The Curly Purly Pumpkin - somehow mine ended up looking a little less country cute and a bit more diy style. nevertheless it was a quick little project, seasonally appropriate and I think that K. will be all excited about it when he wakes up in the morning.

i'm trying to decide on what to knit next. i want to do another skull hat, but bigger and better cause i've read up on interstasia now and have some new tricks up my sleeve. but i'd also like to start a french market bag from knitty and if i can finish up the skull illusion scarf, i might start on the branching out scarf from knitty for my next 'detailed' project.

i'm trying to 'break out of the mold' with my soaps, in my own way. this weekend i created a soap with the working name of Lavender Napoleon - it's a chocolate and lavender conconction with only cocoa butter and actual chocolate providing the chocolate flavor and lavender essential oil - no yucky fragrance oils. I made a soap 'icing' and layered it into the soap and to me it looks like a napoleon type pastry. super yummy!


the skull illusion scarf is progressing nicely. here are a few in progress pics, notice how i had to capture the knit side of the scarf in a particular angle to see the skulls. it's a very neato effect.





finally, the mailman brought me some birthday presents from myself. a full 6-pack of Cherry Tree Hill potluck worsted. this stuff is one of my favorites for soaker pants, but these colors are a little too pink for my boy. i'm thinking French Market Bag. The other skeins are Sweet Grass Wool 2-ply which will probably end up as Perfection Pants.

Fall Favorites Contest

I'm quite addicted following links to other blogs and delighted that I can now play along with these little blog games. Today I found this little contest on Princess Knits that I couldn't resist.

1. Favorite fall book to read The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. You could live totally off the grid and this book would tell you everything you need to know from birthing human babies to slaughtering pigs to making green tomato jam. A great read for cold, rainy nights.

2. Favorite fall soup to eat Black Bean. Chop up an onion and saute in olive oil. add a couple cloves of chopped garlic, 3 T of chile powder, 1 T of cumin and 1/4 t of cayenne and saute for 30 seconds. Add 2 cans of black beans drained and rinsed and 5 cups of water (more or less) and 5 T of veggie broth powder. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. use immersion blender to roughly puree soup. add some fresh cilantro if you have it. yummy. a wholesome standby.

3. Favorite fall stew to eat i don't really eat stew because i'm a vegetarian and i haven't yet come across a veggie stew recipe that i find particularly appealing.

4. favorite healthy muffin recipe banana chocolate chip muffins. make muffins, add bananas and chocolate chips. those things will power you through any athletic endeavor.

5. favorite fall tree the Larch. the only coniferous tree to lose it's needles in fall.

6. favorite fall knit i've only been knitting for a year, but when fall comes around i think about knitting up a pair of for K. to keep his little legs warm in the winter.

gender neutral 'skull cap' for baby present in Blue Sky Organic Cotton.

K. and I went up to Stowe to see the Oktoberfest parade and what a parade it was! Oompah bands on floats, goats and the ever popular Shriners in little cars.


they drive this suburban with a ramp and take their go-carts up the ramp, over the suburban and down the front as they drive along the parade route.

getting things done

so it turns out that the Macintosh safari browser doesn't support all the fancy formatting buttons for blogger, so i had to download firefox because i honestly don't know much html. yet. looks like i'll be learning a bunch in my future.


JennInSeattle on mdc sews cloth diapers and sends them to mothers in need for free. all out of the goodness of her heart. going out to her today to distribution to those in need is this package:

these are some of my early attempts at knitted Wonderpants, some pants sewn from old sweaters and an AIO that we just don't use too often.

We went out for some errands this morning as i needed to get out of the house and pick up some things for the biz. Found these to use for gift boxes:
and popped into the yarn store. shopping for yarn with a toddler is impossible. if they're not pulling skeins off the shelf they're running into the dyeing area or trying to upset the button display. it's not relaxing. it's not fun. it's not even really worth it. this is why i never go to my local yarn store and i hardly have any familiarity with the different yarns. I did manage to make a purchase, some Araucania Nature Wool Chunky potentially for a pumpkin hat and some Harrisville Designs 100% virgin wool in cocoa and white for a soaker.

oh crap, i forgot i was going to make soap while K. was napping. now i don't have time.

booties and hat in malabridgio yarns lettuce.

grand opening

first post. trying to figure out how to configure this thing so it looks snazzy, please give me some time to really get up and get rolling.

this blog is about knitting. it's about making soaps and lotions. there'll be some stuff about being a mom and maybe some bits about running and being a mom while trying to knit and make soap.