The last of the ends are woven into the sockyarn blanket.  I spent some time over the weekend discovering that I actually can crochet, sort of, but that crochet doesn’t seem to be fixing the curling around the edges.  I’m giving some thought to a seed-stitch border, or perhaps some really burly crochet edgings.  I’d welcome any brilliant ideas you all come up with.   I really don’t want to settle for a blanket that’s great except for the edge–no good, that.

I also started a new project.  I have crush on Canada, you know, and particularly on Nova Scotia.  I’m not going to Rhinebeck this year, which means I won’t be able to wallow in wool on my birthday unless I obtain the wool in advance.  So I bought myself some Fleece Artist loveliness as an (obnoxiously) early birthday present.  It’s Lady of the Lake in Arctic Waters.  I think I originally promised myself that I’d save the project until my actual birthday, but that immediately turned into WEARING the sweater on my birthday once the box showed up on Saturday.  I love the color, but am having a hard time both with the huge needles and the mohair boucle.  Also, well, my strong  connection between this color, this texture, and Grover.

It is a lovely thing to knit though, lemme tell you.  This yarn is gorgeously dyed and the Aran is soft and springy and everything else I ask for in wool.

When I’m not knitting lately, I’m giving some serious thought to baking recipes.  A kind person on Knitter’s Review asked me to share my recipe for Mexican Chocolate Cake.  I’ve been melding several recipes for a few years, and I’m trying to finalize them into one unified recipe that actually results in the cake I love so much.  Both the cake and the frosting (not shown above, obviously) are a bit unusual in their preparation, which is why it took me almost a decade to recreate the cake.  If other people can make the cake, maybe I’ll get to have some one day without dirtying this pan, which otherwise holds small tidbits in our pantry.

I think I may end up including ‘buy an x” by y” Polish ceramic baking dish’ in the recipe, and then password protecting the recipe to only allow people who can explain the reactions of chemical leaveners, acids, and bases in cake-baking to access it.  Or maybe the crazy talk just flows out of me faster when I’m thinking about cake.

I’m also giving a lot of thought to those addictive Pumpkin Muffins the evil coffee conglomerate makes.  Which requires roasting pumpkin seeds, and glazing them with spiced honey, and yet not eating them all while prepping a batter.   We’ll see how that goes.  I’ll either fail or end up making muffins I love so much that evil coffee conglomerate’s muffins become like poison to me.   I managed that feat with canoli, and now I bemoan the lack of canoli in my life for a couple of years at a time, because a girl can only make canoli so often, you know?

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