This post is not about Michael Jackson

Just in time for July, I give you....a new wool hat!

I used the Thorpe pattern, which was very well-written. There will likely be more Thorpes in my future. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the ear flaps. The most exciting thing about this hat is the yarn though. It's handspun wool from Oregon, purchased on our excursion to Portland a couple weeks ago. We took a day trip over to the coast, to Cannon Beach to be exact, and amidst checking out the Goonies rock...


(See it there in the distance?) and searching for a decently priced sweatshirt (only to find them at the local public library and then find out they were sadly out of stock!), my friend Jess and I checked out Coastal Yarns. I really wanted to find something handspun and unique that I couldn't find at my LYS, so when I found this great green, nubby wool, I pounced right away. After a few false starts when I tried to frantically knit a hat on the beach using needles that were way too small and a pattern I didn't really like (I was freezing and I didn't have a sweatshirt), I finished this hat up the other night.

Now I'll just put it away until next winter.

Some things...

Here are a few things on my radar lately:

The Buddha Machine - This thing is seriously soothing and endlessly interesting. For those times when you want a little background noise, and NPR is just a bit much. (OK, how sad is it that I ever think NPR is just a bit too much? It's crazy here, I tell ya.) You can also just go here and listen to the gentle waves of looped noise.

Neapolitan Cake - via Smitten Kitchen. Yum. Yum. Yum. I'm planning on making this as soon as I have an extra 10 hours on my hands.

Saved by the Bell reunion - Jimmy Fallon is trying to reunite the cast. Go sign the petition! I can't believe there are only 64,000 signatures so far. I think he's going to have trouble with Dustin Diamond. Isn't he living out of a cardboard box now or something?

Waiter, there's a sheep in my soup.

The perfect meal for a knitter. Genius.

Foodie

Now that I'm getting back into the swing of blogging, I have to think like a blogger. That means I have to remember to take pictures of things like the cookies Ben and I made last night before I eat them all...

Phew. That was a close one. These were peanut butter cookies (courtesy of the JOY) with chopped up peanut butter cups. So yummy. Making them with our beloved Teddie peanut butter made them extra crumbly and delicious I think.

Now that warmer weather is supposedly on its way (it's been rainy and chilly here for the past few days), we're looking to eat a little lighter and healthier. Pretty funny that I would mention that after showing you pictures of a giant cookie, huh? We don't want to go overboard with healthiness though, now do we? I am trying to cut back on bad food by only eating cookies and "snacky" foods that are homemade. That way, we eat a little less of it, and we know it has good ingredients. I'm going to try to extend this to ice cream this summer as well, since we're the proud owners of an ice cream maker that I've never even tried out. The first experience is going to be buttermilk ice cream. Don't worry, we've got plans in the works for a nice raised bed garden, so we'll hopefully have plenty of fresh veggies to balance it all out. (That's what I tell myself anyway!)

Resurrected!

I've been toying with letting this blog die lately. Let's face it, it's been abandoned for quite some time now - it's pretty much already dead. Then, this morning when I was brushing my teeth (when I do some of my best thinking) I had the sudden urge to keep the blog going. Even though it's nothing all that exciting or profound, at least it's writing. That's something I don't want to stop, so here am I once again. Rambling on.

So, what have you missed? Partial disclosure: it's been a rough winter. Spring is finally in full swing though, and my mood is looking a little brighter. Now I want to knit and garden and fix up the house and ride my bike. Of course, I usually just end up sitting on the couch. Knitting at least, so that's okay.

I'm working on my second Ariann cardigan right now. The first one didn't fit me quite right, so I'm giving it to a friend. Pictures coming soon. The second one is all for me.

This sad little picture is all I have to show you. I'm using Cascade 220 in Charcoal Gray. So wonderful.

Some baby knitting has worked its way into the mix as well. We have another nephew on the way in July, so I made a teeny tiny sweater for him.

This is seriously going to fit him for about 30 seconds, but that's okay. The pattern is the Placket-Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The yarn is Plymouth Earth Oceanside Organic Cotton. I'll definitely be making more of these sweaters, or at least similar ones. Seamless sweaters are the way to go for baby knits - when you have something so small, seams just look even more bulky and awkward. The organic cotton is nice too, although whenever I make things out of cotton they just feel like a dishcloth to me. I'm hoping that since most people don't seem to use handknit cotton dishcloths, my family won't immediately jump to that conclusion as well.