Holiday Cookie Baking

Every year, in honor of the holiday season, the twins, TK and KT, host cookie baking weekend.  It's a weekend where a bunch of us get together to, you guessed it, bake cookies. 

It is a 2 1/2 day cookie creation extravaganza where hundreds of cookies in over a dozen different varieties are made.

 

We're talking everything from raspberry thumbprints,

 

to cherry cookies,

 

 to rainbow cookies,

 

to rugelach,

 

to the classic chocolate chip,

 

and several varieties of truffles.

 

Everyone takes turns mixing, scooping, baking, cooling, and wrapping cookies.  There might also have been some smooshing and icing involved along the way. (I'll never tell, but here are some pictures of what that might look like. :-D )

 

 

By the end of the weekend, I didn't want to ever see another......

Who am I trying to kid?  I love cookies!

I can't wait for next year,
Joyce

Singing Hedgehogs

This was too cute and I had to share it.

Happy Holidays Everyone!




May the year ahead be filled with fibery goodness for us all,
Joyce

Giant bugs are coming for us!

During my summer visit to GiGi, we spotted a huge (dare I say ginormous) beetle.  Being the bug fan that I am, I held it while pictures were taken. (Crazy, right?)

Apparently it wasn't ready for it's close-up (or thought we were going to try to eat it, EW!) and kept trying to run out of my hands.  We took the hint and let it go quickly.

 However, for the bug phobic of you (I'm sorry), you should know:

"He went that way."

No, no, the other way,
Joyce

P.S. I heard a rumor that I was getting some yummy Tomatoes for Christmas.  Yay! I can't wait!

Mmmm... marshmallows

As a strict vegetarian of 8 years or so, I haven't had a 'real' marshmallow in a long time.  But I missed them. Oh, how I missed them.

Then at the NYC Vegetarian food festival last year, I discovered Sweet & Sara.  They make amazing marshmallows that vegetarians and vegans can both enjoy. 

I rediscovered them at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago and might be enjoying them a little too much.  This is my third pack in two weeks.

Mmmm, toasted coconut,
Joyce

Delay of Game

So it's finals week for me which means test giving and tons of grading (both tests and papers alike), but sadly, little time to look at pretty yarn.

So until I return with talk of knitting and such, I will leave you with brass sheep. 

They, like the elephants a few weeks back, are part an exhibit by Peter Woytuk that ranges up and down Broadway.  The sheep are currently surrounded by a mini-forest of Christmas trees for sale. 

I don't think I'd want to have to shear these sheep,
Joyce

Shared solitude

One of the things I enjoyed most about camping this summer was spending time with GiGi. 
We knit, talked, rode bikes, and, on occasion, stared thoughtfully at water together. 

I also really enjoyed getting to know her kids as teenagers.  They're growing into some pretty awesome people.  (I would put in a picture, but they'd never forgive me. ;-D)

Would you like to join me for some water staring?

Nice, isn't it?
Joyce

Camping Shawl

While I was camping with GiGi this summer, the main project I brought with me was a simple garter stitch shawl.  The yarn I used was a lovely, warm angora, wool, and silk handspun that Athie gave me for Christmas last year. 

While this may seem like a wonderful idea, the family was looking at me like I was crazy because it was a hot, steamy week in Arkansas in June when we went camping. 

I had actually started it near the end of May in NYC which, as some of you may know, can be nice and cool.  But it was one of only two projects that I'd brought with me to work on at GiGi's house and I'd finished the other one on the flight in. 

Yet, as it turns out, I barely worked on it while I was there.  GiGi had a friend that she wanted to give a lace shawl, but she's not that fond of lace knitting (crazy, I know!).  So we bartered a trade. She offered to knit a long overdue item that I'd been meaning to make (as a thank you gift for someone) on the condition that I would knit the shawl for her. 

How could I say no to that? I'd been putting off knitting that hat (yes, I said hat) for over a year.  So she gave me some yarn (100% Silk, Pingouin Pure Soie) and one of my own designs to knit. 

The Ceuta Shawl is the second shawl design that I published when I was starting out, so it had been several years since I had knit it.  I really enjoyed knitting it and it only took me about four vacation days to complete. 

 

It wasn't until after I got home (and into the air conditioning) that I finished the angora Camping Shawl.  And I almost immediately cast on another one.  That one is knit in a Merino and Silk hand dyed yarn. 

Unfortunately, the dyer has since stopped dyeing.  (I hear it's the only way to live.)  The colorway is called Canned Peaches.  I call it 'Wow-that's-a-fabulous-orange-yarn.' 

The yarn was also given to me by Athie (for a birthday during her pre-spinning days).  She has fantastic taste in yarn, doesn't she?  It also seems that she knows my color preferences a little too well.

Not that I'm complaining,
Joyce


P.S. I forgot to mention that the Camping Shawl is free on Ravelry.  It's knit side to side in garter stitch and is great for restful knitting in between big, complicated projects. download now

Music under the stars

The Time Warner Center has their holiday stars up again. 

They're one of my favorite decorations of the season.



Unfortunately, they also mark the start of Christmas knitting season. 
Pardon me while I panic,
Joyce

Another way to celebrate Thanksgiving

Hubbie was out of town for Thanksgiving, so the twins (TK and KT) were nice and invited me to join them for their holiday celebrations.  The majority of the day was spent making food for the people staying at Hosteling International.  For some of the people that came to eat, it was their first Thanksgiving.  For others, it gave them a small taste of home.  Some of the hostelers volunteered to help us cook and a good time was had by all.

There was turkey.

Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.

And pie. So much yummy pie. 

Pumpkin and apple to be precise. 

The apple was delicious. 

Sadly, I didn’t get any of the pumpkin, but I heard great things,
Joyce

Yarn store doggie

Meet Meringue.  She belongs to one of the ladies that works at Knitty City and comes in to visit occasionally.  She has a sweet personality and loves everyone.  She hopes that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I do too!

Some exercise might be in order after all of that Tofurky though,
Joyce

TeenyTiny Mochimochi

 Anna Hrachovec recently had an installation at the Lion Brand Studio.

Close up shots of her adorable MochiMochiland inhabitants:

KT and I went see her talk about all things MochiMochi and I picked up a copy of her Teeny Tiny Mochimochi book.

It has lions and mermaids and chickens, oh my.

Now if only I knit toys,
Joyce

Blackrock Forest

This summer I helped give a workshop in Blackrock Forest. It's beautiful there.

 During my stay I got to climb to the top of Mount Misery. It was anything but miserable.

At the top of the 1300 foot hill, I found a small forest of scrub oaks and blueberry bushes. There is a small path leading through these, and while my horror loving self found it to be potentially deceptively beautiful, I am pleased to say that it was not.

The path I was on didn't try to kill me until much later when I was at the bottom of the hill. I was standing on a bolder by a creek when it jiggled and I fell off nearly banging my head on another bolder in the process.

I am happy to say that I made it back to camp safely. (I was hiking alone, not my smartest decision).

Next time I'll bring a buddy,
Joyce

Elephants in Columbus Circle

I was walking through Columbus Circle the other day and came across elephants.

Well, bronze elephants.  They are life-sized and really quite wonderful!  The fountains surrounding them made me think about elephants at watering holes and how beautiful and playful they can be. 

This one is about to take a bite out of the Big Apple! 

That guy sitting on its trunk should probably get out of the way,
Joyce

Nova Neckwarmer

I put up a free cowl pattern of Ravelry some time back. The Nova Neckwarmer.

It is worked in Punta yarns Merisoft thousand colors colorway TH05. The stitch pattern modeled after these starburst pattern in Omelet.

The pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry.

download now

Sadly for me, it's keeping my sister-in-law's neck warm instead of mine.

Does this mean that my knitting's a traitor?
Joyce