Commonplace

Stay-On Toddler Hat (and My Favorite Banana Bread)

Quinn is against hats. (He doesn't much care for shoes either, but that's a different post.) So I knit a pilot-style cap thinking that a tie at the chin would be enough. Wrong. Enter necessity, the mother of invention.

(It's hard to take a photo of an unsteady, newly-walking toddler.)

I'm calling this an Astronaut Hat and so far his objections have been limited. Here's a link to the pattern if you're so inclined. I've written it in two sizes 'cause that's just the kinda gal I am.

On to Project Quick-Bread.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to quick breads. There is oil or shortening as a 'wet' base or a dairy (i.e. buttermilk or yogurt) ingredient. After years of trying different recipes I've concluded that for my money, sour cream is the way to go in a banana bread. You can't beat the moistness and it adds just the right kick. As loathe as I am to admit it, Martha Stewart's recipe has become my go-to. And without further ado I give you my favorite banana bread recipe:

Oven:
350 degrees

Yield:
1 loaf

Ingredients:
1/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about three bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I leave these out)

Instructions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well. Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with butter mixture. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir in nuts if using. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (about one hour). Turn out loaf onto cooling rack.

Tomorrow: Fruited Pumpkin Bread

Some Socks for My Boys

A disclaimer: no babies were harmed in the making of this post.

Take one newly walking baby, knit him some super-soft socks that rock, put him on the newly refinished living room floors and watch him wipeout.

Oops.

Jake's were slightly more successful.

Except for one thing. See how the stripes match almost exactly all the way up to the toe? That really irks me.

Ginger doesn't mind it.

Off My Feet

I alluded in my last post to needing to be off my feet for a few days. It's not that I meant to be cryptic or secretive, it's just that I didn't want to make anyone cringe. I had a 'procedure' yesterday that involved general anesthesia and a gynecologist. Need I say more? It was routine and everything went fine, but I'm not allowed to lift anything heavy for a few days. Have I mentioned here that my baby weighs almost thirty pounds and is only just learning how to walk. I laughed out loud at the idea of not lifting him but the doctor seemed pretty serious. So I called in the troops and I'm staying off my feet. What's a girl to do?

Finish old projects.

Start new ones.

I started the scarf almost two years ago and lost interest somewhere very close to the end. It's quite gratifying to pick up a project so far along and have so little to do before it's finished. Sadly, I'm not nearly as fond of the colors as I was two years ago. I hope Jake's teacher likes it!

The blocks are a first birthday gift for Andy my next door neighbor. I'm pretty sure he'll like them as I've made similar ones for my one year old product tester and he approved. All the fabric was from the stash and the jingle bells in the center were recycled from other toys.

I expect to be up and around very soon and it's a good thing too—I'm not cut out for this lying around stuff. For now, though, I think I'll take another nap.

Sweater Weather

Finally.

I knit this for Quinn while I was pregnant. I picked all of my favorite cables and flourishes and embellished a simple raglan design and this is what turned out.

I love it.

At Jake's old school the uniform included an optional red or navy sweater or vest. I don't much enjoy knitting in navy blue so, needless to say, I had more than enough red yarn in my stash for a baby sweater. I love red on baby boys. I knew I was having a boy from early on so I knit this while imagining  him in it. The reality of him is so much more joyful than any daydream I ever had. He is a playful happy boy with an electric smile that is available constantly. Try however to photograph details of a sweater on a fourteen-month old toddler who has just learned to walk and suddenly he becomes a monster.

I did have the foresight to make notes while I knit the sweater so eventually I will write it up. I hope to knit it again in a larger size so that I can enjoy him in it for more than five minutes before he busts out of it!

This sweater is one that I wrote as a store pattern back when I did such things. We hung it next to the yarn it was made out of (Misti Alpaca Chunky) and it just about sold itself. When I left the shop I made sure that patterns I had written would remain my property, so I share this one here with you. It's an easy satisfying knit. All the detail is in the details — the split raglan and the deep ribbing. It wears like a sweatshirt but is so much warmer—enjoy!

Sweaters were a necessity at Rheinbeck yesterday. It was lovely and cool. For me the day was mostly social and recreational as my current yarn budget is nonexistent. I met up with a friend from high school who saw that I was going to be there on my Facebook status. It was my second such encounter with an actual friend facilitated by the virtual world of Facebook. Cool.

Jake's show (still saving details for a separate post) was trippy. He was wonderful. His performance was what he wanted it to be and that's my benchmark. As a parent I think it's very hard to judge our own children's talent and performance level. I worry that my reality is skewed by my hopes for him. But he was thrilled by the response he got and so was I.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful weekend. Tomorrow is soup swap over at Jessica's so come on back for a new soup recipe—I'm thinking black bean with cilantro sour cream...

Barefoot in October

It's sock season. Only, it's not. It needs to be cooler than fifty-five degrees for socks to be mandatory in my house. I'm not complaining. I'll wear my flip-flops until the first snow if it stays warm enough, it's just weird. I made these in sweet anticipation of autumn and as of yet, they've only been worn around the house. (Our house doesn't have a basement and is built on a concrete slab so the floors are very cold in the mornings.) My attention span of late doesn't allow for the knitting of sweaters. All I can realistically take on are accessories. I've started some fingerless gloves for Jake's guitar and keyboard teacher (I know, I'm a few years behind the trend on these) but something feels off about holiday knitting in eighty-degree weather. I'm superstitious enough to actually believe that now that I've written these things down—there is likely to be a foot of snow dumped on New York State tomorrow. Anyhow, we're leaving tonight to spend the weekend in Vermont with Niall's mistress. I assume that it's at least sock weather there. When I return I'm hoping to share images and stories of a weekend with friends and family spent cooking (this is on the menu), eating, resting and working on the house.

Scenes From my Living Room

I feel pretty strongly about how I want to use this space. One of the things that has been so satisfying for me about keeping a blog is the daily realization of how much I have to be grateful for. Until pretty recently I focused way too much on the things that weren't right with my days. Now, please don't misunderstand here. I think it's crucial to consider what you would like to be different or better in your life. It seems obvious to me that without contemplating our ideal we might never achieve it. Having said that, I feel much closer to actually getting there one day since I began spending time being grateful out loud. It's easy to say that one appreciates the roof over their head or the food on their table but for me, stopping to take a photo and maybe writing a paragraph or two about it has brought that appreciation into my foremost consciousness. So, it seems counterproductive to whine or complain on my blog.

But, please look at my living room.

(Sorry for the butt view and yes, that is the outside.)

If I told you that the first photo was taken two years ago next month would you feel badly for me? I'm going to spare you the details here partially because I can feel my face beginning to flush with frustration as I think of the story. The crux of it is that we live in a connected town-home. Our neighbor's back yard is next to the wall of our living room. His garden was shoved up against the side of our house for years and water from his roof was being spilled through a downspout directly into the dirt that sat up against our wall. On Thanksgiving morning 2006 I found dirt in my living room. The wall had just disintegrated into nothingness and the outside had come inside.

It's taken us this long to fix it because of insurance and lawyers and homeowner's associations hearings. It's still not over but Niall finally couldn't take it anymore (my whining and complaining about the garbage bag taped to the inside of my house that separated us from the elements). We are still 'fighting' with the neighbor and his insurance company about who is responsible and now the New York State court system is involved. It's awful.

I know I said I'd spare you the details and believe me, I did. It's much worse than all that and it involves mold. Today the wall was put back together and painted but the floors still need to be replaced. I feel unsettled and displaced and exhausted. There. I said it. I feel grumpy about all this and I think about it every time I walk into my living room. Grumpy.

How about some nice cheerful baby hats to end this post on a happy note?

The one on the left is for Quinn and the other is a gift for the newborn girl of an old friend of Niall's. It's hard to be grumpy while knitting baby hats!

Cool Weather Goodness

This is my favorite scarf.

I loved knitting it. I love the pattern. I love the yarn. I love the luxurious color and I love how it feels on my neck. I love the first day cool enough to wear it.

This is a new scarf.

I just finished it this week. It was a fun pattern and it's always satisfying to use scraps from my stash. I'm going to throw it in the rotation as the weather continues to turn and see if it earns a place of honor. Something about it isn't speaking to me though. We'll see.

In the spirit of the frost being on the proverbial pumpkin (do James Taylor lyrics count as proverbs?) and the wool scarves wrapping up our necks, I've also got soup simmering on the stove as I write this post. I'm getting a jump on Jessica's Soup Swap which is set to start on Monday. I'll be posting photos and the recipe then, but I'll give you some hints. It's my mother's recipe and it involves beans, barley and flanken. If you don't know what flanken is, then you probably didn't grow up in a Jewish household. You're in for a treat!

My question for today: If I were to give up television all together (in order to set an example for my boys), would that include Jon Stewart as well, or could an exception be made for his show?

Birthday Projects: Update

Here is a picture of Quinn's finished birthday quilt. The pattern was loads of fun and was inspired by this quilt. All of the fabric were scraps from my stash - except the backing and binding. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't bind it in the same fabric. I don't think it pulls the bright colors together as well as I had hoped. Other than that though, I love the playful pattern and primary colors.

And on the knitting front, I haven't lost my drive for the Tomten jacket yet (it's only been a day so I'm not reading too much into that). Maybe the blogging will turn out to be a motivator. What about you? Does blogging help you finish your projects?

The Return of Inspiration (Maybe)

I haven't been knitting much lately.

This skein of yarn has been atop the pile of unwound skeins and single socks that sits in the corner of my bedroom collecting dust behind the sewing machine and the television and the unfolded laundry.

It is one of two skeins of 4-ply Merino purchased at Rheinbeck in 2006. It is huge. Half of the first skein found it's destiny in this sweater and the other half called to me this morning. Out came the patterns and the swatching began.

One of my favorite books is Elizabeth Zimmerman's The Opinionated Knitter. The title alone could have won me over but I love the patterns and the concepts and the reprinted hand-written newsletters that used to cost a quarter apiece. I've learned many things from EZ. Among them, never be afraid to change a pattern. So I did.

It is a classic design called the Tomten Jacket. It was originally printed in Leaflet #7 in Fall 1961. It's a modular sweater that works in multiples of 8 and can be easily adapted for different gauges or finished sizes. It is also (as many of EZ's brilliant designs are) garter stitch.

It's nice to feel inspired again. I'll have to wait and see if the feeling sticks around.

Peaches and Yarn

This past weekend I visited our local farmer's market. I was in search of some rhubarb to make these. Instead I came home with these.

I admit it. I'm weak. I couldn't resist stopping at the Hudson Valley Wool stand.

The intensely colored skeins waiving to me and the smell of lanolin drew me in. I was only going to touch. Maybe just a sniff. But that blue... just the same color as Quinn's eyes. He could use a sweater for the fall. And this isn't just any yarn. This yarn is special. My purchase of this yarn would be supporting a local farmer.

I was convinced.

Then Shirley gave me the yarn. That's right. Gave me the yarn. The catch you ask? Well, I would knit something and blog about it. (As if I wasn't going to do that anyway.) Shirley just wants to get the word out about what she does. Which is what? She operates a fully organic farm which is part of a union of sustainable farmers who pride themselves in their ethical animal care, land stewardship and social responsibility. They "are committed to preserving our agricultural history ...(and to) preserving our land." She raises Merino and Shetland sheep and hand dyes the yarn in deep inviting colors. At $18 a skein she couldn't possibly be making any money from the sale of her yarns. She does this for the love of it. She is passionate. I love being around people who are passionate. I could hardly pull myself away from chatting with her.

But then the wind shifted and the scent of peaches caught my attention.