Friday, November 23, 2012

Tasty Lemonade

Happy Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday, everyone. I hope those in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving. I had a great day, but it was turkey-less. Don't be sad, though. I'm not.

I usually order a fresh turkey and then pick it up on Wednesday prior to the big day, but this year I didn't. Big mistake. I was too busy to get out and do my Thanksgiving food shopping until early Wednesday evening. Of course, the store was all out of fresh turkeys by that point. Frozen turkeys were the only big birds left - and they were big. Too big. I would never have been able to thaw it in time to cook it. So, I went to the on-the-spot Plan B - cornish game hens. I brushed them with a sauce of orange marmalade and balsamic vinegar during the last half of cooking time, and they were indeed tasty. Don't be put off by the slightly charred-looking skin, it was yummy.

On the fiber front, I also have some finished items to talk about. Both were gifts for a holiday swap. My giftee really wanted some fingerless mitts, so I found a quick (at least for me) pattern in this year's Knit Simple holiday edition.
I worked these up in some fingering weight wool from Lollipop Cabin (too bad she's not dying fiber anymore, I did love her colorways and smaller environmental footprint) held together with some laceweight kidsilk (Debbie Bliss Angel) and was pretty pleased with the result.

Another gift I whipped up - a striped version of my recently-published L'Hiver Slouchy Hat. I used the two-fiber cocktail from the mitts and added some Lion Brand Wool-ease from stash. It feels almost neapolitan:

Slouchy hats are tough to photograph when not on someone's head. I did the best I could with my cell phone camera. Actually, all of the photos today are from my cell phone. Necessity and all that.

Finally, I hope everyone will skip Black Friday and wait for Small Business Saturday (November 24, tomorrow) to commence their big holiday shopping. Saturday's spirit is tailor-made for many of us who love fiber/design/textile arts and want to support the artisans who provide all of us with so much beauty and fiber and design fun. So I hope you'll wait until Saturday, and then buy a pattern from an indie designer, or some yarn or fiber from an indie producer, or a book from an indie publisher. Oh all right, if you must, you can buy any of these things today.

And if all else fails, head straight for dessert.

Anyone for a little Pumpkin cake?

Now don't forget (after you cut that slice of cake), to check out The Wonderwhygal's blog to see how everyone else is getting ready for the holidaze. I'm going to enjoy my left-overs and work on a few other projects I need to get done.

11 comments:

  1. Yes please I would *love* a slice of that cake :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oooh, the food photos look great. We did cornish hens for Christmas one year and everyone loved them.

    Those mitts looks lovely and that colorway does too. I do love that slouched hat. Photo was great.

    Hope you have a great weekend. I have vowed to Buy Local again this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mmmm cake.

    I'm glad your turkey-less Thanksgiving was still a success! Those mitts look very cozy and autumnal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Definitely supporting my LYS for small business Saturday! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Orange marmalade and balsamic vinegar sauce, mmmm, I'll have to try that! Love those mittens, the colours are really nice and the hat looks like a cup cake from here ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cornish game hens are delicious! The meat is so tender, and so easy to cook. Now I want to get couple next time I go to the store ....

    ReplyDelete
  7. The arm-warmers look just perfect for winter. I love that colorway!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cute hat and I like the color combination. I too will be out supporting small business owners and some of the indie yarn companies.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanksgiving sounds (and looks) delicious at your house.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Re: the Natl Dog Show... I turned it on right before they introduced the Working Group. I was so excited about my good timing, but then sadly disappointed that they didn't show the whole thing... They do have clips for each breed on NBC Sports.

    I did really enjoy that giant Great Dane with the presumably very short handler. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Look at that cake! What a great way to celebrate. That's a wonderful swap gift too.

    ReplyDelete