I finally gave up on trying to get outside to take some pictures, so you’re stuck with indoor photos that I’ve hopefully done a decent job of color correcting.  The Selbu Modern (ravelry) hat is a great beret that gives me a hat to wear, because yes it is still winter in Wyoming, and will be for a couple more months, and I got the chance to dust off my rusty color stranding techniques (ehm, Butterfly?)

I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in chocolate brown (011) and robin’s egg blue (202) - just barely more than one skein of brown and about 1/2 a skein of blue.  I used US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm) dpns for the entire hat (ravelry project page).  I was going to use circular needles, but I didn’t have the sizes I needed and didn’t want to buy them just for this project (and I didn’t want to wait to start it until I could go get needles - that’s the real reason).  This is a really well-written pattern and I’m happy with the way it turned out.  The stranding makes the hat warm, which is a good thing on those windy Wyoming days.  The added benefit is that it gave me a taste for colorwork again, so Butterfly may even see some action over the next few weeks.

This artisan bread stuff is brilliant.  Last week I saw this post about using the dough for pitas and I was so excited, I e-mailed Marcia to ask her if she’d seen it.  She had, of course - that Marcia is up on the bread scene.  I was out of bread, so I whipped up another batch of dough and stuck it in the fridge for a couple of days.  One night last week I made a nice Italian loaf and some pita bread.

The best thing about the pita bread (aside from the yumminess) is that you take some dough out of the bucket, roll it out, and bake it on the pizza stone for about 10 minutes.  That’s it.  No rising, no shaping, no waiting.  Paired with some humus it is fantastic.

I love how easy this method of bread baking is, and you get truly awesome bread (or pitas).  I’ve always had a hard time getting nice holey bread, but with this method it’s super easy.

And the last thing I have to share (and if you’re dieting, you might want to skip this part) is a banana split waffle from when I was visiting my grandmother in Arizona.

That, my friends, is 4 waffles, 2 large scoops of vanilla ice cream, an entire banana, chocolate syrup, nuts, whipped cream, and 2 cherries!  How many calories do you think were in that dish?

Coming back to your real life after having been gone for 10 days is a bit challenging.  I’m having a hard time figuring out what to do first, and then there’s the sleep deprivation.  Wow.  I was traveling for work for 4 of those days, and the rest was catching up with my grandma and my best friend.  My best friend had twin boys on January 30th (they’re doing great), and she has another little boy who isn’t quite 2 yet.  I know, she’s insane.  I’ve told her, and she completely agrees.  I spent a week at her house in Arizona helping her.  Her mom was there too, so we had a lot of fun, but man is that baby stuff a lot of work!  I was in charge of cooking and helping with the 2 year old, which seems simple enough, but I came home exhausted! The good news is that it was warm there and I had a little bit of time for some knitting.  Not a lot, but some random minutes here and there.

On the knitting front, I have a finished hat (ravelry) to show you and I have about half of a yoga bag (ravelry again) done.  I really want to post about the hat, but I need some freaking daylight for a photo (and probably someone to help me with the photo taking).  I couldn’t take pictures last weekend because it was blocking, but now it’s dry and so I will hope for the best tomorrow or Friday, and if not, there’s always Saturday.  I haven’t done any colorwork for awhile and I was worried about how my tension would be, but I’m pretty pleased with it.

Another really bad thing about travelling for work and then being on vacation is that your exercise suffers.  I managed to do a little bit of karate in my hotel room and then went to one yoga class while staying with Ashley - neither of which was sufficient to counter the amount I was eating.  But I’m back in my routine and feel so much better after having gone to a couple of yoga classes.  In fact, I actually did a head stand in yoga last night!  My first one.  It was against the wall, but I’m still pretty proud of that.  I guess I am getting stronger.  My karate instructor and I are teaching a 6 week women’s self-defense class starting next Monday night before karate class.  If you live in the Laramie area or know someone who does, and are interested, please e-mail me and I’ll give you the details.

I’ve been thinking about Lolly’s newest Project Spectrum and I think it will be fabulous.  I’m really excited about exploring the four cardinal directions and the corresponding elements and colors.  My mind is working on how I can incorporate these ideas into my crafting.  I’m sure inspiration will strike soon.  At least I hope it does!  It had better show up before March rolls around.

I think that’s all the randomness I have for today.  I have some bread in the works and am thinking of trying pitas, so I’ll let you know how that goes.  Have a great Wednesday.

I finally finished my most recent sock project - Francie (ravelry link).

This is a great sock pattern.  I love that it’s just a basic k2, p2 ribbing, but the arch shaping and the design on the legs makes it a lot of fun and kept me entertained when I actually dedicated myself to working on it!

The yarn is Brooks Farm sock yarn - a merino/silk blend - that I bought at Estes Park.  The yarn is a bit splitty, but I didn’t have any trouble when I used the Knit Picks dpns.  Despite how long these socks lingered, I really do like them and am happy to have a new pair of socks for myself.  Next up is Selbu Modern (ravelry), which I started on a few days ago.  Pictures are coming.  Have a great weekend.