…Joining Ginny’s YarnAlong, sharing what I’m knitting and reading…

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After we returned from Iowa I set to work making a hat for our friend’s birthday and I’ve been on a roll making owl hats ever since. One of Bracken’s buds has shown love for Bracken’s owl hat quite a few times when he’s come over to play, so I decided to make him one of his own. I made Bracken’s owl hat in a very light grey and chose a darker grey for his friend’s, so each will be a bit different. I’ve finished knitting it now and just need to sew on the button eyes in time for his birthday in a few days. 

Then I cast on a second owl hat. Of all the knitting projects I’ve made, the two that get the most compliments, by far, are Bracken’s bear hoodie and his owl hat. Our beekeeping friends had a baby girl over the winter and I made her a little beehive hat, which has gotten much use. Her mama saw Bracken’s owl hat one day and asked if she could pay me to make one for her baby girl and I said I’d love to make her one and asked if she’d like to trade for some honey instead. She was thrilled with the idea and we are a honey loving family, so very happy about it too. This is the third owl hat I’ve knit (I love the pattern) and I made it in a medium grey. As you can see above, I’m nearly finished with it. I’ve been amazed how quickly these owl hats knit up in that bulky yarn and perhaps knitting a pattern again, when it’s not your very first time knitting it, makes it go faster.

When we made a trip to the library last week, I emerged with more books than I intended to bring home. I tend to do that often when I go to the library. I wandered by the cookbook section and quickly grabbed three that caught my eye, while Jeff and Bracken waited for me. Before Bracken was born I would be running around the house and yard accomplishing tasks and had a hard time slowing down and taking breaks (after he was born, though, nursing a baby certainly gets you to do that.) What I would do was sit down on the couch and read my cookbooks for my “break time.” It was really relaxing and I loved it. I tend to reach for my knitting these days, but thought it would be fun to get some new inspirations for the kitchen and flip through some new cookbooks.

 ‘Eating Close To Home’ by Elin Kristina England, was a quick read because most of it was recipes, which were quick to flip through. The author lives in Oregon and even goes to the same farmer’s market we do, so it was fun to hear mention of local farms that we know of. Eating local foods is a topic I love and am passionate about so the book was right up my alley. I passed by the recipes with ingredients we don’t eat, but found some good ideas as I flipped through. I started looking through the pictures in ‘Dishing Up Oregon‘ by Gartland before I even started reading it. Gorgeous food photography is something I love to look at. The cookbook I’m most excited about right now, though, is the ‘Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals’ because it contains the most recipes that we actually eat. I love Mark Sisson’s books (the Primal diet is near and dear to my heart.) I have ‘The Primal Blueprint’ and The Primal Blueprint Cookbook. When I saw that the library had the one book by him that I don’t currently own, I was thrilled. Jeff started reading the recipes to me on the way home and my mouth was watering the whole time. (And I now have it on my wishlist, it’s wonderful.) At the library, my favorite librarian (she’s so friendly and has a great sense of humor to boot) pointed to that cookbook and said she loved it. I told her I was looking for paleo-style cookbooks on the shelves and that was the only one I found. She joked that it was probably because she had them all checked out and that she would put them on hold for me when she returned them. She said she started a primal/paleo style diet and already lost 25 pounds! It’s completely changed her health around so we had fun talking about that, and it’s not the first time I’ve heard that.

How about you?

Knitting? Reading?