~Knitting & Baking :) ~

It's been cold here - cold enough that I've gone digging for handwarmer/wristwarmer patterns and yarn. My poor fingers freeze sitting here at the computer, and of course one thing led to another and I did the normal thing knitters do when they are digging through stash---------I made new mental notes on what I was going to make with every yarn I came across, never mind the fact that I did the stash organization "thing" at the beginning of the summer (we won't discuss the bags that are shoved into every nook and cranny that my family wouldn't dream of looking in!). I digress - I found, in these two drawers, the softest cashmere for MY handwarmers and some great denim (Patons I believe it is) superwash wool that would make great wristwarmers, gloves or hats for the kids. I also found the lovely cream colored "fluffiness" that you see up top - I have a LOT of this - a HUGE cone and two smaller ones (that is as specific as I can get at this time and it was a gift, and I have no info on it). I can't decide WHAT I want to make - I'm up for suggestions, so PLEASE help me out here and suggest away. I will NOT open any other drawers/bins/bags until I have a few more FO's under my belt - I am so easily distracted. Speaking of being distracted..... On my blog surfing today (because, you know, I didn't have any housework or anything to do here), I found Debi's blog, with a wonderful tutorial on the Turkish Cast On - I can't wait to try it on my next pair of socks. I was caught and I kept reading (as I am prone to do on very interesting blogs) and this wonderful lady made mention of a LUCET (check out her blog and read more about it)- which looks and sounds like a blast - I will have to add it to my wish list for Christmas! I can just picture my girls and myself having some fun. (I LOVE gadgets). I haven't had much time to knit (I am going to do just that in a few minutes), my son came home for 4 days from college as did a few of his friends! It has been GREAT to have them all coming in and out. I baked somewhere between 90 and 110 cookies today - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip - I know it sounds disgusting, I had the recipe for 5 years before I tried it and they are AWESOME, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not a real pumpkin lover! My husband eats them frozen - he started that during my attempt to hide them for the holidays a few years ago -- imagine my shock and surprise when I went in the freezer on Thanksgiving, to pull out the bags of cookies that I had made and THERE WEREN'T ANY! So if any of you would like the recipe leave a message and I'll either mail it to you, or if there are a few of you that want it, I'll post it. The other cookies I made were Oatmeal Chocolate Chip - a recipe that I got in Home Economics Class in Junior High (ugh) - is there ANY ONE out there that had Home Ec in School?, I feel so incredibly old even mentioning the class- lol. They were probably the ONLY edible thing we ever made, and they are my son's favorite cookies (I think it might have been a Betty Crocker Recipe or something - I should check into that someday). I also made two pizza doughs, did laundry and am now sitting here cross-eyed trying to type! lol I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of a felted bag that was given to me - I LOVE the colors - and am again itching to do some felting. Do any of you have a favorite felted clog pattern that you can share (I'm not looking for copyright infringement here, just pattern suggestions that you've done or links). My floors are FREEZING and it's only October, I figure by January I'll be needing some nice WARM woolies. I thought I'd introduce you to "Buddy" (when he was a kitten we couldn't think of a name and we all referred to him as our "little buddy" - it stuck). He is 7 years old and we love him TONS. He isn't a spotlight grabber like Beau, but I thought I'd give him some Blog time too. He has been keeping me company while Beau naps. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'll be doing softball practice, pitching clinic and returning my son to Vermont tomorrow - I can't see much computer time in my future - so I'll be knitting on my Socktoberfest Socks, and maybe I'll have a new FO to share. Happy Knitting, Cath