Autumn Reading List

My mother-in-law is an avid reader (like myself) and when she's finished a few books she passes them around. I'm always excited to get a stack of books and consider her titles my seasonal required reading. This past summer she lent me a slew of great books and now she's provided me my autumn reading requirements:

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Berry

I just started reading this book on Monday and I'm really liking it!

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Looks promising!

 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

This one I've chosen for myself. I've already finished the first two books in this series and now it's time to cap it off!  The second book was even better than the first so I have high hopes for the third.

Dark Shadows

Since we've opted out of cable we're pretty reliant on Netflix streaming. As a result, I've recently become crazy obsessed with Dark Shadows. 

So moody, so mysterious, so good!

And then today I discovered that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are making their own movie version of this 1960s daytime drama. 

Check out this cast photo:

So awesome, I can't stand it! 

The movie is supposed to come out May 2012. I'll be starting the countdown once Downton Abbey Season 2 is over ... that obsession will be another post entirely ...

Winter Hat Debate

Looking through my stash of winter knits I've come to realize that I have tons of scarves, fingerless mitts and gloves but only a couple knit hats.  
The one knit hat that has been in heavy rotation is a beloved one but it's lacy and made of mostly cotton. Not ideal once the weather really starts to get chilly. I want to knit another slouchy-ish hat (something that won't give me a bad case of hat head) so I've been researching Ravelry and found some good contenders:

Cabled Beret

Garbo's Turban

Trinity Stitch Hat

Rosebud

 The hardest part now is just making a decision!

Bandana Cowl

Another Purl Soho project! 

I've recently completed the Bandana Cowl and I love it. 

It was a very easy knit and I made mine with some twist (wool/alpaca) yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. I'm sure this piece will be in heavy rotation this fall, or is it already winter since we got three inches of snow this past weekend?

The Herringbone Cowl

I'm very late blogging about this project. I bought the yarn over the summer while on a knit crawl with the girls. I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw the sample at Purl Soho. Here's the pattern - Big Herringbone Cowl.

This pattern was, for me, absolute torture. I casted-on and frogged FOUR times before finally getting going. No small feat considering the cast on is over 200 stitches. I ended up buying new needles which definitely helped. I recommend using the sharpest needles you can find in wood or bamboo. You need grip! Plastic, which I started with, was hell.

 I took this project on a trip home in September thinking it would be a great project for plane travel. I made great progress on the plane - a solid 5 inches - but just as we're about to land, I realize I made an error in the pattern 3 INCHES AGO. Once I finally got home, surrounded by family, I frogged it AGAIN. 

Apparently, for me, five is the charm. With new determination to finally finish this cursed project, I powered through. I had such trouble keeping tension with this pattern. All the slipped stitches in combination with large needles was just challenging for me. A good blocking definitely helped even things out and the final object does look pretty nice. But I will never make another one of these. Ever.

In The Hood

I've been on a roll with my holiday knitting and took a break last weekend for a photo shoot. I plan on adding some fresh hoods to the Etsy store and I think some new photos are just what's needed. Here are some behind the scenes photos I snapped with my Fuji Mini.

It was a very fun day and I feel so lucky to have such talented friends and family. Once I get final images back, I will be sure to share them here!

Vermont

 

It's hard to believe our little Vermont vacation was two weeks ago. We had a lovely trip. We did some walking trails at the Shelburne Farm (beautiful), visited the Shelburne Museum (loved - highly recommend!) and indulged in several rounds of hot apple cider & cider donuts. 

Come to think of it, most of the trip was about food. We had the most amazing breakfast/brunch at Penny Cluse in Burlington. I managed to snap one photo before we dug in. You can't really see exactly what Adam's eating but let me tell you - it's called 'Bucket O Spuds'. Noted as "A heaping mound of homefries with melted cheese, salsa, sour cream & green onions'. Plus an egg on top. Mmmmmmmm. The banana bread with maple walnut cream cheese was my last minute addition.

Penny Cluse was recommended by the lovely woman at Nido, a little fabric and yarn store in Burlington. Her fabric selection was awesome and I definitely took home enough to make several garments. Adam was so wonderful, I took him through 5 different yarn/fabric shops across our trip and he only commented once that I might be buying too much yarn. Muhahaha! For the record, I only came home with 10 skeins and most of it is for holiday gifts. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.