My knitting buddy Hedwig

Hedwig sits & listens to the Harry Potter audiobooks with me as I knit. I loosely followed this cute owl pattern. I knit up the scarf in Gryffindor colors, of course.

Stuffies make me happy

Meet Mr. Pickle, Insolent Green Tomato, and my growing gang of edible stuffies...

pumpkin consolation gift

to be sent to my friend mandy bc I botched up her celery cardigan. Happy early birthday (she's a Halloween baby)!

it was a felix felicis kind of baking day

It was just one of those times when everything fell into place perfectly. 3 ripe bananas, just enough to make a batch of these muffins and a little left over for the accompanying cream cheese frosting. I followed this recipe from a great recipe site Tasty Kitchen. Batter poured out in equal measure to fill the muffin tin's 12 spots. Here they are when they came out of the oven.

The cream cheese had softened to just the right consistency to whip up with the sugar & vanilla and the last of the mashed bananas. The whole family fell in love with the frosting! We could not wait to start frosting as evidenced by Dave waving his spatula.

Sophie just started eating the frosting on its own while the muffins cooled.


Frosted yumminess!

Spatula schmatula, I'm having a muffin!

My first taste of malabrigo & the resulting unisex cap

I nabbed a sale skein of Malabrigo (one skein only) in Depth of Field's sale loft. The color is delightful as is its name: Velvet Grapes. And the price was a very affordable $8!! I now understand why Malabrigo devotees rave on so about this yarn. It is so incredibly soft for being 100% wool. Since I only had the one skein I decided to make a hat, small & simple. 2 x 2 rib for the brim, a couple of rows of stockinette so the brim would fold up neatly, and increased for the bulk of the hat in 3 x 3 rib, then decreasing gradually to the top. The ribbing makes the hat snug but also stretchy enough for both mine & Dave's heads. Hmm, it's our his-n-her winter cap!

suddenly there's a bounty

I didn't even know I had planted a sunflower until this beauty popped up this weekend. It faces the house, not the street. It's like it's greeting me especially.

One of the wildflowers I grew from seed in an egg carton way back in early Spring. It survived transplant shock. It's so plucky & cheerful.

My garden is still sparse & patchy, but it's attracted the bees and butterflies already. I'm so glad. It'll be a beautiful partnership.

Velvety Lamb's Ear - the name is so apt:

A l'il pepper shaped like a boxing glove:

Lots and lots of tomatoes in variations of green:

A delightfully pimply cucumber blossom:

And finally a RED tomato!

Mousie

Thank you l'il mousie for helping get my knitting mojo back. Ysolda Teague's Whimsical Little Knits is chock full of adorable patterns like Mousie. Mousie was just the quick but varied pattern I needed to get some of my knitting motivation back.

I've been feeling so guilty for being stuck on my friend Mandy's celery cardigan. There's something in the pattern that gets me right at the yoke. I may have to do some surgical repairs (eeks! this may involve steeking which I've never done before!) to make it wearable.

In the meantime, I'll stare at Mousie's cute little rump for confidence and inspiration.