Planting Garlic

On Sunday we planted garlic, which will be ready to harvest next summer. We were also hoping to plant a cover crop, but it's been so rainy here that we missed our window of opportunity. So we'll just have to suffer the weedy consequences next spring.

Happy Halloween

Rice Crispy Ghosts from Recipezaar

So I finished the the second of my Falling Leaves socks and, for some bizarre reason, it's bigger than the first sock. I cannot figure out what went wrong. Same needles, same yarn, same me, bigger sock. It's a Halloween mystery. I've already frogged sock #2. I'm going to try again on smaller needles, but if that doesn't work, I'm not sure what I'll do--probably just frog the whole project. Sometimes, knitting is hard.

Some Sewing

Dinner napkins from Weekend Sewing. Except for me these were a weekLONG project, because--well--I'm still not so good with the sewing. But I'm learning. These will probably be a gift for a friend's bday (no, CR, not you), and I may make a few more sets for Christmas gifts.
If I had a big fabric stash, this project would be good for using up leftovers. As it is, this project is a good excuse for me to buy fabric so I can have a stash to bust later on.

Knitting!

I haven't done much knitting lately, but we've had had two days of rainy, unseasonably cool weather, and (after a day of writing) knitting some mittens seemed like the right thing to do. So I pulled out these flip-top mittens that I'd started at the beginning of the summer, and this morning I completed the first one (except for the sewing up), and then CO for the second (to avoid SMS). This is SUCH a nice pattern, and I love working with Lamb's Pride Worsted. These were planned for my gift stash but I may keep them for myself. Their mohair, cable-y goodness is hard to resist.

What I did yesterday

Classes begin on Monday, but instead of writing my syllabus yesterday, I spent a crafty afternoon with C and another friend. My goal (besides avoiding other more pressing responsibilities) was to learn to put in a zipper. Even for a newbie sewer, I am painfully slow. The above photo documents my progress after 3 hours. At this rate, I should complete the project in a year or so.

Garden Notes

Yesterday's haul included hot peppers, beans, tomatoes (which last week finally started to turn red), and our first eggplant. The hot peppers were an accident--we thought we were buying sweet banana peppers but the plants must have been mislabeled. We're not sure what we actually have. We only know that they're really really hot. So I'm looking for things I can make with them, and I'd welcome suggestions.

Locavore Lunch

Tomato sandwich with homegrown tomatoes. MMmmm.