Monday, October 19, 2009

October!

I love October :) With the crisp fall air, turning leaves, pumpkins, and of course sweaters! Last week was spent studying for my German final, finishing up some yarn, and putting all my stuff in it's new proper places. Almost done. This week I plan to apply to start Substitute Teaching! And our car should be here tomorrow!

I love pumpkin. I bought a big can of pumpkin at the store to make pumpkin bread last week, but that only used one cup (they only had the big can), so I've been eating pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin pancakes, and I make pumpkin cookies with the last of it the other day.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

I also made a wonderful Sweet Potato Chili, but I adjusted the recipe to use canned Chipotle chilis, beef broth instead of water, and a large splash of orange juice to bring out the flavor of the sweet potato. And I added corn.

First time using the Le Creuset Dutch Oven we got from my mom for our wedding! I LOVE this pot!
Sweet Potato Chili in new Le Creuset pot!

We've been very busy trying to put away all our stuff away! Here's what it looked like at the end of the first day, in the dining room, and in my office.
Dining room
My Office

It's almost done now, but still we need to hang the artwork and clean a bit more.

When I received my wheel without anything to spin, a local shepherdess from down the Rhine offered to send me some of her sheeps' fleece to spin as a welcome gift! I love getting to try out new sheep breeds, so I was very excited about this, and was expecting some cleaned locks.
Well, the package arrived the other day and included much more than I expected! In addition to a big ball of carded grey roving from her sheep, she also sent a large cream/beige batt of alpaca silk, some dyed wool pencil roving, and 4oz of gorgeous hand dyed merino top!
The Merino, plus the singles I am working on:
germany6 013
germany6 012

The bag of wonderful fluff! Gray sheep at the top, alpaca on the left:
germany6 015

They gray is going to become yarn for these awesome Prairie Boot Slippers (ravelry link)

I also finished plying the chartreuse merino silk I was working on, and also the merino soy-silk that my friend so graciously gave me to spin up for her while I waited for my stash to get here:
germany6 014

Wicked Witch Merino Soy-SIlk
germany6 011

4 comments:

Laura said...

Oh wow, that's some gorgeous wool! Amazing welcome gift!

Unknown said...

so glad you're settling in and having fun and cooking like you did here! That wool is beautiful, what nice neighbors!

WE MISS YOU!!!

RedThread said...

I miss you too! Not working yet, so I have a lot of time to think about food and yarn :)

Jody said...

First of all I'm very jealous of your Le Creuset Dutch oven! I want one!!

And secondly I love your latest spinning - awesomeness!