Odds, Ends and Updates

For some time, I've been meaning to include some updates. Time is so elusive, however, and usually slips far too fast from my hands each day and before I know it, a whole summer has gone. Fortunately, sinceI'm a knitting machine, we will all be well prepared for the cold months to come.

Item #1: Knit Update.

I finished the mitered mittens on September 9th, then I set out to find child mitten "recipes" (as I always mistakenly call patterns). I joined Ravelry (though, I have only had time to put in the one project I made in a day from beautiful baby Blue Sky Alpaca I bought at Loop) and found a free pattern for children's mitts - which I am all about since they are so fast! It's fantastic to see progress when you are a results driven knitter as I am. I had a bit of trouble with reading the pattern as it pertained to the thumb, but again, the lovely staff at Loop gave me the encouragement needed to persevere.

I made Boy-O a pair out of the leftover Berroco Jasper from my Mitered Mitten foray. If you look closely, one mitt is larger, due to misreading the pattern on my part. Now, I've casted on again - armed with Loop advice for thumbs, and knowledge of what I did wrong. So each of the above will soon have a mate, and I'll have 2 pairs of child sized mittens. A good thing, since the publisher of the "recipe" said to donate a pair to charity since she was providing the pattern for free.

A happy boy with mitten.

In further knitting news, I am at a stalwart 2 alien heads for R1's birthday scarf. Good thing I told her that Iwould have it to her before the cold weather, or I'd probably never get it done. I think it boils down to that I prefer to knit in the round. I am going to make some more aliens, maybe even tonight.

Item #2: Beet Pasta Update.

I dried the shockingly pink pasta on the counter for 24 hours, and then packed the pretty stuff into a freezer bag until time with beet loving friends. Later that week, I did indeed try the raffish ends that were deemed unsightly to serve to dinner guests. I originally thought I would actually make a little sauce of blue cheese to put on it, but couldn't bring myself to devour them any other way than to dress with butter and salt and pepper.

Buttered noodles are among the more comforting things of life, as far as I'm concerned. And buttered beet noodles were far and away more delicious than any "veggie" pasta you can buy commercially. Worth the mess? I say Yes!

Not quite as shocking, but still deliciously peppered. And if it wasn't obvious by the color involved, I think I could serve these to non-beet lovers and they would just think they were really great noodles...

Item #3: Mushroom Penne Update.

I thought this recipe was good when I made it, but as promised, I did eat all of the leftovers. I must say, that the 2-4th days in the refrigerated life of this pasta were the most delectable. In fact, next time I make it, I'll probably make it in advance. It was silky and creamy - much more after its laying around a few days... and being vegetarian, I didn't feel bad having it 4 days out.

The same picture as the original post.

Item #4: Pancakes, Pancakes Update.

I did try the pancake recipe I originally made with oat flour with buckwheat flour instead. Just substitute 1/2 c. buckwheat flour and 1/2 c. AP flour for the oat and whole wheat flours of the original recipe, and you'll have a really nice, earthy pancake that even a picky 3 year old will love.

Well, that's all the updates I can think of for now. I need to strain out my cherry cordial from July, re-bottle it into a bottle and let it slumber now until December or so...but for some reason, I'm procrastinating that. Maybe now that I've admitted it, I'll do something about it.