn left still.  It looks like I've knit a lot of green socks, I should make a mental note to branch out in the future...

Then I connected two by knitting a third, just to see how it works:

I like how the connection straightens out the edges. It’s encouraging. Also encouraging, Neil’s thrilled that I’m knitting us a blanket. Apparently he’s always wanted one but hasn’t asked, because he knows how much work they are and he didn't want to impose (awwww)

The discouraging part is I knit 16 squares this weekend, and to make a queen sized blanket (because I’m crazy), I need 26 squares in just the first row of the bottom edge.

I’ve got a ways to go.

Even though most of my world looks like this:



I have hope that spring may arrive someday:



I knew I planted those early spring bulbs along the sunny south side of my foundation for a reason!

For a solid 48 hours I've managed to convince myself that the 22nd is this upcoming weekend. I have no idea what I was thinking. I was approaching panic at finishing the mystery project on time. I had a schedule and an amount I had to knit before I could go to sleep each night, and I was telling everyone about how stressful it was for TWO DAYS. Then last night I realized I have a whole weekend, and not just any weekend but a three day weekend between me and the photo shoot. Duh.

And really, I don't have much else to say, all I've been doing for 2 days is knitting the mystery project, working, and sleeping.

I'm so soooo ready for winter to be over. The animals are going stir crazy (every year around this time our kitties start shredding paper and eating houseplants, and I start growing kitty grass, and it never helps.) I suspect it's because they're bored and can't go outside to chew on plants and get exercise. Reggie has joined them now with exciting rounds of stealing EVERYTHING off the kitchen counters, barking incessantly whenever the humans look like they might be going outside, and BOLTING for the neighbor's trash the moment he's outside and not on his leash.

The daylight is creeping back into my mornings though, so that's a very good sign. And we're having an impressive warm spell this week/weekend which may include rain. The only problem here is that next weekend I need snow for my winter photo shoot... So I'm torn between the desire for an early spring (I just remembered how many daffodil bulbs I found last fall when I was planting crocuses!!!) and the need for the snow to look pretty a week and a half from now.

Since last fall when I planted my apple and pear trees I've been joking about planting peach trees.  They won't bear fruit in the zone 3 climate of our area, they need a zone 4b or 5.  But I've been joking that with global warming by the time my trees are ready to bear fruit (it takes 4-5 years before you can let them put that much energy into seeds) it'll be warm enough for peaches.