I seem to be experiencing a general sock malaise for travel projects at present. I thought it best to seek out another portable project until my lust for the sock returns. I found a blanket square project-along-amajig to fill that niche. It's the Wolhemelblanket (rav link) started by a Dutch knitshop (signups are now closed though). Just the ticket.
I believe from my sketchy perusal of the schedule, it's a square a week and I'm about 10 weeks behind. Whatev. They're easy enough to make and are nice textured patterns and cables. I chose to use Woolease in the Fisherman colorway for its washer/dryer properties. I don't really think a non washable blanket is that useful in my world. I've used the Woolease once before for a blanket (see the white thing under the squares - that's it) and it worked out just fine. I've had that one several years and it's still clean and white.
I also made a black hat from a nice hank of reclaimed yarn that I had leftover from Ariann. In fact I started this hat 3 times and finally finished it yesterday. My own improvisation for the pattern. Where's the picture you wonder? I tried on the finished hat (mind it looked ok when I tried it on during the knit up) and looked like a huge dork. Huge. Hated it. It has been ripped and rolled up in a nice black ball of yarn. If you'd like to see what that looks like email me privately. No, I didn't think so.
Better luck was had with the cookies. What cookies? Why isn't the lead blog story? Settle down.
Every year my friend and I buy the yummiest Pfeffernusse from Trader Joe's at Christmas. This year they were nowhere to be found. We were inconsolable, as a face full of powdered sugar just screams Christmas to us! Not to be thwarted by the Trader Joe's buying office, I scouted for recipes and made a batch. Super freaking yummy, and better still, darn easy. I did omit the candied fruit because I'm the only one who likes it (in the whole world). I also switched the booze in the recipe to a dollop of kirsch. That's how my people roll. Apparently they keep for a week in a airtight container, or you can just eat them up (that's what we did).
Oh btw, those jokesters at Trader Joe's now have the Pfeffernusse in the holiday food display. They're hard to find, I've yet to find them in stock. It's kind of like stalking at this point though. Mmm, cookies.