Whatta day

It has been snowing all day long - sometimes heavy, sometimes, less heavy - I'm so happy I didn't have to work today.

I spent the day working on my second mystery sock for SKA on Ravelry, catching up on my blogs, baking bread and reading romance novels. Sigh.

Here's a pic of the first sock:



Yes, I know it's blurry, but it's the best I could do :) Really - I took six pictures, and this was the best one. Eeep! I'm about a third of the way through the second sock, which will end at the end of the gusset (the next clue isn't out until next week). This is the first time I've done mosaic, and I have to say that I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. I love colorwork, but I'm not often in the mood to have to carry both yarns around - this makes that problem moot.

I finished the sweater/dress that I was test knitting:



I love how it turned out, and I'm going to give it to DP's sister's daughter. I think it will be a dress for her now and a sweater for her later, but it's just so cute I can hardly stand it.

I baked two loaves of bread today: a whole wheat sandwich loaf and a baguette. I use the recipes from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day, which I encourage everyone to run out and buy if you are interested in making bread. The two things I've brought away from the book that I think can be used elsewhere are the overnight rise and the stretch and fold. The overnight rise gives you a lot more leeway on when you make the bread, and it helps the flavors of the bread develop so much more than the usual countertop rise. The stretch and fold lets you make a dough with a higher hydration and less traditional kneading. You knead your dough for a bit, then stretch and fold it onto itself by quarters. You let it sit for ten minutes and do it again, usually three or four times total. It's an amazing technique. Sadly, I have to let my bread cool, so I haven't been able to dig in yet, but I have designs on the baguette at least for dinner. DP also mentioned that he'd like roti tonight, so I made end up making 3 different breads today.

I also got a bunch of pictures off my camera and onto flickr, so I can prove that I actually knit something during Christmas. Behold, my juerga mitts:



and



A coworker got the green ones and DP claimed the yellow ones.

And some One Scarves:







I love that pattern - obvious, I know.

Finally, two keyhole scarves:



Again, another great pattern from Anne Hanson. She's amazing.

I still need to make myself some more lip balms; I'm totally out, since I had to give several away to visitors who left their own chapsticks at home :) I need to finish filling out the h&p stuff for my doctor's appointment tomorrow (new fertility clinic), and I have a couple more chapters to read. Finally, if anyone knows of a great pattern for Rowan Cashsoft 4 ply (the fingering weight), let me know. I'm thinking baby stuff, since it's soft and machine washable, but I'm not sure which baby stuff. All the babies I'm waiting for the birth of are due April through August.