The millstone sweater is coming along so rapidly, I may be able to wear it the first day it becomes cold enough for a sweater.
(Colors bear minimal resemblance to real life. Ends are in need of weaving, not a bold choice of fringe.)
Because I’m at max burnout for much-assembly-required, only 2 short seams join front and back at the shoulders. I’ll crochet the sleeves out from the arm holes, all one piece. Then trim, then done.
The swoat that took 3 years to finish skewed my notion of how long it takes to complete anything, so I have no next project planned. I feel recovered from my blanket fatigue¹, so I’ve been inquiring whether anyone I know (and trust not to be wildly unreasonable) would be interested in one (1) blanket with no set delivery date, for the cost of the yarn.
Fingers crossed the taker likes plaid² and colors that won’t bum me out for the months I’ll be looking at them. Bonus if they have expensive taste so I can handle yarn that’s way above my pay grade.
I scored a 2-pound bag of fresh cranberries, so it’s tongue-tantalization time around here. After low-effort, high-reward, not-photogenic cranberry-orange-walnut bread came the cran-apple pie.
Note the massive decorating downgrade from the previous pie. That was atypically ambitious.
Pro tip acquired from a Rose Levy Beranbaum cookbook: Let the fruit macerate in the sugar for half an hour or so, and then reduce the juice until it’s like caramel and pour it over the filling. Keep all the flavor without your pie being wet! Works for all fruit pies, and was especially helpful earlier in the year with some frozen rhubarb that shed a ton of moisture upon thawing.
I’m really digging coffee cakes lately, so a cranberry one of those is next on my agenda, maybe with a cream cheese ribbon for extra yum.
I overheard someone express frustration at their inability to write useful notes in a cookbook due to book-as-sacred-object training. I wasn’t in a position to give them a talking-to, so all y’all listen up:
A COOKBOOK IS A WORKBOOK.
Take notes. Highlight. Underline. Cross out. Show your work. Record your findings for Future You!
When that workbook changes hands in the future, it will be an anthropological treasure. And if that seems too grandiose, think of passing it on to a young family member or some inexperienced cook grabbing it from a used book store and getting the benefit of all your trial-and-error, all your measurement conversions, all your “LOL” that there are 32 servings in an 8×8-inch pan.
Scribbling in that workbook increases its value. Do it.
¹ When I had just started crocheting, I agreed to make one blanket for someone else to give as a holiday gift if they purchased the yarn. They showed up with yarn for two blankets, wanted for the same holiday. The pressure to get them done on time was so un-fun, it nearly ruined crochet for me. Confining my ill will to blankets kept a hook in my hand.
² Not specifically this blanket pattern because I don’t have a hook for bulky yarn, but the general principle with the crocheted horizontal bands and the vertical weave to create the plaid.