Now with Links Instead of Pictures!

I realized after I sat down to write a post, that even though I've been busy knitting, I have no pictures to show for it at the moment. There are two projects that cannot yet be revealed, one that looks the same as it did the last 4 times I posted a picture, and one that I didn't think to photograph.

But I can tell you that in the past couple of weeks, I returned to the Dotty vest I'm making for The Tim. You may or may not recall that last February, I took a fair-isle class at Rosie's, where we were all knitting a Kaffe Fassett pattern. This was my chance to learn fair-isle, and once I got started, I was really enjoying it. Then I got involved in the sock knitting for Christmas, and Dotty got set aside. A couple of times during the summer, I pulled it out, but it was just too much wool to have sitting on my lap when it was so hot and humid. But once the holidays were over, I decided that I wanted to try and get it finished, maybe even before the end of this February!

Progress has been made - I'm to the point where I will need to create steeks for the V-neck and the armholes. Which means I am [temporarily] stuck. The pattern is not written for knitting in the round, so does not include directions for the steeks. I am both mathematically and conceptually challenged, and have no reasonable clue how to figure out what I should do. So until I can see if someone is available to help me figure it out/explain what to do at Rosie's, or I find someone else who can help me, Dotty will get a time out, hopefully just a brief one. (I would ask Carol to help me, but she is busy being famous with her new book.)

I've also started a Snuggle for the Snuggles Project, with some Red Heart yarn a co-worker gave me a while back. It's nice to work on when I'm just not in the mood to do anything else, but I still feel like knitting. So far I have about 5 inches knit, in a slip stitch pattern that is nice and cushy. I think I'll switch to another stitch pattern now, just to keep it interesting.

I've also tried a couple of new recipes in the past couple of weeks. I collect even more recipes than I do knitting patterns, and have many, many cookbooks as well. I also love looking at food blogs and getting ideas. It occurred to me that in spite of this, I seldom try anything new. So I'm going to try to make something new (to us at least) once a week. My first attempt was this recipe for Cabbage and White Bean Stew, which turned out really well, and also made enough to freeze some to have another time or two. Then I tried Pinto Beans and Mexican Vegetables Over Yellow Rice from Claire's Classic American Vegetarian Cooking by Claire Criscuolo. This is a cookbook that I have on "long-term loan" from Lisa, and though a lot of the recipes sound fabulous, this was my first try. I can highly recommend this dish. If you follow the recipe as it is, it's not too spicy, but of course we like spicy foods, so I did "embellish" things a bit.

OK, I think that is enough excitement for one post, don't you? I would hate for any of you to be overcome with excitement and require medical assistance ...