Taking the Challenge

I've made two sweaters in my eight-year adventure in knitting. My first one took almost three years. It took me a year just to block the darned thing. The other went a little faster: I whipped up that baby up in around 4 months.

It was almost worse than knitting a pair of socks (I get turned off at having to create that second, yet crucial sock).

I vowed two things after gifting the wooly wonders to my parents: 1) I would always, always do a gauge swatch no matter how painful it would be to make multiple swatches, wash them, and wait for them to dry; and 2) I would likely never venture into Sweater Land again.

But thanks to the 30 Day Sweater Challenge, I'm well on my way to eating my words. I'm not using their framework, but I am using the challenge to motivate myself. 

So far, it's been great! I've even ventured back into social media; I revived my Instagram and Twitter accounts.

The sweater I've chosen to knit is the Anisette Cardi. I found the pattern a couple years back and bought four skeins of Bamboo Ewe a year and a half ago. I love the idea of a short-sleeve cardigan! It's cute, functional and has a little bit of cabling and lacework, but not so much that I'd lose my mind. I finished the back (in just four days!) and started the front right panel. I can't wait to see how the rest of the sweater goes!

Fruits of I Love Yarn Day

I celebrated I Love Yarn Day by working on some crocheted bunny slippers with the help of some fine coffee at a local shop. I officially started on July 30 of this year, but I bought the yarn while I was in college. It hasn't been an easy road. I frogged plenty of pieces multiples times. At one point, I was convinced the pattern was for banana, not bunny, slippers.

The pattern I'm using is Fluffy Bunny Slippers, from Debbie Stoller's "The Happy Hooker." It uses two balls each of Classic Elite LaGran Mohair and Lambs Pride Worsted. There was errata, and lucky for me someone on Ravelry caught another error, so they are starting to look like actual slippers!

As you can see, I haven't added the bunny parts, but those are next!

Looking Back on September

Another month has gone by! Can't believe it. This month brought cooler weather for baking. I discovered European buttercream frosting, which I used to make two cakes last month. One was a chocolate cake covered in dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and glazed in chocolate ganache. The other was a simple vanilla butter cake swathed in vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. I will likely never, ever make American buttercream again!

Between cakes there were cinnamon rolls and chocolate crinkle cookies.

I also made challah, vanilla ice cream and the last smoothie of the summer.

And I finally perfected a recipe for a delicious, refreshing and filling smoothie:

• 1 cup ice
• 1 avocado
• 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk or honey
• 3/4 cup milk (I used 2 percent, but you can use any kind you want)
• 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice (to keep the avocado from discoloring.

Blend and enjoy! Depending on how much you love smoothies, this recipe serves between 1-2 people.

But there was more! I attended my first-ever yarn tasting!

I got to sample a dazzling array of luscious yarns at Sophie's Fine Yarn Shoppe. I even broke my diet to purchase a lovely ball of Berroco Boboli Lace.

Speaking of yarn, September also brought a flurry of finished knitting projects. So I guess it was a win -- one new skein of yarn for every four from my stash! I finished a sparkly shawl made from Lion Brand Trellis and a fluffy warm cowl knitted out of Patons Divine. That brings my total finished project count to 10 so far this year. I am making great progress on Christmas gifts! Just a couple more to go and I'll be done.